Another 6 Speaker Upgrade plus Apple CarPlay - Subwoofers Installed!

mr.tourette · Post by **mr.tourette** » Sat Dec 05, 2020 6:15 pm

Exciing stuff, bet you cant wait to fire it up, have to say I'm very happy I decided to put the amp in what a difference they make when tbe speakers are upgraded, Im sure your efforts will be well rewarded tomorrow

Silverstar · Post by **Silverstar** » Sat Dec 05, 2020 7:36 pm

Yes can't wait. Everyone I have spoken to have said that adding an amp will make a huge difference.

I just hope I hack into the correct wires in the CarPlay T harness tomorrow

Silverstar · Post by **Silverstar** » Sun Dec 06, 2020 7:34 pm

Just finished wiring up the Amp and LC6i LOC and I have only one thing to say, WOW WOW WOW!

The amp in combo with the LC6i have really brought the speakers alive. I have still adjust the gain settings correctly on both the LC6i and the amp but today I have left the gains on the LC6i almost to its minimum setting and the gains on the amp to around quarter. The car is filled with sound and bass! It's really is amazing. I can only imagine how much better it will be once I get those Kicker subs mounted.

For anyone thinking of upgrading their basic 6 speaker setup, just do it. You will have no regrets!

I just have to tidy up the install and put the car back together again. Final job for tomorrow, well until I get around to doing the subs

Write up on how I wired up the amp to the head unit via the LC6i LOC coming tomorrow

mr.tourette · Post by **mr.tourette** » Sun Dec 06, 2020 7:43 pm

well done buddy, i can only imagine how well yours sounds with the extra investment but as my budget upgrade was a tenfold improvement yours must sound fantastic

Silverstar · Post by **Silverstar** » Sun Dec 06, 2020 7:49 pm

mr.tourette wrote: ↑Sun Dec 06, 2020 7:43 pm well done buddy, i can only imagine how well yours sounds with the extra investment but as my budget upgrade was a tenfold improvement yours must sound fantastic

Many thanks Mr Tourette! I am really pleased with the end result so far. Looking forward to the final stage of the install, the subs! but that will have to wait a while until I can find the right amp at the right price. Also space is a bit limited as to where I can mount the second amp.

AnubisZed · Post by **AnubisZed** » Mon Dec 07, 2020 9:15 am

Silverstar wrote: ↑Fri Dec 04, 2020 7:34 pm Dave what does the antenna do? I have been using the Carplay this week with and without it and I have not noticed any difference.

Good question, I've no idea!! Last time I accessed my MMI I noticed that I'd snapped the connector, so mine was no longer connected to the antenna, and I've noticed no difference since. I do now have a replacement but haven't got around to fitting it.

Yoghurt wrote: ↑Fri Dec 04, 2020 11:51 pm Thanks Dave!

AnubisZed wrote: ↑Fri Dec 04, 2020 7:31 pm
Yoghurt wrote: ↑Thu Dec 03, 2020 11:52 pm

.....
Also, where did you stick the antenna that connects to the back or the MMI please?
Many thanks
This is my recommended location for the WiFi antenna....

No problem.

Silverstar · Post by **Silverstar** » Mon Dec 07, 2020 6:52 pm

AnubisZed wrote: ↑Mon Dec 07, 2020 9:15 am Silverstar wrote: ↑Fri Dec 04, 2020 7:34 pm
Dave what does the antenna do? I have been using the Carplay this week with and without it and I have not noticed any difference.
Good question, I've no idea!! Last time I accessed my MMI I noticed that I'd snapped the connector, so mine was no longer connected to the antenna, and I've noticed no difference since. I do now have a replacement but haven't got around to fitting it.

I got a reply from the factory about this antenna. It is for the phone network signal between your phone and the MMMI box. But as I say I have not noticed degradation in the signal without the aerial, so I have decided to leave it off.

Silverstar · Post by **Silverstar** » Tue Dec 08, 2020 4:25 pm

At last the first part of the CarPlay and Audio install is finished and the car finally put back together again!

The last job remaining on the MMI CarPlay box was to find a place to mount the external mic (since I chose not to connect it to the car's original mic). I managed to fix it using double sided tape in a very discreet place next to the engine start button from most angles it can't be seen and it functions well in this position:

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For the audio upgrade I chose to use an AudioControl LC6i LOC to give a quality low level line output signal to the 4 channel JBL amp. To get this to work I made a T harness out of the T Harness for the MMI box this way the car's factory loom stays intact. I used this wiring diagram to work out the speaker wires from the factory loom / radio:

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I then located the same wires in the CarPlay box T Harness, annoyingly the MMI box factory used the same colour wires for all the speakers meaning I had to cut and label each wire separately. I used insulated bullet terminals which if for any reason I want to bypass the JBL amp I can connect them back up without any problems. I used insulated terminals but the insulation adds a fair bit of bulk and space behind the radio is tight so I sliced the insulation off with a Dremel and used heat shrink instead:

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I then made up a new loom to connect to the speakers wires coming from the radio (right side of the loom in the photo above) which would feed into the input of the LC6i and the speakers wires from the amp output connects to the part of the harness going back to the factory wiring, i.e. going to the speakers (left side of loom in the photo). From there the RCA cables from the LC6i would provide a low level signal to the amp.

I fixed the LC6i using very strong double sided tape to the top of the glove box and screwed the glove box back into place:

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When putting all the trim back I ran into a slight problem with the upper right rear side trim, since I hadn't removed this entirely due to the seat belt bolt I couldn't properly seat it in the lower rear side trim and as a result the bottom of the upper trim sticks out a bit. The only way to fit it properly is to remove that seat belt bolt since the upper trim needs to slide in from the top into the lower panel. Oh well something to sort out when I get around to mounting the subs in the panel behind the seats.

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In the boot I put all the trim back and left a set of RCAs and remote turn on wire on the floor of the boot ready for the second amp for the subs. Something I will tackle in the next month or two.

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As mentioned earlier I am really chuffed with the end result. The difference really is night day compared to the stock 6 speaker system.

The total spend so far:

Crunch DSX42 rear coax speakers 36€
Crunch DSX4.2C component speakers for the doors 59€
Hertz MP165.3 6.5" woofers for kick panels 102€
AudioControl LC6i (purchased second hand) £50
JBL Stage A9004 4 channel amp 120€
RCA / Speaker Cables and misc. 70€
2 x Kicker Comprt 6.75" Subs (not yet fitted) 98€ each
Apple CarPlay / Android Auto MMI box $160

Still left to purchase, an amp for the subs.

Silverstar · Post by **Silverstar** » Tue Dec 22, 2020 10:42 am

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The amp for the Kicker subs arrived ready for the next part of the install. This thing is tiny but apparently packs a punch! You can see my old iPhone 6 Plus next to it for comparison.

Silverstar · Post by **Silverstar** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 5:56 pm

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After many hours and stripping out almost half the car I finally managed to remove the carpeted trim panel behind the seats to where the subs will be installed. What a right pain in the backside this job is, I now have a room full of car trim parts in the house!

The good news is the carpeted panel has the markings for the original subs on the back, so I can use that as a guide to centre the holes for the Kicker subs that I have.

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mr.tourette · Post by **mr.tourette** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 6:57 pm

Oof.. Don't envy you that.. My underseat sub took an hour with just 2 trim panels removed

still it won't be a patch on your system...I honestly could not be arsed with that

Bravo mate

Silverstar · Post by **Silverstar** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 7:25 pm

mr.tourette wrote: ↑Wed Jan 13, 2021 6:57 pm Oof.. Don't envy you that.. My underseat sub took an hour with just 2 trim panels removed still it won't be a patch on your system...I honestly could not be arsed with that Bravo mate

I procrastinated many days before getting to it, just the thought of tackling it kept putting me off!

Silverstar · Post by **Silverstar** » Sun Jan 31, 2021 4:07 pm

Finally after many days, my subwoofer install is more or less complete!

After removing trim from half the car I got access to the rear bulkhead where the original factory fitted subwoofers fit. The idea was to make an enclosure from that space. to do that I used sound deadening to seal up all the holes and to give better sound from the subs:

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Next I mounted a MDF panel for each side secured by the original mounting points for the factory subs and some strong automotive double side adhesive tape on the left and right sides. I then covered the exterior surfaces with more sound deadening to seal any gaps or holes and put some acoustic foam on the outer side of the MDF so it makes a good seal with the car's trim panel:

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I then fed the wiring for the subs by drilling a small hole in the MDF. These subs are DVC 2 Ohms so wired them in series parallel to give a 2 Ohm load at the amp:

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For the amp I made an amp board from MDF and covered it in subwoofer box carpet which I had laying around onto which the amp is mounted together with it's external fuse (this amp has no internal fuse) and cabling:

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And here is the install all completed:

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I also mounted a bass knob in the dash pocket on the driver's side:

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Having completed the sub install I decided to make sure the gains were correctly adjusted on all the amps using a cheap oscilloscope and some test tones, to make sure the amps aren't clipping but giving out their max potential:

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So the end results? At first they didn't sound right acoustically, no doubt due to not having a proper sealed enclosure made of MDF. Not sure how to describe it but they sounded a bit echoey if that makes sense. So to eliminate that I decided to put some polyfil in the enclosed space and that actually did the trick and now they sound great! These subs for the tiny size absolutely pound! Obviously they aren't going to rattle the windows or anything but are capable of putting out bass you can feel and they make a huge difference to rest of the sound upgrades I already made. For what little this system has cost me I am really chuffed! I wonder how well it sounds next to a Z4 with factory premium sound system? Now I just have to make some final adjustments to the crossover points and maybe bass eq on the amp and I am all done....... well at least for now

Alan Crook · Post by **Alan Crook** » Mon Feb 14, 2022 11:22 pm

Wow some really clever people on here,love reading all the build threads. Audiofile incar are doing my upgrade this week as its way too much for me to take on. Subs look really good in there.

Zed Baron · Post by **Zed Baron** » Mon Feb 14, 2022 11:37 pm

well done, very impressive

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