vote: sticky in styling/ice for ice install photos

[anton]

Hi all,
there is a niche thats not filled yet. that is E30 SOUND/CAR AUDIO.
im currently building quite a big sound quality system into my 4dr 325i e30.
i've been competing iasca soundquality competitions since 2000.

so i've often looked up certain vehicles for ideas etc... if im building a specific vehicle i'd look around at what people are doing with those vehicles and then form my own ideas.. sometimes loosely based on something already done. why re-invent the wheel.

cant quite work it out. maybe its because e30 325i's make good cheap track vehicles or drift machines..so the emphasis is perhaps more that of speed than anything else..

but a search on the net for install photos etc for e30 bmw's reviews hardly anything.. there are loads of e36 install photos etc available..

to get hold of a install photo of a competition sound e30 vehicle
is hard..

some will remember the thread of ian's install "ian332isport"
brilliant stuff.. i'll be doing a big post in the near future of my install and then i will report back in febuary at how the vehicle did at the iasca sound comp.

im currently on holiday and very busy doing my install.

so please post all your install photos no matter how basic here.

moderators, i know im a e30zone newbie but could we make this thread sticky?

regards
anton
cape town,south africa

[peter325i]

Can't wait to see the pics from your install. I'm slowly improving the system in my 89 325i, but I'm stuck trying to decide what to do with the front speakers. Not sure whether to upgrade to 6" or stay with 5.25". Also considering kick builds but I haven't decided whether I want to go that far.

Peter

[lenny-d]

Don't konw if this'll work,it's a full jlsystem with 5.25 components and a 10 inch sub running of 2 JL Audio amps hidden behind the panel that the sub's mounted on

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o52/ ... CT0125.jpg
http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o52/ ... CT0126.jpg
http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o52/ ... CT0122.jpg

[anton]

hi peter, well.. here's what i did... I cut out as much metal as i could safely do by the kickpanels.
i then extended the kickpanels i made (custom fibreglass moulded) as far as i could. i estimate
them to be touch over 2litres each. any woofer even a mid woofer as cabinet/box requirements. this is
a very basic fact that people seem to overlook.

and now for the shocker....

most 5.25 inch woofers need a ported enclosure of around 8-9litres. sealed of ..well rule of thumb is that sealed is roughly 50 - 60% of ported. depends on many factors.. but 3.5-4.5litres +- i would say...

so unless your vehicle, and what im about to say might tread on some people toe's or stir up mixed opinions..
but unless your vehicle is really custom and you have loads of space... a 5.25" seems to be the only woofer to be used in kickpanel locations with an "enclousure" thats anywhere near optimal.

i scored over 70%(if you convert points to percentage) for my front stage at the sound africa 2005 iasca finals.good for 3rd place.this is with 5.25" woofers. the way i see it... decent 6" woofers will need at least 6litres to work properly...
im not saying it wont sound good otherwise.. its just that it wont be optimal. a smaller woofer. wether sub or mid woofer designed in a optimal enclosure will always sound better than of a larger one in a less optimised design.

a woofer mounted in the door IMHO is more of a infinite baffle design than anything else.. the problem is always getting the door to be solid enough.. simple layer of sound deadening is not enough.. those rods that connect to your door pin and door lock typically resonate at certain frequencies this is very irritating.. coating them with silicon or liquid based sound deadening(stinger liquid roadkill or secondskin audio spectrum spray) is a trick i've found that seems to work..

a question for lenny-d:

hows your soundstage HEIGHT upfront? dont you find it to be quite low..like headunit height?

the e30 seems to be very difficuly in terms of to get soundstage height right.

regards
Anton

[peter325i]

Thanks for uploading the pics lenny-d, looks really good. Did you have to modify the glove compartment to allow it to open completely? And what about the hood release, you must have spaced it out a bit right?

Anton,
I've looked around for advice on enclosures for small drivers but it seems the majority of information available is related to subwoofers. It's good to hear that someone knows their stuff.

What you said about sealed enclosures requiring about 3.5-4.5 L got me thinking. If you added some wadding behind the speaker do you think it might simulate a higher volume enclosure?

Having read your post I think I will stay with 5.25" speakers. Right now, I have 5.25" Boston Acoustics Coaxial in the kicks and they sound pretty decent. I added 2 layers of eDead v1se (butyl) and I found it made a huge improvement to the mid bass response. However, the sound stage/imaging is pretty foggy. Is this because the tweeters are really low?

I think my next step will be to install separates and completely seal the enclosure behind each speaker. I your opinion, what is the best place to mount the tweeters? I have the factory tweeter pods, but I've heard the a-pillars are a bad place for tweets.

Thanks,
Peter

[anton]

hi peter
just an analogy, take a teaspoon and tap it against a thing plastic cup? what happens? the sound of the teaspoon hitting the cup stays more or less the same.

next, do the same with like a wine glass. see what happens, the sound of the teaspoon hitting the glass amplifies quite alot.

in a nutshell, you dont want tweeters reflecting with glass.. it changes the characteristcs somewhat.
the vehicle im building now is a e30 325i 1989 4dr..

ive only had it for around 4months. currently on vacation im doing the build. before that i did a quick hack job just to get some sound. this involved drilling a 40mm hole into the plastic kickpanels for the tweeters and instlling the mid woofers in the factory locations..

just before i went on leave on the 15th of december i gthered all the equipment,tools,materials for the installation. amount that i got a set of DLS T25 REFERENCE tweeters... just to experiement i connected them up loose to the crossover of the midwoofers..in the hour or so that i tested it seemed like the panels nexto the sideview mirrors seemed the best location. down below.. made the soundstage go quite low..
my fibreglass kickpanels i made will only house the 5.25" mids.. but before i fabricate mounting locations for the tweeters im going to use presstick (i think its called bluetack in the uk) to temporary put them places and evaluate.. the midwoofers will be angled in.. this changes things. because when i did my testing the midwoofers werent fireing corectly. as they were in the factory locations.

i will post results and status etc on this thread.

currently moulded amp rack and kickpanels need bodyfiller spraypaint..to get a smooth finish...

so i think im about 1 week away from connecting the equipment up..

cheers
watch this space
Anton

[miniblob]

Some wicked info there Anton - i'm watching and learning until i'm ready to start putting my gear in!!!!! Very interesting info about the enclosures for the mids!!

Good luck with the rest of the install - can't wait to see some pics of it all finished!!

[lenny-d]

Cheers Peter,

Well i'm running an alpine cdx- d900r, i think, which is a 7 inch flip screen monitor so i use the glove box 2 hold the brain and most of the wiring. I had to remove the screws at the back of the glove box which can only slide out now as for the Hood release i made a metal unit which now opens the bonnet although i am considering puttin in an electrical switch. I'll try and get some more pics for u tomorrow.

Anton,

I think i was lucky in the way that i've angled the speakers as i reckon the soundstage height seams to be around mid windscreen level. I don't know how she would fair up in a competition but i'm more that happy with my end result.