Replacing Garbage Subwoofers from DSP

[BCBJr]

Question about how it changes the sound of the system - does it add to the punchiness of the system? I find its actually too boomy stock (as band pass enclosures tend to be) with little/no punch, so hope it adds to the punch and not the boominess. Hope you understand my invented audio descriptors. : )

Sorry I missed this question........IMHO the sound from the subs is punchy but not overly so. A lot of the base sound is coming from the mid/bass 5-1/4" speakers in the front doors and the rear shelf. The Boston Acoustic SC50 set does a nice job in that regard, then the subs round it out with a nice little thump. Hope this helps....

[98540iguy]

I would recommend the Infinity Basslink to anyone looking for a great plug and play option. you can adjust the gain and other settings to make it sound just how you want.

[philly98540]

One thing I did was seal up all of the holes in the metal frame of the rear deck. These holes allow the front of the subs to interact with the enclosure (trunk) that is supposed to be sealed. It did make a difference in the sound because there should be, ideally, no air leakage from the front of the subs to the rear or enclosure baffle in an IB application. I stuffed the the area above the holes with some foam I had lying around and then put duct tape over it. To me it doesn't look too bad because my car is silver to begin with. I took some photos......

Hey BCBJr- I was also considering plugging those holes like you did. Do you know if these holes are needed for cabin ventilation? I wonder if the rear deck vents are supposed to allow interior air to vent to the trunk and then out somehow. When you choose fresh, not recirc, where does the old stale air go? Anyone know anything about this? I would hate to plug a necessary vent and have fogged windows all winter. I am just staring at this and thinking BMW had some plan here...

How much change in the Bass did you notice before and after plugging the holes? I want to try to get the most out of these new subs. Just not sure about the cabin venting yet.

I just go the new woofers last night. They look nice and beefy. The mids/tweets and rear shocks are in-route. So much for a Christmas break!

[bigjoe87865]

Anyone try the ebay aux in bluetooth adapters?...

I have the factory aux input and want a2dp streaming options.

these are some of the cheaper ones I found and they have plenty to chose from, most are generic from china.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wireless-Blu...item3ccd0352ed

or

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AD2P-Bluetoo...item2323da1daa

[BCBJr]

Hey BCBJr- I was also considering plugging those holes like you did. Do you know if these holes are needed for cabin ventilation? I wonder if the rear deck vents are supposed to allow interior air to vent to the trunk and then out somehow. When you choose fresh, not recirc, where does the old stale air go? Anyone know anything about this? I would hate to plug a necessary vent and have fogged windows all winter. I am just staring at this and thinking BMW had some plan here...

How much change in the Bass did you notice before and after plugging the holes? I want to try to get the most out of these new subs. Just not sure about the cabin venting yet.

I just go the new woofers last night. They look nice and beefy. The mids/tweets and rear shocks are in-route. So much for a Christmas break!

I didn't think of that but I don't see how the ventilation exits from the trunk area. It did improve the sound a little bit though.

[jdjg]

[240sxguy]

I put the 5th channel from my kappa five amp on the factory DSP sub and with careful tuning of the crossover and bass boost, it sounds less terrible. It's missing some bottom end but all in all, not bad.

[tmvE39E53Z32TT]

I had my rear deck taken apart to put in B&G Springs. My E39 had a cut out in the rear deck from the PO, so I decide to utilize that and mount a JL IB 10" sub with a Sony Xplode Mono Amp, that I had laying around. Now I can enjoy some low.
I like the idea of stuffing foam insulation into the opening and tape it shut. I'll do that this weekend and take some pics.

[jdjg]

I had my rear deck taken apart to put in B&G Springs. My E39 had a cut out in the rear deck from the PO, so I decide to utilize that and mount a JL IB 10" sub with a Sony Xplode Mono Amp, that I had laying around. Now I can enjoy some low.
I like the idea of stuffing foam insulation into the opening and tape it shut. I'll do that this weekend and take some pics.

nice!!!

[528iA]

Excellent work congrats & thanks for the info very useful. I was searching for this info for 3 weeks, GREAT JOB

[BarryM]

Very pleased to have stumbled across this thread as the M audio subs are becoming harder and more expensive to get hold of now - £300 seems to be the going rate if you can find them!

The RF R2SD4-10s seem to be around the £85 mark so that's almost half price for a pair. I'm getting my BM54 amp upgraded by a chap in the UK who improves on the original power output so once these replace the Nokias I should have a nice improvement on stock.

Very nice work by Jeremy and BCBJr

[m5hoot]

Happy to say I found this old and lengthy thread and read EVERY single post prior to adding now. Born in the mid 1950's, please use your imagination to understand what I likely know, and my input given that I still love 60's - 80's rock mostly and some rock newer than that, but in declining percentage of what I hear written recently. This should have no bearing on loving stereos, bass, clean and loud (must go hand in hand)....and likely "dislike any music that has 90% of it's sound below 500 hz".

Given my limited and outdated perspective, I am an electronics tech, have a master's in manufacturing and operations, and still hold certain principles near and dear. In all the posts, will someone enlighten me on just three comments that I did not see addressed? Are they just so well known by EVERYONE who might visit these posts that they no longer merit mentioning? Let me know as I am still loving music, deep and powerful bass (but in proportion to rest of instruments especially the twang of the Fender Strat. and keyboards like from YES and STYX), and sound that still can be felt in the chest sans even an ounce of distortion to be heard. My comments; I either mistakenly feel may *STILL* apply today (or not).

*Speaker efficiency- usually rated at some Db level at so many feet at a given level of drive. Still pertinent? Remember, to me efficiency was highly important especially when you felt strapped for power by a 35 watt Marantz receiver. If power was less than you could afford to buy, then you definitely went for the Cerwin-Vegas and not Infinitys. You kinda knew infinity speakers were a better quality sound if you could drive then well, but on budget power...,CVs all the way! Is *efficiency* less important in a sub?

*Distortion was the #1 reason for speaker failure. Driving a 100 W RMS speaker with a 20 W RMS amp, turned full-up so THD became higher than say 5%. Waveform of audio became toxic to a coil. OUCH!!

* Having frequented many a flea market in my day (not looking for car audio, but maybe a lava lamp LOL), I would see vendors selling car amps rated a whooping 2000 watts, yet when I looked at the size of the line fuse between 12 VDC source and amp, I would see a 20 amp fuse!!! In my math days, a REAL 2000 watt RMS amp run at 12VDC would be easy math. Can't get 2000 watts of audio from 200 watts of 12VDC (@ abt. 15 amps plus inefficiency loss of amp). No amp has 100% efficiency that we could afford yet people would buy an amp rated at 2000 watt of PEAK or some other total B.S. number that only could draw say 300 watts of DC. Energy can't be created???
So, 40 watts of RMS power at less than 1% distortion is pretty damn good when compared to some amps rated with factitious 1000 watts of *music power*. Where would one find a real definition of music power? Right next to the left-handed hammers, I guess. Make sure we compare apples to apples. When I was young once (long ago), only watts RMS at about .1% THD or less was worth bragging about or at least REAL. Do we all use common sense when we talk power necessary? When I buy an amp, first things I look at are watts RMS, THD@4 ohms at rated output, *headroom* in watts RMS, efficiency, class of amplifier (by design), input fuse size just to keep an amp I am not familiar with honest, etc.

My home stereo is 3 different sets of Klipsch and a pair of amps by Crown (tubes, baby). I have Klipschorns, KSP400s, and a pair of mint Cornwalls. Both the "horns" and the "walls" have all new, but oem drivers in them. KSP400 are terrible speakers unless you like hum and blown op amps replaced annually :-( , but sound good when they work. I have owned just about every speaker worth mentioning pre-1980! Do most all car audiophiles know about pitfalls of car audio component ratings? I hope so! Seems like home audio is less abused in terms of realistic ratings, but not immune. Just my .02. Are my concerns no longer concerns in today's components- i.e. *efficiency* ???

TIA. Clean and powerful rules!

[BarryM]

I can't answer any of your questions but installing the RF subs along with upgrading the output of my BM54 amp has really improved the sound in my car ?

[bimmergeek]

I got them from Amazon.com, $55 ea with free shipping.

It looks like they are now $56.03 ea so they went up a tiny bit.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ls_o00_s00_i00

OK, it looks like I can now post links here and I finally got around to putting the pics up on photobucket so here's some pics of the installation.
...

Intentionally resurrecting this old thread. Thanks to Jeremyp for his input. I ordered the Bavsound Stage 1 kit and figured I'd do the subs at the same time. I was looking for sub-woofers that were easier to find (and less expensive) then 14+ year old m-audio subs and came across this thread.

I ordered the same speakers and followed his instructions. It came out very well. My only addition to the instructions are to be we aware that:

1) The underside of the deck is not very level, so have a few different lengths of screws ready.
2) Remember the green with black stripe is positive (it's better to know this beforehand, vs looking it up on your phone when upside down in the trunk trying to wire them)
3) Cutting the deck to enlarge the holes is a PAIN. That metal is pretty thick and it almost burned out a Dremmel with a cutting tool Switched to my buddy's heavy-duty shop-class whiz wheel and got him to control that beast. I've read this isn't necessary, but since I already had the inside of the deck removed, I figured...why not?

My only question, is given that these are free-air subs, how important is it to seal around the speaker to isolate the trunk from the cabin? I am get PLENTY of bass.

The combination of the stage 1 and the subs are great. I think the biggest gains from the stage 1's are the tweeters.

[stickey]

My only question, is given that these are free-air subs, how important is it to seal around the speaker to isolate the trunk from the cabin? I am get PLENTY of bass.

Trying to help make sure an old questions get answered, as I've been looking at upgrading as well. It's pretty important to make sure you seal the front of the "baffle" from the rear, meaning, seal up the holes as well as you can. If what you're getting out of them is good (and it's been 9 months), then maybe don't worry about it, but sealing things up better will only help.

[Can]

By the way, the BA SC50's really bring the system 'alive'! Definitely worth the $$.

Sorry for bringing a hundred years old thread but...

May be a long shot but... How did you connect the BAs? Did you use the BA crossovers or did you run them active (as one channel for the mids and another for the tweeters)?

VERY helpful thread, thanks for the enlightening!

[Elixis]

Bump

I have to give you guys mad props on this thread - it is absolutely amazing and the results look clean! Thanks for all the info provided. Is anyone local to Los Angeles here? I want to do this ASAP!

[Elixis]

Would the JL Audio 10" TW3 subs work? The specs seem to be the same...