donaudio

I am a Fabricator and Technician for AI Design, the driving force behind high end automotive performance upgrades and interior options. We are about to put into production an OE styled subwoofer enclosure that will fit all 996's, with the exception of late model cabs with the OE Bose subwoofer enclosure. We are looking for positive or negative feedback regarding the appearance of this piece. I figured the best place to reach some of the most knowledgable and experienced Porsche owners was to start here at the Rennlist. Any input on this would be great. A quick written description may help a little more.---
Mimicked off the OE Bose subwoofer box, mounts with 1, 10mm bolt in a factory location. All enclosures are wrapped in genuine Porsche color matched material and outfitted with one JL Audio 8" subwoofer and a black steel mesh grill.

Deeps

I would definitely consider one of these for my (black interior) C4S - it would look great (kind of like you could see that something was there, but it's not too obvious what it is). For me though, the unit looks a little bit too intrusive on the colour (color?!) scheme in the pictures. Is there any way of matching the grill colour to the carpet? Like I say though, with a black interior, it would look awesome.

Regards

Deeps

wwest

Porsche are to be driven, love the sound of the motor as we go through the gears.....

Hi-fidelity sound systems are best reserved for a nice quiet home enviroment where on can enjoy the full sound reproduction experience.

With ambient noise levels in a Porsche (or LS430) being on the order of 70DB and more, the only way to "enjoy" sound reproduction is turn it up to the "feel" level (isn't that what your woofer is for??) and that's 'way outside anything close to the hi-fidlity sound reproduction envelope!

donaudio

As far as color matching goes, the sky is the limit. Actually these units could be color matched in a variety of ways, from painting to match or carbon fiber. Our unit is actually smaller than the OE version, and ours is equipped with a subwoofer that is 2/3's larger!
And WWEST, I agree that a Porsche is a great and exhilirating driving machine with or without a sound system, BUT, not all Porsche owners want or care about the same thing. The biggest complaint that WE get from our clients having performance work done, is the lack of low-end sound in the car. And actually our unit is not for "ground Pounding bass", it is really there to fill a lot of the holes and vallyes that the OE system is missing.

vove

you specialize in adding more weight to our cars???

The_Phantom

Couple of questions:

What do you mean the factory location? Your sub is in the front by the passenger's feet. The factory sub in my car ('03 C4S) is in the back behind the seats.

What is the volume of the enclosure? Where do you recommend installing the amplifier?

Orient Express

Why is the speaker cone exposed? Would that not attract debris that would rattle on the cone? Also exposing the cone with only a wire mesh in the footwell area invites damage from a well placed kick.

What is the shape of the acoustic enclosure, and how does it compare to the Bose enclosure.

lastly what is the EQ curve that your have chosen for this speaker? Where are your resonance traps tuned to?

donaudio

VOVE-The weight of our enclosure is drastically less than that of the OE enclosure with a smaller sub.
FISHMAN-For 2004, Porsche has changed and added there sub to the front console of the car. It mounts directly to the passenger side console, and currently is available for the Turbo Cab as a great OE sub solution. We decided, since the OE piece works so well with the interior, why not try to improve on it slightly by giving it a "real" subwoofer and shrink it down as much as possible to accomodate the airespace. The airspace internally is .47 cubic feet and I think the best place for an amplifier really is in the bonnet, unless you can fit it under your passenger front seat, but that all depends on the amplifier that you are using...
ORIENT EXPRESS-We had to fire the speaker out the side simply for depth and intrusion into the foot well area. Most definetly, a well placed kick would damage the metal grill, but why would you be kicking it? As far as debris on the cone and causing resonance, doesn't that have to do with the level that you keep your car clean? The enclosure is sealed and will play a much broader range than the Bose ported enclosure, and at a much greater volume if wanted. We found that the OE 5x7" subwoofer fails at a relatively low volume level, which can damage the speaker prematurally. The EQ curve is flat, it does have a spike between 70-77Hz, but that is the nature of the sealed enclosure beast with an 8" woofer. A resonance trap is only necessary when your doing a square cube-like enclosure where rear wave can cause interior cancellation. Our enclosure is a full fiberglass piece with the same interior cotours on the back side.

Orient Express

Don:
Bad answers. A well designed product takes into consideration worst case scenarios such as inadvertent damage and the environment in which the product will be used. In this design the the issues are that the mechanical design is susceptible to speaker damage because of where it is placed, and sonic distortion due to debris accumulation. Interiors get dirty, stuff gets spilled, and footwells get kicked, no matter how well a car gets cared for. So I would suggest that the enclosure design be modified to address these issues, and the simplest way to do that is to just get rid of the grill and the hole entirely. Take a look at other designs that place a speaker at foot level either in the door or footwell. I don't know that I have ever seen a footwell speaker exposed, and door speakers are protected with a heavy cover that has fabric on the inner surface to prevent debris from entering.

Now once these issues are corrected, then the question is how does it sound.

RexracerX

It would be a great option for us cab owners who have nowhere to put a sub. My sub sits in a box behind the seat and serves as the highly visible and only indication that I have a high $$ system hiding in my car. I'm assuming the speaker grill can be hidden.

As far as durability - I've owed a number of Jeeps and boats with high end systems and only a grill to protect the speakers from anything and everthing. Those speakers held up just fine in an environment that no P-car owner would ever want to subject their interiors to (dog hair, french fries, mud, rain etc.)

TurboMark

I'm not an audiophile but it looks nice.

wwest

"biggest complaint" "Lack of low end sound".....

If you mean "low end" as in volume, then yes, the 70DB "white noise" will pretty dramatically wipe out any sound reproduction below that threshold.

But if you mean lack of low end sound reproduction frequency content then it becomes pretty obvious that you're not a very good sound technician. If you take a sprectrum analyzer to the Boston Pops and measure the wideband sound levels through several musical numbers and then do the same thing in almost any upscale OEM car system, in a quiet garage with the windows up, you will discover that these systems can very faithfully reproduce the original content across the sound spectrum.

All you're doing by adding extra "boost" at the low frequencies is DISTORTING the original content, mostly to overcome the effects of the high level of ambient noise on human hearing.

Personally I find that my 78 Targa with a good Kenwood CD player and mosfet 4 channel amp with 4 6" speakers does an excellent job of sound reproduction top off and at 90MPH+ with the entire sound spectrum boosted to a HIGH listening level but with no distortion.

The factory sound system in my 01 C4 also does an excellent job but I haven't yet found a can opener for the top.

newport996

How much? How far does this extrude into the footwell? I cannot tell from the angle of the images.

threeOh

1) Prefer to listen to the car.

2) With the new MOST bus, an iPod or Sat Radio means: a), a modulator - a sub is a waste. b), a complete replacement of the audio system - the installer will greatly influence (as in make) the decision on the sub.

3) No way would I want a sub by my legs and feet. Been there with just high quality woofers and the constant vibration on my leg was irritating to say the least.

mlambert890

wwest, no offense man, but it sounds like you're grinding a general "anti-aftermarket audio" axe against Don.

I think the "I want to listen to the car" argumetns are great, but they're not germaine to the point.

If you hate subwoofers or aftermarket audio in general, you wouldn't be the target audience...

I agree with Orient Express. I would prefer to see something like this with more protection for the speaker given the location. The footwells can get rough and you dont always have total control of the passenger side.

Otherwise, it looks clean and the location seems decent enough. The more important issue would be sound obviously...