Rob Edwards

I managed to crack one of the 6.5" plastic grilles a few weeks ago by letting go of my seatbelt as I took it off- the male buckle smacked into it. It's a tiny little crack and so far doesn't buzz. While they're still available I bought a replacement from DR (928.555.693.00.01C) for silly money...

Even with the new CDR-220 head unit I haven't been listening to the radio much. I'm still getting used to the car, and it's finally been cool enough here that I've been driving with the windows up (despite the dead heater valve or vacuum problem) and have discovered a litany of little nosies that I can't decide are normal or not (shifter buzz most prominent among them). That said, I pulled into the garage last night, turned off the ignition, and continued listening to a Christopher O'Riley CD last night. Even with the volume up, the noise floor was pretty good, and overall the imaging was the best I've heard in a car. Not bad for 16 year old speakers and an old, underpowered amp....

Alan

Here is the before after for my update... (and my cracked & beaten up original ring)

Alan

Bill Ball

Alan:

What's the complete setup and how does it sound? Did you put anything behind the large ADSs? I stuffed some polyester in the cavity and got improved bass response from my MB Quarts.

Alan

Bill,
Not complete with the updates and new stuff is not operational yet.

What is operational is the existing set-up:

Blaupunkt RNS149 SatNav head unit, w/ 10 disk CD changer feeds 4 channel a/d/s/ P440 Amp
this drives left & right front channels a/d/s/ 335is (passive crossover) door pair and rear left/right to
A6is (passive crossover) B-Pillar pair. The rear panel speakers are not curently connected.

This sounds very good now the buzzing grille is fixed - but is a little lacking in low bass.

Updates are to add the second 4 channel a/d/s/ P425 amp to drive the sub-woofer in the passenger door bottom (active crossover) with 2 channels bridged and to drive the pair of a/d/s/ 234i's in the rear.

I'm awaiting a decoupling capacitor before I complete the amp install and have just this weekend installed the door subwoofer... so weekly progress on the enabling....

I also have later changes planned for the pre-amp head end to mix in my telephone feed & possibly the Valentine alert. I also want to add the iPod feed muxed with the CD player... all longerterm tbd's

The B-Pillar speakers have no batting behnd and I may try that as I work through it... not obvious to me I needed it at his point.

Alan

Bill Ball

The polyester fill really sharpened up the bass response of the MB Quarts in the rear pillar, but this is very speaker-dependent. There is a huge cavity behind the pillar, so many speakers just vibrate loosely. OK upper mids and highs, but it would be nice if those 6.5s could produce tight mid-bass. The front door 4" did not like polyester fill. That chamber is more sealed and smaller already.

worf928

Bill, what exactly did you use? (I have MBQs too and wouldn't mind a little more bass.)

Bill Ball

You can buy polyester fill at crafts stores such as Micheal's.
http://www.michaels.com/art/online/d...ductNum=nw0200

Experiment with different amounts, stuffed in varying tightness. First try to block all the deep cavities with some tight wads of fiber and then fill the rest loosely. See what it does. You may need to subtract some. It isn't always the right idea, but basically most speakers are designed to work best in a sealed box of specific volume. I have also tried inserting lenghts of 3" foam water pipe insulation as a seal arund the periphery of the cavity.

The original "woofers" had respectable, thumping bass. They appear to have been designed to work in an open chamber. I haven't found an ideal substitute, but some mid-range MB's worked pretty well. Most people resort to a sub. I have another car with 6.75 inch Infinity speakers in the doors that absolutely do not need a sub. This is a 99 Durango top end system. It actually sounded pretty meek until I switched out the head unit. Then I realized these speakers could sound phenomemnal, at least in the Durango doors.

worf928

Thanks Bill.