Bret928

Well I finally finished my new stereo. For what I wanted to do I had to call in some experts for the speaker boxes & mounting of their amps.

Heres what I got
Alpine CDA-9885 head unit. Actually it's more of a multi media sound system because besides satilite (XM in my case) it directly connect to Ipods and besides regular CDs it can play MP3/WMA/AAC CDs. With the Ipod it'll show the play lists and the hook up is in the glove box along with an Aux 3.6mm cable connection.



Speakers & Amps are Power Base and sound sweet. As you can see the speakers required some wizardtry on the part of my friends at San Diego Stereo here in Poway. Great work but boy did they complain alot.

Front speakers


Rear speakers


I also treated myself and installed a Hirschmann automatic retractible antenna I got on ebay, that only extends when I'm in AM/FM mode. Otherwise it retracts when in Satalite mode, CD, Ipod or aux imputs are in use. This is really cool.

Anyway the only thing missing or left to do is put in a bass. But honistly is sounds great to me as it is.

auzivision

Your install looks great and somewhat like mine. I wasn't satisfied and now I'm working on adding a sub, but only after installing raamat. Maybe then it will sound great or maybe I'm being too picky it doesn't matter, just enjoying the ride...

checkmate1996

auzvision or bret928, I love the door panel speaker mounts...How can I get some???

Bret928

Kirt,
I like the two tone look - classy. It looks like your using speaker with a much lower profile.

Brad,
I had the local Stereo shop fab mine up for me. I'm not a fiberglass guy myself so I enlisted their help for them. Basicly hand made. IT was kind of funny in retrospect when I thing about them whining about attaching them to the doors. They hated working on my car. But I bet you could find a local shop to fab you up a set easy enough.

Up next for me is a day at the spa for the Shark. Wash & wax and a full detail of the interior.

auzivision

Mine were created at a local audio shop as well. They are made out of MDF covered in vinyl that really matches my leather well. The pattern was created using a protractor and a ruler. Cut out with a jig or band saw and rounded over with a router.

Since the new MB Quart speakers were bigger and tweeters were smaller. The size of the big circle was based on the 5.25 mid range and the size of the small circle was dictated by the size of the old tweeter opening. The thickness was selected to allow enough depth.

At first I was a little apprehensive, but in the end I was pleased with the result aesthetically. To really do it right, you almost have to put 6.5 mid bass up front, which I still may add. For now, I’m hoping that adding sound mat and ensolite to the doors will make up the difference. (Bret, see www.raamaudio.com for more details if you are interested).

Currently I have most of this disassembled so if anyone would like a pattern and some pictures, just send me a PM. It really doesn’t look like it would be that tough to duplicate.

bigrob

So those front speaker housings were custom made? I want to do something like that,but at the bottom of the door. Those look cool. They used to make these surface mounted plastic speaker enclosures back in the day. They were square in shape. I cant seem to find them now. I think they would be perfect. They would hold standard 5 & 1/4 round speakers.

Bill Ball

Nice job!

However...I can tell you that from an acoustic standpoint, it is far better to mount those honking front speakers down low on the doors. Sterling did this using a version of the same technique your installers did - create a pod, although he molded his into the panels and carpeted it. You have had to deal with the holes in the upper panels too.

Having the large speaker down low makes the distances of the right and left speakers from the driver and passenger more even and provides far better R/L balance.

Still, I'm certain what you have now is a huge improvement over the stock system, so enjoy!

Bret928

That was a concern of mine too. But part of the reason for mounting them there was to cover the old stock perferated speaker holes as you pointed out. But if it starts to get annoying, I was thinking about recovering the old door panels and moving the speakers down to the lower half of the door.

Right now I have the fore/aft settings @ 40/60% for front/rear. Acousticly I'm pretty happy.

Nicole

You are a very brave and trusting soul.

I would never, ever allow a local stereo shop to touch my car, let alone do any permanent modifications to it. They probably had a hard time getting panels off and on; particularly the rear ones are said to be very tricky to do.

My previous 928 had professionally installed aftermarket speakers, which came lose everytime someone slammed the door shut. Oh, and the way they cut the sheetmetal in the doors... <crinch>

Bret928

Yup, They whined like my little girls! But I didn’t take to a place with a bunch of high school kids (ala Circuit City, Frys etc) I researched the shop and they have a lot of top end clientele. Save the whining I thought they where pretty professional and I inspected all their work before they put the panels back on.

But truthfully the hardest thing they had to deal with was un-F’ing all of the PO’s (Previous Owners) stupid mistakes when he installed his cheap **** Radio Shack sound system. Rear speakers where pretty simple actually - just took a long time to do because of all the screws & clips along with the removal of the rear seats. Again the PO didn’t make life easy by using a lot “non-Porsche” components & fasteners when hacking things up.

Yup! This reminds me of another no-no the PO did while hacking about inside the passenger door. While trying to make room for larger speakers he (or the idiot he hired for the job) actually started cutting away at the speaker well in the door’s sheet metal. But must have gone through a few blades and just gave up after about 3”.

Still I like it and am happy with the results. Just returned from a short trip with my son and had Led Zeppelin’s “Houses of the Holly” cranked! All I can say is WOW!.....

ew928

Nice custom speaker enclosures, Bret.
A sub would fill in the lower ranges but with 4 6.5"?, it should sound decent.
I know even putting in decent speakers in the stock 88 locations made a good difference.
The Alpine looks great. Parents had one of the high end Alpine cassette deck and that sounded gorgeous. Nice full sound if fed to high end speakers.
Had the then local stereo shop install a system in mine. They do good work as I've had 2 cars worked on by them previously so I trust their work. They had my car for 2 days and put in Sony head unit, 6 CD changer in the passenger tray under the glovebox, sub amp in the rear storage bin (no rear AC) and 10" sub on a marine ply plate replacing the spare tire cover.
Still going strong after nearly 6 years.

PS, you've got a driver's door pull dot. Neat.