michaelathome

Out with the old and in with the new stereo or they always say.

So the original headunit had been pulled from my S4 and the windshield was replaced with a non-antenna glass. Needless to say I had to fix that.

I have had a make shift Nakamichi headunit in the car since pulling the Pioneer. Time to get things a little more factory. Yeah, I know still not stock wasn't looking for stock. I was looking for better and closer to stock.


Here's what's going in this week.

Becker CDR-210
Becker CDC-3
GT Fuba Antenna (powered) < done
XM Roady II < FM modulated, done

Front Speakers
- MB Quart Seperates

Middle Speakers (back seat)
- MB Quart 7.25's

Rear Speakers
- MB Quart 4"

Sub
- Kenwood 10" (to be replaced by 12" Alpine R")

Amp
- Soundstream Rubicon 405 (old blue)
- 50W x 4
- 200W x 1

- Soundstream Rubicon 300-2(old blue)
- 100Wx2 (200W x 1)

I will post pics next week when I get the car back. I am so excited to finally have this stuff fixed I had to share.

Michael

michaelathome

So here is how it turned out.

I am pretty happy with it, sounds great but I am going to need to do some changes b4 I am happy.

IMO they, Sound Solutions did a great job, BUT it looks unfinished to me looking at all the red in the trunk w/the covers off.

Here's some of the stuff:



Head Unit:


MB Quarts I installed driver side, crossover is behind the door panel


MB Quarts I installed passenger side, crossover is behind the door panel


MB Quart 7.25's in the rear passenger quarter,


MB Quart 7.25's in the rear driver quarter,


Here comes the fun stuff and where I think that there is some more work to do.

Looking at the rear deck from the driver seat.


Looking at the rear deck from behind.


Another view of the rear deck from the back. In this view you can see some of the venting cut-outs for the amps.


Rear deck is out. There is a metal grill holding up the carpet that acts as a functional rear deck.


Sub enclosure gravity hung into spare wheel well. It's .85 cubic feet IIRC.


Chris made inserts for the sub so that it would fit in right and stay put.


Amp and changer enclosure


Changer access, again, I would change a few things.


Last but not least me listening to my new to me audio system.


Oh and heres the tail on the dog.


The ONLY changes that I will make to this set up, wow does it sound great, is I don't wanna look at the paint in the trunk. I love the sound but the enclosures and the trunk/hatch floor doesn't quite look cooked.

Awsome sound and my hats off to Chris at Sound Solutions in Chantilly VA. He did this job w/only 4 screws mounted into the car, he knew where everyting was and where it all fit, no screws in the tank BTW. Couldn't have asked for more than that and a finished bottom o.0


Michael

Alan

ummm... a cassette deck....?

I'm beginning to think that my 10 disk CD changer is such a dinosaur I should remove it and replace it with just my iPod interface...


(Mind you I also just bought an a/d/s/ C2 home cassette deck on eBay because it was so cheap... I always lusted after one... and it is one of the best cassette decks ever made... course I also threw away hundreds of cassettes about a year ago too...)

(anyway... its still very cool...).

Alan

michaelathome

I wasn't looking for "best" in this I was looking for better. CD quality is fine for me. The controls on the 210 are easy to get though on the HU and the sound is incrdeadibly clear. I actually think that the amps is were they did the fine tuning and not in the head unit.

I don't like the layout in the hatch much but I can make changes and have a template. For me the key was getting it all working.

Keeping it "era" for me was another key factor on my choices.

Some things had to change though. The shop actually laughed w/at me when I asked for them to put "this stuff in" but once they heard it all put together and were very surprised it worked out as well as it did. Chris was the one that made it all work though.

Michael

ew928

Pretty cool.
Are there any vent slots in the box for the amps or is there just the CD changer opening.
All them amps are going to be a bit warm. I just like keeping my electronics on the cool side of things.

XM sounded better running directly wired to the head unit. I've tried it both ways and the bass was happier with direct output.

Wonder how cassette input compares to the FM modulation.
Tried any good Chrome or Metal cassette tapes in the car yet?

And you left room for the baby seat, right?

michaelathome

I haven't listened for any variations in tape qualities yet Ernest. I am trying to get used to a true 600w in my car! I'll let ya know if I am able to tell a difference between a regular/chrome/metal cassette when I get around to playing one.

There are vent slots for the amp cooling fins w/inserts. I will take another pic with them out and add it to the slideshow a little later today, if you look at the bottom of the covers you can see them and I tried to grab a pic from the top with their outlines.

I can't imagine that the amps will be getting warm at all if I can't get the volume above 2 or 3 on the HU it just gets too darn loud. Besides, what's the fun if you can't listen to the BWAAAA of the RMB?

WOW, I really need to dye that seatback.

Oh, and plenty of room for the babyseat, just not 2

Michael

ew928

Is someone hinting at something?
The older baby can always pass on clothes to the younger one.


Hey, I just noticed there's no crossover.
If you can find room somewhere, putting an active crossover would be very very nice. I had an active crossover'ed system in my old Audi. Lots o' room in a 4 door sedan for that.

Lucky for me the Blaupunkt head unit has a low pass output for the sub. And it filters the low frequencies from the rest of the speakers.
A crossover might just be slim enough to bolt up behind the rear seat.

I remember when the Chrome taped Nakamichi Reference tapes were da bomb.

Hope you good a good home cassette deck to record material. Nothing like monitoring output levels and setting for just below clipping to maximize magnetic energy to overcome HISS.

michaelathome

No hinting about it, Lisa and I have 2 boys now, she was 4mo along at last years Frenzy. That's the biggest reason that I have missed so many events this year, the two of them keep us VERY busy.

Uploading the pics of the amplifier vents now.

Michael

jej3

If memory serves me right, the amps have crossovers built in.

Great setup.

If the 210 doesn't last you might look at the 220. I am running the Becker CDR-220 with the revised faceplate for our viewing angle. It came out of a boxster I believe. Lots of functionality for powering our stock speaker but it will be great when I do AMPS and Sub like yours. The CDR-220 supports dynamic volume adjust for speed, text on the radio stations, phone monitoring, AUX input (once I deleted the changer) and others.

michaelathome

Thanks jej3,

You are right the Soundstreams do have crossovers and caps built in for the sub channel. I have a total of 8 channels, 2 front, 2 middle, 2 rear and 1 bridged sub channel.

As to the CR-210 it does have "text on the radio stations" as well. WOW is that nice. I need to get more with it. It was fun watching the scrolling text the first time.

I am having problems w/the rennlist gallery atm. Hopefully I'll be able to post up the last of the pics soon.

Michael

michaelathome

A bump for those of you that heard my set-up at frenzy and wanted more details.


Front Seperates
- RCE-210
2x 1in tweeters
2x 4in mids
in door crossover

Middle (back seat)
- DKD 116
2x 6.5in Coax mids/tweeters
in line crossover

(this is my biggest ? as I know for a fact mine are MBQuart 7's and there are no 7's in their model line.
Remember I got mine used so maybe this was a special build or trial line of speakers)


Rear Coax
- RWE 100
2x 4in Coax mids/tweeters
in line crossovers

Sub
- Kenwood 10in
Custom 1ft squared, sealed enclosure




As for my amps I am using the following:

Soundstream Rubicon 405
4x 50w
1x 100w Sub

Soundstream Rubicon 300-2
2x 75w

How it is broken out:
50w to the front L/R channels (Rubicon 405)
50w to the rear L/R channels (Rubicon 405)

75w to the middle 7in (6.5in)

100w to the Sub

Head unit:
Porsche/Becker CR-210

CD changer:
Porsche/Sony/Becker CD-3? (standard porsche 6disk changer)

Michael

RyanPerrella

how did you mount the MB Q's to the door panels? Did you have to drill any additional holes? I am trying to figure out how to mount mine.

Anyone with the 4" MB's have suggestions or tips or an answer to the above question?

Thanks

Marine Blue

That deck looks right at home in the dash. Michael out of curiosity have you compared the Becker to the newer high end Alpines or Nakamachi's for sound quality?

michaelathome

No additional holes, if you look, I took the original tweeter plate and fitted a piece of wood into it and covered in vinyl.

The crossovers are mounted to the back of the door panels. There are no exposed screws.

Michael

michaelathome

I have been told by quite a few to leave it alone actually. If I do anything it will be to clean up looking at the floor of the trunk/hatch. Maybe put some carpet down below everything. I tend to agree each and every time I get out of the car that I need to leave it as is.

Here are a few pictures from the broken links

Sub enclosure



Rear deck open







I'll post a few more pics if people need me too.

Michael