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That Esotar 430 mid is awfully expensive. Did you consider the Esotan MF171 Mk II?
Re woofer, did you consider the MW182 10" unit? Rennspec says it will fit.
For all of you considering replacing the rear speakers.. If I recall the rears require 4 channels of amplification, one for each tweeter and one for the midrange on both sides. So an 8 channel amp isn't going to work if you want to power all speakers.
This is one of the main reasons everyone deletes the rear speakers. It requires multiple amps and its primarily for fill. In my setup we bridged 2 channels for the door woofers (4) one to each tweeter (2) and one to each door midrange (2) and that used all 8 channels.
I then ran another smaller Mosconi under the drivers seat just to power the sub. No longer using the rears.
However, I did buy some AUDISON speakers for the rears that combines the tweeter and woofer in one speaker so you can get away with using 2 channels for the rears instead of 4. If anyone wants them let me know..
Installed the Esotan 171 MKII tweeter and midrange today. The kit from Rennspec is top notch. The brackets are high quality and fitment was perfect. Everything was included and install took about 2 hours total. I also disconnected the center speaker. Sound is a big upgrade from Bose. Much less harshness to the highs and there is now midrange. Big thank you to the guys at Rennspec for fast shipping and making a great product.
Hav you added any saline damping material to the doors?
That Esotar 430 mid is awfully expensive. Did you consider the Esotan MF171 Mk II?
Re woofer, did you consider the MW182 10" unit? Rennspec says it will fit.
Yes considered many options, inc also the Hertz option as I like the 3ohm woofer they do extracting a smidge more from the amp.
With regards to the mid, if the matching 142 mid fit in the cup in the door then I'd have a matching set 3-way, but it doesn't. So options are model up, or model down, and given that others have replaced the factory mid with cheaper options and not really noticed too much a benefit I'm minded to do it well and do it once. The breadth of ability from the 430 also will allow some flexibility to move the crossover point between it and tweeter.
For the woofer it was a toss up between the Esotar 650 (which looks good value against the 430) and the MW172 8". So yes 182 fits or a Morel 9" too and you sling a chunk of power at it (especially if you went Audison F8.9 and bridged 5-6 & 7-8), but I don't feel you'll ever get the low end extension desired compared to even the most modest of subs, fitting and working effectively are different things. So I plan on high passing the doors at 85 rather than pump those low octaves into a flimsy plastic panel, preserve the power on hand for the 85-400 in the 8" and then have a ~300w 10" sub on the rear shelf.
Are there any recommendations / suggestions specific to convertibles? I have the Bose system. It is such a harsh sound, especially w/ the top down. I've upgraded the tweeters and will be putting dynamat in the doors in the spring, but wondering if the experts have any suggestions to warm up / mellow out the harshness besides leave the top up. Thanks
Josh, the convertibles are even worse than the Targa's. You have your work cut out for you. I also had the Bose system. Problem one is the amp. You do not have the power to drive the speakers with the top down. All of the sound goes right out of the car. Once you get the power up to the point when you can have it loud inside the cabin with the top down, then you can deal with the crappy speakers that are both harsh and muddy sounding. No sense wasting good money upgrading the speakers when the amp is underpowered and distortion ridden. Top up the sound will improve with speaker changes and sound deadening but, its over as soon as the top comes down. Its a complete job to get it good. Amp, Speakers, Sound Deadening and tuning.
Cool stuff! Currently have the musicar tweeters on a Bose system with the center dash speaker disconnected. What would be a logical next step up from here? Upgrade just the mids and see how that sounds? Seems like the Bose woofer is decent and less bang for the buck there.
Cool stuff! Currently have the musicar tweeters on a Bose system with the center dash speaker disconnected. What would be a logical next step up from here? Upgrade just the mids and see how that sounds? Seems like the Bose woofer is decent and less bang for the buck there.
Josh, the convertibles are even worse than the Targa's. You have your work cut out for you. I also had the Bose system. Problem one is the amp. You do not have the power to drive the speakers with the top down. All of the sound goes right out of the car. Once you get the power up to the point when you can have it loud inside the cabin with the top down, then you can deal with the crappy speakers that are both harsh and muddy sounding. No sense wasting good money upgrading the speakers when the amp is underpowered and distortion ridden. Top up the sound will improve with speaker changes and sound deadening but, its over as soon as the top comes down. Its a complete job to get it good. Amp, Speakers, Sound Deadening and tuning.
Thanks for the feedback. That's what I assumed (re: you turn your listening space into an infinitely sized room and it takes a lot more effort to sound good). I have had a number of BMW convertibles over the years, and still have my 135 as my daily. They all have had a more balanced or at least less fatiguing / harsh sound compared to the Bose system. The tweeters did help, hopefully I can avoid the very expensive rabbit hole of upgrades I'm contemplating.
I replaced the factory Bose driver side tweeter with the Dayton Audio. Does it make a difference how the wiring is connected to the actual speaker terminals? The Dayton speaker has a terminal marked red. I’m not sure which wire I connected to that on the drivers side. Everything is cinched up on the drivers side. Looking at the Bose factory speaker, they connected the wire from the R side of the female connector (looking at it head head with the T flanges located at the top) to the cap. I did the same with the driver side.
If the wiring is not consistent side to side will thespeakers be out of phase? I’d rather not have to take out the driver side but will if the wiring must be consistent. Thanks for the help.
Last edited by Carl Over; Jan 16, 2021 at 09:16 PM.
So you'll want to ensure the phase is matched side to side, otherwise if they're 180 degree out you'll find they'll cancel out each other in the centre of the 'stage'.
As for phase between them and the door drivers, that's a harder one really as they're already on a different plane and firing on the Z axis (up) vs the X (side to side). Personally I'd check them with a cheap app and ensure they're all phased +ve
Thanks Muu83. I ended up testing the factory wiring to the tweeter with multimeter and indeed the blue with black stripe wire is the positive. This wire went to the cap on the Bose speaker. I did the same and wired this positive wire to the red terminal on the Dayton speaker. Tested using the same audio and with all front, max treble and cycled between left and right. Everything sounds great. Clearly we all appreciate audio differently and will change the settings to suit our preferences but this small upgrade has made a noticeable difference. Since I changed only one speaker and then a week later changed out the other Bose tweeter, it was an interesting way to hear the difference. Very cost effective option. And the dash has plenty of room for the Dayton Audio 12uf polypropylene capacitor as long as the wiring harness that you create is long enough. If you have any doubts about this upgrade, you shouldn’t. It’s too affordable not too.
Last edited by Carl Over; Jan 17, 2021 at 05:58 PM.
I installed the Musicar Tweeter upgrade, I wish I had seen your package for 200 less The tweeters made a nice improvement when going through the factory PCM. I have the Carplay installed as well and the audi is terrible, although I like having the carplay features. Do you plan on selling a Focal amp or similar with a DSP that is more budget friendly than the Mosconi they are selling?
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The tweeters made a nice improvement when going through the factory PCM. I have the Carplay installed as well and the audi is terrible, although I like having the carplay features. Do you plan on selling a Focal amp or similar with a DSP that is more budget friendly than the Mosconi they are selling?
