officemanager

No offense taken... my thoughts are since the bi-amping and equipment quality need to be there anyway in my mind I'm gonna try and hold the factory "look" [although stiffened and dampened] I can always build custom doors later.

I also thank DrZ for the heads up on Brax amps they read well and look beautiful I’m going to see if I can get one to demo.

And as I've said above I have a two way install in the one car and I'm going to at least start with the three way in the more "acoustically challenging" cabriolet… No subs [to start], just good speakers, good connectors, damping and electrics in the factory positions [except amps]. And although the two boxes [hard and soft tops] are not the same at all essentially the two installs will be except for the 2/3 driver difference so it'll be a good test...

I thank everyone for their input this week past and would love to hear more on peoples feelings subs [especially anyone with a soft top as I move ahead this week with the driver switch out...

CWolf NY

Jim

Any suggestions on how to run speaker wires from the Amp in the trunk into the interior, (without drilling holes in the firewall). Any other place where other part s of the wiring harness goes through that could be leveraged?

Ragin' Bajan

Check out my installation here,
which includes a picture of running the power cable to my amp under the passenger seat. No reason your cables couldn't take the same route. I was a little paranoid that there'd be more interference with the longer cable runs to and from the amp, but lots of people use your configuration so it's probably fine.

[Edit]
It's probably not obvious from the picture, but the grommet is in the passenger foot well (LHD car), high up, sorta behind the glove compartment. You can only really see it from inside the car as it hides underneath the relay/fuse box.

Ragin' Bajan

Ignore--accidental post

officemanager

Just a follow up on the Tech-Art subwoofer box posted above... I received the following email this AM from Tech-art...

Dear Mr. Wolf:

Thank you for your message.
Unfortunately the luggage box is no longer available.
Sorry that we cannot help you in this matter.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or if there is anything else we can do for you.

Best regards,
German Tech, Inc.
Joe Vatter

John H. in DC Area

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Originally posted by Jimmy Mc:
<strong>Any suggestions on how to run speaker wires from the Amp in the trunk into the interior, (without drilling holes in the firewall). Any other place where other part s of the wiring harness goes through that could be leveraged?</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Here's a picture of my tube amp and cross-over modules in the trunk. I understood that there was some kind of prefabricated entry point through the firewall into the interior (perhaps contemplated for the factory cd changers in the trunk), so no major drilling or cutting of the firewall was necessary. My shop fabricated a MDF board layered with black felt that covers the amp and crossovers as well as a smaller black cover over just the cross overs.

<img src="http://boards.rennlist.com/upload/amp_crossover_trunk.JPG" alt=" - " />

Kevin Reilly

Bumping this thread up to the top to see if anyone had found out any more info about those mystery subs in the back seatback.

John H. in DC Area

Nope, but your timing is good. I'm going to my stereo shop tomorrow to look at some options for adding MP3 and XM to my system and I was planning to take that pic with me to ask how feasible that sub arrangement is and what the cost might be. I'll post tomorrow night.

Kevin Reilly

John, thanks.

I'm doing my upgrade at the end of the month (will be taking it to Rod Birch) and would like to consider all options with respect to sub placement. I probably can't go the Caraudioinnovations route because I frequently take my young boys for a ride. I actually use the back seats more than I use the front, by a factor of 10 to 1.

Would also like to find out if the passenger footwell (the Monney Boxster idea) can work in our cars....for me that is a space that isn't used much at all.

YellowC4S

What about Boston Accoustics? I haven't picked the car up yet so I can't say firsthand what will fit and what wont. I do know however that I can put 18" subs in the doors of your Miata if that's what you want. I'm thinking of a setup somwhat like this;

Alpine 7998 HU
2 Hifonics Zeus 5ch amps-bridged 200x2+300x1
Boston Accoustics Pro series 6.5 3way up front
Boston Accoustics Pro series 4.5 2way rear
haven't really decided on subs yet but will be either;
Boston Pro Series 10x2
JL Audio 10w6v2x2
or
JL Audio 10w7x2
I don't think it will really be that difficult putting the 3 way system in the fron door factory locations with a little modification. In my Audi A4, I've got the Dynaudio 360's with an extra pair of Dyn 8's. The two 8's are mounted in each front door with the mid and tweet in custom kick panels. I never got around to installing the subs, (Image Dynamics IDQ10's) because the midbass that I have is excellent.
For the porsche install, I've also considered the Focal's and the Dyns up front, I'm really not sure yet.

YellowC4S

Ok. Today I bit the buck and purchased two Hifonics Zeus Z8000 5ch amps(one left and one right), a set of Focal Utopia 136W 2 way components for the rear, a set of Focal 165W3 3 way components for the front and a pair of Image Dynamics IDQ10 subs. All I have to get now is an Alpine 7998 Head Unit and I'll be all set.

YellowC4S

Ok. Today I bit the buck and purchased two Hifonics Zeus Z8000 5ch amps(one left and one right), a set of Focal Utopia 136W 2 way components for the rear, a set of Focal Utopia 165W3 3 way components for the front and a pair of Image Dynamics IDQ10 subs. All I have to get now is an Alpine 7998 Head Unit and I'll be all set.

E. Malcolm Crosby

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Originally posted by Phil McGrath:
<strong>not to take this off topic.
If you have a v1 detector....do not get XM radio!
they do NOT work together
v1 picks up the sat. signal....and will be "on" all the time!
I think I will get rid of xm, and put in a mp3 with speaker upgrades</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">I've had XM in my car for over a year with my V1 and haven't had any problems. I would have to think that other's results may vary after reading your message.

My V1 is about seven years old with laser and hasn't been upgraded yet, could this be the problem? Maybe you have a newer/older V1.

My XM antenna is mounted under the rear deck. I have the XM receiver mounted under the carpet just in front of the passenger seat. A cutout was made in the padding to make the XM receiver flush mounted and then covered with a board for protection. At first I had the receiver mounted under the dash in front of the passenger with no problems. I moved it because it was getting kicked.

Below is a list of what I have installed.

Part's List:
============
Alpine CDA-7878
Alpine 177A Component Speakers
Alpine XM TUA-T020XM Radio Receiver
Diamond D4104 Amp
Terk XM TRK-SR2 Antenna
Subwoofer Enclosure - qty 2
Diamond CM38 D2 8" Subs - qty 2

Since you found a problem I would like to learn more so that I can avoid the same problems in the future.

Phil

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Originally posted by E. Malcolm Crosby:
<strong> </font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Originally posted by Phil McGrath:
<strong>not to take this off topic.
If you have a v1 detector....do not get XM radio!
they do NOT work together
v1 picks up the sat. signal....and will be "on" all the time!
I think I will get rid of xm, and put in a mp3 with speaker upgrades</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">I've had XM in my car for over a year with my V1 and haven't had any problems. I would have to think that other's results may vary after reading your message.

My V1 is about seven years old with laser and hasn't been upgraded yet, could this be the problem? Maybe you have a newer/older V1.

My XM antenna is mounted under the rear deck. I have the XM receiver mounted under the carpet just in front of the passenger seat. A cutout was made in the padding to make the XM receiver flush mounted and then covered with a board for protection. At first I had the receiver mounted under the dash in front of the passenger with no problems. I moved it because it was getting kicked.

Below is a list of what I have installed.

Part's List:
============
Alpine CDA-7878
Alpine 177A Component Speakers
Alpine XM TUA-T020XM Radio Receiver
Diamond D4104 Amp
Terk XM TRK-SR2 Antenna
Subwoofer Enclosure - qty 2
Diamond CM38 D2 8" Subs - qty 2

Since you found a problem I would like to learn more so that I can avoid the same problems in the future.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Malcolm,
so your xm antni is located in the engine compartment?
currently my antni is "parked" under the rear window(inside)

E. Malcolm Crosby

It's under the rear deck where the rear speakers are mounted. I didn't see them do the installation so I'm not sure how exposed the antenna is to the engine, but it's not visible when looking through the rear window. I was concerned about heat, but they told me they've done this on other 911's and it shouldn't be a problem.

A different shop told me that they had been installing the antenna's inside the rear bumpers. In fact they had just relocated an antenna on a Corvette from the rear deck to inside the rear bumper.