12v Nick

A few months ago we had a previous Musicar customer reach out to us about upgrading the Bose system in their new Macan. They loved the mild upgrade we installed in their BMW almost a decade ago and decided to go a bit bigger on this build. After exchanging a good number of emails and phone calls about the project, we landed on a plan and scheduled the work. The car was about 200 miles away and the owner way too tied up to drive down, so I actually flew out to pick the car up personally.







The main goal was to achieve a high level of sound quality with clear and detailed response, but the other important elements in the system design were to retain a factory-like appearance and refrain from permanently modifying the car. Knowing this we decided to use all factory speaker locations so that nothing was visible. The only sacrifice made was to forego the spare tire to allow enough room to hide the amplifiers and new subwoofer enclosure. Here's a list of the gear we decided on:

• Morel of Israel Elate Carbon MT450
• Morel of Israel Elate Carbon MM3
• Morel of Israel Elate Carbon MW9
• Focal Utopia M SUB10WM
• Nav-TV ZEN-V Module
• Helix of Germany DSP Ultra
• Helix of Germany Conductor
• Mosconi of Italy PRO 4/30
• Mosconi of Italy PRO 5/30

Below is a more detailed list of the gear along with the photos and descriptions from our install:







Front Tweeters — Morel of Israel Elate Carbon MT450

We've used these tweeters in the Porsche platforms for years with phenomenal results. In fact, we sell these as a plug-n-play upgrade for the factory Bose system to help tone down the brightness and reveal more top-end resolution. We manufacture a mounting system that adapts them to the same hardware points used by the Burmester option. The drivers themselves are a 28mm soft-dome treated in their signature Acuflex™ coating.

























Front Midrange — Morel of Israel Elate Carbon MM3

The MM3 is a relatively new design from Morel that utilizes a triple-layered carbon cone for unparalleled linearity while keeping the moving mass low. That combined with an oversized 2.1" voice coil makes for a midrange driver that not only plays at high volumes without distortion, but also allows the speaker to stay in control at much lower frequencies. This was important for this build since we didn't want to woofers to play any higher than necessary.



The midrange in the Macan mounts to the backside of the door panel. We fabricated a mounting adapter to utilize the factory hardware and used one of our harness adapters to avoid cutting any wires. While we had the panel off we also applied some sound dampening to the backside of the panel to help with resonance.

























Front Woofers — Morel of Israel Elate Carbon MW9

These have been a staple in our Porsche builds for a long time now. The larger driver really helps bring the majority of the midbass forward and makes better use of the large door cavity. Like the midrange, this is a multi-layered carbon kevlar diaphragm, giving us strength without adding unnecessary mass. The 3" voice coil and high motor force gives us the ability to feed lots of power to these without losing control.



We hand-fabricate high-density composite adapters to mount these with the factory hardware. We also spent a good amount of time damping the interior of the door and the inner door surface to help suppress road noise and improve the bass response exponentially.

























Integration & Processing — Helix DSP Ultra & NavTV ZEN-V Module

One of the most important elements in any audio system is your source signal. In this case the owner wants to use TIDAL via wired CarPlay through the factory PCM system. The PCM sends a proprietary digital signal to the factory Bose amplifier on a network called MOST150. The Zen Module reads that signal and converts it to a usable toslink digital audio output to feed our new system.



Once we have a quality signal we need to make sure we have a way to optimize all of the downstream equipment — that's where the DSP Ultra comes in. Digital Signal Processors allow us to control the final response with equalization, crossovers and time correction. The DSP ultra has up to 12 output channels, though we'll only be using 10 in this design. Each one of those channels has its own discreet settings that allow us to tune each speaker to get the best response at the listening position.



Since we're putting the new amplifiers in the spare tire well, we decided to fabricate an aluminum bracket to mount the DSP and ZEN V in the OEM Bose amplifier location in the driver's side cargo panel.























DSP Control — Helix Conductor

Helix gives us the option of adding a controller that connects directly to the DSP, and the Conductor is the most simple and elegant version. It's a single **** design with a racetrack of LEDs to indicate the current mode and level. In this particular build we used it for subwoofer level and rear speaker attenuation, but it can also be used for things like master volume or switching to different presets.



This was going to be the only visible component so we wanted to make sure it was both ergonomic and low profile. The far backside of the center console cubby proved to be the perfect location. We designed and 3D printed a housing that integrated that along with a remote MUTE button for the Escort Redline 360c radar detector we installed.























Power & Subwoofer — Mosconi PRO 4/30 & 5/10 + Focal Utopia M SUB10WM

All of this gear is what we chose to displace the spare tire in the Macan. The Utopia M 10" sub was the prime choice to complement the Elate woofers in the front doors. Since they'll be playing quite low already, we needed a subwoofer that would really handle the lowest of notes with good control. Even in a sealed enclosure, the Focal doesn't disappoint. It's also an incredibly transparent subwoofer, meaning we don't hear any mechanical noise, only what's in the recording.



The enclosure for the subwoofer was build from 3/4" baltic birch and then upholstered in a black carpet. We designed and fabricated aluminum brackets that held the subwoofer securely to the car using the factory subwoofer's hardware points.























We carefully selected these two amplifiers as an appropriate pairing to the speakers we used. The Mosconi PRO 4/30 is a relatively new platform from the Italians and it's designed for unmatched resolution. The technology is Class-A Biased which is the car audio equivalent to home audio tube amplifiers. This type of amplifier topology is going to give us incredible warmth and body to the midrange as well as a higher sense of "air & sparkle" from the tweeters.



The 5/30 is just a high-quality Class-A/B workhorse. Two of its channels run the door woofers at 185w x2, the second two channels power the factory rear speakers at 95w x2 and the subwoofer channel gives us a confident 660w @4Ω — a very controlled subwoofer section with a superb damping factor at that impedance. Both amplifier were mounted forward of the subwoofer on a custom fabricated composite rack system. The rack allowed us to hide the wiring while still having quick access for any future service or diagnostics. The interconnects from the amps to the DSP were also custom made to length here at Musicar.



















Optimization — Final Test & Tuning

Once we have everything installed and tested, it's time to connect to the DSP and bring everything together!











That process starts by placing a calibrated microphone in the driver's seat at the listening position. This allows us to measure the response from each speaker and use the DSP to correct its inefficiencies. Once we have something close to what we call our "target curve" we sit in the car and do the rest of the tuning by ear. This, in total, takes anywhere from 2-6 hours depending on the system and how it responds to the tuning.























Once this car was done we all spent a good amount of time evaluating the results. No surprise, it met and exceeded expectations. The soundstage had great depth and width with pinpoint stereo imaging. The midbass in the doors was enough to feel the snare drums in your chest and the low end extension of the subwoofer was enough to make the hair on the back of your neck stand at attention. The one component of this sound that I particularly loved is about the sound is how it was both delicate and precise at the same time.



Oh, we were also tasked with building a magnetic phone mount for the right side of the console. This is a piece that we may produce and resell if there's enough demand for a solution. No modification required and installs in less than 5min:



















Last but not least, here's me playing around with photography tricks for no good reason 😜







Thanks for checking it out, glad to share our work with everyone!

goin2drt

Simply amazing. Man I would love to hear that.

Greg Wolfe

Unbelievably clean install. All I can say is, "wow!".

Mr. Wolfe

mikebrinda

Superior.

12v Nick

Thanks for the kind words, everyone!

manifold danger

Truly impressive, both with the build/craftsmanship and documenting the procedure.

Mojonito

Beautiful install! Looking forward with y
what you can come up with for my cayenne

boyce89976

What phone mount is that?

2am

Making the bose engineers blush !!

NickS

OMG! I wish you lived close to me! Impressive. Well done, sir!

boyce89976

I'm interested in the amp upgrade and that phone mount.

Also, I'm curious about your mic positioning. Oriented the way you have it, is the diaphragm is farther forward than the driver's ears would be? It appears to be an omni-direction mic... shouldn't it be positioned vertically with the diaphragm at ear height? I think I understand what you're trying to do, but I would think you'd get less accurate readings from the rear speakers in that orientation.

Stgnacam2023

[QUOTE=12v Nick;18436000]A few months ago we had a previous Musicar customer reach out to us about upgrading the Bose system in their new Macan. They loved the mild upgrade we installed in their BMW almost a decade ago and decided to go a bit bigger on this build. After exchanging a good number of emails and phone calls about the project, we landed on a plan and scheduled the work. The car was about 200 miles away and the owner way too tied up to drive down, so I actually flew out to pick the car up personally.







The main goal was to achieve a high level of sound quality with clear and detailed response, but the other important elements in the system design were to retain a factory-like appearance and refrain from permanently modifying the car. Knowing this we decided to use all factory speaker locations so that nothing was visible. The only sacrifice made was to forego the spare tire to allow enough room to hide the amplifiers and new subwoofer enclosure. Here's a list of the gear we decided on:

• Morel of Israel Elate Carbon MT450
• Morel of Israel Elate Carbon MM3
• Morel of Israel Elate Carbon MW9
• Focal Utopia M SUB10WM
• Nav-TV ZEN-V Module
• Helix of Germany DSP Ultra
• Helix of Germany Conductor
• Mosconi of Italy PRO 4/30
• Mosconi of Italy PRO 5/30

Below is a more detailed list of the gear along with the photos and descriptions from our install:







Front Tweeters — Morel of Israel Elate Carbon MT450

We've used these tweeters in the Porsche platforms for years with phenomenal results. In fact, we sell these as a plug-n-play upgrade for the factory Bose system to help tone down the brightness and reveal more top-end resolution. We manufacture a mounting system that adapts them to the same hardware points used by the Burmester option. The drivers themselves are a 28mm soft-dome treated in their signature Acuflex™ coating.

























Front Midrange — Morel of Israel Elate Carbon MM3

The MM3 is a relatively new design from Morel that utilizes a triple-layered carbon cone for unparalleled linearity while keeping the moving mass low. That combined with an oversized 2.1" voice coil makes for a midrange driver that not only plays at high volumes without distortion, but also allows the speaker to stay in control at much lower frequencies. This was important for this build since we didn't want to woofers to play any higher than necessary.



The midrange in the Macan mounts to the backside of the door panel. We fabricated a mounting adapter to utilize the factory hardware and used one of our harness adapters to avoid cutting any wires. While we had the panel off we also applied some sound dampening to the backside of the panel to help with resonance.

























Front Woofers — Morel of Israel Elate Carbon MW9

These have been a staple in our Porsche builds for a long time now. The larger driver really helps bring the majority of the midbass forward and makes better use of the large door cavity. Like the midrange, this is a multi-layered carbon kevlar diaphragm, giving us strength without adding unnecessary mass. The 3" voice coil and high motor force gives us the ability to feed lots of power to these without losing control.



We hand-fabricate high-density composite adapters to mount these with the factory hardware. We also spent a good amount of time damping the interior of the door and the inner door surface to help suppress road noise and improve the bass response exponentially.

























Integration & Processing — Helix DSP Ultra & NavTV ZEN-V Module

One of the most important elements in any audio system is your source signal. In this case the owner wants to use TIDAL via wired CarPlay through the factory PCM system. The PCM sends a proprietary digital signal to the factory Bose amplifier on a network called MOST150. The Zen Module reads that signal and converts it to a usable toslink digital audio output to feed our new system.



Once we have a quality signal we need to make sure we have a way to optimize all of the downstream equipment — that's where the DSP Ultra comes in. Digital Signal Processors allow us to control the final response with equalization, crossovers and time correction. The DSP ultra has up to 12 output channels, though we'll only be using 10 in this design. Each one of those channels has its own discreet settings that allow us to tune each speaker to get the best response at the listening position.



Since we're putting the new amplifiers in the spare tire well, we decided to fabricate an aluminum bracket to mount the DSP and ZEN V in the OEM Bose amplifier location in the driver's side cargo panel.























DSP Control — Helix Conductor

Helix gives us the option of adding a controller that connects directly to the DSP, and the Conductor is the most simple and elegant version. It's a single **** design with a racetrack of LEDs to indicate the current mode and level. In this particular build we used it for subwoofer level and rear speaker attenuation, but it can also be used for things like master volume or switching to different presets.



This was going to be the only visible component so we wanted to make sure it was both ergonomic and low profile. The far backside of the center console cubby proved to be the perfect location. We designed and 3D printed a housing that integrated that along with a remote MUTE button for the Escort Redline 360c radar detector we installed.























Power & Subwoofer — Mosconi PRO 4/30 & 5/10 + Focal Utopia M SUB10WM

All of this gear is what we chose to displace the spare tire in the Macan. The Utopia M 10" sub was the prime choice to complement the Elate woofers in the front doors. Since they'll be playing quite low already, we needed a subwoofer that would really handle the lowest of notes with good control. Even in a sealed enclosure, the Focal doesn't disappoint. It's also an incredibly transparent subwoofer, meaning we don't hear any mechanical noise, only what's in the recording.



The enclosure for the subwoofer was build from 3/4" baltic birch and then upholstered in a black carpet. We designed and fabricated aluminum brackets that held the subwoofer securely to the car using the factory subwoofer's hardware points.























We carefully selected these two amplifiers as an appropriate pairing to the speakers we used. The Mosconi PRO 4/30 is a relatively new platform from the Italians and it's designed for unmatched resolution. The technology is Class-A Biased which is the car audio equivalent to home audio tube amplifiers. This type of amplifier topology is going to give us incredible warmth and body to the midrange as well as a higher sense of "air & sparkle" from the tweeters.



The 5/30 is just a high-quality Class-A/B workhorse. Two of its channels run the door woofers at 185w x2, the second two channels power the factory rear speakers at 95w x2 and the subwoofer channel gives us a confident 660w @4Ω — a very controlled subwoofer section with a superb damping factor at that impedance. Both amplifier were mounted forward of the subwoofer on a custom fabricated composite rack system. The rack allowed us to hide the wiring while still having quick access for any future service or diagnostics. The interconnects from the amps to the DSP were also custom made to length here at Musicar.



















Optimization — Final Test & Tuning

Once we have everything installed and tested, it's time to connect to the DSP and bring everything together!











That process starts by placing a calibrated microphone in the driver's seat at the listening position. This allows us to measure the response from each speaker and use the DSP to correct its inefficiencies. Once we have something close to what we call our "target curve" we sit in the car and do the rest of the tuning by ear. This, in total, takes anywhere from 2-6 hours depending on the system and how it responds to the tuning.











Hi I have the focal sub and looking for custom box to install where did you have yours made thank you