Motors The great "BMW Audio Install" malarky thingymajig...

The time has come to start blending high quality audio into my lovely new BMW M Roadster... when I installed systems in my other cars I tried to do it all at once, and its at these times when something goes wrong. This time I'm building it up one step at a time, I don't have a suitable headunit and won't have for a while now, so it gives me ample time for the best install possible.

On with the pics! So what does this first pic show? It shows the boot of the car stripped. Because of a number of reasons, an M Roadster doesn't come with a spare tyre. Instead you get the "M Mobility" kit which includes a repair foam and a compressor. In the image below you can see the battery panel. Ideal.. my battery will be right next to the amp

Where you can see the light cluster you can see I'm measuring up the hole for my Amp. Its in this hole where the car comes with a formed plastic piece designed for the Jack and Wheel Wrench, but as the M Doesn't have a spare, you don't get these with the car. So the Plastic form is wasting ample stealth space! You will see in a later pic that I didn't mount the amp in this way, it would have meant chopping the corner off the amp for clearance!!
In the hole in the right you can also see a vent which allows air to escape the boot as you close the lid. These will be ideal for ventilation for the amp.

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Pic 2... I'm glueing a piece of wood behind the boot trim with 4 cable ties stuck to it... why?
So I can attach the Active Crossover to the other side. The 4 Cable ties will be used to manage the cables as they come through the trim.

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Mounted! This will be the only visible item to the install.. well, visible when you open the boot! The cables at the top are the High Freq and Low Freq going out to the amp. They loop through the trim and through the cableties at the top of the piece of wood above. I've not finished here because it still needs input and power (next job)

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The shiny metal bit below has been PopRiveted to the car, a hole was drilled ONLY after I made sure there was nothing behind it. Once the hole was drilled it was sealed with a little bit of paint to stop rust. Whats the bracket for....?

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The AMP! Hidden in the old wasted space!

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You can see how the amp has slided into the space available, heat won't be an issue because of the ventilation, also the Amp doesn't run hot now, when I had Passive crossovers it used to be red hot to overcome the power sunk by the old Passive units. When the floor panel of the boot is put back in place the battery cover and the side of the boot keep the cover from touching the amp. Although I may use some plexi to make a cover, just in case.

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Tune in next time for more install!

 

Looking good so far... I was thinking about doing some sound stuff but the first thing I am going to get is a flip up dvd player then ill do more.

 

Are you doing any noise dampening? Specs!

What kind of music are you designing this for? I assume since your in the UK then this is a 6v install not 12v. SHould be interesting to watch. Nice stealth so far.

 

Noise dampening will be going around the 6.5" units going up into the front of the car, mainly to stop rattle behind the speaker, but in this sort of car, there's not much point deadening anything else!

UK Cars havn't been 6v for a long long time, so its a good old 12v install

 

I like it so far but it dosen't seem like it will be all that thumping. What kid of amp is that and what kind of subs are you getting?

It was neet how the amp fit in that little compartment.

 

Hahar, do not underestimate the powers of a quality setup

The amp is rated @ 55w per channel (RMS) but genesis amps are greatly understated. Whats important to remember that its a pure, clean 55w. Any Sony headunit can state 55w per channel!!!!11ONE but in reality its nowhere near.

Couple this, with the fact that each tweeter will be getting a channel each, makes the high notes very lively, and earbleedingly painful at full volume. The 6.5" Midbass speakers in their own sealed space kick aplenty, I had them installed in the spider, literally blows your trousers around. The problem with convertibles, is the fact that between the boot and the cabin, there's a petrol tank and the roof-fold space, rendering boot mounted subs useless, and the boots are small anyway. So thats why it's important to go for quality units up front. Trust me, if you heard the setup when it was in the spider, you'd be pleasently supprised

 

what phat said, genesis makes lovely stuff, and very understated
its like comparing a "£40 OMG l33t 4500watt multimedia speaker system" with a pair of *real* 100w speakers, there simply is no comparison

a mate of mine had a big old phoenix gold stereo amp and a pair of phoenix gold monoblocks powering some proper top-rate speakers, at a show some chav was like "awww maeeete, ive got like 5000 watts in my novaaa, that aint sh** maeeete". My mate invited him to sit in the car and then cranked it and ruptured all of his internal organs (ok well maybe not all of them, but at least his spleen)

A cheap-ass couple of 12" subs dont make a sound system sound good you know

 

Nice tidy install there.

In my car ive a got a Genesis Profile 4 and Profile Sub controlled by a 4XS, There under the floor in my boot, and they only get slighlty warm after a long drive.

 

Sweet, did you ever run Passive Crossovers? Blimey the amp used to get red hot, so much so that it used to be like having a heated seat in the spider!

 

I am new to the world of car audio so pardon my ignorance.

Secondly, I just picked up to 12" L7's for my new car. I have to wait to buy anything else because I ran out of cash.

 

JL W7's?

Nice, get them into a proper sized box, and feed them with a nice clean signal. Don't go for some Sony Xplod pap, if you troddle along to www.talkaudio.co.uk there's a forum there with great information. But be careful, word your fist post carefully! They do have a tendancy to be all high and mighty and flame people who ask stuff like...

Will my Sony amp run 10,000,000 6x9s?

 

I havent actually seen how hot it gets without passive xovers , as i only got around to connecting the 4XS up a few weeks ago.
But i can say the profile 4 with passive xovers was hotter than the p sub, but i dident think it was hot enough to worry about.

 

I agree that a good install witha pair of 6's can be thumping. I have a 6.5 in a proted box in the back of my Caddy and it thumps pleanty. Granted I would love to replace it witha sealed 12 or 15 but I don't have the room or time. My problem is that the 6.5 is connected to a Sony 150W amp bridged to momo and it keeps destroying the sub. I can't understand it. Last time it happened, it shut down the entire car while I was driving. The electrical system reset and a cloud of white smoke came pouring out of the truck. Horrible smell that takes forever to go away.

More pics please!

 

Check that your amp has a PERFECT ground. As a rule, the ground cable should be equal, or larger than all power cables going in.

No more pics till I get on to the next stage!

 

I got it mixed up between the W7 and the L7 (I had originally planned to get W7's but the L7's sound better). I recently bought two 12" L7's.

I checked out that forum and registered. I hope to learn a lot from the members there.

 

I was being sarcastic. What happens is that the speaker hyper-extends and gets stuck. Naturally, the coil starts to burn and poof, white smoke and horrible smell.

PICS PICS PICS. What can I say I am a voyeur. I used to subscribe to Auto Sound and Security before it turned to all adds, but I loved to see the installs. I was always more impressed with "clean" installs rather than pure SPL installs. Anyone can stick 20 subs in the back of a mini van, but fitting 1000w and 4 15" subs in a BMW Z, VW Bug or Mini takes talent.