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Mar 24 2017 08:42pm
Hey folks, planning out an audio setup for my roadster (I did an audio setup in my old acura, but she's behind us - i've got a new project now). I'll fill out the little questionnaire, then you'll see my current thoughts; if you could just input how you feel about certain things I did/chose/advise me, that'd be wonderful. Thanks :)


1: What is the Year, Make, and Model of the vehicle: 1996, BMW, Z3
2: What is your budget? I'd probably do this over 3-4 paychecks (ie: Upgrade a little every 2 weeks). Budget is probably 1k-1.2k max. Labor will be done by me, so no labor costs necessary. This budget accounts for parts + wiring, accessories, etc. If it's slightly over, that's okay - but im trying to keep it within that reasonable range.
3: What exactly do you want your outcome to be? (Good sounding music, or loud bass?) Good sounding music at loud volumes, with bass that can keep up without sounding like shit - the bass doesnt need to be anything crazy though; if that makes sense.
Basically: I like to listen to my music pretty loud..especially when the top is down. Bass is important, but quality at loud volumes is MOST important to me.
4: And specific sub sizes that you prefer more than others? Yes, I can do 2x 12in or 1x 15in (I'll explain later on)
5: How much trunk space do you want to use up? I don't plan on using trunk space (explained later on) - edit: added an exception*
6: What type of features are you looking for in a CD Player (aka Head Unit)? (Ex: USB, AUX, BlueTooth, etc) I have a head unit already, but for the sake of humor: USB, AUX, Bluetooth (I have a microphone setup atm which I use to receive calls on..even though I barely use it due to wind sounds with top down LOL)
7: What type of music do you listen to? Everything from "She Will Be Loved" by Maroon 5, to "Tremor" by Dimitri Vegas, to typical top 50 pop shit.
8: Is your stock stereo system amplified? (You may or may not know this) LOL no - scrapping everything, for good reason :P
9: Do you have Steering Wheel Controls? (Volume/Seek on the steering wheel) no



pic is not mine, my interior is red/black
The storage area (where the arrows are pointing) has been removed to make room for this project, and anther one I'm working on.. the entire row (from the shelf up) is available for any audio/enclosure.


blue is front speakers are
pink is where head unit is
green would be planned area for 2x smaller subs (they can be upward facing, or be placed lower and face into back of seat) OR 2x rear speakers could be fitted here.
red would be planned area for 1x large sub, upward or forward facing.

*Exception: I'd be willing to add 2 subs in the trunk, fitted in a position similar to shown below: - I need to be able to access my tailights though, so idk how this sort of setup works.



Current thoughts are on these items:
front speakers: Alpine SPR-10TW
Small sub option: Jensen DUBw12 x2
Rear speaker option: Ifinity Primus PR6500cs
Larger sub option: Kicker CompC 44CWCD154
head unit: ????????
amp: 4 channel is my thought for speakers..not sure what's needed here though, and I know this is the most important part for me (I needed a lot of guidance on selecting an amp for my last project)


If you're able to recommend any parts with similar performance but cheaper costs, that'd be awesome too :P


..Thank you in advance for any help/recommendations/clarifications/teachings/advice/etc :hug:

This post was edited by Textbook on Mar 24 2017 08:54pm
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Mar 24 2017 09:20pm
about the subwoofer locations. i don't know enough about these cars to understand the kind of spaces you are dealing with.

on the subwoofer option...no jensen! lols. as far as the kicker goes....theres way better options out there if you have that much air space/mounting depth to work with.

as far as options go...this is impossible to do before knowing what you are doing for the enclosure.

the rear speakers..you doing custom mounting for these? i'm having trouble figuring out where speakers mount in these aside from the areas you pointed out that house tweeters.

you'll be doing a 4 channel amplifier for the front speakers and a mono amp for the subwoofer. can't get around to picking these until we find the speakers you are going to use for sure.

https://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_69551_Kicker-CompRT-TCWRT82-40TCWRT82.html

does something like this fit your needs better than doing custom work?

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Mar 24 2017 09:26pm
Quote (Subwoofer @ Mar 24 2017 10:20pm)
about the subwoofer locations. i don't know enough about these cars to understand the kind of spaces you are dealing with.

on the subwoofer option...no jensen! lols. as far as the kicker goes....theres way better options out there if you have that much air space/mounting depth to work with.

as far as options go...this is impossible to do before knowing what you are doing for the enclosure.

the rear speakers..you doing custom mounting for these? i'm having trouble figuring out where speakers mount in these aside from the areas you pointed out that house tweeters.

you'll be doing a 4 channel amplifier for the front speakers and a mono amp for the subwoofer. can't get around to picking these until we find the speakers you are going to use for sure.

https://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_69551_Kicker-CompRT-TCWRT82-40TCWRT82.html

does something like this fit your needs better than doing custom work?


Hey thanks for the help/looking into this - i'll try to answer concerns bit by bit:

Space I'm dealing with (without directly measuring, which I can do tomorrow morning) is like 5 feet wide, by 1.5 feet length, by 3feet deep (depth, down) APPROXIMATELY. Like I said, can get exact shape + measurements + custom pics tomorrow for you :)

Rear speakers I did plan on doing custom mounting - I did some research via google and it didn't seem overly hard (but let's be real here, I'm prone to fucking shit like that up). But yes, that was the plan (I figured rear speakers are kind of necessary since my fronts are so damn small). Besides, I could use that whole back area forspeakers and put the subs in the trunk (as long as they fit in my trunk, which I will also get the dimensions for tomorrow AM).

As for that compact sub enclosure, it might! My question would be, given the general, vague idea of my car you have at the moment .. would it be better to do speakers where the arrows are in the pic and the sub in the trunk? Or forgo rear speakers and put the sub(s) where the arrows are?
I guess in order to move forward, I'm asking are rear speakers necessary here? I figured they would be to keep sound balanced, and especially given the size constraint of front speakers (and wanting to play music loudly).


Thanks again for your help mate :)
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Mar 24 2017 09:28pm
This is what I removed from behind my seats :




So imagine that much room + a little extra is available now (use middle length as dimension, since I never have my seats all the way back + leaned back).




Will measure tomorrow for 100% accuracy though :)

This post was edited by Textbook on Mar 24 2017 09:29pm
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Mar 24 2017 09:50pm
okay that helps alot. just trying to get a general idea atm.

as far as this piece you removed. are you at all interesting in modifying it internally to keep the finish? cutting out the interior bits and hiding a subwoofer box shouldn't be too difficult if you want to go that route.

as far as your front speakers go i'd probably just modify the door panels with new holes and just mount speakers that way. basically just cutting a circle with a drill and screwing the speaker into the door panel.

now if you are wanting to go full custom work and not reuse that storage box shell then i'd probably do this with the rear space:

mount a good single subwoofer in the middle, and amplifier racks/rear speaker mounts on each side of it. so behind each seat you'd have a speaker and an amplifier and a subwoofer in the middle.

unless you just wanna easy mode this i'd forget about the shallow sub i linked earlier. i just had to put it out there if this was going to be a hard place to put a full size subwoofer.


the rear speaker question: while they aren't necessary it's not exactly a big deal to add them and you can just do midwoofers if you wanted. if you have the extra space it never hurts to have more speakers especially given the open air environment you are listening in because its a convertible.



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Mar 25 2017 11:25am
Okay I ran my errands, and I'm about to head down to do some work on the car. Will be taking measurements while I'm down there.

As far as the piece that I removed goes, it was damaged and I rarely used it anyway (it's made for storage; like a second glove compartment). So I had no plans on keeping it - was just going to remove it and do something that looked nice (custom wise).

As for front speakers (custom) in door panel.. would this be in addition to replacing the little speakers/tweeks at the top that I circled? (so 4 speakers in front, total).

Let me go get those dimensions and finish some work I was doing, and we can talk about what can fit in the back behind the seats, in terms of sub/speakers/amp/box (or enclosure) etc :)

Thank you again so much for the help :hug:
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Mar 25 2017 11:48am
https://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_112223_Infinity-Reference-REF-6520cx.html

i'll be suggesting components so you will definitely need to make a spot in the door panel for the midwoofer and it's up to you what to do with the tweeter.

you can use the factory slot or simply make a new spot in the door panel like you will be doing for the midwoofer.
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Mar 25 2017 01:36pm
Quote (Subwoofer @ Mar 25 2017 12:48pm)
https://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_112223_Infinity-Reference-REF-6520cx.html

i'll be suggesting components so you will definitely need to make a spot in the door panel for the midwoofer and it's up to you what to do with the tweeter.

you can use the factory slot or simply make a new spot in the door panel like you will be doing for the midwoofer.


wow that seems like a pretty solid price point too. Sweet.
Just got back from working on car/taking pics, uploading now and will post.

Youre da best !
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Mar 25 2017 01:51pm
album: http://imgur.com/a/zRt5x


as well as my awesome paint skills:



The red area represents a POTENTIAL area of use for something - though there is not much room to work with unless I remove that padding (which will give an extra 2 inches or so)
Blue is area that I measured (blue lines are meant to represent slope .. lol)
You could have a speaker be mounted in that slope I'd imagine, if you think that'd help. Or a sub.

As for door panel, should be an easy project - no worries there. Will make new spot for midwoofer and use existing spot for tweeter (will probably need to make small modifications)

This post was edited by Textbook on Mar 25 2017 01:55pm
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Mar 25 2017 03:33pm
http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/rftech/box_wizard.asp

will give us a general idea of how much air space you have to work with.

the next step is finding out which side of the box will be best to mount the subwoofer on given the subwoofers depth and mounting diameter.

from your pics it seems there are some angled surfaces that will interfere with it sitting perfectly flat. the easiest way to figure out the rest of your box is to have the bottom board in there to give you a flat surface to measure off of.

once you know what the bottom board measurements are you can simply measure how tall it can be from that point and you'll have the specs for a basic rectangle box.

after you have the box specs worked out you'll need to find out the air space and top mount depth(how deep it is for the subwoofer) and we can start looking at subwoofer options.


as for the red areas i'd probably just build amplifier mounting spots in that area. mounting them on the subwoofer box itself has a number of drawbacks which are best to avoid.

rear speakers are completely up to you but imo you can forgo them for now for simplicity sake and simply see if a set of amplifier components is enough before worrying about adding more.


now for that middle sloped area i'd just leave it alone for now and focus on a simplier square/rectangle box design rather than trying to build a T shaped box.


that turned into a text wall quick lols

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