# Utilitarian SQ build in an Uberwagon - 05 E55AMG - Morel, Audiomobile, Mosconi



## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

Hey guys,

just got done with one of my personal favorite cars of all time...as you know, i love wagons, especially fast ones, and it doesnt get much faster than this: a 2005 Mercedes E55 AMG wagon with quite a bit of engine mods..."over 700hp and torque" is what the owner told me, and after driving it from SF back tot he shop, i have to say hes not lying...

oh..umm..so back to the goals for the build:

1. Maintain a stealthy apperance throughout the interior and cargo area
2. achieve a decent level of sound quality given the above restriction
3. integrate as much storage space in the cargo hold (car came without a spare tire)

lets gets started:

the signal starts with a Pioneer X8500BHS double din unit, installed via the metra european imported kit. i also integrated a mosconi remote bass knob next to his shifter:










the car uses a Mosconi 4to6 DSP processor, so all tuning can be done from the front seat via a BT enabled laptop:










one lil mod i made to the car was to remote the stock cd changer, located behind a flip up panel. since the oem headunit was removed, this is now a useless chunk of metal. so what i did was to first remove it from the factory rack:










then i build a matching cubby pocket out of 1/4" mdf:



















then i flocked the inside and the front of the pocket so it would resemble an OEM finish (such as whats found inside the glovebox)




















and bolted it back in place using OEM hardware, and now its a hidden storage compartment. Since the stock swing mechanism operates off the can network, i pull the motor so it is a manual operation. just a lil extra touch 










I also installed a backup camera:



















it is a pioneer BC6 that i installed onto the factory chrome trim piece on the tail gate:










the cable passes through a hole that is sealed with black silicone caulk, and then ziptied all the way down the tailgate, a second wire is soldered to the factory reverse lamp cable and also run next to the camera cable, this wire is the reverse signal sensor wire for hte headunit:





































eventually it passes into the cabin into the headliner via a factory tube:










moving onto the front stage, which consists a pair of Morel Eliate MW6 midbasses, and a set of MT250 tweeters. all int he doors and stock locations. So first, two pairs of speaker wires were run into each door:










next, it follows the stock wiring bundle and comes out of the door via the stock location:










because the mercedes door is already heavily sound proofed, i did not add additional sound proofing to it, instead, i laid down 7 blackhole tiles on the outter door skin to help reduce resonance and backwaves:










and then the Morel MW6 went in, fitting the stock mounting solution perfectly  a lil bit of sound proofing went on the oem plastic:



















the same procedure was used on the passenger side:





































onto the front tweeters. the customer wanted stealthy but still achieve a high level of SQ. the A pillars were discussed, but since there are a ton of stuff hardware stuffed in them, it would have resulted in a very bulging A pillar, so that plan went away. instead, what we did was to mold the stock sail panel location, aim the tweeters a bit more on axis so it doesnt reflect directly off the instrument cluster shroud, and also not pointed downward. here are the finished result: dyed with SEM:









































































i really do love the lotus grille they have put onto this tweeter...this being my first experience with the new redesigned MT250. a few build pics of the tweeter pods.

first, the stock sailes were removed and tweeters taken out:










then, i attached the Morel flush mounting cups to them, trimming out the panel so the tweeter can go in as much as possible, aimed and CA glued:










next, mold cloth was pulled on the shape, resin applied, allowed to harden and then sanded down to the desired shape:










then body filler was applied and the whole thing blended in smoothly, but i forgot to take a picture of them. 

then, they were primered, textured, and sprayed with SEM:



















the tweeter grilles were also SEM paintede to match:










and finally, the tweeters were installed:



















a final look at them from the back seat:


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

with the most optical amp in this car, we needed to replace the rear speakers so they can get a lil bit of sound when carrying passengers. so we ran a set of spekaer wires from the headunit to the rear door:










put a blackhole tile behind the speaker, and installed a set of Illusion Audio Electra E6 coaxials in the stock location:














































next comes a series of wiring pics that show the bundle going from the front to the rear of vehicle. being that this is a late model euro car with a rear battery, my focus was to avoid the passenger side of the car as much as possible. to that end the only wire going down the passenger side was the rear passenger door sepaker wire powering off the headunit. everything else, including the front passenger speaker wires, were routed to the driver side. i also stuffed the new bundle into the factory wiring conduits, which is hard to get a picture of and i have to hold it open to show em...so these pics may not be very clear about whats going on haha
































































and in the back, it is routed around the factory amp/nav changer rack and down into the spare tire well area:


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

moving onto the cargo hatch area...all AMG wagons never came with spare, so we had a big well to work with. however, the customer wanted to retain as much storage area as possible under the floor as it was entirely used for that purpose before hand. so here ist he normal view and as you can see, a completely stock looking cargo area:










lift up the back floor cover and here is what you see, a storage bin that measures about 28 inches x 9 inches x 7 inches for him to stow bigger stuff in. 



















flip up the front door, it reveals a shallower space for him to things like towels, a small kit etc with a cutout for the subs:










here are the two doors flipped open at the same time:










As you may have noticed, the storage well had a seam down the center of the floor, that is because it is made up of two press fit grille pieces. they have to be two pieces because of the top floor's slightly smaller opening. lift those out of the way, and you see two Mosconi AS amps, stacked one on top of the other. a AS200.4 powers the front stage with 4x200 watts, while a 200.2 sitting on top sends 1000 watts to the subs:










lift off the front grille and two Audiomobile elite 2210s reside there










both the amp well and the subs are trimmed in black vinyl, i removed the rear cargo door so we can get a better look at the entire thing:
































































and once again with all the covers in place showing the storage utility space:




























lets get onto the build pics. first, here is the entire floor stripped naked:










I then trimmed the factory carpet liner so that only the top portion remains. i then also sound proofed the entire floor of the well:










then, i made a fiberglass mold of the front portion of the well where the sub enclosure will be:










when that cured, it was pulled out of the car and trimmed to the desired shape:










a top and back was secured in place, and then a second tier enclosure was mated to it, forming a total sealed enclosure of around a cubic foot:




























next, two 1/4-20 rivet nuts were installed into the floor and the sub enclosure securely bolted to the car:



















then, two more 1/4-20 rivet nuts were installed on the back floor, and a foundational support board was bolted in place:


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

then, i made the amp rack, which comes together in 4 pieces, the sides are open at the bottom., this servers two functions, one is to allow air circulation from the amp's air outlets at the sides, and the other is that it allows me to slide the big amp from side to side to reach all the control adjustments without affecting the top amp, once both amps are in place:




























these pices were then wrapped in black vinyl and secured togehter, the cutout on the back wall is to allow wire to pass through:














































then i made a spacer piece and wrapped that invinyl, the back side of the support leg is curved so the AS200.4's remote wire can be plugged in:





































then, the bottom amp, the 200.4 was laid in the well, and wired up:










then the spacer was secured in place above the amp:










and then the 200.4 secured and the entire amp rack wired up:




























then i built the storage bin, before and after carpeting:














































and here is the main top floor cover panel before and after carpeting:





































here are the vented grilles before and after carpeting:




























and this is the lil rack i made up to attach the power.ground d blocks and fuse holder, it is attached to the factory battery via indsutrial strength velcro:










and finally, a shot of everything naked, showing all the wiring configurations. note that the Mosconi 4to6 is on the front driver side, with its own lil rack above it to house barrier strips. basically, any usable space was utlized to save as much room as possible for the storage areas























































so...thats it...how does it sound?

well, quite good, center is very nice and anchored in the middle about a 6 inches above the dash. midbass is good but once these badboys break in, they will get even better. the subs do a great job firing through a semi sealed floor. i was initially worried about rattles but both Joey and I were blown away when the bass came through clean and virtually devoid of rattles, even at high volumes. a pretty good testament to the build quality of mercedes. toanlity wise, its very balanced and as usual, i LOVE the morels. being that this is my first expereinece with the MT250s, i was REALLY impressed when i just set a foundation xover setting, and looked at them on my RTA. this is with NO EQ, and a 2500hz 24 db slope to start (it was later adjusted down to 2200), but just look at that curve. keep in mind they are not on axis, but more like 45-50 degress off axis in sails..wow! and my ears really confirmed just how great they sounded, nice detail yet very very butter smooth.










overall, i am very happy with this car, now the owner has a super fast sleeper wagon so he can travel at insane speeds while enjoying some good tunes 

until next time, cheers!

Bing


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## Coppertone (Oct 4, 2011)

Subscribed....


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## ginster6 (Aug 19, 2009)

I luv it......


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## mklett33 (Dec 7, 2009)

Awesome work! I reallik like how you guys do the amp racks, very simple and clean


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## [email protected] (Nov 7, 2010)

I really liked the way this car sounded, I wish I would have had more time to listen to it...


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## justicepool (Feb 5, 2011)

Nice, another AMG will be there soon! =)


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## knever3 (Mar 9, 2009)

Gotta love all those European car companies you work on. Ample false floor opportunities that you take full advantage of... with unintelligable exuberant results!!


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## optimaprime (Aug 16, 2007)

Very very nice . Man I wish I was closer so I could have you guys install my stuff


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## lostthumb (Dec 16, 2005)

Great job guys!


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## BlueAc (May 19, 2007)

optimaprime said:


> Very very nice . Man I wish I was closer so I could have you guys install my stuff


What he said!


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## casey (Dec 4, 2006)

jeez you guys do such clean installs and subtle changes to make it look oem


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## derrickm (Jul 9, 2009)

Wow!


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## [email protected] (Nov 7, 2010)

lostthumb said:


> Great job guys!


Really that should say "Great job Bing". All I did was spray the high build primer on the pods and paint them. Bing did all of this by himself!


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

you also lined up the subs...


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## JVD240 (Sep 7, 2009)

So 2 cu ft total for the subs? Any more info on those Audiomobiles? You guys seem quite confident in them.

AMG estate is one of my dream cars too!... but I'm intrigued by godzilla in the background too.


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## Jeff Smith ATL (Sep 11, 2012)

Hey guys great work as always. I have question as to why you came off the battery with 1/0 wire into an SHD822 fuse block, instead of an SHD820 fused distribution block fusing each amp individually? Eliminating the need to add the SQDB024 to spit the 1/0 back down to 2 individual 4 ga wires again?


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## [email protected] (Nov 7, 2010)

Jeff Smith ATL said:


> Hey guys great work as always. I have question as to why you came off the battery with 1/0 wire into an SHD822 fuse block, instead of an SHD820 fused distribution block fusing each amp individually? Eliminating the need to add the SQDB024 to spit the 1/0 back down to 2 individual 4 ga wires again?


hahaahaa.... That might have been discussed after the fact. I think that it comes out of habit, really. I think it is second nature for Bing to grab 2 distribution blocks. 99.9% of every install we do uses them. One of those things where after the fact you go, OH! :surprised:

Nice seeing you at Kfest, Jeff!


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## [email protected] (Nov 7, 2010)

JVD240 said:


> So 2 cu ft total for the subs? Any more info on those Audiomobiles? You guys seem quite confident in them.
> 
> AMG estate is one of my dream cars too!... but I'm intrigued by godzilla in the background too.


We use a lot of the Audiomobile product. So far everything we have used has been very impressive.


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## Jeff Smith ATL (Sep 11, 2012)

Cool.... Good seeing you also @ Kfest Joey.


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

[email protected] said:


> hahaahaa.... That might have been discussed after the fact. I think that it comes out of habit, really. I think it is second nature for Bing to grab 2 distribution blocks. 99.9% of every install we do uses them. One of those things where after the fact you go, OH! :surprised:
> 
> Nice seeing you at Kfest, Jeff!



yeah pretty much exactly what he said...could have saved a few bucks


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

ces this year Jeff? Been missin ya brother!


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## shutmdown (Aug 24, 2008)

[email protected] said:


> I really liked the way this car sounded, I wish I would have had more time to listen to it...


i got a sneak peak of it a weekend ago and was dying to listen to it  
please let me know when you guys have another mosconi/morel combo install.
I am contemplating a switch from Zapco to either Audison or Mosconi


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## ginster6 (Aug 19, 2009)

shutmdown said:


> i got a sneak peak of it a weekend ago and was dying to listen to it
> please let me know when you guys have another mosconi/morel combo install.
> I am contemplating a switch from Zapco to either Audison or Mosconi


I give u a pm when after it breaks in.


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## Niebur3 (Jul 11, 2008)

simplicityinsound said:


>


Hey Bing, Did you measure the internal volume of that enclosure? It seems like it would be well short of 1ft^3 before the sub displacement (could be the angle of the pics though ). Also, did you do shared airspace?

Do you have any t/s parameters on these subs (I can't find a website for the company)?


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

I


Niebur3 said:


> Hey Bing, Did you measure the internal volume of that enclosure? It seems like it would be well short of 1ft^3 before the sub displacement (could be the angle of the pics though ). Also, did you do shared airspace?
> 
> Do you have any t/s parameters on these subs (I can't find a website for the company)?


Its a rough estimate but the top part is roughly 21.5 x 10x 6.5 internal which is roughly is .75ish net..the bottom part I figure is roughly .2 to .25. Common chamber. 

Specs is in the manual not sure if their site is up yet

the way i estimated when i built the box is that i just assumed that the box is a square from top to bottom, and not count the extra little part that is wider than the top portion. so basically, the entire thing is roughly 10.5" tall, so lets take a more conservative estimate and its 21x9.5x9.5
that gives me a total internal net volume of 1.1ft^3, to me thats about what i needed to get out of it and built it from there, knowing that the blackhole stuff can compensate a lil bit too 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2


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## Niebur3 (Jul 11, 2008)

simplicityinsound said:


> I
> 
> Its a rough estimate but the top part is roughly 21.5 x 10x 6.5 internal which is roughly is .75ish net..the bottom part I figure is roughly .2 to .25. Common chamber.
> 
> ...


Oh, I thought it was 1ft^3 per side. So, 1.1ft^3 total make much more sense.


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

Niebur3 said:


> Oh, I thought it was 1ft^3 per side. So, 1.1ft^3 total make much more sense.


I prolly wont be doing a lot of stealth installs w 10s that require cubicfoot sealed 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2


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## Frequency (Nov 29, 2011)

There's a word I don't see enough in car audio - "Utilitarian" 

Looking nice as always!


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## shutmdown (Aug 24, 2008)

ginster6 said:


> I give u a pm when after it breaks in.


awesome. thanks look forward to it!


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## Blue Chip (Dec 29, 2008)

Sorry to revive an old thread. 
Beautiful install Bing! 
I'm planning to upgrade the Harman Kardon system in the same car and I wanted to ask why didn't you use the stock sub location on the right side of the trunk?


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

Blue Chip said:


> Sorry to revive an old thread.
> Beautiful install Bing!
> I'm planning to upgrade the Harman Kardon system in the same car and I wanted to ask why didn't you use the stock sub location on the right side of the trunk?


the customer wanted more bass than what that can do.


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