# BMW E46 330ci Install



## jvr826 (Jan 8, 2010)

I've been busy reworking the sound system in my 2005 BMW 330ci and thought I'd share some of the design decisions and work I've done, not that there is anything spectacular here, but maybe someone will benefit from some of my approach.

*History*
I ordered this car new with factory navigation and the Harmon Kardon sound system which was standard equipment on the coupes. It was decent and I lived with it for about a year before I got around to installing equipment I've had in two previous cars.

Originally I installed a/d/s/ 335is 2-way component speakers in the front doors with the tweeters in the stock midrange location (next to the door handle) and mid-bass in the stock location mounted to the door card. I had a 10" DVC sub in a sealed box in the trunk and all was powered by an a/d/s/ P840 amp. The equipment board was under the floor in the spare tire well, unvented and no cooling fans. 

This system suffered from a few problems. The first was a lack of midbass in the doors. I never could get a good blend with the sub and it just sounded poor. The second problem was a lack of subbass mainly due to lack of power to the 10" sub. I had four channels of the P840 bridged to send 120w to each coil separately for a total of 240 watts... it wasn't enough. The third problem was lack of ventilation for the air coold amp. The first legthy road trip I took with the car resulted in a total amp melt-down one hour from my destiation which was 6-7 hours away from home. The return drive was tune-less, but the sweet music of the 3.0l I6 was entertaining... if not a little lacking in variety as I traversed the unteresting California I5. 

*Enter version 2.0*
Since I fried my amp and had a few other issues to deal with I revamped the system. I used the same front components, but this time I cut a hole in the door shell behind the speaker location, fashioned baffles out of MDF and sealed the baffle to the door with non hardening modeling clay. I purchased an Image Dynamice IDQ12 D4v.2 sub, built a new box for it, and replaced the P840 amp with a DLS Ultimate A5. The midbass improved greatly as did the sub bass. This was fairly decent for a couple of years, but something changed and the front stage became harsh, shrill, and lacked midbass and midrange which made me not even want to listen to it anymore. I deduced that something had gone wrong with the tweeters after 10 years of use in three different cars. The midbass disappearance was another puzzle.

*Enter Version 2.5*
I decided I had to do something with my system or I was just going to rip it all out and go back to the H/K stuff. I started looking into component sets and was pretty set on DLS until I found a post by Scott Buwalda offering a sizeable discount on some demo sets of Hybrid Audio Technologies Claris and since another member at E46Fanatics had installed a set of these in his M3 (dumptyhumpty here too) I knew they would fit. I corresponded with Scott and had a demo set on the way to me at a considerable savings over the DLS system I was looking for including a full year of warranty and trade-up value assurance.

Since I was going with a 6.5" mid-bass vs a 5.25, new baffles were needed. I used solid oak and MDF to make these new baffles. The MDF was used for a 1/2" thick ring largely because I had it around and didn't have access to 1/2" oak so I improvised.

I cut the rings with a Japser jig, but it wasn't an easy thing to do (at first) mainly because when I purchased the jig I asked the guy at Woodcraft to get me a router bit that would work well on the solid oak. He recommended a spiral bit and I was off to work on the rings. I fussed with the setup to get the perfect size ring testing out on some 3/4" MDF and I wasn't getting a very smooth cut from that bit. It took me several tries before I gave up on it and went with a straight fluted bit I had from some previous projects, this worked much better.

Here you see the spiral bit result vs the fluted bit result. Both are solid oak and the front ring shows the rough cut of the spiral bit. It chewed up the oak pretty badly no matter how many passes I did, but the straight bit produced a smooth cut with just two passes. 










Once I figured it out I made four rings: two were 3/4" solid oak, two were 1/2" MDF. I also cut a 1/4" thick ring out of masonite to be used to simulate the thickness of the speaker rim to help determine the thickness required to mount the driver with the proper depth. I ended up with a 2" thick baffle/ring setup and just enough space between the grille and the driver, perfect!










*Making the baffle*
Since I had done this before and all the hassle of aligning the baffle with the door and card was already done, I used the old baffle as a template for the new ones. The main benefit was size and position of the mounting holes which saved a lot of time.

My approach for aligning the rings worked really well. First I had to shave all the plastic from inside the door card to allow the 6.5" driver to fit properly. This required me to cut one of the mounting posts for the factory speaker completely off, then using my dremel I shaved down as much of the remaining plastic as I could. 










I mounted the baffle to the door...










Assembled the rings together with blue painters tape and stuffed them into the door card with double sided tape on the baffle side...





















I reinstalled the door card with the rings in place and they stuck to the baffle for perfect alignment...










I then used the rings to draw cut/alignment lines on the baffle, cut out the hole, glued everything up and the speaker mount was ready to go. I also made an additional support which I glued in place.


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## jvr826 (Jan 8, 2010)

*Deadening the door*
I didn't do this before and since I was going for it, I loaded each door with RaamMat BXT II...

Original weather seal removed...










Since I demolished the weather seal I had to close up the access holes in the door. I purchased some galvanized screen, cut to fit and screwed in place with self tapping screws. To cushion the vibrations I applied deadener to the perimeter where the screen would be mounted.










I didn't want to make a mess of the window motor, so I sealed it up with heavy plastic and duct tape...










I then continued with the BXT II and covered everything up to seal the door shell.










Completed baffle mounted to the door. 










This photo shows how I stuffed closed cell foam into the areas to fill the uneven surface of the door and seal the baffle to it. This provided support for more deadner to make the seal air tight.



















Midbass mounted...










Door covered in Ensolite...










I decided to mount the tweeters to the sail panel using the surface mount cups that came with the speakers. They're off axis due to the natural angle of the sail panel, tho I'm not sure I'm going to keep them like this or not. I need to live with them like this for a few weeks and decide later if this will stick or not. The first change I may make is to angle them so they fire straight at each other using an angled shim behind them, but will decide later on after some heavy listening.


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## jvr826 (Jan 8, 2010)

*Trunk Work*
I interface to the factory wiring harness using an old factory amp that I dismantled and used terminal strips to make the wiring connections. I hand rolled twisted pair wires for pre-amp in and speaker out and created one massive cable of eight pairs that is fished under the equipment board to the spare tire well. Since I have a space saver spare, there is room under neath for the wiring and connections.

Why did I do it this way? My car is dual purpose. I use it for transportation, but also I participate in autocross and high performance driving events that take place at road courses around California. As such, I wanted to be able to remove the entire system from the trunk when I'm thrashing the car at driving events.

In the previous incarnation I had molex connectors and had to remove the rca plugs form the amp as well as some other stuff that made removal and reinstall easier, but not easy enough. This time I beefed up the connectors for pre-amp and speaker and used 8-pot Deutch connectors. These are really easy to work with and really easy to plug and unplug and they're very durable and heavy duty and weather tight, but that's secondary.

You crimp the contact on the wire, then stuff the contact thru the weather seal. Each contact clicks into it's position in the connector, then a retaining clip holds everything together. This allows you to take the connector apart without demolishing it like a standard molex connector would be. 




























Cannibalized amp, terminal strips, cable...










I made a new equipment board out of 1/2" MDF and covered it with carpet from Parts Express (item #260-767) which I think matches the trunk panels pretty well. Reviewing build logs here made me go overboard on the wiring appearance on this equipment board that no one will ever see, but it does look neat and tidy! 










Well, this isn't the finished appearance... the obviously out of place cables will be routed thru the under-side access cut-outs and everything closed up. More to come...

*Next steps*
I have some more plans for the trunk. I purchased heavy-duty break-away power connectors to allow me to unplug the power/gnd in one step. This will make quick removal of the board easier yet. I've got to get more 4ga cable to make this work.

I need to make a new trunk floor to reposition the cooling fans now that I've resituated the amplifier. 

I also need to find a solution for the remote amp control module up front. I had originally intended to mount it in the ash tray, but it's not deep enough. I also want to run wiring for an LED connected to the fans so I know when they are running.


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## ErinH (Feb 14, 2007)

I like the use of the deutsch connectors. I had wanted to use those myself, but they're a bit expensive.

Nice work so far. Looks pretty clean.


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

I'm curious about your use of the "cannibalized" factory amp. Before I saw the picture I was under the assumption you were trying to avoid cutting the factory wires, but from the pic it looks like the ins and outs are both cut where they feed the terminal strips. Or am I looking at it wrong?

Jay


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## jvr826 (Jan 8, 2010)

bikinpunk said:


> I like the use of the deutsch connectors. I had wanted to use those myself, but they're a bit expensive.
> 
> Nice work so far. Looks pretty clean.


Thanks. I bought the deutch connectors from this e-bay seller...

eBay Store - ProwireUSA:

They were $12.95 for a matching pair including a couple extra pins/contacts and I used two sets of them. Not too bad for the quality compared to garden variety molex available at Radio Shack.



JayinMI said:


> I'm curious about your use of the "cannibalized" factory amp. Before I saw the picture I was under the assumption you were trying to avoid cutting the factory wires, but from the pic it looks like the ins and outs are both cut where they feed the terminal strips. Or am I looking at it wrong?
> 
> Jay


You're right and I didn't mention this, but yes, I cannibalized the junk amp to avoid cutting the factory harness. The terminal strips interface to some connectors on a circuit board under the cooling fins on the factory amp, then I connected my 16ga hand-rolled twisted pair to the terminal strips. 










Not the best picture but I think you can see the solid core wire I used to go from the terminal strip to the pin connectors that remained on the circuit board in the amp. The runs are very short and the gauge of wire I used is the same as the pins that once went into these connectors, but...

I'm thinking this may be a problem area in my system after spending a few hours today setting gains, adjusting tweeter levels on the passive crossovers, and listening, listening, and more listening. I'm just not getting enough midbass up front and the tweeters seem to be overpowering the music.

With all the reviews I read about these speakers and their massive midbass, some people even saying they had removed their sub because they got enough bass up front, I'm left puzzled as to why I'm not getting the same kind of bass up front in my car. I'm pretty sure I've done everything right with the deadner and baffle. One variable may be that the hole behind the speaker is not a full 6.5", but it's about 80% of that I'd guess.

My next step is going to get some speaker wire and running a line directly from the passive crossover to the midbass driver and seeing if it makes a difference. The cannibalized amp is the only unknown at this point because of how I connected to it. The wire in the car is adequate at 16ga for the mid-bass drivers, but if there is something on the cannibal connector introducing a filter or other issue, I'll know by bypassing it.

I also have a gain level setting issue which I think dummptyhummpty has also and that is a lot of hiss IF the gains are set properly. I played a 1KHz test tone with the speakers disconnected and the volume level at about 80%, then adjusted the gain for the front speakers until I had 18.4v output which is the correct setting for 85w into 4 ohms. To achieve this the gain knob was almost at about 5 o'clock, which is almost maxed out. That just doesn't seem right to me at all... it seems way too high.

With the gain adjusted for a no-hiss situation, it's somewhere around 9 0'clock which is just barely up from it's lowest setting and I get about 2v measured at the speaker output from the amp which seems way too low.

I'm probably avoiding the obvious... bi-amp with an active crossover and time delay. Oi vey! I sure hope I can dial it in without having to spend even more money!


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## BlueAc (May 19, 2007)

Everything looks clean... good job. One question, what's your impression of the Hybrid's??? I picked up a set from Scott too, but I haven't had them installed yet.


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## bertholomey (Dec 27, 2007)

I really like what you have done - I have had similar experiences with my E46. 

I really hope you can get the mid bass issue sorted out - I have heard extremely good things about those HAT drivers. I really like the baffles that you made - there wasn't a pic of the door card on - can I assume that they fit on over the driver? 

I have my tweets mounted behind the factory sails and they have worked pretty well for me. I'm interested to see the rest of the build.


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## jvr826 (Jan 8, 2010)

I'm going to reserve comment on the Clarus until I have sorted out my mid-bass (and potentially other) issues. I don't think my problems are the fault of the speakers since I had similar issues with the previous speaker set.

Yes, the mid-bass fit in the door without removal of the grille. I believe there is a fraction of an inch of space between the driver and the back-side of the grille given the method I used to align the rings on my baffle... the thickness of the double-side tape was enough to bottom out the ring on the door card with the 1/4" spacer in place. 

I have closed cell foam on the driver lip to seal it against the grille.


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## SSCustoms (Oct 16, 2008)

Have you accidentally wired one of the midbass drivers out of phase? This would account for the lack of midbass output. It is easy to do, but also easy to test. Try setting your balance all the way to the left or right and seeing if the performance increases.


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## jvr826 (Jan 8, 2010)

I've experimented with the phase on both woofers and tweeters. 

I had a balance/fader issue and once I put my LOC back into the equation, that went away. That cleaned up the sound too. It's not pretty, will have to hide it maybe.

I have verified all of my connections on my cannibal amp and everything is as it should be. Those little components on the circuit board I was concerned about are a non-issue. They are tiny little blocks used to solder to pins together on the board that are too far apart for solder alone. They are a non-issue.

I did more listening today after working thru all that and I have found some source material that will play some thumping bass out of my doors. I had corresponded with Scott Buwalda this morning and he suggested I may have a tunnel thing going on with the way I've mounted my speakers. My mount is 2" thick and about 5 13/16 inside diameter all the way back. The magnets on the Clarus midbass drivers are really big, so I think Scott may have a point. I may need to figure out a way to get more air space.

The quest for more midbass continues...


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## dummptyhummpty (Feb 4, 2006)

I've finally had some time to read over this. Great job so far! I really like the use of those connecters and it was smart to mount the tweeters the way you did. I never thought about doing that!



jvr826 said:


> I'm thinking this may be a problem area in my system after spending a few hours today setting gains, adjusting tweeter levels on the passive crossovers, and listening, listening, and more listening. I'm just not getting enough midbass up front and the tweeters seem to be overpowering the music.


This was the issue I had until I removed my Scosche LOC. Though, I still think there should be more midbass.



SSCustoms said:


> Have you accidentally wired one of the midbass drivers out of phase? This would account for the lack of midbass output. It is easy to do, but also easy to test. Try setting your balance all the way to the left or right and seeing if the performance increases.


Oddly enough, on my car, I actually get more midbass with one of the woofers out of phase ... strange.


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## GlasSman (Nov 14, 2006)

Not sure what the deal is with that spiral bit.

The ones I use cut smooth as butter.

Stay away from Woodcraft for bits.

Find a good supplier of Amana bits in your local area.

Step up to Whiteside when you want the _*absolute best*_.


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## GlasSman (Nov 14, 2006)

One more thing......did you get an *up spiral* or a _*down spiral*_?


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## jvr826 (Jan 8, 2010)

GlasSman said:


> One more thing......did you get an *up spiral* or a _*down spiral*_?


Whiteside... check.

Spiral up... check.










Crappy "my first router" quality router... check. I have a Craftsman from 15 years ago. Not the easiest to adjust, but it spins.


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## ErinH (Feb 14, 2007)

jvr826 said:


> Thanks. I bought the deutch connectors from this e-bay seller...
> 
> eBay Store - ProwireUSA:
> 
> They were $12.95 for a matching pair including a couple extra pins/contacts and I used two sets of them. Not too bad for the quality compared to garden variety molex available at Radio Shack.


Thank you for that link! 

I need to keep these in mind for the next build.


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## jvr826 (Jan 8, 2010)

OK, so I have done some tests and still get crap midbass...

1) I connected the midbass to the amp directly, no crossover, no filter, no difference in sound.

2) I swapped my DLS A5 for my a/d/s/ P840 tested both with and without the crossover, same deal, barely any midbass. That rules out an amp problem.

Having corresponded with Scott at HAT about the problem, he suggests it's a tunnel effect preventing the woofer from seeing air space behind it. I took the door apart again and here's what I've got...










Photo 1: This is the existing cutout in the door shell. The blue tape outlines the approximate hole in the baffle that the speaker sits in. As you can see, the hole in the door shell is pretty small. With the magnet being 4" in diameter and that hole being about 1/4" from the magnet, there's barely any airspace seen by the woofer. That hole is about 5" wide, 3.75" tall at it's tallest point.










Photo 2: Hard picture to take, but you see there's about 1" of space around the magnet. I think I can chamfer it some without compromising the integrity of the glue joints, at least on the top-most (back side) 3/4" of oak baffle.










Photo 3: Profile view of the baffle and woofer. With the existing hole in the door shell so small and curved around that woofer magnet, basically there's nowhere for the rearward sound wave to go.

So, given the above, seems opening the hole up more should resolve these issues I'm having, or at least help. Above photos are of the driver door. 

The passenger door looks like shyte too now that I look at it again.










Bigger hole = problem solved?


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## Meanmachine (Jan 19, 2009)

1.-Cut the metal door panel again and do the hole bigger.
I think the hole marked with blue tape could be ok

2.- Perhaps the problem is the gap between the baffle and the metal door panel.
Put some modelling clay and you check it

if the sound is better, you can fill it with Fiberglass Reinforced Filler as i did.


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## jvr826 (Jan 8, 2010)

Thanks meanmachine. I sealed the baffle to the door with sound deadener previously, but may use body filler this time or combo of both. The rearward seal was good.

I learned when I took the door apart that the light-duty weather stripping I had between the speaker and the door card wasn't thick enough to seal the woofer to the card, so I have a thicker and firmer version to put in there this time.

Off to the garage...


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## niceguy (Mar 12, 2006)

Looking good so far....I keep wanting to get a router but always put if off...you're giving me some ideas for my brother's '01 540....


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## jvr826 (Jan 8, 2010)

niceguy said:


> Looking good so far....I keep wanting to get a router but always put if off...you're giving me some ideas for my brother's '01 540....


I've done two E39's, so much easier than the E46! Sail panel location for the tweets is already there, just load them in the stock location... built-in enclosure in the door cavity for the mid-bass drivers up front... little to no fabrication needed... definitely nowhere near what the E46 requires.

I'm making progress on redoing the driver door. I have the hole in the shell cut out much bigger now. I'm also making new baffles. After studying meanmachine's baffle design more closely, and putting a level on mine, the midbass drivers were actually pointing down towards the floor a little. I've got them angled like his are and they are now plumb. I just don't have the space with those big-ass magnets to angle them up any more. This angle correction should help.

Off to the autoparts store for some duraglass...


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## Meanmachine (Jan 19, 2009)

jvr829,

I suggest you put more points to secure the baffle to the door panel.
5 total avoid vibrations.
Use M6 screws + nuts, as I have done.


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## Meanmachine (Jan 19, 2009)

i also will open the hole of the passenger and driver side side ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡

Driver side:









Passenger side:


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## jvr826 (Jan 8, 2010)

Ok kids, the results are in, and all I can say is WOW! Cutting the holes bigger and adjusting the angle of the woofer was the ticket to copious amounts of mid-bass up front. I now have "mid-bass out the wazoo" to quote Scott at HAT.

Here's how the mounts look now. They don't look any different from this angle now that I look at the pics, but I neglected to take side-view pics. Suffice it to say, they are similar to the ones meanmachine is building, but not as meticulous. I angled the woofers so they are plumb when the door is closed... prior they were pointing down. I also added another screwdown point that isn't visible in the pics. They are solid and sealed up very well.

Driver side...








You'll notice the hole in the door now is as big as the hole in the baffle allowing the woofer to see much more air space behind it.

Mounted with closed cell foam to seal the woofer to the mount...









I also installed closed cell foam around the perimeter of the speaker location in the door card to seal the woofer to the card. This is a step I didn't do previously. I have absolutely zero rattles in the doors, none, nada, nil!










Passenger side...


















The tweeters blend way better now since the mids are producing the level of sound they should be. On certain tracks I found them a little bright, so I reversed the phase on both of them and that toned them down. I definitely need to work on where they are aimed as the natural angle of the sail panel is not ideal. But, that location with proper angling should allow me to position the sound stage so it surrounds me. The tweeters image very well, so getting it right should not be too hard to figure out.

Now that I have that _bass out the wazoo_ up front I can blend the sub effortlessly. Slight adjustments to it's volume fills in where the doors lack and it hits like it's behind the climate control. The variable phase adjustment allows you to position it perfectly. I've been following the install in an E36 M3 here and this guy commented that deadening the trunk lid improved that further. I have more BXT left so I will do this too. 

I took the car out last night and really enjoyed the entertainment. When I got home I found myself sitting in the garage tabbing thru my iPod song after song at loud volumes. Before I knew it it was 2:30am and I had to force myself to go to bed. My expectations have been met and exceeded. Even Sirius sounds great!! It lacks a little on the factory solution, but these speakers bring it alive.

I did not go active... I'm using my DLS amp with the passive crossovers. I could see improvement changing that up or getting a processor to tune the system to the interior. We'll see how 2010 treats me work-wise and maybe I'll add to the system. 

Now that I have it to a point where I can listen to it, we'll see how long it takes me to finish the trunk work. I had fun working with the bondo so I may do more fabrication on the sail panels once I figure out the correct angling of the tweeters.

The door fabrication was a lot of work, but hopefully now that I've worked thru it and realized massive gains as a result, other E46 owners who go for the Clarus speakers will find this thread and be able to do it right the first time.


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## Meanmachine (Jan 19, 2009)

Congratulations, well done ''''''''''''


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## jvr826 (Jan 8, 2010)

Thanks man!


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## 12v Electronics (Jun 1, 2008)

Looks great! I am glad you got it figured out. Those woofers thrive on airspace. 

Sorry I did not get back to your PM sooner. I was out of town on vacation.

Cheers,
Tom


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## jvr826 (Jan 8, 2010)

No worries Tom. Thanks for taking a look!


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## rcurley55 (Jul 6, 2005)

This is giving me inspiration to dig into my doors again - I need to rebuild the mounts and cut the doors open more to provide more airspace.

Good to know the Clarus fit


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## benny z (Mar 17, 2008)

looks very nice. i've been running clarus passive in my wife's car for about a year and a half - about to bi-amp them and run the entire system actively. will report back on how this changes the system.


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## Reach (May 12, 2008)

Just posting to say thank you for this writeup. I'm going to be setting up my E46 M3 soon and these pics and info was exactly what I needed. I'm talking to Scott about some Clarus components as well!


Now I need to figure out the baffle part. I have zero fabrication capability. I can cut the doors with reasonable certainty, but can anyone suggest what I should do about mounting them? I don't suppose jvr826 or Meanmachine want to sell me some baffles


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## ekim (Jul 17, 2008)

I bought some from Ernie at Sound Innovations in CA. Google them. Jr. made them. I have some similar issues as on here that I suspect will go away when I do some more works. They can send you the pictures. Mine is a '06 M3 with Focal K2P's. Im sure you will fit these peakers in there.


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## bertholomey (Dec 27, 2007)

Reach said:


> Just posting to say thank you for this writeup. I'm going to be setting up my E46 M3 soon and these pics and info was exactly what I needed. I'm talking to Scott about some Clarus components as well!
> 
> 
> Now I need to figure out the baffle part. I have zero fabrication capability. I can cut the doors with reasonable certainty, but can anyone suggest what I should do about mounting them? I don't suppose jvr826 or Meanmachine want to sell me some baffles


You should try to make it to our meet, there will be very knowlegeable folks there.
http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/12-volt-events-team-diyma/98366-central-nc-spring-meet-april-30th-may-1st.html


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## Reach (May 12, 2008)

ekim said:


> I bought some from Ernie at Sound Innovations in CA. Google them. Jr. made them. I have some similar issues as on here that I suspect will go away when I do some more works. They can send you the pictures. Mine is a '06 M3 with Focal K2P's. Im sure you will fit these peakers in there.


I've heard of other people talking about Sound Innovations before, but I never thought to call them as I'm on the other coast.

What types of issues are you having?

I have made a set of homemade baffles, but being my first try, they did not turn out very good. I'm unsure if I want to finish mounting them up, or buy more materials and try to make something a little smoother.


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## ekim (Jul 17, 2008)

Reach said:


> I've heard of other people talking about Sound Innovations before, but I never thought to call them as I'm on the other coast.
> 
> What types of issues are you having?
> 
> I have made a set of homemade baffles, but being my first try, they did not turn out very good. I'm unsure if I want to finish mounting them up, or buy more materials and try to make something a little smoother.


I am having some sound quality issues. Not getting the best midbass so I will tear the doors up a bit like in this thread and seal the baffles better to make sure I am maximizing the mids.


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