# BMW X5



## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Some of you may remember the build from my Audi S8, well that car got its use, and is now long gone.
It has been replaced with a 2006 BMW X5 4.8is. After looking at most of the sporty SUV's I found the perfect replacement an hour from me in New Hampshire. It was really love at first drive, this "truck" is a perfect vehicle for me! It pulls like the Audi, brakes and corners as well or better, and sounds like a mustang. the 4.8is model has a sport exhaust that you can hear coming without droning in the car, yes i like it.
Then comes the audio system, granted we are all audio guys, but its the worst system ever placed in a moving vehicle...no lie. There is no doubt to me that whoever designed this system got undercut by purchasing or some other department. The thought and design is way beyond what is delivered in the end. The only logical answer is it was designed for different speakers, because the end result flat out sucks. The front stage is a three way active with a piller tweets, dash mids and door midbass. The rear is two way active with mids and midbass. Subs, two dvc drivers in an ABS enclosure. yes 14 channels all active. To integrate with the factory system all that can be done is after the amp.
So to fix it.. There are plenty of people here that have got neck deep into replacing these systems. I refused to gut it. I really just wanted to add a sub. But...the fronts run 60 and up, the rears 40 and up, from 6" drivers no less. Then there was the power issue, there isnt any...thats the issue.
soo, what i need is to add a sub, change the crossover points for the front and rear midbass, and add some power. not too hard...Haaa
to start off my plan was to replace the factory enclosure with a "real" sub. The spot I chose for the amps didnt leave much height, and that damn all active thing . I purchased an A/D/S 2110 from here to drive the sub, the hight of the amp the biggest factor, that and with only a few 8 channel amps out there, it was the perfect match to the one i had available, an A/D/S 840.
2 channels to receive the stock crossed over signal for the front tweeters. 2 channels for the front mids, 2 channels for the front midbass and the last two for the rear midbass. the A/D/S crossovers allow me to move the highpass of the midbasses.
My good friend ShawnK from here helped me brainstorm every sub that would fit into the space constraints we had, then modeled all of them to find the best performer for my given wattage and space. The winner was the TC Sounds Epic 10.


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

here is the X5








Thanks to ShawnK again, cause he drove all the way down to cape cod to "help" buld the enclosure
















pay no mind to my buddy in the front, but thats the elusive ShawnK elbows deep right there


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

I spent hours testing and confirming the factory connections. I wanted to be able to "plug and play" so i purchased a molex kit, with male and female pins and plugs. i then built jumper harnesses to loop into and out of the A/D/S amps.
As a side note, I absolutely insisted that the A/D/S amps could handle the factory speaker levels on the RCA inputs, due to the ability to handle as much as 10 volts on its RCA's, Shawn disagreed, and i was soooo wrong, so a trip to get some LOC's was done mid install.

HAPPY SHAWN???


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)




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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

The amps reside in a small storage compartment below my hatch floor, above my spare tire. there is about 1" above the amps to allow for airflow, and they haven't over heated yet.


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

and this is the sub... the hole above is to access the fuse block, there will be a press fit cover for it, and there is a grille as well


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

more box in progress pics


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

and the A/D/S amps i got here


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

this is my other Audi and the BMW


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## oilman (Feb 21, 2012)

A man with a plan and love the amp choice.


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

And a big thanx to Bumpnzx3 for a great deal on the amps


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## shawnk (Jan 11, 2010)

Good times as always Charlie... and thanks for all of the DunkinDonuts!!


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## Mless5 (Aug 21, 2006)

Cool stuff, would love to hear it when you are done!

How come you have no "is" front bumper on that thing


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Mless5 said:


> Cool stuff, would love to hear it when you are done!


any time


Mless5 said:


> How come you have no "is" front bumper on that thing


?How do you mean? Its the stock is bumber? I thought it was just the grills that are different?








i know the rear bumper is different


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## AccordUno (Aug 7, 2009)

More Pictures/Info on the B5, sir.. Oh wait, it's about the X5 right.. darn..


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## chevyrider96 (Mar 5, 2010)

Nice box and great choice of amps


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## shawnk (Jan 11, 2010)

Yes... Charlie has a nice box indeed


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Thread revive!
So several things have changed with my "truck" and I wanted to keep this thread up to date.

Front dash and doors have been upgradede to tang widebanders and front doors are morel titanium series woofers.

Sub is a shawnk hand built driver in a ported enclosure

Amps are being swapped to orion hcca r's

Just ordered a kinetic battery and power cables to upgrade for the Orion's

Second skin is on the way for the front doors


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

For amps, right now I have a 225,250 and 275, but shawnk is grabbing me a 150, all hcca r's
Plan is for the 275 to be bridged for the sub, a single 1ohm VC
The 250 will run the front morels
The high current of the 150 will run the dash widebanders and the high voltage for rear fill.
That leaves the 225 which I will post in the fore sale here
Also still have an ads p440 and p2110


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

the HCCA R,S








The Morels:








these are in the dash right now








but also have these and might try to get them to fit
FaitalPRO 3FE22


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Sooo,
i ripped out the factory amp and changer, and installed a product called the "intravii", per recommendations by others here on diyma. The factory system in this BMW is made by Alpine, so this part converts Ai net to the factory system and allows me to use alpine product with the factory system. I then added a PXA-H100 and a KC420i ipod interface. i can control both pieces with the factory indash monitor, including eq, crossover and TE.
the processor is set for 3 way, and all drivers are active, with the widebanders running 600 and up, front doors are 80-600 and sub is 80 n down


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## optimaprime (Aug 16, 2007)

Freaking cool,man I love the moles kit where did you get it?


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

optimaprime said:


> Freaking cool,man I love the moles kit where did you get it?


What's a moles kit? Sorry


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

So guess what shawnk grabbed for me today!


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

optimaprime said:


> Freaking cool,man I love the moles kit where did you get it?


if you ment the morels it was here:
Morel TiW 634Ft Titanium Series Ferrite 6" Woofer 4 Ohm | 297-100


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## shawnk (Jan 11, 2010)

Here's the build of the custom sub 

The heart of the driver is from an old Ground Zero "Nuke". Even though this motor is over 20 years old now, she's still a beast! Triple stacked for great excursion and accepts a 3" coil. Ground Zero was definitely building drivers back then that were way ahead of their time... good stuff!



It was productive to update to a new 12 spoke frame (as apposed to the original 4 spoke) due to the extra venting provisions for the VC.





Shimming the VC to sit properly in the gap. The VC is a single 1ohm flat wound on an anodized aluminum former.





8" spider with dual woven leads. The cone is by TC Sounds. It's pure aluminum and features their patented "j" roll surround for excellent excursion capabilities.


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## shawnk (Jan 11, 2010)

And all finished up:


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

nismofan said:


> Hi,
> Just loves to drive Nismo 370Z. Equipped with 350 HP, and powerful 3.7L V6 engine, one can accelerate the speed on his hand. The new look designed and launched in 2014 Auto Show is just awesome. Take a look at red color Nismo. Other features of this car are climate control which is fully automatic with intelligent Nissan Key. Also, it is fitted with Bose Audio systems which is an added feature of the car. But the most attractive part is its design.
> 
> Nismofan


Ok,...good, thanks


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Today's delivery:$250 delivered from sonic


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## shawnk (Jan 11, 2010)

Don't hurt yourself with that thing:laugh:


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## Frequency (Nov 29, 2011)

optimaprime said:


> Freaking cool,man I love the moles kit where did you get it?





capea4 said:


> if you ment the morels it was here:
> Morel TiW 634Ft Titanium Series Ferrite 6" Woofer 4 Ohm | 297-100


I think maybe he meant the Molex kit you used for the jumper harness


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## BassnTruck (May 27, 2010)

nismofan said:


> Hi,
> Nismofan


Spam, REPORTED.


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Frequency said:


> I think maybe he meant the Molex kit you used for the jumper harness


Ahhh, 
you do it electronics, Needham ma

It was a kit for like $50


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

ok progress:
got my wood delivery today, two sheets of 1" and one sheet of 1/2" MDF
too bad it was the only delivery i got, I was expecting all the amp plugs Friday, and the wiring from woofers etc today, neither showed.
But it was too late, i already tore the back end of the truck out, so on i went.
first thing first, needed some temp shop audio, so i grabbed some parts hanging around.


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

next i gutted the back end of the truck for a clean slate









I started by getting the new Kinetik battery in place









and started mocking up a floor


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## shawnk (Jan 11, 2010)

I spy.....


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

It took a bit of time to get the floor "settled" into place, but got it down and bolted to factory locations with factory hardware









It took a ton of grinding to clear the uneven floor, but was necessary to get a good flat base-plate for everything else to mount to









right about now is when i found out none of the parts were coming


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

By clearing out this area, i needed to move the compressor for the factory air suspension, i ended up stuffing it over to the side and built a plate to hold it.
I used the factory bolts and rubber isolators to mount it. and the factory wires and hoses reached. again i bolted with all factory locations.


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Then I had to grind it out to fit the factory trim panels, but got it to fit right


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

And then the scramble..

there was no way i wasn't going to have tunes, so I threw some gear in, the ADS 4 channel for midbass and widebanders, and the 250 HCCA for the sub, bridged at 1 ohm, used the fuse block I plan to keep, and just screwed things down for now.









Shawnk and I had built a huge ported box a while ago to play with his home brewed sub so I used it again for now


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Sorry for crappy pics guys, it was my IPHONE covered in dust

car sounds good, it always did, but i really cant wait for the rest of this "stage" to be done
Shawn is coming Friday so hopefully the ass end will get some major work next weekend


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

shawnk said:


> I spy.....


Yes, that would be your B&K REF 50 right there, its in my "test bench"


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## shawnk (Jan 11, 2010)

capea4 said:


> Sorry for crappy pics guys, it was my IPHONE covered in dust
> 
> car sounds good, it always did, but i really cant wait for the rest of this "stage" to be done
> *Shawn is coming Friday so hopefully the ass end will get some major work next weekend*


Dude! WTF!! 



:laugh:


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Don't be scared buddy! Got get that ass workin...


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Soo, comments? Concerns, ideas?
I have no idea how I'm gonna fit all three amps and the sub in the floor, it's been modeled to work in a 1 cube sealed, witch is where I'm going to go, just to fit all of this.
I really don't think there is a way to display all the amps in the floor, so right now I believe the 250 will be buried and the 150 and 275 will be seen.

Damn these old school Orion's are huge


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Tuff crowd


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Second skin order arrived today!

This is the extent of my deadening plans for this install


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

Shawn,

Do you have any idea what the enclosure requirements will be like beforehand when building a sub like this, or do you build it to take abuse and then put it in a box and hope for the best?

I seem to see a lot more "custom" subs showing up on the scene, and was curious. Or do you just build it and throw a WT3 on it or something?

Sweet sub for sure.

Jay


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## shawnk (Jan 11, 2010)

JayinMI said:


> Shawn,
> 
> Do you have any idea what the enclosure requirements will be like beforehand when building a sub like this, or do you build it to take abuse and then put it in a box and hope for the best?
> 
> ...


Hi Jay,

Well there are "some" guidelines you can use to "somewhat" tailor how a driver might perform. For instance, you can choose to use a single spider instead of dual spiders to keep compliance high and Fs low. Now the trade off/detriment is the possibility of less stability of the VC when driven with high power, but the advantage is again, high compliance, lower Fs, and improved efficiency.
But that's the world of designing speakers really.... it's all about compromises and trade offs  

That's just one example. There are countless variables that, as a custom builder, you may or may not be able to work with. The nice thing is, there are more and more parts being made available to the DiY guys so that helps.

So after the driver is built and a good burn in, yes, I definitely throw it on the WT3 to get at least a rough estimate of TS parameters. Finally, model it in WinISD for ideas on the enclosure.

I don't know if that really answered anything for you but hope so


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

Makes sense. I wasn't sure how much was effort and how much was luck. lol

Jay


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## shawnk (Jan 11, 2010)

*NEW SUB HERE: http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...y-favorite-custom-built-date.html#post2052281*


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## shawnk (Jan 11, 2010)

Update??

Anyway. Just thought I'd give you guys a heads-up.... Be on the lookout for these little buggers... they tend to eat 1600w amps for breakfast!


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

shawnk said:


> Update??
> 
> Anyway. Just thought I'd give you guys a heads-up.... Be on the lookout for these little buggers... they tend to eat 1600w amps for breakfast!


You bastard!

Wow under the bus there


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## shawnk (Jan 11, 2010)

:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

to update:
we pulled the front doors an applied sound deadening to them









Shot of the Morel midbass in the factory speaker mount that was then deadend

















Shawn came down to the cape to oversee the build of the sub enclosure and amp rack, problem was i got super sick and was useless, so he did most of the work. my buddy Artie did the deadening work and i just watched.
We moved shawns hand built sub from a larger ported enclosure to a 1 cube sealed, it didnt turn out so well, but more on that in a bit.


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

One of the major issues was fitting everything into the area we allocated for the system. The orion HCCA amps are huge and we had to fit three. It was discussed many times and even changed during the build we ended up with the 250r that runs the front mid-basses buried under the 150r and 275r, with the 150r at a slight angle back and slightly under the 275, did i mention these are big?
we had to mount the amps on threaded rods to hold them at the different heights.
in this pic we had the 150r level, but canted it after some experimentation. 








but it turned out well


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

The floor was at the same height as the factory panel, but is made of 1" MDF so its about a 1/2" higher. We then made an insert to trim around the sub, and a press fit cover for the amps.
The floor was wrapped in heavy carpet, and the trim panel with alcantara.









Thats when **** hit the fan....

i only ordered three fuses from woofersetc, and the 275 required 2 4 gauge power and grounds, so I rigged a piece of romex as a jumper for one side of it, I did it after the fuse so it would still be fused....but SOMETHING let go,
could have been the sub not liking the enclosure, the 275r having a previous issue, my rigged fuse jumper, or the fact that i only turned up one gain on a bridged amp,
No matter what it let go and took out half the 275r and the sub

whoops, sorry shawn


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

So..
Shawn took the amp home, and we kinda destroyed most of the sub for fun, it was pretty bad ass.
after a week or two i got a new, shawnk hand made sub and the 275r back and got to here


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

i still need to make a grill for the sub, and have tons of tweaking to do, but its a good start dont you think?


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

wtf happened to my pics?, is there a rotate feature?
hmmm, let me fix this

Done.


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Sooo,
Do you like it? Hate it? Wanna hear it?


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## Black Rain (Feb 27, 2011)

I likes that set up alot myself. I'm thinking about taking your concept and using it on my cousins X5. He's been asking me to come up with something clean and space saver, but trying to figure things out without having the truck makes it a bit difficult. 

So if its alright, Ima steal your instill idea....lol.


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Black Rain said:


> I likes that set up alot myself. I'm thinking about taking your concept and using it on my cousins X5. He's been asking me to come up with something clean and space saver, but trying to figure things out without having the truck makes it a bit difficult.
> 
> So if its alright, Ima steal your instill idea....lol.


Feel free, the factory system sux to work with...FYI


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## edouble101 (Dec 9, 2010)

Install looks tits. I'd love to hear it. Shawn told me he is impressed with that single sub setup.


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

edouble101 said:


> Install looks tits. I'd love to hear it. Shawn told me he is impressed with that single sub setup.


It gets it's workout, got a ton of old school A/B power on it


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## edouble101 (Dec 9, 2010)

capea4 said:


> It gets it's workout, got a ton of old school A/B power on it


I love old school amps. I'll be running a plethora of ZPA's


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

edouble101 said:


> I love old school amps. I'll be running a plethora of ZPA's


So that was your 0.3 with its guts all over his workbench?


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## BlueAc (May 19, 2007)

capea4 said:


> Sooo,
> Do you like it? Hate it? Wanna hear it?


Nice work... How are the Morels? I've been considering getting some.


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Those are...ok, I think they would be happier in a sealed enclosure and not infinite baffle.


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

im not going to lie, i was really confused when you both started talking about doing the install. i didnt know who was doing what - then i realized you were both working on it... you guys better hurry up on this, because shawn has to move down here to hang out with me. lol

its looking great though, and im liking the bmw too. i didnt know they had factory air bags too!

that amp rack is a tight squeeze! how are the midranges installed in the dash? factory locations?


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

req said:


> im not going to lie, i was really confused when you both started talking about doing the install. i didnt know who was doing what - then i realized you were both working on it... you guys better hurry up on this, because shawn has to move down here to hang out with me. lol
> 
> its looking great though, and im liking the bmw too. i didnt know they had factory air bags too!
> 
> that amp rack is a tight squeeze! how are the midranges installed in the dash? factory locations?


I guess I could see that, thing is I've known him for 17 years now. Anything having to do with audio Is almost always both of us. The S8 was a fluke because he wanted to surprise me. 

As for va, never gonna happen...we'll see

Mids are still the tb drivers and are in stock dash locations. I need to solve the 2k gap I have, so I might fire them back up, or find a tweet that can run that low.


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## shawnk (Jan 11, 2010)

capea4 said:


> I guess I could see that, thing is I've known him for 17 years now.


17? Ha.. your cutting that short! Try 18! I remember the first time meeting you when you were up to visit your mom. Damn... getting old!



capea4 said:


> As for va, never gonna happen...we'll see


Pay no mind to him Andy lol



capea4 said:


> Mids are still the tb drivers and are in stock dash locations. I need to solve the 2k gap I have, so I might fire them back up, or find a tweet that can run that low.


Meh.. the stock tweets sound better than the widebanders anyway!


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## wonner (Jan 29, 2014)

I'm lovin this project, especially those beautiful HCCAs!


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

shawnk said:


> 17? Ha.. your cutting that short! Try 18! I remember the first time meeting you when you were up to visit your mom. Damn... getting old!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I do, you were running radioshack 10 gauge through a fender gap and into the car through the door jamb


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## shawnk (Jan 11, 2010)

capea4 said:


> I do, you were running radioshack 10 gauge through a fender gap and into the car through the door jamb


:laugh:

yeah.. that was the *****!*

Actually now that I think of it. It might be more like 19-20yrs. Pretty sure I was like 16-17 tops when we met.


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Spent some more time on this, trying to solve stupid issues I have run into. Thing is I never really went into the signal chain in this build thread, so here it is. You might wanna draw this out, it helps to follow what I'm trying to explain.
The intravee allows me to control alpine products with the factory radio, it also inputs ainet audio to the factory system through the cd changer port. This is necessary for voice prompts from the factory nav, and Bluetooth audio to be overlaid on to the signal.
So audio from the alpine 420 iPod adaptor needs to go into the intravee for this overlay, then the audio comes from the factory radio speaker level, through a loc, then back into the pxa 100 to be processed then amplified. 
This needs three ainet connections, one for the 420 Dock, one for the intravee, and last for the pxa. What I had to do was cut ainet cables to build a sort of y adaptor.
All the ainet communication connects between the three devices must be paralleled for the control to work, but audio from the 420 dock needs to be split from the cable and sent directly to the audio connections of the intravee, then the overlay can happen. Coming out of the factory radio the audio goes through the loc, then line level back into the ainet cable input for the pxa.
Yes it's a huge mess, and I built it in a small hobby box. It just ruins the signal running through so many splices and the loc.
If I didn't do this I would not have tuner, from the factory radio, and voice from Bluetooth and nav, because the pxa100 only has one input.
But there are other alpine processors, and those have multiple inputs. My intravee will support automatic input switching for nav and Bluetooth. 
So I need a 701 with rux. Then the 420 can plug directly into the changer port, the intravee into the hu port and the input from the factory stereo into the aux 1. The intravee will send a source switch command to the 701 when ever nav and Bluetooth audio needs to be heard.
I also have the schematic for the factory stereo, so I can add line level to it, and skip the loc.
Anyone still follow?


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## shawnk (Jan 11, 2010)

I'll give you a dollar if anyone could actually follow any of that


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

But, I did make some progress,
I installed some alpine type X Reference tweeters, these are vifa xt25 family tweeters, and the snapped into the factory tweeter mounts like stock.
Boy they sounds nice. Unfortunately the signal sux, but that is the next challenge to overcome. That's what this is all about right? Overcoming challenges for a better result right?
I also used up the last of the second skin liner foam on my hatch panels. Had some rattling from them to silence.
The other thing I got was some dynamat. Not the mat you might expect, you see they also make some home products. They have a enclosure they build for in ceiling speakers. It's to help keep the audio from spreading to other rooms, and consists of a molded enclosure, and a piece of "sound snake"
It's a layer of vinyl mat in between two layers of some kind of foam. Anyway it's about 3" thick and filled some voids in my hatch really well. 
Also did some tweeking, by ear, no rta this time. And found some of the dip switch settings on the amps were wrong. Oops
Car sounds much better now.


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

shawnk said:


> I'll give you a dollar if anyone could actually follow any of that


I drew it out for you, so you explain it wise ass


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

capea4 said:


> I drew it out for you, so you explain it wise ass


Please?


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

This isn't over!

I replaced the signal chain disaster with an Alpine PXA-H800
Stole some bnib Pheonix Gold elite 6 seperates that might find their way in. 
Also working on some new amps. Just grabbed a helix A4 from the classifieds here, so watch for upcoming news.

I can just imagine everyone on the edge of their seats..


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Looking for advice on the next phase of f this project here:
http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...pment-my-car/166404-your-opinions-please.html


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## optimaprime (Aug 16, 2007)

**** ya man ! I like the old school Orion's but helix gives me audio boner like no other! Move forward with it ! Try out those PG's you stole . Shawnk does some really nice work. High five him for me.


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Thanks, but the helix isn't going to see any duty here. I think I may put it into my work truck to run some dynaudio mb's and Dayton tweets active. There an A/D/S p440 there now and it NEEDS power.
For this thing, I think I will put the ms-2125 on the mb's and a ms-275 for the tweets. That leaves a mps-2240 for either rear fill or 3way front.


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

And on it goes!
Today I ripped out the Orion's and started the rack for the new amps. I recently purchased some phoenix gold ms amps bnib, and sent them to shawnk for a makeover. All of them got new main caps to avoid any fires in the back of my car,but also some slight upgrades. The bass boost circuits were bypassed, the wet caps in the audio path were upgraded and so were the op amps. For now I am going to run the ms2125 on the front mids and one of the ms275 for the tweets. I also grabbed earlier this summer an audison voce uno for sub duties.
Well I took some rough measurements and started to try and cram all of this into the allotted area









As you can tell it was never going to fit together, so I built a two tier rack












And it didn't fit....so I tore it apart. I have to bury the audison, I just can't show them all.
This time I built a shelf for the phonix amps and distro blocks.










This is how it sits tonight, nothing working yet but at least there is a plan...


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

So today I ripped apart the amp rack....again, but this time to wrap it. I forgot I still had the cloth used for the sub trim ring, so it looks better, but there is a part of the sub enclosure that can be seen, so that will need some too.
I also got a base tune into the pxa, this time I did it "long hand" rather than the auto tune built into the alpine, and it already sounds better. 
One thing I havnt been able to make work is my blutooth. I purchased the rocketfish blutooth module and a power converter for it. The plan is use the fiber output into the pxa and use its D/A's, but I can get the opt input to activate on the pxa? I think it has something to do with my ainet path.
Well, on to the pics










Audison amp all nestled and hidden.


















It's alive! Too bad the phoenix dd10 cant be seen when the floor is down


















Getting things flattened out









1/12 resolution looks like hell, but that is too fine to use anyway









Whole lotta crap running at the same time, but I was hitting 110 db with pink Floyd. Lol


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## shawnk (Jan 11, 2010)

Noticing any difference between the amps yet?


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

shawnk said:


> Noticing any difference between the amps yet?


It sounds better, but that's more fixing the tune than the amps, amps sound the same, or pretty damn close to it. Just a gain block, and both companies do pretty well with that. Power wise I think it's close to the same as well, but the size difference, these phonix are half the size.
They are prettier though, bass stays forward more, I think I can push it a bit harder. Midbass is definatly different, the 2125 does a better job of controlling the driver at hi excursion than the orion did. The sub stays perfectly clean till mechanical noise starts, but I only did that once for fun.

The tune originally was wrong, ohh so wrong, with the right front midbass out of phase really screwing things up.


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Right now I have all the crossovers at a 36db slope, tweets are 2.2k up, mids 71-2.2 and sub 71 down. There is a nasty hole at 400 and another at 2k, the mids are "funneled" by the door panel, and I think that's why there is low output in the 1.6-2k range....the new xbl tweets will help fix that when they finally show.


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Some cool pics of the amp mods...

New op amps had to be socketed

















New input caps on all of the amps









Out with the old









In with the new


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

"This build sucks"
F u charlie


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## shawnk (Jan 11, 2010)

Crickets


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

shawnk said:


> Crickets


Well then,
Thanks for the great job on those amps. I am very excited to have them.


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

I guess I should have bought Mosconi amps and processor. That and a illusion 12.


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## teldzc1 (Oct 9, 2009)

Actually following this build. PG MS amps were my wet dream in high school. What kind of opamps and caps did you guys switch to?


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

teldzc1 said:


> Actually following this build. PG MS amps were my wet dream in high school. What kind of opamps and caps did you guys switch to?


Why thank you sir, and I also wished many nights for these, hence why I went through all this.

The answer I have to your question....not a clue, that's what shawnk is for..lol


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## shawnk (Jan 11, 2010)

Op amps are Analog Devices (OP275). They're pretty much my "go to" for a quick and headache-free upgrade. I haven't run into a problem yet with oscillation. Audio grade caps are Elna Silmics  

Filter caps are Panasonic HF. A couple of the amps already had new input caps installed, but I wanted to make them all match (and the previous caps had many cold solder joints so that had to be fixed anyway )

The two 275's got new beefier rail caps (because it looks cool )


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## Mic10is (Aug 20, 2007)

shawnk said:


> Op amps are Analog Devices (OP275). They're pretty much my "go to" for a quick and headache-free upgrade. I haven't run into a problem yet with oscillation. Audio grade caps are Elna Silmics
> 
> Filter caps are Panasonic HF. A couple of the amps already had new input caps installed, but I wanted to make them all match (and the previous caps had many cold solder joints so that had to be fixed anyway )
> 
> The two 275's got new beefier rail caps (because it looks cool )


OP275 are nice, especially for a sub amp. check out the 5532 for a really easy upgrade, its what comes stock in the old ID amps and the Arc SE and many Mosconi amps and processor.
for an upgrade my favorite is the LM4562


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## shawnk (Jan 11, 2010)

Mic10is said:


> OP275 are nice, especially for a sub amp. check out the 5532 for a really easy upgrade, its what comes stock in the old ID amps and the Arc SE and many Mosconi amps and processor.
> for an upgrade my favorite is the LM4562


I see the 5532 in many of the better amps out there. I usually don't touch those. Although I have swapped those for the AD OP275's for clients before, and they preferred the AD. I guess it depends on your flavor 

I'll have to play with the LM4562 sometime. I'd be a little concerned with it's high GBP. Sometimes high freq op amps can have oscillation problems if the rest of the circuitry wasn't designed for it.


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## teldzc1 (Oct 9, 2009)

Not messing around with the parts selection. I love it.


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

teldzc1 said:


> Not messing around with the parts selection. I love it.


Thanks, but the funny thing is that's exactly what I am doing....just messing around.


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## edouble101 (Dec 9, 2010)

Love this PG amps. I'd have to of shown off the gold boards though.


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

edouble101 said:


> Love this PG amps. I'd have to of shown off the gold boards though.


O deffinatly, and will, I planned this rack to be able to flip them over.
I really needed to get the Orion's out so thati can get them sold, so I rushed this.


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## shawnk (Jan 11, 2010)

edouble101 said:


> Love this PG amps. I'd have to of shown off the gold boards though.


One of those 275's came fro you Eric


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

It's been a good day!
Thanks to Richard over on the Intravii forum, I has able to upload new firmware into the Intravii that activate my optical port!
Now I have music that is on my phone over Bluetooth aptx, going into my pxa over optical and through the D/A's. Sound improvement.....a little!
I then reset the h800 crossover and eq curves.
For all you super smart tuning guys, I would love any pointers you have.
Pics to follow


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Thanks RichardP!









RTA at 1/3 resolution









And current eq settings


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Also you may notice, I call it my rta response, but it clearly states I am using FFT, not sure if it is the "best" way of looking at the response, but I was looking to meter the actual sound without the reflections, and FFT would be the one to use. I can't controll my reflections, well I could but then I wouldn't be able to drive sooo.
I also jumped back and forth between rta and FFT. There, in my case wasn't much difference between the two, so the reflections are so short in time they are not messing the rta up, or so long in time the rta isn't adding them, witch I doubt


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

This is something strange though.... As you can see on my FFT response, the sub is several db hotter rolling into the midbass, wanna see what that took in eq!










Wow.....so there is a couple of things here...either the transfer function of the x5 is very very low...the sub cone is too heavy, or........fill in the blanks guys, where did my 65 go?


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

So I drive about 2 hours each way to work, and everything seemed great. Last night on the way home I thought the sub went out but it was barely noticeable. Thought maybe it was the song that was playing, but it was true, no bass....
I thought maybe the audison overheated, not that it should have broken a sweat with it current settings so I gave it time, and just enjoyed the fronts, but it never came back.
Called shawn to wine and cry about it, and something hit us both. It's got a 100 amp fuse. How does an amp rated to something stupid like 1700 watts run on 100 amps?
Anyway the main fuse block fuse was fine, so I have to dig in there and see what happened.

100 amp? Could audison be way overrating this thing....likely huh?


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Ok got it, popped the 100 amp fuse in the amp...
So why? Fuse to small? Audison says the amp at wot pulls 120


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

and I'm still playing with this. I got Nicks new 6.5" XBL mids under my bed, waiting for Marcs XBL tweets to finally ship. I went neo for the subs and they will be shawnk specials....again


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)




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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Sometimes I think I'm not writing in English


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## teldzc1 (Oct 9, 2009)

What the hell are those subs? Look awesome!


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## shawnk (Jan 11, 2010)

teldzc1 said:


> What the hell are those subs? Look awesome!


Hand built one-offs 

TC neo motors, custom powder coated TC frames, 8 layer voice coil, dual 10" inverted spiders, ultra strong cone w/ultra high roll surround, carbon fiber dust cap. 

Will do 3" stroke p-p


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## edouble101 (Dec 9, 2010)

I am anxious to hear how these sound!


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## Black Rain (Feb 27, 2011)

What size enclosure is that going to be in and what are you pushing it with? Looks pretty [email protected]$$.


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Shawn hasn't gotten the specs from them yet. They need to be bed in first. I have an audison voce uno right now, and the subs are dual 1 ohm vcs


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## sinister-kustoms (Jul 22, 2009)

capea4 said:


>


Nice dude! I'm doing custom builds myself, so can definitely appreciate the work gone in to these!


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## shawnk (Jan 11, 2010)

Should work well in small sealed or med. vented. Hoping so anyway


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Build log ends here, I traded the BMW in today. Thanks everyone, but it's on to the next.


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## teldzc1 (Oct 9, 2009)

Cool, what did you get?


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

Mercedes ML350

Starting all over again...


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## 0nbagz (Oct 7, 2014)

Ml350 good platform for a new build keen too see what you do with it!


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## Old Skewl (May 30, 2011)

Oh no! You went over to the dark side

J/K! Good luck with your new venture. I think I'm going to pick up a PXA-H701/c700 combo to give your optical Bluetooth trick a try. Thanks again for the info.


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