# Mercedes Benz s550 & Rainbow Audio. German excellence.



## Octave (Dec 12, 2010)

Nish brought in his s550 to Octave looking to do a sheik package. The package starts with a subwoofer upgrade provided by Rainbow Audio. Rainbow Audio known for it's fine German engineering was the logical choice to compliment the s550.










The audio source starts at the OEM subwoofer. Connections were soldered and heat shrunk.










Signal wire ran to where an Audio Control LC6i will convert the high level signal to RCA.










Rainbow Audio iPaul DM2000 and enclosure wiring.



















Audio Control LC6i leftover from one of his previous install was utilized. 










The subwoofer enclosure was designed to direct the force of the Rainbow Audio Hammer 12" subwoofers through the arm rest area in the rear seats.










Black grille cloth covers the hole and gives an OEM while allowing the subwoofers to vent into the cabin.










Amplifier rack was designed to bring some of the interior designs to the trunk to tie in the amplifier to overall design of the car. Texture and color matched vinyl was used along with wood grain trim and polished aluminum.


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## Octave (Dec 12, 2010)

To cover things up and give a stealth appearance a removable panel covers the amplifier. A Mercedes Benz emblem was embossed into the panel to give an OEM feel.



















The bass knob was located inside the center console.



















German engineering and Octave. Two great tastes that go well together. Stay tuned as this Mumbai cruiser gets the sheik package.


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## BlueAc (May 19, 2007)

Nice


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## bigbubba (Mar 23, 2011)

Love the amp display. Very nice!


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## cnut334 (Oct 17, 2009)

Nice work! I like the panel cover for the amps. Nice touch.


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## Salad Fingers (Jun 14, 2009)

Great install, very clean looking. I have to ask about the wood/chrome strips above and below the amp, did you make them or was that like an interior trim piece you were able to order?


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## bmiller1 (Mar 7, 2010)

Very impressive work.


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## DAT (Oct 8, 2006)

Nice Install..


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## Octave (Dec 12, 2010)

Salad Fingers said:


> Great install, very clean looking. I have to ask about the wood/chrome strips above and below the amp, did you make them or was that like an interior trim piece you were able to order?


Those are one off pieces made in house.


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

i love how the amp display works, absolutely matches the car and gives me ideas too! awesome!!!


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## Octave (Dec 12, 2010)

simplicityinsound said:


> gives me ideas too! awesome!!!


Ideas you say. Can't wait to see what you come up with.:evilgrin:


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## Xandr (Jan 17, 2011)

do you plan to upgrade front stage too or just subwoofer?


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## Octave (Dec 12, 2010)

Xandr said:


> do you plan to upgrade front stage too or just subwoofer?


We plan on upgrading the front stage with Rainbow speakers as well with an iPaul 4-channel. The only thing that will be a pain is a new amp rack. Hopefully in time for SBN.


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## Angrywhopper (Jan 20, 2010)

Looks awesome.


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## Octave (Dec 12, 2010)

Just a little update. Nish picked up a K40 radar the s550 and brought in for me to install it. Being a Passport 9500ci fan I was looking forward to working with the K40 to see the differences in systems.

Starting at the front I mounted the front radar head.




















Using some flex loom and routing it along factory lines gives an OEM appearance.





















Well in the engine compartment I grab ignition using my favorite fuse tapsas usual.












Next up was the rear radar head. I was lucky enough that the bottom pan for the spare tire well offered a great mounting location.












There was also a conveniently located grommet.












I moved onto the interior installing the status LEDs. Nish wanted them in the instrument cluster area.





















There was a grille style area in the under dash so it was the perfect location for the mini piezos. I drilled holes so they could breath through the panel.


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## Octave (Dec 12, 2010)

Last up was the control unit. The knob portion comes out just at the bottom of the dash. All remaining wire was tied up and hid behind the dash with easy access through the side panel on the dash.






























All in all it was a very simple system to install but not on the level of a Passport 9500ci. There was a lot of wire connections that needed to be made to install the unit. The 9500ci is a 2 wire hook while everything else is plug-n-play. The K40 is really showing it age because it had the look and feel of something that was from the 90's. I'll be sticking with the Passport 9500ci systems.

Still more to do on this one so stay tuned.


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