Project 'BOSE BE GONE!' audio upgrade completed

[zermatt]

Mr Mac, thks great data. I am in the middle of ordering speaker cable. What was the total bulk cable your ordered. 50 ft. Two spools?

I did find that video on the door wiring a few weeks ago, good to no this a straight forward task.

having this thread will be very useful for future owners and installers. Thks two million.

 

[Mr. Mac]

Mr Mac, thks great data. I am in the middle of ordering speaker cable. What was the total bulk cable your ordered. 50 ft. Two spools?

I did find that video on the door wiring a few weeks ago, good to no this a straight forward task.

having this thread will be very useful for future owners and installers. Thks two million.

Yes, two 50-foot spools of 16-gauge covered everything except the subs which was about 6-feet of 12-gauge since amplifiers are literally on the sub enclosure.

Also worth noting is that 100-feet total of 16-gauge allowed me to run an additional pair of cables from amplifiers to dash, which are currently unused but ran and hidden. Reason I did this is incase I ever want to convert front stage from a 2-way component set to 3-way by fabricating custom A-pillars to house tweeters with mods in dash. Seriously doubt I’ll ever do that though now that I’ve got system dialed in perfectly with FRAKs in dash while maintaining a totally hidden/stealth stock look, but the pre-wire was to make it easy to go 3-way front stage if I wasn’t satisfied with 2-way.

 

[zermatt]

That’s a lot of cable. My speaker cable is $50 per meter, I have 33 ft so far and they sending me another shipment when I finalize my final runs. I can see 11 ft for each run for the dash and door. Maybe 9 ft for the rears. That a total of 62 feet.

did you crimp your battery pwr cables?

 

[Mr. Mac]

That’s a lot of cable. My speaker cable is $50 per meter, I have 33 ft so far and they sending me another shipment when I finalize my final runs. I can see 11 ft for each run for the dash and door. Maybe 9 ft for the rears. That a total of 62 feet.

did you crimp your battery pwr cables?

Yes, all power cables, negative and positive, have pure copper terminations that are crimped and protected with watertight heat-shrink insulation tubing.

 

[zermatt]

Mac;

Hope all is well. I am getting close in finalizing my system. My thread will be named: "Z sound system upgrade - kicking the Bose system to the curb" .

My system will have three amps and a DSP. I am working on the amp platform. Your Subwoofer/amp platform is a excellent guide. My car is in the body shop for a minor bumper fix. Some doe-doe brain hit my bumper.

My questions:

I see that you blot into the central Bose subwoofer post.
1: Does the bottom the your sub cabinet rest on the floor of the truck area.
2: Its looks like that the top of of your sub/amp cabinet is flush with the Horizontal cross frame, and, the stock 1/4 plastic/cardboard truck cover rest on those surfaces.
3: Base on your box dimensions there is about 7.5 inches of height (bottom of truck to the 1/4 plastic/cardboard truck cover).

Below is my concept sketch of the amp platform. I will have two levels, lower level, will have the 4 awg wiring and distribution blks (22 x 32 inches) . The upper level have the electronics (22 x 34).

 

[Mr. Mac]

Mac;

Hope all is well. I am getting close in finalizing my system. My thread will be named: "Z sound system upgrade - kicking the Bose system to the curb" .

My system will have three amps and a DSP. I am working on the amp platform. Your Subwoofer/amp platform is a excellent guide. My car is in the body shop for a minor bumper fix. Some doe-doe brain hit my bumper.

My questions:

I see that you blot into the central Bose subwoofer post.
1: Does the bottom the your sub cabinet rest on the floor of the truck area.
2: Its looks like that the top of of your sub/amp cabinet is flush with the Horizontal cross frame, and, the stock 1/4 plastic/cardboard truck cover rest on those surfaces.
3: Base on your box dimensions there is about 7.5 inches of height (bottom of truck to the 1/4 plastic/cardboard truck cover).

Below is my concept sketch of the amp platform. I will have two levels, lower level, will have the 4 awg wiring and distribution blks (22 x 32 inches) . The upper level have the electronics (22 x 34).

I see that you blot into the central Bose subwoofer post.
1: Does the bottom the your sub cabinet rest on the floor of the truck area.

>>> Yes, bottom of enclosure rests on floor of spare tire area, which has been treated with sound damping material (as shown in one the photos), and the recessed notch in bottom of enclosure also mates and rests on spare tire mounting nub which has a rubber gasket between them. The entire enclosure is bolted to the vehicle using that same spare tire mounting nub and a matching bolt/washer (also shown in one of the photos).

2: Its looks like that the top of of your sub/amp cabinet is flush with the Horizontal cross frame, and, the stock 1/4 plastic/cardboard truck cover rest on those surfaces.

>>> No, enclosure is much lower than the cross frame to allow space for the amplifiers and subwoofers' top frame support. This way the top surface of the amplifiers is below the cross frame height when mounted, and so that there's a tiny gap between the two when the cargo carpet layers are installed. I don't use the stock plastic cover any more that the factory puts under the carpet layers. Put it away in storage. No reason for it since the subwoofer top frame now provides support for the carpet layers, not to mention plastic like that tends to rattle, which I of course didn't want.

3: Base on your box dimensions there is about 7.5 inches of height (bottom of truck to the 1/4 plastic/cardboard truck cover).

>>> Total outside height dimension of the enclosure itself is 5.4-inches. Total height of the subwoofers' frame is 2.25-inches. So when the frame is secure to the top of the enclosure the total height is 7.65-inches, which places the top surface of frame about 0.125-inches below the surrounding plastic interior panels, which is dead-on perfect because there's no contact between them when all is completely installed (including the thickness of the sound damping material underneath the enclosure).

The attached drawing shows greater detail.

 

[Ckynus]

@Mr. Mac can you give me your opinion on this?

Similar to yours, I made this frame to mount onto the sub enclosure to protect the speakers and keep the trunk floor flush. However I am considering instead mounting 2" of foam to the underside of the trunk liner. My logic is that it would be cleaner because it lifts out with the trunk liner piece. However I am unsure of the acoustic ramifications and would love your opinion on it.

 

[Ckynus]

I made a mock up to see what happens

 

[Mr. Mac]

would love your opinion on it.

Hi – Immediate concerns with this approach are...

1) Potential for unwanted noise (vibrating, rattles, buzzing, etc.) by using the solid, rigid factory plastic panel on directly overtop of subwoofers (which is also not acoustically transparent).

2) Potential reduction in strength/support for carrying any heavy cargo on top of carpeted cargo mat(s) due to using foam instead of solid wood frame.

3) Potential damage to factory plastic panel depending on how foam is attached if concerned at all about returning vehicle back perfectly to stock without trace of system ever being installed (although a replacement panel could probably be acquired if you go this route and this is an issue for you).

it would be cleaner because it lifts out with the trunk liner piece

Not seeing how this approach would make finished install any cleaner if a solid frame around top of subs is already executed cleanly. That solid frame not only provides great protection for subs while directing all the subs' acoustical energy upward, it also provides great support for any heavy cargo as mentioned above, and also creates a nice border for amplifiers/processors to mount against.

Hope this helps. Lookin forward to seeing what ya come up with!

 

[Who.Am.Eye.2716]

@Mr. Mac
Why choose 8 ch DSP amp over a 6 ch DSP amp?

 

[Mr. Mac]

@Mr. Mac
Why choose 8 ch DSP amp over a 6 ch DSP amp?

Hi – Several reasons. First reason is so that I would have two extra channels available for system flexibility either during the initial build or sometime later in future. An example of this flexibility includes the ability to bridge four channels of the eight channels into two channels to provide more power to the midbass drivers in doors if ever needed. The current midbass speakers used from the Focal ES 165 KX2E 2-way component set are 2-ohm, so they already make the two channels used for them produce more power. Another example of this flexibility is if I ever wanted to move from a 2-way to component set for front stage to a 3-way I would have an extra set of dedicated channels ready to accommodate that configuration (2X midbass in doors, 2X midrange + 2X tweeters in custom A-pillars). Lastly, I'm I bit OCD, and the thought of having two different size amplifier chassis was not good when I could have a perfectly balanced amplifier section by having two amplifiers with identical dimensions (which the VX1000/1i and the VX800/8i are).

 

[zermatt]

Here is my thread: https://www.nissanzclub.com/forum/threads/kicking-the-bose-audio-system-to-the-curb-finally.3400/

 

[Mr. Mac]

Here is my thread: https://www.nissanzclub.com/forum/threads/kicking-the-bose-audio-system-to-the-curb-finally.3400/

Very nice! Did performance turn out to what you were shooting for? I'm very curious about those BLAM MS2 drivers you chose for dash in a 2-way front stage setup. Can't seem to find them anywhere in the states. Did they come with the square-to-round mounting plate, or was that something purchased 3rd party (or did you by chance make them)? Anyway, hope you're enjoying.

 

[zermatt]

Hello Mr Mac;

So I have the system up and running for about 3.5 months now. Was it worth the time and $$$. Yes, I love the system.

With running three amps my voltage never drops below 14V. The Amps and the DSP are very reliable.

The Blam's 2.0 sig. M/T speakers. They are very neutral due to the carbon fiber cone, 3d imaging is good. I like them but there probability a better 3 inch driver out there. Give soundworks audio in Pasadena Maryland a call.

I have the brax 2 inch drivers in the side rear, there are nice too!

I really like the Mundorffs ribbons inthe back, there are mounted on top of the sub enclosure. I just had the hole system retuned by Migel at waveform tuning.

 

[zermatt]

Also, Soundwokds created all new brackets for the some were 3D printed others cnc cut and/if needed bonded together.