Another Stereo thread but anyone considering modifying theirs might find something useful in this thread.
My car had the Bose upgrade fitted along with PCM2 (I think). Quite honestly, I don't think it would have been up to much in late 2002 and certainly isn't any good for today or as a daily driver.
My car also has Fibre Optic bus. I have tried Dension, etc. but wouldn't fork out for a MoBridge as I didn't think enough of the nav to warrant keeping it.
The parts list as it stands currently:
Pioneer SPH-DA02 AppRadio
4x Alpine SPG-10C2 2-way speakers
2x Polk Audio 5 1/4" mid bass speakers
Factory Bose Subwoofer
1x Rockford Fosgate PBR300x1 Punch amplifier.
1x Autoleads SOT-906 wiring harness (or similar)
1x 5m ISO speaker extension lead.
Head unit swaps have been covered time and again so I'll not go too far into that other than to say that I ran the 5m speaker extension from the head unit along with the RCA leads and remote lead through the grommet behind the battery and into the boot space to where the factory amplifier is/was.
I planned to run the main speakers from the head unit and just used the amp to run the sub so that I could trim the bass off the door/dash speakers.
First job, change the speakers in the car, again covered many times but briefly, cut the paper cone Bose rubbish out, snap the tabs from the Alpines and fix them in place with hot clue, Q-bond or your weapon of choice. Here are the two together:
I cut the wire to the factory tweeter also so as not to double up.
That takes care of the four 2-way speakers. Then I removed the door cards, and the mid bass speakers, made some MDF adaptors and fixed the Polk 5 1/4" in their place. Sorry, no pictures of that bit but again there are many online instructions on how to do it.
I turned my attention to the sub box. Having considered making an new one for perhaps an 8" sub or pair of them and looking at so many options on-line, I decide to dismantle it to see what was inside. 24 T20 torx screw later, I found.... Not much really:
A flimsy plastic box with two 5 1/4" speakers. Although the box is pretty poor quality, the design might not be, tuned ports etc. [one hoped]. I decided to go with the cheapest option - Dynamat. £15 for a sheet of Dynamat Extreme and set to work:
The speakers are wired at 1 ohm but I didn't need to change that as my amp is 1 ohm stable so I left it. The box is much heavier now but also doesn't flex as much. I was pleased with my work.
The amplifier:
I wanted something really small as I was thinking it might have to go on the shelf if I built another box and this ticked all the boxes. I checked the measurements but was still surprised at just how small it was when it arrived Pictured next to a popular fruit based telephone for size comparison:
Mounting it was easy, I used the original amplifier bracket.
Joining my speaker wiring harness to the one end of the SOT loom meant that I could then connect all of the speakers to the factory harness without cutting anything. I unclipped the loom and brought it up to the top of the fuel tank where I connected them and secured them with velcro strap and a sticky pad to stop vibration:
All back together and there isn't much to see:
the white specks are on the camera not the car
:dont know:
The end result is a depth of sound that was greatly lacking before and bass that you can actually feel in the back of the seat! :thumbs:
I am stunned at the bass response from that Bose enclosure. A friend of mine tells me that he used to install this type of thing in MR2s when he had a stereo shop, a pair of 5" speakers can be as good as a 10" sub but with better tonal response. I am converted! :worship:
So, if you feel that the bass is lacking in your car and you have the Bose sub, spend £15 on Dynamat, an evening to do it and two more evenings to pick the black cack out from under your fingernails [hindsight - gloves] and try that before you do anything else.
Hope this is of some use to someone.
My car had the Bose upgrade fitted along with PCM2 (I think). Quite honestly, I don't think it would have been up to much in late 2002 and certainly isn't any good for today or as a daily driver.
My car also has Fibre Optic bus. I have tried Dension, etc. but wouldn't fork out for a MoBridge as I didn't think enough of the nav to warrant keeping it.
The parts list as it stands currently:
Pioneer SPH-DA02 AppRadio
4x Alpine SPG-10C2 2-way speakers
2x Polk Audio 5 1/4" mid bass speakers
Factory Bose Subwoofer
1x Rockford Fosgate PBR300x1 Punch amplifier.
1x Autoleads SOT-906 wiring harness (or similar)
1x 5m ISO speaker extension lead.
Head unit swaps have been covered time and again so I'll not go too far into that other than to say that I ran the 5m speaker extension from the head unit along with the RCA leads and remote lead through the grommet behind the battery and into the boot space to where the factory amplifier is/was.
I planned to run the main speakers from the head unit and just used the amp to run the sub so that I could trim the bass off the door/dash speakers.
First job, change the speakers in the car, again covered many times but briefly, cut the paper cone Bose rubbish out, snap the tabs from the Alpines and fix them in place with hot clue, Q-bond or your weapon of choice. Here are the two together:
I cut the wire to the factory tweeter also so as not to double up.
That takes care of the four 2-way speakers. Then I removed the door cards, and the mid bass speakers, made some MDF adaptors and fixed the Polk 5 1/4" in their place. Sorry, no pictures of that bit but again there are many online instructions on how to do it.
I turned my attention to the sub box. Having considered making an new one for perhaps an 8" sub or pair of them and looking at so many options on-line, I decide to dismantle it to see what was inside. 24 T20 torx screw later, I found.... Not much really:
A flimsy plastic box with two 5 1/4" speakers. Although the box is pretty poor quality, the design might not be, tuned ports etc. [one hoped]. I decided to go with the cheapest option - Dynamat. £15 for a sheet of Dynamat Extreme and set to work:
The speakers are wired at 1 ohm but I didn't need to change that as my amp is 1 ohm stable so I left it. The box is much heavier now but also doesn't flex as much. I was pleased with my work.
The amplifier:
I wanted something really small as I was thinking it might have to go on the shelf if I built another box and this ticked all the boxes. I checked the measurements but was still surprised at just how small it was when it arrived Pictured next to a popular fruit based telephone for size comparison:
Mounting it was easy, I used the original amplifier bracket.
Joining my speaker wiring harness to the one end of the SOT loom meant that I could then connect all of the speakers to the factory harness without cutting anything. I unclipped the loom and brought it up to the top of the fuel tank where I connected them and secured them with velcro strap and a sticky pad to stop vibration:
All back together and there isn't much to see:
the white specks are on the camera not the car
:dont know:
The end result is a depth of sound that was greatly lacking before and bass that you can actually feel in the back of the seat! :thumbs:
I am stunned at the bass response from that Bose enclosure. A friend of mine tells me that he used to install this type of thing in MR2s when he had a stereo shop, a pair of 5" speakers can be as good as a 10" sub but with better tonal response. I am converted! :worship:
So, if you feel that the bass is lacking in your car and you have the Bose sub, spend £15 on Dynamat, an evening to do it and two more evenings to pick the black cack out from under your fingernails [hindsight - gloves] and try that before you do anything else.
Hope this is of some use to someone.
