Hi guys,

I've decided to post my progress of my sound quality install. Maybe someone will learn something from it. (If notthing else, you won't do something like that.. :D )

So here are the starting points:
- the system will be made according to the EMMA (european multimedia association) sund quality competition rules.
- everything shoud be as coherent with original theme of the car as possible
- the system should be a winner.. :D

Approx. installation time is by mid January.. so don't expect everything in this week.. :D

 

As the stage should be as high as possible, i've put 10cm speakers and tweeters in A-pillars:

 

Custom protection of front speakers:

 

Here's changing illumination from white/red to orange:

This small thing on the radio display is the led.. 1,6X0,8mm


Partly done



All orange:

 

And my A pillars are done:







Because of the cables I had to flip the logo upside down:


done:

 

Very nice. It looks like a good start for the project.

 

After two months of thinking, planning and searching the forums.. it's barely a start...

 

Wow, excellent work on those A pillars!

 

Here's where I'm going with te radio..



Demolition :D:

 

Original flat cable between main unit and front plate holder...


some soldering...




Testing if it works (I was told that some radios dont work this way because of too weak signals):



Adding a connector and some protection of the wires...







Some cutting was done to prevent the flat cable from tearing:

and coloured:


And some more soldering and protecting..:

 

So I vent for a vacation in order to finish the car.. :D

I've put Bluetooth mic in the "original" place:




One more antenna added (the radio supports dual antenna mode):


No problems with + cable:




Also adding a - cable wasn't a problem...


Here's the fuse:


All together:


Here's some great space for amps...


party time!! :D




Cables took me 2 days to protect with "snakeskin" and put in the right spaces. Everything is fixed by the EMMA rules:






Connections for the radio:


Holding plate for amps:


Glued under each seat:


Amp:


Screwed:


I do some airbrushing so changing of colour was no prob...:


And the subwoofer...:
Some cutting and isolating:


Poliester party:


Wood party:








Glitter:


And customized and coloured:


A gasket...


And the sub:


Finished:


Here's the detail, how I fixed the box:


Radio is in "secret compartment box":




Front plate is integrated to the gauge:




I've guessed the colour of the leds correctly.. :D


And the final look:


A pillars:



Still missing: a cover for radio, cover for fuses under the passenger seat and some fine tuning...

The components:
-Radio Blaupunkt Bremen MP78
-Amp for sub ESX X-TWO
-Amp for system ESX X-FOUR
-System ESX Signum SE4.2
-Sub ESX SX 840

Everything is German Sound Quality stuff...



Peter

 

Looks great. my only hang-up right now is that the speedo needle looks like it was put back on with a little error. Is that correct?

 

Wow, great observation!

I had a problem, that the needle touched the radio plate with its back side at approx 80kmh. So I wanted to pull it off and modify it. It didnt go off. I tought I didn't do anything, but I did...

Another problem is, that previous owner changed the gauge background from MPH to KMH (the car was imported from US) - but they used 240 kmh scale instead of 260. It took me 3 months to notice that...

The bottom line is, the gauge is a lot more accurate than before...!
Well, obviously not when standing..

 

Nicely done! Wow, it never even occurred to me to put a sub in the passenger footwell... bravo!

 

This is common paxis in SQ world, where the sound should be as far in front and as high as possible...

 

Here are some better pictures of the final look...

 

Great all around install. That sub setup is sweet.

 

Simply outstanding project and effort!

 

As I was scrolling through all the in-process pics, I was thinking: "thanks, I'll refer to this thread whenever I need to be reminded how much is too much". But looking at the finished results, I really have to say you did a great job. Very impressive.

How hard was it to change out those tiny LED to orange? (I wanted to do something like this to a Sirius tuner, one time, which had the dreaded blue backlighting...but was afraid to attempt it!)

 

Imagine Dumbo (as adult) trying to have sex with Minnie Mouse...


Seriously, if you have some experience, it's not that hard... And offcourse the tools.

Thanks.

Peter

 

Changing out SMDs is not too bad as long as you have a steady hand and a good soldering iron. I replaced my instrument cluster LEDs on my last car with red and it turned out well. But those were a bit larger than those in Perro's head unit.

 

Yes, I did the same on my 2000 Celica.. but those were 3X5mm leds... These hrere are 0,8X1,6mm! :D

 

You a sick individual indeed.....I love it! How will you access the fuse panel? but most of all how does it sound? Do you get the 3-----------d soundstage, with the soundstage floating just above the dash? How is the imaging?
Phil

 

+1

Did you do any sound dampening/proofing as well?

 

The system is still not set. Well I put it troug automatic tuning that the radio offers. But the speakers must... hm, I don't know the word.. :( The system must play for a while to get the proper softness of the speakers.
So all I can say is the stage is approx 10 cm above the dash (in comparison with the oem system - it was under the steering wheel), but the imaging is still a bit fuzzy. The positions are still not exact. I'll tell you more in february..

Well.. fuse panel.. :D Whay would i need to access that?
I'ts quite simple: take out the seat, take out the sub box and open the fuse door..

The damping is only under the subwoofer box. The doors are still original... Actually, I think I wont even bother damping it. There are no speakers (at least active) there...