I thought I'd share a little about my current project, which is upgrading the R56 non-HIFI stock speakers to CDT Audio ES-643 speakers. The ES-643 are 3-way components (1" silk dome tweeter, 4" midrange, 6.5"/6.75" woofer) with an impressively well-built passive crossover. They are relatively sensitive (~92dB) and can take a lot of power (200 watts RMS). I bought these blind, strictly off of recommendations and reviews of their build quality.

To power these speakers I chose to go cheap with the VIBE Audio LiteBox Stereo 4 -- one of the uBuy clones. It puts out 90 watts per channel (x4), and it has auto-on high level inputs. I hope to power the front channels without bridging, so hopefully 90 watts will be enough to get as loud as I'd like. It should, in theory, get me to ~110dB which should be plenty loud for me. The plan is to leave the other two channels for a possible subwoofer later on.

Speaker cables are all from Monoprice. I bought varying gauges from 12-gauge to 18-gauge wiring, but I plan to do most of my runs with 16-gauge wire. I chose to buy the in-wall kind since it has an extra outer shield to help protect the wires a little more, but I'm sure any would do.

I decided, last minute, to also install some vibration dampening and sound isolation mats. I went with SecondSkin Damplifier Pro and Luxury Liner Pro. This is my first time using such products, so I'm not really sure what to expect. My goal with this is to quiet down the cabin a little by dampening under the seats, a little in the doors, and in the rear.

I've measured my idle noise to be around 43dB, which is quite high imo. Cruising with run-flats at 70mph was around 72ish dB. I've since replaced my run-flats with some Sumitomos, so that should also help... but I digress.

But that's my plan in a nutshell. I'll update this thread with my progress and some pictures.

 

never heard of CDT Audio, but I am sure they will sound great!

Are you buying the factory A pillars that have the holes already made; since its 3 way comp?

 

the litebox is a great amp I have installed a few of them and they have been great. make sure you have adequate airflow around the bottom of the amp so the fan can work

 

Glad to hear that, pentavolvo, and thanks for the tip. I did notice that the fan is on the bottom (along with the controls), so I'll have to keep that in mind when mounting it. I'm planning to mount it under my passenger seat. Crossovers will go under the driver seat.

CDT Audio is a niche manufacturer, and I can attest to their solid build quality. They're on-par with higher-end Rainbow, me thinks.

And yes, I bought the A-pillars with the tweeter housings built-in (they actually come with stock tweeters, too, lol). My initial plan was to put the CDT tweeters in the A-pillars, midrange in the 4" slot, woofer in the 6" slot, but as I was fitting the speakers, I found that they did not fit without needing some dremel'ing of the door housings.

So, instead, I put the tweeters in the 4" upper door housing with a custom-made plate, midrange in the 6" lower door housing (again, a custom-made plate), and moved the woofer to the 6"x9" rear panel (using a standard 6.5" to 6"x9" plate, which also needed some dremel'ing).

I've been using this setup for about two months now, and I don't like it. My ear, while not the greatest, can hear the separation of sound, and the vocals sound like they are coming from the floor. So I'm now redo'ing my install, and I plan to dremel the stock housings to make my 4" fit the upper door enclosure and make my 6.75" fit the lower door enclosure (and put my tweeters in the A-pillars).

 

Wow, had never heard of the Vibe Litebox amp but after some googling and reading rave reviews, looks pretty cool. If I end up amping my fronts, I might just have to jump on one of those.

Thanks for the heads-up! Good luck with moving your speakers about, hopefully you will be happier with the results

 

The last car i installed a litebox in we actually spaced the amp up a little further up off the carpet and now it gets warm instead of hot which is good haha. Also the automatic turn on only works when utilizting high level/line level inputs, with that said the plugs they include are crap if you ask me. They ohm out at a high resistance but in my buddys car it was late and i didnt have anything else so we used them. He started having intermitent cutting out I traced it back to the plugs i was learly of to begin with. I made some new ones and no more issues and it sounds wayyyy better

 

I just got through doing a CDT install, and I would recommend the ES-03 for the mid-range above the mid-woofers. I would also recommend the [FONT=&quot]CDT-Euroframe 6.5" cast fabric stripe fiberglass mid-woofer
CDT ES-03 widerange mid-driver
CDT DRT-25 tweeters
CDT UP-525XT Upstage Blending Module with DRT-25 tweeters
CDT EX-30 3 way crossover
CDT also makes a 6X9 woofer to put in the rear. Personally, I think there is too much going on with the higher frequencies, and I would recommend the AudioControl EQL, or one of the other equalizers they offer (including a 3 way crossover with built in EQ). Then, find a shop that uses a real time analyzer to tune your system....you won't believe the results!! I will post an updated thread with pics...look for "Yet another system install....madness"
Phil


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Sounds like a nice set of speakers there, peporter. Here are the specific components in my setup:
ES-6 6.5" kevlar mid-woofer
ES-4 4" kevlar mid-range
ES-300CC 5th order 3-way crossover

I also went ahead and purchased a set of tweeters from CDT, so I'll be playing around with the silk, aluminum, and titanium tweeters and choose what I like best (DRT-26).

And since I'm moving everything in this set back to the front, I bought a pair of CDT CL-69SUBCF to put in the rear 6x9 openings. I just want it to fill below 60Hz/80Hz and give me a little more thump on the low-end without losing space from a larger sub.

I bought an AudioControl LC2i before I bought the LiteBox, but I might still play around with it for the bass control. It has auto turn-on and an interesting bass restoration circuitry that I'm a little curious about.

 

Let me know what you think about the AudioControl LC2i if you install it. I was thinking about installing one since I really miss having a gain control for my sub and ended up not using the cheapo gain control I bought...

 

How did the ES-6's go in the door? Any space/grinding issues for install? Was looking at the same set up...

 

No space/grinding issues for the ES-6. My windows go up/down just fine. I did dremel into the plastic to allow for the speaker basket to fit flush into the mounting location.

The ES-4 is a very snug fit, but it's manageable. I had to rip out the foam and styrofoam from the midrange cover to make it fit.

 

At this point I probably won't install it because I didn't find a good place for it so it might end up on eBay or something.

 

Just a small update. I installed the titanium tweeters into the A-pillars, and after about 10-12 hours of listening across about 3 weeks, I can say that I hate titanium tweeters. Quite harsh to my ears, and the music sounds very unnatural to me.

So today I replaced those with the silk tweeters, and wallah, I believe I've found my tweeters for good. I won't even be testing the aluminum ones because the silks sound great to me -- smooth and natural.

Also, as for the 6x9 subwoofers, they work well for what they are. They do not thump, but they do fill out the bottom end. I'm quite pleased with my setup now! Pics to follow.