My audio install- Luke box, MS8, 500/5, 10W3v3, and more...

[Dirtboy]

Ok, I finally got some time and the weather got good enough to start my audio install. Actually, it got started last year while I was working on the interior of the e30. That thread is here: http://r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=145528
But here are some re-cap pics of that portion of it:

Ran new wires to the kickpanels:



Ran wires to the trunk:



The system is going to be run off a C43 running a Phatbox mp3 player in the trunk.


The rest of the system:

JBL MS-8 dsp
JL 500/5 amp
JL 10W3v3
Luke box
Polk Audio MM521 front speakers
Polk Audio db1001 front tweeters
Polk Audio GX5?? rear speakers (found at junkyard, lol)

So that get us to this week.

Getting Luke box ready for the amp and dsp:




Slap the sub in:



Then it was onto the kickpanels for the front speakers. The tweets were already installed in the sail panels last year. They will be used on the "side" channels of the MS8. The speakers in the kickpanels will be hooked up to the "front" channels on the MS8. Rear speakers to the "rear", you get how this is going...





To deal with cone excursion, I cut the "grill" off the kickpanels and used oem rear grills over the speakers to help keep it looking stock.



I know that the kickpanels aren't the best place to put the speakers, but I'm trying to keep it as stock looking as possible. If I really can't deal with how it sounds after the MS8 does it's thing, I may move the fronts to the door panels. Until then....



...and the glovebox still opens...


Then it was on to the trunk install...

empty:


full:


From inside:



And then the wiring begins:




So that's where I am right now. I had to stop because the rain came back and I'm working outside (the e46 is hogging the garage right now). I still have to get all the wiring in the trunk done, which includes cutting the stock battery clamp off and hooking up to the new battery. Then I have to fab up a rack or something to mount the Phatbox; it's going on the left side of the trunk. Also have to make the cover that's going over the amp and dsp. Not to mention that I still have to get the C43 mounted securely in the dash... Whew... I hope I can get this done in the next week or so...

More updates as the come...

[EN318isPDX]

Looks good! I love how epic my lukebox sounds

One thing though, you shouldnt run speaker wire down the right side because of the battery cables IIRC it can cause unwanted bleed through

[Dirtboy]

Looks good! I love how epic my lukebox sounds

One thing though, you shouldnt run speaker wire down the right side because of the battery cables IIRC it can cause unwanted bleed through

Well crap... It's too late now. Besides, I couldn't fit the speaker wires down the left side cuz they're 14ga. I know it's a bit overkill, but I got the wire at a decent price at Parts Express.

I've never heard of interference on speaker level lines, only on pre-amp lines. If it does happen, I'll just have to run the wires up the middle...

[airkhin]

that is a serious setup you got going there. good stuff! cant wait to get my luke box all set up... ;)

[Schnitzer318is]

I am subbed... I don't get to see that many thorough installs in the e30 community. I got spoiled when I had my e46 over at fanatics.

[Dirtboy]

I got it all hooked up and playing yesterday but I'm having some issues with the MS8 unit. It keeps "crashing" with an error code of "No DSP Response". It then shuts down and restarts. This happens every 3-4 minutes. I'm trying to get through to JBL on this.

In the short time it does work, it sounds pretty good. I only had time to do a rough system tune. The system uses microphones to tune and since I'm outside I pick up all the street noise. I'll have to goto my shop where it's quiet to do a better tune. Of course I have to figure out the above problem first.

Then I have to tidy up the wires. Looks like a rats nest right now. I'm going to be channeling all the wires in plastic conduit just to make it look a bit better. Then there will be a cover over the whole amp rack. There will be pics soon...

oh, still have to mount that C43...

[Dirtboy]

Got some work done today...

The main thing was that I found out why the MS8 kept on shutting down. The C43 tape deck wasn't putting out enough power on the turn-on lead. It was only putting out about 11.5 volts. When I hooked up the MS8's turn-on lead directly to the battery with 12.6v, the unit never shut down... Even while playing for 15-20 minutes. So I had to re-wire the turn-on lead from the front. Hooked it up directly to the 12v acc from the ignition. Works like a charm...

The other work I did was straighten up the wires. Here's a before pic:




And the after pic:



There's still going to be a cover over all that cut out to Luke's template that he included with the box. But I just wanted all the wires under control.

Here's a pic of the Phatbox mp3 player:



For those that don't know about it, it's actually a small Linux based mp3 player with an 80 gig removable hard drive.

The reason I like it better than an iPod is that it speaks out the names of tracks/titles/artist etc to you so you don't have to take your eyes off the road looking at a display on the dash.

I also have an aux input for the iPod as well.

I still have to come up with a way to mount it to the left side of the trunk.


And here's a shot of the other side of the trunk:



Tomorrow I'm going to try to tackle the mounting of the C43 in the dash...

[Axxe]

Nice work!

[Schnitzer318is]

Very nice. Keep it up, I like where this is headed. And I am biting your idea of wire tucking into that channel...

[Dirtboy]

Very nice. Keep it up, I like where this is headed. And I am biting your idea of wire tucking into that channel...

Thanks. I was thinking about running all the wires through the sub box, but I didn't want to drill that many holes into such a nice box.

So today I got the C43 mounted in the dash. I also switched out the euro gauge cluster to a U.S. cluster. Same with the overhead check panel. And, while I was knee deep into the dash, I finally hooked up the 4-way flashers to the alarm.

Last but not least, I installed the brand new M-tech2 steering wheel.:D




Now I just need to do a complete cleaning and detail of the interior...

[nrubenstein]

Running your sail tweeters on the side channels is going to be weird with the MS-8. Is there some reason why you object to running them as part of an active front setup?

Also, when you're setting it up, they really, really mean it when they say to keep the volume low. If it sounds really tinny and bass free when you're done, do it again with the volume lower. IIRC, I ran mine at -35. Higher would clip the mic.

[AndrewBird]

What did you use to hide all the wires? Just some generic raceway?

[nrubenstein]

...also, while you're tidying the wiring, you might want to unbundle the speaker wires from the power cables and run them on the left side of the car.

[Dirtboy]

Running your sail tweeters on the side channels is going to be weird with the MS-8. Is there some reason why you object to running them as part of an active front setup?

Also, when you're setting it up, they really, really mean it when they say to keep the volume low. If it sounds really tinny and bass free when you're done, do it again with the volume lower. IIRC, I ran mine at -35. Higher would clip the mic.

I was running the sails on the side channel just as an experiment. The fronts in the kick panels are 2-ways with an external passive crossover. If it does sound a bit weird I'll go active with the sails and kicks.

I'm still having issues with the MS8 giving me "No DSP Response" errors and it shutting down and restarting every 2-3 minutes. I'm dealing with Andy from JBL on that. When I was able to get through the setup, I had the levels at about -40. But I haven't been able to level match the 500/5 with the MS8 because of the errors I'm getting. Hopefully this will get resolved soon...

[nrubenstein]

Fun fun fun. Well, I'm sure Andy will sort you out. I loved my first MS-8 so much that I had to go out and get a second.