phenryiv1 325ic Stereo Install & Interior Thread

[rcsoundn1]

It likely that the VC got crushed during shipping. I have crap aftermarket speaks all around in my car. At some point I will go back to premium sound speakers because when I had them in my 2dr they rocked.

[phenryiv1]

It likely that the VC got crushed during shipping. I have crap aftermarket speaks all around in my car. At some point I will go back to premium sound speakers because when I had them in my 2dr they rocked.

Hopefully the 935 are worth the money.

I am (literally) searching right now for a new HU with less glare. Prospects are dim (no pun intended).

[phenryiv1]

The Clark Synthesis TST329 transducer arrived:





Looks like the measurements from the spec sheet were accurate. Fitting an 8" disc between the seat rails should not be an issue.



Bad picture but my mock-up was pretty accurate:



And the test fit of the actual unit shows that the fit should be spot on.

[rcsoundn1]

Im interested to see how this works. I have heard of them and always wondered if they were worth the trouble.

[phenryiv1]

Im interested to see how this works. I have heard of them and always wondered if they were worth the trouble.

We shall soon find out.

[rcsoundn1]

Will be interesting to see how they are in a vert application. If it is a success I will consider adding one to each of my cars.

[phenryiv1]

Will be interesting to see how they are in a vert application. If it is a success I will consider adding one to each of my cars.

This is the same model used in military simulators and high-end home theater setups. I have high hopes for tactile feel in the absence of actual SPL.

[phenryiv1]

The brand new E34 Premium speakers arrived. I had resisted ordering these, trying to buy used. I should have just bought new from the beginning.

[AndrewBird]

Fancy!

[IceWhite]

How are those speakers compared to the stock E30 one's? (If you've installed them already.)

[phenryiv1]

How are those speakers compared to the stock E30 one's? (If you've installed them already.)

Hopefully I will be able to report back in the next couple days.

[rcsoundn1]

From my expirence they have much better low end that's effortless. Clean sound. IMO better than some speakers I have spent over $150 on. Any idea how to ID premium ones? I'm sure it's on the forum somewhere

[phenryiv1]

From my expirence they have much better low end that's effortless. Clean sound. IMO better than some speakers I have spent over $150 on. Any idea how to ID premium ones? I'm sure it's on the forum somewhere

The only way that I know is by part number. The newest revision ends in "935" and IIRC the previous version ended in "608" for the mids.

[phenryiv1]

I got the 935 mids and both GAS PCNs installed.



I still need to install the Dayton tweeters and to play with the EQ. I can't say that the bass from the E34 speakers is anything special. I have had 5.25" fronts before- I was into car stereo in the 1990s so I have some clue how 5.25" mids respond. These are not lacking bass, but nothing earth shattering.

I would venture to say that the Pioneer coaxials (TS-A1357) actually have as much or more bass. I am somewhat regretting not trying the Pioneer TS-D1320C or TS-D1330C (or even the TS-A1305C) but I will give these E34 speakers some time to break in before I decide that they were a mistake.

I also gave up on having the display on my Pioneer HU match the dash. The amber display color was impossible to read in a convertible. After some experimenting I went with white- or at least what Pioneer calls white. It is somewhat blue-ish. Ricer HID fans would be stoked.



What is really stupid is that the when I changed the display to white and left the "control" side of the HU amber, the few buttons on the right (display) side of the HU are also now white. It is a piss poor design overall, but to have a couple buttons controlled by the display color and the rest on their own circuit is weird. At least the left side is still amber so the whole unit isn't white. And I CAN read the display now, so that is an improvement.

[phenryiv1]

So...a monumental weekend for the stereo but the "cost" was pretty high.

I set out this Saturday AM to try to install the amp and run the wiring for the transducer setup. Of course, nothing ever goes as planned, plus I got into "while I am in there" mode and basically burned all of my free time this weekend working on the car. What should have taken an hour or 3 took about 8-9 hours of garage time.

So the first hurdle was in getting the seats out. Since I bought the car the driver's seat has not "flopped" properly, and I suspected that it was due to a broken cable. I pulled the parts on RealOEM and ordered the replacement cable (more in a minute) and decided to wait until I had any additional reason to pull the seat to make the replacement.

So to even remove a coupe/convertible seat you have to flop the seat forward to access the rear bolts so we already had our first hurdle. Removed the back cover to find this:



And took about 15 more minutes to remove the outer cover on the hinge (without breaking it):



Fortunately I had a couple spare seats around to use to figure out how to get this one out without damage.

Look at that filth!



First round with the vacuum:



So I mentioned that the "flop" function was failing...also the back was not very stable on the left side. With the back off I think I may have uncovered the issue - broken bracket to hold the back to the base:



All that was well and good, and it does provide a foundation for repairing the seat (I installed a spare passenger seat to allow time to repair the seat that I have) but let's get to the fun part!

A couple of weeks ago my Clark Synthesis Tactile Transducer arrived. I did some fit testing and mapped out how I wanted to install it, where I wanted the amp, how I planned to run the cabling, etc...but then I went on vacation and have been busy.

Now that I had the seat out it is time to get to business.

TO facilitate the install I had to cut the carpet between the vents and folded it back to position the base on the floor pan. A note about this location- there are brake lines below it!!! BE CAREFUL!!!

So 4 of the 6 mounting holes are over a frame rail so there was no access to use a nut & bolt combo as I had planned. The other 2 could use a nut and bolt but with 6 fasteners I should be good with quality, wide-tooth sheet metal screws. Since Clark shipped the unit with screws (which I initially did not see in the hardware pack) I ended up using those.

First I positioned it and marked the holes:



Then I removed the bracket, center punched, drilled a pilot, and enlarged them:



Test-fit with some wide-head sheet metal screws that I had for another project:



Around this time I saw the larger screws and lock washers in the hardware pack so I enlarged the holes further and used the included hardware:



By now I had used some carpet cleaner and let it dry for a few hours while I took my kids swimming so I returned to find things were dry and ready to keep moving. I cut a small diamond-shaped hole to give the transducer a more solid connection to the bracket without any material to inhibit the transfer of the vibrations:





Next up I mounted the transducer using the threaded shaft and 2 jamb nuts:





With the spare Sport seat back in place there was plenty of clearance:



Now it was time to wire up the amp.

As the car is a convertible, I still have the battery in the front. I decided to leave it there (at least for the time being) and to run the wires for the amps right through the firewall. Yes, I said "amps" and meant it. I told you I did some "while I was in there" stuff.

Anyway, I used a flathead to mark the path through the existing grommet:



Then I poked the small amp power wires through the firewall.



Added terminals:



Next up I ran the power cable to the trunk via the factory cable "keepers" on the passenger side.

I made it to the area below the seat using all OEM pathways:



I brought it into the cavity below the convertible top storage area:



Then I snaked it through the cavity (using a long ziptie as a cable snake) to bring it out on the driver's side. Note: The picture above shows it in the main part of the trunk but it went on the inside of that partition and is not in the main trunk area.



Temporary home (to facilitate tuning) until i mount it to the back wall.



Now I was on to the signal side. I laid out all of my cabling- speaker cable (to the transducer from the amp), RCA (with integrated turn-on lead- more on that later), and a new antenna cable to replace the one that the PO cut in the trunk.



I then used a zip tie to feed the bundle through the OEM grommet that leads to the back seat. Photo is above.

So from there I use the OEM keepers for the antenna and speaker cable but the RCAs were too fat to fit in. I ran them below the keepers. The hardest part was passing them (all of them, for that matter) past the lower seat belt bolt. I had to remove about 47 trim parts, many of which are old, fragile, and specific to the convertible so they took 4x as long to remove than if I could more easily source replacements.

Additionally, I used the nano-gauge integrated turn on wire in the RCA pair, which was a colossal mistake. It was fragile, thin, and generally a PITA to work with. I had to add terminals multiple times to make it work, since the terminals broke off.

Also, "while I was in there" I decided to install my Alpine PowerPack KTP-445U for the fornt stage. I used short barrel connectors to connect the HU RCA outs to the Alpine RCA cables. The Alpine leads are comically short- about 4-5" after the connector- and limited the ability to mount the Alpine more than a few inches fron the HU. I literally wrestled with this for 20-30 minutes before I finally found a location for the 445U off to the right, above the OBC.

At this point I was still figuring out the configuration:



I slid the HU back, only to find that the combination of the barrel male-to-male RCA connectors and the Alpine leads made the assembly too deep. Having no other option I dug out a 3' and a 6' RCA cable from my parts box and crammed them in behind the HU, but the HU still won't fit flush. At that point I was willing to live with that until a shorter 4-channel RCA cable arrives.

Here is how it sits as of now:



At any rate, I got everything up to the dash, wired it up to the HU, and life was good- sort of.

So the impressions:

Even with the new antenna cable the FM reception sucks.
Even with 45W per channel, the E34 midbass speakers disappoint. I was expecting some legit midbass. So far - nothing after ~3 hours of listening. I still need to tune it so I am not giving up yet but so far they are lacking.
E30 Premium tweeters are too bright. I have the Daytons to install but for now things sound harsh, even with the PCNs in place. Again, not giving up yet but still not totally happy.

ALL THAT SAID...The Clark transducer is AMAZING. I love the feeling of bass, though the noted lack of midbass is still a bit odd, especially at cruising levels. I need to play with the gains, boost levels, EQ, and other factors, but the end result is that even run off of a small RF 100a2 amp this Clark TST329 adds a sensation of bass that I would never have with a convertible, even with a large amp and the GAS enclosure (still an option to add that, if I want to).

In related, frustrating news I did manage to get "locked" in my seatbelt by a broken receiver on the spare seat that I swapped in. It took me about 15 minutes to get out of it without damaging the belt, but the receiver was destroyed in the process. I had to move a new buckle to the set to make the car drive-able but it was frustrating to have that happen in 85* heat after all that time in the car this weekend.