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    Noob introduction

    Hello everyone
    I am Luke Fisher, AKA StereoInstaller1. I recently bought a 1987 325is...cheap. Poor thing was beat down hard, horribly maintained. A few hours with polishing compounds and wax have made a great improvement on the looks, but far more importantly, a new timing belt, tensioner, water pump, O2 sensor, cap, rotor and a thorough valve adjustment has made this 230,000 mile motor run pretty well. 4 new balljoints has made the car feel kind of safe, but new struts, springs, rotors, brake sensors and pads will help a bunch too. I will be replacing the missing door brakes too, finding a decent paintless dent removal guy (gal?) locally here. LOTS to do on this car!

    Many of you here have been a big help already, I have read many posts looking for clues of what to do. Someone should tell the world about the stupid 126/127 tooth timing belt fiasco, to make certain aftermarket shops stop selling 126 tooth belts!

    Obviously, my screenname speaks to my profession. I have been a car stereo installer since 1980. I love my work, hate my industry. Well, maybe not all of it, and maybe hate is too strong a word, but I am sure many of you will understand.

    I am one of those guys who will not comporomise the quality of my work in customers cars. Regardless if it is a 1982 Reliant or a new Porsche, I do my best work (within the budget, of course) always. Always tight, always mechanically correct, always tidy wiring, always the correct wiring. Unfortunately, not for myself, so sometimes my own stuff can be a little slipshod. Always sounds good (it better, dammit!) just never finished in a pretty way. On my Bimmer, I am gonna go off...I will post someday in the ICE section what I am doing as a system plan. Just as a hint, all speakers will be in accoustically correct cabinets, no speakers hanging in a panel. No head unit either, but instead I am modifying a RF modulator to give me Sirius, CD, MD (2 changers) and feeding the output to a Audio Control Four.1 just to be different.

    I am sure I have rambled on long enough, so thanks for reading!
    Luke

    Closing SOON!
    "LAST CHANCE FOR G.A.S." DEAL IS ON NOW

    Luke AT germanaudiospecialties DOT com or text 425-761-6450, or for quickest answers, call me at the shop 360-669-0398

    Thanks for 10 years of fun!

    #2
    Welcome, it's good to see someone saving another E30.
    sigpic

    Comment


      #3
      Welcome to R3V - Good job on saving the 87iS (I saved mine too - they are great cars)
      Brandon

      Comment


        #4
        so you live near jordan?

        Comment


          #5
          Nice to have a ICE guy on board...!!!!
          Originally posted by Matt-B
          hey does anyone know anyone who gets upset and makes electronics?

          Comment


            #6
            What kind of cabinets are you going to make? I'm planning on redoing my system this Summer:

            a/d/s/ 5.25" comp set
            Illusion Audio 8" midbass drivers (700Hz down)

            a/d/s/ PQ10.2 for the comp set

            Nak CD7


            I live up in Portland, I'd be interested in seeing you pod design becase the placement of the stock speakers is terrible.
            Originally posted by Gruelius
            and i do not know what bugg brakes are.

            Comment


              #7
              OH boy...what kind of cabinets....now theres a question.
              Here is the system plan:
              Head unit: none
              CD changer: Kenwood Excelon KDC X87(or whatever the new 10 disk is called)
              DVD/NAV: Kenwood Excelon
              MD Changer: more Excelon (europe only, I hope Excelon, otherwise, whatever)
              Sirius radio (2 guesses here, kids...)
              Controlled by: KCA70 RF modulator

              Now, for those who are already screaming "RF? WTF? NOBODY uses RF" get a grip on yerself, let me explain...

              The Kenwood Sirius box has RCA outputs. Typical 1.2VRMS. They put out signal from satellite, CD, MD, whatever is fed into the sat box,see? So, to control Audio I am gonna use an AudioControl Four.1 Where else are you gonna find specs like these...SN ratio: better than 110db, THD: .0005, 9.5 VRMS...etc. the thing just kicks ass and is the most musical preamp I know of in car audio...and I bought mine from a crakhead for $10. I am gonna feed signal from the DVD player into the 2nd input on the Four.1.
              From there, I have an EQQ, 4 channel trunk mount EQ. Great sound quality, good dynamics, is fine with the HUGE input signal from the Four.1 So thus no head unit.

              AudioControl just released a really spiffy 24db/octave crossover called the 6XS. the thing has front high pass, front bandpass, and rear highpass along with sub output, plus sub level control. All crossover points are chip controlled, so they are far more accurate than any pot based crossover (albiet more unfreindly). Unfortunately, the chip is the split, so like I can not have my front highpass different that my top end of the bandpass. Lowpass is seperate though...thank god!

              Here is the amplifier layout:
              Infinity Reference 6 channel: 4X50 (or whatever) 2X100 (or whatever)
              Infinity Reference 1200.1 600 RMS on 4 ohms, double that on 2 ohms.
              I need nowhere near this much power, but they look good together, and nobody I carry makes a 6 channel that would make sense for this application, PLUS I am a dealer.

              Speaker layout is gonna be:
              Front dash: Infinity Perfect 5"
              Rear side panels: Infinity Kappa 6X9
              2.5 cubic foot ported box in trunk: Kappa Perfect 12 VQ

              So, 2 channels on tweets front highpass, 2 channels on mids front bandpass, 2 channels on rear highpass. I am expecting to run the rear down to like 50Hz, (24db/oct, remember?) the front mids down to like 125, due to the fact that I am building fiberglass cabinets in the door that start in the map pocket and continue up to the top of the door. I am gonna make some room in the top of the dash for my tweets, since I can control reflectivity off of the glass. I expect the cut between mids and tweets to be around 4.5Khz, glass being primarily reflective at about 3Khz.

              I will have separate EQ for front and rear too, so some control can happen there. I do not build for IASCA, I build for my poor old ears to listen to blues, jazz, funk, rap, whatever happens to catch my attention at the time.

              As far as the ported vs. sealed debate (I like tight bass, I want sealed...DUH!) if you spend any time reading audio literature, you will see that the MAJORITY of well regarded home speakers known for excellent clarity and detail in the low frequency regions are ported. IMHO, end of debate. I prefer the sound of a big ported box, and so do the vast majority of my customers. Design is critical though...I have heard many crappy vented boxes. I am fond of saying that desision was made by the person who designed the woofer, not you, not some salesperson, nor some big-headed stereo installer. If you don't like that, go design your own woofer! I have spec'd woofers and had them made by the hundred...I promise you have never heard such a clean musical infinite baffle system in your life. I like bigger boom these days though, so I use a top notch single 12 in a ported box. I also use WAY large ports, so they tend to be very long. As a guess, the Infinity is gonna want 2 4" ports, I will use Aeroports, I expect length to be about 32", as an educated guess. Until I buiild a test box and run impedance analysis and (if I get to) FFT, that is only a guess.

              Anyway, 'nuff ranting.

              Closing SOON!
              "LAST CHANCE FOR G.A.S." DEAL IS ON NOW

              Luke AT germanaudiospecialties DOT com or text 425-761-6450, or for quickest answers, call me at the shop 360-669-0398

              Thanks for 10 years of fun!

              Comment


                #8
                Welcome aboard. :D

                Glad to hear you are saving that iS, and even more glad to hear we got someone with as much experience in the ICE department as you. I think you will be a great asset. ;)

                Comment


                  #9
                  welcome

                  Ken sounds like you got some competition in the stereo department now

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Ken is gonna have far better components though. I may have to downgrade due to child support payments...for kids I don't get to see.

                    Guys, as a warning, if the bitch is psycho, don't breed.
                    Luke

                    Closing SOON!
                    "LAST CHANCE FOR G.A.S." DEAL IS ON NOW

                    Luke AT germanaudiospecialties DOT com or text 425-761-6450, or for quickest answers, call me at the shop 360-669-0398

                    Thanks for 10 years of fun!

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by StereoInstaller1
                      Ken is gonna have far better components though. I may have to downgrade due to child support payments...for kids I don't get to see.

                      Guys, as a warning, if the bitch is psycho, don't breed.
                      Luke
                      Lol, I like you already Luke.

                      Sucks about the kids, kids can be a joy. Do you ever get to see them?

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Isn't Jordan live in Coravllis? he can chekc you r bimmer personally tough...
                        Euro M3'87 NogaroSilver/Euro E34 M5 '93/Porsche 993 TT 97' Euro/Porsche 993 Carrera 95' Euro/Skyline R33 GT-R

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by diegom6
                          Isn't Jordan live in Coravllis? he can chekc you r bimmer personally tough...
                          Good post.

                          I bombed Korea every night.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by Werksmini
                            Originally posted by diegom6
                            Isn't Jordan live in Coravllis? he can chekc you r bimmer personally tough...
                            Good post.
                            He's from Peru. English obviously isn't his first language... give him a fucking break.
                            Originally posted by Gruelius
                            and i do not know what bugg brakes are.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by StereoInstaller1
                              Ken is gonna have far better components though.
                              I've actually decided to go with a Crystal Mobile Sound 3-way component set.

                              I'm in the process of selling my stuff now so I can purchase them.
                              Originally posted by Gruelius
                              and i do not know what bugg brakes are.

                              Comment

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