the project
Over the
years car hi-fi (i.e. high-fideliy!)
systems have been installed in 5 of my cars. Every time
they've gotten a little better. The work has always been
done by myself. After 10 years of transferring the same
components they had done their time and newer technologies
were available. 2007 was the time for a change. And it was
time to look for a car that was suited to host what was
going to be my 6th
and best
system so far. I chose components from these brands:
the right car
On the
wishlist were safe and silent cars: anything less than à 6
in a row (referring to my former BMWs) or a V6 wouldn't do.
Upper class noise isolation in stock condition is already
quite good. It should be a 4 wheel drive since I live in
the mountains. A station wagon is necessary to transport my
dog and all the sports gear. That narrows it down to BMW's,
Audis, VW's and Mercedes (I wanted to buy used). I'prefer
manual transmissions for narrow mountain road driving and
more control. The car must be in an excellent condition
with low milage. Age was not that important, as long as
it's good condition promised to last and justify a time
consuming installation.
Internet
sould help me find my future car:
That's
how I came across the Audi Avant S4 quattro (= permanent 4
wheel drive) 4.2 liter V8, 32 valves ABH engine. Manual 6
transmission, 280 hp (206 kw at 5600 rpm) for 1740 kg, 400
Nm of torque (at 4000 rpm), 0-100 km/h in 6.2 sec and 250
km/h of top speed. Only 44'000 km on the odometer confirmed
by the regular maintenance documents. The car (always
parked inside) is in absolute mint condition and Audi has
done their homwork in preventing corrosion. I like the idea
of driving a 100'000 US$ price tag car that has the same
bavarian origins I have. It was way ahead of it's time when
it left the assembly line in 1994 and still offers today
what can be considered as up to date technology.
More about that stunning car
here.
looks
like new (and very close to)
the right sound
The
masterpiece of Audi motorsport engeneering did already an
excellent job on how the V8 sounds (just like music for
some). I thought more of the music inside the car.
The
car would almost be european, if there were not the
american condensators and Monster cables to tranfer the
signal from the headunit to at least one japanese amplifier
;-)
impossibilities
I wanted
to keep the car with it's original looks and keep the roomy
trunk with descrete invisible installation. Originally,
there are two combo speakers in each door. A standard
tweeter and an 11cm mid ranger without crossover. The
challenge was to replace those way to small mid range
speakers by 13 cm (front) and 16 cm (rear) ones while
everywhere everyone's answer was "That cannot be done !".
There was no room for the subwoofer. Therefor the spare
wheel had to quit the car and was replaced by a liquid
emergency kit with a cigarette lighter powerd compressor.
Another problem was how to cool these amps in their
compartment. Addinonal fans and venting holes should help.
installation
Everything
was done step by step and the car needed to be operational
again after completing each of them. My days of work have
to be considered as evenings (after work to late night) or
as wednesday afternoons. The whole process took me about a
month.
Dario's
Garage de l'Olympe, a place where I spent about 60 hours.
day 1
First, I
had to figure out how to take off the door panels and all
the rest for the future wiring, without breaking something.
Then, I had to think very hard (!) how to fit the speakers
I already owned. Placing the other components and where to
pass the wiring was easier to decide.
day 2
I
started by cutting the trunk panel into the right shape and
by fitting the wooden cylinder for the woofer and it's
bottom cover.
The reflex tube was installed after calculating it's lenght
according to the enclosure's volume according to the
subwoofer's specifications. Everything got dampened with
acoustic foam.
day 3
The
components got fixed on the woofer panel.
I
sticked some anti vibration panels with the hair dryer into
the spare tire enclosure and added some more dampening
acoustic foam.
day 4
All I
managed to do was to fit the speakers in the front
passenger door. Most of the time was consumed by creating
that wood adapter whose fit was stabilised in a great way
by channels sliding over the bottom and the front metal
parts of the door. Passing the speaker cables from the door
into the car was a real pain (and I already was looking
forward to do that 3 more times).
day 5
I fitted
the speakers in both rear doors.
How
much room is there left for those 16 cm mids instead of the
11s ?
There
is as good as no room left for anything else than those 16
cm mids !
day 6
I fitted
the speaker in the driver door and did all the speaker
cable wiring.
day 7
Installing
the head unit and routing 3 pairs of signal cables to the
amps in the trunk.
Watch
out, on vehicles from the Audi/Volkswagen group, the plugs
are not ISO compatible: usually at least permanent + and
switched + are inverted !
Cables
passing between the front seats.
day 8
The
battery under the rear seat allowed short power wiring.
Lossless powerfeeding is good for the amplifiers and their
full operation mode to produce better quality sound. I made
all the connections and verified them.
EVERYTHING WORKED THE FIRST TIME I SWITCHED ON THE SYSTEM !
That was a big relief and I'm quite proud of that fact.
day 9
Cutting
to shape the cover panel for the trunk. To drill the 150
holes was not exactly very pleasant to do. But the bass
sound needs to get somehow out of there and the heat
created by the amps has to be evacuated.
day 10
Two more
holes got drilled in the top trunk panel to fit two silent
ventilators that help to cool down the space underneath.
They are switched on by the Helix power amp that is
equipped with such an output.
day 11
Acoustic
carpet got glued on the trunk panel, the car cot finally
cleand (inside and outside) and the leather upholstry got a
maintainance treatment.
set up
day 12
Some
basic sound setting was done by myself. The head unit
features a 5 way parametric equalizer. Nicola Cassetta
Audio Tuning's job was to measure the specific frequencies
inside the car with his professional equippment. That
allowed ajustments to get a quite linear result.
the sound
Do we
need more power ? No, there's already enough to blow my
ears. My listening volume range is fully covered. The low
and dry bass is present in a good and natural proportion.
Front staging could be better with on dash tweeters, but
it's way better than what I expected from that original
mounting positions. The sound comes off heavenly warm and
aerial, globally very natural I'd say. That qualification
is valid for the whole system that reproduces the music
with good neutral precision. If I'm happy in the end ?
That's what counts, doesn't it ? The car is not for sale
;-)
costs
Cheap is
too expensive, that's why I did it right. Doing it by
myself helped me learn a little more. That makes me less
dependent and it saved some money I could spent on
components. To calculte what that system is worh, I still
had to count part of my 60 hours invested (a proffessional
would be more efficient than me). Keep that in mind if you
plan something similar.
thanks
Over
all, thanks to Dario. He let me use his garage and all the
tools I don't have. He was also there to give me advice or
a third hand when my two were not enough. Even without that
favour, Garage de l'Olympe gets anyway a big
recommandation.
Nicola Cassetta Audio Tuning for his professional approach
and solutions.
German "Auto Hifi" magazine: as a long time subscriber I
learned a lot through their workshops and their testing of
new sets made it easier to narrow down what to chose.
