Trunk enclosure 3rd iteration...

[adrean8j]

Here are some pics of my trunk for this years Carshow season....

In the light:

In the night:

p.s. I forgot to mention that those woofer covers actually spin when the neons are turned on.....if i new a site to host a quick video i would post it...anyone?

just done getting the cams changed at my tuner Digit Power( www.digit-power.de):

going to test it with the cams at the Dyno...

I dyno'd it in August and it had 170ps(its a 523i and it already had CAI and chip and exhaust), this time it dyno'd at 197ps(changed Camshafts and new VANOS to replace old one)

 

[adrean8j]

Wow...i didnt even get a single comment! No thoughts or observations people? Yay or Nay?

 

[William330]

Looks nice, now where do you put the groceries, or the spare tire?

 

[andreyiv]

Do you have easy access to the spare (if you do have the spare)?

I was bored on vacation, had 2 subs, amp and a cap sitting around so I bult an enclosure with a friend of mine. I never carry anything long in the car so I have a hole where the ski rack goes. Put the two subs in facing the hole and at a 90 degree angle with each other. Used software to calculate the area that would be just right for those two subs in a sealed enclosure and built it to spec. After we put it in and after I got a new spare I realised I can't get the spare out with the enclosure in there which sucks. The box came out to be so perfectly sized that nothing but friction is holding it in and thus, when I go to remove it, I have to angle it just right to get it out and all of that takes A WHILE.

I'd hate getting a flat but I think the sound improvement is worth it. Oh and I think one sub would have done the job no problem (I don't need a lot of bass) but I had two and didn't want one going to waste.

 

[adrean8j]

Looks nice, now where do you put the groceries, or the spare tire?

I have a full sized spare but i keep it in the basement.....I keep my tires in really good condition and change them as soon as the start to get low....the odds of me really having to change a tire are very slim...if it did happen i have ADAC PLUS which is a type of Road side assistance and that is what i pay my 60euros a year for! Now technically i am supposed to have yes but a risk i take....

as for groceries they go right there in the back. Our american commissary only gives you plastic bags and i have a piece that cover the amp opening. Bags with "soft" items goes closest to the woofer covers so they dont get scratched up.
If there isnt enough room there is always the back seat..so i have never had a problem with it as i dont have much to put exclusively in the trunk...

 

[adrean8j]

I was bored on vacation, had 2 subs, amp and a cap sitting around so I bult an enclosure with a friend of mine. I never carry anything long in the car so I have a hole where the ski rack goes. Put the two subs in facing the hole and at a 90 degree angle with each other. Used software to calculate the area that would be just right for those two subs in a sealed enclosure and built it to spec. After we put it in and after I got a new spare I realised I can't get the spare out with the enclosure in there which sucks. The box came out to be so perfectly sized that nothing but friction is holding it in and thus, when I go to remove it, I have to angle it just right to get it out and all of that takes A WHILE.

I'd hate getting a flat but I think the sound improvement is worth it. Oh and I think one sub would have done the job no problem (I don't need a lot of bass) but I had two and didn't want one going to waste.

One sub would be ok...but two is always better IMHO. Do you have pics of it?

 

[andreyiv]

Not at this point but I'll post one or two when I get home.

 

[andreyiv]

I just realized that I don't have any recent pictures so I'll post what I have.

This is how it looked like from inside the car when we first put it in.

After some time we made this emblem or logo (whatever you want to call it) and put it in with some bolts, this is what it looked like after and still does today.

For the little triangle we used two pieces of lexan. Painted one piece of the lexan and then sandwiched the painted side with the other piece of lexan; used some nice looking bolts to attach it.

We used vinyl to cover the inside of that little space where the speakers sit (the store didn't have leather the same color as the interior) and some foam to make it look like it does. All the work was done by my friend and me in my backyard, well, except for the leather and carpet, which was done in the house. Took us about a day of calculations and figuring it all out, after that I think it was 3 days total to build the whole thing and later on another day for the little triangle.

I know the speakers when compared to others are complete pieces of crap but the speakers, the amp, cap and another enclosure (which took up my whole trunk because of the awkward shape) were gifts and we worked with what we had. Oh and yeah, those are 12 inch speakers, it was a huge pain in the ass to figure out how to make them fit and still have the desired space in the trunk while having the optimal volume inside the enclosure.

I'd be glad to hear thoughts, complements or not.

 

[epj3]

Andreyiv wow thats awesome!!!! adrean8j I like it too, I've always thought your car was pretty damn hot. Love the fact its such a 'pull me over' red.

 

[adrean8j]

Andreyiv looks awesome man....i mean reallllly gooood. The way you have them angled is the same way i have them. I didnt have a ski sack hole precut but when we removed the back seat to look BMW was nice enough to have preforated cuts in the sheet metal already(so all that extra money people paid for the ski package is essentially bull).....so anyway all we did was cut out directly where the precuts were at. I have 10" inch subs in there myself. I am going today to do my SPL test at the shop so later on i will post the results.

p.s. Andreyiv even crap speakers can sound decent with the proper enclosure, wiring, and a little bit of TLC! I am actually a little bit jealous of the fact that your subs are red

 

[andreyiv]

Thanks a lot guys, I appreciate it.

adrean8j, I had to go through the same thing with the hole, it wasn't cut out but real easy to remove that extra piece of metal. I got the idea of putting them in like that from a website that had an e36 M3 with the same setup except 10 inch woofers and believe you me, when we were building it, we really wished we had 10s and not the 12s. So angled triangles on top and bottom (where the BMW triangle sits) were not in the first design, we had to do that to fit it all in the trunk. Since it was a first for both of us, we overlooked a few things we should have paid more attention to.

I love how your setup is pretty much built into the car, looks like it was an option from the dealer . I could never come up with how to integrate it all into the trunk.

 

[adrean8j]

Yeah well more props to you because you guys built it all yourself! While i went a paid a professional. I had the basic design in my head and told him what i wanted and he built it and put a little extra in there because thats just how he is! I wanted to have some trunk space so i could put at least a couple bags in there if need be. No golf clubs though....LOL
p.s. can you get a pic of the trunk from the back side? I wanna see how much space you have left.
p.s.s. I did my SPL test and it was 134.6db with some 10" subs(x2)....LOL pretty good huh?

 

[andreyiv]

I can't exactly fit gold clubs in the space I got left either but there is a little bit of space. Don't have any pictures though, we were so pleased we got done with the enclosure itself, we just dumped everything in the trunk and wired it up as it was laying there so it never looked pretty. Later on I just bored of the bouncing amp so I bolted it up diagonally to the top of the trunk, I still didn't come up with an idea for the cap. I'll take a few pics tomorrow, post em up.

135db is pretty damn loud, my setup deffinately wouldn't hit that mark, the amp is even worse then the speakers in terms of volume. Its a class AB amp so technically better quality then a class D but a lot of heat and less power for the money. Mine is 200W (rms) per channel (2 channels).

 

[adrean8j]

Yeah my amps are the Monobloc Audison LRx 1.400(subs-1 x 600w RMS) running at 2ohms and the Audison SRx4 running at 2ohms(front systems-4 x 85w RMS), also running with two caps at 1.0F....check out the amps here: http://www.audison.com/default.asp?lang=eng
The speakers are Hertz Hi-Energy HSK 130 (X4) in the cabin and for the subs Hertz Hi-Energy HX 250(x2) you can find them here: http://www.hertzaudiovideo.com/default_en.htm

 

[i heart 3 series]

I just realized that I don't have any recent pictures so I'll post what I have.

This is how it looked like from inside the car when we first put it in.

After some time we made this emblem or logo (whatever you want to call it) and put it in with some bolts, this is what it looked like after and still does today.

For the little triangle we used two pieces of lexan. Painted one piece of the lexan and then sandwiched the painted side with the other piece of lexan; used some nice looking bolts to attach it.

We used vinyl to cover the inside of that little space where the speakers sit (the store didn't have leather the same color as the interior) and some foam to make it look like it does. All the work was done by my friend and me in my backyard, well, except for the leather and carpet, which was done in the house. Took us about a day of calculations and figuring it all out, after that I think it was 3 days total to build the whole thing and later on another day for the little triangle.

I know the speakers when compared to others are complete pieces of crap but the speakers, the amp, cap and another enclosure (which took up my whole trunk because of the awkward shape) were gifts and we worked with what we had. Oh and yeah, those are 12 inch speakers, it was a huge pain in the ass to figure out how to make them fit and still have the desired space in the trunk while having the optimal volume inside the enclosure.

I'd be glad to hear thoughts, complements or not.

I thought if you're going to do a trunk enclosure on a compact car you point the sub box towards the back of the car. That way the bass can bounce off the trunk lid and go into the car cabin. I see you have your sub box pointing toward the cabin. Was I wrong or does it not make a difference? [???1]

 

[andreyiv]

Well, the thinking behind that is to give the wave "space to fully develop" or however some poeple want to explain it. I tried pointing the speakers towards the trunk lid but all I got was terrible rattle from the trunklid and horribly distorted sound. The sound wave didn't bounce off, it just rattled the hell out of everything. Also, since the trunk is small, the box pretty much takes up all cross-sectional area so the wave can't even get around it, not to mention it wouldn't be enough to "develop" it so in a car of this size it wouldn't even make a difference. Not to mention that the spekers would be facing the rest of the trunk so you it wouldn't be possible to put anything in the trunk except for something very light and soft.

The way I have speakers set up, most of the sound goes directly into the cabin without bouncing off or distorting against unecessary objects and I don't get any rattling from the trunk lid; sure the sound doesn't go through a whole wave length before reaching my ears, I just get a standing wave, so what? To tell you the truth, what I have now sounds a lot better then what the original "professionally" designed and build enclosure. Even if I would somehow get a little bit better sound quality by facing the speakers out, I wouldn't do it; I need whatever is left of my trunk.

adrean8j, sorry I don't have pics of the trunk, I felt kind of lazy today and decided not to do anything but rest, hopefully tomorrow I'll make myself take some and post em up.

 

[adrean8j]

Thats cool Andreyiv...LOL..i have been kinda busy so far this weekend also. In response to I heart 3series, that concept works really well with hatchbacks and compact cars without the 1/4 inch sheetmetal that BMW's have behind the back seat in most models. Therefore in order to get the most of the Bass soundwave you need to somehow direct it into the cabin, hence the setup that me and Andreyiv have where the subs are enclosed at the same exact angle to direct the bass into the cabin. Another route would be to try and get it to direct into the cabin thru selfmade holes in the rear speaker decking, granted i recommend the former over the latter. Directing it to the back just will give you a lot of reverb and not a clean bass sound at all....at least not to an audiophiles ears......just my two cents...