[vwdave]

So a friend of mine came to me and asked me to fix an install that was done by a "reputable" shop. He brought in a head unit to them that he chose due to it's nice matchup with the car. It's a high end 8" alpine unit with a nice parametric Eq, time alignment, and a few other nice tuning features.

He purchased focal 6.5" poly glass components (the ones with crossovers are hard wired and the tweeters are also hard wired), he has a pair in front and rear. Those are run off an MB Quart 4 channel amp. He also has an Image Dynamics IDMax 12. It's a v2 that was reckoned by ID and now uses v4 specs according to image dynamics. The sub is run off an incriminator audio amp.

So my friends complaints were that the front stage sounded muddy. No clarity as all. He also stated that the sub didn't have the impact that he expected. The installer also broke every panel that he removed. Here was also a rattle coming from the left rear door.

So my friend brought the car back several times to them. He asked that they run new speaker wire into the doors, and that for every connection to solder and heat shrink rather than use butt connectors.

Btw he listens to mostly electronic music.

 

[JayinMI]

Out of curiosity, did he offer to pay to have them run wires into the doors and solder everything? As I remember, running wires into the doors on those could be a b*tch. The only reason I ask, is if their normal way of doing this is with butt connectors, and that's how they initially quoted the job, then he should have mentioned it up front. Or did he want them to do that for breaking every panel they touched? I'm not trying to put this on him, I work in the industry and have had to fix MANY installs done by other people. More of a curiosity thing.

Jay

 

[vwdave]

So I started by removing the kick panels and looking at the crossovers. They have one adjustable setting, for the tweeters. It's -3dB, 0, and +3dB. It was set to -3. It moved it up 0 and we took a listen. Huge improvement.

Then it removed the dash panels in the corners where the tweeters were. Low and behold, the tweeters were secured to the bottoms of the panels with fake dynamat. I then knew that this was going to be fun.

The "custom" built box in the back at first inspection had some funny shaving looking finish to the top. The owner explained that the installer did that so that he could wedge the box under the amp rack.

I measured the box and it was just about 1.8 cuft of air space. According to ID the sub should have 1cuft. It can go up to 1.75 but that's for SQ, and I would expect the output to drop a lot, plus for this sub it needs to solid box, not an I braced 3/4"mdf box that has one side shaved down in the middle.

 

[vwdave]

Out of curiosity, did he offer to pay to have them run wires into the doors and solder everything? As I remember, running wires into the doors on those could be a b*tch. The only reason I ask, is if their normal way of doing this is with butt connectors, and that's how they initially quoted the job, then he should have mentioned it up front. Or did he want them to do that for breaking every panel they touched? I'm not trying to put this on him, I work in the industry and have had to fix MANY installs done by other people. More of a curiosity thing.

Jay

I can't say exactly when he requested it. I also don't know what he paid for.

So when I rewired the mid in the drivers door I found that the polarity was reversed, and they spliced the speaker wire 3 times, using 18 gauge and cheap 16 gauge.

So for the tweeters I decided to make pods in the factory locations. I also made them so that they can be rotated 180* for tuning.

I guess I missed a few pictures, I resined the grill cloth, removed them, trimmed, bondo, sanded and painted.

 

[vwdave]

So for the sub box, I moved the existing box in all directions and found that side firing had the best sound.

So...

So I measured and found that I made the box too big. No big deal, it could be cut down to size...

I made a grill but I'm waiting for the final parts to arrive, so I'll bring it to him...

 

[JayinMI]

Is that one roll of tape like 6" wide?!? I want some of that. lol Who makes it and where can I get some?

Jay

 

[vwdave]

So in tuning I was briefed by the high noise floor, and the sub would not get enough volume, but all of the other sound issues were resolved. The front clarity was crystal clear. I amazing was vastly improved, and the sub was hitting much tighter.

The head unit goes up to about 35 but they set the max volume to 15. I adjusted it up to 25 and this lowered the gains on the amp for the components. The noise floor went away. Also the sub is now very loud but still clear.

So the parametric eq was another story. Here is their tune...

Here is mine, remembering that the owner likes electronic music...

Final listening impressions are that it has good imaging, nice range and good balance. THe highs are a bit harsh for my taste and the mids are a bit muted, but it's tuned exactly how the owner wants it.

The sub is extremely tight but gets very loud. I tested the system with some of the typical sq tracks. "Ants marching" by DMB sounds very good. All instruments sound incredibly clear and accurate. I then played "handyman" by James Taylor and same effect. The track is extremely clear. It feels like James is sitting in the car with you his voice is so accurate.

Then when I play his electronic music the bass hits extremely hard and the highs are are very bright. The mids are able to pick up the upper bass and they bring the lower end imaging up front.

Overall the owner is extremely happy.

Now, about the car, it's insanely fast. It's a G8 GT with a Maggie tvr2300 supercharger and meth injection.

 

[vwdave]

Is that one roll of tape like 6" wide?!? I want some of that. lol Who makes it and where can I get some?

Jay

Haha no, it's like 4 rolls on 1" wide all stuck together. I'd want 6" wide tape too. Lol

 

[JoshHefnerX]

Good job, thanks for doing right by the G8! I'd love to get a Maggie on mine. I'm assuming that he's using the G8 designs faceplace for the replacement stereo. How'd it look in the car?

Josh

 

[vwdave]

Not sure who makes the dash kit but it looks great in the car. Not a fan of the HVAC controller as it uses a touch screen display in place of the original. The owner said that his car is only the second in the US with this combo of the head unit and this dash kit.

Here's a couple of shots...

I was glad to make the g8 right. As an old GM v8 muscle car owner I will always have a place in my heart for the f-body, GTO, G8, and the new SS.

The Maggie makes it quick, a little too quick. I've driven them before, another friend has a Maggie's G8 and he wants me to do an install in his too. I drove his home from Vegas about 2 years ago.

 

[hot9dog]

VERY NICE!!! good job.... is the car loud with the Maggie?

 

[vwdave]

VERY NICE!!! good job.... is the car loud with the Maggie?

Thanks. It's actually not very loud at all until you get on it. He still has factory exhaust and manifolds.

The problem is, when you get on it you get a whining sound, similar to what you'd hear through your speakers with engine whine. It takes getting used to for sure.

 

[hot9dog]

yeah a roots style of blower does put off a lot of whine, a good exhaust and a set of headers will offset that some... lol

 

[JoshHefnerX]

whine is the supercharger. The faceplate kit is from g8 designs in florida

https://www.facebook.com/G8Designs

I've seen this setup, but wasn't sure how it looked in person - fit and finish.

I'm still running factory on mine, but I ran into an interesting one this weekend while I started my tuning. while on auxiliary I could actually hear my xm playing through at low level. Kinda makes me want to change out the head unit...