[simplicityinsound]

Hey guys, i know i havent been on the forum as much lately...mostly its because we are expecting our first child in a matter of weeks and any free time seems to be taken up with baby related shopping and doctors visits

But finally found sometime to knock out a few more build logs.

this was the first Porsche Cayenne we have done, but overall, it reminds me a bit of the Touareg we did last year...this 2006 model had some pretty specific goals:

1. achieve a nice level of sound quality that suits the listeners tastes

2. retain ALL oem cargo space and spare tire

3. maintain a completely stock appearance behind the front seats

lets get started

the signal source starts with a Pioneer avic 8000NEX headunit, installed via a connects2 kit:

we also installed a pioneer backup camera for him:

the front stage consisted of a set of Morel Elate 6.5" three way component set. the MW6 midbass was installed in the factory lower door locations, so Jesse fabbed up a set of oem speaker matching spacers for him and coated it with several layers of truck bedliner to protect them against the elements:

these were then bolted to the factory location using oem hardware, and new speaker wires were run into the door:

then the door panel received about 50 percent coverage with focal BAM XXXL composite damper, and a F.A.S.T ring was installed onto the speaker to form an acoustic seal against the door grille:

the outter door card, while very solid and comes with its own padding, also got some STP cld damper around the speaker area:

the same process was then repeated on the passenger side:

we also took the time and installed a set of arc audio xdi 6.5" coaxials, driven off the headunit, as per the customers request, to provide the rear passengers with some sound:

the Morel CDM880 and MT25 tweeter were molded into the A pillars, here is the finished product with them aiming roughly 60 degrees off axis, and the pillar finished in dash matching vinyl, always love looking at the Morel Lotus grilles

a few quick build pics of the pillars, first, the ring baffles were aimed and secured to the pillars:

then mold cloth was pulled, resin applied, allowed to cure, and then the pods were reinforced from the inside via a filler/resin mixture:

then a few layers of filler and sanding ensured and the shapes were blended in and smoothed out:

the pillars were then wrapped in vinyl, took a bit of tugging and pulling but i got them to fit

for the amplifiers and DSP, we chose to go below the second row seats for a completely hidden appearance. here is the view with seat in its normal position:

and flip up the seats, and here is what you see, two Arc Audio amplifiers run the entire system, a 1100.5 sends 150 watts x 4 to the front midrange and tweeter, while providing the sub with 500 watts, and a 600.4 is bridged sending 300 plus watts per channel into the door mounting morel midbass. a Mosconi 6to8v8 dsp controls all the action. pretty simple layout that is meant to fit completely under the seat and does not hinder the seat back folding down flat

this was a pretty simple rack, basically a MDF board, wrapped in vinyl, and bolted to the floor using a series of rivetnuts:

 

[simplicityinsound]

moving onto the sub...as mentioned, the idea for the build was to retain ALL factory cargo space as well as the spare tire...so i had to be a bit more creative when it came to the enclosure.

in the end, i decided to do my version of the oem BOSE enclosure that resides under the spare tire. here is what that enclosure looks like, its decently sized, but for some reason, they chose to use a dinky 5.25" "sub"

here is the view of the trunk, as you can see, completely oem looking:

flip up the floor and it still appears mostly stock:

look closely at the spare and you will catch glimpses of the new carpeted enclousre:

and peering through the hub opening of the spare you can catch the cone of an arc audio black 12 subwoofer:

now lets take a closer look at the the enclosure by removing the spare. as you can see, it has a bottom that fits the oem floor, and a stacked cylinder top portion that resides within the spare rim. it is bolted to the floor using oem mounting points and hardware.

now, i know what you may be thinking, that is a pretty darn small enclosure for a 12, and you wouldnt be wrong. i thought i had more space to work with and in the end, the enclosure came out to be roughly .7 cubic foot or so...but after some adjustments on the RTA, i got a decent curve out of it and it blends in pretty well with the music. the extra output over a 10 is welcome in a big cabin, but i have no problem in saying that if i had to do another one, i would maybe think about going with a 10"

some build pics of the box...first, the floor board was fully sound proofed:

then the area was tapped off and 5 layers of glass went on:

i then secured a mdf top, and blended the two together. the holes you see fits the oem studs and allows the oem nuts to be used to secure the new box. this was then test fitted in the car:

then a whole bunch of rings were cut and basically stacked together to form the upper bpart of the enclosure:

and then the box was carpted:

it was stuffed full with blackhole stuff to help offset the small enclosure space:

and the arc black 12 installed:

so thats it...pretty interesting project due to the space constraint but i am pretty happy with the way it sounds.

stage is nice and high, pillar to pillar in width and well defined and centered...perhaps one of the more well defined of the cars in recent times that did not have a dash mat... depth to the edge of the windshield

tonally its hard not to like the morel elate 3 way, the mw6 is capable of pushing out some serious midbass with very good extension, while the rest of the frequency range is natural and airy, though like all the new morels, it isnt the super laid back sound you may be associating with morel, as these can convey great detail but yet never becomes harsh. just overall very balanced.

the arc audio xdiv2 amps still impresses us, it does so so much that we hardly use other amps these days...if you didnt tell me, i would not guess were class D amps, something that cannot be said for the XDi v1 amp and quite a few other full range class D amps. the sub, once given some eq action, does quite well, it blends with the music and really can fill the large cabin with bass. due to the enclosure size, ultra bottom end isnt superb, but it also happens to suit the customers listening taste for jazzy type of music...overall quite nice

though i have to say this was one of the most annoying cars to take apart, all the clips seemed to have been designed with Hercules as the intended installers lol, Jesse had a helluva time trying to pop them off...so kudos to him for doing a great job all around...for a while it sounded like gun shots going off all the time in the shop as those babies releases.

Cheers,

Bing

 

[REGULARCAB]

Absolutely stellar once again. Would love to build my spare tire sub like that but I don't think I can afford that much mdf lol.

 

[simplicityinsound]

Its what u would call repetitive lol

 

[rdlhifi]

The thing i like the most is the atention to Detail:
the MDF rings could have been made just circular, and nobody would care about (once the Panel is refitted, nobody sees it, right?), but if You look with more atention, the contour follows the fastening holes...like I said, lovely.
And that Subbox is, what can I say? simply gorgeous!
If I recall correctly, it took me 1 full month to do mine (a simple reflex box with a slanted side) and it looks noway like Yours
Eager to read ("enjoy" would be a proper word) Your next Install build
Dan

 

[simplicityinsound]

The thing i like the most is the atention to Detail:
the MDF rings could have been made just circular, and nobody would care about (once the Panel is refitted, nobody sees it, right?), but if You look with more atention, the contour follows the fastening holes...like I said, lovely.
And that Subbox is, what can I say? simply gorgeous!
If I recall correctly, it took me 1 full month to do mine (a simple reflex box with a slanted side) and it looks noway like Yours
Eager to read ("enjoy" would be a proper word) Your next Install build
Dan

thanks Dan

We always take a flushtrim router bit and duplicate the factory speaker flange exactly (if possible) so that doesnt involve us drilling any more holes and everything looks neat

Jesse did a great job with these IMO.

 

[bbfoto]

Looks great, Bing. I love those Morel grills as well.

Did you modify the OEM rear floor spare tire access lid to include a subwoofer grill for venting the low dBBBBz into the cabin? Or does it being closed help to "load" the subwoofer?

 

[simplicityinsound]

Looks great, Bing. I love those Morel grills as well.

Did you modify the OEM rear floor spare tire access lid to include a subwoofer grill for venting the low dBBBBz into the cabin? Or does it being closed help to "load" the subwoofer?

something i noticed many years back, is that often, with a solid floor above, it doesnt really hurt sub performance that much. time and again, i would listen to it with the hatch open and closed, and hardly tell much of a difference

my own legacy wagon, my old car, used to score higher on sub with a super heavy solid rubber mat over the subs than without wide open...loading i guess

 

[subterFUSE]

Sub'd because we might be getting my wife a Cayenne Turbo S soon.

 

[SHAGGS]

First off, Congrats on the up coming mini-me! Enjoy/appreciate your sleep, now, while you can get it.

Love the pillars and the usual wiring porn on the rack!

 

[rdubbs]

Incredible as always! Good luck with the little one!

 

[eling23]

love the sub box!! #nailedit

 

[2167]

congrats as always
those f.a.s.t rings are pretty cool

 

[rton20s]

I'm glad you went into detail on the enclosure size. Knowing the enclosure size for my Black 12, I was just looking at that going, "No way, that is way to small." Nice to see you got the response pretty well sorted out with a little work on the EQ.

 

[simplicityinsound]

I'm glad you went into detail on the enclosure size. Knowing the enclosure size for my Black 12, I was just looking at that going, "No way, that is way to small." Nice to see you got the response pretty well sorted out with a little work on the EQ.

yeah...when i designed the system, i looked at the stock sub enclosure and though...that aughta be a cubic foot in there...

then i got the car in and started building...and it was like...:worried::surprised::blush:

luckily, i do have some experience in undersized enclosures since i always try to stuff things under the floor or in other tight spaces...so i figured with the processing power i should be able to get it to sound okay...but yeah...10" next time haha

 

[rmchevelle]

I know this was posted a week ago but...

As usual, beautiful install. The pillars, enclosure and amp rack/wiring are so well done.

Sounds like you have a new little installer/fabricator on the way. Congrats!

 

[sdotjee]

Space spacing and Stealth, SQ build in a 06 Cayenne S: Arc, Morel, Mosconi, P...

This, as is every build log of you guys ,is a pleasure to look and read through!!!
I left a comment on your Facebook page but got no response , curiosity is killing me about the car in the background.....is it a genuine b5 RS4???

If so can you PLEASE share details on how to get around the horrible front doors


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[rxonmymind]

Attention to detail is to be commended. Wow. Truck bed liner to future proof it. Excellent.

As for your comments the Morel is indeed nice to look at and recently Burmester grills caught my attention. I'd like to relocate the Mids in the future to the front of the doors closer to the tweeters of my Rx350 with these type of grills.

May have to pay you a visit on my sub install in the "same area" as the one you did. It'll be a square down firing sub relacing the flat tire tools that take up horrendous amount of wasted space.

Well done!

 

[glfrancis2]

Nice install. I have been wondering how to fit the massive morels (tweeter and mid) and that is an excellent job. That mid and tweeter seems to be friendlier to the task. I couldn't find the response graphs anywhere. Do these have the same off axis response of the other morels? I have had morel before and that (compared to others brands) was a bonus.