As long time car audio enthusiasts, many of lament the fact that quite a few of the old school car audio brands have gone away...most of them remain in the graveyard for all eternity, worse yet, some of them get brought back to life as a skeleton of its former self, floosing the same logo but sans any of the original performance capabilities.
One such brand for me was Illusion Audio...the first time i heard some Illusion speakers was bout 12 years ago...i liked them enough that i purchase my own set of comps and sub...i enjoyed them a lot but after a very short amount of time...due to budgetary concerns as a starving grad students, i had to sell them off. then, a few years later, i heard that the company had went under and that was it...
So...when i learned that ORCA design was bringin the Illusion name back, i was both excited and nervous...deep down, i know that ORCA wouldnt do anything half assed, but still, would it live up to originals and would they still feature the same front motor design that they are known for?
almost two years ago, i saw the prototypes at CES, and some of my fears were calmed, they looked great, still had the front mounted motor, and i was assured that additional improvements had been taken into the design. for me, if I had wished for something out of my original set, it was a bit more midbass output and a bit more output and extension of the sub.
Then, a few months ago, i had a chance to sample the first of the Illusion releases, the top of the line C12 XL sub...truth be told, i was BLOWN AWAY, they are perhaps the best combo SQ and SPL subs i ahve ever heard...but still, they were not the "real" thing, they didnt have the trademark front magnet.
so after a few more months of waiting and anticipating, i finally got my hands on a full Carbon (top of the line) set to play with...
purely out of coincidence, the car that i chose to do my first all illusion build was perfectly suited for them...a brand spanking new 2012 MKVI GTI...
there are two reaons why the new Gti is perfect.
1. there is VERY little clearance behind the oem midbass location. a plastic frame limits mounting depth severely, and you cannot cut it on the account that it is also the anchoring point for the window track. there is also very little space between the metal door panel and the grill on the plastic door card. what this means is that with most good aftermarket midbasses, you are kinda stuck between a rock and a hard space, space it enough to clear the basket behind the speaker, and you risk hitting the surround against the plastic door grille. i believe there are a few members who have experienced this very problem. a cheap shallow midbass can work, but they hardly have the performance we are all looking for.
2. the spare tire well in late model VWs is a donut shaped, with a raised center section. this again limits the depth of the subwoofer. if i wanted to build a fake floor with no raising of the oem height, the entire subwoofer, both mounting depth, AND thickness of the flange and the excursion of the surround, has to be around 4.5" or so...now, if you think about it, most flat subs are still 3.5" or so deep, add thickness of flange and excursion of the surround, you are talking about close to 4.5-5" of total space. that works but since the SI BM is no longer avaiable, i have found the output and extension of most flat subs to be lacking...this is why i normally would do a side mounted box in this car.
Well, as you will see, Illusion Audio is the perfect answer to both of those issues.
so lets get started...
Goals:
1. Achieve a good level of SQ, this is a daily driver, but will compete occasionally at a few events around the area.
2. maintain a low key look inside the cabin
3. build a fully stealth fake floor with zero space taken up, durable but have a lil flash to highlight the products.
lets get started.
First is the car...almost brand new
Becuase the car came with the OEM nav, we decided to retain it.
as it turns out, i didnt even need to recode the headunit becuase it came with the Dynaudio system, the OEM setting is sending out a low level flat signal to the amp....
so here is what the output signal looks like, as you can see pretty flat:
to ensure that there is volume dependent equalization, here are plots of the signal at various volumes, as you can see, pretty consistent, aside from a 18khz bump at VERY low volumes (7 on the OEM setting)
I took apart a Mosconi remote bass controller and mounted the knob in one of the blank knockout panels infront of the shifter
Becuase the car uses a Mosconi 6to8 DSP processor, all tuning can be dune at the front seat using a Bluetooth connected laptop:
Now, onto the front stage. the Illusion midabass is installed in the oem lower door location.
first, two pairs of 16 gauge wires are run into the doors. in the new Gti this is a simple task by going underneath the stock molex plug. The reason i ran 2 16 guage instead of the single 14 guage i have going back to the amp is that they are eaiser to snake through and doubling them up would more than account for the differences in gauge.
knowing from past experience, i focused the sound proofing around the area of the midbass driver:
Then i fabricated two spacer baffles for the Illusion drivers, and coated them with truck bedliner to protect them against the elements. as you can see, they are just 1/2" MDF...anyone with a MKVI VW would know how crazy this is
these baffles were then secured tot he door:
Now before mounting the speaker, let us take a closer look at the Illusion Carbon C6 component set. It is beautifully made, craftsmanship is superior than the old ones from memory, pay special attention to the tweeter, whcih features a material i have never seen before in a car audio speaker...a combination of copper and beryllium...quite cool!
One such brand for me was Illusion Audio...the first time i heard some Illusion speakers was bout 12 years ago...i liked them enough that i purchase my own set of comps and sub...i enjoyed them a lot but after a very short amount of time...due to budgetary concerns as a starving grad students, i had to sell them off. then, a few years later, i heard that the company had went under and that was it...
So...when i learned that ORCA design was bringin the Illusion name back, i was both excited and nervous...deep down, i know that ORCA wouldnt do anything half assed, but still, would it live up to originals and would they still feature the same front motor design that they are known for?
almost two years ago, i saw the prototypes at CES, and some of my fears were calmed, they looked great, still had the front mounted motor, and i was assured that additional improvements had been taken into the design. for me, if I had wished for something out of my original set, it was a bit more midbass output and a bit more output and extension of the sub.
Then, a few months ago, i had a chance to sample the first of the Illusion releases, the top of the line C12 XL sub...truth be told, i was BLOWN AWAY, they are perhaps the best combo SQ and SPL subs i ahve ever heard...but still, they were not the "real" thing, they didnt have the trademark front magnet.
so after a few more months of waiting and anticipating, i finally got my hands on a full Carbon (top of the line) set to play with...
purely out of coincidence, the car that i chose to do my first all illusion build was perfectly suited for them...a brand spanking new 2012 MKVI GTI...
there are two reaons why the new Gti is perfect.
1. there is VERY little clearance behind the oem midbass location. a plastic frame limits mounting depth severely, and you cannot cut it on the account that it is also the anchoring point for the window track. there is also very little space between the metal door panel and the grill on the plastic door card. what this means is that with most good aftermarket midbasses, you are kinda stuck between a rock and a hard space, space it enough to clear the basket behind the speaker, and you risk hitting the surround against the plastic door grille. i believe there are a few members who have experienced this very problem. a cheap shallow midbass can work, but they hardly have the performance we are all looking for.
2. the spare tire well in late model VWs is a donut shaped, with a raised center section. this again limits the depth of the subwoofer. if i wanted to build a fake floor with no raising of the oem height, the entire subwoofer, both mounting depth, AND thickness of the flange and the excursion of the surround, has to be around 4.5" or so...now, if you think about it, most flat subs are still 3.5" or so deep, add thickness of flange and excursion of the surround, you are talking about close to 4.5-5" of total space. that works but since the SI BM is no longer avaiable, i have found the output and extension of most flat subs to be lacking...this is why i normally would do a side mounted box in this car.
Well, as you will see, Illusion Audio is the perfect answer to both of those issues.
so lets get started...
Goals:
1. Achieve a good level of SQ, this is a daily driver, but will compete occasionally at a few events around the area.
2. maintain a low key look inside the cabin
3. build a fully stealth fake floor with zero space taken up, durable but have a lil flash to highlight the products.
lets get started.
First is the car...almost brand new
Becuase the car came with the OEM nav, we decided to retain it.
as it turns out, i didnt even need to recode the headunit becuase it came with the Dynaudio system, the OEM setting is sending out a low level flat signal to the amp....
so here is what the output signal looks like, as you can see pretty flat:
to ensure that there is volume dependent equalization, here are plots of the signal at various volumes, as you can see, pretty consistent, aside from a 18khz bump at VERY low volumes (7 on the OEM setting)
I took apart a Mosconi remote bass controller and mounted the knob in one of the blank knockout panels infront of the shifter
Becuase the car uses a Mosconi 6to8 DSP processor, all tuning can be dune at the front seat using a Bluetooth connected laptop:
Now, onto the front stage. the Illusion midabass is installed in the oem lower door location.
first, two pairs of 16 gauge wires are run into the doors. in the new Gti this is a simple task by going underneath the stock molex plug. The reason i ran 2 16 guage instead of the single 14 guage i have going back to the amp is that they are eaiser to snake through and doubling them up would more than account for the differences in gauge.
knowing from past experience, i focused the sound proofing around the area of the midbass driver:
Then i fabricated two spacer baffles for the Illusion drivers, and coated them with truck bedliner to protect them against the elements. as you can see, they are just 1/2" MDF...anyone with a MKVI VW would know how crazy this is
these baffles were then secured tot he door:
Now before mounting the speaker, let us take a closer look at the Illusion Carbon C6 component set. It is beautifully made, craftsmanship is superior than the old ones from memory, pay special attention to the tweeter, whcih features a material i have never seen before in a car audio speaker...a combination of copper and beryllium...quite cool!