My install - Clarion MAX983HD, Alpine Imprint and Focal in 911 Turbo

laalves

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Hi all,

Don't usually post much here but I decide for a full overhaul of my car's OEM system, which was the proverbial Bose. I love my car, and at first I even liked the sound, but after a while, noticed it was typical Bose: bloated overblown bass and not much else, very compressed and little midrange. The only good thing going for it was that it didn't distort at max level, which was too low, anyway.

So, in a couple of episodes, here's a description of what I did:

The Clarion episode

My 911 Turbo had the PCM1 system, with 16bit navigation, CD changer and Bose option, non MOST.

1 - The PCM1 16bit nav unit has the same GPS antenna plug/socket as the Clarion, meaning this was a direct plug and play deal with Porsche GPS antenna. Saved me a load of work;

2 - The in-dash microphone may be used with the Clarion, but the factory gain setting must be lowered. To do that, pry the speaker cover out, and on the right side of the microphone housing you will find a little hole with a screw just visible inside. There's a label on top, with 3 positions. Factory setting is 3, reduce it to 2. This way it will work fine with both the phone and voice recognition features;

3- To bypass the parking brake feature, simply ground the light green Clarion wire;

4 – The VSS wire may be found in two places: black PCM1 plug: grey/pink cable and in the nav/CD drive unit, also grey/pink cable in its single plug;

5 – The microphone cables to tap to reuse it are found in the PCM1 headunit blue plug: brown/white (ground) and white (signal);

6 – Remote amplifier turn-on cable is the red/black cable in the PCM1 small yellow plug. Since the Clarion has no dedicated amplifier turn-on cable I simply used switched power to interface with the Bose amplifier;

7 - I removed the 2-Din cage of the PCM1 and replaced it with Clarion's own, relatively easy job. I attached the Clarion cage to the plastic housing with self tapping screws, PC variety.

8 - The Clarion bog-standard dash trim is useable, just add a 13 mm plastic bar on top and it's a done deal. I had bought trillieunaire's kit off ebay, and this plastic bit came off his bezel (his kit is NOT very useable in case of PCM cars). That and the FM antenna adapter were the only things I used from his kit.

9 - This unit has the permanent power and switched power connected à la VW/Audi/Porsche, so no need to switch the yellow with the red power wires.

BTW using an iPhone 3G:

1 - Bluetooth is brilliant, the whole phonebook got uploaded, as well as last/missed calls list;

2 - iPOD interface is lightning fast, one doesn't notice any delay in uploading anything, sees playlists, albums, etc. Does not show album art nor does it do video with the iPhone. In the book it says it will play video with "normal" iPODs;

3 - It does NOT charge..... meaning Clarion went the easy way charging via Firewire pins, 12V instead of USB pins, 5V. But I found a neat solution: http://www.expansys.com/p.aspx?i=171079. I have confirmed with tech support @ carcomm and they confirmed this craddle will convert 12V Firewire to 5V USB! As soon as it is available, I'll get one to install in the OEM bracket.
 

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Last edited:
Using room eq correction at home (using TAG McLaren AV32R DP and REW software), I had to have the same at my car.

So, after loads of research, I came up with the following BOM:

4 x Focal 13WS - 130mm subwoofers): two went to the doors to replace the 11.6 cm Bose, two to the rear bassbox to replace the same size Bose units;

4 x Focal 100KP - 100mm cm mid driver and 52mm tweeters) to replace the indash and side-rear same sized Bose;

2 x Alpine PDX4.150 amplifiers - Small size was one of the choice factors, since I didn't really want to fill up the small trunk with amps. I needed eight channels, 2 of them being bridged. Because of the Focal speakers, I considered the Focal 4.75 amps, but these were A/B amps with low efficiency and too large. Same problems with my first choice amps, McIntoshes: these A class monsters would drain my battery in a matter of minutes with the engine off, and use most of the trunk!;

1 x Alpine PXE-H650 Imprint processor - the heart of the system: crossovers, time alignment and room correction equalizer.

Lots of cables, connectors, tie wraps and other supplies.

The single largest part of the work was rewiring the speakers: had to remove most of the trim and carpet of the interior of the car. I used leftovers from several generations of my home theater setups. For the bassbox, I used TAG McLaren F3-SPK cable, all the rest being Bandridge Flex Speaker cable, 1.5mm2 and 2.5mm2. For the rear speakers, I used 2.5mm2 due to the longer lengths required, for the in dash, 1.5mm2. To connect the crossovers to the drivers/tweeters, I used the biwire version of the Bandridge Flex 1.5mm2 cable.

Unfortunately, I was unable to rewire the door woofers, I didn't have the required supplies available required to redo the inner door insulation, if I went on with that bit. I rewired them only from the firewall onwards. This increased resistance a bit, but most likely not noticeable.

To pass cables, I used the service grommet in the left footwell (drilled holes in it and then sealed it with silicone), plus two other rubber grommets (to pass cables from the battery "wet" area to the trunk itself), which I also drilled in the available areas around the cable bundles already there.

Here's a legend for the attachments:

Pic 1: Bottom of rear bassbox, already with Focal 13WS units installed

Pic 2: Zoom of the same

Pic 3: Interior of the bassbox

Pic 4: Rear speakers being modified. HAd to cut a lot of plastic to make these fit. Still missing is the toilet paper (!!!) fill, combined with epoxy glue to fill the still visible gaps

Pic 5: Zoom of one the Focal 13WS. These were wired in parallel, for a combined impedance of 2 ohm

Pic 6: General view of the system in the trunk

Pic 7: PXE-H650 processor, installed using the CD-changer bracket

Pic 8: Left amp, channels 3 and 4 are used for the in dash speakers, channels 1 and 2 for the door subs

Pic 9: Right amp, channels 3 and 4 are used for the rear speakers, channels 1 and 2 bridged for the bassbox
 

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After living with the system for a few days, I felt that my bass was not good, muddy, out of focus and not as powerful as I would like it to be.

I got convinced I had to modfy the way my sub drivers were installed: I wanted to keep absolutely OEM look, so I didn't install the subs as Focal intended, i.e., in a sealed box. Now I had to seal the boxes and loose the 100% OEM look in the rear shelf.

As for the doors, I simply installed very tight styrofoam plugs in the door bass reflex ports sub boxes, effectively sealing them, and had to heavily modify the rear bass box: remove the woofers from their floor firing position and install them in a "up" firing position, while sealing the bass ports.

Here's a legend for the attachments:

Pic 1: Inside view of the modded bass box

Pic 2: Completed bass box, no grilles installed

Pic 3: Zoom of one of the drivers

Pic 4: Completed bass box, with grilles installed. This is how I have them in the car, it is still decently OEM looking.

Pic 5: Zoom of the same.
 

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And now for the Imprint sound processing.

The attached pdf files represent different situations:

Run 1:

Before bass drivers installation modification, but no amplifier gain correction (all channels at 12 o'clock).

Run 2:

After bass driver installation modification, but no amplifier gain correction (all channels at 12 o'clock).

Run 3:

With amplifier gain correction. What I did was, by ear, match speaker levels using amplifier gain settings, then run the EQ process.


The difference is dramatic in terms of SQ. This has been a learning process, and I thouroughly recommend installing speakers as best as you can, regarding placement and mfg recommendations (i.e., sealed or reflex ported cabinets) and roughly equalise each channel amp gain prior to running Imprint, AND using a PC to do it, do not use the PXE-H650 standalone process, there's a handful of additional important options when using a PC.

It is visible on the first run that when the drivers were installed in unsealed boxes, there was significant bass rollof in all channels. This severe rollof disappeared from the front channels and from the subwoofer in the second run. It is still present in the rear channels due to them not having subs associated, just the fronts and rear bassbox, which is alright because I crossed them over at 120Hz to the the bassbox. I did the same with the fronts at 80Hz.

Notice that trimming of all channels was large, going from +7dB in the RB speaker to -7dB in the sub, which were right at the maximum ability of the PXE-H650.

So, the following step was to match channel gain, which I did and the results are visible in the third file. Notice how much better the door subs blend with the dash speakers, in the LF and RF graphs, even before correction. Also note the much flatter sub response.

You may find strange that the high frequencies are rolled off in the "after" graphs, in all channels. That is my doing, since the place the tweeters are located makes them scream at my ears. Rolling them off like I did, makes the system sound pleasant, smooth and untiring. Also, the bass boost in all channels is also my doing, I did that to compensate for road and engine noise.

After the whole deal, I can NOW say I'm finally happy with the way the system sounds! It is VERY good for a car system. Still no match for my home system, but I fully expected that.

Having said that, I would love to see better software, that would allow me to change the filters, just like I do with my TAG AV32R-DP. The Audissey software allowed me to only choose betwwen 4 pre made target curves, with a choice of a further three parameters for each.

There's also no user manual for the software. I suspect this must have something to do with the Audissey license Alpine got: the Audissey software bit looks like a black box and you have to trust what it does, period. O r steer clear from it. In my case, A/B comparison shows the final results to be extremely worthwhile, so I'm definitely keeping the PXE-H650 where it is.

A month or so from now, after all components have run in, I'll do a new run and see how it goes.
 

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