DLKC

I have the ML system; way back in June 2012, I initially removed stock sub and replaced with a Focal 10 inch, the bass level increased but not to my expectation, a couple of weeks later, I added a German Maestro mono block. That improved the bass level, well within my expectation. I know I can do better so at the end of last year, I added an identical Focal 10 inch and accompanied by a second mono block. Now I have two sub-woofers side by side, firing into the cabin. This is more like it, almost like a home set up. Both the mid- and low bass is pretty deep. With two posts, I am not sure if I can post photos, will be glad to do so.

neegroy

iTrader: (19)

im pretty sure you can post pictures man!

letsss see what you packing in there!

not alot of people remove the ML sub hahah

sam430

iTrader: (10)

Can someone tell me which line to tap for speaker level input? Been searching and only found 3gs stuff.

DLKC

First attachment: 2 Focal 10 inch, not perfectly aligned to the center to avoid some beams. Also some part of the metal frame housing the ML sub-woofer has to be cut off so it does not lower the Focal too much (optimize boot space).



Mono-blocks on the left hand side, strapped to the boot flooring. The don't move; again this optimizes boot space.

LexRuger

That is a clean set-up

sam430

iTrader: (10)

did you had to put resistors on the oem subwoofer lead to make it appear as if the oem sub still exists? That looks very good. More pics please, if you can or want. Thanks for sharing the idea.

DLKC

No resistor required; what happened was the speaker wire to the sub-woofer was tapped to the two mono-blocks (hi-pass). Hope this helps explain.

I think this means the power amp section for the OEM sub-woofer becomes a pre-amp ( for lack of a better word)

DLKC

Ha ha, I take it as a compliment. With the mon-blocks, I can adjust the input level, I stopped increasing the level just before the sound gets distorted. This allows enough impact from a bass point of view.

sam430

iTrader: (10)

Ok thanks. ..been asking for that info. I will be using an lc2i for my setup. Could you take a pic from floor pointing up? Was the panel hold up or did you add deadening material to reduce vibration?

Gutsy move. Looks good.

DLKC

First and second pictures

Woofers are screwed to a customized wooden frame which in then is screwed onto the rear board. The wooden frame is wrapped using the similar black material as the boot. No deadening materials were used. There is no irritating vibration. As the box is essentially the whole boot, there is almost an equal amount of mid and low bass.

Third picture: comparison of the ML woofer (right) vs Focal (left). Note the small size of the ML magnet. Other may disagree but to me size matters....

Kcook700

iTrader: (2)

That's what she said...

Thanks for the pics. So essentially, you reconstructed the rear deck lid behind the seats? Do you have a pic of the speakers installed from inside the car?

DLKC

The reconstructed rear deck is more like:
1) cutting the metal frame for the OEM sub. This is solely for the reason of keeping the Focal sub-woofer high and as close as possible to the rear deck lid. This is not a "must do" step. We could just have retained the metal frame but this would mean the wooden frame for the Focal sub is thicker and the position of the two subs would be slightly more to the left or right ie. less centralized.
2)creating a wooden frame for the two subs. The installer used compressed/ composite wood of about 0.75 inch thick, cut two holes and customize the wood in accordance to the shape of the rear deck lid. For aesthetic purposes, similar materials to the boot were used to wrap the wooden frame, also there were some padding / foam used to ensure there is as little gap as possible between the wooden frame and lid. Mounting was by some long screws, this looks easy but is beyond me.

Nothing was changed from inside the car, it is the same as before so I will not be taking any pictures. The original grill remains intact. Sure, the size of the grill is for the ML OEM woofer but it is oversized so if you think about it, as long as the two woofers are fairly centralized, the air and sound pressure level can come through the grill.

Setting for the ML is:
CDs: flat for bass, +2 for mid, and flat for treble
I Pod (WAV format only, no MP3 or compressed music): +1 for bass, +2 for mid and flat for treble.
Setting for FM radio is the same as IPod.

The ML set-up emphasizes too much sound pressure level to the front speakers so the fader setting is -2 ie. moving two levels toward the rear.

Sound is more balanced towards center of the car, and the front subs do not have to work so hard.