Mark Levinson SUB replacement DIY
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 26
Likes: 1
From: VA
So the 1/4" spacer did the trick. The cone stays clear of the sheet metal and the deck piece fits but barely. Although I still do not have car put back together I did perform a sound check. I had very few rattles inside the car, but my license plate frame was rattling out of control. The Pioneer sub's output is significantly more then the ML. The type of base it is currently producing is much tighter which in my book has its plus and minuses. At lower levels I feel the ML performed better then the pioneer but at moderate to high volumes the pioneer left the ML in the dust. I am sure the pioneer will take a while to break in and I imagine it will sound more open and a little less tight. I highly recommend this upgrade if you are having issues with the factory sub distorting, if the type of music you listen to, or the volumes you play you ML system does not cause the sub to distort, I would not recommend you perform this mod. Oh one last thing the brownish red wire to the ML sub is + while the green wire is neg. since the Pioneer is being installed upside down the positive speaker wire (brownish red) gets hooked up to the black (-) terminal on the speaker and the green wire gets hooked up to the red (positive) terminal on the sub.
Lead Lap
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 499
Likes: 0
From: Saudi Arabia
Mine just arrived today, but reading this thing about the spacer made me worry.
I hope Jeff took some pics , that will def help.
if not then I'll probably just go to any audio shop and see what we can do.
I hope Jeff took some pics , that will def help.
if not then I'll probably just go to any audio shop and see what we can do.
What Jeff is talking about is putting a spacer of plywood in between the sub and frame where it mounts so that it clears the speaker from hitting the frame when it flexes from a lot of bass...
went to orchard hardware supplies.
i saw mdf board but its 1/8
i saw a fiberboard its 1/4 but its huge! it wont fit in my car they dont sell small ones and they dont cut so im like imma go home depot
but then i remembered i dont even have tools to cut that ****. i dont want to spend another $50 just to get it cut by someone
fml
i saw mdf board but its 1/8
i saw a fiberboard its 1/4 but its huge! it wont fit in my car they dont sell small ones and they dont cut so im like imma go home depot
but then i remembered i dont even have tools to cut that ****. i dont want to spend another $50 just to get it cut by someone
fml
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 26
Likes: 1
From: VA
Well I made a 1/4" one. Speaker still flexes to the metal of the car. Gonna play around with it a bit and see what I come up with. Anything over 40 is unbearably annoying!
Last edited by Travis; Mar 21, 2014 at 02:44 PM.
edit: what do you guys use to cut the plywood or mdf?
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 26
Likes: 1
From: VA
I used a jigsaw as that's all I had, a bit overkill.
Now get this guys, I have no sub in it now. With the bass turned up to 3/5 it sounds better than with the factory sub. No distortion whatsoever. Not sure I'm going to hook the factory sub back up or not. For me the pioneer is out of the question.
I used 1/2" just to try it as well as hammered the metal it was hitting on down. Still sounded like crap. It wasn't a rattle it was clearly a contact noise. And I could see where it was. Yes I put sound deadening down. True everything I could think of.
I used a jigsaw as that's all I had, a bit overkill.
Now get this guys, I have no sub in it now. With the bass turned up to 3/5 it sounds better than with the factory sub. No distortion whatsoever. Not sure I'm going to hook the factory sub back up or not. For me the pioneer is out of the question.
I used a jigsaw as that's all I had, a bit overkill.
Now get this guys, I have no sub in it now. With the bass turned up to 3/5 it sounds better than with the factory sub. No distortion whatsoever. Not sure I'm going to hook the factory sub back up or not. For me the pioneer is out of the question.
Since everyone is trying to get the sub to clear the rear deck by adding a spacer and building up from there:
Can the sub be placed in from inside the trunk? Will it fit in the hole that way? Would keep it from hitting anything when it flexed...
Can the sub be placed in from inside the trunk? Will it fit in the hole that way? Would keep it from hitting anything when it flexed...
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 26
Likes: 1
From: VA
Some pics for you guys.
This is the hole the sub sits in, looking into the trunk. (where i have some tools laying. It's a bit washed out, but you can still see the metal piece that goes through the opening. Denting, this down, applying dynamat to it, and adding a second spacer didn't fix it. Note the spacer wasn't my finish product just a rough cutout, was checking the size of it.
From inside the trunk with the sub placed. This was without the spacer I believe. You can see how it would easily hit the metal.
Another view from inside the car with the rear interior removed.
