Audio upgrade options

Re-tuned my equalizer, based on electronic music (european dance / trance / hardstyle).

So for those who like a little bit more base, here are my settings:

 

I plan to replace my 8” woofers with 6” woofers and a 10” sub in a new enclosure that will take the existing footprint. The factory 8” woofers are active even at full forward bias on balance as the 4” speakers cannot handle mid bass.

There are also a ton of issues with how Toyota decided to do the existing enclosure of the 8” speakers. Anyone looking to correct the low end above moderate volume will likely have to spend serious money. The woofers are free air, so replacing them and amping them in the existing enclosure will not help as they don’t have an airtight enclosure.

If you want the same footprint, plan on either replacing or chopping up the enclosure to make it larger. Signal correction will also be required to make up for the factory roll off of lower frequencies above moderate levels. In short, to do it right will not be an easy fix.

 

the video bellow is very interesting for those who want to upgrade the audio system....

 

My installer is part of some group that the installer who did that job is in. Apparently he knows him as he buys tools from him. My expectations are pretty high and I’m looking forward to Friday when I pick it up and finally have clean bass.

 

I'm interested on seeing what your solution is.. I do like the setup on that video since it looks very clean.... debating my options now..

 

I get mine back Friday and will know more on what needs to be done in regards to the bass. Depending on how the woofers signal is handled, I may need a Fix-82 before my amplifier as I am using it just to replace my lows as I am keeping my highs for now. I am hoping I don’t need it as it is another $500.

 

I just picked up my car from getting the sound work done and dropped it off to get it wrapped immediately after.

If you modify the central area where the 8” woofers are to put in a sealed box, you will have to relocate some electronics. Mine have been moved back closer to the battery so that they are now accessible without taking out half the car. The only issue is that the active sound during sport plays a LOW tone that resonates something only when stopped. Otherwise it just sounds meaner and not overpowering. Other than that, no rattles. I will need to have the installer chase that down once I get it back from wrap.

FYI - If your seats are removed, make sure the car stays powered off (negative post) or you will have airbag and seatbelt notifications that will need to be cleared. If the interior gets dinged, parts are to be here for the holidays, so be careful.

Anyhow, two 6” JL woofers and one 10” JL TW-3 now give me excellent mid bass and lows. 500 watt 3 channel amp behind front seat. Signal grabbed from the woofers with a high pass to the 6” woofers from the amp. Sorry for picture quality, I grabbed a quick pick before leaving it to be wrapped.

 

Jason, are you experiencing rattles from the overlapping panels directly behind your seats or anywhere else in the car after installing the new subs? Even with factory subs, the rattle is bad. I can’t imagine how your setup would make it worse.

 

It could also be the sound that is piped into your car in Sport mode. You can turn that off with Bimmercode

 

I had and have zero rattles other than the sine wave tone from the engine enhancement noise when in sport at idle. It is a crazy low tone. Barely audible but it rattles something in the back something fierce. If I have any accelerator action, it goes away immediately. If I turn off sport engine it also disappears.

When I get the car back from being wrapped next Friday it is going back to the audio installer that Monday so they can chase it down if I don’t get BimmerCode and eliminate the tone myself.

 

That may be the route I go. I have a feeling it is vibrating the whole hatch. If the installer can’t figure it out when I get it back to them, I will likely make the plunge on BimmerCode as there are other issues I need to address that it can help with.

 

Toyota should be ashamed of this mess of a system. I have a Nissan Sentra rental that has far better sound than the Supra from the factory. The even sadder thing is reading the Z4 forums, they got saddled with the POs from Harmen/JBL at tens of thousands more.

I’m trying to find the factory amplifier details to see what I can do without adding a second amp for my door and dash speakers. I’m hoping it has enough output for some better high efficiency speakers to keep up with my sub and read mid bass added aftermarket.

Anyone have the factory amp details?

 

Bumping this up. Anyone upgrade their sound system? If so what exactly did you do. Need people's setups so I can get this factory pos system replaced lol.

 

You have several options. The biggest issue is no one has done their homework yet. My thoughts will be a mess, but here they are.

The problems / note-worthies are:

The factory amplifier rolls of the low frequencies as volume increases

The source to the 8” woofers loses ALL output around 200-215 Hz. (Ie. amp will shut off if using it for turn on signal)

The only speakers doing any lifting are the two 8” woofers and the set of tweeters and 4” speakers in the door. All other speakers can be ignored for practical purposes.

Options are:

1. You can wait for oemsound or bavsound to make a complete drop in system. This will be an improvement but a custom system will sound better but be more work.

2. You do new system and use a JL fix-86 or similar. This means volume will be controlled by an aftermarket knob. This will give you complete control over all speakers to where you could create full channels for the rear mids/highs (they are partial fill at stock).

3. Replace parts of system to allow use of factory equipment (volume control, steering functions, etc). As long as you aren’t looking for competition level SPLs, you can likely set gains high enough with a dsp / LOC in front of the amps to negate the factory system from rolling off the bass (ie 66%-75% volume is your 100%) so you don’t need a fix-86 and can still use the factory controls.

4. Gut the whole thing and lose a lot of functionality.

What I have done:

Replaced the two 8” woofers with two 6” woofers along with a 10”. Added a three channel amp to support this with an audio control LOC. I am using the door speakers for my mids and highs from the factory amp at this time. Overall with just these changes, the majority of my issues are gone.

Other possible plans / notes:

Sound insulation. I may go all the way with this, or just the reinforce the doors to reinforce the mid bass. I think this will help more than replacing the door speakers. It can be up to 150 lbs if I go all the way with it, so I’m taking my time in deciding.

Replace the set of door woofers and tweeters. I haven’t decided on how far I want to go with this. I may just go with some Bavsounds for the door or I will add an amp and go with JL components as there are not a lot of 4” options.

I have no interest in making the rear 4” and tweeters do anything. The same with the dash center channel. If anything I will remove them.

 

Jeez, thanks for such a detailed reply! I don't really understand half of this, but going to show my audio guy. I'm not sure exactly what I want to do yet but I definitely want to be able to use the stock nobs and steering wheel controls for volume that's a fact. I'm coming from a Q60 red sport so if I can get audio quality similar to that I will be happy because that system was pretty good.