We sit pretty upright. How much further back can the seat be pushed?

The 8" Bazooka is 9 x 10 x 20".

 

I did this but eventually went back to oem. Just in case someone wants to try its a plug an d play using the bose sub woofer wiring...back read i have schems and how the basslink was simply done

 

I added a volume control for the center dash Bose speaker.

Issue: I upgraded all the speakers.. see all prior posts... except for the center dash speaker. I did not replace the center dash speaker with another brand for the following reasons:

1 - I listen to 5.1 DVD-As (Yes, the 997.2 can decode them!) and it requires a front center channel.
2 - The Bose front center speaker is a bit more full range than than just a tweeter replacement, and 5.1 recordings put lower frequencies into that front channel such as singer voices.

Problem: The Bose speaker is more efficient (plays louder) than the Focal drivers and therefore sounds awful and dominates the sound.

Solution: I just added an attenuator (L-PAD), otherwise known as a volume control to the center speaker. Note that this control can only lower the volume of the driver. You could just add a resistor but that will change the load on the amp and affect frequency response... so, to keep it all linear, you need these L-PADs and wire them according to the diagrams... this keeps the load seen by the amp as constant and keep frequency response linear.

How I did it:

1 - Purchased an L-PAD (variable attenuator) model 260-248 from Parts Express. This unit has the short shaft.
2 - Used a three-conductor audio/video cable... cut the RCA jacks off. Then fished the three-conductor cable down to the driver foot well to where I installed the L-PAD into the upper corner of the little, forward carpeted plate.
3 - Note how I wired the cable end at the speaker. What I don't show is that I soldered the + and - directly to the speaker terminals, and made tiny pins to then plug the appropriate cables into the speaker cable socket (I just disconnected the speaker from the cable and wired the new cable into both the speaker and the cable end).
4 - Drilled a small hole in the plastic carpeted plate and attached the cables to the L-PAD.
5 - It works perfectly.

I suspect the total number of geeks that will do this mod is one... me. If you want more details, just PM me, but follow the pen-drawing I made in the lower right of the one pic.... that is the Rosetta stone.

The blue/black cable to the center speaker is positive (+), the solid blue is negative (-)... I used a battery wired to the terminal to determine which popped the speaker out (positive). I left the original speaker cable to the center speaker up at the speaker, and soldered the new three-conductor cable up top in the dash to both the speaker and old cable. I did not remove or re-located the existing wires. Then I pushed the new cable down and it popped out in the footwell where I then soldered it to the L-Pad.

The Bose processor/amp sends some sort of blended signal to that center speaker even when listening to pure stereo and given it is more efficient than the other drivers, it dominates. If you don't listen to 5.1, just disconnect the darn driver... you won't miss it with stereo. But it is essential for 5.1.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

 

Hmmm, interesting but it seem a like a lot of work. Why not just replace the center tweeter with another speaker with similar resistance as the other surround speakers?

 

You'll need a 1990's Honda Civic to go with that Bazooka, preferably with a 4" exhaust tip.

 

Good question....
The center speaker is not a tweeter, but Bose's attempt at a full range unit. The speaker has two functions, as it appears to me, first as a "fill" speaker and second as the center channel in decoding 5.1 DVD A discs.

For stereo, it is not needed as I have had the center channel unhooked for about six months now and see (hear?) no need for it.

For 5.1, you need full range as that is where audio engineers tend to put vocals... male vocals have a deep frequency range. I could not find a Focal unit that was full range that could fit. Some here replaced the Bose unit with a Focal tweeter, but I strongly suspect a tweeter will not have the frequency range required by 5.1 center channel demands. So, I stuck with the full range Bose unit.... that is unfortunately more efficient than the Focal units.

What I did was pretty moot if you don't care about 5.1 decoding. If you are just upgrading for stereo, then you have a simple choice: just unhook the center speaker which works fine, or replace it with a Focal tweeter as you are using in the doors. Same unit = same efficiency. If you keep the Bose unit and don't attenuate it or unhook it, it is too loud and takes away from the hard work you just put into the system.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

 

I am travelling at the moment and can't measure. For reference, the BassLink is about 8"-8.25" so it's slimmer than the Bazooka.


Interesting that I don't get email notifications from this thread even though I have a 'check' mark attached to it.

 

Gotcha. What you did makes sense then, although it's kind of weird that they tried to make such a small speaker perform as a mid/tweet.

 

Yep, it sounds like the Bazooka is a bit deeper. How far back can you push the passenger seat with the Basslink in place? IOW can a 6' tall person sit in that front seat with the unit in place? Not that I'll ever be in the passenger seat. I'll be DRIVING

 

Hey, all you "budget" people, some guy has a custom subwoofer enclosure and a custom frunk amp floor for sale on fleabay.
Link to Rennlist thread
I would say this is at least $1500 worth of custom work. It's very similar to what I had done. Please stop strapping bazookas and basslinks to your P-cars.

 

Thanks for the link. Looks like a real stretch to put this in a budget category. That's what made me swap the drivers in my Bose sub. An enclosure alone for $700? Plus a $200 driver, then a $400 amp? I'm guessing at the equipment costs without looking them up. Plus full custom wiring all the way to the head unit and wire power from your battery. However would use this would only use it with a fully rekitted system.

 

Love the sub box with the JL amp. JL makes great stuff. However I have two issues with that setup.

1) I prefer not to have the sub showing. I don't want the whole world to see a JL sub under the rear glass, especially not and LEO who might want to ticket me. I would prefer to retain the appearance of the car as close to stock as possible. Therefore personally I would prefer to mod the existing sub box with new drivers.

2) The amp rack in the frunk is another issue. The frunk is small enough as it is. Losing more space is a real killer.

This is my opinion for my kind of use. YMMV and in fact that is a pretty good price for a custom box and quality amp.

BTW the driver you'll need has been discontinued but it's avail online for approx $400.

 

Lol, what makes you think the amp is included? He is just selling the amp MOUNT, as I read it. So, you need the amp AND the discontinuous driver!

Someone was selling a sub box that fit dual 8s for about $300. That is worthwhile, but still has all the wiring and separate amp issues that make the install a big compromise.

 

Your'e right. My bad.

In that case $700 is a little steep for just the enclosure and the amp rack.

I exhanged emails with the owner of a local audio shop who does a lot of Porsches. He recommends an amp swap first before a speakers swap. Then level 2 would be to swap out the speakers. Level 3 would be to replace the drivers in the factory sub box. This was in response to my request to keep everything stealth and factory looking. Yes some rewiring would have to be done. I'm going to wait until after my factory warranty expires.

 

I agree totally. I would have done it this way if I knew of a way to replace just the amp....... Please post the solution as I know of no way to do this.

2009 C2S

Peace
Bruce in Philly