Folks, I thought I would share my odyssey to enhance the sound of the Dynaudio system in my Exec. First a few disclaimers; I'm OCD, an audiophile, and an electrical engineer. Not a good combo to be happy with any factory system. I thought the stock Dynaudio was actualy pretty good but lacking in any "real" bottom end. So starts my journey...
I decided to use the left rear cutout for a sub. I'd seen this done on few installs and it looked like a great location (it is). I then modeled a number of drivers that I had worked with before and selected a wonderful, long excursion, 8" Tang Bang (from Parts Express) that can be had for ~$80.00 on sale. I sized the interior volume of the enclosure to provide a Q .7. I then set off to build the fiberglass enclosure. Not fun. Covered with vinyl and painted to match the interior it looks quite good though. I then measured the completed system and it matched the predicted data very well. With cabin gain its flat to about 25 Hz. My loving wife bought me an Alpine 500W sub amp that is provisioned with 4th order high pass / low pass and speaker level inputs as I desired.
The Dynaudio 12 channel amp is located behind the left wheel well cover which works out nicely as this is where the sub is mounted. I tapped into the front woofer amplifier outputs to feed the sub amp. The not-fun part was ripping the rear cabin apart to access all wiring and install the sub and amplifier. Not for the faint of heart. Have plenty of spare trim clips and buy a good set of trim removal tools if you are going to attempt this.
Once installed I adjusted the crossover to 60 Hz (its a true subwoofer only) and set the gain and EQ to a get a good house curve (+ 4dB at 30 Hz) at the drivers seat. You could do this by ear but good a measurement system is recommended.
OK this mod totally transforms the system! Wow its a fantastic upgrade and well worth the time and money. It really fills out the low end and provides a much more dynamic system. Very, very happy with the results. Looks great too.
I decided to use the left rear cutout for a sub. I'd seen this done on few installs and it looked like a great location (it is). I then modeled a number of drivers that I had worked with before and selected a wonderful, long excursion, 8" Tang Bang (from Parts Express) that can be had for ~$80.00 on sale. I sized the interior volume of the enclosure to provide a Q .7. I then set off to build the fiberglass enclosure. Not fun. Covered with vinyl and painted to match the interior it looks quite good though. I then measured the completed system and it matched the predicted data very well. With cabin gain its flat to about 25 Hz. My loving wife bought me an Alpine 500W sub amp that is provisioned with 4th order high pass / low pass and speaker level inputs as I desired.
The Dynaudio 12 channel amp is located behind the left wheel well cover which works out nicely as this is where the sub is mounted. I tapped into the front woofer amplifier outputs to feed the sub amp. The not-fun part was ripping the rear cabin apart to access all wiring and install the sub and amplifier. Not for the faint of heart. Have plenty of spare trim clips and buy a good set of trim removal tools if you are going to attempt this.
Once installed I adjusted the crossover to 60 Hz (its a true subwoofer only) and set the gain and EQ to a get a good house curve (+ 4dB at 30 Hz) at the drivers seat. You could do this by ear but good a measurement system is recommended.
OK this mod totally transforms the system! Wow its a fantastic upgrade and well worth the time and money. It really fills out the low end and provides a much more dynamic system. Very, very happy with the results. Looks great too.
