I always hate it when people here try to insuate that other people have so much time etc. etc. what the f... Is that comment for? Mr roel ric.. What do you mean with your comment "you have too much time and money" i know it not meant for me or anyone in particular but these comments dont have a place here! So it means your so busy with your life? So it means you have way more better things to do than upgrade your system? What do you want to say?! Some people think spending time in a porsche forum is a waste of time. How would you feel if someone told you, you have so much time and money looking at a forum for a car. Your car works fine! I apologise i dont mean to sound bad to anyone its just airing my frustration with some comments of our brothers here.

 

Okay, group-hug!

Now let's go back to this hack.



ryem3,

I started my install today ---- THANKS A MILLION TO YOU.


FYI, I disassembled the Focal tweeter. Left is new Focal, middle is gutted-Focal and right is factory. I measured the sizes using my caliper and the gutted Focal is smaller than factory. I should be able to keep the dash clips. I am trying to keep the car as stock as possible.

 

Nicely done. Gutting the dash was a major pia, great if you can avoid it!

 

More new info. Someone measured the actual impedence of the Bose system and found it was 3.8 ohms. I had measured the nominal impedence of a few speakers and found them to be 2 ohms, but that value is less relevant. If that is the actual impedence of the system, it makes more sense considering how well the Focals matched.

On the subwoofer front, the 6.5"subs would probably require more power than the Bose sub amp produces. Seems like the 5.25" woofers would be well powered by the Bose sub amp and will be a perfect fit. They may not go deep enough, but I'm going to give them a try soon. The powered sub will draw too much current and could cause issues. If someone else tries it, let me know!

 

Thanks. You started this crap, so if I screw up you are to be blamed! hahahaha That was a joke, of course!

I analyzed the unit and the gut is held by glue. Unfortunately, you could not remove the glue by using a screwdriver, pick, etc. I just went ahead and used the Dremel to peel the secondary housing; Dremel-time was about 6-8 minutes. So far, no scratches on the innermost housing. I just tried it and the hole is more than wide/big to hold the naked tweeter.

I'll keep you posted. I am hoping I could be done by Sunday.

 

Nice. My interest in preserving the logo was really pointless. Good job, keep the dremel handy!

 

So, you're going to switch/downsize to 5.25"?

Shoot! I bought the 8"s. I'll proceed and as long as it turns out better than stock, I'll be happy. And if the Bose amp blows, I'll go ahead and gut the whole system and reuse my Dynaudio set just sitting in the garage.

 

If I recall correctly, you measured the DC resistance, not an impedance, right?

Matching of volume would mostly be related to voltage sensitivity between drivers (e.g. dB/2.83V/1m), assuming you're not actively driving each channel. Usually, tweeters tend to be more sensitive, so you can often just stick a series resistor in there to match levels, if needed.

 

Guess what the oem bose looks good after all! The gutted focal looks bad!

 

No, no! Perhaps you missed my subwoofer comments. You will be happy with the 8's in the doors. I was referring to the Bose subwoofer, which has two 5.25" drivers. I was looking for subwoofer alternatives. I think a simple, higher quality substitution of better 5.25" drivers into the OEM sub box is worth a try. Even though the OEM subwoofer amp is "100W", I doubt it is anywhere near that power in real terms. Therefore it would be challenged to driver "real" subwoofer drivers that require a lot of power.

 

You're right - I'm comparing resistance to impedance again. Now I think we can compare the impedance of the Bose at 3.8 ohms to the impedance of the replacement Focals of 4 ohms. The 90 db Focal efficiency seems to be a reasonable match to the Bose speakers.

 

I think they both look equally bad, but for anything sitting underneath a cover, it isn't going to matter. If it eases the installation, so much the better. Enlarging the tweeter hole in the dash is a nightmare best avoided.

 

Hey, gasongasoff, I saw a beautiful install on the Focal home page in a Porsche using the Utopia beryllium tweeters mounted on the A pillars. Not your car, is it?

 

Much like a Subura WRX, I just wanted engine!!!!

Yup! With the dash cover on, no one would care about what's underneath.

 

Looking at the speaker wire on the Focals, the red-striped one is the + correct?

I just noticed that the dash wire's red-striped one is the negative? Or am I color blind?