[makkan00]

UPDATE: Stage 2 sound upgrade has been done on this car. Link

Music requires no introduction and is essential thing in our lives. It is an art of combining sound and silence to make it pleasant to listen. At some stage in our lives, we all think about upgrading our sound systems, whether it is sound system in our homes or in our cars.
There is no exception to members of this forum, as they are continuously trying to improve BMWs’ pathetic base sound system.


As most of you know that I code different cars and help with audio systems over the weekends. So, I have been approached by one of the community member who wanted ICE installed on his car. It was no other than Rudz. Rudz has been collecting premium things for his car. We had exchange of few messages and discussed it in detail. Rudz has a premium taste and when it comes to his car, he wanted the best stuff installed on his car. Moreover, he wanted clean installation of the sound system with BMW parts / clips and without splicing even a single OEM wire. His car is still under warranty and he did not want to risk anything.

Well not a problem for me as I worked on few 3 series prior to his car.

I would like to thanks Technic, Taibanl, Kaigoss69 for their detailed audio threads and contributions to our community & mob17 for his guidance on setting MS8.

I thought to share this with our community as it may help somebody at some stage.

Now let’s start with the kit:
This Kit consisted of;

JBL MS-8

Audison LRX 6.9

SWS-8s (aka Earthquakes)

Morels Hybrid Ovation II 4”

L7 central speaker

L7 rear speakers

Rainbow Vanadium CS230



We had to order some parts from the dealer such as tweeter trims, OEM plugs for speakers and etc etc.

A big day came, when he left his car with me.

I started with Subs and doors first.

We ordered spacers to fit Morels at the fronts and I had to tweak these spacers to work with Morels and door cards. It took a while to create new holes in the spacers and fit that to OEM door screws. Then it took a while to create holes for morels and morels were fitted.
Then I had to add sound deadening material. From my experience on my car, I knew exactly where you get maximum distortion and so I placed sound deadening material there.








Now it was time to fit SWS8s (earthquakes) into OEM boxes. SWS8s are deeper compared to OEM subs, so I had to modify the OEM boxes. I had to flatten the ridges at the bottom and fitted SWS8s. Now on OEM subs, the wiring clip is extended over the radius of sub. With SWS8, there was gap left b/w sub and its box. I used polycarbonate plastic to fill that gap and used glue gun to fit it there. I also had to drill holes in polycarbonate plastic to pass wires for the subs. Finally by six in the morning door card and subs were ready to go on the car. I took extra care not to damage anything and keep it as safe as possible. All that done is complete reversible, in case if Rudz wants to sell his car at later stage.





Next morning, I started with coding the head unit (HU) to Hi-Fi. Although many will say, there is no need to code HU to Hi-Fi if you are using MS8. My logic is, if the part of processor is going to be used to clean the signals, why not use that part of processor for other good purposes. So I coded the head unit to Hi-Fi.

Here are the photos of HU before and after coding.





Now SWS8s and door cards were installed back to car.



Then, I fitted L7 central speaker and I had to take the dash trim out to pass the wiring through the safe spaces.




In order to fit rainbows at the rear deck, I would had to modify the deck. I discussed it with Rudz and since he wanted OEM solution, therefore we opted stock L7 rear mids. It was 15 minute job and they were fitted perfectly.



Then, I fitted MS-8 and Audison amplifier on the back of the rear seat. I wanted to go for stealth mode and hide everything (as I have done on my car), but due to Rudz’ choice of Audison amplifier, it was not possible. I could have hidden MS-8 but then there was no point of hiding it if I had to extend the wires. So I fitted those parallel to each other.






Power wires were distributed from each side and same goes for other wires. Wiring took a bit of time and networking them to had clean installation was not an easy job.



Once done, wires were connected and tested for connectivity. Fuses inserted and I stared with MS-8 setup. It took me approx 2-3 good hours to try different combinations of MS-8 settings and I was still not happy.

It was getting too dark and I had to postpone further settings. Next day, after establishing optimal settings of MS8 (for driver and passenger), amplifier output was determined with muli-meter and JL audio application to calculate what was required.

After achieving appropriate sound optimization, I started assembling the car back to its OEM state.

This was final outlook of the boot.


Technical details:
Allocation of channels on MS8:
Ch1: FL
Ch2: FR
Ch3: L Sub
Ch4: R sub
Ch5: RL
Ch6: RR
Ch7: Central
Ch8: Spare and can be used for trunk sub if Rudz decide to add trunk woofer later on.
Audison amplifier had 6 channels, so channel 1-6 of MS8 were connected to it and so on to drivers.


Other than sound system, Rudz kindly asked me to fit dark lines on his car which I did. Rear license plate LEDs were added to his car, as yellow license plate light looked outdated compared to darklines. I asked Rudz if he'd like to have coding done on his car which he agreed. Also it is not worth of spending thousands on ICE if you car can be stolen in 60 seconds. So on Rudz request, I re-located OBD port to safer place.



To summarise, this sound system is very much like BMW L7 setup, but yet very different. It is way more flexible and better compared to L7. You get different levels of settings and you can adjust it from HU, MS8 menu and amplifier to get best out of the whole system.
All in all, this sound system is excellent and I am sure that Rudz can provide further feedback on it.

Thanks for reading and I hope it helps some of you at some stage.



RUDZ STAGE II Audio Upgrade

[fulcrum]

Impressive - so three days work.

You must be a very good friend to have!

[mistryn]

Impressive thread, thanks for taking the time to write it up certainly gives food for thought about what I want to do

[Rudz]

There are no words that seem adequate enough to say thank you to Makkan. I have been blown away by the time and effort he's put in, in bringing my audio setup together, Makkan's attention to detail is exemplary as you can see from the pics, the setup sounds awesome and I am chuffed to bits by the work that's been carried out, I thank you again for the great work Makkan

[Frobius]

Nice work there guys! I bet with all that it sounds the bollocks - and not just because it's loud either!

Did you put tweeters in?

[AWBimmer]

Superb Makkano / Rudz! That looks the nuts!! Really got me excited about my set up too now hahah. I bet you're dead chuffed Rudz! I was with my old one and that was without much bit one setting in place or the centre channel.. this must sound the t*ts lol!

Great work..

Makkano could you PM me a price for your work pls?

[macck]

Originally Posted by Rudz

There are no words that seem adequate enough to say thank you to Makkan. I have been blown away by the time and effort he's put in, in bringing my audio setup together, Makkan's attention to detail is exemplary as you can see from the pics, the setup sounds awesome and I am chuffed to bits by the work that's been carried out, I thank you again for the great work Makkan

Hi Rudz Glad to see you finally got your system installed. Good job done by Makkan . Now just hit the road and keep

[mob17]

Thanks for the mention, it looks like a nice clean install And Rudz, those Hybrids will amaze you even further after some breaking in.

How did level matching the speakers for the ms-8 calibration go? As you have amped everything apart from the centre. Did you consider amping the centre? If you use Logic 7 on the ms-8 then its a good move to!

[1sh@Crystalwhite]

Incredible!!!!!!!!

[Rudz]

Originally Posted by AWBimmer

Superb Makkano / Rudz! That looks the nuts!! Really got me excited about my set up too now hahah. I bet you're dead chuffed Rudz! I was with my old one and that was without much bit one setting in place or the centre channel.. this must sound the t*ts lol!

Great work..

Makkano could you PM me a price for your work pls?

Originally Posted by macck

Hi Rudz Glad to see you finally got your system installed. Good job done by Makkan . Now just hit the road and keep

cheers guys, it took a while coming,

- I first bought the audison in Feb this year
- MS8 in March
- Macck kindly sold his SWS8's to me in April,
- rear decks from Tom in June
- Morel's from Isreal in June
- Center speakr from Cage in July
- Blaupunkt Harness from Zaheer in July

I wanted to get this fitted in August, but some unforeseen delays resulted in this getting done in September, I must say it has been well worth the wait. if anyone of you is in Brighton over the weekends, feel free to drop in and have a listen

[QUiKSR20]

Great install, Love reading these build threads.. We def have a great bunch on here that help out.. I wouldnt be where i am today without them ( taibanl / kaigoss / technic / mob17 ).

[makkan00]

Originally Posted by fulcrum

Impressive - so three days work.

You must be a very good friend to have!

Thanks mate. Technically, approx. 2 days, as I started working on it 22:30 saturday night.

Originally Posted by mistryn

Impressive thread, thanks for taking the time to write it up certainly gives food for thought about what I want to do

Thanks buddy. I am sure that at least this post will give you insight into another example of ICE.

Originally Posted by Rudz

There are no words that seem adequate enough to say thank you to Makkan. I have been blown away by the time and effort he's put in, in bringing my audio setup together, Makkan's attention to detail is exemplary as you can see from the pics, the setup sounds awesome and I am chuffed to bits by the work that's been carried out, I thank you again for the great work Makkan

Thanks bud for your kind words and your patience when I worked on your car.

Originally Posted by Frobius

Nice work there guys! I bet with all that it sounds the bollocks - and not just because it's loud either!

Did you put tweeters in?

Forb, I just added two mice in there who create funny noises

On a serious note, that was 5 minutes job and hence did not even bother to mention here.

Originally Posted by AWBimmer

Superb Makkano / Rudz! That looks the nuts!! Really got me excited about my set up too now hahah. I bet you're dead chuffed Rudz! I was with my old one and that was without much bit one setting in place or the centre channel.. this must sound the t*ts lol!

Great work..

Makkano could you PM me a price for your work pls?

I compared bit one and MS-8 and for me MS-8 is winner due to;
1- It has built in amplifier and you can have central speaker/ rear speakers directly fed from it.
2- Easy to setup compared to bit one.

About pricing, it depends on the system and components. Once you have your components and amps, let me know and I can tell you price tag at that time.

Originally Posted by macck

Hi Rudz Glad to see you finally got your system installed. Good job done by Makkan . Now just hit the road and keep

Thanks macck. Finally his patience paid.

Originally Posted by mob17

Thanks for the mention, it looks like a nice clean install And Rudz, those Hybrids will amaze you even further after some breaking in.

How did level matching the speakers for the ms-8 calibration go? As you have amped everything apart from the centre. Did you consider amping the centre? If you use Logic 7 on the ms-8 then its a good move to!

No worries mate. Credit is due where it is due.

We connected central directly to MS-8 and kept logic 7. As you mentioned earlier, MS-8 and amp was set up in the way you mentioned and gains adjusted afterwards.

L7 central mid already goes to its peak on max volume, so it did not require any alteration.

Originally Posted by 1SH

Incredible!!!!!!!!

Thanks bud. Off the topic, have you moved your obd port?

Originally Posted by QUiKSR20

Great install, Love reading these build threads.. We def have a great bunch on here that help out.. I wouldnt be where i am today without them ( taibanl / kaigoss / technic / mob17 ).

Surely, these guys have spent their time and devotion on these things and deserve respect and credit.

[BoondogUK]

Originally Posted by makkan00

This was final outlook of the boot.

First of all... great post, and looooovely setup.... very envious!

I have just the one question on the install... how come you have coiled the patch cables? It seems to be such an odd thing to do in an otherwise excellent setup. From my years of doing ICE (albeit a few years ago now), coils of any sort meant noise, (the enemy of any install!) is there something that I am missing? I've not had any dealings with an MS8, does it do such a good job of processing that it strips it all out?

[Frobius]

What sort of fusing have you put in?

[makkan00]

Originally Posted by BoondogUK

First of all... great post, and looooovely setup.... very envious!

I have just the one question on the install... how come you have coiled the patch cables? It seems to be such an odd thing to do in an otherwise excellent setup. From my years of doing ICE (albeit a few years ago now), coils of any sort meant noise, (the enemy of any install!) is there something that I am missing? I've not had any dealings with an MS8, does it do such a good job of processing that it strips it all out?

Thanks for your comment.

Before I say something, I must quote a response from some other people on different forums:

Its shielded.... doesnt matter how you coil it. Dont go like wrapping it around your 0 gauge power wire or anything and you will be fine.

The important things is that you should not keep it next to power cables and hence most of new amps / processors have RCA input on the opposite side of power cables.

And there was no noise at all in the system.

MS8 is brilliant processor and beauty of it is 'built in amplifier', should you wish to connect speakers driectly to it. You need good couple of hours to play with it and come up with the best settings though according to your drivers.

Whether one should go for one or not, totally depends on how you want to listen your music. If you are perfectionist and does not want to miss even a single beat in your music, then yes it is essential.

Originally Posted by Frobius

What sort of fusing have you put in?

It is not at the top of my head as both of them required separate fuses. Audison required 80A (if I remember correctly) and I cannot remember MS8 fuse rating at the top of my head. If I am not wrong, it was 25A fuse.

At the top of that Audison had its built-in fuse as well (as most digital amps do these days).

[mob17]

Originally Posted by makkan00

No worries mate. Credit is due where it is due.

We connected central directly to MS-8 and kept logic 7. As you mentioned earlier, MS-8 and amp was set up in the way you mentioned and gains adjusted afterwards.

L7 central mid already goes to its peak on max volume, so it did not require any alteration.

Im glad you level matched alright.

The reason amping the centre is good is that its the workhorse of the whole system. But if the MS-8 provides enough power (30W MAX at 2 ohm, so maybe around 20-25 RMS) then thats fine. Im not sure about L7 speakers but i think they might benefit from more power. But as they are quite a bit more efficient than the Morels the gains might be lowered anyway for level matching.

Rudz - a temptation for you sometime in the future: Upgrade your central speaker to a Morel coaxial, like the Integra Ovation. The benefit of this will be significantly improved quality and a more equal efficiency rating (88db and 89db). Then amp it.

[makkan00]

Initially I was skeptical about this amplifier due to its size.
However after listening to whole setup, I want 6 channel amplifier now to amplify my rear ones as well.

There are not many 6 channels amplifiers available out in the market

[Rudz]

Originally Posted by makkan00

Initially I was skeptical about this amplifier due to its size.
However after listening to whole setup, I want 6 channel amplifier now to amplify my rear ones as well.

There are not many 6 channels amplifiers available out in the market

two four channel amps for you then mate

[E93learner]

Hi,

which harness was used for this?

to get the inputs from the headunit to the ms8?

Thanks,

[makkan00]

Originally Posted by E93learner

Hi,

which harness was used for this?

to get the inputs from the headunit to the ms8?

Thanks,

We modified Alpine amp harness according to our needs.

[P 5UML]

now thats a clean job mate! awesome work!!!

[Rudz]

Originally Posted by makkan00

We modified Alpine amp harness according to our needs.

Was it not the Blaupunkt Harness MAkkan ?