This is another BRZ thread. This one may be a little different because it is more audio performance focused versus car performance focused. I found out about the BRZ around November / December of 2011 when Ryan (Slade) told me about the cars. After a lot of reading and obsessing, I started to look for a car to test drive. I found an FRS to drive early in the summer of 2012, and then a dealer's BRZ that I begged a test drive. That sealed it for me, and then I just needed to find one. Hooked up with a good dealer near Charlotte, NC who had a car coming that met my criteria. I picked up the car in September 2012. After window tint. I had a buddy that started to use Opticoat, and after he did his WRX, I had him apply it to the BRZ. I liked the results, and I still like the ease of cleaning and the overall look As I mentioned before, I am an audio guy - Sound Quality. Most of the equipment was from my BMW, and I had a buddy stay for a week in a hotel and finish the entire build that week. Difficult task, but he pulled it off. Pile of gear: My wife stayed out of the garage for a week - she couldn't stand to watch a 1 month old car get stripped. Midrange drivers Midbass Rear Subs
Head Unit Amps Tweeter I was happy with the build overall, but I soon developed some issues - midrange driver went bad and had to be replaced, I decided I wanted different midbass drivers and the replacements crapped the bed. I then decided I didn't like the processor, and I wanted to do something different with the tweeters. New midrange driver Audison Thesis Voce Midbass New tweeters / pillars I started to review another subwoofer, and I had the idea to install a subwoofer in the front of the car. I bought a JL Audio TW3 10" sub. 'beauty panel' I am contemplating removing the rear 'wall' that has the two 12" drivers. The 10" sub is getting it done in the front, and I could potentially remove 60 pounds of weight and get my full trunk back (except for the spare ). I also wanted to add some of JPM Coachworks gear to the interior. This is the one piece unit that Alex and the guys molded in my head unit trim piece. Thanks for viewing!
Nice job. The only audio upgrades I have done to my car have been free or damn close to it. Your stuff looks top notch. Have fun!
Beautiful car. That deck is amazing. Any regrets or complaints about it? And you can NEVER go wrong with some JPM finery.
It has been a journey to collect the gear, and I have had a lot of 'hook ups' along the way. It is an extremely enjoyable experience to roll down the road with that favorite track.....played very well. Will have 12k on the odometer by its first birthday....not too bad. No major complaints with the deck - small stuff like the absence of global presets (have 5 memory positions for EQ, but other tuning aspects are set globally). It was good to try out the external processor for awhile, but I'm extremely happy to be back to using the P99 for processing. The hard thing about the JPM stuff.......holding back! There are many more pieces that I would like to have :drool: Thanks Robb! I hope you get a chance soon - either up here or down in your neck of the woods.
Great question......somewhat depends on what you want out of them......8" or 7" or 6.5" or 6"........new or used..........If you are still using the 6.5" Peerless SLS, I'm not sure what would best that for solid mid bass. Many were in love with the Exodus Anarchy drivers - may not be making those anymore. The Dyn MW-172 is an extremely nice driver if it can be made to fit.......not exactly affordable (even if not paying MSRP).
I am starting to think mine might be a placement deal. They are probably outputting more than is getting through the door card and to the ear. The grill on the stock door card is pretty restrictive. I can tweak the gains for more at lower volume levels but that doesn't satisfy my need for ear bleeding loud!
But ear bleeding loud is bad for you........:hsnono: I don't know if this has anything to do with your situation, but I have had some folks make mention that if the driver is 'allowed' to play between the door card and the inner metal skin (that the driver is mounted in), then you could loose output. I think this would be very difficult to remedy unless you had a very thick baffle and cut the door card around the driver. I wouldn't think there are many drivers out there that would provide more output with the given wattage then the SLS's.
32" of mid bass.........I think he was contemplating getting a big '32' decal for the front quarter panel
I posted this on an audio thread, thought I would put it here as well. Weight savings :bigthumb: I had the opportunity to spend the day with Mark Worrell to complete a couple items that have been pending since the recent addition of the front sub. I appreciate the time he gave up on a beautiful Saturday, and I had a great time hanging out with him (sitting in the shade beside the Del Sol while he did the 'hard stuff' ). A quick (I'm going to try) word of how I got to this point. I was preparing for the review of the Illusion Audio sub, and I tried it up front while running the 2 IB subs in the rear. I put the Onyx 10 in the old box that I had and ran it in the floor board for a few weeks I got together with Mark to determine what sub would work the best for front sub + rear sub - JL Audio TW3 10" Front sub installed with rear subs running I went to a comp in SC and played around with the tune with Matt R. He made one of those Matt statements that I am getting accustomed to. "Why are you running the rear subs if you can get the front sub to do everything you want it to do? You are not getting 20-25 hz in the current install with the subs, you are getting rattles, you could loose 60 pounds of weight out of the rear of the car, you can gain back your trunk, and you can put down the rear seats again. You can simplify the system with only one sub.......all bass up front, and no phase issues" This made a lot of sense to me (I'm sure some out there would argue against this, and that is fine), just like taking out the 6to8 and using the P99 for processing (which I is a decision I am extremely happy with). So.....I ran a few weeks without the rear subs hooked up, and connected the front sub to the 200.4 (lots of power at 2ohm). Through that period of evaluation, I perceived that the front sub satisfied my bass 'needs' for 99% of music that I played. John (minibox) was in agreement with me that the 10" JL sub up front was more than adequate for most of the material he heard played on it. Between my impressions and John's feedback, that was 'good enough' for me. I asked to get together with Mark and his sledge (he ended up not needing to use it ) Here are a few pics: We placed these items on a bathroom scale along with the two subs, and it equated to about 58 pounds - Matt was extremely close with his estimate. Mark also brought out the O-Scope to level match the gains on the amps after I had switched things around. Another 'perceived' positive of deep sixing the rear subs, I was able to maximize my wattage on all of my drivers again. I had changed things around to add the front sub to the system, so I am back to where I was. With the HU on max unclipped (61/62 on the volume knob), these are the voltages at the representative frequencies -5db tracks Tweeter = 23 volts @ 8k (10k @ 6db slope) Mid Range = 40 volts @ 1k Mid Bass = 40.7 volts @ 100 hz -10 db track Subwoofer = 60.2 volts @ 40 hz We then put the car on the RTA, and it was pretty good based on what John and I did last weekend. There were a few tweaks that we completed, but not much.
Now I really need to hear this. Planning a trip down anytime soon or am I going to have to come up there? Mine needs some tuning work as well. I think the new dash threw things off and I am looking at going with a new tweeter setup.
Hey Robb, my next trip down there will be April 2014 for a concert You might have to come up here - like in the Fall - back Country NC roads in full color! Would love to get a photography tutorial as well
I've made some changes since the last post - thought I would update. Mid bass driver mounting: Finished: Build Pics: Mid Range driver mounting: I had these mounted in the factory location firing up at the windshield, but Mark thought we could do better than this. He decided to build a baffle and fire them similarly to the tweeters. Before: After: Build Pics: I liked the JL sub in the floorboard, but I was afforded the opportunity to demo a 12" subwoofer that I liked the sound of much better. Stereo Integrity mkIV BM.
Finished Pics: Build Pics: I replaced one of my Mosconi 4 channel amps with a Mosconi class A biased amp This amp is a beast! I hooked it up to these Aerial towers, and it pushed them hard! Aerial Acoustic Model 6 The previous owner thought carbon fibre vinyl was cool.....I didn't like the look of it, so I had the amps painted to match. Ferrari Gray with black lettering. Before: After: Hopefully I'll be dropping the car off for the next 2 weeks to have a proper amp rack built I also had some Eibach Pro springs put on to take up the wheel gap a bit. Wheels / tires are pending at some point. Thanks for looking!
Hey man I am throwing my two 10's in my brz and am just curious how bad the rattle will be in the car. Also any recommended upgrades to go along with it?