BMW X5 Dream System (From 1999) Spoiler - Fairly Mundane by CAJ Standards

December 19-21, 2020

Work continues. Got the rear support/beauty panel done. Came out fairly well, but I'm not sure on the suede. I like the look of it, but not sure if carpet would have looked better. At any rate, on with the pictures. Hope you guys like learning how the hot dog is made. As mentioned, I take lots of pictures.

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That's what it looks like with the rear load floor installed. And should make it apparent why I designed (I use that term loosely) the setup this way. I wanted the entire thing to be able to be removed without taking out the amp rack and subwoofer box from on top of the load floor if I absolutely had to. So everything is modular in a way that allows it to pull out. I don't imagine this will be "easy" to pull out, but at least it will definitely be possible.

Working on the amp rack today. I still need to build the front of the support/beauty panel underneath but I wanted to take a break from that before I went crazy. Trying to figure out all the carpet seams and puzzle pieces during assembly of the rear one was driving me bonkers.

Love the attention to detail here! I'm curious to know how you like the Audio Control DSP unit-I'm looking at this unit and the MiniDSP 8x12. The AC seems to do more on it's own and the MiniDSP seems like it "can" do more. Keep up the amazing work!

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Originally Posted by mfenske

Love the attention to detail here! I'm curious to know how you like the Audio Control DSP unit-I'm looking at this unit and the MiniDSP 8x12. The AC seems to do more on it's own and the MiniDSP seems like it "can" do more. Keep up the amazing work!

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I think most real SQ guys stay away from AC... used to be good stuff back in the day but I find most people who buy it these days do it because of Mark on YouTube vs actual informed purchases or having any experience with them or other brands. When you do the research and demos you basically always end up at Helix or MiniDSP if you are really serious about SQ and stage.

That's not to say its a piece of shit, its much better than the other budget DSP's out there, I have heard a few people with noise floor issues but I think that is mostly due to poor install or poor tunes. The AC unit will probably be all most need, but lets not kid ourselves here, its not a 8x12 or Helix/Match/Brax (name your audiotech Fischer brand here.)

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Originally Posted by Dakine_surf

I think most real SQ guys stay away from AC... used to be good stuff back in the day but I find most people who buy it these days do it because of Mark on YouTube vs actual informed purchases or having any experience with them or other brands. When you do the research and demos you basically always end up at Helix or MiniDSP if you are really serious about SQ and stage.

That's not to say its a piece of shit, its much better than the other budget DSP's out there, I have heard a few people with noise floor issues but I think that is mostly due to poor install or poor tunes. The AC unit will probably be all most need, but lets not kid ourselves here, its not a 8x12 or Helix/Match/Brax (name your audiotech Fischer brand here.)

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I fall into that category... though was more from Dean Beyett's videos than Mark's. I've never had a DSP and didn't know I needed one until watching those vids and looking into DSPs in general. I looked at that 8x12 after mfenske mentioned it and probably would have gone with that had I run across it. I needed at least 10 channels out so the AC fit the bill and I couldn't find anything from anyone else, at the time, in my limited research. :shrug:

I have no experience with DSPs so I am hoping the DM-810 will do all I need. If not, I will upgrade/move to the 8x12 in all likelihood. I hope I don't have to though as I'm sure this is still going to sound worlds better than anything I've had before. Never done full active, never done 3 way up front, and never had a DSP. Hopefully, with some hand-holding from you fine folks, I can get this thing tuned decently without having to take it to someone. :pray:

Small update.

December 24-26, 2020

Got the amp rack wrapped in carpet. I screwed up the height of one of the shelves by about a quarter inch. Moron. But it doesn't look too bad. I need to start using the DSLR for pics. My phone sucks in low light conditions (OnePlus 7T Pro Mclaren). I think the HDR settings really screw up the low-light shots. Will have to mess with that.

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Up next is rebuilding the sub box. Or maybe I'll just strip the carpet and work with it. I don't know. Getting anxious to actually hear some sound come out of this stupid thing. :banghead:

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Originally Posted by crystalworks

Small update.

I need to start using the DSLR for pics.

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Whattya shoot? Sony Fullframe Mirrorless user here!

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Originally Posted by mfenske

Whattya shoot? Sony Fullframe Mirrorless user here!

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Nothing great. And I barely know how to use it. Old Nikon D3100.

Aug 01 - 21, 2021

Told you guys this would take forever. Did some wiring work this month in an attempt to get things going but hit a minor snag with my Android head unit. Will need to rewire the inputs to the DSP from low-level to hi-level as my head unit is limited to ~0.5v output and I'm just not happy with that.

- Weighed the amp rack (sans wiring). It's a boy! A big boy. 72lbs 15oz

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- Built a speaker input harness for the amp rack. Glad my wife is fine with my pet projects as I chose to do it in the living room... The colored zip ties you see were temporary place holders. All were replaced with black.

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- Then went to integrate the speaker harness into the X5.

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- And now the amp rack. This rack is a huge pain to work with as I was not thinking about serviceability when I designed/built it. Have to tilt the shelves down to get to the screw terminals. In fact, I wasn't thinking much at all except about it being compact it seems. The JL amps get pretty warm stacked so close together in there. :banghead: But I think they'll be okay? From what I've read they run pretty warm due to their RIPS.

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Going to do some more work this weekend and will update then. Did play some audio through it and mess with the DSP a little bit but I'm not happy with the levels I'm getting out of the head unit's RCAs. I have to boost the signal hard (+10dB) in the DSP and that seems like it would be raising the noise floor. At least in my newbie mind it seems that way.

Aug 27 - Sept 1, 2021

Still plugging away. Had to completely disassemble everything in order to change over from RCA input to speaker level input at the DSP. Took it down to this:

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At that point I was pretty close to rage quitting on the whole thing. I mean almost 3 years with no audio and then listen to it for about an hour and realize it all has to come out again? Hah, frustration I was not prepared for. But I picked up my panties, hid the vestigial RCA's coming from the head unit and de-pinned the quadlock connector of it's speaker outputs. Built the harness and tried to make everything look pretty again.

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Since everything was out I figured I should do some of the things I had wanted to like weighing the storage tray. 31lbs 9oz. After deleting all of the air suspension stuff, it looks like the stereo won't add that much net weight. Maybe 50-75lbs. Not bad. Also wanted to add some lighting... much easier with the rack out of the truck. Middle picture is testing the lighting kit I had and the third is after I wired and mounted it. Nothing is visible when viewed through the little windows. Will add some more lighting to the sub box and amp rack later which is why that RGB pig tail exits the back side of the tray.

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Next order of business since everything was out. Changing up the amp rack. I liked the way the rack looked before but it seems Slash V1 amps don't like to be stacked like that. All three amps were toasty hot after an hour of playing pink noise with the middle one being too hot to touch. No shut downs or warnings, but I don't like things that hot. South Texas heat is hard enough on autos and gear inside I didn't want to exacerbate the problem. So I swiss cheesed the sides of the rack with more screw holes and moved the amps away from each other by a fair amount. Also gave them an 11 degree upward slant toward the heat sink to aid in cooling. We'll see if it makes a difference after I get everything hooked back up. A side benefit to doing this work is that I can now barely access the amplifier terminal set screws. This is great as before I was having to loosen the amp shelves and rotate each one down to insert wires. Stupid design, guy who thought of it must have been an idiot. Oh wait...

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And here's where I left it last night at 2AM. Still need to wire the amps back up. Then I'll get to see if the last week's work was worth it. *fingers crossed*

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Small update. Put my life on the line and stole some garage time this weekend which happened to have both our 16th wedding anniversary and my wife's 40th birthday in it. :brick:

Sept 3 - 6, 2021

1. System is playing again. Have some pictures, but they look much like the previous few posts with very little changing. Maybe I'll upload them with the next update.

2. Switching the input from RCA to speaker cured my lack of fader at the head unit. So that's nice. It also gained me better input voltage at the DSP. So that's also nice. But it seems to have elevated the noise floor? I have a whine/hiss now that I have to track down.

3. I was originally under the impression that all the speakers had been upgraded by a previous owner to BSW (made by MB Quart) replacements and now I'm not so sure that's the case. I can't get the tweeters to sound as "lively" as I would like. I don't like tinny or crazy metallic tweets, but something a little brighter than these are capable of. Also, the OE drivers are 8ohm which the slash amps don't like according to the manual. Will take the replacement as opportunity to treat the doors to at least a cursory damping.

So, I went ahead and ordered two sets of Infinity Kappa 60csx components and their matching Kappa-20MX 2" mid for the dash. I know these probably aren't the choice of many here, but budgets lie where they lie right? Going to run them active in the front and maybe use the passive Xovers in the rears. Don't know exactly yet. Hit me with any thoughts, suggestions, finger pointing...

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The speakers came in over the weekend but didn't have time to work on anything. So I'm squeezing in an hour or so after homeschooling my daughter during the weekdays. Damn I can't wait until this pandemic is in the rear view mirror. Or at least vaccinations for younger kids so mine can get back into a damn school. /rant

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Sept 13 - 15, 2021

Here is the dash mid driver that came out. It's a Bavarian Soundwerks, now Bavsound mid, not sure on size, <2". It's 6.5ohm according to the multimeter. The 500/5 specs 2-4ohm for stereo loads so not sure how unhappy it was with the 6.5ohm driver. I'm just not that knowledgeable. Maybe someone can chime in as to whether that makes a difference or not.

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Well, I overestimated the amount of usable room in the factory enclosure for mounting the new 2" mid. So this solution will be temporary and maybe I'll build some A-pillars at some point so I can be like all the cool kids on here. I'll wrap these mounting plates in some faux suede that matches the rear. I made them out of 1/4" but it still wasn't enough clearance so will remake them in 1/2". I tested clearance using cardboard and the 1/4" plate to make sure that was enough. And it is, just. For a mounting solution I think for now I am just going to use butyl rope around the perimeter since this is temporary. If it sounds really good maybe I'll graft the plate onto the factory grilles so they can clip in to the dash. That's a problem for future me...

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