Improving the 986 sound system

[atmorris]

No one seemed to have a comprehensive guide to improving the stock speakers, so I wrote up the mods that I made and the steps involved. Rear, dash, and door speakers are all covered.

I am working on a printable template for the 6 1/2" door speaker mount plate to go along with this document. I will post it here as soon as I have it done.

Andy

[davej_anderson]

Looking forward to it as I'm looking to upgrade the stereo ASAP!!!!

[rrotondo]

GREAT write up!. Wiating for the template. Will it be the same/similar for a MY 2000?

thanks :D

[edevlin]

I will also be interested in that document. I recently had the stereo upgraded by our local auto stereo shop that has done my other cars, but this was his first Porsche, gulp. He seems to have done a good, but not spectacular job, at least from what I could see from the install, system sounds very good, now, except for lack of subwoofers.

Here is what I had done.

Replaced CD player/tuner with top end Pioneer unit with XM

Replaced dash speakers with JL audio 4" drivers (had to mod the mounting brackets)

Replaced door subwoofer drivers with JL audio 6" drivers (had to cut out box to fit larger drivers)

Powered speakers with large outboard JL audio Slash series Amp (4X75 watts)

I would like to figure how to get some kind of subwoofer system for the car, any ideas?

Ed

2000 Boxster 2.7L

Arctic Silver/black

AP performance chip

cold air intake

fabspeed bypass pipes

[Amfibius]

edevlin, I have also upgraded the stereo in my 986. I think I have actually been succesful ... I won my last car audio event, and came in second the first time I entered (without any tuning). The comment from the judges at the last car audio event was, "this is the best car of the day, even better than the pro audio cars". And this was despite having no subwoofer.

I am planning a subwoofer install into the passenger footwell very soon. It will be a PHD AF 10W "infinite baffle" sub but mounted in a small box stuffed with acoustic wool, and driven with a small class D amp. The rest of my system is:

Pioneer DEX-P9R + DEQ-P9R CD player and outboard DAC/active crossover

Butler TDB-475 valve power amp

Dynaudio MD-130 and MW-160GT speakers

If you do a search on this forum for "subwoofer" it will throw up a lot of things that other people have done. There are 4 places that people commonly install subwoofers, with pros and cons:

- Rear parcel shelf. Pro: no loss of storage. Cons: you can only use a small diameter (6" or less) and shallow mount sub, like the Focal subwoofer. Not much air in the box.

- Rear boot - Pro: neat. Cons: engine in between subwoofer and cabin!

- Passenger kick panel - Pro: Monney Audio will sell you a kit that allows you to do just that. Cons: ??? Feedback seems to be pretty good.

- Passenger footwell - Pro: most air therefore most bass (theoretically). Cons: passenger loses footspace, but only as much as the driver. Most installs have the passenger lose as much foot space as the driver does with pedals.