# hi-fi stereo upgrade



## shredspillers (Oct 26, 2008)

my 94' 325i conv. complete stereo install. The car was stripped down then I put Dynamat in. This install was a 08' & 09' winter project. I took my time and while doing it I went thru many changes. Built a false floor amp rack in the trunk with a locking top lid that you can open up to look at the wiring inside the amp rack. All new wiring thru the doors and everywhere else. EQUIPMENT UPGRADE 

HU: JVC AVX77 single din 5.4in. touch screen 

Focal 165KRX2 6 3/4" components front stage
Focal 130KP 5 1/4 components rear fill
Focal 27KX 11" sub thru ski pass
Alpine PDX 4.150 4ch. amp
Alpine PDX 1.600 mono amp
JVC HD/300 Radio Reciever add on 
KS-U30 USB Video Cable for iPod/iPhone 
Dynamat
Streetwire ZN9 interconnects


It took alot of customizing to get the Focal 27KX sub in the trunk under the convertible top neg. room to work with installed behind the ski-pass so the bass goes into the cabin. Getting the 11" sub in there was a complete night-mare. Double Dynamat the speakers, made 1/2in. MDF rings behind speakers filled every hole and crack I could find behind the speakers to make it air tight & stuffed poly-fil. The false floor amp rack has 2 neon lights inside they each have a switch on top of the rack to turn on and off hooked up directly to batt. Put a big fan between the 2 amps to keep them nice and cool. 1/4in. Plexi-Glass windows for all the components. HD Radio installed under dash. YellowTop DEEP CYCLE/STARTER dual batt. system sounds crystal clear with absolutely zero rattle anywhere. 1st car stereo install. 95% done


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## doggy (Oct 13, 2008)

I love that HU as well and actually on the edge of buying one but my biggest concern that it wont fit perfectly to my E46 meaning that it would stick out a bit even with the centered dash and my other concern is whether you can change your set radio channels without help of the remote with swift action of a finger either from left to right or right to left(like the way you change tracks on the cd). How would you rate the touch screen while on the go, locating where to press taking your eyes of the road...is it hard to get used to it??


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## shredspillers (Oct 26, 2008)

doggy said:


> I love that HU as well and actually on the edge of buying one but my biggest concern that it wont fit perfectly to my E46 meaning that it would stick out a bit even with the centered dash and my other concern is whether you can change your set radio channels without help of the remote with swift action of a finger either from left to right or right to left(like the way you change tracks on the cd). How would you rate the touch screen while on the go, locating where to press taking your eyes of the road...is it hard to get used to it??


yes it takes a little bit getting used to having a HU without any knobs to grab ahold of. But I think thats some of the reasons why I like it so much its different from what I'm used to all these years. As far as how easy it is to operate. After you get used to the HU features and how to navigate your way around with it. Its really easy to operate while driving and the remote makes it very easy.

And yes you can change the radio station without remote help using the same keys that the cd would use. If you touch screen it will show you the artist/and song name and album name. touch again it will show you the radio station and name. And if you are using ipod or iphone you can have the art work displayed onscreen also.

You can also change the volume by going up or down with finger anywhere on the screen. Or you can turn up or down by making a big letter C with finger anywhere on screen. it will go up or down depending if you start the letter C at the top or bottom of the letter. Its hard to explain you should go check out the PDF manual you can check everything out about the JVC AVX77 HU

http://mobile.jvc.com/product.jsp?modelId=MODL028484&pathId=133&page=1

http://resources.jvc.com/Resources/00/01/16/LVT1937-001A.pdf


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## doggy (Oct 13, 2008)

Thank you very much, thats such a huge help...


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## 335iLeManspkgmx (Jul 24, 2009)

I want a false bottom for my 335xi but no idea how I will hook that up. I wish I could build one myself. Maybe I will make that a project of mine -- what is the best material to make a false bottom out of?


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## shredspillers (Oct 26, 2008)

335iLeManspkgmx said:


> I want a false bottom for my 335xi but no idea how I will hook that up. I wish I could build one myself. Maybe I will make that a project of mine -- what is the best material to make a false bottom out of?


hey sorry I issed your reply. Wondering if you started this project yet? What are you wanting to do? I've started a new project replacing the Focal KRX2 2-way with KRX3 3-way. fiberglassing now


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## shredspillers (Oct 26, 2008)

*upgrading Focal KRX2 2-way with Focal KRX3 3-way*

After a few months of getting Focal KRX3 3-way I finally finished getting them installed. In my opinion it sounds so much better than the Focal KRX2 2-way set-up I had in there before. I'm glad I upgraded from the KRX2 to the KRX3.

Alot of things had to be changed to get this 3-way working right and installed. 1st I had to get the woofers in the kick panels it would've been no problem with just adding a MDF rings to make the room for clearance of the magnet. But I was using angled MDF rings that were like 3in. on the high end and like a 1/2in high on the low end of the MDF ring. If you've ever taken the speaker out of the kick panel there is no room at all towards the front inside the enclosure. I have Dynaxorb inside kick panels also. In order to get them in kick panel I had to angle the speakers with the thickest part at about 1 o'clock so the magnet wasnt touching the metal wall inside.

Then I had to rebuild the plastic trim that is glued to the top of the door on the inside of the door panel. I was almost finished with the second door panel speaker install and I broke a few of the slots that the clips go into. So I fiberglassed the plastic and made it fit tighter than the original one. It made the door panel much tighter to the door.

The Fiberglassed MDF rings on the doors were angled more towards the driver and passenger they sound awesome. 1 of the things I learned from the 3 different set of Focal speakers (130 KP, 165 KRX2 & the KRX3) I've used for the front stage is that no matter how high you turn them up. The sound only gets better. A little over 3/4 volume and up is the sweet spot. Getting them dialed in isnt easy with 162 different setting for the xovers.

Then next I had to make more room in the amp rack for the xovers because they are huge. The Focal KRX3's xovers have been modified and now they have 2 inputs 1 input for the midrange & tweeters and 1 input for the woofer. Only the American KRX3's have been modified. France makes Focal speakers and they didnt want to make the modification to the KRX3 xovers so Focal USA did. There was a problem with the level of output with the 3-way speakers. I called Duane at Focal USA to find out what was going on with the KRX3 xovers because I didnt know anything about the upgrade and these things arent cheap. Duane at Focal USA told me that the problem was that either the mids & tweets were louder than the woofer or the woofer was louder than the mids & tweets. So adding another input on the xover for the woofer made it so you can adjust them independently.

So what I had to do was either buy another amp for the extra input or eliminate my rear speakers from the 4ch. amp I'm using and use the rear speaker input for the woofers in kick panels. NoW I'm not using the rear speakers anymore for now. But I really don't need them anymore, nobodies back there anyways because my wind deflector is alway on. I'll probably get a new amp for the rears later. But for know it sounds so good I don't even think about having them on. The mids and tweets are more in your face clean & crisp & with the woofers in kick panel you really feel the low end frequencies from the front instead of only from the subwoofer thru ski pass from the trunk. here are some pic's. But I'm still not finished with everything. I just got some Focal Blackhole 5 Tile for the door panels. I will never finish ahh!!


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