You should decide after you finish this install, you may not need one, its always nice to save money for the next mod.

 

jdcatch,

Here's my suggestions and observations:

1. The installer you talked to is a liar. The equipment you listed can definitely be installed with the Bose HU without any issues.

2. There is a debate about going for a pure SQ setup or others who feel that they need to have rear fill. I personally have a MB Quart Q series components up front and I removed the stock rear speakers. I haven't missed them at all.

3. In conjunction with #2 above, I do recommend giving maximum juice to the components as MB Quart Q series components can handle alot of juice and more power equals bigger and better sound. One suggestion is to bridge the 4 channel PPI amp you have into 2 channels to send 200W to each side. I'm not familiar with the ID subs, but your sealed enclosure from your old car may not fit in the coupe trunk. You might want to look into 4080's 10" fiberglass enclosure which I think is top notch from reading the specs and looking at the pictures. Then power the sub with a 250W or 500W mono channel amp specifically designed to power subs.

Like the above posters, if you want to keep the stock HU, you will need to get a LOC or you will have to solder the outputs to RCA cables going to the amps. If you are sure of keeping the stock HU for the life of the car, then go ahead, but if you ever want to change out the HU later, I think it's better to save some more $$$ and do the HU swap now with the install so you can get it all done in one go and save $$$ in the long run. Look into the Double-DIN dash kit being sold by various members here.

Also don't forget about sound dampening the car, especially with the awesome components that you have and the sub. Otherwise, you will lose alot of sound from the components leaking sound out to the door frame and the sub will rattle the panels and just mess up the clean tight sound you are looking to achieve.

Good Luck

 

ChuckP - i think u r right. i will wait and see if i need an EQ later.

shibal_z - the last car that had this equipment in it was a 2000 Jetta GLX. i disconected the rear speakers in that car and the MB Quarts sounded great all by themselves. maybe i was missing some decent mid-range response though....so-->

i was thinking that it is worth trying out the MB QUARTS w/ the BOSE rear speakers at first - i can always unplug them later. i am hoping that they will provide some mid-range filler - ANY OPINIONS ON THIS?

i plan on copying my last setup exactly - the PPI 4800 is 100Wx4 @ 4ohms. 1 channel will power the MB Quarts on the LEFT side, and 1 channel for the MB Quarts on the RIGHT side. this leaves the remaining 2 channels to be bridged and power the ID 10" sub. i would love to buy another amp, more speakers, etc - but i don't want to spend that kind of $ right now. oh well - maybe one day...

i have seen 4080's thread w/ pics of his enclosure -it's AWESOME! i might get that later, but my ID 10" sub is already in a sealed box and it can fit in the G and still leave me plenty of storage room.

as for sound dampening - i plan on having the install shop dynamat the front doors when they install the MB Quarts - no need for me to tear apart the doors on my own afterwards to do it. after the install my plan was to dynamat the rear deck and the trunk myself - i have seen some install threads and it doesnt seem too hard. i was planning on leaving the rear doors an ALL floorboards as-is. ANY OPINIONS ON THIS?

link to sound profing the G by 6MTHavoc **HERE**

 

Whooops.. I missed the part that said you had a sedan. Then there should be no space issues with the sub box then. I had assumed that you had a coupe.

As for rear filler, it's a matter of choice I think. For audiophiles however, going without the rear fillers eliminates any chances for the rear speakers to cancel out and interfere with the front soundstage. If you want to learn more about this, check out http://caraudioforums.com

Also as an FYI music is recorded to be played by a left and right speaker with a front sounstage. There is no encoding that takes advantage of rear or center speakers like movies and games so unless you plan on setting up a AV theater in the car, I personally would prefer a SQ setup and forego rears.

That said, it would be a good idea to see if you would prefer the rear fills in the sedan since the cabin volume is so much greater than the coupe, but that means you need to dedicate two more channels off your PPI amp and you will need another amp to power the sub.

If you feel some weakness in the midrange off the Qs, it probably needs more power or you may need a HU with an EQ or an external EQ unit to tweak the bands. I have 150W going to each side on my Qs and I think in my next install, I was thinking about a JL 450/4 and biamping to pump 150W to each midbass and 75W to each tweeter! The crossovers that come with the Qs already support this.

BTW, disconnect and remove the rear deck speakers and leave the grilles as is to provide air channels into the cabin from the trunk. I had my rear decks removed and when I turn up the bass on some hip hop, I swear I can feel my 10W7 blow wind to the back of my head from the trunk.

Your sound dampening plan sounds prudent. If you don't use the rear fills, I don't see a need to dynamat the rear doors other than fixing the odd rattles and dampening road noise. You may also need to get some 1/4" foam from your local hardware store and stuff it into the door panel cavities and other places to eliminate rattles as your speakers and interior panels settle out after the install.

Good Luck

 

I did not need to use a LOC with the JL amps I have, I don't know whether the Precision Power can handle the high level output of the Bose head unit.

Reading all the suggestions above, I guess a lot depends on if you want rear fill. I have these same MB Quarts up front, and I used a second set of MB Quarts (coaxials) for the rear doors. In a sedan, I prefer a sound that includes rear side speakers. It's all a matter of personal preference.

 

Send him an e-mail=).

 

Installing aftermarkt speakers and amp using the factory HU is cool, but what makes me sick is you're putting in all this high end equipment using the factory HU, the weak link is your HU. I don't know how discriminating your ear is, but what you have to realize is that alot of these high end audio components are very transparent, which means if a crappy source is used the system will show how crappy the source is.

Why not look at the Double din dash option that some people have posted here, and add your old high end Kenwood HU. I think would be a much better option. The other is I've seen people located a HU in the slot where factory Nav screen would have been.

About the EQ, it all depends on what you're wanting to do with this system. Most people use EQ's in the wrong manner. Let me ellaborate on the last sentence. The Eq's purpose is to make the in car response as flat as possible. The Eq was meant to be used in conjunction with an analyizer like the Audio Control unit. But the problem is if you make your in car response flat, most people would think it sounds weird. So I would only get the EQ if you want more control over your system and want to customize the sound. Now interms of a good eq you can't go wrong with any of the audio control units, or the 23 band unit from Phoenix Gold, PPI used to also make a big trunk mount unit, but I don't know if they still do.

Finally one last note if you have the old PPI4800, which came in either chrome or gray, there should be a 12db down button on the unit. If you have a 12db down button then you don't have to have a LOC. You can take speakers leads out of the Bose amp and solder them directly onto one end of an RCA connector and hook directly up to the amp, but you must use the 12db down button. Not many people know about this because not many amplifiers have this function. I used to work at an audio store and we've done it this way for many an Audi, Acura and other Bose systems using PPI amps.

If none of this makes sense please PM me

 

Shibal Z, I agree with you about the rear speakers, but once we did an SQ system in a BMW 3 series. After the system was complete we found that the sound stage was way too low, the components in this system were mounted in kick panels. But what we did was mount a single 4" component speaker in the middle of the back deck slightly angled forward and we mounted an attenuator up front to control the sound of that one component. Man when you started to turn the volume up on that one speaker you could literally see the soundstage come up to eye level. It was awesome. Oh btw that one rear speaker was hooked up out of phase.