Under dash speakers

[David Layton]

When I re-assemble the car after paint, I have a pair of the Kooglewerks speaker blisters.  It replaces all of the under dash cardboard with hard plastic. Worth checking out.

 

I will also have two parcel shelf speakers, all driven by a Japanese Blaupunkt Frankfurt that is set up for 4 speaker stereo. 

[chargin]

The Parcel shelf speaker is Beautiful 

 

[Tim of Capitola]

Wow, some good ideas. I just ordered a pair of Infinity Co-AX 4", I will try to make a wood panels to mount them under the dash. I don't have the cover panels. I will take some photos. 

[TG2k2]

A while ago I saw someone who had a custom pod that fit in the left and right-most sections of the dash. It looked amazing. I never found out who did it or who owned the car but clearly it was someone with some fiberglass skills.

I ended up using the Bolt-On-Bliss kick panels made by eurotrash and they were great. You can check them out here: https://www.boltonbliss.com

I needed v2 which handled a bigger (deeper) speaker (I mounted Dynaudio 6.5” mids there and they have relatively large magnets). I ended up having to use a wood adapter ring on it to get an extra 1/4” so the back of the speaker fit without resting on the back. I didn’t notice it space-wise and I’m a size 12 shoe. Once I was done I used vinyl to cover the panel which matched the dashboard. I don’t have any pics with it in the car (yet) but here are some before and after pics...

Original Panel w/Cutout:


Final Product:

[jp5Touring]

Kooglewerks ?

 

http://www.kooglewerks.com/products/bmw-2002-speaker-pod-under-dash-panels

[Tim of Capitola]

Well I went low cost, using some 1x6 wood. Took a little time but sounds good.

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/goR1qmSKxBSrjAva8

[Vicleonardo1]

On 11/8/2018 at 8:24 AM, Tim of Capitola said:

Wow, some good ideas. I just ordered a pair of Infinity Co-AX 4", I will try to make a wood panels to mount them under the dash. I don't have the cover panels. I will take some photos. 

Good choice. Big Infinity fan from way back.. Still make some of the best speakers in my book. Can't beat the 2 ohm resistance,  always the best replacement for cars with Bose speakers. 

It is all a matter of taste, but what do I know, I ain't no audiophile....

[Healey3000]

I'm a bit of a (self-described) audiophile and find car speakers quite a challenge, acoustically.  It's a tough environment, with less than perfect mounting options, lots of hard surfaces and strange room gain characteristics.  Not to mention, the external noise that ruins everything.  Having said that, I realize a car is not a concert hall and compromises abound.

 

However, a couple of fundamentals hold true in just about every car.  Mount your high frequency drivers up high if possible so that they are pointing at you, face level.  Imaging and clarity can be maximized this way.  Place your low frequency drivers low, if you have to since they contribute very little to imaging.  Muddling in male vocals is less objectionable than female voices.  Front mounted speakers are acoustically better.

 

The 2002 is worse than most cars in terms of mounting options.  Modern cars place tweeters in the A-pillar, but that's not an option for us.  What I plan to do is mount the tweeters right at the corner where the door panels come up against the dash.  I think a 45 degree block bolted to the door panel will fit into the recess in the dash when the door is closed.  Tweeters that go down to around 2 kHz are pretty small and can be mounted on these blocks.  With this approach, you can mount the 4" or 6" drivers just about anywhere you have room - under the dash, rear deck, center console, etc.

 

Given how noisy these cars are, this may all be way over the top

[Chris_B]

I agree pretty much entirely with Mr. Healey, including the "self-described" audiophile part. My 02 came with holes in the doors and rear deck sheet metal, so I didn't have to have anguish about whether I should cut to mount speakers in those locations. Realistically, one can repair these travesties to the extent that the purists will never know there was hole there. I believe that the front, lower door corner locations are the best for midrange speakers and rear deck locations are the best for woofers in the 02. I installed accumat in most of the interior surfaces of my 02, a pair of Focal 6" coax speakers mounted in my doors, and a pair of 8"  JL Audio Stealthboxes  in the back deck. After I installed the Focal speakers, I was not happy with the soundstage provided by door mounted speakers, so I installed a pair of MB Quart "line" tweeters https://mbquart.com/mobile-audio/z-line/z-line-speakers/zt1-25/ on my dash. This significantly improved the sound stage.

[Simeon]

1 hour ago, Healey3000 said:

I'm a bit of a (self-described) audiophile and find car speakers quite a challenge, acoustically.  It's a tough environment, with less than perfect mounting options, lots of hard surfaces and strange room gain characteristics.  Not to mention, the external noise that ruins everything.  Having said that, I realize a car is not a concert hall and compromises abound.

 

However, a couple of fundamentals hold true in just about every car.  Mount your high frequency drivers up high if possible so that they are pointing at you, face level.  Imaging and clarity can be maximized this way.  Place your low frequency drivers low, if you have to since they contribute very little to imaging.  Muddling in male vocals is less objectionable than female voices.  Front mounted speakers are acoustically better.

 

The 2002 is worse than most cars in terms of mounting options.  Modern cars place tweeters in the A-pillar, but that's not an option for us.  What I plan to do is mount the tweeters right at the corner where the door panels come up against the dash.  I think a 45 degree block bolted to the door panel will fit into the recess in the dash when the door is closed.  Tweeters that go down to around 2 kHz are pretty small and can be mounted on these blocks.  With this approach, you can mount the 4" or 6" drivers just about anywhere you have room - under the dash, rear deck, center console, etc.

 

Given how noisy these cars are, this may all be way over the top

 

I thought about a mid-range driver either in the kick panels (Boltonbliss) or in the under dash mount with some tweeters let into the top of the dash firing straight up into the windscreen.  A pair of 6x9" co-axials in the rear deck plus, maybe, a compact powered subwoofer under the passenger seat.

[Oldtimerfahrer]

Hi,

I would not rate as an audiophile, maybe a wannabe, but I have also been pondering the audio possibilities in the 02 since mine has the original Frankfurt radio and mono speaker in the console common to early eurospec 02's. I have an E30 with no radio (ripped out, good period units cost good money) and a fleet of Land Rovers that have never had any non-mechanical sound...so I have been thinking about something to put on the parcel shelf that I could move from vehicle to vehicle. I was intrigued by the Bose soundlink revolve + , which can be paired and has a mounting point in the base....it's not the cheapest solution, but mounting a tripod screw to hold each speaker in each car would be a breeze, amps and the head unit cost money too but my smartphone is always at hand. The revolve+ sounds great in an open space, with a great spatial/non-directional  vibe. I wonder how they would fill the 02? No cutting, no wires, no placement issues and as long as my phone is charged...Anyone gone this route?

Andrew

[Simeon]

I am sure that someone here was running a Bang & Olufsen Bluetooth unit and seemed happy.

 

I think with your criteria and the ease of installation it’s a no-brainer. I would see if there was a means of powering it from within the car though. Charging it up might get boring quite quickly. 

[ML234]

On 11/11/2018 at 7:58 PM, Healey3000 said:

I'm a bit of a (self-described) audiophile and find car speakers quite a challenge, acoustically.  It's a tough environment, with less than perfect mounting options, lots of hard surfaces and strange room gain characteristics.  Not to mention, the external noise that ruins everything.  Having said that, I realize a car is not a concert hall and compromises abound.

 

However, a couple of fundamentals hold true in just about every car.  Mount your high frequency drivers up high if possible so that they are pointing at you, face level.  Imaging and clarity can be maximized this way.  Place your low frequency drivers low, if you have to since they contribute very little to imaging.  Muddling in male vocals is less objectionable than female voices.  Front mounted speakers are acoustically better.

 

The 2002 is worse than most cars in terms of mounting options.  Modern cars place tweeters in the A-pillar, but that's not an option for us.  What I plan to do is mount the tweeters right at the corner where the door panels come up against the dash.  I think a 45 degree block bolted to the door panel will fit into the recess in the dash when the door is closed.  Tweeters that go down to around 2 kHz are pretty small and can be mounted on these blocks.  With this approach, you can mount the 4" or 6" drivers just about anywhere you have room - under the dash, rear deck, center console, etc.

 

Given how noisy these cars are, this may all be way over the top

Any suggestions for the types of speakers to buy for 2 tweeters exactly where you mentioned them and two in the back in the rear deck? (My tii already has holes cut out for a 6x9).

 

I unfortunately am just an admirer of sound but know very little about actual soundsystems - any help would be great!

[Chris_B]

Check out the MB Quart XT1-20 or 25 tweeters

[calw]

I'm not interested in loud or perfect sound, but need something in the car.  Doors and parcel shelf are not cut, and I'm not about to do so. 

 

So, I'm about to try this setup:

 

Custom early (short) console with largest speakers that I can fit in sealed boxes within (yes, a bit of woodworking is involved).  This will probably give almost enough bass but lousy highs due to the location. Also in the console, a 7" screen, 2 DIN high android radio (Shallow depth, non CD) near top of console where it will just fit, width-wise)  Small Cube speakers on top of the parcel shelf to fill in highs and hopefully give some stereo separation. 

 

Hopefully, the various sound controls built into android radio will let me tailor this setup enough to sound good.  Not great.  Not loud enough to rattle neighboring cars at a stoplight.  Not sure which radio, but it will be my best guess from the zillion or so generic units available from way out east.  For the rest of us old folk reading this, these units include GPS navigation, cell phone bluetooth pairing, backup camera compatibility, dash cam capability, picture and video viewing, etc.  oh, and a radio, although it's very hard to find one that does AM radio.