I sold my Alpine front speakers and existing Kenwood amp, which allowed me to go for these beauties!!
Pioneer GM6400 4 channel amp and a JL Audio 500/1 sub amp.
Got a few settings to tweak, but after giving the system a bit of a test this morning i can honestly say this is LOUD! Very rare that i get to the stage where my head can't take much more, but even i had to turn it down after a bit!
The JL Audio sub amp gives just over 500w RMS, compared to the Kenwood amp i had before which was about 200w RMS. So now LOTS of bass is effortless, whereas the Kenwood one gave decent amounts of bass, but always felt that it was right at the top of it's limits.
The Pioneer amp also powers my Pioneer splits much better.
I'm well happy with how it's sounding.....
Had a slight problem with the JL amp cutting out under heavy loads (ie, when i whacked the volume up!) but luckily a quick Google search revealed that if the current from the battery drops below 10v then the amp doesn't have enough power to deliver. Turns out the earthing point & the cable i was using wasn't really fit for the job, so i replaced the earth cable with some 4 gauge power cable, earthed on a better place and it seems to have cured it.
(earth cable should be black i know...only had red in a decent gauge!)
Will have to think about a possible battery upgrade / possibly an alternator too...but this will do for now 🙂
Joel wrote:i used to do that till that one time the seat just wasnt quite clipped into place
plus 6 volt bugs dont have a backrest locking system like fat chicks do
Joel , what you meen they dont lock into the back of the car?? i have had our clips off before and if you stop quick it just comes forward????? that would be anoying in an old 60's bug.
, Dylan
This is an awesome thread, I'll definitely take into consideration what you have done with the parcel shelf and subwoofer hidden in the back as that is exactly what I want to do.
How hard was it to do the wiring and how did you get it from the front of the car to the rear?
Sorry for digging up an old thread, but want to know what to do before I jump in and buy everything.
SebastienPeek wrote:How hard was it to do the wiring and how did you get it from the front of the car to the rear?
Sorry for digging up an old thread, but want to know what to do before I jump in and buy everything.
Hi Seb!
If you look through the thread again on page 1, you'll see that i've run pretty much all of the cables through the heater channels (through hosepipe)
I must admit that i've since added better (thicker) power cables from the battery to the amps at the front, and for this i've just brought them from the bonnet area into the car near the fuse holders (just a 10mm hole with a rubber grommet) and run them under the carpet to get to the battery / fuses...
SebastienPeek wrote:I keep looking at this and comparing to my own bug,
There looks like there is a lot more room in your "luggage" area than mine.
Or is it just the angle of the photos?
Do you have any of the dimensions for the sub box and parcel shelf?
Seb
Hmmm...pretty sure it's the same as yours? Excuse the poor diagram, but here's the dimensions of the shelf!!
One thing i didn't take into account was that when the sub is pounding, the speaker moves in & out a fair amount....and could possibly hit the back of the seat. So to be safe i have made the little black "bump stop" things (that the back of the seat rest against) longer, to bring the backrest forward a couple of cm's.
It does mean that the rear seat sits a bit more upright than normal, but not enough to notice. With hindsight i'd have just made the sub-box a few cm's shallower, and have it slightly wider to make the internal 1.25cuft.
Didn't expect to actually receive a reply, but definitely a thanks is in order!
I took it upon myself to jump in and just do it, so if you click Zelda in my signature, you'll see my build thread...
It's around the bottom of page 6... 😀
Hi Seb! Looking good mate 🙂 Weird how the shelf didn't line up at the back though? The shape of your car must be slightly curved in that section? Its no biggie though!!!
Well, i keep saying my build is finished, but i've since deleted those words off this thread...
I've had a tinker with the front speakers as i was finding that i could hear the rear speakers over the front ones, due to the fact that the fronts were kinda just pointing at my legs and not my ears!
Out came the fibreglass once more!
Here i have made the basic wood frame that angles the cones upwards. Only needed to hold in place with the hot glue gun, as the strength will come when they're glassed.
Covered with cloth to form the basic shape....
....then fibreglassed / bogged / sanded
Finished.....and sounding BRILLIANT up front now!
A few more changes happening in the next week or 2.....will post again when i'm done 🙂
The thing i like about it is the stereo in the glovebox you didnt cut a hole in the old dash,can i ask who you got the carpet kit from???
cheers shane.
vwmad wrote:,can i ask who you got the carpet kit from???
Hi Shane!
OK, the carpet is just the standard Beetle carpet, with a hole cut in it!
To mark where the hole needed to be, i made a chalk line on the actual speaker pods where i wanted the carpet to be cut...then just pressed the carpet against them...which when removed, gave me a chalk line on the rear of the carpet...so i knew where to cut 🙂 (hope that makes sense!)
After blowing 3 subs, i decided to bite the bullet and get something that was going to hopefully last the distance! Ended up going for a JL Audio 12w3v3, which is more suited to the JL Audio 500/1 amp.
I also swapped out the rear Pioneer splits for some JL Audio Evo TR690-TXi 6X9's
And also got rid of the Pioneer amp for an ARC Audio xdi804 amp (4x80w rms)
The last tweak i want to do is change the sealed sub box for a ported one, tuned to 35hz...but not sure if i can accommodate it with the limited space i have behind the rear seat. I'll wait and see on that one.
Here's a quick youtube of the whole install, obviously the sound quality being limited with distortion on my cam...but you'll get the idea i guess!?
SebastienPeek wrote:I'm curious, you have all that space on the sides of the sub box, why not have the amps in there?
I'm sure that'd make wiring a lot simpler...
Hi Mr Peek....
It's mainly down to the fact that i've always found it less painful to run speaker cable down the car rather than RCA's (with the bulky plugs)
Also, i was told years ago that it's good to run real short RCA's if at all possible (that might just be an old wives tale though....lol)
Plus i'm looking to run a larger ported box at some point, and will need all the space i can get back there 🙂