[flash]

yes, abandon the stock tweets. please take a pic of that setup though.

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[dry664]

Another option is to just spend the money on a beffer mid woofer, so no coax or component. As you are amping the rears, run them from 60hz to around 3khz so rely on them to produce most of the midbass.



I just find that anything playing above 3khz can possibly pull voices and instruments behind you which can be distracting.

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[apex]

Re: tweeter replacement

[indent=1]No question about replacing the old tweeters. Just a question about abandoning the old tweeter LOCATION as my new JBA C5-625x is coaxial. [/indent]



Re: tweeters in the back or not?

[indent=1]There has been some discussion on this issue here in the past, both pro and con. I'm running with the recommendation that full-frequency from the rear speakers is a good thing, adding dimension. dry, I can certainly see your point about too much "surround sound" - certainly something to fine-tune later as required.[/indent]



Re: pics

[indent=1]Coming soon.[/indent]

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[flash]

i prefer the rears to match the fronts as closely as possible. i don't like the image in front of me. i want it to the left and right of me, as if it were a huge set of headphones.

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[apex]

Two questions related to my install.



First - I buggered up my rear panel anchor anchor. What's the recommended fix? Just glue the panel anchor back in?



Second - Identified a mysterious leak in the back which drains into the wheel well - a broken grommet serving the left rear brake light. Anyone got a part number? I can't find it in the PET.



Cheers,



J



on edit: forgot to post the images.

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[flash]

rear panel anchor?



the leak is probably from the sunroof drain. not sure what grommet you are talking about.

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[apex]

flash the "rear panel anchor" is simply the plastic snap-in piece holding the interior trim panel in place over the rear speaker. It pulled from the cardboard. I've epoxied it back in place - hopefully that will do the trick - there are three per panel, I believe, and this one on both sides for some reason is VERY hard to remove from the car once pressed back.



I've fixed the sunroof leak already! This leak - ha - since I watched the water come in - is definitely through the left brake light grommet - broken as shown. This is the same rubber piece used at the firewall. There's a part number stamped on it - I'll ID it later today.

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[flash]

you have to use the panel tool to prevent that. they sell them at pep boys.



how the heck do you have a leak at the brake light? it's under a shelf, tucked up in that recess. how does it even see water? all i have back there is dust.

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[apex]

re: tool - Dude! I have about six of those tools. The snapper in question is hard to see on removal. Chalk it up to a mis-fire.



re: brake light leak - Obviously surface-tension driven water entry - might be following the electric wire. Porsche took pains to seal up all the connections with rubber - I think they knew what they were doing. I've watched the water come in. About that grommet - the firewall version of it has a 928 part number on it. The rear brake light version does not. Need to check and see if they are really the same or not.



Progress report - with some questions - see pics

• Becker head required that I Dremel off the interior spring clamps.
  
  
• Installed sound deadening everywhere - well doors, rear speaker area, and to rear below the hatch. The doors on my car already have factory deadening on the upper half of the door - so didn't go back over that with new stuff there.
  
  
• power wire installed - what do you guys do about the fuse holder? Screw it in somewhere or just let it ride in the battery compartment. I'm disinclined to drill more holes in my sheet metal to hold the fuse.
  
  
• speaker wires run - I chose to run the speaker wire through the hollow rocker panels both sides. My RCAs will run along the left side of the interior, and power wire on the right interior.
  
  
• after running new wire did the rear speaker mod both sides - those recesses are screaming for my new JL's now.
  
  
• In running driver's door wiring I think I found the reason why my right-hand mirror stopped adjusting - the white/brown wire is broken - almost looks CUT. Need to look more closely at what caused that.
  
  

To do:

• Suss out the amp mounting - there's a small tab with hole above the right rear cubby - unused - matching one on the left used to hold the sunroof mechanism cover - so this must be for RHD cars. This makes a great spot to anchor a small angle across to the wheel well - I can attach to the wheel well with a screw - this angle will hold by MDO amp/equalizer board in place. I really don't want to penetrate the cubby wall with screws - the gas tank is right there... so far so good you can see the cardboard template.
  
  
• Grounding. The afore-mentioned tab looks good. But the factory ground point on the other side of the spare wheel well looks better - trouble is my ground cord is not long enough. The JL literature that came with my amp says to use a grounding wire no longer than 36". The one I have is 18".
  
  

Has anyone else installed an amp in one of the small cubbies? I'm keeping the spare tire for now. The JL XD440/4 is a sweet, small amp and fits easily in the small cubby but mounting strategies are not obvious.

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[apex]

<img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/wink.png" class="smilie" alt="" /> Sorry - this thread is all over the board - water leaks, electronics, audio fidelity. But ain't that how it usually goes - no matter how focused the 968 project there is ALWAYS scope creep. So forgive me for inflicting my scope creep on the forum.



re: air sealing

In thinking about the front 525's - following on the air-sealing project for the rears - what's the best way to air-seal the front stock speaker locations? Or *is* there a way? Do waterproof foam cups work?

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[flash]

don't try. the area in front of the panel is not a large enough air volume to support anything below 125hz. the area behind the panel has a window in the way.

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[dry664]

I've cut the plastic waterproofing on mine and used some sticky back closed cell foam to seal the mounts to the door the best I could. Bit messy but you can't see it with the door bins on. If you do that the fronts will get down to 100hz comfortably, maybe 80hz. Sound much better and MUCH louder but you might get some resonance from the door locking/window? mechanism (ask me how I know).



I also experimented with blocking the hole into the door so the mount is completely sealed. I think there's probably a couple of liters back there. Added some polyfill as well. Tried it and it sounded much worse, absolutely no bottom end whatsoever - not enough volume with my Morels but maybe possible with some home audio drivers.



Those waterproof cups will strangle any bass the 5.25's make.

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[flash]

the JL 525 will support down to about 60hz free air. in a properly sized enclosure, it will go down to 48. i just put a pair of these in a 968 2 weeks ago. with the plastic sheet in place, effectively sealing off the rear, and a well sealed front enclosure housing, the speakers only go down to about 100 or so. anything below that waffles. when the car comes back here, i am going to open up the hole in the panel, and let it "breathe". haven't decided yet what i am going to do about water exposure.



agreed about those cups. worthless for audio. only good for water protection.

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[apex]

Thanks, mates. What I think I'm hearing both of you say is to leave well enough alone and go with the stock install up front - don't screw around with it, other than change out the speaker. Right?

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[dry664]

[quote name='apex' timestamp='1408423787' post='161343']

Thanks, mates. What I think I'm hearing both of you say is to leave well enough alone and go with the stock install up front - don't screw around with it, other than change out the speaker. Right?

[/quote]



I think do that first. Then listen and tune see if you like it. Then try it with the car moving. If youre happy with the way it sounds then you dont need to do any more.

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[apex]

Following on the air sealing topic: The 3 inch speaker goes as part of this install. From an acoustics perspective should I bother to cut a 3 x 3" piece of plastic and seal the opening that is there for it in the door pocket?



Not sealed is not sealed, right? Or is there a difference between "big gaping hole " vs "air leaks"? :-)



And as for the rear speakers (now in a sealed enclosure) - utterly seal every little screw hole and gap? Airtight, right?

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[dry664]

Theres is a difference between and big gaping hole and an air leak, pretty much in proportion to the amount of air able to pass.

The better you can isolate the front from the back of the speaker the better it will sound and the louder it will play. This isnt my opinion, its just basic speaker theory. Problem is that if you do that with the plastic weather sheet intact on the 968 the speaker wont have enough room to breathe, making it play louder but with little midbass.



Suggest you focus on installing the rears.You've done the speaker mod, so YES - seal every little screw hole and gap back there. Just reinstall the fronts as normal and have a listen. Get yourself a piece of music that really nicely recorded (I can give you some suggestions if you like). Start with the EQ flat and fade between the front and back speakers. In a perfect world they should sound the same. Note your findngs and report back.

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[apex]

dry,



Thanks for your help and info - I really appreciate it.



re: front door



OK - seal up the speaker-to-plastic-armature as well as possible to isolate front from back. Ha - I *did* indeed cut a piece of plastic to fill the 3" mid-range hole. I'll go back and silicone it tight.



As for the weather seal - I wonder if there isn't a way to layer two sheets of plastic in a roofer's flashing/counterflashing technique such that any interior drips are shed back into the door, but allowing air to move easily through? I have to completely re-build my door seals anyway. You will have to tell me how this idea comports with basic speaker theory.



re: rears



Yep - I'm gonna seal those suckers up tight.



re: lack of mid-bass in front



The C5-525s and crossovers are installed in their armatures. The crossover has two adjustments - something called "midrange presence" (low, high, reference) and "tweeter level" (+2db, reference, -1.5db, -3db). I won't have an EQ initially. Knowing what you know about the car, what would you recommend as initial settings? Or should I just leave it up to my ear?



re: excellent recordings



Sure - pass along some titles! Thanks.

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[flash]

i agree about putting it all together and listening first.



that being said, if you have the ability, i would start by crossing over the front woofers with a high pass filter at no less than 60hz, disallowing anything lower than that. they won't produce anything below that anyway, and any attempt will only sound like distortion.

set the crossover filters at reference to start. i am willing to bet though that you will end up with the tweeter at -3 and the midrange on low.

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[dry664]

I agree with Flash re the passive crossover settings. As he described so well earlier in the thread the 968 seems to make a huge peak from (2-4k, brightness sibilance etc) from the front midwoofer. Setting to 'LOW' should attenuate this somewhat. Also because the tweeter is sealed and will be running much closer to JL's intended optimum install, you will likely end up with that set at -3db.

Certainly start with the crossovers at 'REFERENCE' though and have a play, you will learn a lot.



One thing Im not sure about is is Flash's suggestion to set the high pass for the fronts to 60hz (sorry Flash!). Its great if you can get them to play that low but Im not sure they will sound good down there anyway. Give it a try but if they sound crap down there you may as well cross higher as it takes a lot of strain off the speakers (lower frequencies are the hardest for a speaker to produce, relieve the speaker of those duties and theres more power for the higher frequencies).

Besides, if you've done the rear speaker mod then your rears will be midbass monsters. Below 100hz you can't tell where bass originates. I would suggest you try HPF the fronts at 100hz and let the rears at 60hz (or maybe even lower?).

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