Entertainment Electronics 1st Gen Audio Systems...

Yes you can get boom mat from Summit racing or Jegs. They both will do the job very well. I ordered from Jegs and my order came quickly.

When I built a custom ISACA sound quality comp car I only use d Dynamat because they provided me double the amount for every order. Kind of like a sponsorship but not free. I had 28 cases in my car and over 2000 + watts in the late 80's. Everything was high end and included (4) 1/2 ohm stable amps by Hifonics active powered 4 crossovers, 32 band preside power eq, JL Audio, MB Quarts, Rickard Clark audio noise gates, Eclipse HU, (2) 1 Farad caps. I won every competition I entered and except for nationals which I placed 3rd. After a while it got old and I traded the car.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/dei-050206/overview/

Sound - JEGS High Performance

 

I have used the Home depot stuff... It works.

But then again I filled the body shell of that car with 30 cans of expanding foam! The roof seal was just inside the doors, under the door panels sealing off all the air, and on the floor pan... It was a sound competition car... The big money went into batteries and components.

 

DONT use it in the doors! Thats a disaster waiting to happen. Only place you could really use foam is the rear body shell. MINI thought ahead, and placed 90% of the wiring out of the voids in the shell, so filling it would be pretty easy. But if the car ever needs to go to the body shop... They are going to hate you!

 

I have always stayed away from spray foam because you can not remove it and that crap sticks to everything. For big voids like quarter panels I used home insulation After a layer of Dynamat as I could push it in and pull it out if I ever needed to for wiring or other issues. It was also very light and filled the hollow voids nicely. The foam stuff tends to squeak with hard base because it breaks loose from the vibrations. We are talking 130 db +. When I say the car was dead inside in was very dead. In competitions you get points for the sound quality inside the car with the windows up not 2 blocks down the street with the windows down.

 

Yeah I could flip silver dollars on my roof without even trying the bass was so deep. You could feel it long before your ears could hear it. Oh and my roof had 2 layers of Dynamat and the rest of the car was like a tank except for the front fenders. Even my hood had the Dynamat hood liner to keep the motor noise down from the cabin and doing the inside firewall was a PITA.

 

When my buddy and I where 16-17 we competed locally at the national level in Db Drag (SPL competitions). We built systems on a highschool budget that got us 3 invites in a row to the Db Drag world finals, which was based on points and invite only just to get in! We set Colorado's SPL record back in '99 with 164.8 db! It got the attention of the big time competitors who at the time where right around the world record at 174db, and Eddie Corman in his Chevy Astro van was at the next show 2 weeks later, to shake our hands, and take the record with 171.

Good times, but now I could care less if what I am driving even has a stock system. All I want is to build the cars to please me, and me alone.

 

SPL cars are different than sound quality cars. If I built an SPL Car I would cover the floor with clay first and replace all the glass with something at least 3/4 inch thick. Next none of the windows would be able to be rolled down and super seal everything. The more air tight the better for when they put the SPL mic in. I have seen and heard many SPL cars and trucks and those things are just INSANE. It's crazy how LOUD they can get.

 

One question to the OP............what are you using as the sound source iPod, Iphone, mp3? Cause I have never heard a high compression mp3 on a higher end car system sound good.

 

I got a PM asking if I would put some pictures up of my installation...so here ya go!


The head unit is an Alpine CDE-HD148BT. It does Pandora, SiriusXM, Bluetooth, and has HD radio tuning which is pretty cool. Perfect fit to replace the stock GP radio. The radio lights are orange! Btw...non Harmon Kardon radios are made by Alpine in first gen MINIs. There is an adapter kit for the radio to tie into the steering wheel radio controls. My Bluetooth mic is up near the rear view mirror. (yes...that's a peanut cup to the left of the gear shift)





All speakers are now Alpine R Series. Front speakers are SPR-10T tweeters, with SPR-60 coaxial 2-way speakers. I kept the stock door speaker grilles to retain the GP look. In the rear are a pair of SPR-68 speakers. They are 6x8" speakers, not 6x9". If ya look at the photos of the rears you'll notice the mounting board just can't take the 6x9" but it can just fit the 6x8" speakers. And yeah, that was discovered the hard way...had 6x9 laying there, made the board to hang them and went...Oh Shitake... On the inside of the mounting board for the speaker are four pieces of thin metal that grab inside the edge where they're mounted. Like a tab sort of ...they're adjustable so you can lay the board flush and then turn the metal tabs up or down to grab inside the plastic interior . Once the board is mounted you screw the speakers up after ya wire them...and presto!

Up under the dash is a PDX-F4 digital amp that pushes 100w at 4ohm x4.

 

I have an 02, and everything in it is still stock. The two small front tweeters are blown and the passenger side is now as well.

I'm open to any suggestions that won't break the bank. And for the record, I'm now to handiwork. I followed the directions in the forum to replace the rear single break light, so I'm still on that high for the moment. But that moment is quickly fading.

 

Look at Parts Express: the #1 source for audio, video & speaker building components
They sell components and entire systems. I got my speakers one set of crossovers, and amp from them. You can even call them it discuss what you want to do with real people that are helpful.

I replaced my tweeters with some Kenwoods I already had. The mid range and woofers are Dayton Audio. You can run them with stock power but a small amp would be recommended. I used a BOSS I mounted under the passenger side dash.

 

Scott check this out by Astell & Kern High-resolution portable music player

Astell & Kern AK240 High-resolution portable music player with Wi-Fi® at Crutchfield.com

 

Thanks, but I simply use as high a bit rate mp3 that I can....sounds ok to me so far, but I don't listen to as much music as I used to.

 

Added a iSimple Tranzit Blu Bluetooth Module to the stock head unit and a Kicker11HS8 subwoofer. I can now stream music from my tablet or cell phone and sub adds plenty of bottom end. Sound quality is vastly improved over stock and I can stream my Spotify tunes. Happy for what I spent $$ wise.

 

Ronbo- that's one thing I had been thinking about as well. I love some of the playlists I have on Spotify that I just can't get anywhere else. Streaming it would be great- but I understand the collective groan about compression. I guess with enough storage you could just build a unit and run lossless music.
Or maybe I could just install my old 8-track :wink:

By the way... I love this site and totally appreciate the knowledge you all give so freely.

 

Thanks MRNTB. I'm all over that site now!