We take being asked by a distribution company/friend to build a demo car quite seriously.
When Jas Dahele of FOUR Car Audio got his new Audi A6, he asked us if we would build his new demonstrator. We use Four’s fantastic range of products day to day and have become very familiar with their ranges. So it seemed right that we take this on for him.
On this build we had a slightly different task to one of our normal builds. The normal way of things is that the customer gives us a brief outline and then leaves the creative bit down to us. In this case we set a specific set of parameters before using our own artistic flair to tie in the build.
The brief was to fit a full 3-way front end, 15” subwoofer, 2 amps and a processor but have nothing on show. Not ones to be put off by a challenge such as this, we jumped straight in. In fact before Jas left us that day the boot was fully ripped apart and locations of equipment decided on.
The first task was to sound deaden as much of the car as we could. So out came the headliner, pillars and the rest of the boot. Off came the front door cards and we set about the car with 3 bulk packs of Skinz Expert Deadener.
Using the enormous wheel well to our advantage we managed to not only get the 15” Subwoofer in a full sized sealed box but then used the remaining space to mount the amps and DSP.
Anyone who follows the blog will know we are a massive fan of the Audison Bit One. This was to be the hub of the system. With this being a new age Audi the car has full fiber optic signal transfer. Using a handy little box (Audison Bit DMI) we hijacked the factory head unit to amplifier signal and diverted it to the Bit One.
The Bit One was then connected to a Hertz HCP1D and a HCP4D this gives us 5 channels of amplification for our semi passive front end and sub. The tweeters and mid ranges were then run passively through the HSK163.
The Mid ranges and tweeters were fabricated in to the stock locations. After some trial and error we found that the factory Mid Bass drivers were too powerful for the factory enclosures presenting a ringing noise and over excursion when pushed. These were shortened and vented into the doors to give a better size enclosure.
Once the door card was re-applied with some strategically placed Skinz. The only way to tell that the work had been carried out were the Hertz badges attached to the standard grills.
All the speaker and power wires throughout the car were braided and heat shrunk for extra protection. The last component to fit was the Bit One DRC. Jas decided that he would like this in the sunglasses holder so we set about making it fit.
This build although a bit different from our normal ones was a chance to try and fit lots of equipment into a factory look installation. Once the install was finished the shop laptop was pulled out and the Bit One setup and a simple tune was done to get the system running optimum. Since the car has been back its been through the full Bit Tune set up and apparently is getting better by the day.
A text message that evening to say “Man, this thing sounds good” is a nice thing for us to hear from a decent set of ears.
Every part of this build is available in our store, there’s always a guy on the end of the phone to talk audio also so If there are any question RE this install and its equipment then don’t hesitate!
Here are a few more pics from Nick @ NWVT hope you enjoyed reading, as always comments are always welcome.
