sev7nflow

does the 2013 C250 without P1 pkg even have a subwoofer as stock?

Doanster

I don't understand. If the xover is external to the door, you have to tap the signals at the HU, which is a major PITA. once you do that, you now have to tap back in to the tweeters and woofers. Lastly, your amp is probably in the trunk, yah? That's a wring nightmare to properly conceal.
The whole point of this upgrade was to use the stock wiring and use upgraded components that fit the stock housings.

xzotik1

Ok...I did a DIY total system upgrade and used the factory HU and all wiring.


Kappa component in the front
Kappa 2 way in the rear
Kappa 5 channel amplifier
Kappa 12 inch sub skinny flush type box in the trunk behind the seat
Parametric equalizer mounted in the roof of the glove box.


Everything is hidden amp is with the spare tire No wires nowhere!


With that being said...I think I could answer some of your questions.

Doanster

I didn't have any questions, actually. I installed the Kappas the same way you did, mounting the xover in the door pocket. I was responding to Lawyer's post about him/her mounting the xover next to the amp, which I assume means outside of the door panel. No biggie.

One question for you, however, since you mentioned a sub install. Where did you tap in for the feed to the amp? From the HU or the rear door speakers? Any pics/vids of that and the rest of the amp/sub install?

xzotik1

Ok...I installed a 4 channel line converter behind the HU. And a parametric equalizer with sub control mounted on the roof of the glove box.



My fuse block is under the hood, I ran a power cable from the battery to the rear. If you remove the vent box and battery you will find a round rubber hole cover. Remove it and you will see into the car.Run the cable under the carpet and under the rear seat. I have video of the whole install, but YouTube tales forever to upload.


There are 4 install video that I posted so far.

xzotik1

The entire system is amped.

TheRulesLawyer

This sort of assumes you're adding an amp (and a sound processor in my case) You're already doing 95% of the work. You just have to run a two extra wires along the same path you're already using. If you're doing a straight up speaker replace its a little different.

sev7nflow

Does anyone have any idea if the inifinity speaker up grade would still be a worthwhile upgrade for the newer 2013 W204 stock audio system?

Any upgraders with the newer model vehicles?

drakanthesly

Hello all, this thread is excellent, I appreciate all of the information.

I too have the Audio20 system which, in all honesty is taking it's toll on my overall happiness with the C250.

I plan to do the Infinity upgrade as mentioned in this thread, and I would like to follow the subwoofer installation as well. Can Bill or anyone else confirm the best Subwoofer to mount to the back deck? is it
Also - does anyone have a walk through for taking the rear apart to get the High Pass filters for the subwoofer? I've found many walkthroughs for the speaker installation, I'm just really nervous about taking the interior apart for this upgrade, and I've had little luck finding a company that will do this for me. Also the mercedes benz dealers told me they won't do it......

Thanks!

TheRulesLawyer

You'll get the *best* sound out of a sub in a proper enclosure. If you must get a prepacked amp/sub I had one of these before and it sounded okay. The low profile stuff will be garbage.*

* not really endorsing a basslink, but its better than boss.

drakanthesly

Thanks!

Do the basslinks fit under the Deck? I'm not looking to bebop down the block, I just want less distortion for songs with deeper bass/a lot of midrange. I'm a fan of Infinity, so the basslink was definitely on my radar - I just know Bill recommended the Boss for a clean installation and to alleviate bass from the doors.

Some songs are perfectly fine with the Audio20 - others sound like a dying cow.

TheRulesLawyer

By under the deck, you mean on the ceiling of the trunk? The Basslink is probably small enough to fit back under the deck, but it won't realistically mount to the top of the trunk. It maybe the size of two shoe boxes or so? There are any number of compact subs. Just steering you away from boss. They are like the yugo of the audio world.

drakanthesly

Yeah I was referring to where Bill has his Boss mounted. Yeah that's a little depressing - part of me wants to trade the c250 in to a dealer and get something with the HK7 haha. Unfortunately I love my c250, and dislike the new body style. I'd need a 2013 or 2012

I may just end up going with a single Rockford Fosgate 10 in a good enclosure, but I need assistance taking the rear pillars apart for the High Pass for the Amplifier. I want to make sure I have my poop in a group before I attempt to disassemble the rear.

TheRulesLawyer

I gotcha. Bass is always hard because you physically need a large space and speaker to do it well. Sometimes convenience wins. My plan for good bass would be to pull the back out of the armrest in the rear and cover with acoustical cloth. Build a box in the trunk fit to that hole and fire the biggest speaker you can fit into the hole. You don't even need a rear for the box as the trunk then acts as an enclosure in near infinite baffle configuration. You just have a hole for the speaker and make sure you seal it well against the hole in the seats. You can do this and lose very little trunk room, have amazing bass, but you'll need some custom work.

drakanthesly

That doesn't sound like a bad idea! I will look into that! Thanks!

xzotik1

I object!!!... LOL


And Id like to add my 2 cents as an old school mobile electronics installer.If your idea is to go free air by using the trunk as a box, you will need two 12's or better. Its not a bad idea though, perhaps 2 8" JL W7's in a ported small custom fiberglass enclosure will do $$$$$$$$$.

jdmitrswapped

I'm doing an audio make over on my 2011. So far I did just the passenger front.

I am using component Alpine TypeS for front and 2 ways for the back. I'm using stock wiring.

As for subs i'm on the fence about dual 8's or 10's since I mostly care about tighter bass and than boom. Bass blockers are going on the door speakers when sub's get installed. I prefer dual speakers as supposed to a single.

I am also going to setup Airplay using my aux input.

My factory radio is very basic and so far there is a huge impact on sound.

codeblue5007

This weekend I finally got around to changing the front and rear speakers (Audio20) with Infinity 60.9 CS in the front and 62.9i in the rear in my 2008 C300. (I had bought both the 62.9i and the shallow mount 60.32si in case the first didn't fit. The 62.9i fit as long as the outboard crossover is out of the way.)

Once again, thanks to Vic, Icon, Akadan, Doanster, Jimmythegreek, Acapulco Bill and many others who contributed pictures, advice and the encouragement to do it. The project took me 24 hours - all weekend -- in part because I was going slowly and in part because of some unexpected problems. What follows is a brief commentary while the memory is still fresh.

Taking off the panels. After carefully pulling the center pin of the rivet in the front doors and turning 90 degrees clockwise, I was unable to push the pin back in flush. I must admit I don't understand how it works. At any rate, prying off the front and rear panels was not easy. i have the resin prying tools and they only helped to begin opening a gap. I pried the panels off mostly with my fingers. I damaged about 20 pins all together and fortunately had bought 20 new pins instead of 10. Once the panels were off, it took needle nosed pliers and a lot of force to pull them out of the door frame. They might as well have been glued on.

The tweeters. I toyed with the idea of Dremmeling out the plastic housing, but I would have spent an hour or more with Dremmel sand drum to hollow it out to accommodate the new tweeters, and even then I doubt they would fit. So I opted to dremmel off the three plastic rivets, remove the housing and do more carving in the foam backing to accommodate the tweeters and sails.

Wiring. The solid color is positive, the striped is negative (which is the opposite of what I had been used to for home audio). With the Infinity crossovers it's easy. I used butt connections and, man, I got tired of fitting them and crimping. For one thing, the wires to the tweeter, the woofers and the connecting wires I was using were of different sizes. This made butt connections either too loose or too tight. I also had a lousy crimper.

Speaker wiring front. I drilled a hole in the stock plastic speaker spacer and ran the woofer wire outside after cutting off the connector. This eliminated soldering. I then put butt connectors on it and connected it to the crossover, which I placed in the "pocket" on the inside door panel. BTW, the crossover doesn't just fit in there perfectly. There's a bolt sticking out that prevents gluing to a flat surface in the pocket. So I wrapped thre crossover in foam weather stripping of about 2" and then duct taped it and then used Hazmat? aluminum tape across the top to keep it in place. I used the foam insulation and tape around the outside of the speaker spacers too.

Rear door speaker. Same problem with those damn clips. Note that the locking pin clips onto its housing. It must be released by squeezing the bottom of the clips. Click them on in the re-installation. The speakers housing looks different. It has a dome shaped three prong plastic structure on the front facing part and another three prongs behind the speaker. I cut the front structure with a dremmel, took the guts of the speaker out nd then continued to dremmel the remaining inner ring of plastic, thinking it was all one stamping. In fact, it's a separate piece and with a couple of flat head screw drivers you can scrape along the bottom of the inside lip and clear away all the plastic and gaskets so that you have a clean inner lip on which to attach the same metal ring that came with the speakers in the front. The lip is narrower and found it impossible to drill a hole in anything very substantial. In fact, all my screws wound up on the outside of the stock spacer. The spacer in the back is of lower quality than the front. It's a ***** to work back there too. I drilled a hole in the spacer and ran an outside wire. Connected it to the outboard crossover, wrapped it in foam, and taped it, and let it rest in the bottom of the door. Taping or gluing it to the door was too difficult.

My next project, if I ever have another weekend, is to install this Kenwood KSC--SW11 subwoofer either on the left or right side of the front passenger footwell.
The unit is only 11" x 7.5" x 2.8". I have it and it fits easily and unobtrusively just about where the netting pocket is in the passenger footwell. I understand it would have do be unattached to get to the cabin filter or under the dash, but it would be a simple uninstall. The only drawback I see is that it needs a switched 12 volts remote. I figure the 12v socket in the glove compartment should do. It also requires pulling out the HU and doing some splicing, and I haven't found a DIY on that.

Hope this is useful. Comments on the subwoofer installation are welcome.

codeblue5007

How does it sound? Without changing any of the settings in the engineering mode the sound is far superior to the original speakers. The sound is clear, with more and better bass and much clearer highs. Someone complained that the tweeters were too piercingly high. My subjective impression is that they are well suited to the woofer: the tweeters compliment the woofers to make a nearly indistinguishable whole.

I question whether a subwoofer is necessary at all. I love bass however and would appreciate a low-end bottom. In my home theater set up I use 3 subs, including an SVS twin-twelve. There's the trunk space consideration too. Anything ready-made and affordable would take up too much space and look kind of juvenile to the next owner.

Raynermedina

hello everyone. First I would like to thanks acapulco_bill, Akadan, Codeblue, for the advices in the update of the stock audio 20 system. I just have one doubt; as you can see there's a newer model of tha kappa's (60.11). I've search a lot with no luck to see any comparison with these ones and the 60.9 (better quality, worth the extra $, and the most important the fitment in our cars).

Im planning to get them next week just not sure yet about which model should i buy. Ty all for the good info.

drakanthesly

@codeblue5007

Thanks for the additional info - where did you buy the extra clips?

I have been wanting to do this project but, in all honestly I am scared haha.

Maybe next summer, but I want to put all the peices from this forum together, as well as get plenty of replacement parts.

Thanks to all!

Acapulco Bill

I answered Raynermedina via email. The Kappa 60.9 are still available from Amazon and shipped for free by Amazon here:

Sincity

After all of these years, I finally decided to get the same speakers as you did. Total cost $184 shipped from Amazon. Now I need to drag out my old HiFonics mono amp and 8" Bazooka tube.

codeblue5007

Good luck Sincity. Please post your equalizer values if and when you get around to it.

Sincity

Has anyone installed a rear speaker using spacers to bring it out closer towards the grills like OEM?

*NEVERMIND* I see Akadan's PDF is to reuse the stock ring like the front install.

Cancelled the 6032 and ordered the 62.9 for the rears since they are known to fit.