CLS55 anyone upgrade the rear woofer? Help!
03-26-2012, 12:38 PM
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SL55
CLS55 anyone upgrade the rear woofer? Help!
I would like to know if I need a box or can you run an amp and a woofer free air so I don't lose much of my trunk. Please tell me what you used and how it turned out.
03-27-2012, 03:24 AM
#4
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I am in the middle of this project right now. The hardest part is removing the back head rests. After careful consideration I decided to use a free air system, and remove the parcel shelf and re do it. The other thing to watch is that the rear surround speakers are very close to the sub - as you remove the plastic fitting to fit your new sub you should probably consider remounting the rear speakers - I am taking the opportunity to replace the rear speakers as well. The existing sub is a dual voice coil with twin feeds coming from the HK amp. I am mounting high->low adapters there to convert the signals to RCA and feeding them into my amp mounted against the back seat mount. Power comes from the battery which thankfully is in the boot. When I did my CLK 55 it took forever to wire the power properly from the front - thank goodness for rear batteries.
Steps 1) remove the back seat bottoms - very easy - there is a snap on the outside of each seat under the seat by each passenger door.
2) remove seat back - there is a screw just underneath the transmission tunnel (just under the arm rest - you need to stick in a socket extension to remove the bolt - that is holding down the back seat back rest. There are also two bolts by each of the passenger doors. Pull the back seat straight up once you remove the three bolts the whole array removes
3) remove the plastic cover from the headrests - and use a punch or screw driver to push up a catch on both sides of the headrest to remove them (this is fiddly and sucks to get right - 4 catches you have to find)
4) Remove the two screws holding down the parcel shelf - and then remove from below in the trunk the catches holding the plastic sub cover and two rear surround speakers.
From there I apply Dynamat (or whatever brand insulation you feel to the array units - mount the high to low converters and wire them in to the sub wires (unsure if I will use both voice coil feeds or just one) and run the wires under the carpet backing the rear seat separation to where the amp will be mounted. I will also cut the metal parcel shelf body to allow the magnet to drop into the boot, and apply generous sealing and dynamat to reduce vibration.
The sub I am using (a Kenwood unit) 12 inch. mounted to the amp an Orion HCCA 5000 has already provided more than enough killer bass for my needs when I just wired it as a test to the battery. I thought of a box - but feel there will be too much bass in the main cabin that to balance I would need to replace most of my front soundstage speakers. So given the simplicity I would do free air first- and if it doesn't work make a shelf underneath. I need my boot though, and like everything as stock looking as possible.
Steps 1) remove the back seat bottoms - very easy - there is a snap on the outside of each seat under the seat by each passenger door.
2) remove seat back - there is a screw just underneath the transmission tunnel (just under the arm rest - you need to stick in a socket extension to remove the bolt - that is holding down the back seat back rest. There are also two bolts by each of the passenger doors. Pull the back seat straight up once you remove the three bolts the whole array removes
3) remove the plastic cover from the headrests - and use a punch or screw driver to push up a catch on both sides of the headrest to remove them (this is fiddly and sucks to get right - 4 catches you have to find)
4) Remove the two screws holding down the parcel shelf - and then remove from below in the trunk the catches holding the plastic sub cover and two rear surround speakers.
From there I apply Dynamat (or whatever brand insulation you feel to the array units - mount the high to low converters and wire them in to the sub wires (unsure if I will use both voice coil feeds or just one) and run the wires under the carpet backing the rear seat separation to where the amp will be mounted. I will also cut the metal parcel shelf body to allow the magnet to drop into the boot, and apply generous sealing and dynamat to reduce vibration.
The sub I am using (a Kenwood unit) 12 inch. mounted to the amp an Orion HCCA 5000 has already provided more than enough killer bass for my needs when I just wired it as a test to the battery. I thought of a box - but feel there will be too much bass in the main cabin that to balance I would need to replace most of my front soundstage speakers. So given the simplicity I would do free air first- and if it doesn't work make a shelf underneath. I need my boot though, and like everything as stock looking as possible.
