Base Stereo

FYI I have a fantastic upgrade for these cars: Archive | Scuderia Audio

 

If I was in NorCal, I'd happily offer you my car. Where do you foresee the amplifier going in the 296? For my F8, the JL Audio amp is in the "frunk", totally removeable with no holes as the installer was able to use the mounting points for the factory option plate. If done more recently, I would have done the Mosconi amp and hidden it by the battery as in your newer design.

 

Trust me, not having the "hi-fi" system is a win as you can much more easily put in something that is worth spending money on. A set of $1500 Focal speakers will make the upgraded factory system sound like a toy. These are just cars and putting better speakers in is no big deal.

 

yes. i contacted @SoftwareDrone and speakers alone will improve the sound noticeably at up to moderate levels. i may do that first.

 

Thanks for the generous offer and your nice comments.
For the hi-fi cars, the factory JBL amplifier is actually a very nice piece of equipment and is more than capable of driving upgraded speakers. It will not, however, power a separate, dedicated subwoofer. For that you must add an amplifier There are small, powerful amps out there designed for this purpose. Small like the same size as a package of cigarettes. I have spec'd out all of the connectors I need to build a plug and play harness to add a subwoofer amp to a 296, Roma or SF90 (all share the same amp) except for the power connector (which I am currently working on).

 

not planning on a sub, and this is a non Hifi car.

 

local dealer wants 2k to install 4 speakers. has anyone ever removed the door panel from an AF car/ complicated?

 

I know that the only difference between the 458 door panel removal procedure and the 488 is that the 488 has the tweeter in the door panel so you need to carefully pry the tweeter trim ring off, then remove the two extra bolts behind it. I made a YouTube video where I remove a 458 door panel. The 296 door panel can't be much different. Having said that, I believe that the 296 tweeters are located in the dash, which could potentially drive up the labor costs. I'm constantly checking with the local exotic auto wreckers to see if any 296's have arrived so I can get to the bottom of this. Additionally, I have some other avenues I am looking into in order to obtain this information.

 

The female housing is available (
https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-bmw-parts/housing/61136907385/?utm_source=mstankiewicz&utm_medium=email&utm_content=link2cart&salesrep=mstankiewicz) but the internal electrical pins for it are not. the complete male connector (along with the pins) is available as I have seen it as part of a larger and more expensive harness but I haven't found a source for the single connector.

 

After being told by two techs at BMW tuning houses that you can't buy the electrical pins, I found the part number and ordered 10 pins from a BMW dealer, along with 5 housings.
Now the hunt resumes for the male counterparts.

 

The only source I could find for the male connector was a single connector as part of a $500.00 wiring kit for a BMW, so I purchased the kit, then reverse engineered the connector and now I'm 3D printing these. So now I have everything I need to manufacture plug and play wiring harnesses for these cars (296, SF90, Roma).
So far, I haven't come up with a design for a subwoofer for the 296. There is really no place to mount one behind the seats. This just emphasizes the need for a high-quality amplifier with a built-in digital signal processor which can wring out the best possible sound out of the remaining speakers.


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@SoftwareDrone

Mike, just being able to replace the speakers and fit in that amp with a DSP is more than enough for many people....if the speakers have a solid mid-bass, in such a small space it can work without a sub in my opinion. But it sounds like getting to the tweeters could be a big operation...

 

Hi Mike,
I am a newbie here and expecting my 296 GTS shortly. Since I could not hear a sample of the JBL upgrade I took the advice of my friend Greg here in London UK @ Auto Audio and went with the stock stereo, hoping to upgrade it once I have the car. He did a marvellous job on my 2011 Maserati QPS and even put in Apple CarPlay as well as a reversing camera. He upgraded the speakers to Morel and also the amps. That car had the rather terrible Bose stereo upgrade which sounded apply. Now with the DSP and revised amp and speakers it sings. Hope he can do the same with the 296 GTS. Any advice you may wish to share would be most appreciated. Thanks


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Is the 296 speaker count and location the same for the non hifi and jbl premium.

 

my car had the stock system. i upgraded the speakers. car is at detailer so not enough data to post on my experience so far. only had it 24 hrs since taking to detailer. upgraded with Mike's focal flax speaker upgrade kit. dealer went ahead and replaced all six stock speakers on my car. did a perfect job with a bit of drama. i need to listen to it some more before i post how i feel about it. i played around with the equalizer settings. on my limited time with it the highs are strikingly better but the bass is not so good (with the exception of a couple of tracks that were surprisingly good (type of music obviously matters). my car does have the CF door panels.

 

The DSP section of the amps I use have four independent settings. For demonstration purposes, I have a setting (i.e. a "tune") which makes my Focal 6 1/2" midrange speakers sound exactly like a JL audio 8-inch subwoofer. I can actually fool a potential customer into thinking one of my 8" subs is firing, then show them that it is not, to demonstrate the power of the DSP. Now of course you can't play that tune at extreme volume levels, but you can turn the volume up loud enough to make your hair move from the sound pressure. This is just a practical example of how an amp with a DSP is your best bet if you can't fit a large sub in your car.

 

The 296 lo-fi systems have 6 speakers total. Two tweeters in the dash, two 6 1/2" drivers in the doors, and two small speakers in the side rears.

The 296 hi-fi systems have 12 speakers total. Two tweeters and four small speakers in the dash, one 8-inch carbon fiber subwoofer in each door and two small speakers in each of the side rears.

 

Thank you! I would guess there is no existing wiring in the lo-fi system that would allow easy add of additional speakers.

 

More speakers don't always equate to better sound. I would much rather have 6 speakers with a high-end amplifier and digital signal processor than 12 speakers without it. If I were fortunate enough to own a hi-fi 296, the first thing I'd do is unplug four of the six dash speakers (only leaving the tweeters) and unplug the four rear fill speakers. No serious IASCA competitor would ever have any midranges or tweeters behind them. It screws up the sound stage. Sure, more speakers fill up the car with sound but there is no imaging.

 

I think I have a deal that is going to lock tomorrow on a low-fi 296 gtb. If I read you correctly part of the differences in low vs. hi are door speakers 6.5" vs 8" and 2 vs 4 rear speakers. Would it be reasonable to get upgraded 8" door speakers, and since there is space for 2 rear speakers on each side for the hi version could you upsize there with 1 larger than stock speaker per side for the low fi car.

 

When you go to a live concert, the music is always in front of you, on the stage. A high-quality car stereo always has what they call a "sound stage". This is why no serious audiophile would have midranges or tweeters behind them. Ferrari got it backwards. They put the midranges and tweeters behind the occupants, and the subwoofer in front of them. Why? It's a real estate problem. The doors are the only place with enough room to install an 8" sub. The problem is that if the 8" sub is there, there is no room for a high-quality 6 1/2" midrange driver (which is where most of the music would originate from). The reason you can get away with mounting a subwoofer behind you is that the frequency is so low, the sound is ubiquitous. Regarding larger drivers in the rear side panels, you'd have to hack up the car to make that happen.
People might say, "Well, the car has the right number of speakers and the right types of speakers. Why would the positioning matter?" If most of the music is generated behind you, it needs to bounce off an acoustically reflective surface before it can come back and enter your ears at the correct angle. The problem with this is that once the music bounces off of anything, it gets kicked out of phase, destroying the imaging. Additionally, you lose time alignment. You get a car filled with sound, but nothing even remotely close to what you were meant to hear.
A digital signal processor allows the midrange drivers in the doors to accurately reproduce the sound they were meant to reproduce and deliver a good amount of bass at the same time. But you cannot make a subwoofer accurately reproduce higher frequencies. Believe me, if there were a better option for these cars, I would be doing it already.
I haven't given up on a design for a 296 subwoofer. I just need more time in an actual car.

 

i think you should focus on an amp with easy to set dsp for the upgraded speakers on the lo fi. i heard one song where the bass hit the 6 1/2 focals and it was amazing- but only one song. and this was with just the std radio power. forget about subs. just make that happen.

 

Sorry I don't have pictures to share right now, but I worked on getting speaker orders out the door last night until midnight, then picked this project back up as the electrical pins were on my doorstep when I got home. They are a pain, but I was able to get my first female power connector completed. It works perfectly. This is a milestone as I now have everything I need in order to manufacture "add an amplifier" harnesses for the 296, SF90, Roma and Lusso.

 

Hi Mike,

That’s great [emoji1433]. Look forward to pictures when available. I have just this week had a listen to my friend’s hi-fi JBL in his GTS. It is not bad but there is a bit too much unnecessary bass (imho). Some people may love that sound but I much prefer bass to be there when it adds value to the sound rather than all the time, a bit tiresome to my ears. My GTS I will take delivery of around 15-17 September and I deliberately ordered the stock lo-fi and the intention is to upgrade it aftermarket with an experienced installer who will tune the system to deliver the soundstage where it needs to be, in front of me, the driver like he’s done on my Maserati QPS - the Apple CarPlay really sings in that car. He installed K-play so it looks like stock and leaves the original look in tact.

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If anyone has upgraded their stock system on the 296, would be grateful to know what they did and the outcome.

Thanks,
Junaid




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This is exactly what I've been telling people. The hi-fi cars have 8 inch subwoofers in the doors but no 6 1/2" midranges. All they hear is bass. They are truly missing out on most of the sound. Customers who do nothing more than replace the factory door subwoofers with some nice Focal drivers report a substantial improvement in the sound of their stereos.