Hidden Subs

I have the JBL hi-fi upgraded audio in my 2013 Spider but was not happy with it. The bass was flat and muddy and the image suffered. My first step was to start with this deficient bass. But I was very reluctant to install any separate sub enclosure encroaching on the interior space...(to me) it just doesn't look "right" in a Ferrari. But then I spoke with Mike Niday of Scuderia Audio. He steered me to his newest babies - the Scuderia Audio Hidden Subwoofers. In short these are exactly what Ferrari should have designed for this car.
I received these two weeks ago and installed them. The design is perfect - the twin 4" long-throw carbon fiber woofers on each side have much deeper response yet still sound very tight. The adapter he designed is a drop-in replacement for the oem Ferrari speaker adapter. Mike's design is very precise and looks very "oem." But his design identified and corrected a definite flaw (weak spot) in the Ferrari oem version.
The installation was exceedingly simple...just two tools needed.
While this was only supposed to be the first step in improving the 458 sound system with only these 4 speakers and no other changes whatsoever the improvement is such that I am considering leaving everything else stock. Most importantly there is no visual indication there is any modification - very important to me.
Third-party perspective: With no prompting whatsoever within 10 seconds of turning on the music my wife said "The music really sounds better" and she never normally notices "incremental" changes in such things.
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Putting speakers in the back is ridiculous even though all manufacturers do it. Changing the mid / tweeter with subs makes more sense but only if executed perfectly. I see no enclosure , so they are infinite baffle , hum . I would have guessed that it would have needed a xover. However even the top line system its a Digital amp . However there is a saying if it sounds good to you , that is the only concern

 

Putting midranges and tweeters in the back is ridiculous. Putting subwoofers in the back (or anywhere there is room) is a great idea, as long as you do not sacrifice the sound stage. Some of the best car audio systems I have ever heard have infinite baffles. Marc has not yet installed his amplifier with active crossover. He was simply commenting on the fact that, even without the amplifier with active crossover, the system still sounds better than the original speakers.

 

What speakers are you referring to - I don’t see any on the site, and Mike never mentioned them to me when we talked a couple months ago. Interesting option.


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Never mind, I now see this option is only for the spider, not the italia. Bummer.


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Not to worry; I am currently working on a version of this for the Italia. Only two mini subs instead of four, but I think I can get this to work. It would only be for the non-JBL equipped Italias. I am working on a completely different hidden subs project for the JBL Italias. Trev, PM me for details.

 

What else did you need to install, beyond the drop in replacement of the speakers behind the doors?

 

The short answer is: either nothing (if you want an improvement in the sound) or an additional amplifier (if you want a vast improvement in the sound).

If you just install the new mini subs, you will get an improvement in the sound. However, for maximum effect (i.e. maximum bass), you really should install an amplifier. I have a buddy coming over to my house this afternoon with his 458 spider. We are going to install the new mini subs and see where we can mount one of those tiny 200 Watt Mosconi amps. In a perfect world, we can find a location behind the new mini subs. Recall that the amp is basically the size of a package of cigarettes. The amp has a built in crossover (which is perfect for these subwoofers) and has auto sensing (so no amp turn on wire needs to be run). We only have to find a constant 12V and ground back there.
Of course if you already have a multi channel amplifier mounted in the trunk, you can use a couple of channels from that.
I will post later on our progress this afternoon.

 

Thanks for the reply and the willingness to post your experiences. I had flirted with the idea of selling my 458 Spider for a few months, but have now decided to keep it and invest in some personalization, including the audio. This will help with that.

 

Well, any updates?!? [emoji51][emoji51][emoji51]


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Yes, and, believe it or not, it's a great update!
I can't believe I got this lucky. Behind the panel (that holds the mini subs), near the top, there is a horizontal aluminum plate probably 1/4" thick, and there is nothing sitting on it. It's like a little "shelf". It is the PERFECT place for the little Mosconi amplifier. Once you set the amp on this shelf, you can move it all around because there's plenty of room in there. So I will be including some industrial strength Velcro with my kit, and you just Velcro the amplifier onto that shelf. It's perfect because the Velcro acts as a shock absorber. It's completely out of the way and tucked into this recessed area.
I also filmed removing and reinstalling the panels that hold the mini subwoofer, now to install the subs onto the plate once it's removed, and I show how to install the amp. I will be working on editing the film this weekend and then post it.

 

How did you handle the input and power source for the amp?

 

Out to dinner so I'll try this reply from my phone.
This is the easy part. The speaker wires that normally go to the old speakers now go to the input section of the amplifier. Just make sure you set it for high level inputs. Then run speaker wires from the output section to the new subs. There are fuse boxes behind the panels on both sides with beefy power and ground input cables. Just tap into any of those. I was going to take a picture but was already trying to do three other things. Make sure you put an inline fuse on the power cable going to the amp. You can ground it in any of numerous places back there. Pretty basic stuff.

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Installation Video:

 

Doh! I don’t know why I was thinking this was for the Italia! Was getting all excited. :/

 

The Italia non-JBL version of this product is about a week out; the JBL Italia version is about three weeks out.

 

Is the Italia also a 4 mini-sub setup as well or what’s it look like for the Italia?

 

In the non JBL equipped cars, there are two panels that are mounted on either side of the large trim piece that's right underneath the rear window. This kit will allow you to swap out the OEM midrange speakers (one per side) in those panels, with the mini subwoofers. Unfortunately, the side panels (like the Spider panels) on the non JBL equipped cars do not have any speakers in those locations. And even if I were to figure out how to come up with some sort of grill on those panels, there is no room behind them for any speakers.

The JBL cars, however, do have side panels with midrange speakers, so they will be able to be swapped out with mini subs. Also, I'm working on coming up with a fixture that will allow the electrostatic speaker array located right under the rear window to be replaced with another fixture that holds four Morel super thin woofers. I'm trying to make this work with both the JBL and non JBL equipped cars.

As always, the time it takes to do this kind of development is directly related to access to the cars (which, amazingly, is extremely difficult). If I had access to a non JBL and a JLB Italia for two days, I'd have everything I need to complete these products. For example, the only thing that's keeping me from manufacturing the adapter plates for the non JBL Italias is confirmation that there is actually enough room behind the rear panels to accommodate the larger mini subs. It's a shame as it's a two minute job to remove one of those panels and take a couple of quick measurements.

 

If the midrange speaker is replaced with a mini sub, will there still be enough sound other than bass? I know that there are also door speakers, but even with the fade/balance equal all around now, it seems that close to 100% of the sound is coming from the speakers behind me.

 

Good question!
Please watch the first half of my video:

 

My issue is that I do not want to remove my door panels. :/

 

At this point we should probably take this offline, but I'm at a loss to see why you would need to remove your door panels. You don't have the JBL option which means you have 6 1/2" speakers in the doors and 1" tweeters in the dash. If you replaced the tiny midranges behind you with mini subwoofers, you'd have a fantastic system.

 

Guess I misunderstood your video, thought it said that the doors only have woofers the doors.

How difficult is it to remove the side panels in the Italia to get to the midranges?

 

It's a two minute job. The following screen shots were taken right out of the 458 Italia shop manual.

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K, what do you need from me to make this happen?