Chronisseur

Hey everyone, I'm a hopefully soon to be owner of an Rx-8, and was just wondering what you all have done to your car's audio system. I saw some threads and photos with some pretty creative systems. I ask because I love music, and will most likely be adding a subwoofer or two to the trunk, but was wondering how to go about it. On my last car, I made a ported box to house a 12" Alpine Type-R sub with an amp. It was about 2 cubic feet, and I doubt it'll fit in the 8. I would like decent bass, not too peaky at certain frequencies, and for it to sound as clean as possible. My system bumped in the other car, but sometimes it would get nasty with the trunk rattling. How susceptible is the 8 to that?

Also, concerning weight: I don't know whether I would want the GT package with Bose audio, as overall it's heftier than stock because of the additional speakers, leather power seats, moonroof, etc. Add a sub or two, and it all adds up. Then again the additional speakers in the Bose system, I imagine, must sound pretty nice. I guess I'm wondering which model to go with, but not quite sure yet. Also, if I went with stock and upgraded to three way, and added custom tweeters, I'm guessing they'd be heavier than stock? Anyways, sorry if this is newb question overload, but the audio is most likely the first thing I'd be modding on the car after I get it.

canaryrx8

iTrader: (3)

I yanked out all the factory and replaced everything, but if all you want is good sound with some bottom then the Blose with subs will be plenty. I ran stock with 2 10's and it was great, you could very easily get away with a single 10 or even 8 and it does wonders with the oem setup.

Obviously if you really want the best sound, aftermarket is going to be your best bet, and it's a whole lot easier to replace the radios/speakers in these cars now than it was a year or 2 ago.

Chronisseur

yeah, I read something about not being able to replace the headunit easily with an aftermarket one, because certain features would be disabled (heater/ac?) So I may have to work around that. Also, for those with a sub or multiple subs, how do you have them firing? I had my old ones facing the rear of the car, but the trunk rattled often, and I didn't want to dynamat the whole thing.

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

Jedi's approach to fixing the Bose system:

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-interior-audio-electronics-24/jedis-bose-stereo-upgrade-103771/

Socket7

Now that the metra kit is out, full stereo replacements are possible, but I'm not sure what happens to your steering wheel controls if you do that. Check the metra thread for more info.

I've replaced everything but the head unit and parts of the wiring harness. I like a nice stock look everywhere but the trunk, where I let all the pretty hardware show off.

I'd stop worrying so much about weight. Good sound and low weight are a bit mutually exclusive (although there is definitely a happy medium, no need to put 100 pounds of dynamat in the car), due to the weight of amplifiers and enclosures. the speakers themselves don't make much difference.

I think my aftermarket speakers are lighter then the OEM (bose) speakers, but you're talking about ounces, not pounds here, and it's also offset by the 10 pound amp in the trunk, the 4080 enclosure, and the sub in it.

All told I'd say my install has added less then 40 pounds of weight. You could just exercise and take 40 pounds off your waistline to compensate.

I've got a project log going in my sig. It's horribly out of date, and terribly written and half finished but there are some cool photos if you want to check them out.

firebirdude

iTrader: (3)

If you had a ported Type-R in your previous car, you're not going to be happy with the bass output from the Bose system alone. Bass aside, the rest of the Bose system is certainly nothing to write home about.

Like previously mentioned, I really wouldn't let the weight of the equipment be your deciding factor. You'd honestly be willing to sink $1k into audio equipment, but sacrifice some sound quality to save 10lbs? As mentioned, skip the sound deadening and choose your sub box wisely. Other then that, you're splitting hairs over ounces.

Also as mentioned, the Metra dash kit will allow you to replace the factory headunit.... but it's pricey. $200 I believe. And if you'll read the thread in this forum about it, it still has a couple bugs to work out. It will not allow you to retain the steering wheel controls. However, an add-on module from PAC electronics or Peripheral will give them back to you. (About $50)

I'd say maybe copy Jedi's setup, but with only one sub in a 4080 box. (fits over one wheel well. Often called "stealth" box)

Rotr8

iTrader: (2)

My approach is to turn the **** all the way to the left and listen to the whining of my supercharger,,,,

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

^^ as it goes BOOM at 119 mph? (you know I'm just messin' with ya Rotr)

Chronisseur

Must be nice, but unless the car I buy magically happens to grow an SC or TC under the hood, I'll be listening to the sweet sounds of rotary. And hopefully some nice bass if I could get it worked out.

I just got done reading some of the metra kit thread, and also hope that the problems will be worked out in the near future.

As far as weight, I know nitpicking about speaker weights is a bit excessive. Instead, I'd like to see how much my old enclosure weighs, and think about what to do from there. I'm interested in doing DIY again, but I might end up doing one or two sealed subs instead of ported. And I was actually pretty satisfied with my other car's stock speakers, besides the lack of bass, so I don't think the Bose will bother me too much. Regarding my weight, I'm in the 130 pound range, so I don't think I'll be losing 40 unless I become bulemic. Actually, I'm hoping to add about 5 or 10 after I start working out again.

firebirdude

iTrader: (3)

130lbs!?!!? Jesus man....
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lard ***.

Chronisseur

Nah, I've just been simultaneously blessed and cursed with Japanese genetics from my mother, so I'm only 5'6". Even when I was in my prime physically, I would only get cut instead of building muscle, so I always stayed around 135. So I guess I can add a 40 pound subwoofer and be like the average RX-8er as far as weight in the car.

cody6766

My approach to car audio is a little more involved than most. Audiophile grade sound is very important to me in my car. I haven't done much with my install in my rx8, but I have pretty big plans for it. I have everything I need (aside from the metra kit) to put in what I had, but I'm debating upgrades in the front stage.

I had, in my previous car:
3way custom component set up front w/active crossovers
Focal TN45 tweets, Vifa 4" mids in the kicks
Dayton 7" midbass drivers in the doors
JL 10w7 in the trunk
JL 300/2 for the mids in the doors
Hifonics nx440 for the kicks
----totalled 150w to each midbass and 150w to the each kick panel
processing was done via the HU's internal eq and time alignment as well as a kicker kq30 1/3 oct EQ

This all gave me dead center imaging with a nice, deep and high sound stage. Tonal accuracy was deceivingly lifelike and I could play my stereo louder than my ears would allow and not lose sound quality or risk damaging my drivers.

At a minimum, this will all go into the 8. I'm debating upgrading the mids and the midbasses, but I"m not sure what I want to go with and what kind of money I'm willing to spend.