[thatryan]

Well this is mostly a "holy crap I'm excited" post.

I have a 2013 335 with HK sound, but I love quality tunes. Finally pulled the trigger on a full on Level 3 upgrade with everything from MusicarNW.

Should hopefully be here next week and I will do the install myself.

So. Stoked.

[GeertB]

a lot of pics and we are happy

[bri1042]

If you think you are excited now, just wait until you hear it! I'm living with the HK (which is much easier to live with than the HiFi was) until the middle of next month when I can hand her over to Musicar for a day.

[thatryan]

Oh yea. There will be pics

[PabloK]

Congrats.

They are currently building a level X for my 335.

My brother also has a level 2 or 3 in his M235i... can't remember, but it was a significant upgrade.

Keep us posted brother.

[435MSport6Speed]

You guys get your stereos installed?

[bri1042]

Mine is installed but the tuning isn't finished yet (it will be on Saturday). Even with the tuning incomplete, the audio is massively better than the HK was. I'm not sure how I had convinced myself that the HK was OK at all.

[435MSport6Speed]

What did you get from MCNW?

[bri1042]

My setup (which doesn't really correspond with MCNW's usual equipment list since I bought a bunch of it used and at various points in my time with my last car):

Hybrid Audio Legatia L4 SE Carbon Front Mids
Morel MXR240 front x-overs
Morel MT 220 Front Tweets
Morel Hybrid Integra 402 Center Channel
Bavsound's in the rear deck (may upgrade these at some point, or not)
Jehnert Underseats
JL 10" sub in a Musicar enclosure in the trunk
Mobridge DA2
Alpine H800 DSP with the C800 controller in the glove compartment
JL 800/8v2
Helix Match Sub amp

[thatryan]

I got so busy with work that I just yesterday got to start installing!

[bri1042]

Woo! Hope the install goes well! The tuning is done on mine and it sounds great. We ended up switching to a DA1 instead of a DA2 for TOSLINK to the DSP. I have some vibration when the sub is going hard to nail down, but I'll get to it at some point soon (it's not excessive).

What hardware was in the actual Level 3 kit?

[thatryan]

Man this install has been an adventure! Ill post everything in the system once I have it all in and working, in case anything gets changed

I have front doors and rear deck done. Rear deck was a PAIN as you have to pull out the entire shelf to do it, mount crossovers etc.

Started on front under seats last night but am missing a spacer ring so they are overnighting me one. Was a nice opportunity to vacuum under the seats though lol

Also worth mentioning that the folks at MusicarNW are amazing, we have probably sent 100 texts back and forth including pics and vids as I am going through this.

More to come.

[thatryan]

What I got was the MusicarNW Level 3, 4 way system with rear speakers upgrade, including sound dampening options. As we know this took WAY longer than I had anticipated. Partly due to a few parts issues which I will address in image story below, and partly due to it being crazy hot and busy, so limited time at night to work on this.

Let's get started!

The Sound:

Most important to note here, is that this setup sounds amazing. Just, damn. I am still needing to tune the gains a bit to get the right balance I think, but I am going to leave them as is for a little while to let my ears adjust and make tweaks then.

The clarity of sounds, and the precision, is a sweet sound. And the sound stage presents great, like there is a concert on the hood of the car dead front and center.

Components:

• Mobridge DA2 digital/analog converter
• Helix DSP signal processor
• Arc Audio amp, 1100x1, powers sub
• Arc Audio amp, 1200x6, powers the rest
• Morel midrange and tweeters for front doors
• Morel point-source, 2 ways for rear deck
• Jehnert XE200 underseats
• JL Audio, 10W6v3 subwoofer in custom enclosure

This massive experience arrived in two huge boxes



Checking out the haul



I started at front doors, removed panel and midrange speaker



Next peel back the vapor barrier to install the tiles inside the door. Yeah, I managed to rip it :/



Installing the MLV sheet, velcro attaches so that is cool, Though no hole cut for speaker so I had to do that.



Fitting it with the original speaker as I made sure the holes worked



Laying out where to mount the crossover on the door panel. Velcro strips attached.



The Morel tweeter



Comparing the Morel to the stock HK tweet



Tweeter mounted into place, but clips do not quite clasp 100% as the frame is a tad thicker. Still clicks pretty well in but...



... a little hot glue to keep it in there nicely



Onto the rear deck, pulling out HK speaker



No way will that fit! No such luck, so you know what that means



Yep, gotta pull the whole damn shelf out. Blah that was not expected, and sucked



Shelf out, lots of room now



Comparing Morel replacement with stock HK



Figuring out where I want to stick the crossovers



Mounted in place and ran wires through existing holes



I had to remove the pressure rings that they install on the new speaker as they were too wide, howeve they fit snug and pressed into place nice. No rattles. The stock tweeter I left there, but it is no longer hooked up to anything.



Time for underseats, my gosh what a mess under there. Guess I should have vacuumed before the pic



Stock on left, new Jehnert on right. Custom spacer rings mounted on it, however the F30 requires two and I was only sent one initially. No biggie, but added to my time



New under seat in place



Onto the trunk! Pulled all of the paneling out to get started



My cool shot of the amps mounted on their rack



And sitting in place



The stock HK amp, yeah this has to go!



To make room for this! The DAC and DSP mounted on their own rack plate



Wiring, I drilled a hole through the side there, and put in a grommet. This way wire can easily run through and through the other hole that already exists on other side of that plate to reach the connections. And boy did it suck.



Because I am running two amps, there is no way to fit 3 or 4 4 gauge cables through the one hole on the battery side to get to posts. So had to install my own grounding stud. After checking the back side for clearance of course



Drilled the hole and taped off a little area so I could sand it down to bare metal



Install the stud



And confirm resistance, make sure it is a good ground!



Silicon sealant on the underside of car around stud



Now gotta paint that bare metal



I suck at painting apparently, but it works for now Got color matched rattle can from auto body shop



Now that I have ground, running power cables through new hole on passenger side to battery compartment



At this point I have just about every wire in the general vicinity



Time to plug some stuff in!



...a lot of stuff



Powers on yay! Checking the tun file via USB connect into the Helix DSP



My initial wires were sloppy so I recut and fit them in there nicer



At this point I realized that running two power cables to the battery was just not ideal. Not enough space for me to mount fuse blocks



So I switched it up, got a length of 0 gauge cable to run into a fuse block splitter, that in turn spits out two 4 gauge cables to power the amps



Making the wiring pretty at the DSP area into the grommet



And cleaning up the amp wiriing area



More clean



Easy access to fuses if needed



Time to mount the sub, sadly the mounting block I was sent would not work. They had changed up design and I got an old one, so had to wait a day for new one to get here.



Which means the sub I took out of box gets wrapped up for a nap



In goes the beefy beast!



And that is a nice fit



Love how stock it looks



Access to DSP and USB right under the panel pop out



And the flip up lid now shows some sexy power




That is all for now. Hope you enjoyed my picture story!

Any questions on the system or issues I ran into let me know, happy to help other doing this

[bri1042]

Woo! Glad to hear that you've gotten the install done! The ARC amps are just beautiful. Thanks for sharing the install pics :-)

[PabloK]

congrats! my level X package should ship by the end of the month as well.. They had to order a custom crate for my amp rack

[435MSport6Speed]

nice job thatryan. you saved yourself some good cash doing yourself.

[thatryan]

Thanks!

It was fun but glad it is finally over lol

[etinifni]

I'm going to go with the level 1 four way, but your setup is making me rethink my decision lol. What did they send you in total for sound deadening material? From what I've read the right side of the trunk especially near gas filler door is a problem area for rattles.

[ClevelandBeemer]

Awesome write up thatryan!! Quick question whats up with the foam in the MusicarNW enclosure? I one of their enclosures as well for my W3 but it came with just bare fiberglass.

[thatryan]

Originally Posted by etinifni

I'm going to go with the level 1 four way, but your setup is making me rethink my decision lol. What did they send you in total for sound deadening material? From what I've read the right side of the trunk especially near gas filler door is a problem area for rattles.

What is the level 1 four way exactly?
Sound deadening material was all for the front doors, included the aluminum/rubber CLD that peel and stick to the door skin. Spaced out a bit so not slathered in there like dynamat. As well as the MLV vinyl sheet that hangs between door and panel.

There is a bit of a rattle in trunk area, cannot hear it inside at all though. And it is not a crazy annoying rattle. I think it is the vents mostly on the inside, little plastic fins...

Small rattle as well from license plate, but I have that attached with four screws instead of the two it came with so that helps some. I may buy this or something like it later on Stinger License Plate Sound Damping

Originally Posted by ClevelandBeemer

Awesome write up thatryan!! Quick question whats up with the foam in the MusicarNW enclosure? I one of their enclosures as well for my W3 but it came with just bare fiberglass.

Thank you!

I was not sure what that was either and texted them to see if I needed to remove it, like if it was for shipping. But no, said it was polyfill and was supposed to stay. Not really sure what it does though

[etinifni]

Level 1 four-way:

- JL 10W1 sub

- 300W Audiotec Fischer amp

-dsp


How do you have 4 screws on your license plate?

[bri1042]

Ryan, I've had bass vibration from both the fuel flap and the high-center brake light housing on both of my F30's. On my last car, the brake light vibration didn't show up immediately...something to check if you hear one developing over time.