[Daveyvtec]

Originally Posted by wataroo

The amp finally arrived and I installed it today. Took some pictures so sharing them for future references. As I was told that the space behind the HU was tight, I decided to detach the glove box to allow more space. Some points and a question related to the installation.

As my car is a right hand drive, I shoved the quadlock and wiring to the left bottom side as much as possible by tagging them from the glovebox side. Shoving the HU back in place took some time but having the glove box removed enabled a view to the backside of the HU helping the process (1st and 2nd pics)

I didn't have the free unused plug like @pwaf13 wrote earlier, but an orange (3rd pic.) and a red cable (4th pic.) that didn't attach to anything. It's kind of strange that there are differences even though I bought the same kit. Vibe's manual is very simple and doesn't explain what goes where. I hope I've wired everything right.

I placed the amp between the glovebox and the panel underneath like everyone here. I used double sided tape for now (5th pic.). I initially didn't get any sound and had to unplug and replug everything.

Like others I was initially underwhelmed by the sound. After adjusting the gain, I played an uncompressed music through Quobuz app and the base was more apparent and tighter than before.

I was not able to code from base to Hifi using Bimmercode as I have a retrofitted ID6 HU. I will need to download E-sys and try again. Here's a question to others. Did you code anything besides Audio_system from base to HIFI? I saw a post before who changed AMPLIFIRE_VARIANT from Internal to External. Has anyone else done that? Also did you had to increase the gain after doing the hifi coding?

I am not finished yet, but do want to thank @Daveyvtec, @pwaf13 and @Jimmert for their very informative write ups.

No panic at all dude. Glad to be of some sort of help. Best of luck with it!

[pwaf13]

Glad to see another one being installed and that postings helped

I got curious today and coded HU back to normal, and it’s louder and sounds better IMO after a good hour back to back listening. Vibe reported we shouldn’t need to code too, but, each to their own. Coding certainly isn’t hurting!

Leaving it as it is now, I have the underseat subs, door speakers and some dead Matt sound deadening to install hopefully this weekend to complete this little audio overhaul. Even now, I’m not missing HK other than the fancy surround effects V happy with the result

[Dazza1shot]

Wow thanks for the very informative posts and pictures to help with install I’ve be going back and forth in my mind about going for a full bespoke install at a cost of £1200 or if this option would be viable. As said struggled to find reviews on the vibe amp so was in limbo but thanks to you guys I’ll be ordering tonight.

[inigoale]

Originally Posted by pwaf13

Glad to see another one being installed and that postings helped

I got curious today and coded HU back to normal, and it’s louder and sounds better IMO after a good hour back to back listening. Vibe reported we shouldn’t need to code too, but, each to their own. Coding certainly isn’t hurting!

Leaving it as it is now, I have the underseat subs, door speakers and some dead Matt sound deadening to install hopefully this weekend to complete this little audio overhaul. Even now, I’m not missing HK other than the fancy surround effects V happy with the result

Hello, I have the vive encoded in hifi, I haven't tried it on base, when changing the door speakers, I left it in hifi and it stayed there. how does it sound better?

[pwaf13]

Originally Posted by inigoale

Hello, I have the vive encoded in hifi, I haven't tried it on base, when changing the door speakers, I left it in hifi and it stayed there. how does it sound better?

Hi, to me at the moment it sounded warmer and louder, without losing clarity.

However I have stock door speakers at the moment, having fitted the subs today (which sound great, deeper and clearer bass) and ran out of time so will do the door speakers tomorrow hopefully and will try both base and HiFI coding.

Popped in a sheet of sound deadening as figured it wouldn’t hurt




Question for everyone and probs me being daft, but when testing the subs it was clear that some vocals were coming through, I guess as these are mid bass and not true sub bass?

What’s everyone’s crossover settings on the vibe, I left mine on full rather than HPF, could that be it?

This is a great upgrade for £450 all in inc amp, speakers, subs, sound deadening and trims, v happy and looking forward to the door speakers

[Billfitz]

Originally Posted by pwaf13

when testing the subs it was clear that some vocals were coming through, I guess as these are mid bass and not true sub bass?

They'll reproduce whatever content is fed into them. Pretty much any woofer will work to at least 1kHz. The content to the woofers should be low passed at no higher than 125Hz.

[pwaf13]

Originally Posted by Billfitz

They'll reproduce whatever content is fed into them. Pretty much any woofer will work to at least 1kHz. The content to the woofers should be low passed at no higher than 125Hz.

Thanks for clearing that up

If other vibe owners could confirm if they run full or HPF that would be great, just to know. Wasn’t 100% sure so left it as it came out of the box and just adjusted gain

[Billfitz]

You wouldn't run a high pass filter on the woofers, unless it was set to perhaps 30Hz, and you also had a low pass filter set somewhere between 80 and 125Hz. By the same token the midranges need to be high passed somewhere between 80 and 125Hz.

[pwaf13]

Originally Posted by Billfitz

You wouldn't run a high pass filter on the woofers, unless it was set to perhaps 30Hz, and you also had a low pass filter set somewhere between 80 and 125Hz. By the same token the midranges need to be high passed somewhere between 80 and 125Hz.

Gotcha, thanks again. Best to leave the settings as they are then

[inigoale]

They told me on the website where I bought it, to set the low in front side to full and the low in rear to hpf, and then turn the volume up to 3/4 and turn up the gain knob until just before distortion.
so how about

[Billfitz]

You never want subs and midranges working in the same frequency pass band.
If the Vibe amp lacks the ability to low pass the woofers and high pass all of the midranges, which requires a minimum of five amp channels, that's a major limitation.

[pwaf13]

Originally Posted by inigoale

They told me on the website where I bought it, to set the low in front side to full and the low in rear to hpf, and then turn the volume up to 3/4 and turn up the gain knob until just before distortion.
so how about

That is very interesting!

Same volume and gain setup process but the HPF setting is new, might flip the switch one day and see what it’s like.

I’ve just popped out in car again simply to test the new subs and it’s a substantial change just for some plug and play subs. I’m sure the door speakers will make a big improvement too tomorrow.

I’ll have the whole vibe optisound upgrade then, assuming it designed to work with itself

[pwaf13]

Originally Posted by Billfitz

You never want subs and midranges working in the same frequency pass band.
If the Vibe amp lacks the ability to low pass the woofers and high pass all of the midranges, which requires a minimum of five amp channels, that's a major limitation.

It’s a very basic amp, so I wouldn’t be surprised, but vibe are an ok brand so I’d assume they have it all tested to work with themselves

[pwaf13]

Vibe OPTISOUNDBMW4X installed this morning with some sound deadening and very impressed with the clarity and power, works perfectly with the amp and underseat subs, no need to adjust the HU coding.

The mids come with a “high end crossover with reference curve” whatever that means 😂 and you can see that and another capacitor of sorts mounted


Had planned on removing Vapor barrier and going to town with the sound deadening but opted against and just applied around the speaker and directly behind


Super happy with this package for what it cost in total.

[Jimmert]

Originally Posted by pwaf13

Thanks for clearing that up

If other vibe owners could confirm if they run full or HPF that would be great, just to know. Wasn’t 100% sure so left it as it came out of the box and just adjusted gain

I run Full in the front and HPF on the rear. (+ Hifi coding)

[Billfitz]

After looking into it that is the correct way to do it if you're only running that one amp. You'd run the front with HPF if you had the underseat woofers separately amplified, which would give a much better result.

[makammo]

Question for anyone who has added the Match Up 7DSP to a base (no amplifier) system - does the wiring harness plug into the quadlock on the back of the head unit? If so, will me having installed an MMI box (that also plugs into it and re-directs the optical cable etc.) affect this? Would hate to buy a plug and play amp only to find I then have to choose between MMI/Android Auto and an amplifier...

cheers

[FastFrog]

I am in the same boat (Match Up7DSP + base audio + MMI screen, which is pretty much the same as MMI box as far as wiring goes)
And for the reason you state, I chose... not to go plug & play!
As a result, I'm re-wiring everything, with the notable difference that I had previously installed a harness for another 4 channel amp (Focal Impulse 4.320).
This harness ends up with a connector in the trunk (boot in London), right were the Matchup is going to fit. It inputs front IN and outputs both front mids and underseat subs.
What I'm doing right now is building a custom harness from this previous harness connector to the Matchup, adding up additional wiring for the center mid and rear mids.
I'll post a DIY when done.

[wataroo]

Originally Posted by pwaf13

Thanks for clearing that up

If other vibe owners could confirm if they run full or HPF that would be great, just to know. Wasn't 100% sure so left it as it came out of the box and just adjusted gain

I finally got a hold of the right esys to code my HU, and changed the Audio_system from STEREO to HIFI. Also changed Amplifier_variant from INTERNAL to EXTERNAL. Not quite sure if the latter actually switches the internal amp off or not. Does anyone know? I now run full front and HPF rear.

I prefer the above setting over what I had before. To me, vocals stand out more. There's less bass but I feel it sounds tighter. One issue I have is Carplay music volume is low compred to other sources such as FM radio. Hence I have the gains at max. I will probably play around with these settings but am happy for now.

[FastFrog]

Originally Posted by wataroo

I finally got a hold of the right esys to code my HU, and changed the Audio_system from STEREO to HIFI. Also changed Amplifier_variant from INTERNAL to EXTERNAL. Not quite sure if the later actually switches the internal amp off or not. Does anyone know? I now run full front and HPF rear.

I prefer the above setting over what I had before. To me, vocals stand out more. There's less bass but I feel it sounds tighter. One issue I have is Carplay music volume is low compred to other sources such as FM radio. Hence I have the gains at max. I will probably play around with these settings but am happy for now.

No, the EXTERNAL setting won't switch off anything, nor switch the HU output from High-Level to Low-Level. It only affects the EQ.

You will find an in-depth write-up about the sound settings and coding here: https://www.diymobileaudio.com/threa...n-most.437890/

[wataroo]

Originally Posted by FastFrog

No, the EXTERNAL setting won't switch off anything, nor switch the HU output from High-Level to Low-Level. It only affects the EQ.

You will find an in-depth write-up about the sound settings and coding here: https://www.diymobileaudio.com/threa...n-most.437890/

The link you provided is vey helpful. I will play around with the settings and adjust to my liking. Thank you!

[kierownik]

Has anyone used Vibe Optosound under seat subwoofers and can say something about them?
I'm thinking about buying those together with pnp Powerbox65.4M
I really want to upgrade my subs without breaking the bank and that combo seems promising.