Hi-Fi Enthusiasts - Thumb's New Build, Door Skin Questions

Hi All, So, being an old-school audiophile, I can't not deck out the new [to me] 996 with something fun. I know the previous owner had a custom sub enclosure, but it was much too large to allow for an OEM windjammer. I thought I found the perfect solution when I saw member oregondave selling a JL Stealthbox for the 996 (listing is still live, here ), but it only fits in coups, not targas or cabs. So, with a little sleuthing on the car audio forums, I found Cory with Sub Box Designs and tasked him to design my enclosure specific to the 996 cab. I wanted to leave the rear seats in place, in the down position, for that minimal extra storage, and sent Cory the remaining dimensions. This is what he returned for the maximum output for such a small space: Fits a single JL10TW3-D4 . Cory tells me the ported design is tuned to 32htz. Nice. Yesterday I was able to cut out the pieces, 3/4" MDO high-density marine plywood, rounded the port's interior wall edge and the exhaust port, and here are the pieces laid out before screwing and gluing: A pair of 1" wood dowels will be added for additional stiffness. My wiring ports wiring ports are on order.The finished box will be covered in the correct Porsche blue carpet. Someone here gave me a source, and of course I already lost that info. Help! The deck is a perfectly good Kenwood. A couple years old now, but top of the line when it was new. It can stay (for now). I did buy oregondave's HD900/5 . Had originally planned to get the VX1000/5 , but the discount was too attractive not to jump on. And now onto the speaker upgrade. In a thread I can no longer find, someone was talking about the Focal 3-way speaker upgrade specific to the 996. I don't have the factory Bose system, but I do have the factory Hi-Fi system. And so my big question for the all the DYIers here, has anyone used this upgrade before? Can this be installed through the existing door speakers, or am I removing the door skins? And if I do need to remove the door skins, is there any special tools required? Here's where I enter uncharted waters. Any input is much appreciated. Thumb

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Was it GAHH ?

I don't recall, but that looks good. Thanks!

F thumb I like it but I have a spare Bose box that I want to add a unpowered speaker to it wondering if it fits your situation

I'm not sure what a Bose box is?

Nice work!

Bose Porsche box

It looks like that's only for the 997.

Both my 996 coupes have the Bose subwoofer box.

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I did this upgrade. The speakers are amazing. The door skins come off with normal tools. The HiFi, non-bose, should have the correct speaker box in the door for the woofer. Mounting the dash speakers requires some cutting and gluing to attach to the original dash plates. The go-to guy for instructions and adapter plates and such is CAI-Store. https://cai-store.com/pages/how-to-u...sh-speaker-kit . I bought my complete system from them. I have a VX600/6i to power the 4 corners and 2 doors independently. It also has a sub-out to go to the subwoofer amp. Learning how to tune the DSP is fun. Yes, music in these cars can be very high quality. Good luck!

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thats on the list for this year if i keep the car

Thanks for the leads! I'm going to look for videos showing how to remove the door skins soon. Progress images on the sub box build. Took the hand rotary to fine tune the angled surfaces to make sure everyone was flat and flush on the same plane: Then tapped holes for my 1" wood dowels for stiffening the face-plate. First set of holes were mistakenly centered to the bottom before I realized I wanted these perpendicular to the speaker face and not the bottom face. So, a little re-calculating, and the correct angle and position to have the dowel land on the center-line of the speaker was achieved. Speaker hole won't be cut out until I get the speaker here so I can be sure the position won't bump into the port wall.

And if anyone is interested, I'm happy to share the build plans. Finished carpeted box will fit neatly on top of the folded rear seats and under an OEM windjammer.

That looks like really nice work. The driver is nice as well. Also being an audiophile and designing my own amps and enclosures (for home), I am a little confused why you selected a ported design over a sealed cabinet. Looking forward to see how it all works out.

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My original thoughts were a sealed enclosure, but Cory at Sub Box Designs said with the space constraints I gave him I'd be much happier with the results of a ported design. He said he made this specific design for the JL10TW3-D4 and tuned the enclosure to 32htz. I'll also be very curious how this sounds. I play bass as well, so I'm going to be a harsh critic on the results. My bass cab is a ported design and it's some of the finest low-end production I've ever heard out of a single 12" package. These are all made to order cabs. I didn't build this one, but I did ask the builder to give it a handmade, steampunk vibe. I can fill a ballroom with bass from this thing: Greenboy FearLESS112

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The upgrade kit looks to only include the fronts and door woofers, so originally I was only looking at those and not thinking of the two speaker sets flanking the rear seats. What speakers did you use for the rears? Did you just order one more pair of the same Focal for those, or is there another kit from CAI that included the rear set? So now I'm thinking, maybe keep the two rear speakers in play and use the HD900/5 to power the front and rear 2-ways off channels 1-4, and use the sub channel 5 to power the door woofers (2ohm each?) paired in a shared mono signal, and get another mono amp to run the new enclosed subwoofer?

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You are on the slippery slope now. I put Focals in the back as well. All of mine are the K2 series. I don't know that they need to be as good as the fronts, but you need something back there. Fills out the sound. certainly if they are poor speakers they will muddy the sound. I've never tried anything like series speakers driven by one signal. Check the sub frequency range vs. the woofers. Because I have the actual sub-woofer, I have the frequency range on the woofers set from 80-400Hz. the sub(JL 8W3V3-4) covers to 80Hz. And the corners take over from 400Hz. Maybe it depends on the power of the amp and what filters you have for the woofers.

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Hah! My life. Yeah, I recently went through this on the wife's Lexus. Focal Ultimates up front, I forget which Focal are in the passenger doors (installer recommendation). Not as nice, or as expensive, but serviceable. 15" Focal for the sub. Audison power. It's very nice. Is the Focal K2 what comes with the CAI kit? I'm sure I should be asking them this question too, but while I'm here... I know my sub enclosure is tuned to 32hz, and the door woofers are, according to CAI, supposed to be cut off at 200hz, but not sure where the lower crossover from the door woofers to the enclosed subwoofer would be in this arrangement. In theory I should be able to run both door woofers off the same amp #5 subwoofer channel as if they're dual subwoofers on a mono signal, and the amp can cut them off at 200hz, but I would probably need to find a way to cut them off again below 100hx or 80hz and let the true ported sub take it from there. Slippery slope indeed.

I can't remember what Focal speakers I got, but I got the fronts from CAI, for the rears, I'll tell you, they contribute a LOT to the full sound in the car. For ****s and giggles I disconnected the rear speakers because a lot of people reported not replacing them and just having them "deleted", and even with the 3 ways up front, it sounds exponentially better with the speakers on in the rear. Like I cringe at the thought that people think not having the rear speakers sounds acceptable. Granted, I have nice Focal 2 ways, but still, there would be a complete dead spot if I didn't have rear speakers... I'm curious to hear your impressions on the subwoofer set-up you have planned. I got the CAI custom one with the pair of 6W3 JL subs and it's bananas at how well tuned that box is and how well it performs with 6" subs. People constantly ask me what 10's or or 12 I have and where it's located lol. I was originally looking for a stealthbox, but I'm glad I went this route because it probably sounds a lot better matched and probably not as "boomy". I wanted to go custom locally, but for whatever reason, people get sketched out touching a Porsche...I kept telling them "bruh...it's just a VW...a spicy VW, but just a VW....there's nothing "special" if you're replacing the entire system...but I digress lol.

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I never saw this at CAI. Where do these mount (not that I'm not excited to hear what my box can do)? I'll definitely check with CAI for recommendations on the rear speakers. Especially as a cab, there's going to be a lot of wind noise to overcome and every cone will help.

I ordered the 3 way Focal kit from Rod at CAI and installed in the dash and doors of 01 C2 cab (with 490 HiFi option) without issue. I have a Kenwood head unit and Alpine PDX V9 5 channel amp. Not using the rear speakers at this time - was thinking of running them straight off the head unit but not sure they are necessary. I bought a used Bose subwoofer box from an 03 Cab off eBay and modified it to mount an 8� shallow Focal sub. It is mounted in the passenger footwell like OEM. Very happy with the sound and overall install.

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It goes right where the stock box is. You have to ask for it as it's not on their site. If I remember correctly the box was $1100-1400? Looks stock. BUT, I don't think the box is the same as it is for a cab? I don't know if he makes oe for a cab, only the coupe. You can always ask though...

Yeah, I think that's just for the coupe. Finally got my carpet in last week. Hopefully I can get the sub box carpeted this week, and if the weather improves, swap out the original HiFi door speakers for the CAI mid-subs and new enclosures.

For speaker adapters search ebay- Porsche 996 Coupe dash AND rear/side speaker adaptors - just had a pair delivered going to install them this coming week

Let me know who they work. I just added poly batting to my door enclosures today - tomorrow I carpet the subwoofer enclosure, and hopefully next week I can swap in the new door mid-sub enclosures.

The adapters worked great, simple bolt in with the crutch field wiring connectors. took about 30 minutes to complete

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