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      12-18-2016, 05:44 AM   #1
Lincoln30
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Musicar Level 3 installed

I had the Musicar Full Bass upgrade in my F80 with Bavsound front/center speakers and it was OK. For the F87, even with the huge improvement in OE sound quality for 2017, I decided to take it this car to the next level with a complete upgrade of the amps/speakers/etc.

Before I get into the details of installing and how easy it is. Let me say something about the sound...WOW! I am audiophile. Years ago I was an installer and a CMAA sound quality judge (certified but only judged one event). Musicar provides the DSP pretuned, all you really need to do once you get install is set the input gains on the amps. I was using an AudioControl RTA to set the gains so each set of drivers is playing at equal level, so I took it one step farther and made some small tweaks to the eq settings to make it as flat as I could. I did not change any of the other Musicar settings like Time Delay or Crossovers b/c I feel that they are spot on. I can't believe how flat this can be system can be tuned. The sound is a little beyond my expectations and about as perfect on the front stage as I've ever heard in a car.

The Level 3 system includes (mine is front stage only, the normal level 3 includes rear speakers):

Front Mids/Highs - Morel Hybrid 402
Underseat - Jehnert
Sub - Audiofrog GS 10"
8-ch DSP/6-ch amp - Mosconi D2 80.6 runs the fronts and underseats (and rears if you are into that sort of thing. I am a front stage only guy).
Sub amp - Mosconi D2 500.1

This is a true plug and play system. You don't cut or splice into ANY factory wires. The only cutting or stripping of wires for the additional 8ga amplifier wires that must be run the battery and ground for the Mosconi amps.

This pic is the system laid out after unpacking. They send you new BMW tweeter pods with the tweeters pre-installed.

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The Mosconi Amp rack pre-wired and ready to drop in place where the factory amp was

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Underseat woofers

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Morels with the BMW pods and the crossover in shrink tubing ready to install.

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I prepped the doors with damping on the inside of the outer door skin, the outside of the inner door skin around the speaker area, inside the panel mainly on the backside of the door pockets. Then install the new tweeter pods, mids, mount the crossover with the provided velcro and secure the wires (not all of this is pictured).

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Next install the Jehnert's under the seats. Unbolt the seat, tilt it back. Remove the speaker grill and woofer, replace woofer and reverse the process. I popped the rocker panel cover off to allow the carpet to move around a bit more to access the speaker mounting screws.

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After installing the speakers it's time to move to the trunk to install the amps and sub. Start by removing the trunk floor liner covering the the battery, pull off the rubber weather stripping across the bottom of the trunk and up the drivers side to get it away from the edges of the those panels. Remove the fasteners on the rear panel and side panel. Unplug lighter plug from side panel. Remove one 10mm nut to release the factory amp/ASD rack, unplug and remove from car. Take the ASD box off the factory mount as you need it reuse this for the system to play. I have the Technic ASD bypass still in place. The Level 3 works with or without the Bypass cable.

Run the amp power wires and subwoofer speaker cable, get everything connected, dry fit in place and ready to set the gains. Test the system, add dampening. Finish up by using the factory 10mm nut to bolt the amp rack down, mount the ASD box somewhere, reinstall side panel in trunk but do not install the fastener for the top of the panel, this is installed after the sub is in place to hold the sub then the last fastener for this panel. Reinstall the rear trunk panel and reseat the weather stripping. This is the worst part of the job, it's bugger to get the weather stripping back pushed back into place. drop in the trunk floor and your done.

Pic is from the dry fit.

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I'm not going to say how much this cost. You can add up the retail price of each component to get an idea that this is NOT inexpensive hardware. Also consider the labor, wiring, connectors, cnc machined speakers adaptors, amp rack, OE tweeter pods, carefully packing and shipping two boxes (one 40+ and one 20+ lbs) and you can get an idea of what something like this costs.

For transparency: My install was not without one hitch that took a couple of days to resolve with some emails back and forth to Musicar. I'm certain we could have resolved this in one day if I was working on this during business hours and could have called them. In my case, I didn't have subwoofer output on day one. It took a couple of iterations of trying different tests to narrow down the problem but it turned out to be a mislabeled terminal on the woofer. It is a dual voice coil woofer and one terminal was labeled backwards by the manufacturer. Swap the polarity on one terminal and we had the "Boom". Without this one issue, time spent dampening and my time playing with the eq settings, this is an install that can be done in less then 4 hours.
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      12-18-2016, 05:49 AM   #2
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I guess I should also include a pic of the amp rack and ASD box in place before the trunk went back together.

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      12-28-2016, 10:27 AM   #3
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Looks tidy as always...Musicar packaging is top notch. Any issues with a lack of air circulation/amps getting too hot? I've never seen the sub enclosure located over the amps.
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      12-28-2016, 10:44 PM   #4
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Very clean install! Thanks for sharing. Mind if I ask where, exactly, you velcro'd the Morel crossovers? Those things are not small, and I would worry there is not enough room between the vapor shield and the door card.
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