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Bump! Anyone do this recently? I just ordered the JL 6W3v3-4 and I guess I'll use a spacer if needed. If the supposed RMS of the stock B&O amp is 150 watts, that's what this sub is rated for so I assume it will be a sound quality upgrade. The stock paper cone sub sounds clean but does not go low enough. I don't need a bangin system but I do want the depth of tone.
just did this in my 2014 SQ5 with the B&O. when I measured the stock speaker, I figured a 6.75 inch speaker would fit better than a 6.5. so I bought a set of the Infinity Reference 6030cs speakers off amazon and dropped one of them into the factory location. not really a sub, but better than the stocker and more resistance than the stocker (2ohm). the holes on the Infinity line up perfectly, however there is a tiny metal lip on the Infinity speaker that prevents the plastic cover piece from being able to be screwed all the way down flush with the sub housing. it is 95% screwed down (all 4 screws), and I can live with that. the only other thing I had to do was remove the little plastic peg that is used to line the speaker up. that came off clean and flush with a window scraper. a new razor blade in your window scraper will take the peg clean off. as for the sound - I definitely notice a difference. is it drastic, like thump-the-car drastic? definitely not, but I personally think it was worth the $92.
Ok so here is my replacement brief write up. Disclaimer: This may not be something you want to do. I think I'm pleased with it but I'm certainly not throwing out the stock equipment.
I bought a JL 6W3V3-4 from http://www.jlaudio.com/6w3v3-4-car-a...-drivers-92145 and it was on sale and free shipping. I knew the magnet would be too deep for the spare tire enclosure but I thought I could just file down the inside of the plastic enclosure. That's a big no go. So instead, I ordered this 1" spacer
The spacer installs super easy with 4 supplied screws that line up correctly with the factory holes (at least on my enclosure). Then you place your sub on the spacer and drill 4 small holes in opposing positions into the spacer. The JL sub then easily screws into the spacer with 4 more screws supplied with spacer (kit has two spacers and 8 screws). It sits perfectly in the spacer mount and is about 0.5cm higher than the enclosure itself.
For the wiring, prior to install I just used a needle nose pliers and a knife and spread the green connector until it fit the fatter male connector on the JL sub. Green goes on positive and black on negative. If you can manage to spread the female end, no need to cut, splice, solder, or tape anything.
So with the sub in enclosure, I dropped it back in the spare tire and sadly the screw top that holds everything firmly in place will no longer spin on due to it abutting the taller sub. This annoyed me a bit but I rigged a bungee cord and towel system and it's now super snug. The downside of not using the screw top system is that the spare tire has an inch or two that it can slide back and forth. It's so heavy though and the rubber grabs so I don't think it will move much.
Putting the cover back on, I certainly noticed the new raised sub height. I did not put a grill or any protection on and the cover sits on the sub. The cover is poked up by a few mm and unless you're concerned about damage to the sub, you don't really notice it.
Now the sound. I played Daft Punk RAM, Kanye West, and Kendrick Lamar real quick just to check the bottom end and the JL sub does take the low frequencies better than stock and is also a little bit louder. The JL just sounds more rich in tone and adds focus to the bass vs the stock speaker just supplementing what the door woofers can't do. Is it a huge difference? No. The stock sub really does a great job for how crappy it is. However, there is a difference and I would say that so far for me it is worth it. If you're looking for gut punching bass get a dedicated amp and sub. If you don't want to mess with the OEM setup, you're not missing out on a whole lot. If you want that extra low end that the stock sub is just slightly lacking, then this seems great to me so far.
We'll see how the sub tolerates the floor cover sitting on top of it and we'll see if I truly feel there is enough advantage to keep the sub with a jimmy rigged spare tire tie down. Sounds good to me now though.
Update: The JL sub I swapped in place of OEM in the last post is really not providing much improvement. I'll be looking for a custom solution tomorrow.
I have the standard audio system in my 11 Q5 and looking to upgrade the sub via a drop-in replacement.
Purchased a cheap used B&O box so I'd be able to fit a 6.5" woofer.
It seems the kicker is discontinued so I'm planning to try the SWS-6.5, which looks like it would be a good fit (low power req and designed for smaller enclosures - less than 2 cu ft. sealed). It is 4 ohms (vs my stock 2), however, so hopefully it gets enough power.
Also curious to see if sealing the enclosure/filling with polyfill will improve sound, guess I can experiment a bit.
Interested to hear some feedback; will report back with results.
Ok so here is my replacement brief write up. Disclaimer: This may not be something you want to do. I think I'm pleased with it but I'm certainly not throwing out the stock equipment.
The spacer installs super easy with 4 supplied screws that line up correctly with the factory holes (at least on my enclosure). Then you place your sub on the spacer and drill 4 small holes in opposing positions into the spacer. The JL sub then easily screws into the spacer with 4 more screws supplied with spacer (kit has two spacers and 8 screws). It sits perfectly in the spacer mount and is about 0.5cm higher than the enclosure itself.
For the wiring, prior to install I just used a needle nose pliers and a knife and spread the green connector until it fit the fatter male connector on the JL sub. Green goes on positive and black on negative. If you can manage to spread the female end, no need to cut, splice, solder, or tape anything.
So with the sub in enclosure, I dropped it back in the spare tire and sadly the screw top that holds everything firmly in place will no longer spin on due to it abutting the taller sub. This annoyed me a bit but I rigged a bungee cord and towel system and it's now super snug. The downside of not using the screw top system is that the spare tire has an inch or two that it can slide back and forth. It's so heavy though and the rubber grabs so I don't think it will move much.
Putting the cover back on, I certainly noticed the new raised sub height. I did not put a grill or any protection on and the cover sits on the sub. The cover is poked up by a few mm and unless you're concerned about damage to the sub, you don't really notice it.
Now the sound. I played Daft Punk RAM, Kanye West, and Kendrick Lamar real quick just to check the bottom end and the JL sub does take the low frequencies better than stock and is also a little bit louder. The JL just sounds more rich in tone and adds focus to the bass vs the stock speaker just supplementing what the door woofers can't do. Is it a huge difference? No. The stock sub really does a great job for how crappy it is. However, there is a difference and I would say that so far for me it is worth it. If you're looking for gut punching bass get a dedicated amp and sub. If you don't want to mess with the OEM setup, you're not missing out on a whole lot. If you want that extra low end that the stock sub is just slightly lacking, then this seems great to me so far.
We'll see how the sub tolerates the floor cover sitting on top of it and we'll see if I truly feel there is enough advantage to keep the sub with a jimmy rigged spare tire tie down. Sounds good to me now though.
Photos:
Now that you have had the setup for awhile, what do you think? Is it worth the effort to do this vs keeping it stock?
I have a JL w12 in my infiniti, and I love the bass, not too hardcore but deep.
Also has anyone figured out how to get subwoofer control in MMI??
Just ordered an SWS-6.5x shallow mount sub and JL JX250/1 amp to upgrade my stock (non-B&O) sub. Already snagged a B&O sub enclosure (with the 6.5" opening).
Planning to drop the SWS in the stock sub location and simply use the high-level input jack on the amp with the stock sub connector.
The SWS is designed for small-volume boxes so hoping this will be the perfect solution for a completely stock-looking install, nothing protruding in the trunk area.
Will report back with my results - the SWS are sold in pairs so I'll likely have one available for anyone else wanting to go this route.
Update - just installed the SWS-6.5x in place of the stock (non-B&O) 2 ohm sub. Sound is definitely more focused, but not very loud, leading to an overall slightly noticeable improvement. This is with the sub level turned all the way up in the MMI (vs. about halfway for the stock one). I suspect that if replacing a B&O (4 ohm) stock sub, the improvement would be greater as it would be getting some more power.
In order to drop into the stock (B&O) sub enclosure, the hole had to be expanded by a small amount. I did this with a dremel + cylindrical stone tool. Good news is that once the hole is large enough for it to sit flush with the surface, the original mounting holes, screws, and plastic cover work perfectly. So it ends up being a perfect replacement, at least physically. Stock harness connectors attach exactly like they do for the stock sub.
Hopefully it will be noticeably better once fully broken in. Either way, I have a JL JX250/1 ready to go as soon as I purchase a proper wiring kit. Will update again once I have that wired in. Also, if someone happens to know what to use as a remote wire (so it powers on with the rest of the sound system) that would be great.
12-23-2013, 10:17 PM
