Mercedes SLK Roadster gets an ICE upgrade

[gunbir]

Hello my car crazy friends,

Here is a recent install from our collection and one of our favorites.
Check it out...

The car, the SLK200 roadster





The doors...







The car has a stock 3way speaker system, which was promptly upgraded of course. Note the stock speakers including the inverted midbass, midrange and tweeter in sail panel.







Close up of stock speakers, note the unique stock mounting ring used by Mercedes in this car.







The stock drivers were removed from the stock rings, though its not really easy to do so...





New drivers going in... HERTZ Space K8L 8" woofer, HL70 cone midrange, and HT25 tweeter.



The Space K8L weighs just 440g and employs an inverted neo magnet.





The midbass and midrange drivers are installed in the rings, and tweeters in the sail panels







Doors wired...



Continued...

[gunbir]

Continued from post #1

Car is stripped further...







More cabling





Cabling stuff





Speakers go on the doors





Crossovers go behind foot well firewall on passenger side.











Note fuel tank shield and electronics mounting plate in boot. Wiring for the amps installed behind plate and MDF board mounted on front of plate.







MDF board for amp mounting




Continued...

[aah78]

whats with the inverted mounting? need some enlightenment on that please!

doesn't it disturb the sound-stage?

[gunbir]

Continued from post #2

Preparing to build sub enclosure









HERTZ Hi Energy HX250 sub.





2x Audison LRx 2.4 amps are mounted



Remote level controller for the sub amp



Boot finished







Some post install interior pics











And some more exterior ones...






About the system:

HU: Stock HU
Front stage: HERTZ Space K8L 3way (custom) components
Front amp: Audison LRx 2.4 (130w x 2)
Sub: HERTZ Hi Energy HX250
Sub amp: Audison LRx 2.4 (460w x 1)
Cables etc: Connection Audison

The system is loud, dynamic and hits hard! The soundstage is high and wide. Definitely one of our favorite setups.

Enjoy!!

[Autophile]

Originally Posted by aah78

whats with the inverted mounting? need some enlightenment on that please!

doesn't it disturb the sound-stage?

If you see OEM speaker that was also mounted inverted. We had a driver which had similar mounting depth as OE midbass driver infact it was less. Hertz Space 8L.

The driver was mounted inverted by Mercedes and later on by us because there is no space behind the cut out for driver to sit normally because the magnet would have fouled with window lifter and glass.

The soundstange is not affected at all as it is a three way set up. Had it been a 2 Way setup then there would have been loss in upper midrange. In this case the midrange is taken care by Neo magnet HL70 midrange and Space 8L is doing midbass/bass duties.

The only thing is that Space 8L is wired out of phase (reverse polarity) to make it in-phase with tweeter / midrange and subwoofer.

[gunbir]

Some things I forgot to add...

The setup has been installed at Patel Auto by the very talented Mukul Patel. And the nappa leather that looks stock, isnt! It was also done by Mukul.

[nevertouchme]

Gunbir,

One amazing car with an excellent ICE now.

One quick question : Wont the warranty be void or some thing??

Cheers,
Jai...

[gunbir]

Originally Posted by nevertouchme

One quick question : Wont the warranty be void or some thing??

Not really, since Patel Auto is an Authorised Mercedes Benz Service workshop.

[nikkibike]

Thatz something rare!! Good going Gun da!!

[hellspawn]

i was there...i was there....
the ice in this car sounded awesome.....
aza and i had sat in the car and were astonished to find out that the punch that we had presumed to be from two 12" subs was actually from just one 10" sub.
the install was very neat and looked as good as the oe setup.
though didnt get a ride in the car

[hydrashok]

Great install, Gunbir & JB! I'm sure it sounds heavenly!

The OE Merc 3-way system did not have a crossover?

Is the OE HU a Becker? Was that why you folks didn't change it? Or the customer didn't want a change?

And how much does that sub-level controller cost?

[hydrashok]

Couple more Qs {I was on my PPC earlier, so couldn't see the pics that well or write particularly well}

Any particular reason why the Space midbass was used? I'm asking because the midrange & tweeter and the XO are HE ones. And it looks like there is enough space for the HE midbass's magnet. There wasn't enough space?

And didn't the car need any damping?

[manikjeet]

i am wondering what will happen if the car has a flat and the repair center is far away

how do you plan to ride on a flat tyre or it has run flat tyres

[gunbir]

Originally Posted by manikjeet

i am wondering what will happen if the car has a flat and the repair center is far away

how do you plan to ride on a flat tyre or it has run flat tyres

This car cannot accommodate a full sized spare wheel in the spare wheel well. The spare wheel well can only take a space saver spare wheel. The reason a single 10" sub was used in the boot was because the customer keeps a full size spare wheel in the boot. It sits vertically in front of the sub. We ensured the wheel still fits in there with the ICE. Will post a pic later.

[navin]

Gunbir, you really ought to put a grill on that sub since a wheel will be sitting so close to it. While removing the wheel the sub could get damaged.