Range Rover Sport and new car audio with hidden subwoofer in the trunk
First of all, of course, we are talking about Land Rover, but, you know, writing this whole long chain of words Land Rover Range Rover Sport is too long and confusing (which is not like the English, actually). Therefore, I will write here in abbreviated form. Moreover, the owner of the car, who came to us for modification, also ordered a shortened audio system. What exactly I consider a shortened audio system and why it is bad, you will find out by reading this article to the end.
The fact that the factory sound is not pleasing is already clear to many. Not everyone needs to fix it – for some, the background noise at minimum radio volume is enough. But for those who want to listen to music louder and so that it touches the soul – the standard sound needs to be changed!
A good change of the standard music costs from $3000. In war conditions (and we did this project in the fall of 2022 literally under fire from Russian missiles) there is no time for whims, many save and it is good that people generally find the strength and time, desire and money for such non-military pleasures. But without them, these pleasures, sometimes it is impossible to survive, much less win. Why am I saying this – because we, of course, implemented this project on a minimal budget.
What we suggested that could improve the standard sound in the Range Rover Sport as much as possible:
- Acoustics. Complete replacement of the front acoustics. In this car, a three-way system is supposed to be in front, that is, there will be six speakers at once in front. The midbass and tweeter were recommended by Focal PS165FE (one of our favorites). The midrange speakers chose Ground Zero GZUM80SQ. All six new speakers are powered by the standard amplifier.
- Subwoofer. Without it, you will never get a rich sound with full frequency amplitude. No drums or guitar – without a subwoofer there will be no music, but continuous strumming. The subwoofer in this project is also Focal P25FSE (this is a flat model, we almost always use this low-frequency speaker). And the placement of the subwoofer this time is our pride (this is getting ahead of ourselves)
- Amplifier. We chose the Alpine S-A60M for its compactness, reasonable price and elementary availability (in war conditions, availability is one of the main pains in our business).
- Soundproofing of doors.
Here is such a short list, but the main thing here is a completely hidden installation, outwardly unrecognizable, but with a decent result.
First of all, we dismantled the doors, soundproofed them with Ukrainian Acoustics soundproofing materials and started making podiums for the new speakers.
Speakers for Range Rover Sport
We want to start from the funniest thing) We took apart the front doors and saw this Mickey Mouse))
We thought it was a Land Rover innovation, but it turned out to be:
It turned out that this is a regular plug so that it is not visible from the interior that there is no speaker. The downside is that the factory was stingy with a couple of speakers. The upside is that it would be a sin to pay for such a speaker, so we better deal with it! And we dealt with it beautifully – the middle speaker from Ground Zero stood up like a native, and sang better (assuming that there was a factory middle speaker).
We’ve sorted out the midrange speakers, next up are the tweeters. We install them, of course, in their regular place. Externally, it looks like it was always that way.
On the left is the factory tweeter, on the right is the Focal tweeter.
For the midbass we made podiums – there are no ready-made ones for this machine. Our podiums turned out good:
And looking at the massive Focal midbass magnet, you understand that a dense podium is absolutely necessary!
Traditionally flimsy factory speakers:
And traditionally our competent replacement:
And now the most interesting thing! We have long wanted to do it like in this car but not every car can withstand it)
Processor with amplifier for Range Rover Sport
But first things first. First of all, we placed the amplifier. After disassembling the trunk, we saw the following:
To securely mount the Alpine amplifier, we have made a bracket:
Subwoofer for Range Rover Sport
Now about the subwoofer. We used our favorite, time-tested design with a flat subwoofer in a compact case. We usually put this case on the floor of the trunk – it does not take up much space. But this time we took a bold decision – and decided to install a Focal subwoofer in a case right in the wing of the trunk of the Range Rover Sport.
We found three mounting points for the body in the wing and considered this sufficient.
A final look at the equipment that will disappear under the panels in a few minutes and the installation in the trunk will be completely hidden.
And now about what I promised at the beginning. The result was good, as always. But if you noticed, we almost always use an audio processor in our projects. Without a processor, it is difficult to achieve harmonious sound. It will be loud, bright, juicy, but out of sync. That is what happened here. The acoustics of the Range Rover Sport interior are terrible – the sound is too localized on the left (after all, three speakers on the left are capable of pulling all the frequencies onto themselves and drowning out everything that sounds on the right), this creates a certain discomfort for the driver and nothing can be done about it. Without a processor. Therefore, we are waiting for this car for the next stage of music improvement.
And video about the same project for Range Rover Velar
