Replacing the stock sound of the 2021 Porsche Cayenne Coupe S with a processor audio system is a story about trust

Each car where we improve the sound has a story associated with it. The story of this car is unique – the owner was initially so categorically against significant changes in sound that he only agreed to audio preparation of the doors and replacement of the standard speakers at the front. And that’s it! And he agreed to such changes only because his previous car had already been done in our studio, here is an article about it. This position was connected with great concerns about the factory warranty on the car. The question “What will the officials say when they see that there was interference with the car” was simply in the air.

But in the end, when the car was already completely disassembled and the idea was born of how to make a completely hidden installation of a new audio system, including a subwoofer – the owner calmed down and trusted us completely. Trust is the key factor!

From a professional point of view, this project was important for us for two reasons – we really wanted to work in the new Porsche (we disassembled such a car for the first time, we looked for places for the processor, amplifier, subwoofer, and this is always creative). And in this project, we worked with the Helix processor for the first time – and this is a new unfamiliar program, with its own features and nuances. In general, it was very interesting!

The composition of the new audio system was chosen to be classic – three-band front + subwoofer. The final configuration is as follows:

1. The sound source is a factory radio (at this stage, so far, but there is another stage to improve the signal ahead). The HELIX V EIGHT DSP processor works with the signal in this system – it is both a processor and an eight-channel amplifier. This device allows you to work with the signal qualitatively, as well as implement a full per-channel connection. We are always for per-channel, because this configuration gives us vast possibilities for adjusting the sound.
2. The front speakers are three-component Focal P 165 F3E acoustics (all speakers were installed in standard places without altering the car). The factory speakers were left in the rear, but they were connected to an amplifier (why this was done – read below). All four doors were qualitatively prepared and soundproofed.
3. The subwoofer link is a subwoofer speaker Focal P 25FSE Shallow and an amplifier GroundZero Mini Two. We made the case ourselves and hid it (read below where).

Once again, I would like to emphasize that after our installation, not a single Porsche was damaged and after us, the car inside looks exactly the same as before us:

So, let’s go:

I’ll start with a short review of the standard equipment. The basic factory sound of the Porsche Cayenne is a sad picture (as in all factory audio systems) – cheap cardboard speakers, almost weightless, with a child’s magnet (they can’t produce bass in principle). In front there is a 20 cm midbass in the doors, there is also a midrange speaker, and a tweeter in the dashboard. In the rear doors there are 16 cm midbass speakers.

Pay attention to the questionable decision of Porsche, when for the sake of design they neglected the sound – in the front doors about a third of the mid-bass diffuser is blocked by a plastic plug, which is not good for the sound at all (the transition from 20 cm to 16 cm will allow us to almost completely correct this misunderstanding):

Here’s a little about how to make a standard speaker (in this case, the midrange speaker from the Focal P 165 F3E kit) identical to the factory one in terms of form factor, so that it can be installed without any modifications. To transform a universal speaker into a speaker specifically for Porsche, we used the CARAV 14-026 spacer ring. And if you look closely, you’ll see that this ring is actually for BMW! Something tells me that the standard BMW and Porsche sound is stamped out by speakers at the same Chinese plant using the same matrices and, possibly, one order…

As for the factory soundproofing, it is as usual – bare metal with small pieces of soundproofing and felt on the door panels.

High-quality audio preparation of doors in three layers was carried out for all four doors using Acoustics materials

At the stage of replacing the midbass speakers in the front doors, we had to tinker a little. To integrate the new midbass speaker from the Focal P 165 F3E kit (its size is 16 cm) into the standard place of the Porsche (size 20 cm), we will use spacers-adapters from 20 cm to 16 cm – spacer rings CARAV 14-034. We usually use these rings when replacing acoustics in VAG group cars. Trying on showed that we can also use these spacers in Porsche. But to achieve the ideal fit of the midbass speakers, we connected the standard mesh ring and CARAV. Here’s what we got:

We were pleased with the result:

The tweeter is located in the dashboard under the glass, a great place, we were completely satisfied – we will correct most of the shortcomings of the standard location by adjusting the processor.

Focal tweeter in a standard place in the Porsche Cayenne dashboard, the tops will sing and sparkle!

Look at the beauty that is responsible for the midrange frequencies – for the soulful vocals, for the perky guitar strings, for the gentle notes of the piano, and in general, without the middle frequencies – sadness/grief… But not in our case)

We will install them under the standard grid:

For the middle, we ended up using two spacer rings – we needed the landing height and the required diameter of the hole in the spacer. Therefore, we got a sandwich of CARAV 14-026 and a self-made plastic spacer:

Well, well. We move to the trunk – it is in the back that both amplifiers (one of them with a processor) and a subwoofer are located. The most difficult and most creative thing in this project is the placement of the amplifiers. Everything had to be hidden so that no one would guess that they were there. This was the main condition of the Porsche Cayenne owner.

Let’s go disassemble the car!

And as a result, having made the necessary fasteners for our devices, we got this picture:

We send all eight channels of the process to the full channel distribution – six channels in front to the Focal speakers and two channels in the back to the standard midbass speakers.

So, the most important link in any audio system is the subwoofer. Without low deep frequencies, you will never get an honest sound picture. We chose the Focal subwoofer for the Porsche Cayenne for its mounting dimensions (the depth is only about 7 cm) and for its beautiful bass. As soon as we heard what this speaker is capable of in one of the cars we made before (it was a Ford Edge), we knew for sure that the Porsche would have the Focal P25FSE.

The task was to place the case with the subwoofer under a false panel in the trunk.

We made the case ourselves, having ordered MDF blanks in advance.

A short video of how the subwoofer enclosure is hidden in the trunk of a 2021 Porsche Cayenne

The final appearance of the trunk after installing the subwoofer (that’s right – there is no subwoofer, but when you listen to music – you understand that there is a subwoofer, there is!)

The car was returned exactly the same as it was taken. This is if we are talking about the exterior appearance of the interior. Are we happy with the sound? Very much so! We managed to get a harmonious system on a small budget. The sound turned out to be better than in the owner’s previous car, a Porsche. And most importantly, the client’s decision to trust us completely and decide at the last moment on a full-fledged processor audio system was the right decision! Half measures with a car like this Porsche Cayenne Coupe S are pointless.

I’ll add just a few words about the most important part of any project with a processor audio system – about the setup. The processor setup is exactly what you need to have great sound in your car. No matter what components are installed, no matter how clean the signal is, no matter how correct the speaker placement is in the system – a poorly configured processor will ruin all previous efforts.

You are probably wondering what the budget was? Perhaps you also need to install high-quality sound in your car? Yes? Then call – (066) 607-45-19 or (068) 359-71-76