Model 3 factory subwoofer enclosure, volume, port tuning, adapters etc

[RWAudio]

This is specific to the 1079747-99-B factory subwoofer enclosure, but other versions are likely very close.
Internal volume 0.76 cubic feet (21.5L), port diameter 2.36" (60mm) port length 7.2" (183mm) (typically measured to the middle of the radiused portion) this reverse calculates to about 42Hz tuning frequency.

The commonly recommended Alpine S-W8D4 is pretty close in both volume and tuning. This is a solid choice with average efficiency. The enclosure would be too large for use sealed.

Assuming a minimum 10mm thick adapter the maximum woofer depth is 4.5" (114mm) for thicker plates increase the maximum depth accordingly. This is for roughly a 5" diameter magnet assembly or smaller similar to the Alpine mentioned above.

I'll add further info as I test more woofers.
First on the list for me is the Kicker L7T8

 

[RWAudio]

I plan to slowly upgrade the stereo in the RWD to evaluate each change. Up next is to install a factory subwoofer enclosure, (I'll try the factory sub but it won't stay in long) first up is a kicker L7T8 which will work both sealed and ported in the factory enclosure. I designed a TPU port plug to easily (and easily reversible) plug the port.

I'll have to evaluate if this setup sticks out too far for use with the factory amp (there is a dual 4 ohm version of this sub) but I plan to power it with a solid 350w from an aftermarket amp. I'll update impressions when I get the amp/sub installed.

 

[osunick]

Nice use of the heatserts.

 

[lemkeant]

I'm curious, how'd the sub upgrade go? Did it fit? How's the sound?

 

[Rohhee]

Watching this thread!

 

[RWAudio]

I'm curious, how'd the sub upgrade go? Did it fit? How's the sound?

I was out of town for a bit, have the amp on order (Kicker Key 500.1), I'm going to modify a Hansshow harness to grab the door mid signal to run the amp and put together a power harness that runs to the penthouse 12v terminals. I'll be designing and printing a bracket for the amp that bolts to the enclosure like the original did.

I'll post more info as I put this together.

 

[Blake McBride]

Nice work; any concern with the heatserts working loose under the vibration combined with compression of the air?

 

[RWAudio]

Nice work; any concern with the heatserts working loose under the vibration combined with compression of the air?

Not at all, the version I use is fairly aggressive, and in ABS the part will break/deform before it pulls out.

 

[RWAudio]

I got everything installed, it's a pretty good amount of bass for a single 8"!!! I have some tuning to do, as well as try ported vs sealed.

I actually rotated the amp so the controls were accessible vs the power/speaker connections making adjustments easier. I'll follow up with impressions in a week or so once I've lived with it for a bit, with the enclosure sealed (port plugged) it goes very low for an 8".

 

[Gaskrank]

So clean! Love the amplifier-bracket.

 

[Daniel Ruiz]

This is just awesome R&D - so glad to see it! And the current draw with that Kicker shouldn't be too bad to cause any of the terror-inducing electrical issues from higher-power amps?

 

[lemkeant]

Great job! It looks amazing. I'm very curious as to your results? With and without the amp.

I do have a mic to measure my home theater, so if I were able to go this way, I'd plan to try and provide before and after measurements.

Any chance you could share the bracket prints? If you're in Canada, shipping would probably be unreasonable to the US

 

[RWAudio]

This is just awesome R&D - so glad to see it! And the current draw with that Kicker shouldn't be too bad to cause any of the terror-inducing electrical issues from higher-power amps?

That's what I'm hoping, so far so good, no errors yet. I'm tempted to take it to the next step which would be a DSP Amp, like the Helix V Eight DSP. This would remove most of the load from the factory amp and add it back with a pretty efficient amp/dsp combo.

 

[RWAudio]

Great job! It looks amazing. I'm very curious as to your results? With and without the amp.

I do have a mic to measure my home theater, so if I were able to go this way, I'd plan to try and provide before and after measurements.

Any chance you could share the bracket prints? If you're in Canada, shipping would probably be unreasonable to the US

I'm looking at the best way to do this. I can't offer anything for sale, it's against forum rules, I've inquired about the cost to become a vendor account. I may provide the STL's or may offer prints in the future, but nothing today. The crappy part about providing the STL's is inevitably people will print these and offer them for sale, other than the obvious of making money off of someone else's design the biggest problem with this is the quality of print. If you printed this with ABS on a generic printer and the quality will be poor. I can dial in the CAD and the Slicer to my printers and filament so that I get accurate, quality results. (Bambu X1 Carbons)

I'm looking to get a setup for taking measurements, RTA and SPL of the various configurations and how they compare to stock. I've removed the port plug on the kicker and it came alive, it doesn't go as low, but the output is really nice for a single 8".

 

[Daniel Ruiz]

That's what I'm hoping, so far so good, no errors yet. I'm tempted to take it to the next step which would be a DSP Amp, like the Helix V Eight DSP. This would remove most of the load from the factory amp and add it back with a pretty efficient amp/dsp combo.

Damn... Looks like that Helix V Eight DSP is discontinued. Helix's sister brand has something similar, the Match UP 8DSP which has similar power but could be slightly lower power demands (fused for 50A, 25Ax2 whereas the Helix was 60A, 30Ax2). The channels might line up better too - the Helix is 75w x 8 channels @ 4ohm (or 120w x 8 @ 2ohm), while the Match is 65w x 6 @ 4ohm + 160w x 2 @ 2ohm - wire one each of those sub channels to each coil of a DVC 2ohm sub and 320w total to a little 8" would pound pretty well... and I'd hazard a guess at what people would want to send those 6 individual 65w channels to - maybe to the 8" door mids, to the sail tweeters, and two of the dash midrangers (leaving off the middle one)?

I have a JL Audio VX1000/5i from my old system (ran it active to a set of old-school Orion HCCA 2ohm comps, which were just re-branded glorious a/d/s 3 series comps at a lower impedance and the sub channel to an oldie OZ Audio 10") but I'm terrified about using it with all the horror stores of errors in these M3 as it's fused for up to 80A draw.

 

[RWAudio]

Damn... Looks like that Helix V Eight DSP is discontinued. Helix's sister brand has something similar, the Match UP 8DSP which has similar power but could be slightly lower power demands (fused for 50A, 25Ax2 whereas the Helix was 60A, 30Ax2). The channels might line up better too - the Helix is 75w x 8 channels @ 4ohm (or 120w x 8 @ 2ohm), while the Match is 65w x 6 @ 4ohm + 160w x 2 @ 2ohm - wire one each of those sub channels to each coil of a DVC 2ohm sub and 320w total to a little 8" would pound pretty well... and I'd hazard a guess at what people would want to send those 6 individual 65w channels to - maybe to the 8" door mids, to the sail tweeters, and two of the dash midrangers (leaving off the middle one)?

I have a JL Audio VX1000/5i from my old system (ran it active to a set of old-school Orion HCCA 2ohm comps, which were just re-branded glorious a/d/s 3 series comps at a lower impedance and the sub channel to an oldie OZ Audio 10") but I'm terrified about using it with all the horror stores of errors in these M3 as it's fused for up to 80A draw.

There's actually a V Eight DSP MK2, mostly the same specs as the original. There's also an UP 10DSP with two higher power channels that would be great for either a dvc sub or the door woofers. Match also has a harness for the 3/Y Ryzen base system which would make this all plug and play, I've requested more info about what speakers it runs, can you add a sub etc. Match harness

I miss my old A/D/S powerplate amps! However I don't miss the size, some of these new Match and Helix DSP amps are unbelievably small.

 

[Daniel Ruiz]

So I reached out to Audiotech-Fischer and their email response was "The harness will plug in at the factory amplifier location. Your Tesla must be equipped with the Ryzen chip set and NOT have premium audio package. If it your Tesla meets those requirements it will retain all factory speakers via a Match UP10DSP and give you out puts for a subwoofer." I contacted one of the distributors down here in South Florida, who didn't have any information at all to add to the above but did advise me that I can order it from them, would take a week to arrive from Canada, and would be $175 plus any import duties.

I'm still curious what it means by "retain all factory speakers via a Match UP10DSP" - would it enable the tweeters in the sail panel? It looks like the sub connection is confirmed, so that's a definite positive. But I still want the damn sail panel tweeters enabled, and the EVOffer/Hansshow harnesses are pretty sketch compared to something put out by Audiotech-Fischer.

 

[RWAudio]

So I reached out to Audiotech-Fischer and their email response was "The harness will plug in at the factory amplifier location. Your Tesla must be equipped with the Ryzen chip set and NOT have premium audio package. If it your Tesla meets those requirements it will retain all factory speakers via a Match UP10DSP and give you out puts for a subwoofer." I contacted one of the distributors down here in South Florida, who didn't have any information at all to add to the above but did advise me that I can order it from them, would take a week to arrive from Canada, and would be $175 plus any import duties.

I'm still curious what it means by "retain all factory speakers via a Match UP10DSP" - would it enable the tweeters in the sail panel? It looks like the sub connection is confirmed, so that's a definite positive. But I still want the damn sail panel tweeters enabled, and the EVOffer/Hansshow harnesses are pretty sketch compared to something put out by Audiotech-Fischer.

This harness is what plugs into the Amp/DSP, when I asked for info I didn't get a solid answer as to if it activates the door tweeters or not. The harness is cheap enough, but the Match UP10DSP is not, I'm sure you could modify this harness for other uses, but be aware this is nothing like the EVOfter/Hansshow harness.

 

[lemkeant]

At this point it's been a few months. Any updates? Happy? Recommend it? Skip it?

 

[VirtualBrown]

I'm two feet in this rabbit hole with my RWD 3, got the Hansshow harness and added in a Tesla sub with an aftermarket amp. Went for a Rockford Fosgate R2-250X1 for the amp. But just doesn't feel like its where I want it yet so next step is driver upgrades. I've ordered the Alpine R2-W8D4 to slot in the Tesla sup enclosure and will design and 3D print my own bracket.

@RWAudio I don't suppose you'd mind sharing the measurements of the Tesla enclosure interface, maybe a screen shot of that sketch from your CAD? Would just save me a bit of time taking the car apart again to measure it myself.