FINALLY I FOUND SUB-WOOFERS THAT FIT AND ROCK!!!! in addition to the Clarion deck.

First of all this is for ppl who enjoy listening to music as well as the Ferrari engine, all purist zip it

As most of you know from reading endless threads on sound systems and sub-woofers upgrade the stereo in the 360/430 was OK but not great, even with the incredible Bose system the bass was pathetic at best.

First thing I will talk about is the Clarion NZ503 head-unit with flip up touch screen, I fully understand and agree why Ferrari chose this unit all above other models as it's the best. It is a bit pricey with wiring harness and face plate but you do get Ferrari script on deck unit as well as logo on screen. You can cheap out on other things but don't cheap out on this

There has been a few topics on this so let me clarify a few things:

I have owned many stereos in my life and tried many flip up with GPS, bluetooth etc... by leaps and bounds the Clarion is the best by far. Not only in functionality, or sound quality or even durability but it has the best Sat Nav you can get for any car. The Sat nav is unbelievably accurate, so much so that it becomes my third eye when I'm driving quick winding roads, it's saved my a## in many occasions. It streams beautifully and has outstanding detail of terrain, this alone is worth buying the Clarion, but there's more.

Someone said it doesn't have an EQ, this is false, it has pre set EQ or you can adjust accordingly, not that you need to as the sound quality is excellent from this unit, unlike many I have tried before including Alpine, Kenwood, Pioneer.

Ease of use is excellent, the touch screen is brilliant and can be customized to suit your specific needs. It has every single hook up you could possibly imagine in case you want to add reverse camera, additional monitors, 3 extra amps, additional mic, adjustable tilt screen, Pandora, sirrius XM, Ipod interface, USB list goes on and on.

Esthetic's is quite pleasing to look at, some ppl said they don't like that it jets out so far, honestly it's not that bad when you pair it with the 430 face plate made specifically for this unit.

I own 2 of these decks, one in my Lambo I bought almost 2 yrs ago and couldn't be happier, I was going to put one in the Ferrari anyways so I was so delighted when Ferrari picked this as their deck of choice to use.

I bought the head-unit along with face plate and VERY IMPORTANT wiring harness for the 430 from Boardwalk Ferrari in TX Boardwalk Ferrari Plano, TX | New Ferrari Dealership | Near Dallas, Fort Worth & Houston ask for Sara she will hook you up. The wiring harness made hook up an absolute breeze, even if your car has the upgraded Bose sound system it will work perfectly with this unit, it is almost plug and play.

Here are a few pics, now keep in mind I`m using a flash so it makes it look more intrusive than it actually is, with all the black bezel around the vents it actually looks like a very good match.
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I will do in depth review on the subs tomorrow night, as I just tried twice but had my computer shut off or crash just as I was about to send

 

YES I did smart a s s



This car is practically new in condition, including my plastic carpets

 

Third times the charm I guess.

I will start with a bit of back ground, I have been an audio geek all my life one way or another, probably why I still own a successful nightclub . I have had many audio show cars in the past, so when it comes to proper sounding vehicles I can lead you in the right direction.

First things first I will answer some questions and debunk some myths about proper BASS and sub enclosures in cars. There is really only 3 types of subs you can get for a car that are anything worth buying.

1-Powered sub box, to get any decent BASS response the box size will be quite big, for all intent and purpose to fit in a 430 you need relatively small enclosure, they sound OK and add depth but they are not earth shattering, you get what you pay for.

2-Ported non powered sub box enclosure, these are usually bigger in size as they need the cubic space to create the low end sound vis a port. They are good as in creating really deep BASS but you give up on quality as most suffer from free flow wows, these units are usually the ones in your neighbors kids Civic booming down the road with horrible horrible BASS.

3-Sealed non powered sub enclosure, these can operate in half the space of a ported unit but need more power to run efficiently. Up side is you get the best sounding BASS (imo) that tight velvet hammer THUMP that hits you n the back of the neck and snaps it off

If you are leaning toward a powered sub woofer that will easily fit in your 360/430 these are my recommendations.

Kenwood KSC-SW11 $250 I would recommend 2
Kenwood KSC-SW11 Compact powered subwoofer at Crutchfield.com
I have one of these to fill the BASS in my Lambo, it does an OK job adding bottom end but nothing fantastic.

Blaupunkt Blue Magic XLf 200 A 300-Watt 8-Inch Low Profile $210 again you will need 2
Amazon.com: Blaupunkt Blue Magic XLf 200 A 300-Watt 8-Inch Low Profile Active Subwoofer System: Car Electronics
I have not had personal experience with this unit but reviews from different sources are decent, again you get what you pay for.

Rockville RW8CA 8" $120 again you will need 2
Rockville RW8CA 8" 600 Watt LOW Profile Under Seat Active Powered CAR Subwoofer | eBay
I have no personal experience with this model but again reviews are good on it

Lets be clear, if you want HUGE BASS then get a custom enclosure done with 2 10" woofers/drivers that is the best sounding by far. But if you like to do the work and install yourself and have excellent BASS then read on as this is for you.

I LIKE BOTTOM VERY VERY TOIGHT LIKE A TIGER BOTTOM END that is
So for me the sealed unit was the only choice, but space is at a premium inside a Ferrari especially with the BOSE speaker system which gives you 4 speakers behind the seat taking up a bit of room. In my search for a subwoofer I had 3 criteria to meet, one it must sound good, two it must look as close to stock as possible without me doing any modifications, three it had to fit in a tiny space behind the seats.
These were my dimensions I had to work with, 9.5" high by 7"deep by 16"wide, this was almost an impossible task to find decent sub to fit in that space, I was positive I would never find on and was leaning toward the powered subwoofer, but all my hard effort and searching the web for days on end I found these. They are from Kicker a very reputable audio BASS company in US.

Kicker 40TCWRT84 4ohm 8" sealed units, $230 you will need 2 for sure and an amplifier of decent quality $550, so for just over A $1000 with tax's, yes more expensive but worth it trust me.
Kicker 40TCWRT84 Sealed truck enclosure with one 8" CompRT subwoofer at Crutchfield.com
If you do your homework you will notice there are 2 types of these speakers, a 2ohm and a 4ohm. I recommend getting the 4ohm as you will need a pair running them parallel making them 2ohm anyways, so you can use a 2ohm or 4ohm amp. A 2ohm amp runs more efficiently, a 4ohm has to work a little harder thats all.
Here is specs on the Kickers
•sealed enclosure with one 8" CompRT subwoofer
•3/4" medium-density fiberboard construction covered with carpet
•4-ohm total impedance
•power handling: 100-400 watts RMS (800 watts peak power)
•frequency response: 30-500 Hz
•sensitivity: 86 dB
•9-1/8"W x 16-1/4"H x 5-3/8"D1 x 4-1/2"D2 - LOOK AT THE DIMENSIONS THEY ARE A PERFECT FIT
•warranty: 1 year
•60-day money-back guarantee


When buying an amp please make sure you match the performance of the speaker.
These run 100-300RMS, do not get this confused with Peak handling power. This is where most ppl make mistakes by getting either to low or way to high wattage for the speaker creating basically mid range. RMS means what the subwoofer needs constantly to operate most efficiently, so you look for an amp that has 200-300RMS this is where the amp is comfortable at running smooth all day long. The Kickers peak power is 800watts, this is the thresh-hold of what it can handle at full power and peaks, anything beyond that and destruction will likely occur. Some ppl will say to get an amp slightly above peak power say 1000 watts, I disagree as you do not need it, when you reach the handling capacity of the speaker you also reach the sound quality and distortion occurs. Get something evenly matched and a decent amp don't cheap out on it.

I chose this little monster the SOUNDSTREAM RFM700.1D REFERENCE SERIES MONO BLOCK MICRO AMPLIFIER it runs 300-400RMS all day long and has peak output of 700watts at 2 ohm. , $500 comes with built in crossover which makes it easy to adjust to your type of music style, as well as a remote BASS volume adjust which I use constantly as sometimes you want BASS other times you don't.
Soundstream RFM700 1D Reference Series Mono Block Micro Amplifier CAR Audio AMP | eBay
It is a very small unit fits behind the lower part of the passenger seat.

Please make sure you use proper wire guage, some ppl use way to small power and ground wire causing it to choke. Think of the amp as an athlete and the wire guage as it's oxygen, the bigger the better to breath with and run efficiently. You can buy wire harnesses anywhere.

OK it was finally time to hook these bad boys up, they fit behind the upper portion like a glove, perfect fit and size These are wedge shaped so you can install them 2 ways in your Ferrari, either with script to the middle of visa versa with wire leads to the middle in that case you will see the speaker wire but it looks industrial cool.

Again these subs are not earth shattering but instead deliver rich low bottom end way better than any powered unit you could buy. It's not deep deep BASS but rather tight thumping BASS as it should be heard.

My first impression was WOW!!! you have to drive these guys a little hard to get the response you need, but once you figure out the sweet spot they sound great. It is more than ample BASS for me, it shakes the chair and rattles my ribs sounds tight and complements all types of music but especially Rock or Jazz or Alternative.

OK enough talk here are some pics showing the different positions in the car, and showing them behind the seat with amp so you can see the room there is to spare.
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I'm 6'1" I have the seats all the way back as shown with room to spare

 

I'm sure most of you know already how to DIY a stereo and amp, but for those who are a little overwhelmed of the task this should help.

Because the 430 (and I'm assuming 360) has direct + battery supply behind drivers seat the powering up of the amp is a breeze. As I mentioned above use a good heavy gage wire usually 10 gage but 8 can suffice, negative lead should be the same. SEE PIC #1

The only wires you really need to run from the head unit to the amp is the RCA leads from the sub-out on back of the head-unit, and the blue/white wire that is the amp trigger, give yourself at least 7ft of wire and work it through the center console. You will have to take some of it apart but just enough so you can run wires underneath.

Of course always think ahead, meaning if you want to hook up rear reverse camera you will need to run another RCA cable, as well as the purple reverse wire and the green hand brake wire so you can watch movies on the head-unit.
(there is a way to cheat this step so you do not hook it up to handbrake, that way you can watch movies all the time, PM me if you need the info)
The last thing is figure out where you want the sub-woofer volume control that comes with most amps, I put mine right beside where the seatbelt clips into using double sided tape, it works great and is easily accessible so you don't have to take your eyes off the road.

The Kicker sub box's are even easier to install, take your time run and hide all the wires properly,tuck all wires underneath where the sub will eventually sit, take your time and you won't see a thing sticking out when your done. Kicker includes 4 small straight brackets with the speakers, these are useless but with a little ingenuity (bend them in a vice with a hammer lol) you can make them very useful indeed.
SEE PICS # 2,3,4

The sub box install works especially slick if you have the Bose back speakers as you can use already existing bolts to your advantage.
SEE REMAINDER OF PICS

Hope this helps some of you in making a decision and taking on the project for yourself

Ciao.
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Thank you Sara, you were a delight to deal with, made it very easy to purchase and your input to figuring out my wiring solution was very commendable .

Cheers