The problem with choosing enhancements (that is, mods) for top-drawer sports cars is that there can be a tendency to go a little overboard. Get it right and the results can be stunning – just look at the Ferraris from Novitec Rosso and the Porsches from TechArt. But get it wrong and your sports car could end up looking very beng.
It’s a similar story for ICE mods in such cars. You want to build on the stock sound system’s merits, but you also don’t want to smother the original’s personality. In addition to that, some schools of thought are of the notion that making an aftermarket audio setup look as close to the original as possible is the best way to go.
Making it look vulgar is quite at odds with the classy nature of such cars, something that the owner of this Porsche 911 Carrera 4S clearly agrees with. He approached Soundwerkz Autosound with just one guideline: Make it sound good, but make it look as close to stock as possible.
And it’s something the in-car audio specialist based in Sin Ming has accomplished most emphatically. Just stepping into the car’s cabin (that’s positively dripping with carbon fibre trim), you’d be hard-pressed to tell this 911’s sound system has been given the aftermarket treatment. But fire it up, and it becomes clear that considerable time, effort and money have been invested in making this Porsche’s audio system sound as good as it does.
While the ICE upgrade might not be visually apparent, look just beyond the surface and you’ll find a number of ICE mods (all expertly installed for maximum concealment) that give this 911 its crystal-clear highs, punchy midrange and creamy bass.
Contributing to said midrange is a set of Micro Precision 7 Series speakers, cunningly hidden under the original door-speaker grilles. These German-made units claim to offer natural, “colour-free” midrange, and from our “front row seat”, we find it difficult to disagree.
Providing the aforementioned bass is a Gladen SQX 08 subwoofer that’s so “quietly” tucked away, you’d swear the sound system is achieving its cabin-filling bassy warmth without the additional “help”. You could attempt to look for the subwoofer – that is, if you don’t mind undoing Soundwerkz Autosound’s hard work, to say nothing of earning the ire of this car’s owner.
Of course, the speakers and woofer are nothing without the digital signal processor (DSP), the “black box” keeping all that sounding good together. In this 911’s case, that’s provided for by a Mosconi 4to6 DSP, which allows users to make tweaks either via the on-unit interface, or by using an app on a laptop or tablet.
The next link in the chain is a pair of amplifiers also from Mosconi – specifically the 100.4 and 100.2 models. The Italian duo are housed in the boot (it’s a Porsche 911, so that means underneath its bonnet), where you’ll find the most overt sign of this coupe’s non-standard ICE system. The overtness we’re talking about is how the amplifiers sit in a custom enclosure emblazoned with the Porsche crest.
But to us, the best part about this 911’s sound system is how ordinary everything looks. To the casual observer, it’ll hardly raise any eyebrows. However, the reality is quite different, and even on the briefest of listens, this Porsche’s ICE system is anything but standard. In fact, it’s quite exceptional.
THE LIST
HEAD UNIT
Porsche sound system
PROCESSOR
Mosconi DSP 4to6
SPEAKERS
Micro Precision 7 Series (2-way)
SUBWOOFER
Gladen SQX 08
AMPLIFIERS
Mosconi AS 100.4
Mosconi AS100.2
