| CalifLove |
Hey folks,
Just wanted to share some info on my weekend project...
For the longest time I have HATED the stock sound. The components suck, the sub sucks, the rears suck...you get the point.
So over the past few months while trying to scrape together enough time to tackle this project, I started collecting the parts.
In my previous car I had 2 ID IDQ 15's run from a DEI 1100D amp w/ Diamond Audio Hex 6.5's up front run on a 98' RF Punch 400.4 amp.
I've grown a bit past the need to wreck my hearing with the bass but I do want some! ;)
Anyway, I went out and purchased the following:
1 JL 12W6 v2
2 sets DEI Studio 650s components
1 JL 500/1
1 JL 300/4
1 JL XA-PCS2-2 2JL (2 gauge amp wiring kit)
1 JL XA-PBTC-1/0 (0 gauge bat + distro)
1 PAC AOEM-NIS2
2 16' Radio Shack Gold series? RCA's (from old car...)
I know a lot has been said about 2awg being too big for all but the most intense setups, however based on my previous experience with my past car, I figured I would start off better this time around. Long story short, I ran about 15' of 4g in my previous car to run the RF and DEI amps - which total around 2000w peak and the power cable, would often get fairly warm - if not hot. I ended up running an additional 4g to solve that problem - which it did.
Back to the Mo - Besides the fact that 2gauge is a good idea for the wattage these JL amps are capable of delivering, I got the kit for a STEAL. 70 bucks on Ebay and it came with everything I needed!
I mounted the 300/4 amp under the passenger seat through the spare tire well, and mounted the 500/1 IN the spare tire. The amp actually fits perfectly in the rim right now, though at a later date I plan to create a little mounting plate out of MDF or something similar to mount the amp on just for aesthetics.
I ran power cable down driver’s side and RCA's down passenger side. I didn't get any hum running the RCA's with the power to the passenger components so did nothing strange there... Speaking of RCA's - I know a lot of people swear by Monster cable or other exotic brands of interconnects, however I've never had a problem with the "cheap" radio shack stuff and until I do I won't bother wasting $$$!
The rears play 102 Hz - 5 kHz and the mains play 90 Hz - 20 kHz while the sub plays 108 and down with the infrasonic filter set at 38 Hz
I mounted the front component woofers in the stock location, however to make them fit I came up with the idea of using the stock woofer mounting bracket w/o the stock woofer - this was a great way to take out some of the frustration the stock system had given me so I carefully "broke out" the woofer part of the assembly and smoothed out the insides. This allowed me to place my new speaker in the bracket and screw into the top "baffle" of the thing, I then simply used the stock screws to mount the bracket to its previous location. This works fairly well, however I would like to come up with a better scheme later on as the bottoms of the edge of the woofers hit the inside of the door panel just a bit when the panel is put back on. I fixed the rattle this cased by using some rubber butyl (?) compound but I dunno how long that will last.
The tweets are in the stock location as well, with the passive component xovers hidden up inside the dash.
I had a sealed box made to JL's spec for the W6 - 1.25cuft. The box is not huge, but it isn't small either. I currently have it sitting on the cargo tray matt in the back; however I would like some ideas on how to nicely tie it down so that should I flip the Mo over in an accident the sub doesn't knock me on my head.... I used Velcro strips in previous cars but I'm not so sure that’s a good idea in an SUV....
Anyway, on to the sound. Once everything was plugged in I tried to fire up the car aaaaaaaaand... no start. Stupid me, car bat is dead. Fast forward to after the jumpstart... fire her up, and viola, no sparks, hums or otherwise out of the ordinary noise. Good so far. I then run to grab my test tones CD so I can set the sensitivity of the amps. I did a rough setting based on a analog millimeter that is VERY old so I am not sure I'll need to do this again - Once the inputs were tuned to my rough gestimations of accuracy, I played a few cd's - WOW, what a difference. I was wearing a grin for a while - until I noticed the HUGE amount of dimming I was getting when the bass hit.
I partially did the "Big 3" upgrade, although I only did 1 part of it. I used some left over 2 gauge pwr cable and made a new negative run from the battery. I'm hopping a new Pos run and engine block ground run will help with the dimming, although I am certain I will need to pickup both a yellow top and a good sized cap. Again, while these amps are rated at about 500w & 300w respectively, in various sites they’ve been tested up to about 800w & 900w, which means those bad boys are capable of eating a good 130+ amps w/ music.
Anyway, I am very happy with the sound for now. I do know that some equalization is needed as the system seems a bit heavy in the 500-800hz range and I could use a little boost about 12-14k or so...at the end of a VERY long weekend, I am extremely happy with where the Mo is at sonically.
Overall, it took about 36 hours of time by myself to do the job. The only casualty of the project were several scrapped and cut up fingers and a broken trim peace on the driver side door handle panel (Wonder how much I'm going to get bent over for that one....)
I'll upload pics later as well.. I'm too tired to go downstairs and snap... |
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| GripperDon |
| Ading some acoustic dampning to the floor and door panels etc. to stiffen up things acoustically. Check out what Kris did nice pics. |
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| njjoe |
CalifLove-
WOW!! Nice job! What do you have in store for next weekend? New interior? Addition on the house?
-njjoe |
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| soxypoo |
just a lil something to ride around town :)  |
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