Circuit's Protege5 Audio System Build

[Circuit]

Well I picked up my Protege5 this past Saturday after totaling my 2001 Eclipse GT. I was able to pull out most of my stereo stuff and some of it will be going into the P5.

Here is the long list of stuff that will be going in, followed by some quick questions.

I will use this thread to document my entire audio system build. Starting from scratch is always fun!

Head Unit
- Eclipse CD7100

Amps
- Eclipse XA4000 (125W RMS x 4 @ 4ohm)
- (2) Eclipse XA1000 (490W RMS x 1 @ 2ohm)

Front Speakers
- Polk Audio SR6500 (6.75" 125W RMS)

Rear Speakers
- Polk Audio DB651 (6.5" 65W RMS)

Subwoofers
- (2) Eclipse SW7000 (10" 450W RMS)

Auxiliary
- Eclipse iPC-106 iPod control
- Eclipse SIR-ECL1 Sirius Tuner

Battery
- Optima Red Top

Sound Deadening
- Lots of Dynamat and/or RAAMmat in doors, floor, and trunk
- Dynaliner on floor
- Dynaxorb behind all speakers

Wiring/Distribution
- 1/0 GA run from battery
- 4 GA power wire from fused dist. block to amps
- 4 GA ground wire from dist. block to amps
- 1/0 GA ground
- 1/0 GA Big 3 Upgrade
- Monster Cable 400 Series 4-Channel, Subwoofer, and Y-splitter RCA's
- Monster Cable 300 Series 4 and 2 conductor twisted speaker wire

Questions

My big dilemma is the front speakers. Polk's website says the SR6500's will not fit. They only come with 6.5" and 6x9 adapter rings. The SR5250's come with 5x7 adapter rings, even though I would probably make my own out of some MDF for a more solid mounting base. Here is the details of the SR6500: http://www.polkaudio.com/caraudio/products/sr6500/

Will the SR6500's fit with a new MDF adapter plate made or will I have to go with the SR5250??

Should I make MDF plates for the rear speakers too?

Damn, I guess that's all the questions I have for now.

Questions, answers, comments, concerns are all welcome! It look like my P5 is going to sound better than my Eclipse ever did hehe.

 

[meinp5]

subin.

 

[CTt3P5]

^^^x2

 

[1sty]

Well I picked up my Protege5 this past Saturday after totaling my 2001 Eclipse GT. I was able to pull out most of my stereo stuff and some of it will be going into the P5.

Here is the long list of stuff that will be going in, followed by some quick questions.

I will use this thread to document my entire audio system build. Starting from scratch is always fun!

Head Unit
- Eclipse CD7100

Amps
- Eclipse XA4000 (125W RMS x 4 @ 4ohm)
- (2) Eclipse XA1000 (490W RMS x 1 @ 2ohm)

Front Speakers
- Polk Audio SR6500 (6.75" 125W RMS) or SR5250 (5.25" 100W RMS)

Rear Speakers
- Polk Audio Momo MMC650 (6.5" 80W RMS) or MMC5250 (5.25" 70W RMS)

Subwoofers
- (2) Eclipse SW7000 (10" 450W RMS)

Auxiliary
- Eclipse iPC-106 iPod control
- Sirius Statmate4 (Possible switch to Eclipse Sirius Tuner)

Battery
- Optima Red Top

Sound Deadening
- Lots of Dynamat and/or RAAMmat in doors, floor, and trunk
- Dynaliner on floor
- Dynaxorb behind all speakers

Wiring/Distribution
- 1/0 GA run from battery
- 4 GA power wire from fused dist. block to amps
- 4 GA ground wire from dist. block to amps
- 1/0 GA ground
- 1/0 GA Big 3 Upgrade
- Monster Cable 400 Series 4-Channel, Subwoofer, and Y-splitter RCA's
- Monster Cable 300 Series 4 and 2 conductor twisted speaker wire

Questions

My big dilemma is the front speakers. Polk's website says the SR6500's will not fit. They only come with 6.5" and 6x9 adapter rings. The SR5250's come with 5x7 adapter rings, even though I would probably make my own out of some MDF for a more solid mounting base. Here is the details of the SR6500: http://www.polkaudio.com/caraudio/products/sr6500/

Will the SR6500's fit with a new MDF adapter plate made or will I have to go with the SR5250??

Should I make MDF plates for the rear speakers too?

Damn, I guess that's all the questions I have for now.

Questions, answers, comments, concerns are all welcome! It look like my P5 is going to sound better than my Eclipse ever did hehe.

if you EVER, I and I am SERIOUS, EVER play a piece of s*** IPOD through that system I am going to have to hunt you down and rescue your speakers. No reason having a kick ass system and using an ipod as the main source.

That said

They will fit and fit fine. The 5x7 hole is BIG. The SRs also come with a 3/4" worth of spaces (3 3/8" spaces per speaker) they will easily allow you to clear the factory opening. I installed many a pair of 6.5" components in my protege. I had JL audio 6.5" XR midbass in there at one point.

Use birtch plywood instead of MDF in the doors. MDF will turn to crap if it gets wet at all. YOu will probably still need to make a quick adapter to cover up the gaps of the 6.5" speakr in the door but it will definitly fit.

Dont trust crutchfield about fitment. They are very often wrong about head unit depth and even send the wrong install info about a car. For my 06 tundra they sent me a 2002-2004 door panel remove sheet.

I actualy just got my SR6500 in and am loving them.

 

[Circuit]

if you EVER, I and I am SERIOUS, EVER play a piece of s*** IPOD through that system I am going to have to hunt you down and rescue your speakers. No reason having a kick ass system and using an ipod as the main source.

That said

They will fit and fit fine. The 5x7 hole is BIG. The SRs also come with a 3/4" worth of spaces (3 3/8" spaces per speaker) they will easily allow you to clear the factory opening. I installed many a pair of 6.5" components in my protege. I had JL audio 6.5" XR midbass in there at one point.

Use birtch plywood instead of MDF in the doors. MDF will turn to crap if it gets wet at all. YOu will probably still need to make a quick adapter to cover up the gaps of the 6.5" speakr in the door but it will definitly fit.

Dont trust crutchfield about fitment. They are very often wrong about head unit depth and even send the wrong install info about a car. For my 06 tundra they sent me a 2002-2004 door panel remove sheet.

I actualy just got my SR6500 in and am loving them.

Haha yes I know the iPod is not the best source, but it does let me carry 80 gigs of music around. I try to encode everything at 320kbps so there is not too much quality loss.

(2thumbs) Thanks for the answer about the SR6500's. I can't wait to get everything in and get them broken in.

 

[1sty]

not much?
Thats still a 75% quality loss.
I cant take MP3 or AAC in any way.
Even when I listen to XM I keep it alot lower and mostly only listen to talk. Quality is dog crap.

 

[Circuit]

not much?
Thats still a 75% quality loss.
I cant take MP3 or AAC in any way.
Even when I listen to XM I keep it alot lower and mostly only listen to talk. Quality is dog crap.

Yeah most of the time my Sirius sounds like crap compared to my iPod. Anyways, I do have a nice collection of CD's that I keep in the car, but it's hard to keep 80 gigs of CD's around. I'll try to see how the apple lossless encoding sounds. Supposedly the new Alpine iPod only HU with the USB and lossless encoding sounds just as good as any CD. Thanks though. It's nice to see that there are more people on here that care about SQ than "beat" (which isn't the case on the Eclipse forum I post on; there are a couple, including myself, but not many).

 

[P5inMD]

not much?
Thats still a 75% quality loss.
I cant take MP3 or AAC in any way.
Even when I listen to XM I keep it alot lower and mostly only listen to talk. Quality is dog crap.

Opie and Anthony FTW!

 

[1sty]

Opie and Anthony FTW!

Bingo!

 

[1sty]

Yeah most of the time my Sirius sounds like crap compared to my iPod. Anyways, I do have a nice collection of CD's that I keep in the car, but it's hard to keep 80 gigs of CD's around. I'll try to see how the apple lossless encoding sounds. Supposedly the new Alpine iPod only HU with the USB and lossless encoding sounds just as good as any CD. Thanks though. It's nice to see that there are more people on here that care about SQ than "beat" (which isn't the case on the Eclipse forum I post on; there are a couple, including myself, but not many).

Yeah, I am mostly an SQ guy though I do have a Bass side.
I stick with 2CD cases. I would much rather have a portable or even installed hard drive to run off of that does do any conversion or compression

 

[FoxPro5]

I'm with 1sty....that iPod will not do your system justice. I'm no audiophile but the main problem here is the 'loudness war.' or the tendency to make modern music as loud as humanly f'ing possible! That said, you take a hot track and compress it even more and it WILL sound terrible, no impact, and all washed out.

I have several...ok about 40 GB of lossless material that's from Chesky, Sheffield and other very high quality recorded music and it sounds great. At the vary least rip with EAC to .WAV and then use the Apple Lossless Audio Codec in iTunes to do the compression. It's mathematically lossless and will not degrate the sound beyond extreme critical listening...never hear it in a car.

 

[Circuit]

Yeah I was able to notice the differences in bit rates in my Eclipse. I really need to try that Apple Lossless encoding. The one problem is, a lot of my music consists of mixes (electronic) that I have downloaded over the years and there is no way for me to get those on a higher bit rate.

 

[Mr.Ames]

i made my adapter plates out of stainless steel sheeting and a jig saw. put dynamat on it too. works great. last time i used mdf and it warped over time

 

[Circuit]

Thanks for the advice! Plywood or metal or ABS it is! I am going to sound deaden everywhere I can !

 

[chuyler1]

Don't use plywood. Instead use 1/2" or 3/4" MDF. You can find 2x4' sheets of it at any home improvement store. It is usually with the particle board and plywood.

 

[1sty]

I would prefer oak or birtch plywood.
I have a devine hatred toward MDF. That dust has clogged my noise up for the last time

 

[Circuit]

Definitely. I'm just going to use MDF for the subwoofer enclosure and possibly the amp rack.

 

[mazdaspeed777]

subbin

 

[Circuit]

Going to get my Big 3 and Red Top in today after work. 1/0 GA power wire and new battery terminals and a fused distribution block (for the alt. + and power wire for amps) are all going in as well. I will take pictures and hopefully get them up tonight or tomorrow! Let the mods begin! woot!

 

[Circuit]

Update: Getting my HU (CD7100) back from service this week and will get that along with the ipod adapter and sirius tuner in just so I have more sound options other than the radio and CD's.

Things I still need to purchase:
Polk SR6500's
Polk Momo MMC650's
Second Eclipse XA1000
4-Channel RCA's (Monster)
1/0 GA & 4 GA wire (debating on keeping everything Monster, or going cheaper with Tsunami)
RAAMmat (and/or Dynamat)