My Audio Install

[RyanJayG]

Part 1. the components

Front Sound Stage: Focal 165K2P speakers
---will be installed in a dynamatted door, stock location, sealed handmade fiberglass enclosure (probably as big as can be made to fit)

Rear Fill/Surround Channels: Old School (from the 80's) Pioneer 3.5" speakers TS-M871 (believe it or not these speakers are BAD TO THE BONE, made in Japan before Pioneer outsourced)
---will be installed in the rear 6x9 hole, to make room for the sub enclosures ports

Center Channel: Still undecided, based on how I can get creative enough to find a place to mount something

Subwoofer: JL Audio 12W6v2 (thanks 1sty!)
---will be installed in a custom ported box, vented through the rear deck, tuned quite low to prevent any peeky sub-bass. The enclosure will be sealed off from the rest of the trunk helping to prevent trunk rattle, and to deaden some road noise we all know comes from the trunk. dynamatted thoroughly in the enclosure area. The W6 will be firing into the rear seats, and only visable when I drop the rear seats.

Amplification: JL Audio 500/5
---will be instaled on the trunk side of the sub enclosure on a seperate baffle and sunken so no wires are visable. I will need to add another amp whenever I get around to figuring out the center channel (probably just a small amp, stealth installed)

Audio Source: Dell Latitude C610 (heavily upgraded, with ram, HD, etc.)
---installed under the passenger seat into a modified dell docking station. Audio goes multi-channel via a Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook (yes a mouthfull) http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=204&product=10769 specs, DAC's, etc: http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=204&product=10769&nav=2

Screen, video: Xenarc 700IDT in dash 7" touch widescreen
---single DIN installation, VERY simple installation with power, ground, USB (for touchscreen) and a 15pin VGA plug

Wires: Monster Cable high quality stereo RCA --> 1/8 jack (X3 for front, rear, sub/center) Custom braided speaker wires for front rear and sub using MIL-spec teflon coated silver plated wire. (similar to Kimber Kable http://www.kimber.com/Products/LoudSpeakerCables/default.aspx) MIL-spec 4-Ga wire for power and ground

 

[RyanJayG]

more pics to come, the audio shop I've chosen to do the install (I dont have the time in summer due to work) will be taking step by step pics of the entire thing, as it comes together, and then I will add pics as I finish things up later on

*EDIT*

the 500/5, and THIS is how you make room for a 3rd of a cube in our doors!!!

 

[RyanJayG]

the doors finished up, and the tweeter location

 

[RyanJayG]

SUB BOX!

half way there

 

[RyanJayG]

sub box finished, and you can see how it is ported through the rear deck and the 3.5" speakers mounted.

also, keep in mind that this subbox is completely sealed off from the trunk. so no road noise from the rear fenderwells, and the trunk doesn't rattle at all, even though 90% of the trunk is not dynamatted.

The doors are also COMPLETELY dead... I wish there were pics of whats underneath the top layer of dynamat, but its all nice and tight... I can barely hear road noise anymore.

 

[RyanJayG]

reserved for pics 5

 

[RyanJayG]

reserved for pics 6

 

[redwagon02]

sounds like the makings of a good all around system. can't wait for the finished pics.

 

[chuyler1]

How about a 1/2 din amplified center channel from Clarion...
http://www.clarion.com/usa/products/multimedia/SRK5.html

I read a review in a magazine a long time ago when it first came out. They said it wasn't up to full range duties but sounded pretty good with a crossover until you cranked it up pretty loud. With the right tuning and balance it could bring the sound stage right to your screen.

The rest looks great, although I'm not so sure about porting through the rear deck. A sealed enclosure that fires through the rear seat is probably the easiest solution. Sealing off the trunk would be easy when you do it this way. Attempting to run ports up through the 6x9 holes gets complicated.

 

[jadonP5]

Here's a 1 din unit from alpine, although I don't know much about it, just was flipping through Crutchfield the other day...sure it is available somewhere at a lower price.

 

[RyanJayG]

How about a 1/2 din amplified center channel from Clarion...
http://www.clarion.com/usa/products/multimedia/SRK5.html

I read a review in a magazine a long time ago when it first came out. They said it wasn't up to full range duties but sounded pretty good with a crossover until you cranked it up pretty loud. With the right tuning and balance it could bring the sound stage right to your screen.

The rest looks great, although I'm not so sure about porting through the rear deck. A sealed enclosure that fires through the rear seat is probably the easiest solution. Sealing off the trunk would be easy when you do it this way. Attempting to run ports up through the 6x9 holes gets complicated.

interesting.. both of them... I knew it had to exist somewhere...

it will be completely turned off for music reproduction anyways. only used in the voice range (essentially this is what a center channel is) durring movie playback... and an internally amplified setup makes it a breeze to integrate.. I just hope its loud enough....

 

[RyanJayG]

I was a little skeptical about porting through the deck also. But these guys have done a LOT of W6 installs, and thoroughly recomended it, even after I insisted that SQ was #1 on the priority list, and SPL was like 8 or 9. I'm confident it will work well, durring both movie LFE playing and music playback despite a group delay much longer than a sealed box.

remember I am technically underpowering it a tad, but I've been told that the 250/1 part of the 500/5 is much more beefy than "rated"

either way I can always have the box rebuit or altered if I am unsatisfied.

thanks for all the comments so far.

 

[jrodhotrod]

subs for the rest of the install. Looks like the makings of a good system.

 

[chuyler1]

The alpine is a full din unit, which is fine unless you wanted to squeeze a din sized head unit, a 1/2 din eq, and a 1/2 din center channel in your dash. However, the Alpine is not powered. You would need an additional amp. My guess is that it prolly sounds a little better depending upon the amp you use to power it...but it would be curious to hear them back-to-back.

 

[RyanJayG]

The alpine is a full din unit, which is fine unless you wanted to squeeze a din sized head unit, a 1/2 din eq, and a 1/2 din center channel in your dash. However, the Alpine is not powered. You would need an additional amp. My guess is that it prolly sounds a little better depending upon the amp you use to power it...but it would be curious to hear them back-to-back.

I dont need an out board EQ... I have suftware to cut any frequencies I need to. and the xenarc screen is a single DIN. I always planned on getting a second amp to stealth mount somewhere to power a center channel speaker. something with only 50W would be perfect to hide because it would be tiny.

I would also imagine that the alpine would sound a bit better, with 2 larger (relatively) "woofers" and a single tweet, vs the clarion's 5 speakers, which I'm sure dont exactly adhere to a line array's mechanics.

I'll still look into both options, and maybe find another along the way, but for now I found the alpie for $110 at an online store. add to that a small, clean 50W amp and I'd be good to go for less than the clarion's price I've found.

keep them comming guys, thanks

 

[RyanJayG]

pic of the alpine without grille

 

[t3ase]

good luck.. cant wait to see it.

 

[Iamgoodyy]

Lovely parts, I can't wait to see it come together. Xtant makes a mono amp (Xtant1.1) thats 6.5" x 5.8" but it puts out 100W which I imagine is more than what you are needing.

 

[Poseur]

One thign with the center channel to keep in mind isthat you're going to be attempting to competewith/match to and essentially overpower Some pretty stellar front Stereo speakers. I can't speak directly for these units, but I've heard a couple non-cheap rearview-mirror mounted small center channel style setups and they've always sounded bland when put in a vehicle with an otherwise good sound system if that makes sense... If you've got coaxials off of deck power I'd imagine it'd be wellmatched and balanced. Also there's the tonality thing as well... THink of what it'd be to have a HT setup with a pair of nice monitors for frontL&R, and a box-system center channel. In movies, the VAST MAJORITY of sound is center channel.

 

[RyanJayG]

One thign with the center channel to keep in mind isthat you're going to be attempting to competewith/match to and essentially overpower Some pretty stellar front Stereo speakers. I can't speak directly for these units, but I've heard a couple non-cheap rearview-mirror mounted small center channel style setups and they've always sounded bland when put in a vehicle with an otherwise good sound system if that makes sense... If you've got coaxials off of deck power I'd imagine it'd be wellmatched and balanced. Also there's the tonality thing as well... THink of what it'd be to have a HT setup with a pair of nice monitors for frontL&R, and a box-system center channel. In movies, the VAST MAJORITY of sound is center channel.

yeah, I'm a little worried about the sound from a center channel. it would only be used in movie playback, but it has to sound good because like you said there is a TON of sound that comes from it. almost ALL of the diaogue, etc. I ust dont know what I can do about it without butting a 6 incho hole in the middle of the top part of the dash, and that aint happening. unless I can get a new dash for a replacement later and have it just sitting around till that day comes....

hmmm...