New side project - Stereo Install

[mezzio]

For all the pictures, just click to see the full size

So when I bought my car, the stereo was beyond screwed. The stock harness was cut, everything was twisted and taped... so me being an anal guy about wiring and clean installs. I took on the project to clean it up and make everything work. The lights, cigarette lighter, and stereo was non working or intermittent at best.

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I put the stock harness back in, soldered it up, put some environmental heat shrink on the joints and patted myself on the back for getting it done. I had to delete the factory amp to steal the constant 12v wire.

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The Kenwood KDC-BT945U head unit was put in and tuned up, I was super happy because I had some reliable tunage Note the hole drilled below the HU, built in blue tooth baby woohoo. The iPod is in the glove box, the head unit actually does a great job of controlling everything through the display, even the controls are set up like the iPod controls.

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Once I got it all in, and have been cruising around for a week, there was NOTHING i could do to get even the slightest bit of bass out of the stock speakers. This was no good for me... i need a good range of tones, and all i could pull out of the 6 speakers in the car was mids and highs.

so...

and the new goods a single Memphis Audio 10" 15-MCP10S4, Single Coil, 4-ohm - and a Memphis PR2X100. I'm gonna be pushing about 300w, which is plenty fine. The box is being built as we speak, I'm getting a custom sealed box to fit on the little "shelf" in the hatch, and the amp will mount in the same spot. I would have just bought a regular box, but the guys at the shop were cool and offered to build me a box for $20 more than the cost than a pre made ported box. I didn't want to go ported because it causes some bad oscillation when double bass drums are going.

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The box should be done on friday, I'm going to run all of the wires tomorrow afternoon. Once all is installed, I'll post up pictures of the completed product... can't wait to finally have some beats though

 

[RedTurboEclipse]

you bypassed the factory amp yes nice, so your deck is powering all the speakers, how bout the dash speakers? bypassing the speakers without components and wiring the xovers accordingly makes the sound field horrible yea?

rear biased, and sound up front doesnt sound complete unless you wired the dash speakers parallel or you do have bass blockers/components/xovers

 

[VETTE_50_TH]

IF you amp the speakers and get could front speakers, it sounds fine. Thats how i had my GS. I had a single 4 channel and just left the stock speakers unamped on the dash. It sounded fine.

 

[mezzio]

you bypassed the factory amp yes nice, so your deck is powering all the speakers, how bout the dash speakers? bypassing the speakers without components and wiring the xovers accordingly makes the sound field horrible yea?

rear biased, and sound up front doesnt sound complete unless you wired the dash speakers parallel or you do have bass blockers/components/xovers

It does sound bad. I'm going to take out the dash speakers, and after I get my new passenger mirror and trim, will be mounting tweeters on the interior mirror trim. The factory amp and wires are deleted, no longer existent, gone

Luckily the head unit i have gives me enough adjustment to "move" the sound around so I'm not getting blasted by the 6x9's. At this point I just wanted some bass, once I get my other projects on the car done, I'll start working on components to get some real clean mids and highs with a top quality sound stage. The sub and amp I bought are what I'm going to keep in the car, spent the money on the good stuff so i don't have to buy everything twice. At this point all I have to buy is a 4 channel amp and some components, I got some second sound dampner on order, so my sound system will be complete.

 

[VETTE_50_TH]

IF you dont amp the speakers, all youll hear is bass.

 

[mezzio]

Thats not necessarily true. There is a small amp in just about every head unit that will send a good amount of power to the front speakers. However, if you tune your system properly, you won't have overpowering bass... which i don't understand why people do that crap anyway... nothing worse than having a horrible sounding system inside AND outside the car. Luckily with this HU I have complete control of the sub through it.

But I already said I will be getting a 4 channel amp for the fronts, along with new components all around and relocated tweeters.

 

[mezzio]

Got everything installed last night, I'm still working on a little bit of fine tuning for the front, but as of now the bass is not over powering at all. It is super tight and fast reacting, and when that crazy bastard in All That Remains goes to town on his double bass, it doesn't oscillate at all. I'll take some pictures in a few, its raining right now dammit i wanted to take the bike out too

I also bought some white LED strips that I'll be wiring up to the hatch switch so I actually have some decent light back there too when I open it up... I sometimes wonder why car manufacturers give such a big area a tiny light like they do.

Here are the installed pics. I may end up in the future moving the amp and installing a 2nd sub to make it more symmetrical.... I would be completely fine with it if the RCA's weren't going over the speaker like they are. But over all the sound is awesome!

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[2GbTalonGuy]

Wow man, thats some good work you're doing there. I hate when idiots wess with ha cars electrical system that dont know what the hell they're doing. Whoever did that is lucky that car isn't burnt to the ground by now.

 

[mezzio]

Thanks man,

yeah it was a mess... the tape they used to "tie" everything together was that awesome flammable strapping tape, the stuff with the easy to ignite glue and string kindling... it was awesome, .

All of my interior electrical is just about working now, I'm just waiting for a couple door jamb switches, then I'll work out any small problems I find as they come along... but I think the cabin is almost electrically sound now.... thank god too because I'm really sick of chasing sparks, .

 

[GST98 PR]

what i did to my dsm today was change the oil cap the old one split in half

 

[mezzio]

what i did to my dsm today was change the oil cap the old one split in half

, thats funny, mine has no gasket so it sprays oil all over the engine bay when it gets some pressure, sucks because i clean it, then it gets dirty a couple hours later... i got a new one on order though, maybe that will stop my oil pressure from dropping, .

 

[VETTE_50_TH]

Oh. I thought you were putting two 12s in. Yea. I 10 is what that looks like, or 12 for that matter should be good. Good job.

 

[mezzio]

Oh. I thought you were putting two 12s in. Yea. I 10 is what that looks like, or 12 for that matter should be good. Good job.

Nah man, two 12's would be too much, even a single 12 would be too much for my style of music, they're usually not fast enough to keep up with quick double bass beats

This combo is perfect, very tight and responsive, sounds great... and it doesn't even rattle much outside the car... just gotta find a way to shut my licence plate cover up, .

 

[VETTE_50_TH]

Bigger amp would solve those problems. :wink: