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dewoof01

15+ Year Contributor
160
0
Dec 22, 2005
Beaverton, Oregon
OK so I'm a car audio freak, always have been, now the eclipse is really not ideal for sound quality which I am a fan of but i'm a DSM guy and my project car was always going to be an eclipse. This project consists of a complete interior remodel, all dyed panels black, new racing seats, new audio, new headliner, as well as an upgraded stereo. The goals for this project were as follows:

-Keep audio component costs low
-Simple clean install, nothing flashy
-Use install techniques to gain sound quality rather than expensive components.
-Sound Quality as a top goal second only to clean/factory appearance

It you like loud pounding bass, and want people to hear your car a mile away, then click off this thread as you won't give a crap about this because you don't care about sound quality. I am going to avoid posting pictures of the new interior pieces and going only for the audio portion. Some points of the project:

300+ feet of wiring
90-100 different connections
Full car sound deadener top to bottom
New False floor for sub enclosure and amp
12" ID12 sub
Image Dynamics 165 ctx components
Knukonceptz wiring
Pioneer 80prs head unit
MB Quart OA1100.5 5 channel amp

Just finishing up the sub enclosure hopefully tomorrow, have to cover the other half of the floor in vinyl and install the sub. Will post more pics tomorrow.

Trunk Sound deadener
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Door Sound Deadener
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Outside Door Skin Sound Deadener
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Floor Sound Deadener
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Front Midbass and custom Baffles
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Floor Ensolite coverage
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Wire Termination And Labeling
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Cable Runs to Trunk
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Front Speaker Termination Blocks
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Cables in trunk from front
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Sub Box and False Floor Bracing
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Sub Box and Amp Rack
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Rear Termination Block & Cable Management
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Amp & Top half of false floor
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Sub Moutned and templated for rear false floor portion
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Enough wires to wire up a nuclear power plant :)

Why did you decide to go with that box design? Seems like having it shifted to one side will allow you to use the trunk area more conveniently.

And speaking of boxes. Tried building a couple after calculating exact sizes and they did not sound good. Last time built a ported box, but without the baffle (port) and front wall. After installing the box in the car, turned it on and moved the front wall and the baffle until it sounded best. Marked everything, took the box out, cut/assembled the box, and shoved it back in the car. Turned out to be best sounding box so far. Hopefully you will find this trick useful for your projects as well.
 
Looks really great, super tidy wiring you have going on. Hope to see some pics of it all finished up.
 
Looks pretty good. You have some skills. Keep it up
 
in your case for a better sound deadening i would of use carpet padding instead of the Ensolite. Thats what i used. I already completed my project and im very happy with the outcome,no more road noise,engine noise really quiet:thumb:
 
I have used the carpet padding before, didn't like it, if water gets in (which in my case it did) it was a disaster and took days to dry out. The ensolite was actually much more effective than I thought. I have 1 full layer of Raammat on all the metal floor to ceiling, and 1.5-2 layers of ensolite on everything as well. ALSO have another layer of ensolite on the back of each interior panel and underneath the dash. I also put 2" foam blocks in all the kick panel openings and to the sides of the rear seats where there was room. I have been working on this project since November 2012 and just now am almost done. Obviously took some long breaks in between but should have her mostly finished up this weekend, just been putting off the sub and amp enclosure for a while because its such a PITA to build. I probably have over 200 hours in labor into it at this point and around 100-150 hours of research. Funny thing is in my wifes old 350z I had around 5000-6000 bucks worth of components and this one already sounds 10x better without tuning and I only have around 700-900 in components and 500-600 in deadener in it. Funny how many people think getting the best amp or the best components will make them have a great sounding system even though they just bolt the speakers into the sheet metal doors. I have a few hundred photos of the project and I will try to post some more tonight so you can see some more of the details I went into on the project. Thanks for all the compliments guys, I appreciate it.
 
how much was the ensolite and how many sq you used?!

Its been a while probably around a year since i installed it. I ordered the kit with raammat and ensolite and i remember i bought two kits and then another few yards of ensolite. But i honestly went WAYYYYY overboard on the stuff just to make sure. I didn't want to ever hope I had used more because of noise. I would say for the average person in a DSM one full kit and an extra couple yards of ensolite would work fine. I think i actually still have some of the raammat left over, a few square feet.

Enough wires to wire up a nuclear power plant :)

Why did you decide to go with that box design? Seems like having it shifted to one side will allow you to use the trunk area more conveniently.

And speaking of boxes. Tried building a couple after calculating exact sizes and they did not sound good. Last time built a ported box, but without the baffle (port) and front wall. After installing the box in the car, turned it on and moved the front wall and the baffle until it sounded best. Marked everything, took the box out, cut/assembled the box, and shoved it back in the car. Turned out to be best sounding box so far. Hopefully you will find this trick useful for your projects as well.

Box design isn't as much about shape as volume at least when we are dealing with a sealed box. When you go ported or bandpass then things get unreal as far as how specific you need to be. Personally i've had all types and sealed is the only type that sounds good to me. I went against myself when I got a 12, i havent' owned one in over 10 years, since I switched to 10's but there was a such a good deal on this sub I couldn't pass it up and the 10" would have cost me twice as much. Go by the manufacturers specs for the box and don't go too small and if you are a sealed box you should be good to go. Always give the magnet vent a little room to the back of the box. My internal box dimensions are 8" tall, 23" wide, and 15" deep, which is around 1.3 something ft3. Then the sub displacement was .07 ft3 so that puts me right about 1.25 which is the ideal for this box, or at least close enough. The reason the box isn't to one side or another is because it is so large it wouldn't fit anywhere else and i don't give a crap about storage as I have the back seat if something needs to go in there, and I only drive this car probably a couple hundred miles a year and only drive it in the summer months.
 
I wish I was near you so you could help me out LOL!

Does your car have infinity system?
If it does are you using the stock wireing or running all new wires and leaving the old ones in?
 
No I don't have the infinity system but doesn't matter always run new better wire than stock. I'm running 16 gauage that has some pretty darn thick insulation on it from knukonceptz. Finished the build will post pics tonight
 
Looks sick bro... question what should I do to my door speakers to make them louder.. and what are the best back speakers to run.. thanks
 
Looks sick bro... question what should I do to my door speakers to make them louder.. and what are the best back speakers to run.. thanks

Well you could get a bigger amp or a amp with cleaner output so you can turn the volume up before it starts clipping. If you are running off a HU for power then you really need an amp for sure to start. Then use sound deadener to seal the outside and inside of your doors. My doors are now like a big speaker box for my midbass in the doors because I sealed them so well and the bass output is fantastic. Also the best rear speakers are no rear speakers. They screw up imaging.


OK ITS DONE! Well mostly, still have a few odds and ends. Heres the pictures of the second half of the false floor and the finished product. Hope you like..

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Sub is flush mounted with the top panel as is the amp, cutting that circle was a pain.
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Finished look...
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From the side
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I still have the paint the sub cone black as that ugly blue logo needs to go.
 
So you saying,that its better not to install any speakers in a back ??!! Im in a marke of a speakers right now.In a dash i will be installing an Infinity Reference X REF-3002cfx. In a door panels will be installing Infinity Kappa Perfect components. And the sub will be a 10" infinity KAPPA 100.9W. Headunit Alpine IVE-W535HD. Amp for speakers -Alpine MRX-F65 4-channel. Amp for sub-KICKER 1000W MONO AMP. How this setup will be looking ?
 
It looks good. A lot cleaner than mine :cry: . I'll have to change that soon :p

Thanks. The best thing is the entire top is removable. I have concealed clips holding it down, 4 on each panel and it pops right up if i need to change anything or make adjustments.

So you saying,that its better not to install any speakers in a back ??!! Im in a marke of a speakers right now.In a dash i will be installing an Infinity Reference X REF-3002cfx. In a door panels will be installing Infinity Kappa Perfect components. And the sub will be a 10" infinity KAPPA 100.9W. Headunit Alpine IVE-W535HD. Amp for speakers -Alpine MRX-F65 4-channel. Amp for sub-KICKER 1000W MONO AMP. How this setup will be looking ?

No speakers in back, no point, they make it sound worse than better from a sound quality standpoint. I'm not sure what you are saying for the speakers. You are going to have a 3 way set up in front? 6.5" midbass, 2.5" mid in the dash and a tweet in like the sail panel? You really need to do some research on doing an active setup, if you aren't planning on it. Probablem is its alot more money in amps as you need 1 channel PER speaker but it allows you to be able to control each speaker independently from the deck with the proper deck. SO if you were going to run a 3 way set up in front then you would need a 4 channel amp for the midbass and the mid and a seperate amp for the tweet and another amp for the sub and a deck to run that setup active would be several hundred dollars or more. Whereas running a 2 way front set up active allows you to get a deck like mine the pioneer 80prs for around 250 that has an unbelievable amount of control, to the point I never need to make an adjustment on my amp as the deck can do anything i could ever want.
 
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Thanks. The best thing is the entire top is removable. I have concealed clips holding it down, 4 on each panel and it pops right up if i need to change anything or make adjustments.



No speakers in back, no point, they make it sound worse than better from a sound quality standpoint. I'm not sure what you are saying for the speakers. You are going to have a 3 way set up in front? 6.5" midbass, 2.5" mid in the dash and a tweet in like the sail panel? You really need to do some research on doing an active setup, if you aren't planning on it. Probablem is its alot more money in amps as you need 1 channel PER speaker but it allows you to be able to control each speaker independently from the deck with the proper deck. SO if you were going to run a 3 way set up in front then you would need a 4 channel amp for the midbass and the mid and a seperate amp for the tweet and another amp for the sub and a deck to run that setup active would be several hundred dollars or more. Whereas running a 2 way front set up active allows you to get a deck like mine the pioneer 80prs for around 250 that has an unbelievable amount of control, to the point I never need to make an adjustment on my amp as the deck can do anything i could ever want.

Ok so if in a back im not installing speakers ,so then i think i would go with tweeters 3 1/2" in the dash then two way speakers in a doors 5 1/4" and single woofer 10" in a custom enclosure. How that would sound? Also will be way cheaper ,the i stated before....
 
Wow, came out super clean. And on a side note I feel as if I have learned something by reading through this, as it is obvious that you didn't just throw money at it in the hopes of making it sound better. Once again great job.
 
Ok so if in a back im not installing speakers ,so then i think i would go with tweeters 3 1/2" in the dash then two way speakers in a doors 5 1/4" and single woofer 10" in a custom enclosure. How that would sound? Also will be way cheaper ,the i stated before....

Go with only 4 speakers up front 2 tweets in the dash (not the best but the easiest) or in the sail panels if you can fit them with a fiberglass mount. Then 6.5" midbass in the door in a stock location and my your own MDF baffles to mount the speakers to the door to make it solid. then just a 10 in the rear hatch facing the glass will be good. More speakers does not mean better by any means, I wanted to do a 3-way front set up but it would be so hard to make look clean and simple and can be very hard to tune. Your mids and your tweeters need to be right next to each other for imaging. You can't have a mid in the dash and a tweet in the door or it would be hell to tune.

Wow, came out super clean. And on a side note I feel as if I have learned something by reading through this, as it is obvious that you didn't just throw money at it in the hopes of making it sound better. Once again great job.

Thanks a bunch. More money doesn't mean better results. I have thrown quite large sums of money at audio before and it was a total waste. 60-80% of the equation is install quality and planning. My system will sound better than most 4000-5000k systems from epopel stopping in at car toys and dropping that cash and having it installed in a prefab box, no sound deadener, no sealed doors, no planning.
 
Thats where i had tweeter in my old dsm. Right next to the window switch

Bad location for imaging. Either in the dash or preferrably the little sail panel by the window. You want them higher so it raises the sound stage more. That way it sounds like the music is at eye level rather than at your knees.
 
Hey how is the DEH 80prs? That's what I'm going to be getting hopefully. Do you have it all tuned and dialed in?

Overall its great, confusing to figure out because there is so many options. No I tdont have it all tuned and dialed in. The components need about 10 hours of break in before I'm going to seriously start tuning it. So far they only had about 30 minutes of play time on them, seeing as I drive the car about 200 miles a year its going to be hard to to get them broken in quickly. Hopefully I will be sitting in the garage playing some tunes for an hour at a time this winter breaking it in.

The deck has a horrible LCD screen, i think i had a deck about 10 years ago that had a similiar screen, but thats not the point of the deck, its really just a hard core audiophile deck, and thats it. Its not for looks or flash, but for tuning. For the price theres nothing out there that can even come close to comparison. Basically it gives you the ability in an active set up to control everything you would want to control from EACH individual speaker, eq each speaker, ta each speaker, etc.
 
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