Blazin's Audio install thread

[Blazinwarrior78]

So being a long time music lover, I've decided to get to work on installing my stereo system.
I competed for many years in local car audio shows, building several types of systems for myself and friends/competitors as well. Car audio took a back burner a few years ago because I decided to further my education. I'm still working on my degree, and to help me with this project, I enlisted my good friend and installer Chris Lacombe. Chris has been installing car audio for at least 15 years, and has had his work showcased on several big arenas, with Nationwide exposure. Chris and I became friends some 15 years ago when we were completing locally against each other, the beginning of a long great friendship.
Now onto phase 1. We have just installed sound deadener in the car. All 4 doors, and then from the back seat carpet to the very rear of the car has been wrappped in mat. While we had the door panels off we installed Polk's Db 651 6.5s all around. We also removed the factory 8inch subwoofers because we are adding 3 12inch subwoofers to the mix.
So on to the pics: Here are the few I have of the deadener installed. Alot of work is done in the evening hours and it is too dark to get any good pictures.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/imagejpeg_2_4.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/imagejpeg_2_5.jpg

If you noticed in the first two pictures, we have removed the XM box and the Onstar box from the underside of the rear deck, this is to help with the install of the mat, and we also decided to relocate these units to help clean up the view from the trunk.
Here you can see that we have mounted the XM box on the passenger side behind the side carpet, the onstar box is mounted over on the driver side above the battery. We tempoarily mounted them with zip ties, so that we can install the mat, and then come up with some good sturdy hardware in the future to finish up the relocation of the units.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/imagejpeg_2_6.jpg

We will be building a false floor for the entire trunk, mounting my amp or amps (still undecided) and the Mtx RE-Q5 in the spare tire well, with the 3-12 box sitting up behind the seat firing towards the rear.

As a bonus, the sound deadener has reduced the road noise and about 1/3 of the drone from my SLP Loudmouth exhaust. We still have the seat pan and back out of the car, but still noticed a reduction in drone when we took it for a spin. Hopefully by the time we get the false floor, box, and seat back in the car, it will be even better. We did several tests to figure out what allows the drone to enter the car, and we have narrowed it down to the plastic tub. We are going to isolate the plastic tub from the interior by creating the false floor. I'm expecting good results.

Now, on to the mat, it is Raam mat BXT II. It can be found here: http://www.raamaudio.com/products/RAAMmat-BXT-II.html

I am really happy with the performance of this mat, and recommend it, and its on sale on the website!

Low-down on the audio for those wondering, Factory Blaupunkt feeding an MTX Re-Q5, to a 4 or 6 channel surround amp, and an Arc Audio 1200.1 amp powerering 3 Arc KS 12 inch subwoofers. Polks are in, and sound good, will sound better with an amp on them.

I will post more pictures as I get or take them, Chris gets to work on the car more since its sitting at his house!

[Paniller]

Just for future reference, I've heard you only need to cover roughly 20-30% of the surface with the sound proofing. That's enough to dampen vibration, without adding undue weight. I just added about 10lbs to the car (half gallon of paint on, and a roll of peel&stick from Lowes) and the drone is gone, as are the vibrations.

That should be enough for trunk mounted subs. I fiberglassed two 8" subs into the stock location though...that's another story. I can't remove the rear deck vibration. I'm about to bolt an mdf board under the cover to try to kill it.

Also, the middle seat belt will rattle, under the foam topper. Make sure you hit that. I put rtv on the joints, and some peel&stick. You may also need to stop the top brake light cover from rattling against the windshield. I used a hair of black rtv to stabilize it. Not sure if those are just deck mounted sub issues though.

Is the MTX Re-Q5 worth it? You do before/after tests?

[Blazinwarrior78]

I haven't hooked up the Re-Q5 yet, so I'm hoping it does a decent job, if not I might go with a JBL MS-8. I'm hoping the cheaper Re-Q5 does what I need.
On the mat, the rear deck, seat back, and floor felt kind of twangy, that why we've got so much coverage there, I'm a firm believer in vibration dampening. I'd rather have a car that you can't even tell has a stereo in it, until you open a door, or roll down a window.
We once built a late 80's Bronco II with 3 12's and lots of power. It had so many rattles, squeaks, the roof sounded like hitting an empty aluminum garbage can. We put about two bulk kits in it, and it eliminated most of the noise, and the stereo really came alive with clean crisp lows.
We should have updates every couple of days or once a week, I'm really excited to get this together, its took about 2 months of planning deciding on how we wanted to do it, and what equipment to use. The Polks went on sale at crutchfield plus got the 2nd pair at half of the sale price, smokin deal in my opinion. We got a little bit done on the construction of the tub and got some false floor ideas ironed out. Should see those pics in a few days.

[09Stryker]

I haven't hooked up the Re-Q5 yet, so I'm hoping it does a decent job, if not I might go with a JBL MS-8. I'm hoping the cheaper Re-Q5 does what I need.
On the mat, the rear deck, seat back, and floor felt kind of twangy, that why we've got so much coverage there, I'm a firm believer in vibration dampening. I'd rather have a car that you can't even tell has a stereo in it, until you open a door, or roll down a window.
We once built a late 80's Bronco II with 3 12's and lots of power. It had so many rattles, squeaks, the roof sounded like hitting an empty aluminum garbage can. We put about two bulk kits in it, and it eliminated most of the noise, and the stereo really came alive with clean crisp lows.
We should have updates every couple of days or once a week, I'm really excited to get this together, its took about 2 months of planning deciding on how we wanted to do it, and what equipment to use. The Polks went on sale at crutchfield plus got the 2nd pair at half of the sale price, smokin deal in my opinion. We got a little bit done on the construction of the tub and got some false floor ideas ironed out. Should see those pics in a few days.

I still remember my old Bronco II. Started off with just 2 Sound Stream Granite 12s, then went to 2 Cerwin Vega 18s. It was fun to watch the side windows "flex"

[Paniller]

I'm tempted to redo my subs now. I can't shake the vibration of the rear deck. I'm wondering if it'd work if I fiber glassed the whole thing as one piece, instead of the left and right sides separately.

Being an audio guy, how do you think two 8's in the deck, and a 10 or 12 under the spare wheel would sound? I'm leaning towards that, but am hesitant about cancellation issues.

[Blazinwarrior78]

The thing about glassing the rear deck, is with vibration, it can come free. Think of bending the board you mix bondo or fiberglass tigerhair on, bending the board breaks free the dried up stuff, so you can use the board next time. You may be happy with just adding a little more deadener on the rear deck. My buddy Chris was thinking about lining both sides of the deck because how twangy it was. We are going to hold off and see how the top layer performs.

As far as the 8s and a 10/12, you have figure out if you want to run the 8s as a midbass, or as a sub playing the same bandwidth as the 10/12.

I'll give you an example, in 1996 I bought an 89 Camaro. I bought the fabricated 2-12 box. The one that goes all the way down into the bottom of the hole. It sounded pretty good, I was reallly happy with it. But back in my younger days I thought more has to be better. So I made a custom box to fit between the 2-12 box, and the back seat, aka, the package shelf. This box housed 2-10s and I bought the same model 10s as the 12s, and also bought another amp of the same model to power the 10s. It looked awesome, a pair of 10s and a pair of 12s. But, the bass output didn't increase, and I was bummed. Instead of trying to phase match the setup, I took out the 10s and gained back some trunk space. I'm sure I could of spent some time getting it right, but I realized that sometimes simple is best.

I've thought very hard about running the 8s as midbass drivers, on seperate channels than the 3 12s, but I came back to that scenario above, and I'm going to leave the 8s out.
PS. The REQ5 also recommends unhooking factory subwoofers if aftermarket subs are going to be used. Look at the bright side, its easy to get in the trunk and unhook the 8s if you're concerned about cancellation and you can compare with or with out, or switch the phase and see if output goes up or down.

[Blazinwarrior78]

Well been spending time on other priorities, work, school, family. I was hoping to have pics up once a week, but that ain't happening. Here are a few updates:
We got the base for the floor lift in the car, have the tub's framework started/mocked up. Starting wiring the car.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/imagejpeg_2_11.jpg

When wiring up a system with multiple wiring, its a good idea to label everything so stuff don't get mixed up.
We're also using TechFlex wire loom and heat shrink tubing from wirecare.com They have multiple colors and sizes available. I decided to go all black with the loom and color code everything by heat shrink color, mainly pos and neg, but others as well.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/imagejpeg_2_12.jpg

This one is of the REQ5's connection plug:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/imagejpeg_2_13.jpg

Here is the mockup of the false floor in place, and the speaker box to test fitment:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/imagejpeg_2_7.jpg

And here is the box carpeted and the subs installed:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/imagejpeg_2_14.jpg

The box is 40 wide, by 13.5 by 9 or 10, I can't remember. I thought it was a little small, but Chris spoke with Arc about a box for 3 Kar subs sealed, sharing same chamber, and they said we could go down to 2 cubes with the power I'm running. I'm pretty sure I'll get the output I'm looking for. I like how the box fits, I still have room to put stuff in the back. I remember years ago, when I was more worried about bass output than trunk space! LOL

I'm also going with an Arc 900.6 to run the surround speakers, I've decided to add a midbass driver to the rear deck.
They are Hybrid audio 6.5s. If in the future I want to upgrade the Polks that are in the doors, I"ll match up and go with Hybrid components and even replace the center channel and dash tweeters, but thats for later on down the road.

[Blazinwarrior78]

Heres a few more I forgot to add:

False floor mocked up to check fitment:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/utf-8BSU1BRzA0ODQuanBn.jpg

Here is how clean the underside the rear deck looks with the onstar and xm box relocated, also the 8s are removed too.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/utf-8BSU1BRzA0ODUuanBn.jpg

Now that we've had a few beers, here are few fun shots:
Chris trying to put in his 21" Death Penalty (I believe) in the tub:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/utf-8BSU1BRzA0ODguanBn.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/utf-8BSU1BRzA0ODcuanBn.jpg
Its too tall to even fit, sticks up out of the tub! LOL

[Blazinwarrior78]

Wow its been more than 2 weeks since an update, doesnt seem that long!

Ok, so we're going with a red and black theme inside the tub where the amps and REQ5 will be mounted, wiring is starting to come together:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/utf-8BaW1hZ2VqcGVnXzJfMTUuanBn.jpg

Here is a shot of the tub cover, wrapped in (what I thought was) black grill cloth: I'm not too fond of this at the moment, at least its easy to change:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/utf-8BaW1hZ2VqcGVnXzJfMTYuanBn.jpg

Now, we're working on a unique amp rack, contemplating using this plastic with a homemade black marble look, but won't see much of it once the amps are mounted to it:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/utf-8BaW1hZ2VqcGVnXzJfMTcuanBn.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/utf-8BaW1hZ2VqcGVnXzJfMTguanBn.jpg

Fit into the tub, starting to wire it up, I'm pretty happy with it:

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/utf-8BaW1hZ2VqcGVnXzJfMTkuanBn.jpg

Hopefully we'll get it wrapped up soon, I miss driving my G8!

[MR_JIZZ_G8]

so being a long time music lover, i've decided to get to work on installing my stereo system.
I competed for many years in local car audio shows, building several types of systems for myself and friends/competitors as well. Car audio took a back burner a few years ago because i decided to further my education. I'm still working on my degree, and to help me with this project, i enlisted my good friend and installer chris lacombe. Chris has been installing car audio for at least 15 years, and has had his work showcased on several big arenas, with nationwide exposure. Chris and i became friends some 15 years ago when we were completing locally against each other, the beginning of a long great friendship.
Now onto phase 1. We have just installed sound deadener in the car. All 4 doors, and then from the back seat carpet to the very rear of the car has been wrappped in mat. While we had the door panels off we installed polk's db 651 6.5s all around. We also removed the factory 8inch subwoofers because we are adding 3 12inch subwoofers to the mix.
So on to the pics: Here are the few i have of the deadener installed. Alot of work is done in the evening hours and it is too dark to get any good pictures.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/imagejpeg_2_4.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/imagejpeg_2_5.jpg

if you noticed in the first two pictures, we have removed the xm box and the onstar box from the underside of the rear deck, this is to help with the install of the mat, and we also decided to relocate these units to help clean up the view from the trunk.
Here you can see that we have mounted the xm box on the passenger side behind the side carpet, the onstar box is mounted over on the driver side above the battery. We tempoarily mounted them with zip ties, so that we can install the mat, and then come up with some good sturdy hardware in the future to finish up the relocation of the units.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/imagejpeg_2_6.jpg

we will be building a false floor for the entire trunk, mounting my amp or amps (still undecided) and the mtx re-q5 in the spare tire well, with the 3-12 box sitting up behind the seat firing towards the rear.

As a bonus, the sound deadener has reduced the road noise and about 1/3 of the drone from my slp loudmouth exhaust. We still have the seat pan and back out of the car, but still noticed a reduction in drone when we took it for a spin. Hopefully by the time we get the false floor, box, and seat back in the car, it will be even better. We did several tests to figure out what allows the drone to enter the car, and we have narrowed it down to the plastic tub. We are going to isolate the plastic tub from the interior by creating the false floor. I'm expecting good results.

Now, on to the mat, it is raam mat bxt ii. It can be found here: http://www.raamaudio.com/products/raammat-bxt-ii.html

i am really happy with the performance of this mat, and recommend it, and its on sale on the website!

Low-down on the audio for those wondering, factory blaupunkt feeding an mtx re-q5, to a 4 or 6 channel surround amp, and an arc audio 1200.1 amp powerering 3 arc ks 12 inch subwoofers. Polks are in, and sound good, will sound better with an amp on them.

I will post more pictures as i get or take them, chris gets to work on the car more since its sitting at his house!







lol it looks like a robot/space ship trunk and back seat lol. Let us know how it sounds

[Blazinwarrior78]

Forgot one the other day, here is the box installed as well:

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/utf-8BaW1hZ2VqcGVnXzJfMjAuanBn.jpg

[Blazinwarrior78]

We're working on a grill for the subs now, to match the tub cover, that way I can have that stealth look when I'm at the store putting groceries in the trunk.

[jeffs42885]

Wow man, that looks fantastic!

Care to share the specs on that box.......dimensions..?

NVM..see it in earlier posts.

[Blazinwarrior78]

Wow man, that looks fantastic!

Care to share the specs on that box.......dimensions..?

NVM..see it in earlier posts.

Its pretty basic, 2 cubic feet shared chamber sealed box, 40 wide 13.5 tall, and something like 8 or 9ish deep. I was worried we wouldn't be able to get it through the opening, but it went good, Chris even said we could of went 44 wide.

[Blazinwarrior78]

Looks like we're pretty well wrapped up here, here are a few final shots:

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/utf-8BSU1BRzA1MzEuanBn.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/utf-8BSU1BRzA1MzIuanBn.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/utf-8BSU1BRzA1MzQuanBn.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/utf-8BSU1BRzA1MzguanBn.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a267/blazinwarrior78/utf-8BSU1BRzA1MzcuanBn.jpg

I wasn't sure we would have room for the tire inflator in the tub, but it fit easily, and looks pretty good, too!
Its not mounted yet but will be shortly.
I do have a tiny bit of rpm whine in the speakers, I plan on researching ground related issues, see if I can't get that cleared up.

Anybody have ideas to cure the rpm whine?

[christopher8911]

Nice install. I really like the amp mounting setup

[MR_JIZZ_G8]

Wow super clean set up! I bet all that extra weight slowed you down a tenth or 2

[MIEngineer]

I had good luck with a cheap in line noise suppression filter. Worked well on a few of my old cars.

[Blazinwarrior78]

I've done some research on noise being introduced with an REQ5, and some have had great results by running a noise suppressor filter on the positive wire to the REQ5 unit, I may try that as well.

[ULTRA Z]

I'm tempted to redo my subs now. I can't shake the vibration of the rear deck. I'm wondering if it'd work if I fiber glassed the whole thing as one piece, instead of the left and right sides separately.

Being an audio guy, how do you think two 8's in the deck, and a 10 or 12 under the spare wheel would sound? I'm leaning towards that, but am hesitant about cancellation issues.

I am almost finished with my two solo classic 8s in the rear deck so i cna answer that in a deay or 3 :)

[jeffs42885]

Random bump, I love this install..mad props to the OP