2013 FR-S SQ Install

[deaddawg]

Hey Everyone

I started working on building the audio system myself, tried to find some help, and eventually found Simplicity in Sound in Milpitas. I wanted to share with everyone the fantastic work that they did, and where I will be taking every car I own in California to.

Pieces I brought with me:
Kenwood DNN990HD
2 x JL HD900/5
Hybrid Audio L6se, L3se, L1 R2 Pro
2 x JL 10W6

SiS provided me with the Mosconi 6to8 DSP to control the system via bluetooth.

Here is the build log from Bing.

-------------------------------------------------------

Had a bit of time to get one more simple project done while we are working on two big projects.

This one was a bit of a unique situation as the customer already had a build started, but wanted to switch things up and utilize our experience in building sq cars, as well as our familiarity with the FT86 platform.

The previous install wasn't terrible, but being that we are so anal about what leaves our hands, we ended up taking everything back out and redoing the whole build...save for the main power cable

goals:

1. achieve a nice level of sound quality throughout

2. maintain the design from the previous install, namely, the amps under the seats and incorporate a DSP and wire for fully active power scheme.

3. keep a relatively low profile upfront.

the one part that is not fully complete with the build is that the customer is waiting on two custom fabbed side enclosures for the car, but the vendor has not yet shipped them, so currently, the car is rollowing with 2 JL audio 10w6v3s in a square dual chamber ealed enclosure in the trunk.

lets get started.

the signal starts with a kenwood DNN990HD double din unit, it is the newer generation of kenwood that is andriod enabled. i wish i had more time to play with it but was too busy working on the car hehe. it was previously installed, we simply cleaned up the wiring behind the dash a bit and reoganized things:





the system uses a mosconi 6ot8 DSP for tuning, so it can be programmed from the front seat via a BT enabled laptop:



the front stage consists of a set of Hybrid Audio Legatia three way compoents. the L6SE was installed into the stock location. The previous installer had soundproofed the outter door skin and inner door skin. we added a foam barrier to the outter door skin, some blackhole tiles to the outter skin, and also built a new spacer baffle match routed from the oem speaker, as the previous one was looking a bit ragged:













we also fully sound proofed the plastic door cars with STP gold damper:









the L3V2 midrange went into the stock location on top of the dash. borrowing a technique i saw from the ft86 forums, i first ground down the plastic on the bottom of the grille, and fabricated two mounting rings from black acrylic. this allows me to tap the holes so i can bolt the speakers in from the bottom:



the ring baffles were then secured to the grilles using HD plastic weld epoxy:



the l3v2s were then bolted in place with bolts, washers and lock washers:



and the entire panel was sound proofed. a piece of black foam was fit inside the tweeter hole and then sound proofed over so you cant see any random things through the empty grille:



then two midranges were then wired up and installed:





for the L1pro radiator tweeter, i went with A pillar mounting. having just recently completed a FR-S with A pillars, drawing from my past experience with this tweeter, as well as the csutomer desire to try and keep things low key, i went with off axis design that pushes the tweeter as far foward as possible, aimed high to minimze reflections off the shroud. from past experience this gets me a nice high stage and imaging with good center focus.

so here are the completed A pillars with the L1 tweeters:













a few build pics of the pillar pods.

first, the pillars were rough sanded, and then rings aimed and attached:





mold cloth was pulled, resin applied, allowed to cure, and then reinforced from the inside via the duraglass/resin mixture, and then any unneeded excess material trimmed off:



filler was then applied and the entire shape sanded smooth:





factory matching vinyl was then used to wrap the pillars:



and the hybrid tweeters installed:





a final look at the entire front stage:



onto some wiring pics...which incidentally for this car, is virtually all the rest of the build log, since the amps were installed under the seats

but before any of that, Joey fabricated a metal bracket to solidly mount a fuse holder. replacing an abs bracket the previous installer used:









next comes the amps. the car came to us running two JL audio HD900/5 5 channel amps. one amp was installed under each seat. after some discussion, we decided this was an ideal scenario to do left and right amps. One amp for one side of the car.

the previous install had a piece of wood board under neath the carpet, andt he amp simply secrewed down into it, sandwiching the carpet. This is not a bad technique, but with how thin and flimsy the FR-S's carpet is, this resulted in a lot of movement on the amps and the customer reported that on spirit driving, the amp would frequently hit the underside of the seats.

so, we stripped the entire interior and bolted two boards under each seat. they are secured via 4 1/4-20 rivet nuts each, the board on the passenger side is slightly wider to accomodate the distribution block:







next come a series of wiring pics as they run through out the car. it may be a bit hard to explain so here is a basic layout of what went on. but all the previous wiring was removed and most of it was not used as the new L/R configuration meant virtually none of the wires were long enough.

so from the headunit: a single pair of rcas goes to the back and inputs into the mosconi DSP.

from there on, four pairs of rcas come out, each pair is split left and right completely, so four sets of left rcas went back up the driver side to the driver side (left side) amp, which four sets of right rcas went tot he passenger side amp. wiring for the speakers was actually pretty straightfoweard, as each amp connected to that side's speakers.

but through it all, all the wiring is zipted every few inches and secured to the car, eithre to the factory looms, to the boards, via quiet tape or ziptie mounts. the amps were then wired up to make sure all the cables fit:





















after this was done, the amps were unplugged, removed, and the factory carpet reinstalled. the amps were then secured in place on the boards, and the terminals and rca cables replugged in:









and how they look with the factory floor mat in place:





the power layout is this. each mid and tweeter receives 100 watts per driver from the front channels of the 900/5, the midbass gets 200 watts from the rear channels bridged, while the sub gets 500 watts per.

another request the customer had was to use a single JL bass knob to control both amps. so we got a cable and splitter, crimmed on our own ends, and installed his bass knob in his armrest area:




the two amps were gain matched so this actually works out quite well.

the final piece to the puzzle was mounting the Mosconi 6ot8 DSP. Joey fabricated two metal brackets:



and i wired up the DSP in the stock amp location:





so thats it

this could be one of the best sounding FR-S we have built (8 so far) the imaging is very nice, with good depth and width. heigh is halfway between the windshield and the dash. and the bass, despite being able to get very loud, blends in very well. the car has pretty good toanlity out of the box and the 4 hours i spent tuning it got me a pretty good initial tune.

I cant wait for his subboxes to get in so we can pop those in and make a readjustment of the subs if need be.

overall, a very enjoyable project.

cheers,

Bing

[f0rge]

Wow that's a nice install. That's what I'd do if I had the $$$$.

[DNAPoPo]

Beautiful, wish I lived closer to Bing!

[WolfSongX]

Very nice looking install... I've been a fan of Bing's work for several years now. I'm really starting to think about doing major surgery to the A Piller panels for my tweeters. I would've never guessed that there was enough space for an amp under these seats.

[simplicityinsound]

thanks guys id say the FT has one of the easier pillars to work on...i would take it off, temporarily secure the tweeter there, play with the angles, and see what you like more

[simplicityinsound]

Originally Posted by DNAPoPo

Beautiful, wish I lived closer to Bing!

irvine is not that FAR!!! :P

[rmjjensen]

Absolutely phenomenal job! Very well done.

I'm surprised to see you get amplifiers to fit under the seats without any modification!!

[deaddawg]

The only mod was to cut out the carpet padding under the carpet. Mind you, it is a very tight fit.

[Skippman]

My god is that a clean install! I love it! Why, oh why is there such a lack of car audio shops in the STL.

[kmbkk]

Originally Posted by Skippman

My god is that a clean install! I love it! Why, oh why is there such a lack of car audio shops in the STL.

Same here! I wish I was closer to SIS.

[simplicityinsound]

we have molds set up for side boxes on these cars, but with other vendors providing them, we didnt get into much. but with now quite a few under ourbelt, i wonder if it is possible to develop some stuff that is pre-fabed that basically makes for a simple wiring job to get a nice completed system.

[ft_sjo]

Can you get your seat all the way down still?

[simplicityinsound]

i am fairly sure we tested it with the seat in the full down position, rowing it foward and back, its close but there is no metal on metal contact or scraping.

[ft_sjo]

If that could be verified that'd be great, thanks :-)