brianlo622's SQ build log by Simplicity in Sound |Illusion|Arc|Mosconi|Audiomobile|
 

Hey guys, as promised here is the complete build log by Bing. But first, my impression. Having read hundreds of Bing's build logs on DIYMA and having Bing personally demoed a few cars he had done to me, I sorta knew the quality I was expecting from SiS. But after I got my car back, it was simply amazing to see the Bing Magic now resides in my personal vehicle :) Design/Fabrication is top notch, and everything is extremely detailed. Sound quality is just amazing. In other words, Bing and Joey over delivered and I am extremely happy :happyanim: Highly recommend!!

Without further delay, here is the complete build log by Bing.

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/...diomobile.html

To complete the trio of build logs i have for this day, i present last but not least, the most intensive effort of the three. a SQ build on a 2013 Scion FR-S.

Having worked on two other FR-S builds before, this one is still unique that it had some different design criteria compared to the other two that allow us...(read JOEY!:D) to flex some of his fabrication skills.

ithout further adieu, lets take a quick look the car, nicely furnished with the TRD body kit and exhaust, clean and simple, i like it a lot:

http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo1.JPG

the goals are:

1. to achieve a nice level of SQ throughout
2. maintain a totally stealth appearance in the interior
3. maintain spare tire, take up as little room as possible other wise and try to keep things stealth.but have a lil show factor thrown in. This is the hard one, with such a small trunk to begin with, there was quite a challenge...:) luckily, Joey was more than up to the challenge
division of labor here is that Joey did the underhood, and the trunk, while i did everything in between and also the trunk wiring...so hes the bread in a Bing sandwich...wait..that sounded totally wrong! :D

So first order of business was the underhood, and once again, Joey fabricated a trick mounting bracket that uses stock bolts to provide a rock solid platform for the stringer circuit breaker: here it is in its various phases of construction and prep, all the way to mounting in the vehicle

http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo3.JPG
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http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo2.JPG

The signal starts with a pioneer 5500 headunit, installed to the stock location via the beatsonic tabs:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo7.JPG

The BT mic was mounted next to the steering column for a closer, direct path to the driver:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo8.JPG

Because the system utilizes a Mosconi DSP, full tuning can be done via a laptop from the front seat wirelessly:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo8A.JPG

here is the prep of the wiring harness with the antenna adapter and grounding ring attached:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo9.JPG

the front stage is a set of illusion audio carbon C6 component, the tweeter went into the stock midrange location and is mounted via the supplied metal bridges:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo10.JPG

i gave the tweeter a slight twist to angle them back slightly, which theoritically could help tame the reflections between the windshield and the dash a lil haha

http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo11.JPG
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the midbass went into the stock door location, first, a new set of speaker wires were run into the doors:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo15.JPG

next, 8 blocks of focal blackhole Tile went onto the outter door skin to help tame resonance:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo16.JPG

then the entire door was smothered with focal BAM XXL composite damper, while the section around the speaker mounting got the thinner, easier to work with STP gold damper:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo17.JPG

using the stock speaker as a template, we then fabricated these 1/2" mdf spacer rings and coated them with truck bedliner to protect them against the elements:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo18.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo19.JPG

and then this was bolted to the door:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo20.JPG

and the carbon C6 midbass installed:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo21.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo22.JPG

the same procedure was then repeated on the passenger side:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo23.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo24.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo25.JPG
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http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo27.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo28.JPG

next comes a series of pics showing the wiring bundle as it travels from the front to the back of the car, and then into the trunk, ziptied and secured every few inches:

http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo29.JPG
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http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo38.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo39.JPG

to prevent the rear deck from rattling, i applied several piece of STP closed cell foam to the underside of the rear deck to decouple it from the metal panel beneath:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo40.JPG

so now, moving to the trunk. as mentioned, the customer waned to RETAIN the spare but also keep as much trunk space as possible, and have just a touch of cool factor built in. so here is the normal view, as you can see, the only thing really visible is a single fiberglass side box on the passenger side. the box is unique in that it features a cool decorative grille, providing just a lil bit of show factor. the grille is actually a two piece design, with a vinyl outter, and a CF vinyl covered center ring with pressed grille. the rest of the box is done in carpet dyed to match the stock color.

http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo41.JPG
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http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo44.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo46.JPG

this pic is to give you an idea how little room it actually takes up:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo44.JPG

here are some build pics of the sub enclosure:
first the entire area was taped off, sheeting thrown down and the the back mold done up:

http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo47.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo48.JPG

this is the front baffle, with the edges rabetted:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo49.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo50.JPG

then the baffle was attached to the trimmed back section, with metal rods used to give it a more rounded shape at the top:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo51.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo52.JPG

resin was applied, when that cured, body filler was applied and over several processes, more and more filler was applied to match the edges to the car's carpeting precisely, the grille piece was also test fitted at the same time

http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo54.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo55.JPG

joey then made a press and fabricated the grille and test fitted to the wooden portion:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo56.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo57.JPG

for future FR-S/ BR-Z builds, we decided to make a mold of the back of the enclosure, so after much smoothing, gel coating etc, this is the finish product next to the subbox itself, with an air fitting attached to it to allow us to pop the new pieces easier in the future:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo58.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo59.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo60.JPG

going back to the subbox, the entire enclosure was then carpeted, dyed darker, and then the main baffle was cut out and a piece of red vinly was attached and cut precisely along the edge:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo61.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo62.JPG

and an Audiomobile elite 2208 8" sub was installed. total sealed volume is somewhere around .6.
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo63.JPG

the back of the enclosure:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo64.JPG

the two piece grille was then wrapped in their respective vinyl, the grille mesh secured and then mated together:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo65.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo66.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo67.JPG

and finally, the grille was press fit onto the box for the completed design:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo68.JPG
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http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo71.JPG

so thats it for the subbox...moving on to the rest of the trunk. we removed the stock amp and in its place, located the mosconi 6to8 DSP:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo72.JPG

once again, joey fabricated a cool bracket to secure the unit with oem mounting holes and bolts:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo73.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo74.JPG
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http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo77.JPG

now, onto the amps...as you can see from previous sub enclosure pics, standing at normal height you cant see the amps at all, you would have go bend down to your knees to see the three Arc audio KS Mini amps bolted to the room of the trunk. we chose the arc minis because of their size, the three amps can actually go into the channel area under the rear deck, saving us quite a few inches of additional room:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo78.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo79.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo42.JPG

here are some fabrication pics of the rack. first, using our stronghand welding table and precision clamps, we made the rack out of metal stock:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo80.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo81.JPG

when that was painted black, the amps were bolted onto it (except the middle amp which had to go on after the center attachment point is secured to the car:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo82.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo83.JPG

we installed a total of four big rivet nut sets onto the rear deck to bolt the entire structure securely:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo84.JPG
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http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo86.JPG

after the amps were secured, i lied in the trunk and wired it all up in about 5 hours, working with the amps upside down and inches from my face was a bit of a challenge lol, but i managed it. but it is almost impossible to take pictures of the amp rack and wiring properly. so here are the best attempts from me. but everything is still neatly bundled, ziptied and secured every few inches...yo would really need to see the car in person by ducking your head into the trunk to see all the wiring.
one KS mini 125.4 is bridged powering the midbass with 250 watts each, another is bridged on the tweeter at 250 watts each (headroom ftw, but also gives him the flexibility to expand to a 3 way in the future if he wanted to) while on arc audio's recommendation, a 125.2 power the audiomobile 8" sub with 250 watts RMS.

these pictures also show how the entire structure was able to attach to the highest points of the trunk, allowing the amp rack to be tucked up and out of the way:
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo87.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo88.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo89.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo90.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo92.JPG

so thats it...a few quick shots of the audiomobile 2208, if you want to know how its bigger brother preforms, go here:

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/...l-mosconi.html

but this sub is basically the same thing, moderately priced, nothing too crazy to look at, but boy does it perform...
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo93.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo94.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo95.JPG
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo96.JPG

overall, the car sounds very nice, great detail with a nice center image, good height and width, the mdibass of full of impact and overall just a nice sounding car. the subbass, with the arc mini's BX^2 circuit engaged, sounds nothing like a single 8" in a sealed trunk with 250 watts, it sound much fuller and bigger. and infact, see this picture of the freq response, with the BX circuit off and on...really nice for a single 8. though it looks just like a low shelving filter, it SOUNDS much more than that...really i would have guessed single 10" for sure. once again, bravo to audiomobile on producing a fine 8" sub
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/blo97.JPG

so thats it, just spent the last 5 hours posting build logs...time to take a rest.
but one last thing, i made this quick video with my phone to perhaps better show the trunk:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KP67biB4uo"]2013 FRS Custom Trunk Build by Simplicity In Sound - YouTube[/ame]
adios :)

b

Magnificent. Love the fabrication work. I'm gobsmacked at someone fitting three nice amps in that location so neatly and discreetly. Even the best installers in my city are an embarrassment compared to Bing.

Looks great! Did the foam under the rear deck stop the rattle? When I turn the bass up the third brake light rattle is almost louder than the music :(

thanks guys, i want to point out that Joey is the one that did almost all the fab work on this car :) and hes the one that deserves the credit :)

redmist, i know quite a few very cool installers in australia, one may even be in QLD. we talk quite a bit, mostly about V8s and why i love lowndsey and frosty so much :)

Looks great! Thanks for posting. Nice pics.

another excellent build, and they made a mold for future sub box creation. that is a great development for the bay area 86 community.

congrats on the build man!

Very clean build man!

thanks guys, Brian, when am i gotta get a peek at the BR-Z in person!? :)

Beautiful work

Bing Is a Beast!!! I follow anything he does on DIYMA!

Lol you can also follow simplicity in sound's Facebook page since the updates are more frequent. Lol maybe you shouldn't actually that's what I do every hour at work and I'm about to get in trouble!! Lol

No deadening on the outer door skins?

never mind.. i see it now: "next, 8 blocks of focal blackhole Tile went onto the outter door skin to help tame resonance:"

no sq install would be complete without some sound proofing on the outter door skins. the blackhole tile is by far my favorite, about 30-40 percent coverage on the outter door skin isignificantly reduces the resonance on it. its pricey, but IMO well worth it compared to try to stick normal CLD damper on it...and IMO more effective. :D

How much is that sub and where can you buy them?