KRAZYK's audio build log

[KRAZYK]

I've been planning out this build for a while now.. before I even got the car I think. Tackled it this weekend, have not had a chance to tune it yet but the hard part is done. ~16 hours straight with a 3 hour nap at about 6am lol.. hands are sore and a little cut up but that's the name of the game.

Kenwood DNX7140 Nav head unit
Kicker ZX700.5 amp.. actual output is stable at ~980 watts. Bridged the 4 channels down to 2. Built in sub channel.
Image Dynamics CTX-6.5cs components
Monster 12/14 gauge audio wire
FatMat and RAAM audio closed cell foam(CCF)
Metra 70-1761 wiring harness
Metra 95-8202 dash kit
Scosche LSAAB 02+ dual antenna harness
Speaker baffles by phenryiv1
I am building a box for the JL 12 W3 today.. ill post pics of that in a couple days.

Started off by striping out the interior.. thought about taking the seats out but left them in and just pulled the carpet back when needed (to run wires or FatMat).

Pulled out all 8 stock speakers and secured the stock wiring so it doesn't rattle later on.

Pulled the head unit (non BeSpoke).

~40 sqft of FatMat.. Doors, trunk, floor. Little bit of CCF behind the door speakers.

Ran the power wire for the amp. I am proud of this one.. the power wire I use is BIG.. 0/1 gauge I think. I was looking at the firewall thinking about how tight it is going to be to fit it through the stock firewall wire location (behind the battery). So just for kicks I followed the "noise generator" tube to the firewall to see where it came out, and see how big it was. Turns out it was the PERFECT size for my power wire.. so I pulled the noise tube (which I had planned on doing anyway), and ran the power wire.. saved myself a BIG hassle of trying to run that wire though the stock firewall location.

I cut some plastic with my dremel to make mounts for my tweeters.. turned out nicely. Any bigger and the tweets would have had some spacing issues with the stock covers going back on the dash.

Ran the speaker wire for the doors.. I cut a corner with this one. Instead of running the wire through the door boot I punched a hole on each side of the boot and ran the wire that way. The boot was just too tight to run the wire through and that door gap is so tight.. I would have had to take the door off to actually get my hand in there to guide it through.

Installed the door speakers with door spacers from phenryiv1 .. Fit very nicely and had no problems other than I had to do a little digging for some longer bolts that would fit the spacers and door.

Ran the power wire, RCAs, speaker wire, amp remote wire, bass remote wire, and E-brake wire all through the center console. Tons of room in there, and leads right into the back seat so it was easy to hide the wires all the way to the trunk.

Tucked the Image Dynamics crossovers: one in the glove box, and the other in the dash behind the head unit. I could have probably installed both behind the dash now that I think about it.. but I'm happy with how it is for now.

Mounted the amp on the back seat. The amp is a pretty big 5 channel so I think I got lucky in the sense that the mounting holes just happened to line up pretty well with some solid portions of the back seat to drill into.

Installing the head unit was easy.. I came prepared though, I already had the wiring harness soldered and heat shrink-ed, had the adapter for the antenna, had to trim the dash kit side "filler" panels a little to fit the stock HU brackets, had all of the parts needed to mod the stock USB/aux port. I used this guide for the USB/aux mod: http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/aud...head-unit.html

Once I had the HU in I reconnected the battery and gave everything a quick test.. HU, Amp, speakers all worked so I turned it off and put everything back together. No nuts or bolts left over at the end so I think I did ok.

This is the first time ever working with FatMat or any sort of sound mat.. all of my other audio installs have been pretty low key compared to this one. Car is solid now - doors and trunk close with a solid THUNK.

Gotta thank the ft86club community for various information.. I like to come into these builds with some know-how before I start pulling things apart. Adapter part numbers and product reviews from other members all go into my desicions for my build.

Ill post more pics when I get a chance.

http://s188.photobucket.com/albums/z...ndamonkey/FRS/

[KRAZYK]

More pics uploaded to the photo bucket.. check post above ^

[KRAZYK]

Built and carpeted the sub box yesterday to house the JL audio 12" W3v3.. came out OK. First time I have built and carpeted a box before so I made a little bit of a mess with the carpet and adhesive but I'll clean that up later. Box is 20x10x15 which comes out right around 1.25 cubic feet of air space sealed (which is what JL recommends).

Sub sounds good - now I just have to tune the system. I am getting some static or hissing but I will do some trouble shooting and see if it is coming from the amp or head unit.

I will post pics of the box shortly.

[KRAZYK]

Just an update.. I have some interference coming in to the component speakers. Pretty sure it is alternator noise because the pitch changes as the RPMs change. I think I have a ground loop issue, I have a few things I am going to try to fix the problem.

1. Check amp ground
2. check HU ground
3. check RCA ground
4. Big 3 upgrade
5. Run amp ground to the battery
6. try a new amp

If one of those don't fix it.. I dont know what to do.

[-max-]

Do not run a gound to the battery. Just make sure you have a short lead with good contact to the chassis.

[KRAZYK]

Originally Posted by -max-

Do not run a gound to the battery. Just make sure you have a short lead with good contact to the chassis.

I am 95% sure I have a solid ground to the amp.. but I cant get rid of this alternator whine.

If I run RCAs from my phone to the amp the whine goes away, so I know it is something between the HU and the amp.

I tried:
new RCAs
routing the HU ground to the amp
routing the HU ground to the battery
routing the amp ground to the battery
doing a shield fix on the RCA cables (to ground them to the case of the HU)
unpluging the radio antenna

I need to order some 0/1 gauge terminals today and do a big 3 upgrade later this week.. also might order a capacitor and new amp to test out.

Not sure what else to do..

[Plxdjake89]

Well, I can tell you right now from the little experience I have. You're supposed to route power on one side, and audio ( RCA ) on the other. I believe you're getting hissing because you have them running side by side. Leave the power cables alone, and try routing the RCA cables on the passenger side, trust. Give it a shot, before you knock it.

[KRAZYK]

Originally Posted by Plxdjake89

Well, I can tell you right now from the little experience I have. You're supposed to route power on one side, and audio ( RCA ) on the other. I believe you're getting hissing because you have them running side by side. Leave the power cables alone, and try routing the RCA cables on the passenger side, trust. Give it a shot, before you knock it.

I've tested this.. they are currently running ~1 foot away from each other. But I tested that this was not the issue by running a different set of RCA cables outside of the vehicle and still had the noise. I might try to run a power cable on the outside of the car and see if that changes anything.

[-max-]

If it goes.away when using just your phone and is still there when you use a separate RCA outside the car but still from the hu, then it has to be the hu. I would have it tested.

[KRAZYK]

Originally Posted by -max-

If it goes.away when using just your phone and is still there when you use a separate RCA outside the car but still from the hu, then it has to be the hu. I would have it tested.

Who would be able to test it? take it into an audio shop like car toys or should I look for some place better than that?

[-max-]

Never had to do it myself. If you could find another HU to put in its place, that would work.

[KRAZYK]

Here is something that did work, but I'm not sure if I like doing it this way..

When I tuned my amp I turned the EQ to flat (0s across the board) and turned the volume up to 27/35 and then increased my gains until I hit my 150v that I am sending to each component set. To get to this level I had to turn the gains up to about 7/10 and then tweeked my EQ down slightly. Never UP is what I was told.

Well today I turned the gains down until the noise went away. Then to get more volume I cranked up my EQs and guess what.. the noise is gone. So with the gains set on 3.5/10 the only way to get my power output is to turn the EQ settings up to about +9db on each EQ band and then adjust down from there.

Think this is ok? I dont know if cranking up the EQ like that is good for the sound quality or the amp.. then again I dont know if it will hurt anything.. might just be amping the signal before it gets to the amp.

I just got in a capacitor and some 0 gauge wire today so I am tempted to turn the gains back up and try a big 3 upgrade and a cap to see if that does anything.

What are your thoughts?

btw.. Gains = amp, volume = HU, EQ = HU