Finished My Stereo Install!

[michaelahess]

Finished my install, short of the subwoofer which is awaiting RMA, and it's a plug and play affair anyway. Here's what it looks like in the trunk:





The link to pics from most of the install is:

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/...ns-please.html

[sandman126]

Clean install, looks good

[keithbribac]

what did you use to mount the amp on the back?

[michaelahess]

Originally Posted by keithbribac

what did you use to mount the amp on the back?

Screws, of the drywall variety. Be careful, that seat back has metal in it all over, don't ask how I found out!

[Afghan Vet]

Looks good Mike! Again, thanks for all of the pics - will make it easier for those who's installs are still in the planning phase.

[wcbjr]

Hope those screws don't protrude into the back seat very much. Might make a rear passenger very uncomfortable.

[wcbjr]

Where is your ground?


And did you fuse the positive at the battery?

[wcbjr]

Originally Posted by michaelahess

Screws, of the drywall variety. Be careful, that seat back has metal in it all over, don't ask how I found out!

The metal is to give the seat some rigidity, and to prevent stuff in the trunk from flying forward into passengers in the event of a crash.

[Flat Black VW]

Where is your ground going off of the capacitor? I dont see it.

Are you adding another amplifier? if not why the distribution blocks?
Either way, run your grounds (amp,cap) separate. Honestly for a set up like this you do not need a capacitor at all. It will make a cleaner install without it and there will be no noticeable difference.

How does it sound?

[michaelahess]

Screws don't go through too far, I can't feel them pushing into the seat fronts.

The cap may not be necessary, but I had it, and my old school systems always needed them, never had a Class D amp before though. Call it insurance.

I have no plans for another amp assuming the PDX-V9 can handle a sub or two cleanly. I always put dist blocks in as things change and it's easier to put them in at the beggining. In point of fact, I just ordered an H660 DSP, so there ya go.

Fused with Mini ANL off the battery, thought I had a pic of that somewhere....

Cap is grounded into the bottom dist block, that runs straight into my ground off the LATCH bolt.

"Either way, run your grounds (amp,cap) separate" No, that makes no sense, all grounds have to go to a common spot. If you are worried about the 4awg off the amp and cap going to a single 4awg ground, don't be, it's a linear system to it's irrelevant. The minimum load the DSP will take won't affect that. If I add another amp, 0awg will replace the 4awg ground off the block.

Sound is a thousand times better than stock. Even the crappy vibe speakers can be eq'd off the deck to sound better than any factory system I've heard, bose, mark levinson, etc.

The door woofers actually hit very tight and clear. The tweets could use replacement, but their faults can be tolerated for now. They don't sound bad in any way. The mids are a bit hollow, again, even the deck eq was able to mitigate the majority of that issue. The DSP should be able to resolve all these nits.

Oh yeah, don't believe the colors of the power cable, I used what I had, makes it more colorful!

[wcbjr]

Still dont see the ground cable, but I'll take your word for it.

[michaelahess]

The bottom triangle shaped dist block, ground cable goes right down from that, it's covered by the trunk liner.

[cruzinbill]

Originally Posted by michaelahess

Screws don't go through too far, I can't feel them pushing into the seat fronts.

The cap may not be necessary, but I had it, and my old school systems always needed them, never had a Class D amp before though. Call it insurance.

I have no plans for another amp assuming the PDX-V9 can handle a sub or two cleanly. I always put dist blocks in as things change and it's easier to put them in at the beggining. In point of fact, I just ordered an H660 DSP, so there ya go.

Fused with Mini ANL off the battery, thought I had a pic of that somewhere....

Cap is grounded into the bottom dist block, that runs straight into my ground off the LATCH bolt.

"Either way, run your grounds (amp,cap) separate" No, that makes no sense, all grounds have to go to a common spot. If you are worried about the 4awg off the amp and cap going to a single 4awg ground, don't be, it's a linear system to it's irrelevant. The minimum load the DSP will take won't affect that. If I add another amp, 0awg will replace the 4awg ground off the block.

Sound is a thousand times better than stock. Even the crappy vibe speakers can be eq'd off the deck to sound better than any factory system I've heard, bose, mark levinson, etc.

The door woofers actually hit very tight and clear. The tweets could use replacement, but their faults can be tolerated for now. They don't sound bad in any way. The mids are a bit hollow, again, even the deck eq was able to mitigate the majority of that issue. The DSP should be able to resolve all these nits.

Oh yeah, don't believe the colors of the power cable, I used what I had, makes it more colorful!

ya dude, you never run seperate grounds to seperate spots... thats just asking for a ground loop.

I think your setup looks pretty good overall, there a few things I would have done different but its not my setup, and if it works for you it works.

The things of note are the dash speaker install... i wasnt a fan of the foam. and then i would have used a stud and nut to provide a better ground point in the trunk.

Lastly.... when is the damn sub gonna show up lol, been waiting to see it installed, tho I cant talk Im still lollygagging on building my box.

[michaelahess]

Originally Posted by cruzinbill

ya dude, you never run seperate grounds to seperate spots... thats just asking for a ground loop.

I think your setup looks pretty good overall, there a few things I would have done different but its not my setup, and if it works for you it works.

The things of note are the dash speaker install... i wasnt a fan of the foam. and then i would have used a stud and nut to provide a better ground point in the trunk.

Lastly.... when is the damn sub gonna show up lol, been waiting to see it installed, tho I cant talk Im still lollygagging on building my box.

The foam wasn't my first choice, wanted to do mdf, but I've got limited time, and I'm lazy, so that's what it is till I get some better components in there.

When you say stud and nut, do you mean you would have put in your own stud somewhere? I was thinking a lock washer, under and over the ring terminal might make it a bit better.

Still waiting on sonicelectronix to get my sub back to me, they apparently opened a damaged shipment claim with UPS, so it might be a while, not real happy about that. May just order up another box and sub.

My bro-in-law has one of my kicker L7's and I think one of my old Oz Audio bandpass units, might check with him and get one of them back...