Looks like the amp will be here sooner, sort of. Infinity just notified everyone that the amp I want is now at least 2 months out. Got a call from onlinecarstereo offering to give me a Kicker 08zx700.5 amp at a discount, and I took it just so I can get my system finished in the next couple weeks. Only hitch is the Kicker is a larger amp dimension wise, but oh well.

 

Just an update. Swapped decks today, from the first generation Alpine Ipod head unit, to the 2nd gen. First gen worked fine, but liked the button layout and 'black' look of the next gen. Sound deadened the doors after installing the front speakers with adapter plates. Just fabbed up some adapter plates out of some tin since I was going to put deadener over all of it. Should have everything ready for the amp by tomorrow night, outside of some final tweeks to the sub box. Amp won't be in until Monday, so it'll have to wait until next weekend.

old deck

new deck

inner door.

 

Final work this weekend...

Ran some temporary wiring from the front components to the head unit to see how they sounded with the crossovers installed, very happy with the result. Ran short on speaker wire (amazing how fast you can go through 40' of speaker wire) so didn't get all the wiring run for the amp. Decided to hold off until next weekend when I can pull the seats out to make running the power cable/amp install that much easier.

Finished the sub box. Mounted it to the frame and did some final caulking around those connections. Cut the original seat foam to wrap the front/sides of the box to improve the factory seat cover fit. Put it all back together and installed it to see how the final fit was and pretty happy with it.


Just need to pull it again next weekend to do the final mount of the sub into the box. Figured I'd do that last since so I wouldn't risk messing it up taking the box in/out for fitting. Just hope it sounds good now...

 

Here is where it starts on the final day (hopefully) of the stereo install.



Got home from work around 3 yesterday and immediately started removing the interior. Ran the power wire from the battery back through the firewall (which wasn't fun). Decided on a final mounting location under the passenger seat. Wanted to put it behind the back seat on the rear cab, but not enough room, and was worried if I rigged something up to make it fit, wouldn't have enough airspace to cool. Original plan was for under the seat, but the original amp in this process was 6" shorter and would have been completely out of site. With the longer amp, worried about feet kicking it should there be someone in the back...but in the year and a half I've had the truck, only had someone back there once, so I'll get over it. Main motivator in this is time, as it's supposed to be raining heavily this afternoon. I can get this done by mid day with the location.

Can't quite figure out how to switch the amp from 4 ohms to 2 ohms, and the directions are kinda vague. Also, something isn't quite right, because I have a 2 ohm sub, but seems the amp only has a 4 ohm output for the sub channel. Hoping this is wrong because it looks like a typo, but hard to find decent specs on this amp.

Just going to hook it all up and see what blows. Place your bets...

EDIT: Now believe it is a 2ohm amp default, through all channels. Unreal how bad the owners manual is, full of typos. It's like I proofread it or something..lol.

 

Just to wrap this up.



Everything is hooked up and working, although I'll probably be playing around with tuning for awhile. Probably will add on the Imprint set up and let that do it automatically at some point.

Sound is great with what little I've done. Love the subwoofer add on. System had nice base without being overpowering. Like that it has great base but you don't hear the 'boom boom' or even know a sub is there. I did crank up the sub volume and base to see if it would really kick, and it did, but that wasn't the goal.

Overall, happy with the final product. Love the stealth of the system, and will get around to painting the grills of the tweeters in a few weeks. Only thing I'm not happy about is the amp size, because the original Kappa 5 would have been tucked away a couple inches on each end of the seat, but oh well. Will build a better amp platform at some point, but this is good enough for now. Just wanted to get it together to hear how it sounded.

Thanks to the help from forum members here, got so much more out of the members on this site then the diy audio forum I joined when I started this. Idea for the downfire box came from an old thread I had found in searches where Partschaser talked about building one. Had about 200 questions answered by el oso, which is probably why this has turned out as well as it has, thanks bro.

Won't bore anyone with anymore of this...lol

 

Everything looks good, I like the tweeters in the stock location

 

Thanks.

If I were to do it over again, I would have done somethings differently. Better deadening inside of the door (over the nothing I did), and probably should have done something different with the front speakers/tweeters. Not totally happy with the performance of the Kappa crossover, can't seem to get tuning perfect. Wish I would have wired them differently to the amp and used the crossover there.

Might just be that I haven't totally got the settings perfect yet. Listed to a wide range of music and right when I think it's perfect some other song exploits a weakness.

 

HAHA I have the same problem. In past cars I can get settings perfect for some types of music, but if I listen to metal I have to readjust everything, and then readjust when I listen to rap. I wish there was a universal setting to make everything sound good LOL

But I listen to about everything, with the exception to country

 

You can eliminate some of that issue by turning down your signal sensitivity. I just had to do that the other day on mine since I usually listen to classic rock and some alternative, but for some reason was in the mood for some hard hitting bass. I was getting way too much distortion and feed back from all the other electrical components in the truck. I turned it down and don't have that problem now.

 

I'm still tinkering with mine. Might just be figuring out all the settings for each type of music. I listen to anything but country too. Rap and Rock I have figured out, have issues with other types of music where the base isn't 'low'. Have my amp crossover set to 80 and lower for the sub, and depending on the component crossover to figure out the rest. Just not quite doing the job.

Taken a back seat for now since I'm focusing on the performance end of things.