I like the sound of the speakers in the doors, but I'm not too happy with the sound that I'm getting from the triaxials in the back: it's very thin, with NO bass at all. I can't get away with subs in this car. Do you have any suggestions for improving the sound from the rears?

 

The 404 would help, but really you have no chance with the factory stereo it only has 13 watts max to each speaker which is no way enough to push the 6x9's. I would run an amp and look into a sub. If I may ask why can't you get away with a sub?

 

I replaced the front and rear speakers with infinity reference series speakers which are 2-100 watts and the factory deck did a decent job powering them. I switched to a Pioneer in dash dvd and noticed a tremendous difference in the bass and clarity. I am moving to an infinity 6 channel amp as soon as it gets here. I can't wait to hear the difference once it's in. I have some very cool stuff in the works, I will post pictures once I am done. I am struggling with the sub location though, I don't want to give up cargo space, but a system without a subwoofer isn't much of a system at all. I already have the sub, I am using a Kicker L7 10 inch solobaric to provide the thump. I have a place working on a fiberglass enclosure to go in the well behind the tire. It is just barely enough airspace and I am not sure what it is going to sound like once it is done. $400-$500 is a lot of money to have a few OOPS! in trying to get the right sound out of a subwoofer. Hopefully it works out ok. I am going to put all the electronics under the cargo area in the space that is about 3.5 inches deep. I am going to lay in a 1/2 inch thick piece of plywood and vinyl it, that will take up 2/3 of the length of the cargo area (up to the spare tire cover). I will mount the electronics on that. I will then make a top cover with cutouts for the tops of the electronics. I will make steps underneath the electronics to make them all flush with the top cover piece. In the center of the top cover I have a 6 inch wide piece of Plexi that is the width of the cargo area, it has "Magnum" etched into it. There are green LED's drilled into the top and bottom edges and the "Magnum" glows green.

What do you guys think?

 

I think that the Solobaric subwoofer is too power hungry to be of any use and it requires too much box volume to be effective. Plus the square diaphragm, while showy and cool looking does nothing at all for cone rigidity. It will concentrate physical loads at the corners which will flex the cone and cause massive amounts of sound distortion. Ricers and pounders don't care about sound quality as long as it's loud and can hurt you when the bass is cranked up. Round drivers are best for sound quality. You should return it and purchase an Image Dynamics IDQ-10. These speakers have won more than their fair share of sound quality competitions at IASCA events and they require less than one cubic foot of sealed box volume to couple them properly. That small amount of volume means that a custom enclosure can be built in one of the side cubby holes in the back. Then you can reserve the space underneath the floor cover for the electronics.

Henry

 

Well I'm done,2 days about five hours total and man am I one happy camper. One correction don't wire anything to the Can Bus wires leave them capped off. Wire the amp remote to the radio remote turn on if it's aftermarket, or to the assc. plug under the radio. If you wire it to the Can Bus everything works but after the car's computer catches up with what you did it won't start and give you a No Data error. After everything was hooked up I DB'ed it and it is hitting in the 140's db in the car. For the subwoofer, I first made a box to fit the cubby hole and man did that suck, it rattled so much because there's nothing behind the wall. It would have needed to be padded big time. I didn't want to loose any space so I came up with a floating sub box, making use of the double deck floor. The sub is floating in air sitting in a ported box. which takes care of any unwanted noise. The new Alpine with the built in v power amp is unbelievable. The guys I know who run the best award winning shop around here. When they said I wouldn't need an amp with this deck I started laughing, but after hooking it up and running for a few hours now. Alpine has hit the jack pot with this one. Now if I was going for the here me coming blocks away sound I would need an amp. But for the audio lover sound, this is awesome. The sub is powered by a 900 watt Rockford 301 amp. Here's some Pictures. I hope this helps someone out there who wants to go aftermarket. Redhouse

 

AMP

[IMG]local://upfiles/5736/A1F19EB521984585B81BC0E6720E1121.jpg[/IMG]

 

Sub

[IMG]local://upfiles/5736/90998124D4DC49478AF421C175D3C439.jpg[/IMG]

 

Sub installed

[IMG]local://upfiles/5736/CA0B119A70D740B585CE21F1288D22FA.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/5736/4F2BA0E5B1D847E1B6FC4BF60AD0ACAC.jpg[/IMG]

 

Here's the Sub box which comes out as easy as picking up the floor.
Also a cleaner shot of the radio in dash. I have a grill ordered for coving the sub so that when loading stuff in back it won't get hurt. and I'll be able to put stuff right on top of it. It only sticks up from the floor less then an inch.

[IMG]local://upfiles/5736/8124DDCA2FDA45BFA7EA59398135650C.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/5736/A84249CA6FFB4436B4F0778C76C5585D.jpg[/IMG]

 

Thanks for clarifying the little CAN buss thingy, I was getting ready to tear you up. FYI for anybody who reads this, DO NOT EVER TOUCH THE CAN NETWORK, thanks.

BTW, very nice work. Looks very nice. I've seen lots of aftermarket installs and this is one of the cleanest.