[Se7en]

Hey folks,

I thought I'd share some pics of a recent project, a SQ car audio install. This is something I've wanted to do for a long time but has been postponed a couple of times over the past 3-4 years and is now finally underway.

I wanted to share some pics with you even though this isn't the typical material for this forum, this place has been a great place of reference, learning and inspiration for me over the years.

I should put a couple of disclaimers out there first.

1. This is not a show car, it is my daily driver. The overall aesthetic of the system was intended to be straight forward, strong, accessible and easy to use.

2. Another goal was to not destroy the car in terms of long term resale value or daily usability (in total only four additional holes were drilled for mounting points and only a very small amount of metal and carpet trimmed) . There were specific weight goals put in place to ensure that the balance of the car never exceeded 50/50 bias (F53/R47 from the factory). Simply put, I didn't want to feel like I was driving a bus around.

3. This is intended to be a rolling project. As opposed to having to redo the trunk every time I made a change or added a speaker, I decided to install as much equipment into the car now as I could forsee using for future changes or experiments. Similarly, the car was fully pre-wired for future changes (as best as I could imagine).

4. This has been designed to be a stealthy, two seat car. The good news is that it has worked out...very well in fact.

5. It's not done yet...There is still work to be done, the kick panels have already been re-done and finished out (I just don't have pics yet), etc.

With that, here's some pictures. Feel free to ask any questions or share any opinions.

Thanks!

BTW: It sounds incredible..


Equipment:

Front Stage:
Dyn Esotar 2 110 430

Midbass:
Dyn Esotec MW 182

Sub stage:
Dyn Esotar 2 1200


Esotar 2 110




Esotar 2 430


Esotec MW182


Esotar 2 1200




Amplification:
Front Stage:
TRU Tech Super Billet 8 (custom everything)
Sub Stage:
TRU Tech Billet 2200 (stage 3, custom everything)
Future projects:
TRU Tech Billet 4100 (stage 3, custom everything)





Processing:
2x TRU Tech Line Drivers
Audison Bit One.1

Car:
2009 Cadillac CTS-V (6 spd manual)
































































That's it for now..

[hibuckhobby]

Nice clean install.  I used to compete as a Pro for Sony and Kicker back in the
mid-late '90's and I appreaciate good work.  Good job on the dynamat too
The last car I did had mids in the doors and the the tweeter and the smaller mids
in the kick panels.  For that car, I found that the stage was higher and wider
if I placed the mid in front of the tweeter, with the whole pod oriented horizontally,
rather than vertically.   I see you also are using the woofer free air.  Are you running it with a
aperiodic mat in front of it or straight free air?

Again, nice job.  Makes me want to replace the system in my Avalon...but I'm too old to
be laying under the dash anymore 
regards,
Hibuck....

[Se7en]

Hibuck,

Thanks for the compliment. I tried the mid tweet combo in just about every configuration imaginable in this car (including variations of one or both in the A pillars. This process took me about 3 days in total. There seemed to be a couple recurring themes for good sound, 1. keep the mid and tweet on the same plane, 2. keep the tweet at the lowest possible location, and 3 given the off axis response of these drivers it really didn't seem to matter where we put them in the kicks, staging was high and wide. The main benefit to having them that on axis to each other and not the listener is that we found that we were getting the best response in both seats.

Currently the stage is solidly placed between the dash and rear view mirror, with vocals dead center for both passenger and driver and depending on program material, the stage goes well outside the Apillars of the car.

The sub is playing straight up IB but we did consider some AP type configurations and we may com back to that later after more tuning has been done. The midbass in the doors play all the way into the mid 30s with almost no resonance (bass is WAY up front). The sub is bandbassed from 24-45hz for the time being but that will be the last thing I tune into the system. Even with gains set to "0", the system is not lacking bass.

Nice clean install.  I used to compete as a Pro for Sony and Kicker back in the
mid-late '90's and I appreaciate good work.  Good job on the dynamat too
The last car I did had mids in the doors and the the tweeter and the smaller mids
in the kick panels.  For that car, I found that the stage was higher and wider
if I placed the mid in front of the tweeter, with the whole pod oriented horizontally,
rather than vertically.   I see you also are using the woofer free air.  Are you running it with a
aperiodic mat in front of it or straight free air?

Again, nice job.  Makes me want to replace the system in my Avalon...but I'm too old to
be laying under the dash anymore 
regards,
Hibuck....

[hibuckhobby]

Thanks for the response.  Nice to meet someone who's into high end mobile audio.
I only had 6.5" free air's in my doors back then, crossed over at 70hz because the
Sony digital gear would go any lower than that.  Then had two 10" FA subs in the
rear deck.  Wasn't real loud, since I was in the Pro 151-300 class in IASCA, but
would hit 130db...which I never used except in competition.  I was one of the first
cars in the Midwest with good "up front" bass that didn't have a bass driver built
into the firewall or in some way placed ahead of the front seat.  Great fun, but got
real tired of driving to the competitions, so I got out after a couple of years. 

As far as staging, my only problem was the width of the car (Dodge Intrepid ES) so
I did a little digital manipulation regarding arrival times to get a decent center from
the passenger's side.  Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
Hibuck....

[sl_1800]

Very nice work.  I also was into car audio back many years ago, even before cd.  Your work is great and looks very clean, that was the look I was always striving for.

[Levi]

That is a one great build!  Thanks for sharing. 

Are you still using the stock radio?  I think a truly audiophile receiver will do justice to your project! 

I am sure you thought about that one.  So which one you getting?