Well, I finally got everything installed!
The CDT speakers I ordered were, as predicted, too deep for the doors in my car, so I had to build some spacers out of 1/2" MDF using a jigsaw. This was pretty easy.
I liberally coated the exterior and interior door skins and door panel with RAAMmat 60, a dampening material, and installed the 6.5" woofers in the factory door location. I put the tweeters in the factory A-Pillar locations, wiring the driver-side tweeter out-of-phase to raise the soundstage to eye level (this idea came from my installer, AudioCreations, who put in the amp and Head Unit).
For head-unit, I bought an Eclipse 8443, which comes with 8V pre-outs (very nice), 24 bit DAC, time alignment features, and built-in parametric EQ. Other than that, it's pretty basic for features. Extremely nice-sounding unit, however.
Lastly, I discovered that the used amp I picked out had a 90 hz fixed crossover point (can go high-pass or low pass, but it can't play full range). Given this limitation, I'm saving this amp as a subwoofer amp. I'll bridge it and run low-pass for a sub. I have a 12" driver left over from my HT upgrade (it's one of the original SVS 20-39 drivers), and that should be nice in the car, don't you think?).
Anyway, since the PPI didn't work out, I bought an Eclipse 50x4 amp which is now bridged into 140w x 2 to drive my front-stage components.
Results: AMAZING. The 1" silk tweeters were surprisingly brite for the first two days but have progressively mellowed with break-in. All I can say is I'm extremely impressed with the CDT components, and I am generally happy with the Eclipse deck as well, though I am waiting until the speakers completely break in before messing about with the parametric EQ and time alignment features. If anyone is looking for a good Sound Quality install, and you are looking for a smooth, integrated, non-fatiguing, yet detailed sound, I would highly recommend the CDT HD components.
Cheers,
John G
