Big audio install?
09-01-09, 07:02 AM
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Big audio install?
Has anybody done a big audio install in their FD3S or have pictures of 1. I am doing 1 in my car and need some inspiration and/or input on it. Still deciding on removing my back seat or trying to fit everything into the boot and back headspace etc.
09-01-09, 08:01 PM
#2
Persona non grata
I'm planning one for my FD right now, but have done plenty in other cars in the past ... mostly in FC's. I also build high end home stereo speakers for a living, speaker in the $2500 - $15000/pair price range. I design all my own crossovers and test the drivers thoroughly, and I have a very critical ear. Just some background.
My best advice for install in a FD is focus on the front stage, forget about rear fill speakers. My plan is to spend a lot of time rebuilding the doors into a suitable home for the front stage. That means building up the inner door panel into something acoustically dead and mechanically solid, and sealing/deadening the metal door skin as much as possible. After that is placement, the three things you want but have to compromise on are that you want the individual drivers as high as possible, as far forward as possible, and as close together as possible. Instead of high, more accurate to say would be as close to ear level as possible. I could go into a full novel on this, but I just keep it sweet by saying that getting the driver placed far forward is the compromise that must be made in a FD. You also can only get the drivers - woofer especially - so high, so build around that limitation as well. Put your front stage woofer in the factory location but build up the doors and much as possible as I mention above, do what you can to aim the woofer upward towards your ears, and then mount the tweeter as close to the woofer as possible. Also try and angle it upwards towards the ears. Forget mids in the kickpanels, and forget a pillars for tweeter mounting. Kickpanels have to much material inbetween there and your ears, you need a clean line of sight ... and a-pillar mounting puts the tweeters too far away from your woofer and you'll get serious phase issues.
For a sub, keep it simple. It's a tiny cabin and can be overloaded easily. You may or may not know what boomy one-note bass sounds like, but that's typically what differentiates bass in a home and bass in a car. If you want even, balanced, musical bass then get a single high quality sub like a Seas L26ROY and tune it low or run it sealed. Cabin gain in a car will greatly emphasize the mid-bass region, around 50-100hz. By tuning low it can help to even that out. You can also use equalization to even things out there.
If you want quality sound, you have to start by sound deadening the entire car. It's a fair amount of work, but really must be done. Pull the carpet and do the floors and firewall, also the hatch floor and walls, and the doors (mentioned above too).
... that's all for now
My best advice for install in a FD is focus on the front stage, forget about rear fill speakers. My plan is to spend a lot of time rebuilding the doors into a suitable home for the front stage. That means building up the inner door panel into something acoustically dead and mechanically solid, and sealing/deadening the metal door skin as much as possible. After that is placement, the three things you want but have to compromise on are that you want the individual drivers as high as possible, as far forward as possible, and as close together as possible. Instead of high, more accurate to say would be as close to ear level as possible. I could go into a full novel on this, but I just keep it sweet by saying that getting the driver placed far forward is the compromise that must be made in a FD. You also can only get the drivers - woofer especially - so high, so build around that limitation as well. Put your front stage woofer in the factory location but build up the doors and much as possible as I mention above, do what you can to aim the woofer upward towards your ears, and then mount the tweeter as close to the woofer as possible. Also try and angle it upwards towards the ears. Forget mids in the kickpanels, and forget a pillars for tweeter mounting. Kickpanels have to much material inbetween there and your ears, you need a clean line of sight ... and a-pillar mounting puts the tweeters too far away from your woofer and you'll get serious phase issues.
For a sub, keep it simple. It's a tiny cabin and can be overloaded easily. You may or may not know what boomy one-note bass sounds like, but that's typically what differentiates bass in a home and bass in a car. If you want even, balanced, musical bass then get a single high quality sub like a Seas L26ROY and tune it low or run it sealed. Cabin gain in a car will greatly emphasize the mid-bass region, around 50-100hz. By tuning low it can help to even that out. You can also use equalization to even things out there.
If you want quality sound, you have to start by sound deadening the entire car. It's a fair amount of work, but really must be done. Pull the carpet and do the floors and firewall, also the hatch floor and walls, and the doors (mentioned above too).
... that's all for now
09-03-09, 05:58 PM
#3
Before I was a real car guy, I was an audio guy. Im in the process of rebuilding a shell I bought. Included in that is removing the stock Bose stuff and replacing with quality speakers. All I can say is I've never worked on a car with so little room. Usually you can stash an amp under a seat or in a bin, but not with the FD. One bin has my battery relocated in it. The other has my distribution fuse block and battery kill switch. I ended up mounting both amps to the center divider and building a box for two 8" subs. I may be kicking myself in the butt for not going single 10".
Anyways, removing the bins would gain you a ton of space obviously. the only thing I would be worried about is how the whole flow of the interior will look without them there. It can be done, but requires a lot of time. I was unwilling to remove the spare tire, but that is a prime location for a molded sub box or amp rack of some kind. I did as previously stated as my car was almost already stripped and covered everything in sound dead. Put 6.5" in the front doors and 5.25" in the rears. Hopefully the subs are not too much. I put an amp to each as I want my highs to scream. Anyways, I did a search originally under FD stereo setups and found all kinds. Ones with the bins removed as well. Many members fill their whole hatch with the sub box and mount all the amps underneath. I'd like to at least put a bag in back. As stated above though, with such a small car and it being a hatch, there is no need for huge subs. I'd focus on the interior speakers first.
Cant tell ya how my setup sounds as its not done yet, along with the rest of the car, but just throwin some ideas out there for ya. Have fun and good luck.
Anyways, removing the bins would gain you a ton of space obviously. the only thing I would be worried about is how the whole flow of the interior will look without them there. It can be done, but requires a lot of time. I was unwilling to remove the spare tire, but that is a prime location for a molded sub box or amp rack of some kind. I did as previously stated as my car was almost already stripped and covered everything in sound dead. Put 6.5" in the front doors and 5.25" in the rears. Hopefully the subs are not too much. I put an amp to each as I want my highs to scream. Anyways, I did a search originally under FD stereo setups and found all kinds. Ones with the bins removed as well. Many members fill their whole hatch with the sub box and mount all the amps underneath. I'd like to at least put a bag in back. As stated above though, with such a small car and it being a hatch, there is no need for huge subs. I'd focus on the interior speakers first.
Cant tell ya how my setup sounds as its not done yet, along with the rest of the car, but just throwin some ideas out there for ya. Have fun and good luck.
09-03-09, 10:01 PM
#4
Persona non grata
Hey Sin, something I've tried in a RX-7 before that worked VERY well was a single 8" with a passive radiator. Two 8's in the same box will give you more output obviously, but a single 8" with a radiator tuned to the low 20's will give a very well balanced bass presentation. Just pick your woofer carefully, use LSPcad to model it out first. You'll need one with a high-ish Q likely, since you've already built the box with airspace for 2 8's ... but you sound like a guy that should be able to handle that.
For the rear fill I HIGHLY suggest cutting off whatever you put back there at 5-600hz. Anything in the treble region coming from that close to your head but behind will totally smear the soundstage and destroy the imaging. I'll be using some GR Research 5.25" woofers with a XBL2 motor back there, just because I have them ... but also because they fit the application well.
An indash that can set delay between channels is a must have for solid imaging in a RX7.
For the rear fill I HIGHLY suggest cutting off whatever you put back there at 5-600hz. Anything in the treble region coming from that close to your head but behind will totally smear the soundstage and destroy the imaging. I'll be using some GR Research 5.25" woofers with a XBL2 motor back there, just because I have them ... but also because they fit the application well.
An indash that can set delay between channels is a must have for solid imaging in a RX7.
09-04-09, 02:56 AM
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Before I was a real car guy, I was an audio guy. Im in the process of rebuilding a shell I bought. Included in that is removing the stock Bose stuff and replacing with quality speakers. All I can say is I've never worked on a car with so little room. Usually you can stash an amp under a seat or in a bin, but not with the FD. One bin has my battery relocated in it. The other has my distribution fuse block and battery kill switch. I ended up mounting both amps to the center divider and building a box for two 8" subs. I may be kicking myself in the butt for not going single 10".
Anyways, removing the bins would gain you a ton of space obviously. the only thing I would be worried about is how the whole flow of the interior will look without them there. It can be done, but requires a lot of time. I was unwilling to remove the spare tire, but that is a prime location for a molded sub box or amp rack of some kind. I did as previously stated as my car was almost already stripped and covered everything in sound dead. Put 6.5" in the front doors and 5.25" in the rears. Hopefully the subs are not too much. I put an amp to each as I want my highs to scream. Anyways, I did a search originally under FD stereo setups and found all kinds. Ones with the bins removed as well. Many members fill their whole hatch with the sub box and mount all the amps underneath. I'd like to at least put a bag in back. As stated above though, with such a small car and it being a hatch, there is no need for huge subs. I'd focus on the interior speakers first.
Cant tell ya how my setup sounds as its not done yet, along with the rest of the car, but just throwin some ideas out there for ya. Have fun and good luck.
Anyways, removing the bins would gain you a ton of space obviously. the only thing I would be worried about is how the whole flow of the interior will look without them there. It can be done, but requires a lot of time. I was unwilling to remove the spare tire, but that is a prime location for a molded sub box or amp rack of some kind. I did as previously stated as my car was almost already stripped and covered everything in sound dead. Put 6.5" in the front doors and 5.25" in the rears. Hopefully the subs are not too much. I put an amp to each as I want my highs to scream. Anyways, I did a search originally under FD stereo setups and found all kinds. Ones with the bins removed as well. Many members fill their whole hatch with the sub box and mount all the amps underneath. I'd like to at least put a bag in back. As stated above though, with such a small car and it being a hatch, there is no need for huge subs. I'd focus on the interior speakers first.
Cant tell ya how my setup sounds as its not done yet, along with the rest of the car, but just throwin some ideas out there for ya. Have fun and good luck.
I got hold of some JBL 6.5 this week - by chance - for the front, will JBL 5.25 fit in the standard back speaker enclosures, and it's why you recommend the size?
The equipent I have so far, it will be JBL equipment, just my personal taste.
2 x GTi 12" series 2 subs, 700rms 4000watt each.
1 x 2200wattRMS JBL crown amp for subs
1 x 340wattRMS JBL amp for fill
2 x 1 farad digital caps
1 x set 6505 JBL 6.5 mids and tweeters front
Outstanding
Back fill speakers, coaxials
DVD radio
DVD player 17"
Equalizer
09-04-09, 10:09 AM
#6
Great input BOOSTD. Its been a long time since I've had this type setup and will have to do plenty of tuning with the 4 channel with how everything is setup. Also on the box, have never tried a passive setup but wish I did before I made the dual 8's box. I may end up trying that down the road if this is not low enough but too loud for the range I'm looking for. I should be more picky about my subs but I'm a cheap ***. Everything minus the subs I had in the garage from other cars.
Good luck with your build man. I will eventually post up my small setup and results I got.
Good luck with your build man. I will eventually post up my small setup and results I got.
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10-19-10, 05:55 PM
#8
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My best advice for install in a FD is focus on the front stage, forget about rear fill speakers. My plan is to spend a lot of time rebuilding the doors into a suitable home for the front stage. That means building up the inner door panel into something acoustically dead and mechanically solid, and sealing/deadening the metal door skin as much as possible. After that is placement, the three things you want but have to compromise on are that you want the individual drivers as high as possible, as far forward as possible, and as close together as possible. Instead of high, more accurate to say would be as close to ear level as possible. I could go into a full novel on this, but I just keep it sweet by saying that getting the driver placed far forward is the compromise that must be made in a FD. You also can only get the drivers - woofer especially - so high, so build around that limitation as well. Put your front stage woofer in the factory location but build up the doors and much as possible as I mention above, do what you can to aim the woofer upward towards your ears, and then mount the tweeter as close to the woofer as possible. Also try and angle it upwards towards the ears. Forget mids in the kickpanels, and forget a pillars for tweeter mounting. Kickpanels have to much material inbetween there and your ears, you need a clean line of sight ... and a-pillar mounting puts the tweeters too far away from your woofer and you'll get serious phase issues.
I'm told window glass can not be cut or ground to section the portion that contacts the magnet. To mount these I will have to extend a baffle past the surface of the speaker grill and come up with a new grill design to hide the surgery.
Have any of you made progress with your FD front stage installs ? Has anyone cut into the mirror defrost ducts to mount a tweeter under the mirror defrost vent ?
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