I started the install over the Thanksgiving weekend. Worked for about 4 days straight with help from my dad, and the goodies in his shop.

The ride…2005 Sedan


Some of the gear...



Build up and prep…

Front door deadened…Stock speaks still in place


Rear door deadened. Also added panels to seal up the holes in the rear.


Rear seats and panels removed for easy trunk access and wire running.


Baffle mounted in door.


Tray for amp rack. Test fit of eD amps… prior to paint.


Another Shot. Close up of the mounting scheme. Not a big fan of the included mounting tabs.


Pic of the power distribution tray test fitting.


Continued...

 

Here’s the carcass of the amp rack. It fits against the back seat in the trunk. Amps to the outside (amp tray hung on the keyholes) and power distribution tray to the inside. The rear seat pass through works great for fuse and wiring service.



Onto the installation pics….

The amp rack is installed still need to make a finish panel:


A little wider angle:


Here is the power tray side of the rack. The fuses and wiring are accessible via the pass through in the back seat. The “missing” fuse is for the 9.1. Waiting on the pre-ordered 13ov.2.


And onto the RUX install.

Infiniti was nice enough to provide a perfectly sized cubby lid:


Here is a wider shot with the cubby open:


Cubby closed:


Continued

 

Onto the transducers…

Image tweeters- LPG 25NFA’s in the sail panels. These are high passed at 10khz. They receive a whopping 7 clean watts from the front channel of the Zapco:


Primary tweeters- Alpine/ScanSpeak SPXF-17T Silks. These are high passable down to 1khz, however, right now they are playing 2.0hz on up. These get ~12 watts from the rear channel of the Zapco:


Mids- Seas Lotus Reference 6.5”. 150w Bridged on NINe.4. Band-passed from 63hz-1.8khz:


And finally, the eu-700’s in the rear doors. I currently have these low passed at 56hz. These are dual-fours bridged to the other NINe.4:


A little wider angle view:


And here is the sub peeking out of the modified door panel. Had to remove the factory spacer and grille-work on the inside of the panel. It still hits the panel on long throws. I need to sand the baffles down a bit:


4080 Box is en-route. Waiting on the 13oV.2 to ship.

So far, it sounds fantastic. Tonally, the system is excellent. Especially considering no speaker is over 6.5”.

The sound stage is quite high= About 2 inches below the mirror. There is some minor rainbow effect. I think some x-over tweaking may help a bit here.

The system images fairly well. Center is a bit diffused. Stage width is inside the a-pillars, but not by much…still a little bunched to the right. Need to play around with the TA a bit more.

That’s it for now. Comments/Questions always welcome.

 

Noice!!!

 

Craftsmanship looks excellent.

I wonder about your tweeter amp. Based on the spectral analyses I've read, you will clip that Zapco sometimes (even though I know how clean it is!) You don't specifically state it, but yourr power ratings indicate that you took into account the nominal 8-ohm value of the LPG 25NFA. I wold expect the imaging tweeters to clip on occasion. I also have never bought into the whole "imaging tweeter" program - I doubt that center fuzziness will ever be eliminated - but I'm glad it's sounding good for ya.

Are the tweeters the Scan Speak chambered model that Alpine doesn't use any longer? I can't see them that well... but that is a great tweeter - a shame you can't run it lower. Also shame it doesn't fit in many of the places we'd like it to...

I think you shouldhave put heat shrink on the LPG terminals, and I think the front woofers should have an outer ring sealing up aginast the back of the door panel, and I'm worried about the EU-700 surround actually hitting the back of the door panel (as well as them moving the image aft and landing the drum kit in your lap : ) but these are minor criticisms. Looks like very well executed work, well planned.

I especially like your sound deadening technique - you retained servicability, which so many forget about.

Nice pics too

 

That is one bad a$$ install. One question how did you get the face of the HU to go where it is without being attached to the unit it's self?
-GP-

 

Dude, thanks for taking the time to post your suggestions. I am sure at times I am clipping the LPGs. I have never used image tweeters before either. I am not sure if they are really providing any real value at this point. I will spend some time listening without them and see how it imacts stage height.

Yes, these are the tweets you are referring to. These things are insane. They sound absolutely amazing. I too, am not thrilled with the lack of installation flexibility but they sound great. The good news is that the cup's finishes blends extremely well with the interior. I can lower their HP cutoff if I need to. I have a preset saved for 1.8khz. Started doing some A/B testing this week. Findings are still to come.

I am confused on your comments about the outer ring on the fronts. Can you elaborate?

 

Thanks Gdup!!! We spent A LOT of time working on it. I appreciate the compliments.

The face is not really a face at all. It is the controller for the Alpine H701 processor which lives in the trunk.

 

^^OIC, very nice. The install looks quality. Post up some pix when you get your 4080 box in their. I've got my box with 2 12's and a false floor for the amp that i should get in by the end of febuary, should be sweet. I love your amp rack on the back of the seat, very clean.

 

Thanks again! I plan on taking some *final* shots once I get the box and sub and finish the other misc things.

 

The OEM speaker spacer combo matesn snugly up against the back of the door panel. The panel itself has a slight round tab and foam tape on it to create a seal.

If the speaker spacer couples against the door panel, then the speaker piston is firing effectively right though the grille opening into the passenger cabin.

If it's not, it's essentially firing into the chamber between the door trim panel and the door sheet metal. Pretty different sound, especially in the midbass.

Your midbass is better because you sealed up any holes in the doors... but if you make the Seas mate up to the door panel speaker hole, it will work even better.

How's it sounding with everything broken in?

 

i'm not much of a sound system guy, but your work looks pretty damn impressive... i don't have the guts to rip apart my g like that... at least not for a few years :P

 

Ahhhh... I see what you are saying elD. Hmmm... I'll have to noodle on that a bit. I wonder if I can take a couple inch wide strip of 1/8" thick rubber and glue it around the circumference of the baffle? I bet that would do the trick.

Everything is sounding fantastic, except for the EU's slapping the door panel. I am going to take them out next week and sand the baffles down a bit to get some more room for their excursion. I also have an idea on how to push the panel out a bit near the speaker... We'll see. If it doesn't work out, it's ok. They were only fifty bux a pop. I'll just sell them.

Since my last post, I have adjusted the T/A. I am getting a much more solid center now. I know it's a band aid, but I am not building kicks. Plus, my wife is my only passenger, and she doesn't give a crap about staging and imaging.

 

It's not guts. It's a strong dislike for the factory sound.

I did have a couple of "oopsies". However, the cost for repair was MUCH MUCH less than the cost of having a shop do the install. Plus, the pride that you get from doing it yourself is worth a lot. At least to me. It more than makes up for the time I spent on it.

 

how did you make those "keyholes" that the amp rack sits on?... i would like to use something similar to make my new amp racks removeable should i need to fit something big in the trunk