Sound system upgrades

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OnTheReel

OnTheReel

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Well, maybe next week. This week ain’t looking too hot. Wish I could fit this pig in my nicely heated garage, but I have too much junk.
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OnTheReel

OnTheReel

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Finally got a couple things done. Amp board took forever to cook up. Wanted to put everything in the driver’s side corner here, but the adaptive dampener control module kinda sticks up in the middle of it. So only the 6 channel amp, power distribution, and the VXi Hub (arriving Wednesday) will fit in this corner. Probably have to make another board for the other corner where the factory sub is for the mono amp. Unless I want to mount the amp to the Stealthbox which I’m not a fan of doing. Kills some of the “stealth” factor, plus vibration concerns.

This is the suspension control box. It’s spaced an inch or two off the cab wall, so I decided to mount the amp board to it:
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First installed the SoundSkins Pro on this area:
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The amp board and suspension box in their respective homes. I designed it so the suspension module can be replaced without needing to touch the amp board:
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This is the board on the bench. Not totally finalized yet, but close. The VXi hub (network switch) will go where the white box is, and the blue line will be the speaker outputs and the signal input:
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Will finish the back wall deadening tomorrow and hopefully get my power and signal wires run. Need to be finished with everything but the door speaker replacements by Thursday because the weather will go back to shit by then.
 

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Wow! Is that stealth box a custom build or were you able to buy it prebuilt?
 
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Today was much more productive than yesterday. Really got into my groove.

Subwoofer amp rack made and installed. To secure it I installed 5mm rivnuts into some of the holes where the wiring clips went, and then made a brace for the top.
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Also did some sound deadening in targeted areas while running my wires. The material I used on the floor is lighter weight, easier to work with and a lot cheaper.
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Power wire installed on an ABS bracket I made. The green things hanging around are moth balls because the squirrels here are out of control.
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All wires are taped up and run in the factory raceways for protection. They did not leave me a lot of room to feed the power wire. I have the TOSLINK cable, bass knob cable, and remote turn on run up to the PAC interface. The power wire is run back to the fuse block, and the speaker cables are run under the carpet and to the amp location. All the hard stuff is done.
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Still need to make a mount for the PAC module. Have it run down so you can reach it from under the knee buster. This way I don’t have to pull the giant screen every time I want to service it.
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Tomorrow I will finish making the connections between the two amps, and deaden the rest of the back wall. Should be able to do that no matter the weather.

Thursday I will re-assemble the interior and do a basic tune on the system to get it up and running. I still need to replace door speakers but I figure I can do one at a time in between work. In the meantime I’ll just have to be cognizant of the fact that the stock speakers will be receiving 100w RMS each and I should probably take it easy on them. 🙄 😬
 
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1) connect power
2) finish deadening the back, just one section in the center left
3) wire cleanup
4) reassemble
5) basic tune
6) enjoy

All I have left. Feel like this was a hell of a lot easier when I was younger.

Today I did mostly little odds and ends between rain clouds. The bass knob is now installed below the power pedal switch. Figured this panel would be good. Easily replaced if I ever remove the system and easy to reach.
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Finished soldering the speaker wires to the amp harness.
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The hub arrived and I got that mounted. In the garage I found some neat little spacers with an M4 male thread on one end and M4 female on the other. Tapped the amp board and threaded them in. Only had 3 but that’s more than adequate.
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Then mounted the hub on them. This allows the speaker wires to flow under the hub very cleanly. It also gives the optical cables more room to bend at a wider radius.
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Got most of the wiring secured to the sub amp board. Just have to run them over and clean em up.
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All done and re-assembled. Everything worked correctly on the first try too. Just loaded a basic tune (only the crossovers set), and went for a drive. Stealthbox slams and the rest of the system gets crazy loud. I only have the front doors playing from 80-350hz so they should hold up okay until I can change them.

Not gonna get crazy with the EQ yet since things will change. But I’ll put in the time delay adjustments and maybe just cut the peaks out of it.
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Re-assembled with the USB and Bluetooth dongles out, otherwise everything looks factory:
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Yeah, initially I was just gonna do a single 10 on the passenger side. But as you see, things escalated very rapidly.
 

quietpeen

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Yeah, initially I was just gonna do a single 10 on the passenger side. But as you see, things escalated very rapidly.
In the long run you will be glad that it did. I actually find myself turning down the radio to hear the supercharger more(hence needing more supercharger whine lol) so right now bass is on the back burner.
 
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OnTheReel

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Listened to everything a bit more, the center channel has to go. It’s not time aligned with everything else and sounds like shit. I thought it might be an issue but figured I’d try to run it if it could co-exist.
 

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