Stereo Install

[bayslideblue]

I was gonna add this on to someone else's old sub thread, but I thought I might make my own. Hope this is ok?

I recently purchased a 2000 rs stagea and found that the front speakers were blown. So that needed to be corrected. I am a little cheap so I was looking on ebay and wasn't having much luck. So I went to cash converters, which I never do. And found two new door speakers, and right next to it were two subs. So I grabbed them and an amp. And my project started.

I searched for a couple of boxes that would fit but couldn't find anything, so off to bunnings I went.

I wanted something cheap, but not crap.

So this is what I started with;

two (soon to be four) brand new sony xplod 200w 3-way 6.5" - rrp $70-80 got em for $25

two used (good cond) sony xplod 1000w sub's - rrp $120 each got em for $40 each

one used clarion apx4240 400w amp - rrp $290 got it for $45 (all after a bit of bartering with the manager ;-)

MDF- $23

Carpet- $19

glue & screws - $15

one cheap 12" box reatails at $70, dunno how much custom's would cost?

Total cost $197 and a weekend of my time

And I just used the Kenwood head unit that was in there, gonna upgrade to dvd/gps later.

So I wanted bass, but I also wanted space so this is what I decided on;

got the design

cut some mdf. I don't have a shed, so the lounge room had to suffice! I also don't have a jigsaw, so this was all cut by hand!

front top and bottom, no back for ventilation

now as I wanted as much space as possible I decided to put the amp on the inside of the box, but it needed some ventalation. So I took the 12v exhaust fan off the power transformer of an old PC!

cutting out the carpet

carpet glued on and sub in

amp tucked in behind, tight fit!

spaghetti time! There was a previous stereo install that had been removed, but unfortunately I couldn't use much of the left over spaghetti

spaghetti to the back

spaghetti to the side

BYE BYE SPAGHETTI!

NOw to neatly secure them using an L shaped bracket and the convienntly placed lug on the interior panel under th back window

The finished product

just a few mill. clearence. Perfect.

and the same with the luggage cover

Well that's the first project on my new car complete! Can't wait to do the next one.

Big thanks to alexcim for the stereo removal guide in the DIY section, and the SAU forum for all handy hints. Hope this might inspire/help someone else.

Let me know what you think,

Cheers,

Dave-

Edited April 19, 2009 by bayslideblue

[_Ryan_]

Mate, GREAT work... wish i had the motivation to make one for mine, my sub is out of the car as the box is a bitch haha

[msports180]

Nice work mate, good design and tight fit!!

Unless there free air subs though u would need to have a back on the box as the sound waves coming from the back of the sub will cancel the ones from the front. The front and back need to be isolated from each other.

[bayslideblue]

Unless there free air subs though u would need to have a back on the box as the sound waves coming from the back of the sub will cancel the ones from the front. The front and back need to be isolated from each other.

Hmm interesting I didn't know that. Do you think the fact that they are tight against the side wall would be enough?

Cheers

[msports180]

Hmm interesting I didn't know that. Do you think the fact that they are tight against the side wall would be enough?

Cheers

It will help that there tight as it would be stopping alot of it but if you sealed them u wud notice a huge difference.

For a temp measure you could jam the back of them full of dacron wadding, the filling they use in pillows, can but it from dress making shops.

[RBPOWA-(TJ)]

WICKED JOB

i've always had this idea to put to 10inch subs behind the strut towers, but not covering the flaps on each side, just to get maximum space and access. but then i forgot i have to put amps some were and gave up on the idea lol.

and as Neil said about the air, picture this, my cousin made this setup in his Hq boot, completly air tight, the subs needed air to get the sounds out, so i guess the pressure from them blew out the key hole to the boot, and then it sounded alot better, so he had to cut holes in his parcel self to releave the pressure.

so yeah the air would escape around the tight fit on the side walls, unless the box itself is enclosed. you'll notice it

[M I K E]

love it, if i ever had the motivation to do another stereo install that is how i would do it in the stag. top form mate

[astrotristan]

mate the install is unreal - bass without sacrificing boot space,

neat and tidy

well done

[260rsstagea]

nice install when i got mine done i decided stuff the boot space:

[Stinky Rooster]

I am gonna ask the obvious question, how in the heck do you access the ATESSA bottle?

plus, further to what Neil was saying, they are NOT free to air subs (sony xplod dont make them), and there is no way there would be enough space in them boxes anyway. I would heartily recommend talking to your local stereo experts and getting some proper sizes for those sub boxes. It may just be a case of extending the faces out into the cargo area some more, but just remember that the size they give you (usually in m3 or litres) will not include the incursion of the speaker itself, or the volume taken up by the amp. Sounds like a lot of stuffing around, I know, but the difference in sound quality will amaze you.

double thumbs up for the effort you have gone to for a killer budget sound system though.

[260rsstagea]

well dale i access mine through a removable panel that you can see in the pic below the chrome seat laydown handle

[-NismoR32-]

Nice work, looks the goods!

the only thing is that your subs do not have the right amount of space (liter's) behind it.

my kenwood 12 inch subs need 25 liters of space each! (spare wheel out, subs in )

something you might want to think about if you want it to work and sound the way it should.

[bayslideblue]

CHeers for the comments and the advice fella's-

I am gonna ask the obvious question, how in the heck do you access the ATESSA bottle?

plus, further to what Neil was saying, they are NOT free to air subs (sony xplod dont make them), and there is no way there would be enough space in them boxes anyway. I would heartily recommend talking to your local stereo experts and getting some proper sizes for those sub boxes. It may just be a case of extending the faces out into the cargo area some more, but just remember that the size they give you (usually in m3 or litres) will not include the incursion of the speaker itself, or the volume taken up by the amp. Sounds like a lot of stuffing around, I know, but the difference in sound quality will amaze you.

double thumbs up for the effort you have gone to for a killer budget sound system though.

Excuse me for being a complete noob, but what is the "ATESSA bottle" ?

As for making the boxes bigger to improve sound quality. Despite the fact that it's a pretty clear nice sounding system, after listening today I could gather that the potential of the subs is not being reached. So it may be worth my while as you say to extend the size of the boxes to the correct capacity. However I'm not sure if I wanna sacrifice the neat line that they sit in behind the strut tower.

Finding out exactly how much more room they need would be a good start though.

Thanks again,

Dave-

[Stinky Rooster]

the fluid resovoir for the AWD system - its located behind the flap in the right hand side of the cargo area. If it runs dry of fluid and you get air in the system, hillarity will NOT ensue

[RBPOWA-(TJ)]

hehe im sure it wouldnt take much to shift them though, a few screws shoult be ok

[darrinspencer]

the fluid resovoir for the AWD system - its located behind the flap in the right hand side of the cargo area. If it runs dry of fluid and you get air in the system, hillarity will NOT ensue

Assuming his car is AWD

His profile shows RS, ie RWD

[Appealing]

Yeah Dale..........FAIL (I always wated to post that up, ha ha) He doesn't have an ATESSA system to worry about.

Great installation. You might consider putting some vents in the boxes. These would allow the air to move better.

I liked the way that you used the existing screw holes. All in all very neat, specially with limited tools.

[bayslideblue]

Yeah Dale..........FAIL (I always wated to post that up, ha ha) He doesn't have an ATESSA system to worry about.

Great installation. You might consider putting some vents in the boxes. These would allow the air to move better.

I liked the way that you used the existing screw holes. All in all very neat, specially with limited tools.

Cheers mate!

Yeah I was wondering about what he meant by the ATESSA bottle, it's an rs. So yeah rwd, don't need to worry bout that.

There are vent holes in the top at the back, the amp side has an exhaust fan in it though.

I was wondering though some of the guys commenting further up said that you shouldn't let the sound waves from the back of the sub mix with those from the front. So I was wondering how do vents work with that theory?

Seems to work pretty well at the moment, the whole car vibrates with the bass . I might try some wadding in all the sides to make it completely air tight to see what the difference is though.

thanks again,

Dave-

[DSTROY]

Hey mate nice work on the install. Check out this Kicker site, it has lots of info that might help you understand just how subs and sub box's work. http://www.kicker.com/intro_to_enclosures there's even some info on that site on how to design different type's of box's.

Edited April 22, 2009 by DSTROY

[bayslideblue]

Hey mate nice work on the install. Check out this Kicker site, it has lots of info that might help you understand just how subs and sub box's work. http://www.kicker.com/intro_to_enclosures there's even some info on that site on how to design different type's of box's.

Cool cheers mate, was a good read. probably should have read something like that before doing the install . My vents will not be working efficiently as they are not quite far enough away from the wall.

As for for there being no back on the box's it won't cancel out, if it's not air tight it will just not resonate properly (from what I can gather).

It states in that doc that noise cancelling only occurs with free air subs.

Which mine aren't, so should be right there.

As for having the right amount of space I did a rough estimate of the total air space within the box and came up with 30.15 litre's. That's not minus the sub or the sub and amp on the amp side. But i would imagine that on the side without the amp it would have at least 25lt of air space, which should be sufficient going by nismor32's recomendations for his 12"s.

However on the side with the amp and wiring in it I would imagine that it would come under that mark.

I don't think that it's enough to make me chage the size of the box though, it still seems pretty close to optimal but not perfect. Which is ok with me.

THanks for the help