This is a build log for my 2012 Acura TSX SE.

The original goal of this build was to go to any lengths to build the a SQ System to the best of my abilities for use as a daily driver and a DEMO car AND a car I could compete with. After literally months of thought, planning, and consulting various people, I have decided to do a kick ass system, not meant necessarily for the lanes, just Dynamic with high quality (install and sound) using some unconventional locations. The unconventional locations are mainly due to the design of the car and (after much thought) my unwillingness to permanently alter the car structurally or lose conveniences like windows that roll down.

Equipment list - For now, not everything has been decided 100%

Source
DVA-9861 OR DRZ9255
iPOD and Bluetooth control will be with the Factory Head Unit

Speakers
Dynaudio Esotec 102 - Tweeters
Dynaudio MW152 - Midrange
Dynaudio MW172 - Midbass
Dynaudio Esotar2 1200 - Subwoofer

Amplifiers
ARC Audio 4200se - Tweets/Mids
ARC Audio 4200se - Midbass
ARC Audio 2300se - Subwoofer

Processor
ARC PS8 or DRZ9255

Feel free to question or comment on my equipment list

The car.....


Door Panel......


Sail Panel......


Kick Area(Panel removed)....


Trunk.....


Center Cluster (holding up a face of where the aftermarket is planned to go)...


Door Panel Insert (I realized it matched my shoes)....


The build is just underway and will probably take a while to finish.

 

With this long, I want to feel free to discuss my reasoning and take opinions and possible make changes based on those opinions. I figure the more brains involved the better. I will detail my thought process as I go and welcome any comments, criticism or advice. Sorry if I get too wordy...deal with it...lol!

Over the past few months of owning the car and looking and thinking, I have discovered a few things, one of which is that no Dynaudio speaker (or most any brand of speaker, unless it's a small midrange) will fit in these doors without modifying the door panel.

Here is a shot of the factory speaker from the side:


That magnet measures 1.25" in diameter and is needed to fit under the window rail and window, which is in the top 1/3 of the speaker opening. From where the speaker would hit the door panel to where it would hit the window/rail, I have 2.25" OR I can go larger if the magnet diameter is small like the factory speaker.

Front of the factory speaker:


This was very different from my 2004 TL in which had room for days in the doors (Ihatecars has MW182's in his doors and I had MW172's in mine). So, I thought of cutting a hole in the floor, kick or the firewall. After talking with many people and posting a thread on DIYMA on the subject, and extensively looking over the car (with a completely different floor pan than the TL as well) and after my experience with a deer and subsequent tree 2 years ago, I have decided not to cut these areas. This car is a daily driver and I have a wife and 2 kids, and their safety comes well before car audio. To be honest, it might be just fine to cut these areas or it might not. The fact is I don't have the ability to make the cuts and crash test the car to see the impact, so I will err on the side of caution and leave these places alone.

So, I have decided to do MW172's in the rear deck in optimal sealed enclosures. These will play from 63hz to 125hz (or so). This is also why I am using MW152's for the Midrange. Hopefully the larger midrange (and tons of Time Alignment) will help pull the bass forward. I consider this type of setup more as a 2-way front stage with a 2-way substage, rather than a typical 3-way.

The tweeters are planned to go in the sail panel currently. I have also debated the kick panel. There are benefits to both. I have also considered using a large format MD130 or MD110 in the sail or kick. There is also the thought of tweeters in the kicks with tweeters in the sails, so I can make your ears bleed, yo! - actually to have the sail tweeters raise the stage height a tad and bringing a little more "air" to the sound (playing from 10k and up).

With the fuse panel on the passenger side and a car under warranty (not going to move the fuse box), the MW152's are the largest I want to go.

The source is still a decision as well. I really like the factory controls for iPod and Bluetooth, but I have heard from many that the noise floor just can't be avoided with the factory head unit, even if modified. So, I am looking on routing the factory head unit into the auxiliary input of the aftermarket. I have a Really Nice Condition DVA-9861 and a BNIB DRZ-9255. With the 9861, I would absolutely use a PS8. With the DRZ, I may or may not use an external processor.

As of this point I have done a little bit here and there (while researching all of this and coming up with a plan) and here are a few more pics.....

Deadening the trunk:


Techflex for the speaker wires:


Speaker Wire ran into the doors for the tweeters (no Molex plug):


Replaced the factory cotton deadening with some mass loaded vinyl scraps I had lying around:


I didn't bother deadening the doors since I wont have any speakers in them, just thought the vinyl may help with an already quiet car, can't hurt.

That's it for now!

 

Very Excited to See this build!!. It is going to help me greatly when i decide to change speakers and add a couple amps. Seems i am going to have problems adding speakers with big magnets from what youve experienced. Any advise for running speaker wire to the door panels? I see you ran it at the bottom of the molex plug.. did you have to fish the wire from the door?

 

Looking forward to seeing what you do. But you say there will be no speakers in the doors? Where will they go instead?

 

Read everything I wrote and see if that answers your questions. I will clarify, there is no molex, just a connector in a fancy white plug with tons of room to run speaker wire. You have to still fish it through the rubber boot, but otherwise, one of the easiest I have done when considering how the rubber boot fits on the plug as well.

 

hey man.. thanks for detailing this for us.. i look forward to seeing this.. i am guessing you will run 1/0 gauge? Are you going to run it down the driver side? i just got 1/0 gauge and was trying to figure out how to wire this..i can't find a good spot unless i do some drilling

 

o yeah..what are you using for mat.. i saw raamat is having s big sale and alpha is 40% off at diyma

 

I haven't looked yet. I will share when I run the 1/0.

Any of those is fine. I used Cascade Audio and Stinger Pro, the two brands I use (I used both because I had some of both lying around).

 

i gotchu.. thanks.. i think I am going to do raam. the bxtII mat and the ensolite ..

so i saw your TL build.. i see you used an MS8- are you not using that this time since you are adding the aftermarket headunit?

any plans on fiberglassing a subwoofer box? i am going to attempt to do this..but debating if I want to use the sub i have or get something else (my ebay seller misposted and sold me something different from what I was looking for)

 

Time for some updates......

Sail Panels are finished. The goal was to keep a stealth factory appearance but enlarge to fit the Dynaudio MD102 and change the factory angle of the tweeter. I decided to incorporate the factory grill. Anyway, enjoy and ask any questions (hope you have a good internet connection).







My wife lives on Diet Coke, might as well make use of the empty boxes.



Matching the Angles.




A cheap and easy way to help build up the shape.


Duraglass Applied.






After some sanding & shaping.


Creating the peak in the front that will match to the factory trim on the door panel.






Primed and fixing a few small areas.


Texture Added.



Painted.


Now to mount the tweeters and finish installing in the car.....

 

Remove the Dynaudio MD102's from the cup.


Alter the backside of the factory grill.


Wire soldered and heat shrink/tech flex applied.


Close up.


Factory Grill Installed.








Altering the cups.




Tweeters mounted.


Pics in the car.......

 

Before....



After....













Door shut.






That is it for now (and with Christmas coming, probably for a little while)!

 

Looks great. Out of curiousity, are you planning on using your spare tire well for amp location? if so, do u plan to relocate your spare tire or just not use it at all?

 

Yeah, that's the plan right now with the amps (not relocating the spare tire). I will get started again here soon, as soon as the weather is somewhat tolerable here.

 

i hear you. We're getting snow storms here in toronto

 

the texture coating you added? is that from a spray can?

 

I asked before about 1/0 gauge.. It tried it and it fits..well the knuconceptz one.. No cutting required..Sail panels look good man.. I was trying to take out my tweeters and couldn't unhook them.. May have to do what you did

 

niebur i must say ive never heard of dynaudio for your speakers, would you rate these having higher sound quality than most? im running jl audio c3's and feel like i can do much better esp with a jbl ms8 installed.

 

Hey bro. Where did you run the wire through in your firewall? was it the little grommet above the brake pedal? also, did you have any issues fitting 1/0 gauge along the drive side floor panels?

 

Yupp ..fit through there..you may need help from someone because you have to put it through two holes... A hanger will help too and some type of lubricant (no this isn't a dirty joke) I think we sprayed wd40..gets on your hands .. And yeah no problems with the floor panels .. I'll start a thread so we don't take over this one

 

It's been a while but I finally got some more work done on my car. Plans have changed some and that required me to move the fuse box in the passenger side kick panel. All the connections were done using solder and heat shrink (which is more than the factory used; I removed some factory crimp connectors in the wiring).

I extended only the wires that needed to be, carefully dissecting the various wire looms and freeing up wires that were long enough. It was very tedious work but should be well worth it in the end.

A Total of 6 Connectors to the FuseBox and I probably extended 40-50 wires, adding about 160 feet total of wire.

Before:


After:


How I got there:

 

and what is going to go where that fusebox use to be?

 

Most likely a Dynaudio MW172 8" Midbass driver.

 

is dynaudio typically better than JL audio? im not familiar with that brand

 

Dynaudio is typically in the discussion as one of the best speakers in the world, home, car or pro audio. Their professional monitor speakers are the speakers most mixing companies use when mastering the music for the artist. They have a home line that ranges from $1000 up to $80,000 and are very highly regarded. Their car line is, IMHO, the best speakers money can buy and range from $990 for a 2-way set to $1,700 for their highest level tweeter pair.

A few on this forum have them and absolutely love them, including Matt (Ihatecars).

 

lol, a little googling works wonders, as well. JL vs dynaudio

Good work, Jerry!
relocating the fuse box looked tedious!!

 

lol it does but id rather hear it from someone ive followed on these forums rather than random google search brotha. trust me, my google fu is very strong haha

THanks for the info neibur

 

Sorry it has been so long since I last updated this. Been really busy, between customer cars and life, I hardly have time to work on my car.

Here is the progress.

Wiring.....lots and lots of wiring. I won't bore you with all the pics, but you get the idea.











After all the wiring, I worked on deadening the doors.











more......

 

I also wired the factory head unit to add RCA's outs that input into the auxiliary input of the........wait.........for..........it........... DRZ9255. The DRZ fits nicely into the space below the HVAC controls. This will allow me to keep the nice USB input, Bluetooth Audio, Steering wheel controls, and iPod/iPhone interface.











I cut apart the pocket that was there and used pieces to fill the space around the DRZ. I wanted a factoryish look, so using factory plastic seemed logical to me.



Finished pics....






more....

 

Wow you've totally torn the car apart.
Looking forward to seeing the end result of this.

 

Also, had time for a little fun with my son....












And this just came tonight. I have (what I think) is a pretty cool idea for the Esotar2 1200. Anyone guess how it will be utilized????

 

You snuck in there....lol. Currently I have no backseat, missing lots of interior panels and I absolutely no sound whatsoever (no speakers yet). It will all be worth it in the end.

 

looks good man, ive heard of people deadening the doors. somethin i want to do. what material did you use on the door to deaden? version of dynamat?

 

I see you ran power thru the middle.. Can you explain why u ran it that way.. Have u noticed noise? I'm getting noise thru my tweets ... They just don't sound right

 

I used standard butyl/aluminum on the doors, inside the doors, etc.

I ran the power down the middle because of the 3 runs of 11awg speaker wire running on both sides....plus it does help to separate the power wire from anything else.

I don't have any noise at the moment. Largely due to the fact I have no amps or speakers...lol. The build is still in process. I hope not to have any noise when finished.

 

what kind of noise you getting through your tweets? sound like they are just turned on? whining at high rpms? get it while idle and driving?

I actually have my power ran down the drivers side and i swear my drivers side sounds softer then my passenger side. issue doesnt follow if i switch the RCAs, always on drivers side it seems.

 

Here is a quick update about how the aperiodic will look.....



Made from a single piece of mdf. If it is not thick enough, can easily make it into two pieces. Both metal plates are recessed to be even with the surface.



Holes will be able to line up perfectly.

 

I gotchu.. I thought about running. 12 but stuck with 14.. That alone was a pain to get thru my doors.. And I think it's my ms8 giving me noise.. As soon as I hooked it up I got noise coming thru my left tweeter.. same side power is running .. I hear it when the whole system is off too.. I then added an amp and ran new speaker wire..same side as power wire and noise sounds like it got louder lol..I think I gotta go pre amp on the ms8.. Anyway install looks good man.. Can't wait to see the finished project .. We both started at the same time .. Let's see who finishes first haha

 

Here is the top piece that will mount to the baffle in the rear deck:

One side....


The other side....


Pic mounted to the plexi:




Here is the baffle Bolted in 8 spots to the rear deck (used all existing holes for the bolts). There are supports throughout and mass loaded foam around the sub opening to help direct the sound through the opening in the rear deck:


I changed up the design just a bit to have more depth for the fiberglass membrane. I added 3/4" to the top and bottom. However, this lead to another idea and I used threaded inserts so the bottom 1/2 can unscrew 1000 times (if need be), allowing you to add more fiberglass.



Pink Fiberglass making the membrane (will tune when system is up and running).



Used trunk carpet underneath the disc (secured to the wood via epoxy) so the pink fiberglass is unseen and pieces can't make it through the holes. The holes are perfectly lined-up.



I did more, but will post pics later.

 

A few more build pics from this weekend. Need to take more pics as I go.

Installed a Circuit Breaker and we now have power.....no amps yet, but power...lol!



A little bit of work in the trunk:

This will sit behind the AP enclosure and will house 2 ARC 2075se Amps




MDF Panels the amps will be mounted to:






more.....