cnwahlheim

First, I would like to thank all the members of the forum who have patiently answered my questions. In particular, I express appreciate to Jerry at High Definition Mobile Audio for making all of this possible. He provided outstanding advice and technical support at all stages of this project. I also would not have been able to do this install without the help of my father.

Here we go...

cnwahlheim

Here are the rest of the pics.

cnwahlheim

Here is the list of the products installed.

Battery
- Sears Diehard Platinum

Power wire, fuse holder, and ground
- IXOS (0 awg)

RCAs
- IXOS

Speaker wire
- Stinger (12awg to doors, 16 awg to dash)

Sound deadening
- Hushmat (all three door skins in front doors, upper rear deck plate, lower rear deck plate, and entire trunk.)

Speakers
- Tweeters: Dynaudio Esotec 102
- Mid-bass: Dynaudio Esotar 2 650
- Sub: Hertz High Energy 12" (dual 4 ohm voice coils)

Amps
- Tweeters: Arc 2075 SE
- Mid-bass: Arc 2150 SE
- Sub: Arc Mini 500.1

OEM Integration
- ARC SRI

cnwahlheim

The install process was relatively straight forward, with only a few modification needed.

The power wire ran straight through the factory grommet in the firewall.

The tweeters were wrapped with speaker grill cloth and pressed into the factory opening. One opening required a little trimming with a razor blade.

The mid-bass drivers required enlarged openings in the sheet metal in the doors. This was accomplished using a Dremel rotary tool and metal cutting bits. These drivers also required the doors to be removed, new holes drilled for the 12 awg wire, and installation of grommets. The speaker wire was fished through the rubber boots using fish tape. Door removal was straight forward with two people. We simply supported the door with a cardboard box and removed the five bolts.

The SRI was connected to the outputs directly from the head unit. The wiring codes for the 2008 model were the same as listed in the service manual for the fronts and sub, but were different for the rears and center channel. This did not matter, though, because we only used the front and sub channels. The power and ground were obtained from the distribution block in the trunk, and the remote wire was connected to an add-a-circuit fuse in slot 32.

The subwoofer was mounted to a bracket that was attached to the rear deck plate. The bracket was secured with a bolt, locking washer, and nut. Installed into the subwoofer enclosure was a hanger bolt with a threaded rod exposed. A wingnut was used to secure the enclosure to the bracket. The wingnut also allows for easy removal.

The amp-rack was cut from 1/2" mdf and modified to fit in the bottom of the spare tire well. The existing mount for the spare tire was used along with three small metal screws to secure the rack. Posts were placed at four points on the rack to elevate a "beauty board", which is not so beautiful at this point, but serves as support for items placed above. I plan to do more fabrication in the trunk when money and time both allow.

The amps each received 4awg power and ground wires from distribution blocks. One set of RCAs was run to the mid-bass amp and then another daisy-chained off it into the tweeter amp. A separate set of RCAs was used for the subwoofer to maintain sub control from the OEM head unit. The speaker wire was color and size coded (Blue - left, Gray - Right, 12 awg mids, 16 awg tweeters).

abirvalg

nice!

have you tried moving your sub around before deciding on the mounting spot?
i find that mine sounds the best when all the way back at the trunk lid lock
then i set it the spot you're showing the gain at around 60Hz is so high it creates ear plug effect

cnwahlheim

I did not try moving the sub around because I wanted to be able to access the wingnut through the ski pass. It sounds nice in its current location.

cnwahlheim

I should also note that I was able to maintain both the HFL and steering wheels controls when taking the signal pre-factory amp.

pohljm

Nice job!

niebur3

That look great!!! I am glad you are enjoying your new system and that it was what you were looking for in terms of sound. Dyns and ARC never disappoint !

I can't wait to hear it in person one day.

cnwahlheim

Thanks, Jerry! The project was a lot of fun (and work)!