Gpump

OK, Sorry if this is old news or anything but I just finished my speaker/amp/rewiring/dynamat install and the damn thing works!!!

Xtreme dynamat to the entire interior of each door, Rockford Fosgate gamma geometry speaker wire to each door, Polk db6500 components in front (cutting dash was actually easy), Polk db650 in rear doors, took the signal before it got the stock amp (which makes an attractive paper weight on my counter) via rca cables to my amps and sub and the whole thing works. Still got some cleaning up to do in the trunk and putting all the interior bits back in, but the theory is sound. Lemme know if someone else has already done this, I would like to compare notes/experience just for fun. Brian

Aric

want to make it work better? go get some kind of audicontrol line driver or eq(all audiocontrol eq has linedriver built in). It will boost up the signals going into your amps and make use of the full potential of your amp.

if you dont want a full function eq, get the AudioControl Three.1 or Four.1. www.audiocontrol.com

e_lectro

Gpump -

Glad to see taking the signal before the amp worked out for you I thought it would!


Aric -

If he has no problems, then he has no need for a line driver, correctly set gains on the amps will be fine. Also, if the weak point of his install is the stock headunit, which it probley is, a line driver would also increase the noise out of the headunit with the signal. He would then need to decrease the gain on the amp and end up back where he was, just with less money.

To quote David Navone

accsuperstar

nice to see you have finished gpump. what kind of discs did you use to cut the door? I went through so many cheap dremel discs cutting my passenger side rear door. it was fine but just took me forever. anyways still waiting on my david navone unit to come in so i can hurry and finish my install.

what kind of amps do you have and where are you mounting them? i am still deciding what to do about that

also i have an audiocontrol four.1 if anyone needs it

Gpump

I didn't actually cut the doors. I cut some 1/2" MDF into rings that fit perfectly around the speaker baskets - only the width of the speaker's mounting bracket and essentially made custom spacers (using the dremel like tool). Only had to drill a few holes for mounting screws.

My system is far from competition type stuff. I'm using my 6 year old Kenwood amps, my trunk is a scattered mess of wires right now. Eventually I'm gonna make a new speaker box for my lonely 10" sub and mount the amps and distribution block to the box so it is all nice and compact - that and I'll shorten some wires for neatness. My goal was to improve the sound, not make a booming system that I could show off, just good enough for me to enjoy.

I used the stock grills for the door speakers, the only way you can tell I did anything to the car by looking is noticing that my front tweeters protrude just a little above the dash and say Polk. I don't like to advertise.

By the way, if you do bypass the stock amp, start with your signal sensitivity really low and adjust up - the navi voice scared the shit out of me when I first tried it. Of course, at that level the volume at 5 was plenty loud enough for me. Another thing, if you try to run your own wires, you have to use the factory wires for the driver side front door - there are 2 large harnesses in the door rubber loom thingy that connects it to the body of the car so there is ZERO space to even run some 18 Ga wire without drilling thru something - I tapped into the factory wire for that speaker behind the CD holder in the center (just cut the 2 wires that were for the output to that speaker and spliced my wire from my crossover to them). I took the four shielding wires from the headunit harness and grounded them to the amp mounting bracket - it seemed to be a good spot that would work and that's what the diagram seemed to show so we did it. As for the other factory speaker harnesses, I just padded them with some soft low density foam to keep them from rattling. Took out the stock amp to make lots of room and voila. Running wires was by far the worst part of this whole thing - Dynamating all the door surfaces got me some scratched up hands, but was alot easier than the speaker wires.

I'm eventually gonna put together a small page with pictures in case anyone else tries to do this - bottom line, factory wiring is much easier - I just thought I'd redo everything I could and the factory wires didn't look very good.

Aric

i never said he would have a problem. i was just giving him some advice on how to make his system sound better without spending too much more.

with all the factory integration we are doing nowadays, the line driver has proven to be one of the most valuable piece of equipment. if you use a proper equipment to measure the factory lowlevel output just before it enters the amp, it's pretty normal to see less than 0.5V.

The purpose of the linedriver is to reduce the noise that gets into the lowlevel signals.(comparatively). With stronger signals travelling to the amp, the relative noise from the environment is smaller. Think about this, if you already have noise coming out from the headunit, when you turn up the gain control on the amp the noise gets amplified regardless. So, yes, a linedriver will amplify the noise from the headunit, but it will also reduce the amount of environmental noise that gets amplified by the amplifer.

but make sure you buy a good linedriver. a bad linedrive will do exactly like what you say, induce more noise into the system. Also, the gain control on amplifiers is not a volume knob. you dont want to crank it all the way up. every amplifier only works linearly to a certain point, over that point, the signals will start to get distorted. And the harder the amp works, the more heat it generates and electronic components dont like heat. (unless you got tube amps that requires warming up but they still dont like overheating).

if i dont sound convincing, trying to find a local car audio specialist shop that sells AudioControl. ask them to do a demo for you. I am sure you will hear the difference.

accsuperstar

yea there IS a difference. i have tested it on my old system. you can try out my audiocontrol four.1 gpump if you want. its just sitting around. im too lazy to put it on ebay.

Gpump

First a newb question.

So will the four.1 help clean up the signal coming from the headunit? In a way, help clean up some of the static from the shitty FM reception?
I also noticed on their literature that the unit has a ground loop isolator jumper on it - would that make it unnecessary for me to get a separate isolator? Some alternator whine is audible when the music stops...

Acc - I'd like to play with the four.1 if you are around, never used one of these before.

e_lectro

Gpump -

The 4.1 won't help the FM, not sure much can.

The built in ground loop isolator, on the other hand, can help if you have a ground loop between the headunit and your amplifiers. If the noise comes in somewhere else, say a dirty power or ground, it won't. It never hurts to try though, I would reccomend mounting it as close to the amps as possible, and use the same power and ground points.

accsuperstar

well the four.1 is a indash equalizer, but yea GPUMP you can give me a call sometime next week i should be free. just send me a PM and ill send you my number or we can exchange instant messenger names.

jiggaman

i think i'm going to buy an equalizer for my system to clean up/adjust the way my highs sound. any suggestions?

CAMSHAFT

If you have the cash get a Audio Control DQX. It has a 1/3 octave Digital EQ and built in crossovers.

Check this link
http://www.audiocontrol.com/MobileAu...gital/DQX.html