well, just got finishd with a relatively interesting system...a somewhat departure from my norm.
the goals:
1. Superb sound quality
and
2. A VERY LARGE amount of bass lol
3. utlize the HU, subs, subbox, and amplifiers already provided by the customers to create a clean (not showy at all) install.
well, onto the intsall...
the signal starts with a kenwood excelon 8019 headunit, the unit was already installed in the vehicle and was kept:
the remote bass control for hte subamp was custom intalled into the factory knockout panel in the arm rest area:
as the system features zapco dsp tuning, the usb cable comes out of hte center arm rest to tune via laptop:
front stage consists of a pair of Seas lotus reference 6.5" two way component set. kick panels were built to houes the midbass. i played around with the angling of the speakrs before molding, and found that the further i pushed them against hte firewall, the better they sounded, deeper stage, better tonality...so thats how they were done, a bit further back than the normal kicks i buid. they were wrapped in black suede:
now a coupla quick build pics on the kicks, first, hre ist he mold and then inside layers wtih a crap load of modeling clay to reduce resonance...ooo multicolors lol
then, another layer of dampening went on top to reduce resonance even further and to holdt he clay in place
this results in a super heavy and dead kick panel wtih zero resonance even at high volumes.
here are the front of the mold:
here is the driver side kickpanel sueded and speakres installed:
here you can see how little they actually protude from the stock kick piece:
same goes for the passenger side:
the tweeters were molded into the stock A pillar, off axis firing across at one anther, a lot of aiming to insure they were dead across. they were then wrapped in matching vinyl:
and two quick mold pics of hte A pillar:
the mold sanded:
and then wrapped in vinyl and tweeters installed:
moving onto the trunk...so here is where things get a little interesting...the customer provided me with two TC sounds subs (HUGE 10s), a Zenclousure type S dual 10 subbox, and three Sunddown amps...so i basically had to come up with an amp rack design to worked well wtih the subbox...
so here is the view all covered up, as you can see the zenclsoures behind-the-strut subbox , but he rest of hte floor is still relatively stock looking. if you are wondering why there arent any grilles for the subs...thats the customers choice, not mine hehe, not to mention the hugeness of hte subs would make grilles pretty hard to do onto the box
here i want to give a huge thanks to Mike at Zenclosures, a true class act and very professional. He makes a very fine product as i always say, and hecame through in a huge way when the initial box was not the right dimension (NOT mike's fault, but rather a slightly miscommunication becuase this box had to be custom made to fit the subs and its requirements), sending out a replacement on TWO day shipment! working through saturday to get it done. again, HUGE thanks to Mike and Zenclosures
back to the install, lift up the carpet, and a fake floor greets you, coverd in matching black carpet like the subbox: there is a central cutout in the middle:
remove the cover, and the three Sundown amps provided by the customer peer out at you
A big 4 channel is bridged, sending 300-350 watts a piece to each midbass, a two channel powers the tweeter with 100 watts, while a big mono block sends 1500 watts to the dual TC 10s. to fill in the gap between the amps, i put in some copper bars, painted silver metalic, so the theme of black amp with silver trim (already present on the amps) continues across the amp rack.
hidden out of hte way is a Zapco DSP6-SL process providing all the EQ, xover, and time alignment needs to the system.
and finally a look at the wiring and build below the floor, everything wire tied, quite a few wires in a small area as you can imagine hehe...a 0 ga and a 4 ga was run back to run the amps.
anyway, after some tuning, this turned out to quite a nice sounding car, deifnelty one of hte best sounding cars i have done recently, with a lot of clarity, wide, and high staging, along with very wlel centered vocals. and the other side of hte system is on tap the minute a bassy song is popped in and the bass knob nudged (yes i said nudged lol)...it can pressurize the cabin something fierce hehe...prolly easily the loudest 350z i have ever done...
anyway, i am about to go to bed and headoff on a week long vacation, so any questions in the mean time, maybe the customer can do his best to answre them until i come back
my brief impressoins of the subs were pretty good, lots of output, impact, not quite as blending as the more SQ oriented subs i am used to, but we will see overtime after they break in a bit.
the amps are also not too shabby, though i think they do run a bit hotter than the brands i typically use, namly DLS A series. but then again, today was a scorcher here at about 105 ambient temp, again over time we will know the true nature of these products i am not that famliar with and i can give you a more fair assessment
aight, bed time...early fight timmorow...
cheers,
Bing
Just finished my first true SQL system in a Z :)
Bing did an incredible job and the outcome was just phenomenal. I must've sat in my car for 2 hours listening to the system and it gets very loud but it never gets harsh. No listening fatigue, just pure musical bliss. I'm in love 
