I am posting this in the general forum just because not everyone seems to check the other ones:

So some background... I hated the bose stereo, it was absolute crap. So I decided to bite the bullet and go for a stereo install. Since this is such a new car and no one has done one yet I decided to go to a reputable company. I went with traffic Jamz out in Encino. VERY VERY high quality company with reputable staff. So I dropped the car off on Tuesday, and finally got it back last night at 5AM (They actually worked on the car overnight till 5 in the morning to get it done, I sat there the whole of THursday and Friday morning watching them). Very dedicated and professional staff. Here is the basic setup:

-XTANT 4-channel amp w/ 400 watts RMS I believe
-Diamond Audio 6.5 components M661 front and rear
-Diamond Audio M6 10" subwoofer used as free air
-High level output Soundgate converter (for the Bose head unit)

I wanted the car to look as close to stock as possible so I opted to keep the stock head unit and go with aftermarket speakers and amp. The result? Awesome sound, louder and clearer than I will ever need. So they took the car apart, installed tweeters in the rear strut tower area to provide a closer sound stage, and installed the rear 6.5's. There were two stock amps, one in the hatch area and one in the right side behind the "glovebox." One amp was for the sub and one for the speakers. Once we removed them we removed both the auto-eq and auto-volume feature . The shop then installed the XTANT amp UNDER the "glovebox" and attached it to side brackets (Because the fuel pump is right below it). The stock sub was taken out and the XTANT 10" was put into place in the stock location but with accumat and dynomat closing up the holes in the space behind it. Fiberglass was also stuffed behind the sub to prevent rattling and to baffle the sub. The entire rear area behind the driver/passenger was then dynomatted. Next, the front tweeters were set into custom brackets and the 6.5's up front replaced with the Diamond Audio M6's. Wooden mounts were made for the speakers because they were much thicker than the stock ones. The doors were all dynomatted and then put back together. High level outputs were tapped into from the head unit (The wires were in the rear hatch near the stock sub amp). AFterwards, everything was put back together carefully. I am happy to say that the car is rattle free (There was one rattle before from the center dash and that rattle is actually now less noticeable AFTER the car was taken apart and put back together). Below are pics.. feel free to ask me any questions as well so I can be of help to anyone else doing a stereo install.




Door before dynomat

Door after dynomat

Entire front in pieces!!


Rear Deck, notice dynomat all over



Rear hatch area dissassembled. Notice the stock silver sub amp in the bottom left plugged in. High level outs were tapped in from here


Custom tweeters in the rear strut tower bar...these help bring the imaging closer in to the front passengers without being too close (to the heads of passengers) and messing up the sound stage


Plastic sub cover cut out and sub cover covered w/ sub cloth because the aftermarket Diamond Audio sub moves much more than stock and hits the stock cover


Holes in sub area being dynomatted and accumatted


Xtant amp bolted under the storage box (glovebox)


Notice the stock faux bottom on the storage box... it makes for a nice access hole to the aftermarket amp

BTW: Internetabyss and jmanZ, can you guys unban my IP? You may know me as Cali_Chris

 

Great info, especially on the stock amps. I have a couple of questions.

1. If there were stock amps, weren't there stock line-level outputs that you could have tapped into rather than using the speaker leads?

2. Are you saying the the auto-level feature is part of the stock amplifiers and not part of the head unit?

-Plucky

 

How MUCH Did everything cost.... both parts and labor.... How long did all this take? Did you have more miles on your car when you picked it up?

 

Disregard the "How long did this take" question.... I see you already answered that!

 

I'd say roughly $2000

 

i didnt know they had to tear up the car that much for a stereo install. id be afraid they had some leftover parts.

 

Have you noticed any rattles resulting from the disassembly of the car? I want to get this done but I am worried about that

 

Please post more pic's of the finished product

 

I'm curious about the rattles as well. I vowed to never to do it again after doing it in my 94 300Z. It was never the same afterwards. I suppose it has more to do with the installers than anything else.

BTW, Looks like a very cool install!!

 

I was wondering after seeing the inside door skin removed if you can make or get aftermarkert door skins the dont bulgeout onto your leg as the stock on does. Im looking for a more flush finish to the door and more leg room rather than having the door rest on my thigh?
btw that stero install looks painful, hope it fits together again. And no left over parts.

 

How did they match the high-level outs to the amps? Did they use a converter or were they able to go straight in?

 

How good does it sound with the stock head unit? I'd suspect it would sound a lot better with an aftermarket HU.

 

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me they looked at the back of the head unit for additional outputs. I want to rule out this option when I know for sure there are no outputs on the back of the stock Bose head unit.

Good questions pluckyduck, All you did is bypass the stock amps and the auto volume control was disabled? I never thought they would just be part of the amps. Things are looking promising for just upgrading the sub ans sub amp in my Touring! Now the only question is if there are line level leads going into that sub amp (may have to solder RCA jacks on the raw wires and find out) or if the level is that goofy Bose level like the 90-96 300ZX where you had to get a special convertor.



z461 - what is the model/part number and cost of the convertor you used?

 

If you read his post he said the car was "rattle free" in fact it rattles less. Man that looks so tempting, but mmmmust, get, NISMO, whhhheels....

 

The question all of us Touring owners want to know is how did you turn off the auto EQ and the auto volume controls!!!! I don't want to spend another dime, just want what I paid for to work.

 

Nice install! I've heard nothing but good things about Traffic Jamz. A friend of mine had his BMW 328 done there. Very nice and complex install.

But as far as the line-level outputs in the stock headunit, it's usually a toss-up as to whether you get them or not. In my current car (Audi A4) with a Bose system, my headunit did indeed have line-level outputs. However, those line-outs did not have RCA jacks; they were simply wires that were part of the main wiring harness. To access the line-outs, we had to manufacture some RCA jacks with bare wires on the other end so we could splice into the factory line-out wires.

To be fair, though, my factory head unit has a nice diagram on the back of it with all the wires and connections and what they are. So there were some clearly labelled wires that said "line-out". So even though we had to manufacture our own jacks, at least the wires were labelled.

 

damn thats awesome, those tweets installed on the rear stb are sick. Nice job!

 

That's an absolutely beautiful stereo install. Thanks for the pics.

 

Here's some answers guys..

-No rattles whatsoever, the car is back and good as new, I sat there and watched them put it back together and this shop is professional. No miles on the car either Chris (they wrote it on the invoice miles in and miles out)... Like I said, the shop promised they would have it done in 2 days and because they took their time taking the car apart and putting it back together it took a bit longer. 5 people in the shop worked till almost 5AM on my car on the end of the 2nd day to get it finished for me. If there's any place in Los Angeles i'd recommend to get a stereo installed, it would have to be Traffic Jamz. Just for reference, they do a lot of installs for rap stars, music producers, and car magazines. Meguiar's Acura Integra show car was done by them...

-On the line level outputs, I'm not 100% sure but I don't think they used them. I believe they tapped into the wires going to the sub which were full range pre-outs (not only hi-level). I hope this makes sense... The wires going to the amp were in the rear hatch. So these weren't speaker leads but were pre-outs because they were before the amp...

-The stock head unit sounds SUPERB. The sound is clear, balanced, and very natural even if you turn it up... It's almost excessively so... I can turn it up to where you can hear the stereo quite well from 100 ft. away with the two doors open and there's nothing but clear clean sound.

-The cost of the install was 2300 before tax. Quite expensive, but mainly for the cost of the components. Diamond Audio and Xtant products apparently are very high quality and very pricy. (I'd never really heard Diamond Audio, but i'm not very knowledgable in car audio product lines).

-The door does not bulge out. Other than the stock sub cover, the rear tweeters, and the larger front tweeters the car looks completely stock. Everything fits back perfectly, and like I said, no missing parts... I saw them put back together the car myself. It actually comes apart and puts back together quite nicely, slightly complicated but not rocket science. Of course the installers have everything to do with it, if there's one thing I learned from this install.... Gotta go to the right shop to get it done right.

-And last but not least... The auto-EQ and auto-volume function apparently are BOTH in the stock amps, NOT in the head unit. This is as far as I can tell... I know that the stereo isn't doing any auto-eq'ing any more and I can't hear the volume going up and down either.

Hope I answered everything!