Absolutely.. there is a satisfaction like no other when you do a job like this yourself,.. and it lasts. I'll know everything in the car sound wise was my doing and remember the process vividly lol. To most telling them I installed the system is like... oh nice.. As they are used to a shop getting their car done with a headunit install in 30 minutes or a few speakers in a couple hours lol.. That's ok,.. it's the personal satisfaction feeling that means the most not what anyone else thinks.

Yes.. my hands are tore up from the floor up -- You'd laugh at them.. I HAD 2 bandaids on each hand.. I've worked the hands so much in the car I ended yesterday without both bandaids! I also slipped with the box cutter (of course) and went into my thumb .. I could tell it was a deeper than typical but "thin" due to razor blade cut.. So I used an old trick I figured out myself a few years back. Grabbed some electrical tape and went around the upper thumb very tightly. Effectively cutting off 75% of superficial blood flow to the area.. leave that on for a few hours.. Then when I pull it off it's clotted and heals beautifully. (Of course clean it up when you get a chance. )

It's getting close to time to go back at it.. still wish I knew whether or not I could leave that passenger seat out with the battery back in,.. cause the seat being in is really going to make my amp wiring A LOT more difficult for obvious reasons.

I don't care about a light.. as long as it will go back off with a disconnection of the battery again , etc.

I have the Base model,.. so my seats are manual,.. with the one plug to the (weight sensor?) to trigger seatbelt light and I guess probably arms the passenger side Airbag. Only logic I can come up with off the top of my head.

Love both you guys commenting and giving me advice.. thanks for putting up with me

 

I had to make the same modifications as you've detailed: enlarge the bolt holes and trim the plastic surround. The stock grill cover still fits fine, so it covers the dremeling mess... I mean "modification". The cover is not attached as securely as before since the dremeling tweak removed some of the tabs that hold it in place. Let's face it, the box is only $100 so you get what you pay for, as Wicked CAS charges $350 for the fiberglass version.

I'm still trying to figure out a more elegant solution to the whole "subs in the stock location". If I knew how to fiberglass I'd make something like this:
https://my350z.com/forum/audio-video...-box-area.html
That is basically the SRQ box but with a front firing sub combined with a custom grill cover... it's BRILLIANT! Kind of surprised CAS doesn't offer this solution as well. They already did most of the engineering work with their down-firing box, so just add a similar grill cover and you have an instant winner. Personally I'm thinking of doing two 8"s instead of one 10" for more surface area.

 

Field medicine baby!

I've used duct tape before too, it will definitely close a razor type cut, but the problem with duct tape is when you gotta tear it off! Electrical tape = probably better.

U welcome - and yes it IS nice to have a forum where other guys have done stuff and made detailed threads.

Some of my other installs in the past, I've had to "wing it", with no source of instructions, and it made it much more stressful (and required many more mid-project trips to radioshack, etc).


I hear you on the anxiousness to get it plugged in to see if it works - that has kept me working late into the night on many installs.......

 

Yah I caught that thread after had been sold. Wish the OP had taken some photos of the box/sub in place.

looks nice, and I would think it would produce better sound with less (potential for) rattling or buzzing than the downfiring custom box.

Just seems to me that an efficient 10" sub pointed straight down into that area with only an inch or two to move air is less than ideal


On a related note, you see my photos where I put the 8" polk in a sealed box in the factory location? I thought if I moved my amp I could put a second box and sub in there (I had 2 from an old install). After moving my wires and amp, I spent like an hour trying to wedge BOTH 8" boxes in there - no dice. The odd shape of the compartment, being shallow on one end, would NOT let me get both boxes in there (and it was SO freakin' close too, that's why I spent an hour trying

so i ended up just sticking the other 8" in my hatch area - it killed my clean stealth install, but since the sub was just gathering dust I went ahead and used it - it does sound better.......

 

Today was the big day to see if all my hard work .. well ... worked!

First I decided I should put more sound deadener in the car.. I deadened this entire area and bulk heads.. Plus other areas I didn't bother to take pictures of.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/111739693@N04/11941583574/

And.. it's ALIVE! -- Setting Gains!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/111739693@N04/11941415513/
And.. only other shot I took was of the headunit,.. as I tuned the system in after Gains were set properly.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/111739693@N04/11941981696/

Fired right up! Everything worked flawlessly.. I couldn't believe it

It sounds phenomenal,.. way better than anticipated.

To get proper voltages for speakers,.. I ended up at 50% on gains for front,.. 50% on gains for rear.. and 60% on gain for Sub. Not too bad.

One thing I DID notice was not only did my 90's MB Quarts work,.. but they sounded at least 5 times better than the JBL's. This isn't knocking the JBL components I put up front,.. but Germany did something right with this old set of MB Quarts I have. WOW! To adjust for the MB Quarts being a greater SQ and tone.. I faded to front about 50%.. thus dropping the quarts down about half way,.. this set things up very well for sound positioning.

For ME,.. Putting rears in the car does sound better. I dropped the rears, then added them.. over an over..

The sub is absolutely DEAD on perfect,.. It's not too much.. but if I WANT it to be ridiculous .. It's right there,.. with my Bass **** next to me.

All in all, I couldn't have done a better job myself... oh wait. -- I'm just being a smart a.ss.. Seriously, I'm a very happy guy right now.

Tomorrow is put the interior back in day,.. no more worries of if all my work is going to work! Straight forward job on panels, trim, et al. Wonder what it's going to sound like with the interior back in?

 

SWEET

the payoff is in the listening!


Seriously if you think your coax's sound that much better, you could move those to the doors and use them as your primaries - the jbl's would make a nice mid-woofer in that rear location....


I know kind of a crazy thought, just throwing it out there while you still have all the panels off and easy access......


Thought being that there is no "right or wrong" way to do this, it really boils down to what sounds best to YOUR ears

 

Good! Glad I didn't spend 45mins rushing last night to trim that whole lip off for nothing! Also that I wasn't an idiot doing it when I tried to test fit that panel over the sub enclosure.

I must have trimmed differently than you.. Maybe I took an hour doing it. I made VERY sure I didn't trim any clips off.. I was worried about those clips "structural stability" when I was going to have to inevitably trim some of the plastic they were bound to.. but the extra "time" I guess I spent being super careful around the clips left them in place.. and they are just as tight and strong as they were and I removed the entire lip.

In fact, I did it from the back then used a finishing "buffer" bit on it so it doesn't look all cut up even with that plastic piece off of it. But the plastic piece fits in it fine.. and I'll put it back on.

The faster way is to just have trimmed a straight line and knocked those clips off.. but I decided to at least try to keep the clips so it would clip in tight. Maybe I just lucked out?

Oh,.. and I talked to Ryan this morning about the box and how I had to put A LOT of pressure on the bottom portion to "pull" it from 1-1/4" inch gap to less than 1/2" gap.. and I assumed the wood gave instead of the sheetmetal (though the sheetmetal may have pulled some (which is preferable)..

Point is, I asked about that seam in the middle where it angles.. That looked suspiciously like a weak point with that pressure I put on it.

He comforted me and said he reinforces the box, especially at that seam with fiberglass... So I think you actually get quite a lot for $100 with this box.

Yeah that looks sweet. But I have to tell you man,.. This system , now that I've got it on and running and tuned in.. Sounds INSANE.

I can't believe how good this thing sounds,.. I can't describe it,.. It's like JUST what I was aiming for.. only 100 times louder but retaining the sound quality. I'm so glad I decided to install that bass ****,.. it's SO easy to work,.. and I can tell I'll be fiddling with it depending on music type .. and maybe even what location and time of day, etc ..

The JL 10" in that SRQ "stealth" box sounds incredible! It's tight, I tuned it to test tones.. then after that I went through some music I listen to to fine tune it.. Ended up lastly on Led Zeppelin Over the Hills and Far Away. Great song to tune to.. and it sounds unbelievable.. I'm sorry , I guess I seem like I'm bragging.. just so glad it all worked and moreover how good the thing sounds.

But,.. another huge thing I noticed was the sheer Quality of my MB Quart Coaxials I had from the 90's.. (When MB Quart was high end and made in Germany).

I'm not kidding or naive when I say this.. but they are at least 5x the speaker the JBL MS62C's are.. The JBL's are great.. but I'm sorry these MB Quarts are just the best speakers I've ever heard back then, and still are now.

I don't regret putting them in and going with a 5 channel amp one ounce now. I had to fade it up 50% to get the "stage" shifted to the front properly.. but it's a very rich full sound, and the MB Quarts "brightness" really compliments the JBL's lower tonality.

Some people were asking me why I didn't match some other JBL's for the rear as the MB Quarts are a different Tone .. In my opinion the two differing tonalities compliment each other. This is MY ear again.. After I set the Parametric 12band EQ on the headunit the JBL's came to life.. initially the MB Quarts were just blowing them WAY out of the water.. But got it dialed in just right.

So relieved,.. Tomorrow is just putting the car back together. While that's a heck of a job,.. it's no guess work really (aside from the headunit mounting).. so I can just go about it at an easy pace without having to think too much.

 

I had about 30-60 seconds of.. DAMN,.. the amp isn't powering on, when I finally hooked it up and turned the car on. The headunit was in "Demo Mode".. and after a few seconds I switched it to the USB source that had the test tones on it and CLICK.. amp light comes on.. HUGE sigh of relief lol.

Amen! I'm still anxious to see what it's going to sound like with the interior in.. On the down side the JBL mids are going to be muffled a bit by the stock grills.. (But that's an easy fix.. ) -- But,.. on the positive side the interior back in the car.. especially the door panels should make a fairly large difference in the sound,.. instead of LAYING in the front area, jamming out like tonight.. I'll be in a seat again haha.

I thought about it already.. I even thought about how I "would" cutup the MB Quarts to turn them into Components.. it's certainly possible to do as the tweeter is just held over top with plastic.. Would take a little ingenunity with the rewiring of the tweeters.. and having the ***** to take a dremel to those .. now that I've heard them again.. perhaps,.. irreplaceable speakers -- Given their age, and low likelihood of finding another used set from the mid/late 90's.

I am SO.. SOOOO glad I kept those boxed up the last 14 years.. between several moves without easily poking holes in them,.. or otherwise getting rid of them.. I have had NO desire to do anything with car audio other than put in a head unit in a car back in 2008.. The ONLY reason I've saved these speakers over the past 14 years is because they were $500 lol.. I could never justify trashing them.

But,.. nah.. I'm going to leave it like it is.. It sounds SO good as it is.. I really think I'd be just as happy either way to be honest. Those tweeters from the JBL's sound excellent.. I have the Crossover on 0dB setting (there's 3 settings on the jumper and I have it on the "brightest" or "most power" essentially.

I really think I'm one of the rare people who really likes BRIGHT tweeters,.. So those MB Quarts behind my head are kick *** to me.. and may drive someone else nuts lol.

This system is by FAR a cleaner sound than the last system I had in my 300ZX. And,.. that Single JL Audio 10" in the SRQ down firing enclosure is unbelievable. I measured the space I had.. and it was 5.5" between bottom of box and top of the "rubber-pad" down there. That slot is absolutely freaking huge if you think about it. The SRQ box is 6.6 cubic ft ,.. and I still have almost half a foot of space under the sub to fire. Perhaps my sound deadening in there and elsewhere is paying off with the sub?

I initially set the gain on the sub to about 40% which coincided with the proper 270watts at 4ohms.. while playing a 40hz tone. But, the sub just wasn't really pushing that hard at ALL. So I popped in a 79hz sine wave tone.. and the voltage dropped 10volts.. I was like Ahh.. 40% may work well with Rap,.. but my music it's not getting the power. So I retuned the gains at a 79hz tone and ended up about 60'ish percent.. And it made a WORLD of difference on the sub. Now on my bass **** about mid way is a perfect blend,.. and max is "showing off for friends" setting --

So depending on tone,.. I would say that JL Audio 10" sub is getting 270watts - 330 watts RMS.. That's pushing the amp a little harder I suppose,.. but the lower end of the wattage is on the music I listen to.. It'd only go up potentially if I listened to some Rap or something (which I don't do).. and I have that bass ****, which attenuates it safely.

That "stealth" box and the JL sub is crazy loud and TIGHT.. I think perhaps since I matched the box up with a sub that specifies out to sound best in a Sealed enclosure with .65 Cubic ft,.. and I ended up putting it in a .66 Cubic ft sealed box it's really happy?

 

I think the real problem is the air your moving is basically "trapped" by all the metal and plastic that surrounds it. I've got a Kicker L5 8" (square sub) in my Dakota in a down firing box that only has about 1" of space under it and it sounds awesome. The big difference is that 1" is completely open on both sides, its a center console box (about .5 cu ft) sitting over the transmission hump in the rear of a quad cab. The pressurized air from the sub fills the cabin. However in the Z your basically playing a speaker inside a odd shaped metal box covered with plastic. Totally different story! I was using a Polk MM 12" with 250 watts in the SRQ box and it sounded fine until your cranked things up or played really DEEP bass. Then all I got was a mess of rattles and squeaks despite covering everything I could in dynamat.



Glad it all worked out and your a happy camper. Given the level of detail you went into when figuring things out I knew everything was going to perform and work together nicely.
How a system sounds come down to three main factors:
1) Decent equipment - you don't need the best name brand stuff, just proven stuff that does sound like a distorted mess.
2) Installed properly - the best sub in the wrong box ain't going to work. The best amp hooked up wrong with the gains out of wack and bad crossover settings will sound terrible.
3) System planning - Combination of the above, putting the right pieces in the right places, all connected properly, with no short cuts with cheap cables, etc.

When I first got into car audio (back in the mid 80s) I mostly fixed item #2 for people. People came to me with two 15" subs in a horrible box, so I would swap in one 10" in a proper box, adjust their crossovers and they were like

Good things happens when you put in the effort and do it the RIGHT way!


FYI - the difference between .65 and .66 box is nothing. Technically your most likely a touch small because people forget the woofer itself must be subtracted from the airspace. The nice thing about sealed boxes you can be +/- like 20% before it really impacts things. I normally add some polyfil to offset the woofer displacement.

 

Update on Install Log:

Fabricated an Amp "mount" from Plywood,.. carpeted it,.. put 1/4" spacers under it,.. and screwed amp into the Fabricated amp "rack" if you will. Have industrial velcro around the lip of the "hole" (where that little box goes, that comes out) inside the glove box.. and on bottom of plywood amp rack.. It holds amp in place VERY VERY well,.. And the upside is any adjustments to the amp are a snap.. I just pull up on it and it comes right off to adjust without removing any panels, screws etc. Plus the industrial velcro is so strong that amp isn't moving even if I slammed on my brakes. I like this solution, it's simple. (I'm going to add a carpeted piece on top of it later today to give me roughly half of my glove box space back, and to protect the amp if I put anything in there.

Also got half the car back together.. As you can see from this picture it's very much a "stealth" install.. not one thing shows this has high end speakers, a sub, amp etc..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/111739693@N04/11951148364/

Here is the Amp on the rack I built, carpeted,.. and tidy'd up -- It's simple, but I think it looks great imho. (Under that amp is a HUGE square hole.. I didn't just screw the amp down to that.. I had to make that (First time doing something like this,.. What do you think?)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/111739693@N04/11951544946/
Broke a few clips on the LAST panel I put in .. glad it's in the rear.. so ordered them off Ebay for cheap for a 25 pack.. Will replace those (and have plenty extras for the future) as I will be removing panels again to add more sound deadener/closed cell foam, etc.

Just taking a little break.. Next is the door panels.

 

This sub sounds FANTASTIC. I can only attribute it to how I deadened the interior,.. and using Ryan's advice and using a foam and deadener surrounding the lip of the box,.. PLUS using a JL Audio 10" sub that according to JL Audio's specification sheet for the sub I bought.. the SRQ Box coincidentally is EXACTLY the same Cubic Feet as the sub recommends. I lucked out there to be honest.

But moreover -- I think if you came and had a listen to my setup.. you'd be impressed and scratching your head a little (I just mean the sub).. Because it doesn't rattle anything (even when I'm cranking it..).. And moreover it's incredibly powerful.. WAY more bass than these 4 tweeters and 4 mids can handle if all the way up. (If I put the MB Quarts at 100%.. shifting the stage rearward.. THEN, and only then would I have more than enough to over-ride the sub at max volume (30/40), 75%.)

But I wanted to address the perceived differences in space in the 350Z vs. your other truck/car.

This hole is QUITE large.. Again I measured and have 5-6 inches (let's call it 5.5") clearance from bottom of sub to floor.

But also.. it is NOT a closed area. It opens up completely all the way to the other side of the car to the Glove box behind the driver seat.

If you happen to look in that location again.. You'll see very large open oval shape long holes that allow a great deal of air space. At first glance it seems to be a sealed 'area'.. but it's most certainly not. So this has to help with air pressure. (There's also a bit of area to the right of it where the seatbelt is.. IIRC that has an opening as well.)

Point is this sub is not *under-performing* due to the box and location. Would it sound better under the strut tower... Before I hooked it up and listened to it I would have said absolutely.. no question!

But, now having experience with other subs.. and in Z's, rear firing in the hatch.. This 10" Sub pushing 300watts RMS is nailing it. Wish you guys could hear it!

I guess.. you can't really beat the Z car design for the hatch.. Rear firing subs toward the glass of the hatchback always produces the best sound.. So I suppose this sub would sound "Louder" out of this spot.. But the box itself is the precise Cubic ft. requirements and specifications from JL Audio. It's not a box that's small cause it has to fit in that spot and for example.. I have half,.. .375 Cubic ft. of space with a sub that recommends 6.5 cubic ft. -- It's sheer coincidence that this sub optimal specs match the sealed box cubic ft. perfectly.

I was wrestling with 8" vs 10" for weeks.. but the specs on the Box being .66 cubic ft.. and the 10" specs being .65 cubic ft.. (And the 8" sub needing .375 cubic ft to perform best.) -- I thought it would be best going 10" merely due to the perfect match space wise.

I'm not upset or made.. haha I know text can be difficult to detect tone. Nor am I saying you are WRONG. I just think something is different between our installs even though we both used this box.

I can only think some part has to due with the Sub I'm using.. and maybe the way I prepped it? I know it doesn't make much sense,.. but I'm running between 270-300watts RMS clean (at 60% gain) on this sub from a PPI amp.. I have it crossed over at 80hz .. and subsonic at 20hz. So the sub essentially runs a mere 60hz frequency range.. 20-80.. I'll keep tinkering with the Low pass.. to see if I can tighten it up even more (but it's very responsive and "tight" right now.) Not sure going to 70hz, 90hz.. 100hz. etc is going to make any difference for the better.

Yeah.. different sub (That Polk was about a $200 sub ? ) -- And you had about 50 watts less power running it. We know one brand of sub sounds different from another. Sometimes drastically.

I just pulled the spec sheet on that sub you ran.. and it performs "optimally" in .88 Cubic ft. So you were running it about 30-35% shy of the space it wanted in that SRQ box,.. That might be the difference right there.. Since this sub is designed to work with the exact space of this SRQ Box.. and yours is a higher end Sub that had 50watts less (not much I know).. and was "cramped" for space in a sense.

I'm really suprised I don't have more rattles than I do. Really. We'll see what manifests now that the car is going together.. I'm ready to tackle them no problem though. I'm really pleased with this sub location and sound.

Precisely! -- People have been giving me a hard time because I asked so many questions.. and was so inquisitive and going through literally dozens of speaker sets.. half a dozen amp possiblities.. (the only thing I didn't ask much about was the Sub.. I knew I was going JL.. It's the first pair of subs I had,.. and I felt "good' intuitively about going with them.) -- BUT,.. My month or so of asking questions here and on car audio forums,.. plus spending many hours watching youtube videos on how to do anything from Solder with a Butane/Propane (the big ones) torches the Large 4 gauge power and ground wire connectors to how to run wires properly to keep interference from occuring.. to actually watching an entire series of audio classes on Youtube that went into all the math and laws explaining how amps really work.. what gains do.. The different pre-out voltage you will get based on source (Your CD is going to be a bit different than your USB for example.. You aux port will change depending on what device you put on it, etc.).

Bottom line.. I did my homework,.. cause let's face it.. I've never done this and doing it blind with no research/homework .. I would have probably destroyed the car.. not been able to successfully complete the install.. and the end result of the sound would have likely been sub par.

As with anything.. Planning and doing your OWN homework and TEACHING yourself with the internet is a valuable "trait" to have. Many people don't have the patience or curiosity to spend the time to learn something like this from top to bottom. Others are just lazy.. and some don't care, etc. But a ton of planning makes life so much easier when you get down to the work itself, and certainly makes the END result exceptional.

For sure! Good points, and thanks!

Hrmm.. good point on the sub taking up airspace. BUT,.. I would think JL Audio spec sheets would have that provision included in their recommended box size for sealed enclosures.. ya know? So in actuality the sub is designed to work with oh.. I dunno let's say .55 cubic feet. and the box JL recommends is .65 cubft,.. To compensate for the area/space taken up by the sub itself.

Just checked the JL spec sheets again.. This came up:

"* All enclosure volumes listed above are net internal volumes! Driver displacement, port displacement and brace displacement must be added to obtain the final gross internal volume. All enclosure dimensions above have already taken this into account."

The "net" space recommended is .65cubft.. The initial sentences make you think you need to do the math to figure out how much your sub is going to take up out of the box and add that to the box size.. BUT.. that last sentence "All enclosure dimensions above have already taken this into account." -- Makes me think that JL, did, in fact, take this sub's mounting depth and size in box into account and .65cubft box is what you want to build.

It could go either way though.. They mention "net" and not "gross".. so That last sentence makes an otherwise clear cut statement (Making you dead on accurate in your statement) a little confusing.

But doing some math -- If you are right (and I believe you are).. Taking this subs volume from the box is:

Sub takes up : 0.034 cu ft of space.

Thus the end result of this box "net" is .63cubic ft.. Still pretty damn close if you ask me to what the sub wants.

Which goes back to your Polk sub.. that wanted .88 Cubic ft Net.. Take away the Volume of the sub.. And you were working with probably .60 to .62 cubic ft.. shy a fair amount. .1 or .2 cubic ft likely isn't going to make a huge difference,.. But I think .23 or greater cubic ft difference probably does have a noticeable effect. But, I'm not enclosure engineer .. not by a long shot!

 

Trust me the sub was perfectly fine in the slightly undersized box - I modeled with WinISD and I've been building boxes since the mid 80s. The darn thing just rattled too much in my car. Keep in mind the Polk 12" moves a lot more air then the JL 10", its bigger and more efficient. Also we have different taste in music, as I mentioned before the box performed GREAT with rock, it just couldn't handle the deeper bass in rap/dance without rattling too much for my taste

Glad your rattle free and the amp rack looks good too

Based on my past experience two 10"s under the strut tower brace, facing backwards would be the ideal setup in a Z, however I'm not willing to give up that space back there. The CAS corner box is about the best compromise, but I still want to try two 8"s in a modified front firing SRQ box.

 

Well.. I got the car back together, few scratches and need 2 clips for a rear piece but not bad.

Took me hours to get that dang headunit and that HUGE bracket with the long legs in.. Finally did.

But... what's keeping it from being "complete" is that the Trim piece won't fit??

It came out fine... I don't know what to do to make it work.

I tried adjusting it to make it level, etc.. but the trim piece just doesn't fit in there..

Here's a picture of it without the trim piece,.. maybe you can see what I don't. I thought the trim piece would pop right on.. But, nope!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/111739693@N04/11957264683/

One of the tabs broke on it as I wrestled with it for an hour.. So I ordered a new one .. This one is bowed out for some reason.

You guys have any bright suggestions on how to get that trim piece to fit in? That's literally the last thing keeping this thing from being done.. After that it's putting seats in which will take 10 minutes and I'm done.

Thanks!

 

Oh no doubt.. I wasn't trying to insult or offend you.. Or knock your experience, knowledge, etc. Really.. I was just typing out loud , so to speak. Browsing the web looking at stats and literally putting my thoughts in the post.. speculating.

I'm also not an idiot -- Even though I may seem like a blithering idiot with all my questions,.. I'm actually very good with my hands as they say.. figuring out how things work, fixing most anything that breaks, etc. Which I guess it part of the reason I was able to pull this off without ever having done it before with a dremel to do ALL the work lol.. I sound like an *** in that last sentence.. not bragging, not my personality to do so.. Just trying to put things into perspective.

I get the slight feeling you took what I said a little personal as a sort of jab to your vast experience from some "noob" to this car audio who probably thinks he knows it all now. -- I get it,.. and I understand just how much I don't know! -- One thing I've learned over the years,.. the MORE I learn about something, the more I realize how much I don't know. Holds true with just about everything.

But.. yes.. as I mentioned your Polk was at least twice the sub my JL is price wise and efficiency wise -- So it should have blown mine out of the water.

But.. I also think the different types of music is an equal factor in your experience vs. mine. The lower hz tones from other music tends to move things more than say 70-80'ish hz kick pedals from rock.

So far I am.. Haven't driven the car around yet.. We'll see what happens on the road. I'm expecting some rattles to pop up.. and I'm ready to tackle them as they occur.

Thanks on the Amp rack.. It's "simple".. but any more and it would have negated the whole purpose of putting the amp in there to start with and going with Class D -- I wanted to salvage part of the glove box for actual storage and not dedicate the whole thing just to the amp.

This amp being full Class D,.. runs cool.. When the music is pounding at 30 volume,.. it doesn't get hot.. Which is nice and comforting. A month ago I thought Class D meant the "4th" best class of amp.. IE: A, A/B, etc.. and that all D class amps were basically high distortion amps that would only be useful in some sub applications.

After some reading I discovered that wasn't the case.. that over the years the technology has improved drastically and as long as you did your homework and bought a GOOD brand amp,.. you could expect clean power from it. Which is the case here. This $209 amp is quite a bargain driving all these speakers, imho.

Yup... I agree completely. Rear facing in the Z's accoustic nature/shape is about the best you can ask for from a car.. It's the way I did my 300ZX and some relatively 'mid range' subs.. I blew away people who had invested into JL W6's.. or were running triple subs.. 5 times the wattage and so on.

I also agree with the corner box.. I was strongly considering going with a corner box I found that was made by some other manufacturer that was like $100 .. and while not the same quality CAS is.. was a decent box. But ultimately I was a little gunshy about the rattles from a sub firing in the hatch,.. have to remember my initial goals, which were a system that just had a little punch,.. nothing boomy,.. nothing to rattle.. Something like a good factory premium system.

Well.. turns out this build blew that "goal" out of the water.. but I didn't screw it up luckily (as I didn't know what to really expect when I fired this up).. as it's not rattling things.. it's just clean and loud.. with tight bass.. But this 10" can also hit those low notes in some songs that have them there..

In other words,.. I *can* roll down the street going "boom boom boom" from a half mile away if I put in the right CD/USB etc.. lol.

Front firing modified SRQ box. Interesting. The front firing would have more space to work with for obvious reasons.. Be sort of like truck boxes that are crammed behind the seats.. only in the Z you have the huge area of space in the factory sub location and glovebox (if you run 2) that would give you the airspace to really push things.

 

yah getting everything pushed back into place was a bee-otch.

dude did you crack your front panel on the thin piece at the bottom - just to the right of the headunit on your photo?????

 

Heh.. No. It's a scratch.. not deep. I actually already corrected it with some touchup black then blended it.. Can't see it now. But, heck no I didn't crack the panel

Any ideas on getting the trim square to fit properly?

 

Which trim kit did you buy?

 

Same one that is on it now,.. and brand that is recommended online by most.

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...a-99-7602.html



That kit comes with all sorts of trims.. but I only need the single rectangle skinny double din piece.. I couldn't find it sold by itself.

And.. My piece may have been fine and it's actually probably NOT my piece causing the problem. It must be alignment of something there.. but you can only adjust the head unit so much with two sets of screw holes side by side (one drilled to install this headunit flush)..

You would think mounting in the screw holes on the sides that I used when taking it out of the car would have it exactly in the position it came out in.

I am doing it right when I put the trim piece in LAST right? The trim piece doesn't go in underneath anything .. then you push the radio forward does it?

Really need some help with this annoying simple 5 minutes ordeal here.

I don't want to put my tail between my legs after installing a complete system properly.. and bring the car to a shop to have them put a trim piece on! Ya know?

 

The trim piece goes in first, as you're screwing the radio brackets into the back of the waterfall.

 

Hrmm.. so push the radio back from the lip.. and get the trim piece in.. have it "inside" the lip so to speak.. then push radio forward and screw?

Doesn't seem like that's going to make a diff.. but I'll see what it does anyhow.

Thanks