Following are some pictures of my car as it undergoes a stereo/speaker/navigation/radar detector/rear view camera upgrade. These pictures are being posted to provide information to the members of this board. I am not posting these pictures to "brag", to claim I have the best system, or that I am audio authority. To the contrary, I know very little about audio components, and therefore have relied on the advice and decisions of people that make their living designing, engineering, manufacturing and installing audio components.

I am very fortunate to have a very good friend that is an engineer at Boston Acoustics and he was instrumental in having my car chosen as a "project" car by them. Following is a list of components that will be going into the car. I am providing links in case someone reading this would like a little more information on each component.

Head Unit: Alpine DVA-7996 (DVD/CD/MP3)
Processor: Alpine PXA-H510 (Dolby digital decoding, 11 band EQ, etc.)
CD Changer: Alpine CHA-S634 (6 disc, CDs/MP3s/CDRs)
Navigation Unit: Alpine NVE-852 (DVD based)
Monitor: Alpine TME-M760 (6.5", 3 AV inputs (Navigation, DVD, and Rearview camera))
Front Speakers: Boston Acoustics Z6 speakers (6.5", 2-way, great name!)
Rear Speakers: Boston Acoustics Z6 speakers (6.5", 2-way)
Subwoofers: Boston Acoustics 8.5LF ProSeries (Four 8.5" subs installed in custom enclosure)
Amplifier-Front and rear speakers: Boston Acoustics (no information available)
Amplifier-Subwoofers: Boston Acoustics (no information available-see picture below)
Radar Unit: Passport SR1 (remote, front/rear laser, control mounted in "sunglasses" holder)
Rearview Camera: Model Unknown
Dash Kit:Metra Dash Kits (for picture see Raceboy's post)

Most of the electronics were purchased from Nazar who is a member of this board and owns a couple of installation shops in NH. His prices were better than anyone else out there and his knowledge and advice is priceless.

Following are pictures of the installation so far (~1.5 weeks). Again, I am posting these to help people considering an upgrade or for people that just like to look at upgrades. I will continue to post additional pictures until it is done.

1)The dismantle of the car's rear interior. "Racks" are being made to house the CD Changer, Nav unit, and amplifiers for the front and rear speakers. The installers were very happy with how much space was available.


2) The dismantle of the car's dash (kind of sick feeling after seeing this one)


3) The dismantle of the rear hatch and the start of the Dynamating.


4) The custom sub enclosure (made in two parts for "easy" removal, if needed). Great floor!


5) The sub enclosure from the rear. Initially they were going to have the subs firing toward the back of the car, however after doing numerous measurements (and my request that I have enough space in the back for a set of golf clubs), came up with this setup.

6) The subwoofer amplifier (~1000 watts) and custom amp rack (spare tire can still come out if needed).

7) The sub enclosures in place with the amp rack attached to them. The sub enclosures and grills will be covered in material to match the rest of the interior.

That's it, so far!

 

more pics! looks cool.

 

Wow! Please keep us posted. Any and all pictures would be appreciated.

 

WOW!!!

Color me impressed.

I have the same Alpine NAV its a GREAT system.

However, did your BA buds tell you how the 7996 interfaces with the NAV? Are there screen controls?

either way....keep us posted!

 

Looks heavy.

 

Is that an optical illusion? in the last pic it looks like a single box for 3 10" or 12" woofers instead of the 4 8" Also why are you using the alpine h510 processor? are you running a center channel? why not wait for the new 700? looks to be a much nicer unit... I have alot of negative experience with setting up the H510. IMO it's very difficult to deal with, esp if you want to turn off the center for regular music.

 

just put in mb quarts (rsc216) in stock location behind the factory grills. the tweeters in front had to be ran at -0db because they were mounted behind the factory grills which have small holes and block a lot of sound, the rears were set at -6db and still are just a little bright. they were mounted to a bridge in the center behind the factory grills. the tweeter mounts in front with the facory hardware and is hard to tell apart even from behind (see photos) stock tweeter below

 

mb quarts tweeter now installed

 

rest of door install using stock speaker frame as mount/spacer ring

 

rear tweeter bridge mount, seems to work good and all looks stock and unaltered from the outside

 

rear tweeters? I have a bridge Id like to sell ya!

 

who sold you that bridge, must have been a good salesman or an easy mark. Yes the rear tweeters work, I am looking for the right resistor to tone them down some more. guess i'll have to talk to my brother the electronic engineer about the info on that.

 

Sorry, but I had the Nav unit sent directly to BA, so I never got to review the manual. There are a few buttons on the remote control for the 7996 that obviously control the Nav unit. I do not believe that the unit has screen controls... Well, that information should really help you!

Yeah, I thought the same thing when I received the picture, but it is an optical illusion. There are two boxes housing 2 8" subs each. The 4th speaker hole is just hidden by the angle of the shot. I have probably asked my friend about 5 times if he is sure they are only 8" holes, because they look quite a bit bigger.

I went with the H510 for a couple of reasons. The correct reason is because of it's "tuning" capabilities, sub controls and equalizer. The incorrect (pathetic) reason is because I wanted something to fill the second din space. In any event, there will not be a center channel installed at the present time, but will be using the "phantom" mode. As far as the "700" I am not familiar with this unit (did a couple of searches on Google and the Alpine site) and really wanted to have the system installed sooner (with currently available components), rather than later. Not real happy to hear about the problems with the 510, but the only other option I could find for Dolby Digital decoding was the $4000 PXA-H900, and I couldn't really justify that one.

Thanks to everyone for their comments.

Attached please find the last picture I just received with the CD Changer and Nav unit in a newly designed case. Actually leaves some room for the manual in there! You can also see a little bit of the sub enclosure showing the four holes from the front. Hopefully I'll have a picture of the other "bay" shortly.

 

Oh my! Man you redfine the phrase, "Going All Out"

It is pretty depressing seeing the z without any of the interior, but I know i'm going to go through the same thing as soon as the car shows up.

 

I'm curious about the camera install.

I'm also going to be doing a very major install and while I am at it, i was thinking of the rear camera installation...



Please fulfill me in...



Dave

 

Anyone2u,

It is looking real nice, I am sure it is going to sound AWESOM. That amp looks very nice, If you need anything let me know.

Nazar