High End Audio Build

One of my techs and myself have started the audio section of my Mustang build. I have an actual build thread going on in the member build section. Being that this audio related, I figured I would share it with people here in case they don't go into the member build sections. This build will be based around the factory 8" Sync 2 in my vehicle. The car is outfitted with the second level audio system. So in other words, it does not have the factory woofer or the factory coaxial speakers in the rear deck. I own a mobile electronics shop so this is being built as one of our demo vehicles. This build will take about a month and I will post pics as we make progress. As you will see throughout the build we are keeping vehicle mods to a minimum and we are working to keep the weight down as far as possible. There will be some areas that weight is going to happen for the audio system to perform. There aren't a lot of options around this if we want the system to perform. You will see that the enclosure is where most of the weight will be. We are big on fidelity and sound quality at my shop and that is the main mission with this system. I'd be more than happy to answer questions if you have them. Hopefully this will help some of you guys that might be tackling your own installs or having a professional do it. I have seen some good info being given out in the audio section of this forum and some bad, so I hope I can help out where needed.


Here is most of the gear going into the vehicle. The woofers are not here. They will consist of two JL Audio 10w6 10"


As with all of our high end builds we started by sound deadening the entire vehicle. Total weight added is right at 50 pounds


sound deadening under the carpet


this material is a closed cell foam carpet pad that we put over the top of the mat material. It kills all low frequency road noise


complete shot of the driver's floor board done


Running the power wire through the car requires the removal of the inner fender well on the passenger side. Once done there is large grommet the wire can go through


inside the fender well. I/we use factory TESSA tape to tie everything together. TESSA tape is a cloth or nylon style tape. Which to use depends on if you are using it on the exterior or interior of the vehicle

0awg power wire ran along the passenger floor board. These cars actually have more room for running wire than I expected. The back of the vehicle comes apart very easily as well.

This is what I have done for now. I will post pics as we make progress.

Subbed for awesome-sauce!

Will be following!

Following

Here is the start of the enclosure my tech is building for the two JL Audio 10W6 woofers. This process is called stacking. He build his own template to get the shape. This process lets him get the shapes he needs to make it fit in the trunk without having to do a bunch of fiberglass work. Wood is always going to be stronger and sound better than a fiberglass enclosure. The only way around this would be to go overly thick with your fiberglass.

On a different note..... after talking with OEMRadio a member on here, we are going to send my factory ACM to him so he can deprogram the factory equalization and time alignment out of the factory radio. I will still be using the JL Audio FIX as a line driver and fiber optic preamp before we go into the Bit One processor.

Is this going to be up against the back seat? Nice looking job...doing it right the first time!

"He build his own template to get the shape. This process lets him get the shapes he needs to make it fit in the trunk without having to do a bunch of fiberglass work."

Good idea - i made a partial wood/fiberglass enclosure for the sub in my EBM. The fiberglass really just sealed the wood sides through the curve at the bottom of the spare tire well.

Evolvd said:

Is this going to be up against the back seat? Nice looking job...doing it right the first time!

Click to expand...

once everything is complete, the amps will be built into the enclosure behind the seat. The woofers will fire into the trunk. Once he has the basic shell of the enclosure done he will then cut it to fit the angle of the back seat.

JLsounds said:

once everything is complete, the amps will be built into the enclosure behind the seat. The woofers will fire into the trunk. Once he has the basic shell of the enclosure done he will then cut it to fit the angle of the back seat.

Click to expand...

Hmm...see if he's willing to save his template and do more of these? I was looking at Zenclosures but their airspace is a little small for the subs I want to run.

He could probably make a few bucks on this board if he's interested in doing that.

Evolvd said:

Hmm...see if he's willing to save his template and do more of these? I was looking at Zenclosures but their airspace is a little small for the subs I want to run.

He could probably make a few bucks on this board if he's interested in doing that.

Click to expand...

here is what he built. He uses this as the guide to make each piece on the router table.

I'll say this... you're certainly using great hardware, I think you're just using too much of it

The Audison and the JL both essentially do the same thing but go about it slightly differently, so I'm confused as to why you are using both?

mumbles said:

I'll say this... you're certainly using great hardware, I think you're just using too much of it

The Audison and the JL both essentially do the same thing but go about it slightly differently, so I'm confused as to why you are using both?

Click to expand...

The JL and the Audison don't do the same thing. The JL FIX takes the signal from the factory amp and gets rid of the factory equalization and time alignment that the factory system has built in. It give me a completely flat unaltered response to go into the Bit One with. The Bit One then give me all my equalization and time alignment. Yes, the Bit One has a feature that "deequalizes" the signal coming in but I still have to go high level into it. The FIX allows me to go optical into the Bit processor. After talking with OEMradio (a member on the site), he is going to deprogram the factory deck of all it's equalization and time alignment so now we might not use the FIX because he is doing what the FIX was going to do for us. We are still considering using the FIX as a line driver and for the optical output due to the fact that the voltage coming out of the factory headunit is pretty weak.

This is what the stacking process allows us to do. Have a super strong enclosure and be able to get really tight tolerances and curves

That's looking great.. and that is a great way to build an enclosure. People rely on fiberglass too much these days.. I love seeing nice woodworking..

Subscibed! Looking forward to seeing how speaker wires are ran inside the doors...