JaxChris
Member
- Thread starter
- #1
Hello everyone. Dreaded new member first post.
First, thanks to many of the members that frequent this section. A lot of the installs shown have been inspiring. I'm hoping the same gurus can check my work on the below idea.
Background: I'm a Camaro guy, but the misses wanted a Mustang to be different and I was happy to put another RWD vehicle in the driveway. It's a 2016 Ecoboost Premium w/ 9-speaker Shaker 500 (she didn't like the 2018 front end when we went shopping). She's very disappointed in the audio quality compared to the Bose in my Camaro, really it is just the mid and sub bass response she doesn't like. I think the Shaker does a decent job of putting the sound stage where it should be and out of the box the tonal separation of the upper bass, midrange and highs are surprising for a system many here are obsessed with 'correcting'.
Ok, so onto the grand plan. This is just going to be a 2-seater affair. The kids have earbuds in all the time, so it's all about the front seats enjoying a good cruise. I'm comfortable work Forscan and I've already made some tweaks, including change in EQ. While it did allow more upper bass through to the woofers and midrange, it didn't really get rid of the roll off. I didn't go to flat signal yet.
Since this is her car, she doesn't want anything outrageous, just wants to have sounds where they are supposed to be. From a combination of the stereo information, center channel swap and freeair/door sub threads, I'm come up with the following concept. I humbly ask for feedback prior to making all the purchases. I'd like to have all the parts in by Christmas and do the install between then and New Years.
1. Build amp bypass harness for just the door woofers and rear deck, ordering connectors from mouser
2. Run the bypass harness behind the center stack to the passenger footwell
3. Fab a bracket similar to the mounting scheme used by the Alpine PSU-300MTG, locating aux amp under glovebox
4. Zero out the EQ via Forscan
5. Replace center channel and door 3.5's with Kicker 43CSC354's, resize openings 0.1" to clearance
6. Replace door woofers with flush mount Kicker 43CWRT672's
7. Replace rear woofers with bottom mount Kicker 43CWRT672's
8. Install auxiliary amp Kicker PXA3004 on fabbed bracket
9. Run power through passenger firewall and wheel well, run ground to firewall
10. Wire DVC's in series for 4-ohm load, providing the minimum 50w RMS to the woofers (amp runs cool too)
11. If loss is a concern, then swap to 43CWRT671's and wire in series for 1ohm at 75w?
12. Swap A-pillar tweeters for Kicker 43CST20's, or skip?
I'd like to keep the system pretty much invisible to the average Joe. Based on the prices I can order things for (not much cheaper than Amazon), it looks like I'll be spending 240 on woofers, 45 on mids, 25 on tweeters, 180 on amp and about 100 on wires/connectors/bracket. That puts the budget at 600$ and show clean up the bass, while providing 'just' enough power to make itself known. If the doors are too overpowering with the amp filter defeated, then inline filters may be added to make the doors midbass only and the rear subbass (with a little overlap).
Sorry for the long post, and thanks for your suggestions and feedback.
Cheers,
-Jax
First, thanks to many of the members that frequent this section. A lot of the installs shown have been inspiring. I'm hoping the same gurus can check my work on the below idea.
Background: I'm a Camaro guy, but the misses wanted a Mustang to be different and I was happy to put another RWD vehicle in the driveway. It's a 2016 Ecoboost Premium w/ 9-speaker Shaker 500 (she didn't like the 2018 front end when we went shopping). She's very disappointed in the audio quality compared to the Bose in my Camaro, really it is just the mid and sub bass response she doesn't like. I think the Shaker does a decent job of putting the sound stage where it should be and out of the box the tonal separation of the upper bass, midrange and highs are surprising for a system many here are obsessed with 'correcting'.
Ok, so onto the grand plan. This is just going to be a 2-seater affair. The kids have earbuds in all the time, so it's all about the front seats enjoying a good cruise. I'm comfortable work Forscan and I've already made some tweaks, including change in EQ. While it did allow more upper bass through to the woofers and midrange, it didn't really get rid of the roll off. I didn't go to flat signal yet.
Since this is her car, she doesn't want anything outrageous, just wants to have sounds where they are supposed to be. From a combination of the stereo information, center channel swap and freeair/door sub threads, I'm come up with the following concept. I humbly ask for feedback prior to making all the purchases. I'd like to have all the parts in by Christmas and do the install between then and New Years.
1. Build amp bypass harness for just the door woofers and rear deck, ordering connectors from mouser
2. Run the bypass harness behind the center stack to the passenger footwell
3. Fab a bracket similar to the mounting scheme used by the Alpine PSU-300MTG, locating aux amp under glovebox
4. Zero out the EQ via Forscan
5. Replace center channel and door 3.5's with Kicker 43CSC354's, resize openings 0.1" to clearance
6. Replace door woofers with flush mount Kicker 43CWRT672's
7. Replace rear woofers with bottom mount Kicker 43CWRT672's
8. Install auxiliary amp Kicker PXA3004 on fabbed bracket
9. Run power through passenger firewall and wheel well, run ground to firewall
10. Wire DVC's in series for 4-ohm load, providing the minimum 50w RMS to the woofers (amp runs cool too)
11. If loss is a concern, then swap to 43CWRT671's and wire in series for 1ohm at 75w?
12. Swap A-pillar tweeters for Kicker 43CST20's, or skip?
I'd like to keep the system pretty much invisible to the average Joe. Based on the prices I can order things for (not much cheaper than Amazon), it looks like I'll be spending 240 on woofers, 45 on mids, 25 on tweeters, 180 on amp and about 100 on wires/connectors/bracket. That puts the budget at 600$ and show clean up the bass, while providing 'just' enough power to make itself known. If the doors are too overpowering with the amp filter defeated, then inline filters may be added to make the doors midbass only and the rear subbass (with a little overlap).
Sorry for the long post, and thanks for your suggestions and feedback.
Cheers,
-Jax
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