Alpine audio build - it's coming.

[grumblin]

Have the 401a pkg (w/shaker pro). Going to replace factory amps/speakers all around - but going modular so if/when I ever sell the car, I can easily yank the amps/subs, plug the factory amp back in and no one will be the wiser that work has ever been done.

Going the following route - everything ordered (except DSP - still mulling components over).

Will be grabbing the line-out signals from the head unit per other installs here. I've been to 3 different shops and they all "insisted" that "you can't do that - you have to grab post-amp signals or it will sound like crap" - horse pucky. To quote Major League "I say **** you JoBu, I do it myself."

Front Stage
Alpine SPR-60c 2-way components

Rear Fill
Alpine SPR-60 coaxials

Subwoofer
JL Audio Stealthbox

Power
Alpine PDX-V9 (100w RMS @ 4 ohms to fronts/rears and 500w RMS @ 2 ohms to sub)

The only piece that is up in the air is which signal processor to use between the H/U lines and the amp - still mulling it over.

Going to start "modular" - i.e. I don't want 2 concurrent days of car "down time" - so I'm going to install the front and rear speakers first and run it off of factory amp -I want to hear the difference - and once this is done, the amp install won't require me to pull the panels off again since I'm custom making harnesses for the factory plugs (again, thanks to all that have posted this wealth of information).

Once I fabricate and validate the 3 harnesses using bare-FemRCA connectors for Line Out runs to the amp (and of course the speakers) I'll get all the power, RCA and speaker runs to the rear and button it all up. At that point all I'll have to do find time to mount Stealthbox and Amp, unplug the factory harnesses, plug in mine and tune it up. It's a 3-week plan so I don't have to commit to having it torn apart for days.

Wish me luck! I'll follow up with pics and write-ups as it moves along.

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[OySmallFry@SCS]

sub'd bc this is on my todo list and my last car rocked all alpine.

Good luck man

 

[grumblin]

Doing the install this weekend.
Recap:
Alpine SPR-60c - front stage - unsure how happy I'll be with these but we'll try them
Alpine SPR-60 - Rear fill
Alpine PDX-V9 - 5-channel. Birth sheet says 125W RMS x 4 and 559W RMS x1
JL Audio Stealth Box - with 12TW3
AudioControl DQDX - EQ/DSP/Lines

Plan is to get it "in the car" this weekend - I'm sure there'll be lots of "custom-fit" after the fact (I may want to hide the amp/dsp in the well opposite the StealthBox).

 

[Todd15Fastback]

Awesome! Can't wait for this.

 

[Tofino]

That is going to be great!

 

[grumblin]

So - hit the first snag and haven't even started

So Alpine has redesigned their crossovers - and it's a stupid design (ok, probably only stupid for us 2015 S550 owners).

In a "normal" passive crossover, you feed the channel to the crossover, and then there are "woofer" and "tweeter" outputs on the crossover. I was simply going to put the crossovers in the trunk with everything else and feed the woofer and tweeter outputs to their respective pins on the molex connector attached to the amp.

Well.... "Nope" Alpine has decided to put part of the crossover on the mid-bass - and feed the tweeter from it. so the mid-bass now has 4 (actually 5 - one for bi-amping) terminals. One side is common to the mid-bass and the tweeter - so you could just do a parallel run - or bridge the pins on the connector... But the OTHER pair... well, it expects a direct run from one of the terminals on the mid-bass (the back-side of the capacitor) to the crossover for the tweeter - this would require an extra cable run from the mid-bass terminal through the door and up to the tweeter crossover - but from what I understand, you can't get a wire through the loom.

I'm gonna just go bang my head now.

 

[grumblin]

So looking at the wiring diagrams, the 3" in the door and the A-pillar tweeter are simply run in parallel. The plan was to simply disconnect the 3" in the door. Well, that makes it easy to run the wires from the woofer the crossover - then the tweeter wires to the 3" connector - and that should solve the problem. Drawback is that now the crossovers will be inside the doors - and adjusting them will be a bear - going to have to leave the panels off until everything is wired up and am able to test and set attenuation.

Good news is it saves me a pair of speaker runs - and 4 solder connections to the molex connector...

On another note, it looks like the tweets will work in perfect stealth mode in the A-pillar. I'd like to have them flush/swivel but the diameter for the housing is just too large and will require a ton of Dremel work. it may all come together tomorrow as planned.

 

[grumblin]

Like someone else already said: "I'm too old for this crap" - I should've paid someone to do this.

I'm running on a half a 401a audio system right now. After about 6 hours, I've accomplished the following:

Installed new SPR-60C in the rear deck. Pull the factory speakers, cut them out of the baskets and re-used the baskets same as everyone else. It's the right way to do it. They're wired to the factory harness so if I ever sell, I just plug the original molex connectors back into the amp and no one knows the difference (except the lack of a subwoofer :-)

Ran power wire through the firewall by drilling a hole behind the battery holder and running it through a grommet, down under the carpet and down the passenger side.

Ran RCA's and speaker cables from near the factory amp down the drivers side.

Installed the JL Audio StealthBox. Man it's a beautiful piece, and incredibly well constructed. It fits like a glove, but getting it into proper position required a lot of prying. Once it's in and bolted, I can guarantee you it isn't going anywhere.

Power wires, RCA's and speaker cables are now lying dormant in the spare tire well.

Haven't even looked at the front speakers yet. I know that the mid-bass will mount easily - mounting the tweets in the A-pillars is going to be a challenge.

Still unsure as to where to mount the amp. I left plenty of wire in the back so I have lots of options.

The BIGGEST challenge is going to be soldering the molex connectors. My soldering skills are terrible and that's some tiny work. I'm sure I'll booger it all up.

 

[ForTehNguyen]

tweets in the A pillar werent that hard, I dremeled out the factory mounting and only leaving a hole, my tweeters fit in fine and I used hot glue to mount it

http://www.mustang6g.com/forums/showpost.php?p=756911&postcount=17

I agree with the molex connector, it was a challenge, felt like I needed 3 hands to do it.

 

[grumblin]

One thing I have been totally amazed at since I got the car is how low in volume the rear fill is. When you fade 100% to the rear I bet it's 25% of the volume of the front. This will get fixed with gain settings when the new amp goes into service.

One thing to note is that I'm going to try is run the pdx-v9 with no dsp and see how it sounds. I wish I had access to a RTA so I could visually see what the factory HU frequency response curve looks like. I've got an AudioControl DQDX to drop in but really want to see what I can get out of it dry.

 

[OySmallFry@SCS]

One thing to note is that I'm going to try is run the pdx-v9 with no dsp and see how it sounds. I wish I had access to a RTA so I could visually see what the factory HU frequency response curve looks like. I've got an AudioControl DQDX to drop in but really want to see what I can get out of it dry.

Yes yes, i also speak English but understood none of this. [emoji39]

 

[NWs550]

Like someone else already said: "I'm too old for this crap" - I should've paid someone to do this.

Installed the JL Audio StealthBox. Man it's a beautiful piece, and incredibly well constructed. It fits like a glove, but getting it into proper position required a lot of prying. Once it's in and bolted, I can guarantee you it isn't going anywhere.

What's the model # for that Stealthbox? Sub'ed for sub. :cheers:

 

[Ericc B]

If the front speaker design with the crossovers is giving you a hard time then why not simply exchange them for another type or brand?

 

[grumblin]

What's the model # for that Stealthbox? Sub'ed for sub. :cheers:

http://www.jlaudio.com/sb-f-muscpe-12tw3-car-audio-stealthbox-94617

 

[grumblin]

If the front speaker design with the crossovers is giving you a hard time then why not simply exchange them for another type or brand?

I like the sound of the Alpines - and moving "up" requires moving "up" nearly an order of magnitude. I really dug the Focal's I had in my last 'stang ('03 Mach 1) - but they're a little cost prohibitive these days.

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