Alpine audio build - it's coming.

[Poppacapp]

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

How much does the Stealthbox weigh with sub? I wouldn't mind running a sub setup, but would need to remove for the track.

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[grumblin]

How much does the Stealthbox weigh with sub? I wouldn't mind running a sub setup, but would need to remove for the track.

Not sure how much it weighs - but can assure you that it's not something you will want to "remove for the track" more than once. It seriously took me 45 minutes to get it in place. Now that I know exactly what I'm doing I could probably get it down to 40 lmao.

 

[Poppacapp]

Not sure how much it weighs - but can assure you that it's not something you will want to "remove for the track" more than once. It seriously took me 45 minutes to get it in place. Now that I know exactly what I'm doing I could probably get it down to 40 lmao.

Ha! I appreciate the info. I may just go with a removable box I can bracket in the car for daily driving. Trying to cut as much weight as I can for track trips

 

[grumblin]

Updates:

Alpine SPR-60c's just "fit right in" the stock locations. I had to remove a bit of the mounting rings to allow the wiring to pass from completely inside the door to the outer layer where all the wiring is. It took all of 10 seconds with a dremel.

A *VERY* nice surprise was that Alpine threw in some foam mounting rings for their tweeters. Basically it's a foam donut that has a strong adhesive on one side. I pulled the A-Pillar trim off, removed the stock tweeters and then removed the stock tweeter mounts (nipped the 3 plastic rivets off that were melted over and then simply pulled the little bracket off - and then removed the rest with nippers). Once they were gone, I just stuck the foam donut over the factory tweeter hole and by golly that tweeter just sits there. It's stealth!

I'd like a little more mid-bass - may go with a different speaker set in the future - side note, the tweeters on the SPR-60c's will make your ears bleed. I set them at 0db - I'm going to have to pull the door cards to get to them again and drop them 2-4db...

Just to get it up and tested, I screwed the PDX-V9 to the seat back and still have cables all over the trunk. I will say that I do like having rear fill.

The JL Audio StealthBox is a keeper. It'll move some air when you want it to - and I've got it crossed to play 125Hz and down (to 40). It's an impressive piece. One downside - the grill blew off of it in the first 20 seconds and won't stay on. I was really hoping to keep a grill on it for protection.

I learned that my soldering skills are horrendous. I shake like a leaf and fine soldering work is NOT my forte.

On the line-out Molex connector, I used a 2x8 IDC ribbon cable to squeeze in the molex connector - and then stripped and soldered the ribbon cable wires. I'm not too keen on that 26 or 28 gauge solder job.... but I have a new solution - I found a 2x8 breakout board ( http://www.winford.com/products/brk2x8.php ) that I'll run a 6" female to female connector from/to and it gives me screw down posts that will hold up to 16 gauge wires for some nice RCA's. I'll feel much better when I've got that done and replace what's there. I'll just put that in a small box and stick it up on the firewall - it'll be lots cleaner and I won't be concerned about that really tiny wire breaking at the solder joints.

It all works well and I have ZERO noise. At this point I've gone straight from the line outs directly into the amp - and I can tell you for certain that there are some parts of the spectrum that need EQ. Once I cut the tweets a hair at the crossover I'll be able to better judge. I've got a DQDX just for that purpose.

I'm pretty happy with the "plain vanilla box" - and see lots of potential. I'm thinking that I may need to go 3-way up front like some others here have - and it should be *very* easy to do so.

 

[Zemedici]

With the Stealthbox, did you just replace the OE sub?

 

[grumblin]

With the Stealthbox, did you just replace the OE sub?

You unbolt the OE sub, brackets and other retaining hardware and completely remove it. The StealthBox goes in that location using its own mounting hardware.

The StealthBox is UN-amped - thus you need to install an amp for it.

 

[Zemedici]

You unbolt the OE sub, brackets and other retaining hardware and completely remove it. The StealthBox goes in that location using its own mounting hardware.

The StealthBox is UN-amped - thus you need to install an amp for it.

ahhhhhh. So you had to wire in the amp. Touche. :cheers:

 

[grumblin]

After 2 weeks in, I'm not a fan of the 2-way Alpine Type R components. They'll be coming out and I'm replacing them with Hertz HSK 163 3-ways. I pulled the door cards off today and "think" I have two possible places to mount the crossovers on it - and took measurements and the 3-way set will drop right in (I'll need to re-use the 3 1/2" stock brackets). Plenty of room all around.

The Alpine SPR-60c mids just get muddy - I want to get the guitars and vocals up and at me. Hopefully that'll do it.

I got the subs crossed over satisfactorily. I think it's at about 100Hz with the high pass set at about 110 for the front. I had them overlapping a hair and it was just muddy. It's a lot cleaner now.

 

[Moonman]

After 2 weeks in, I'm not a fan of the 2-way Alpine Type R components. They'll be coming out and I'm replacing them with Hertz HSK 163 3-ways. I pulled the door cards off today and "think" I have two possible places to mount the crossovers on it - and took measurements and the 3-way set will drop right in (I'll need to re-use the 3 1/2" stock brackets). Plenty of room all around.

The Alpine SPR-60c mids just get muddy - I want to get the guitars and vocals up and at me. Hopefully that'll do it.

I got the subs crossed over satisfactorily. I think it's at about 100Hz with the high pass set at about 110 for the front. I had them overlapping a hair and it was just muddy. It's a lot cleaner now.

Would you be interested in selling the stock shaker sub??

 

[grumblin]

Would you be interested in selling the stock shaker sub??

Already sold to a forum member. I don't think he ever installed it because his car doesn't have a subwoofer harness.

It can be made to work fairly easily if you tap the speaker leads and run a small (8 gauge) power lead to the rear.

 

[Moonman]

Already sold to a forum member. I don't think he ever installed it because his car doesn't have a subwoofer harness.

It can be made to work fairly easily if you tap the speaker leads and run a small (8 gauge) power lead to the rear.

If you don't mind me asking what did it sell for, would like to pick one up.

 

[grumblin]

I think I sold it for $250 + shipping. It was about $290 when all said and done. That was with 100% - sub, amp, all mounting brackets and hardware, etc.

I priced it out on one of the discount Ford Parts places and it came to over $700 if you were to purchase all the pieces.

 

[GTP]

Already sold to a forum member. I don't think he ever installed it because his car doesn't have a subwoofer harness.

It [subwoofer] can be made to work fairly easily if you tap the speaker leads and run a small (8 gauge) power lead to the rear.

How do you know that the rear speakers have full low-frequency sent to them? If they are high-passed, then any add-on sub won't do anything.

 

[dwaleke]

How do you know that the rear speakers have full low-frequency sent to them? If they are high-passed, then any add-on sub won't do anything.

With the base system you are probably safe. With the Shaker system that has the built-in amplifier/dsp you can pretty much guarantee that there is not a full signal going to the rear speakers.

I'm not aware of anyone measuring the frequency response of either system though.

 

[GTP]

With the base system you are probably safe. With the Shaker system that has the built-in amplifier/dsp you can pretty much guarantee that there is not a full signal going to the rear speakers.

I'm not aware of anyone measuring the frequency response of either system though.

That is one of the first things I will do. I can imagine this happening when the car is stored in the cold garage this winter. :(

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