Stereo Information (Wiring, Upgrades, etc...)

[BigEasyGT]

do we know the max speaker depth for the 6.5" woofer in the door? I can only extrapolate from what others have installed, close to 3" I believe

My image dynamics ctx65cs mids did not fit without a spacer. I cut the stock speakers out of their mounting rings, and reused those as spacers to get them to work. All I needed was maybe another 1/4" and they would've cleared the glass.

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[ForTehNguyen]

So Im looking for a spot to connect my amp power wire. There isnt a lug at the battery itself. There are 3 large terminals at the fuse/relay box I could use. My amp is only a 75Wx8 RMS. Just dont want to overload a wire feeding that terminal.

 

[grumblin]

So Im looking for a spot to connect my amp power wire. There isnt a lug at the battery itself. There are 3 large terminals at the fuse/relay box I could use. My amp is only a 75Wx8 RMS. Just dont want to overload a wire feeding that terminal.

Seriously - go straight to the battery. Add a terminal and fuse it right there.

 

[grumblin]

I just used a trim removal tool and popped it up. It is a scary procedure, lol.

I've had to pull mine a few times now, and no issues yet.

Did you ever get the MS-8 working properly and get rid of the hiss?

 

[grumblin]

So my original plan was to build a shelf below the rear deck using MDF and threaded rods to support it. Once I actually did the measurements I realized just how narrow the trunk is in the Mustang. If my shelf hung down even 6", I would lose so much trunk room.

Ended up just mounting the MS8 and 2 amps to the back of the rear seats. It keeps them out of the way and I lose almost zero trunk space. I would post pictures, but I am ashamed of the rats nest as it sits. I simply ran out of time last night to clean everything up. One day I'll get around to it.

As for the wiring, I just soldered RCA plugs to the connectors I got from Mouser and ran RCAs to the trunk. From the amps back forward I used Stinger Speedwire (http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_42094_Stinger-SGW951.html) and ran them back up front to connect to the other Mouser connectors to utilize the stock door wiring. I ran completely new wires for the a-pillar tweeters.

I wanted to run all new wires to the doors, but that stupid bulkhead connector on the body made it so that I could not do that. I was not about to pull my door off to drill a new hole, way too much work for what is probably minimal gains.

Really curious about a couple of things:

1) Did you use crossovers for the woofer/tweeter combo - or did you just go straight to the speakers from the amps?

2) You said you don't miss rear fill - assuming you just left the rears out completely?

3) How did you amp the front stage? i.e. one amp for left, one for right?

4) Did the Hertz tweeters fit directly in the stock tweeter housings?

5) Do you know if all of the HU out are full frequency outputs (i.e. not notched, high passed or low passed?)

I'd love details - I'm in design stage right now and trying to decide on all of my variables.

I'm thinking about the following:

Each Front side would be fed from the same (RF and LF) line-level source signal
6.5" Coax doors - single amp channel per side
3" and Tweeter - single amp channel per side (w/crossover)

6.5" Coax in rear deck - single amp channel per side fed from RR and LR line-level

At some point, add a sub in the trunk - not sure exactly where I'd grab the signal from - probably just from the front channel line-level source as well.

 

[smdandb2]

Did you ever get the MS-8 working properly and get rid of the hiss?

Yeah, just needed some more fine tuning. I am really happy where things are at now.

 

[smdandb2]

Really curious about a couple of things:

1) Did you use crossovers for the woofer/tweeter combo - or did you just go straight to the speakers from the amps?

2) You said you don't miss rear fill - assuming you just left the rears out completely?

3) How did you amp the front stage? i.e. one amp for left, one for right?

4) Did the Hertz tweeters fit directly in the stock tweeter housings?

5) Do you know if all of the HU out are full frequency outputs (i.e. not notched, high passed or low passed?)

I'd love details - I'm in design stage right now and trying to decide on all of my variables.

I'm thinking about the following:

Each Front side would be fed from the same (RF and LF) line-level source signal
6.5" Coax doors - single amp channel per side
3" and Tweeter - single amp channel per side (w/crossover)

6.5" Coax in rear deck - single amp channel per side fed from RR and LR line-level

At some point, add a sub in the trunk - not sure exactly where I'd grab the signal from - probably just from the front channel line-level source as well.

1.) Nope. Each channel is independently amplified and crossed over. I used the MS-8 to do all that.

2.) I never even pulled the rear panel off. They are still there, but not hooked up at all. I could probably pull them out and gain quite a bit of bass from the sub, but I think doing that will increase in-cabin road noise too.

3.) 2x Hertz HDP4 amps. 1 amp runs the 2 6.5" speakers in the doors, and the other amp runs the 3" and tweeters in the doors. So I have 2 free channels on the one amp, but I will never use them.

4.) Hardly. In fact I got a bit overzealous with the dremel on the passenger side and mangled it. I need to buy a new a-pillar to make it pretty again. The drivers side looks good, but I have a lot of time dremel time in it.

5.) No, I know what I tapped into for the FR/FL speakers is full range. The MS-8 does a marvelous job at making it sound good. I also invested in a Dayton Audio calibrated mic for my phone and did a real rough flattening of the overall sound.

FR/FL are what you want to use for line-level outputs. If you tap off the back speakers, you lose Sync voice commands as they only come out of the front speakers. The MS-8 recommends only 2 channel input, so you would use the FR/FL for that and have it just build the rear channels from that. If you go another route, then you could tap all 4 outputs individually.

Let's see... what else. Oh yeah, instead of wires going thru the body to the door, it is a bulkhead connector so it derailed my plans of rewiring the entire car. Luckily the 6.5" and 3" speakers have different feeds going into the door, so I was still able to amp them individually. I ran new wires from the amp to the tweeters.

And this is probably just something in my install that is funky, but I get this annoying digital noise off the stock HU. It was really bad until I started tweaking settings, and now it is hardly noticeable (not a single person has noticed it aside from me). If I switch inputs on the MS-8 it goes away, if I unplug the RCAs from the HU on the MS-8 it goes away.

One more thing, probably the most annoying thing for me. The blue 12v turn on in the trunk ONLY works when the car is in the ON position. So when I turn my car off and the radio stays on, the music stops because that 12v lead turned off. That is something I will be fixing in the future, because that really does bother me.

Other than that, this is my best sounding stereo to date in terms of clarity (even with the stock HU). I've never used anything like the MS-8 before and will probably toss one in my next install as well. It is worth every single penny they are charging for it. I was originally going to buy the Audison Bitone, but the reviews for the MS-8 could not be ignored. So so so so glad I went that route.

Hope that helps you out.

 

[BrantMcE]

1.) Nope. Each channel is independently amplified and crossed over. I used the MS-8 to do all that.

2.) I never even pulled the rear panel off. They are still there, but not hooked up at all. I could probably pull them out and gain quite a bit of bass from the sub, but I think doing that will increase in-cabin road noise too.

3.) 2x Hertz HDP4 amps. 1 amp runs the 2 6.5" speakers in the doors, and the other amp runs the 3" and tweeters in the doors. So I have 2 free channels on the one amp, but I will never use them.

4.) Hardly. In fact I got a bit overzealous with the dremel on the passenger side and mangled it. I need to buy a new a-pillar to make it pretty again. The drivers side looks good, but I have a lot of time dremel time in it.

5.) No, I know what I tapped into for the FR/FL speakers is full range. The MS-8 does a marvelous job at making it sound good. I also invested in a Dayton Audio calibrated mic for my phone and did a real rough flattening of the overall sound.

FR/FL are what you want to use for line-level outputs. If you tap off the back speakers, you lose Sync voice commands as they only come out of the front speakers. The MS-8 recommends only 2 channel input, so you would use the FR/FL for that and have it just build the rear channels from that. If you go another route, then you could tap all 4 outputs individually.

Let's see... what else. Oh yeah, instead of wires going thru the body to the door, it is a bulkhead connector so it derailed my plans of rewiring the entire car. Luckily the 6.5" and 3" speakers have different feeds going into the door, so I was still able to amp them individually. I ran new wires from the amp to the tweeters.

And this is probably just something in my install that is funky, but I get this annoying digital noise off the stock HU. It was really bad until I started tweaking settings, and now it is hardly noticeable (not a single person has noticed it aside from me). If I switch inputs on the MS-8 it goes away, if I unplug the RCAs from the HU on the MS-8 it goes away.

One more thing, probably the most annoying thing for me. The blue 12v turn on in the trunk ONLY works when the car is in the ON position. So when I turn my car off and the radio stays on, the music stops because that 12v lead turned off. That is something I will be fixing in the future, because that really does bother me.

Other than that, this is my best sounding stereo to date in terms of clarity (even with the stock HU). I've never used anything like the MS-8 before and will probably toss one in my next install as well. It is worth every single penny they are charging for it. I was originally going to buy the Audison Bitone, but the reviews for the MS-8 could not be ignored. So so so so glad I went that route.

Hope that helps you out.

I just purchased an ms8 to install. Are the directions that come with the unit good enough to where i shouldn't have problems installing? I intend to keep the components stock with the exception of the rear deck speakers which i have already swapped and I intend to put in an amp and subwoofer in the not too distant future. Any precautions I need to take or is install fairly straight forward?

Thanks,
Brant

 

[grumblin]

Thanks for all the info, Justin!

 

[smdandb2]

I just purchased an ms8 to install. Are the directions that come with the unit good enough to where i shouldn't have problems installing? I intend to keep the components stock with the exception of the rear deck speakers which i have already swapped and I intend to put in an amp and subwoofer in the not too distant future. Any precautions I need to take or is install fairly straight forward?

Thanks,
Brant

Honestly, if you have installed an amp in a car before you can do it. The MS-8 is a glorified amp.

The biggest thing is where you tap into the line level feeds for the MS-8. If you solder the wires on the wrong pins (like I did, twice, LOL) you will be scratching your head when things are not working like they should be.

I would fade it all the way to the left, and I was hearing the dash mounted center channel speaker. It's funny to think about now, but I was getting pretty pissed off during the install.

 

[rambunctious]

SMD...
what crossover point did you use for the tweeter/3" channel
I just ordered some caps for a simple cross over at 3kHz thinking I needed to replace the "tweeter" output channel of the factory amp with a high pass from my 4 channel amps front stage.
But now I realize that pair of channels drives the 3" and pillar tweeters. so my caps will prolly high pass too high of frequency.

Ramb

 

[smdandb2]

SMD...
what crossover point did you use for the tweeter/3" channel
I just ordered some caps for a simple cross over at 3kHz thinking I needed to replace the "tweeter" output channel of the factory amp with a high pass from my 4 channel amps front stage.
But now I realize that pair of channels drives the 3" and pillar tweeters. so my caps will prolly high pass too high of frequency.

Ramb

That is my biggest complaint with the MS8. There is no option to view or adjust the crossover points once you set them. You have to start all over.

Based on my memory, here is what is set currently...
Sub - 20-55hz
6.5 - 55-250hz
3.0 - 250-5000hz
Tweet - 5000hz+

I think I want to add a bit more on the top end to the 3.0" speakers. I can still hear parts of the vocals shifting up to the tweeters. I need to check the off axis frequency response of the speakers before I tweak it some more though.

 

[grumblin]

Any ideas what the stock speaker wire gauge is in the 400a/401a? Because of the door barriers, I'm wanting to use all of the stock wiring to the front - that is if it will handle the current. Will need to size my amp(s) properly.

 

[smdandb2]

It's small, but I have noticed no adverse effects by using it.

 

[BrantMcE]

Honestly, if you have installed an amp in a car before you can do it. The MS-8 is a glorified amp.

The biggest thing is where you tap into the line level feeds for the MS-8. If you solder the wires on the wrong pins (like I did, twice, LOL) you will be scratching your head when things are not working like they should be.

I would fade it all the way to the left, and I was hearing the dash mounted center channel speaker. It's funny to think about now, but I was getting pretty pissed off during the install.

it's been awhile since i've installed an amp but iirc it wasn't that bad. the only thing is with the sub amp i only had to worry about 1 channel lol. I have a couple questions regarding the install.

1. Did you use the speaker level imputs and outputs on the ms8?
2. Do you place the ms8 between the factory amp and head unit or after the amp?
3. Did you splice the speaker wires and connect them directly to the ms8 harness or did you go with the molex wiring harness?
4. In your first post you list 3 molex wiring harnesses, which should i use for the 9 speaker premium system? I intend to add a single channel amp for a subwoofer at a later date if that makes a difference.
5. On the wiring diagram for the 9 speaker premium system it shows the head unit providing LF, RF, LR, RR connections to the amp, does this mean that only 4 of the 8 input channels on the ms8 are used? Does this mean an equal number of outputs are used?
6. When adding the sub amp, i would use one extra output but no additional input correct? With the output going directly to the subwoofer amp?
7. Is there a remote turn on wire located up front? If so is it blue and white like in the rear?

Sorry for all the questions. I just want to make sure i have the gist of the install before i start.

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