06 Civic Build - UBL #1 - Performance and Audio

[scooter99]

Ok so here it is. This is what I've decided on for my system setup:

Head Unit: Alpine CDA-9886 - Located in the glove box, and the face located in the dash.

Auxiliary: Samsung Galaxy 10.1 Tablet and Samsung Nexus Galaxy Phone with wifi hotspot (both removable)

Monitors: Samsung 7" HDMI Monitors for the headrests.

Converter: Octava 2:1 HDMI Splitter Converter (single HDMI in, Dual HDMI out, Digital optical out, analog rca out)

Front Stage:

Soundstream Pro Audio SST-20 Carbon Fiber Bullet Tweets - One per door

Soundstream Pro Audio SM.654P 6.5" Mid Range - One per door

Soundstream Reference Reference RF-8W Mid Bass - One per door

Front Stage Power:

Soundstream Rubicon RUB 4.600 - Mid Range and Tweets

Soundstream Rubicon RUB 2.450 - Mid Bass

Rear Fill:

Soundstream Tarantula TC-6.5 comps - Custom door pods

Rear Fill Power:

Soundstream Rubicon RUB 4.500

Sub:

DC Audio Level 4 M2 12" D2 (Ported enclosure through the rear deck.)

Sub Power:

Soundstream Rubicon RUB 1.1600D (possible upgrade to a RUB1.2500D later on)

System Power:

Front Main: XS Power D5100

Rear Bank: 4 - XS Power XP950's (Temp will be a XS Power D6500)

Charger: XS Power Intellicharger HF1215 (hardwired into the system)

Alternator: Undecided, but probably a mechman 220 amp (down the line)

So that's about it for now. I've got the majority of this equipment, but some still needs to be bought, like the system power stuff, and the rear fill comps. That will all come later on down the line when I get some more money in. In the mean time, I've got to finish the temp build on the truck, get that playing, and then i'll be onto this one. I'll do some sketch ups and show you guys my design thoughts soon as well.

Gonna be fun!

I was going to do a new build log, and I may just do that, but for now I'll keep it here. Maybe! I DON'T KNOW!! If I change it, I'll link it up here.

Thanks guys and gals!

[scooter99]

Ok so here's a design of the sub enclosure, amp rack, and battery rack all in one unit. Sort of! It's three different pieces, but will assemble as one piece.

First the amp rack

Here's the first drawer, which is the bottom drawer, which will house the Soundstream Rubicon 2.450 and 4.500

back side

Second Drawer which will house the Soundstream Rubicon 1.1600D sub amp, and 4.600 amp

Back

Then I put a top panel on it. This will allow it to be separate. The drawers will be removable and so when the pieces go together, I'll be able to screw them together to that top panel from inside the amp rack.

I thought about doing space on the drawers for plexi and lights, but I didn't put that in here. I don't know if I'll do it or not.

Next up I made a spot for the battery rack. These will go between the amp rack drawers and the back of the seat. It's basically a box that all the batteries will sit in and the tops will be exposed. On either side I'll most likely put a distribution and fuse blocks and somewhere in there the charger, if I decide to build it in.

Last up the sub enclosure. 1.82 cu ft after displacement, and tuned to approx 34hz. If you look under the bottom plate of the enclosure, you'll notice what appears as a second sheet of 3/4". You're not seeing things. This sheet will give me a little room to slide the box in on top of the amp rack, then I'll be able to move it around and get it secured on the top panel. From there, that bottom sheet will slide in to take up the extra room. It will secure to the enclosure from inside the enclosure, and then from the bottom through the amp rack. Got all that!?! lol

The piece you're looking down on will attach from the top of the rear deck from inside the cabin. It's basically just a trim piece.

Side view

back view

So there you have it. I'll have to seal it all up, and make trim pieces for the trunk side. Like I said I don't know if I'm doing windows or not. I thought also about doing a plexi front on the box that you could see from the trunk as well. So we'll see how it all plays out!

That's all for now!

Wanna keep up with the behind the scenes chatter and conversations, visit my build log here: http://www.stevemeadedesigns.com/board/topic/113384-06-civic-build-new-build-list-on-page-60/

[scooter99]

Ok so to kick this bish off, I got some new parts today. Nothing big, but lets see what the mailman delivered to me today!

Not a very big package.

What is this some kind of joke!?!

Well I have to say they were wrapped up really well!

Mmmmmm volt meter candy!

Front and Back

So I got two cause I wasn't sure if I would get a difference in hooking them up one to the alternator, and one to the sub amp. I thought maybe I'd see different settings. Besides that, they were cheap enough, that if I can't run them that way, or won't see a difference, then I can use one for the truck!

But this will help me in continuing the tablet install.

That's all for now!

Check out my build log, in my signature, to comment or see the behind the scenes talk!

[scooter99]

So a couple people have asked me to fire up the meter so they can see how it looks!

Here it is in action:

Obviously I need to dial it in, but you can see how it looks. I think it's very subtle. Not too bight and yet still very clear! I like it alot, and it was cheap which is even better!!

Feel free to comment on my build log linked in my signature. Thanks!

[scooter99]

Ok so here's the deal. I was doing a build on this before, and here's a little back ground. My wife and I have been going back and forth for about a year now trying to decide if it's in our best interest to sell this car or keep it. Well after all that back and forth and "we're for sure selling it" to "now we're keeping it" and back and forth, we've decided finally to keep it. We'll have it paid off next year and we're getting by just fine with what we have.

BUT, this works finally for me cause I know that I can now plan a final system in it and get building! That's what I'm doing now.

I've been working with Dre (Ibleedmusik) and Jon Rabe (skyhighaudio) with this build and some of the particulars and planning of it. I want to thank them for their help and constant working with me. I can be a bit crazy and over the top at times and they help reel me back into reality. But what everyone should know by now, is I'm not a typical run of the mill idea guy! I like to be out of the box, or just off the other side of normal and easy. But that all being said this is going to be fun. I have a sketch up of the plan, and I have some stuff built already, but not much. I'm about 98% of where I need to be equipment wise. SO we're about there as far as getting this thing going.

Here's my last build and where I left off: 06 Civic Build

Most likely, like that one, this one is going be a long thread. I like to make sure that I have all you guys with me along for the full ride. I do experiment with some different things and some fail and some work. But along the way, you guys see it so if you want to try it as well, you can see what works and what fails and can comment on things to try on the things that fail.

Ok enough rambling, I'll be back in a few minutes with some pics! Stay tuned, here we go!

[scooter99]

So if you were with me in the end of the last thread, you knew that I was in an accident back in October. October 22nd to be exact!

Some jackass decided he didn't want to turn left anymore and went from the left turn lane into my lane, which I just so happened to be occupying at the time. Could've been worse but still sucked either way.

Well in the meantime we'd decided to keep the car, as noted above, and I started building my stockpile while the car was in the shop. It went in on October 22nd. Well here we are, on December 1st, and I just got it back last night. Still have some problems with it, and it's going to go back for sure.

Problems:

Biggest problem is the paint doesn't match. The two doors and rear quarter panel are lighter than the front panel and bumper. This is not even subtle and I can't believe they missed it. Here's a pic:

Second problem is the driver door window. It's off track or tweeked or something, cause I have auto up and down feature on the window. Well it goes down just fine, but when it goes back up you can see it twist a little about 4" before closing and it stops and goes back down. It has a safety feature on it so no hands or heads or whatnot get caught in there. So that has to be fixed.

Third problem is the alignment that was "perfect" is NOWHERE NEAR perfect! It pulls hard to the left!

That's all I could find at the moment and I've not really had time to look at it better but those are the things that stand out to me.

Now to the good stuff. When the took these doors off, and the rear quarter panel, I lost my sound deadener. They are going to pay me for new, along with time for labor to put it on. Nice couple hundred bucks in my pocket for that.

Then the rear wheel also looked damaged at first, but after a detail, it's only got a little scrape on the wheel outter lip. I can fix that myself, so they're going to still comensate me for the replacement of the wheel. Another couple hundred in my pocket!

So that will be nice considering I have deadener here to replace the old stuff, and I have the stuff to fix the wheel as well since I already did two others. Still undecided if I want to keep these or get new ones anyway. Down the road!

So now we're back on track with the build. So lets get to the equipment. You can see it in my signature but here's what's going in!

Samsung Galaxy 10.1 Tablet:

Samsung 10.1 Desk Dock swapped with a 7.0 Dock with HDMI output:

Octava HDMI Converter:

Alpine CDA-9886

[scooter99]

2 - Crescendo FT-1 Tweets (running 1 per front door at 4ohms)

These were taken when I had the old soundstream stuff and decided to change it up. I'll get better pics of the tweets alone.

4 - Crescendo PWX8 8's (running 2 per front door at 2ohms)

DC Audio XL15 D1 Sub: (This may change as I'd love to run a Level 5 in a 4th order, but I have to sell this and it's partner first before I can do that, so I will continue on this way until that happens. If it doesn't I'll sell it's partner, pay off my debt, and be happy with this. But for now this is the plan.)

[scooter99]

Crescendo c1100.4

Project DB 1/0ga to 4 ga reducers for power and ground on 1100.4 (overkill? Yes maybe, but that's ok)

Crescendo bc3500d

Project DB Dual inputs for power and ground on 3500d

XS Power D6500d x 2 for rear power

XS Power D???? (undecided yet)

Lots of power equipment, there's more than this, I just forgot to picture it all:

[scooter99]

Forgot these too. Ebay volt meters

Also I have a ton of Stinger cable. 1/0 ga, 4 ga, 8ga, and twisted 16ga speaker wire.

So that's the equipment list for the most part. I'm sure I forgot a piece or two.

Here's the basic design for the trunk. Sketch up of course!

The enclosure runs approx 3.7-3.8 cu ft, port area per sq in is around 15.8, and tuned around 34hz. Front facing, toward the back seat, and will be sealed off.

Trunk side amp and battery rack:

and I've since changed the fuse panels on either side from this:

to this:

This new one will have the same plexi cover like the older design, but will clean up the cables a bit better and have the ground cables in there as well, where as the old design did not.

So that's about all I have time for right now. I have parties all day today with my kids, but I'll post more later. Trust me I have tons of pics to post up! Be back later! Thanks for checking it out!

If you want to check out all the behind the scenes chatter or comment on this build, please check out my build log which is linked in my signature below! Thanks!