Bronco+Jetta build - now fully active- soundstream, sundown, hertz, AB

[79Bronco]

Missed out on them at the last minute; no matter, wound up with these

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_26276_DLS-Performance-T20.html

as the prices was very right on them. I'll probably replace them with a set of Hertz HT25/28 or something else if a good deal comes up.

[79Bronco]

Things accomplished today

- 3 way active front stage installed

- RF 1/0 (more like 4/0) installed on the sub amp with 4/0 welding cable for ground.

- 2 new fuses blocks and fuses on 1/0 wire run and 4 ga run.

- Sub box moved to help with phasing issues

- Cable maintenance

- All 3 amps mounted

- Speakers tuned, for the most part

All in all put in a good 10 hours of work. It feels great seeing and hearing it all come together. I was blown away by how amazing everything sounded. For xmas, I might talk the old lady into forking over the $$ for a battery and a crap-ton of sound deadener.

Still need to

- Big 3 with 4/0

- 4 gauge to 1/0 reducers for sub amp

- Install coax's in rear doors & run cables

- Lots more cable maintenance

- Fine tuning

- Balanced line out converter/ Sound processor??

- Metric shit-ton of deadener

- Mo' batteries

Anyway, onto the pron since that's all everyone cares about anyway. Didn't get too many pics today since I was working non-stop, but here you are. Enjoy.

The mids and tweets all shiny and new

An amp needing to be mounted and hooked up

A fuse block might help with this...

The 165XL installed, and the EM100 mocked up

All ready to be buttoned up

As it sits now, in need of some more cable TLC

The wub

[Blue]

Looking nice man. Did you use the clutch plate to run the wire to the back? I also want to see you do the big 3 also. Need to still do mine and want to see how some one else does it.

[Colin - STAPUFT]

I'm Diggin' it man!

Nice Head unit. I have a similar Pioneer in my wifey's Trailblazer. You put in work on the wires through the door jambs too- that looked wicked tedious.

Fun looking Bronco you have as well!

[79Bronco]

Thanks for the kind words. The cable work was a nightmare, but definitely worth it to keep everything looking clean. After putting it through its paces, i need to get it tuned properly.

As far as big 3 goes, it looks like the wires from the factory are already 2 gauge. I'll probably wind up doing it in 4/0 if I do it at all. The factory cabling looks pretty stout as is and it's working just fine for now.

And yes, cables were all run through the grommet right above the clutch.

[Sprinter]

I like It, good job

[79Bronco]

My experience with the setup

Good:

Absolutely breathtaking sound from the 165XL. It's such a solid mid, you'd never guess it was a 6.5. Has great punchy midbass and a nice hearty snare drum kick. Just sounds great. I have it bandpassed from 80-800hz and it sounds really great.

Tweets sound incredible, running HPF @ 4k.

The hardest part was choosing where to cross the 4 mid and the 6.5 mid. In my experience, the 4 mid sounds good to about 500 hz, and that is where I have it crossed. There's a little overlap from 500-800, but it gives a nice warm sound that I'm really starting to grow to like

Critiques:

Amp whine. Almost negligible, found myself struggling to hear it, but it's there. Looking at doing some sort of balanced level input. The soundstream actually has a 6-pin mini din style connector on it which is supposed to help filter out noise through the use of some balanced line driver. I'm going to do some more homework on how I can lower the overall noise floor of the system.

Needs deadener, bad. but so much potential. I see why everyone nut-hugs the crap out of these Hertz speakers. Really good stuff.

People in back have no music, going to put my memphis in the back. they have a really nice sound for coax's and will be great for rear fill.

[79Bronco]

I have a slight problem.

My subs will actually bang my trunk open at full tilt. It will open the trunk while I'm driving. What can be done here? Suggestions?

[Blue]

lol mine actually did that also. My trunk opening light was popping on and off, but it never actually opened up. Is yours actually opening up, or is the light just on?

[79Bronco]

Hooray someone with a similar problem!

The light likes to flash on and off A LOT. Only a few times has the trunk actually popped open though.

The warning light on the dash goes after just a few seconds of full tilt play, but the trunk will not open right away. After a few minutes of driving with the warning light steady, it's almost as though the car realizes "oh hey, the trunk is open" and then the latch comes loose and the trunk will open. Not cool when you do a pop trunk doing 80 on the highway.