Trailblazer 5.1 Surround Sound Build!

[Colin - STAPUFT]

Ha Ha!!!


Ok... In short, I couldn't stand my wife's Trailblazer being stock. It was KILLING ME. Some time ago, I replaced the front and back speakers with two pretty decent sets of Peerless Mids. The fronts also had factory tweeters in the doors, so I replaced the factory cheepies with some 1" Hifonics Silk Domes (crossed over with a -6db capacitor).

However- that wasn't enough. Well, the time came where my brother in law decided to sell his Pioneer 4100 DVD player. 7" screen, usb hookup, dvd, divx, phone hookups, video outs, aux inputs, on and on. (stock photo)

I couldn't pass at the price, so I snagged it up with intention of just plopping it in there so it would be not stock and my son could watch movies. THEN- as I was reading though the manual, I realized that with the Pioneer DEQ-P800- this could do Dolby Digital DTS 5.1 surround sound. OOOOH! I had to do this.

So, I hopped on eBay and searched and finally found a NIB one of these:

It cost me more than the Head Unit did.... But... that is how this audio thing goes. One more thing and one more thing and then suddenly- BAM! Things get out of hand. This thing has RCA outputs, 5x22 wRMS output, and a microphone and a test section that will Auto EQ and Auto Time Align! Wooo Hooo! Done deal.

During this time I also went eBay crazy on old school MTX Tweeters. I got a mess of 1" Silk domes with the MTX 5000 crossovers. All brand new- in the boxes, still in the plastic.



And then comes the bass. If I go 5.1, I HAVE to have a sub right? ...see how this one more thing goes?? I began making plans on a sub box here with this amp or that. Then the wife jumped into the mix and told me I couldn't go buck wild because she actually uses this car. *GASP* "She is right." I say to myself. She transports my progeny with this thing! ...along with groceries, strollers, and the occasional trash bag, dog, cat or what have you. Then I remembered A-HA! I have an OLD 10" amplified Bazooka tube! (stock photo)

Easy stuff... just run one RCA, a tiny power wire from the fuse box under the back seat, and DONE!



This build is nothing big visually.... but I will post up pics of the install. Coming right up in my next post:

[Colin - STAPUFT]

Some pics:

hehehe.... this is actually from the factory. I got a chuckle out of it.

The glove box is now the brain box. hehe

[Colin - STAPUFT]

The MTX 1" silk domes

Ran the RCAs for the sub down one side and the remote turn on down the other. I put the remote turn on wire in split loom. For the power I just tapped into the power main from the fuse block under the back seat. Ran the power in split loom too. Power wire is tiny stuff- 12 awg with a 20 amp fuse- perfectly matched to the Bazooka Tube's Amp. The Bazooka Tube has a 20 amp fuse too, so it isn't like it needs big power wire. I ran the ground from the same area too. All nice and tidy, loomed, and zip tied.

Kind of a poor pic, but you can make up the connections.

Still PLENTY of room in the back. -And don't be fooled, this thing surprised me on the bass. With it pointing back, I think it gives some boost and loading to the sub. It has enough oomph to shake the rear view mirror a bit and put some punch in the back of your seat. ...strong enough to overpower the mids. So- I just backed off some more of the gain. Good headroom, nice full bass without it being stressed.

And still kept my son's seat! Little jerk has the best seat in the house. Right in the center, great view of the Head Unit screen. ...gonna' be Veggie Tales overload.

High Pass on the front, rear, & center will stay at 65 hz, Low pass on the sub is at 65 hz as well. Going towards the 80-100hz crossover frequency starts to pull the soundstage back some- as the sub starts playing those higher notes.

[Colin - STAPUFT]

1" Baffle cut and rounded for the 5.25" Vifa Logic Center.

Bottom Baffle marked for cutout.

Dowel rod cut to get depth.

Mated together using hot glue.

Wrapped and Resined up. ...next to the one I will try in the van. I figured since I had a pair of these speakers, it is almost as easy to make 2 centers while I was doing this one.

Gobs of Bondo.

Sanded down (man I love my palm sander).

Wrapped with speaker material. Wrapping round pods / boxes is no fun. I hate creases and seams!!!

Viola!

After I got it hooked up and in place, I used velcro to hold the box to the dash. After I got the Center in, I got to use the Auto EQ and time Alignment. Pretty awesome little tool I must say. It takes about 9 minutes to do, but in short- it plays white noise through each channel to verify each speaker. Then it auto-levels each channel independently, then levels the front against the back, then the sub to the entire system. It detects if the phase on the sub needs to be reversed or not, then it runs an auto EQ on each channel independently, then EQs F/B then to Sub. THEN- it sends pulses through each channel independently to time align the whole shebang.

So... the result you say? Even better. Soundstage is even higher and further out, highs are crisper, mids are clearer, bass has more impact and is actually lower. The system sounds level. Nothing overpowers something else. My only wish is that it were louder. But hey- from 210 watts RMS (22 wRMS per mid, 100 wRMS on the Bazooka 10), I am impressed.

I know SMD is all about the bass, but I figured that you guys might like to see a 5.1 setup. (I wanted one- that is for sure!) Hope you guys enjoy & I hope to get a video up soon.

[knowledge]

not to be mean but it looks kinda funny just sitting their.

[dog24fret]

That had to be hard to hold back in the middle of drool fest lol. That head unit sounds like a beast. You should do a Veggie Tales demo in the puff mobile lol.

[Colin - STAPUFT]

not to be mean but it looks kinda funny just sitting their. u should make a deal

Oh the center you mean? Yeah, no doubt... it is ugly. lol

I just put it up there to see how it would do and sound. It is Easily removed. All I have to do is disconnect the wire, pull a dash piece up and then tuck the wire and turn off the center output from the processor.

I just wasn't about to drill a whole in the dash. Like- at all! lol I will get to something much prettier later. *hopefully*

[Colin - STAPUFT]

That had to be hard to hold back in the middle of drool fest lol. That head unit sounds like a beast. You should do a Veggie Tales demo in the puff mobile lol.

Yes sir it was!

You know... that isn't a bad idea. I can do some veggie tales bass. LOL!!

[dog24fret]

I have seen center channels used in several builds. What is or the purpose of a center channel? I haven't listened to one so I have no clue.

[Colin - STAPUFT]

I have seen center channels used in several builds. What is or the purpose of a center channel? I haven't listened to one so I have no clue.

This one is only used when the Dolby 5.1 processor is enabled. So- really, this one should only be used for movies. I wanted to see if this thing would actually work and sound like my home theater setup- and it does. It is pretty cool- I just wanted to see how it did you know? When watching movies (depending on how the settings are on the processor), most of the dialogue comes from the center channel speaker. If someone is on the left or right of the screen, then it is left or right biased, but the center's purpose is vocals and the brunt of that kind of work. Running surround sound tests through it have been pretty fun- especially ones where something flies around you or from behind left to front right. Stuff like that is just neat in a car. I am now of the opinion that every car should have 5.1 processing.

Really, when listening to music- the Dolby should be turned off and it should be set back to stereo (front, rear fill, and sub- with NO center), but it takes a bit of pressing through menus and it sounds pretty good in Dolby all the time.

Sometimes people use centers to fill in a "dead spot" in the center of the dash. I am going to try it for that reason in my van. ...well, that and to have an excuse to add more speakers.