2005 Dodge Stratus Build, 4th Order, Sundown X12s, PB3K, AT, XS

[nCOMP1337]

Finally doing my first big build. Its been three years of ups and downs, buying equipment, selling, and trading. But I am settled on what I have now and am nearly complete in getting all the equipment. I figured I would start the build log and once my subs come in, I will try to get things moving.

Equipment

Car: 2005 Dodge Stratus

Electrical: XS Power D1200 up front, stinger spv70 in back, Singer Alternator, 0 gauge for everything, but prolly 4 gauge for the 4chan

Subs: Two 12 inch Sundown X series (mostly waiting for these to get here before things get moving)

Speakers: Two Neo Pro 8s, two Neo Pro 6.5s, Two Selenium S200 super tweeters (one of each in each front door), Cadence cvlw69 6x9s in the rear deck (these will be replaced when I can afford a custom rear deck)

Amps: Powerbass 3k for subs and Kicker 800.4 for Speakers (2 speakers wired to each channel, total of 8, at least until I do the custom rear deck, then I work out somehting else for power those speakers)

H/U: Eclipse CD7000

Big 3: Audio Technix 0 gauge

Power Wire: OFC Welding cable bought 3 years ago, if I didnt already have it I would have went with AT

Speaker Wire: Audio Technix 12 gauge OFC (Some OFC knuconcepts as well in case I need it but I prefer to keep everything the same brand where possible)

Deadener: Audio Technix 60mil (currently 80sqft)

RCAs: Audio Technix

Audio Technix Voltmeter

____________________

I am going with a 4th order in the trunk with it sealed off. I spoke with Singer about it at Slamology and he gave me some good advice and I will probably end up asking a few more questions if he is not too busy to answer them.

I have no tools nor room to do any of the actual install by myself however I do have a friend that is going to help, its a bit of a drive but its for the love of bass, LOL. I dont trust many people local to me when it comes to anything car audio. My plan is to have bass while keeping a factory-ish look

Hopefully things go well with the build and I can finally get this done and enjoy some bass. I have been on this stie for years now, its finally time to get my own build done. As you can see I am leaning towards Audio technix (or CT sounds) and Sundown for my build. Anything not sundown or AT is there because I previously aquired it before actually working towards this particular build.

Progress as of now:

Equipment is 90% purchased (need a pair of sundown neo 6.5s and pair of the super tweeters still)

Doors are at my friends being fiberglassed right now, when those are done we will begin the next stage of the build when we work out our schedules

I will post pics as I get them myself or as he gives them to me, depending on how our schedules work and if I cant be there to get stuff done

[nCOMP1337]

Due to some lovely matters with my previous lawyer and the court and both of them not following proper procedure, custody of my kids was taken from me, because I wasnt notified of a court hearing and my lawyer dropped me without giving me 24 hours notice and a chance to get new representation. That was in August. Now new lawyer and 1200 dollars later, I got my kidsd back, the money doesnt matter in that sense of course, but I am referencing it because the expense is why I havent moved forward with my build.

I did however throw together a temporary setup, until I have the funds to do the trunk as I have it planned, as well as either getting another battery to go with what I have or a new battery that can handle what equipment I am using.

I can get some pics and maybe a vid up sometime until I actually get the chance to start custom building the trunk, but for now here is where I am at.

XS d1200 up front, one run of pos and neg front to back. The battery is in the wheel well so I am very limited on space so I honestly do not think I have enough space to do another run, but if anyone ahs any suggestions on how toa ccomplish that I am happy to hear.

Big 3 is done (audio technix 0 gauge), singer alt (270amp) is in, got all the power running down driver side of car and the rcas (audio technix) and such from h/u (eclipse cd7000) down passenger side. Rear battery (stinger spv70) and amp (powerbass 3k) and most of wiring (OFC welding cable, audio technix) is all sitting in the spare tire well in the trunk. Amp is braced with some cut 2x4s so it doesnt slide around, battery is solid and wont budge. It is grounded on the steel brace in the tire well, which is centrally located in between amp and battery, hopefully that ground is fine, if not plealse let me know. Also is there a benefit to multiple groundings as well as more runs front to back if I could fit it somewhere)

Front doors and trunk are deadened with audio technix 60mil (still need to do rear deck, trunk lid, back doors, floor, and roof)

Box is basic ported box. Subs facing front of vehicle and port facing back, i didnt build the box it was already built, I just used it for a temp setup because it fit with recommended specs for a ported box for the sundown X 12s. Little over ~4.59 cuft with 4 x 8 inch aero port, tuned roughly 32-33 hz. That coudl be up or done a bit, becausue the aero was flared on both sides but in order to fit the subs in the box I had to remove the flare on the inside of the box. I think it would raise the tuning though a bit by doing that, I honestly didnt put it into torres to check. However it is a temp setup to hold me over until tax time basically when funds will be plenty.

Tuned h/u and amp with the DD1, though the end of the red prong got broke off, so I dont know if that effects the sensitivity of the prong. I was retuning yesterday, because i noticed that though the eq and all was flat on the h/u there was a setting that was on that I wasnt aware of, retuning on 40hx 0db get me to 72/80 or 85, cant remember max on that h/u. I tried with the 40hz at -5db and that gets me to 78, but i am sticking to the 72, to be safe. My normal listening level right now is between 60-70 depending on song. Amp I tuned, cant remember which track I used so I went to retune yesterday and battery died on the dd1. Havent got the chance to replace it, though I did find out my dd1 is one of the autographed versions, so thats cool. So I dont plan on doing much til I get the chance to buy a 9volt, with my work I am pretty much useless sat, sun, and mon as they are the only days I work and I work til roughly 2am.

Due to not having the electrical to sustain even half of what I am running properly, I am not using it at full power of course. Now if I did this right, and let me know if I didnt, this is how I set the gain. I had the gain control knob to max when I set the gain on the amp and to my understanding, when I turn that knob down, it will change what power the amp is seeing. basically the max on the gain knob is where my gain is set on the amp and min on the gian knob is similar to the gain knob on the amp being all the way down. Hopefully I did that right, I could have understood that wrong as well. I have 5v pre-outs on my h/u so of course the gain on the amp almost looks like it is barely up when set with the dd1. Normal listening level right now is gain set to roughly 1/4 to 1/8 on my gain knob and completely off when my kids are with me. Max I would listen it to it as at 1/2 but thats only if someone wants to check it out, ive never tried it higher than that as everything dims at 1/2 and battery would go low pretty quicklly, though I did recently recharge the batteries for the first time since I have owned them, so it may be better now. Batteries were sitting around 12.6-12.8 and with car on, sitting at 14.5.

Also it is stated as a gain knob and not a bass boost knob, bass boost on h/u and on amp is all the way down, lpf is roughly 80hz on amp and 80hz on h/u and subsonic is roughly 25-30hz, it would be nice if there was some way to make it exact, but I dont have the tools for that.

If I am doing anythign wrong please let me know, this is my first foray into a major build though currently I am stuck at a temp stage. My friend is helping me with msot of it as he has the tools and space to do the work.

System sounds good though, just got the stock 6x9s in the doors and rear deck and both sound good on the h/u and with the deadening. I dont what rattling of course, but with needing mroe deadener I do get a fair bit of it with the trunk lid and inside the car like the rear view mirror, stuff in cup holders, and visors. rear view hasnt fell off, I put it back before that happens, but it has gotten close. Visors never fell down but everything I keep up there just falls out.

To me I am hoping for a lot better results when its all said and done, of course I am just at the beginning right now and I am happy for the temp setup I have. I have seen plenty of builds on here and been to slamology twice, last year was the best one so far. If you check out JPs vid of the epic beard trick, thats my friend (the one helping me with the build) and I. He is the guy with the beard and I am the one dual wielding android phones.

So that being said I know what it can be. Plus I live in Kokomo, IN and car audio isnt as huge here, when you do see osmething its usually basic trunk rattlers or people spending thousands at dealers and they personally dont know much and just hug on mainstream nuts

Goals:

Show people locally at least more of a nice system then the basic trunk rattlers you see here

Id love to hair trick but I know its harder to do some things with a trunk build

I want to give good demos and sound good on music (main goal)

Id be happy hitting 145 or close to. Loudest trunk build I have heard is probably high 140s

Later on when I have more time Ill get into at least what my plan is for the trunk and possibly do a sketchup of it to give you an example.

[JNells]

Any pics? I have a 05 malibu and want to do something similar with my sub setup.

[nCOMP1337]

Havent had a chance to get the few pics that I have up. I work all day sat, sun, mon, so no time to really do much. The build will take a while though sadly, as its already taking quite some time. There are two other current builds doing something similar in the member builds section. One is a stratus and the other is a subaru, both are looking awesome. Check them out too, they may help you out too.

[JNells]

Yea I've been tuned in to those too.. Ultimately I would like to do a 4th order with the port thru the rear deck. (2 sa-12s).

The first one would go thru one big cut out in the middle.

Or this one that I could just cut out the 6x9 holes and each sub would be seperate. Essentially 2 enclosures.

I'm thinking the 2nd might be a little easier to tune and get specs right.

I hope that makes some sense.. Anyway would like any feedback/advice you may have... Here is a link to my current build log too.

http://www.stevemeadedesigns.com/board/topic/178868-05-malibu-my-first-real-build/page-2#entry2645055

Cheers

[nCOMP1337]

im not a good person to give advice for 4th orders and such, I am still learning myself

With the current 4th order in the trunk builds going on right now and how slow I am going, I am not surprised that no one seems to care about this one, my build will probably be a little underwhelming compared to those builds, but no worries, all in good time, hopefully the end result is as I have it planned.

Here are some pics, only a few, as I said before its a slow build, if I had someone around here that could just get the build done for me like I have it planned, Id prolly hand over the money, LOL. I do want to learn to do it myself, but right now its just taking a long time due to having no tools/space to do it myself, I have to arrange time with a friend who is also quite busy to help me with the build and we work out a time like once per month it seems right now, lol.

These are just the doors and trunk, actually did them a few months ago, the door panels are fiberglassed then wrapped to house a sundown neo 8, 6.5 and a selenium super tweeter. I should be picking the panels up this week. As you can tell by the pics it is all audio technix deadener.

Driver door

driver door deadened, I will cover the huge openings before putting the door panel back on and I may add more deadener to the outside part of the door.

passenger door

passenger door deadened

door before being wrapped, I dont have a pic of it finished right now

trunk

trunk deadened, still need to do rest of rear deck, and trunk lid

trunk back to factory, will be making a new floor for the trunk eventually, think I will use the spare tire well for batteries, again, the plan is to keep a factory-ish look, clean no equipment directly viewable, though I plane to have a sort of false wall in the trunk that I can remove if i need to get to the equipment, it isnt necessary, but this is still my grocery getter and I usually have two kids with me, so all my groceries have to go in trunk, so hoping to leave a bit of room outside that false wall to place groceries

I will try to get a few pics of the temp setup that is in there right now,maybe a video as well

[JNells]

I'm still learning myself, my first attempt at door pods went average at best, but hey they work, and I got my first fab out of the way, good learning experience.

I really like your panels. Are they completely sealed? Can't really tell in the pics looking thru my phone. If so, how is the wiring done? Bolts or wires glassed in?

Thanks for the pics, keep em coming when you can. Ill be tuned in. So what if our builds are a little underwhelming. Rome wasn't built in a day haha.