'13 VW CC with McIntosh, PG, Dynaudio, Active *pic heavy

[Ls1dave]

First off, I want to introduce myself as this is my first post on here. I was into car audio from about '95 until about '06. During that time I worked for Lombards car audio, Goodguys in sales and car audio manager, and I used to compete in IASCA. I got out of it because I graduated college as an engineer and I got an engineering job where I got a company car. During this time I got married, bought a house, and I now have a 9 month old son. I only include all of this because it might explain a little bit why I do things the way I do them.

I have had a company car until about 7 months ago when I got a new job where I bought my own car. I have always been a Chevy guy (hence the LS1 screen name) but I really liked the VW. So now on to the car...

Its a 2013 Volkswagen CC R-line. The R-line does not have any real options, it comes with the RNS-315 nav unit, but the factory Dynaudio system is not available unless you get the V6, which starts at $10k higher, plus you can add the Dynaudio on top of that.

So for the system, I needed something really nice since I drive about 30k miles a year. I have been through a couple of revisions, but I am confident that this is my last change with this car.

The Equipment:

-Factory head unit (retained for its good bluetooth, car integration, and overall factory/stealth look)

-JBL MS-8 DSP

-McIntosh MC440 6 channel amplifier (50 x 4 + 100 x 2)

-Phoenix Gold ZPA0.5 (I am still restoring it, it was a basket case when I bought it)

-Dynaudio system360 (1" tweeter, 3" mid, 8" mid woofer that I sold and replaced with 6.5" midwoofers for better fitment)

-Phoenix Gold Xmax 12 (12" subwoofer, carbon fiber cone, 350 watts RMS)

Additionals:

-I custom built my 6 channel RCA cables

-I also custom made 3 channel speaker cables to keep it low profile

-All work has been done by myself

The car:

Speakers (dont mind the extra speaker wire and crossovers, this was before going active):

[b-eazy]

Niiiiceee work keep it up. ...im tuned in for sure ;)

[Ls1dave]

Here is the subwoofer box install. I wanted to keep this install 100% stealth, so I fiberglassed the enclosure into the drivers side trunk side panel:

[Ls1dave]

Niiiiceee work keep it up. ...im tuned in for sure ;)

Thanks.

So this post will bring us current as I am in the process of changing it to active with the MS-8, and I am moving my amp from being under the rear deck to a false floor. I will continue to update as I finish it this week. I will be using a PPI PC275 to run my sub while I finish the ZPA restoration. I am building everything for the ZPA though as this should be done in the next month or two (depending on how busy I get).

holes drilled

Now on to some wiring:

Custom RCAs:

Other wiring:

1/0 ground:

The snake print is my custom RCA cable, the black and white striped cable is my signal wire coming from the deck to the MS-8

Same with the snake print, the platinum cable is my right speaker cables. I have 3 channels (6 wires) that I twisted and braided (in the first pic I had the wrong tech flex):

my 2 gauge power wire with carbon tech flex. I am still fabricating the metal mounting bracket for the inline fuse:

more random shots of where I ran my cables:

Here is how I ran the speaker cables into the doors. Not an easy task as VW made a connector for all door wiring. I drilled out the bottom portion of the plug that was unused when I first did the install with just one set of speaqker wires. I am reusing that, and I ran the other 2 sets under the plug. When the plug is removed there is enough space under it to run 2 more sets of wires.

[b-eazy]

Dammmmmm niiiiceee wire job.....love the old school. .Phoenix gold zpa. Amp...... ;) looking great

[Ls1dave]

Oh, so I am now reminded, I will post up some pictures of the ZPA0.5 restoration...

When I bought it I was told that a FET was burned out, and someone had tried to repair it (alwasy scary). It was also missing the top plexi, and some screws. Also, the defeat switch by one of the plexi screws was bad and the previous owner had bypassed it.

The bad:

not sure about these solders:

After the Cap replacement:

Other repairs:

With replacement plexi ($45 to have a plastic place cut and polish the edges, and reproduced PG sticker), fresh paint, and overall clean up.

Problem is, I still have a short somewhere. I replaced all power supply FETs and their resistors. I upgraded the FETs and put in the appropriate resistors for them, but still shorting, so I need to do more troubleshooting. I removed the rectifiers and will try to run power to see if the power supply still shorts. if not, then its somewhere past it. I have removed all heat sinks to look for the famous stray copper strands but nothing. I will have to use my electrical engineering skills to troubleshoot each lead to see where it is shorting.

[Ls1dave]

Dammmmmm niiiiceee wire job.....love the old school. .Phoenix gold zpa. Amp...... ;) looking great

Thanks. I am trying to take pride in this install. Its been years since Ive done an install of this level and I am really enjoying all of the new products (tech flex is my new favorite product, in case it was not obvious).

[b-eazy]

Tech flex....is great...for sure....I hope you get...the amp . straight. ....keep up the great work and the great updates.

;)

[Wood]

Killer job so far, It pays to be an engineer in that type of situation (with the amp) ... I cant wait until I finish school to be an E&E !!

Definitely tuned in!!!

[TylerParrish]

That's some really nice custom work man, can't wait to see what you have in store for the rest of the build.