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Build info and plans

2003 Cadillac CTS Sport Luxury
3.2 V6
Bose from the factory.
Mods
LED Fogs
LED strip under front grill
Poly transmission mount
Painted and customized grill
Plastidip'd 17in stock wheels
Interior lights replaced with blue LEDs
Audio setup
JVC KW-V20BT
2 SKAR IVXv2 12
Custom box 32hz 4.12cubic feet
Audiobahn a8000t Mono block amp
SHCA RCAs and wire
Bose system for mids and highs
Mods to come!
CAI
Higher performance brakes and rotors
Eibach sway bar
KONIG Illusion 17in wheels
Poly bushings all around
Nebula Blue paint job
Audio to come!
Sky High Audio Cable 0/2ga, 12ga, and RCAs
Singer 320amp alt
2 XS Power D3400
2 DC Lvl4 12's custom from SHCA
4 Crescendo Mezzo 6.5 front and rear
1 Crescendo Audio BC3500D (bass)
1 Crescendo Audio S800/4 (front/rear)

First off, I want to say Hi to everyone as this is my first post!.
Been following SMD on youtube for sometime and finally decided to join the forums.
Car audio (hell all audio) is a bit of an addiction and hobby of mine.

This CTS is my first car and is my baby. It has the BOSE system from the factory (not amazing but not horrible either) and I decided to add some bass to it after being in a friends truck of mine, 98 Sierra with 4 15's 6 10's and 4 super tweets, and the stock BOSE was just not enough anymore.

I don't have a whole lot of pictures of it yet but will be posting some more once I get it cleaned (snow here the last couple months has made keeping a black car clean a nightmare) I have a short video from when I had a crappy box which I have since upgraded.
I have 2 friends that are wanting to upgrade their systems and I have offered to do the install and the shopping around for them so joining here will help me there and I just want to learn as much as I can about audio systems.

Any way here are some pics of the CTS which has been dubbed The MonsterCadillac (I love the record label Monstercat and am a big fan of EDM)

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Upgraded box

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I am not yet fully finished and plan on cleaning all those wires up

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New to the car audio world and looking to learn as much as I can.

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Is that a high level converter I see there? Curious if you can show where you spliced into the OEM wiring. Did you keep all other speakers on Bose amp and just add the sub? This is what I'll be doing to my Altima when the weather breaks...I've purchased most what I need so far...just need better weather

I was real close to buying a 2009 CTS last summer, but it was silver and I didn't want silver and it had the standard V6 and I wanted the Direct Injection V6. Plus I hated the rims.

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I have the entire BOSE system still hooked up and the subs are actually on a toggle switch that I hid in the center console. I ran the remote wire to the switch so I can just turn them on and off as needed. The way I tapped into the bass was from the stock sub. It's a free air sub so the wires for the bass signal were easy to get to and I simply tapped them at the sub and ran them to the LOC. That design was the only one I could find at the time. I can take some pic on my lunch break here in about 30 min. The way I installed this was so when ever I sell the car I can simply pull the box and amp out and save it for the next car.

New to the car audio world and looking to learn as much as I can.

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Gotcha. I'm gonna do something similar, except I'm gonna splice into the INPUT side of the Bose amp and feed both the amp (temporarily) and a JL Cleansweep. I'm concerned that the Bose HU might be doing something to signal, so I want to be able to restore to flat before I feed my subs.

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On the cadillacownersfourums there are a few people that have installed the Cleansweep. I've thought about it but as of now they sound good to me and no clipping so far as well.

New to the car audio world and looking to learn as much as I can.

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Big three upgrade is a good thing to do, it's fairly cheap and easy to do. If you have done this already, then ignore this.

There are dozens of 'Big Three Kits' for sale online, but you could just as easily fashion one yourself. All kinds of store have several colors of 4ga in various lengths and both OFC and CCA (Oxygen Free Copper(Best) and Copper Clad Aluminum(lesser but cheaper)). This is a good entry level upgrade to get the whole circuit to run more efficiently, allowing the amp to get more juice from the alternator and battery, and therefore more power. There's a lot of how to tutorials on Youtube with the Big 3 upgrades.

Also, on my build log, I have a few pictures of how I made my own terminals for the 4ga wire, they are a little thin, but they cost 4 bucks for like 7 lugs. 3/8 OD soft copper I think.

Knowledge is the greatest tool in any garage. It's also the most priceless, and most easily shared. icon_nuts.gif

Here's my latest build.

http://www.stevemeadedesigns.com/board/topic/181273-89-c1500-build-log/

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I've actually been planning on doing the big 3 with 1/0 since the stock wireing is 4 on my CTS. My current power and grounds being ran are 4awg which I would upgrade to 1/0 more than likely if I upgrade the system the way I want to. I'm wanting to put in 2 Alpine SWR-12d2's and 2 Rockford Fosgate R1200-1D in place of the 2 older SWR's and the Audiobahn a8000t. My main concern is weather I would need a HO Alternator or not. From what I've found the stock alt is anywhere from 145 to 170amps. The alt isn't exactly in an easy place to remove so if I can avoid that I want to. If I get those subs and amps I'm going to run a 2nd battery as well.

New to the car audio world and looking to learn as much as I can.

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Planning on ordering 50ft of 1/0 AWG CCA from Sky high here in the next couple days for the big 3. Hopeing to get over to a friends this weekend to basically pull the install out and re-do it and make it all clean. Maybe build and amp rack of some sorts as well so it's not mounted on the box anymore.

New to the car audio world and looking to learn as much as I can.

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We had some nice weather last weekend (got to 60 for a day!) and took the time to detail the Caddy and clean up the wires in the trunk. Still have more planned for it and maybe get around to it if the friend with the heated garage happens to be free. I sold my SWR-1221D's and put the money towards the SWR-12D2's I have shipping to me. Going to suck not having my bass for a bit but that's why I tied into the existing system so I still have the 10in Freeair at least. Going to get some T-nuts and get the box ready for the new subs today on my lunch break.

New to the car audio world and looking to learn as much as I can.

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