# 2006 Acura TL Build - Exodus Anarchy, Scanspeak, Zapco DC



## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

I just got done with an update to my setup. I replaced my Image Dynamics XS-65 comps with a pair of Exodus Anarchy mid woofers and Scan D3004 6020-00 tweeters in a two-way setup.


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

Rear Fill: CTX 65CS


















XS-28 Tweeters next to scans:









X-65 compared to Exodus Anarchy:










Cutting speaker rings:


















Cut out factory grill:









Had to cut some more sheet metal in order to fit the anarchies


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

The Scans are a perfect fit for the stock tweeter locations:


















Test fit:









Replaced stock grill with speaker cloth:


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## SkizeR (Apr 19, 2011)

can you explain how you got the grill cloth around the door panel so cleanly? i plan on doing this in my build


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

SkizeR said:


> can you explain how you got the grill cloth around the door panel so cleanly? i plan on doing this in my build


Not sure what the door panel looks like in your car, but the TL door panel has a trim ring that surrounds the stock speaker grill. I popped off the trim ring and hot glued the grill cloth to the trim ring and then pressed it back into the groove surrounding the speaker opening. The trim ring was held on by little rivets on the inside of the door panel. Since I broke all the rivets while removing the trim ring I used hot glue on the inside of the panel to hold it in place.


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## optimaprime (Aug 16, 2007)

Nice install got any more pics of amps and the install of them? Subscribed !


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## metanium (Feb 2, 2007)

So how do the Anarchy's sound vs the ID's?


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

optimaprime said:


> Nice install got any more pics of amps and the install of them? Subscribed !


Thanks! The amp install was pretty straightforward. Since I built the false floor and everything is hidden underneath it I didn't really spend any time making it look fancy. My goal was to maintain the stock look as much as reasonably possible. The DC 200.2 fits nicely under the driver's seat:










I also have a Rockford PBR 300x4 powering my rear-fill which I never use:










The false floor is just three pieces and can be pulled right out if needed. I also ran the wiring under the factory trunk panel so I can access the spare tire if I need to - hopefully I won't since it will still be a pain.


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

metanium said:


> So how do the Anarchy's sound vs the ID's?


I haven't had much of a chance to listen to the Anarchy's yet, but it's obvious they can put out a ton of clean bass and midbass. The X-65's start to roll off pretty steeply below 80/90hz. The Anarchy's handle a 63hz high pass at high volume no problem, but struggled a little when I lowered it to 50hz. I don't plan on running them that low. Just wanted to see what they can do.

The midrange on the Anarchy's seems to be a bit recessed compared to the X-65's. I'm sure it has a lot to do with the fact that I haven't retuned anything since taking out the ID's. I will have to spend some time adjusting the gains on my tweeters to account for the lower sensitivity of the Anarchys (92db vs 84.7 - Ouch!) I'm a little worried about how it's going to affect the dynamics. At least I have plenty of power on tap from the 1000.4. I was running it bridged @ 500 watts per channel to the ID's so now that'll be reduced to 250 per channel, since the Anarchy's are 8ohm, in addition to the loss in sensitivity.

Overall, I loved the XS-65's. I only really switched out of curiosity, and because of the killer deal on the Anarchy's. I was planning to use the ID's for an install I am doing for a friend, but because of the sale I bought another pair of Anarchy's and will see if they will fit in his doors. If they do, the ID's will likely go to the Classifieds.


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## optimaprime (Aug 16, 2007)

Sweet man I understand when it's hidden no need to make it super pretty just function!


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## teldzc1 (Oct 9, 2009)

Nice system. Curious what you think of the scans. Do they work well in the dash location? I have the same location on my Accord so interested to know how they do there.


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## Niebur3 (Jul 11, 2008)

Looks nice. You coming to the kc meet in June?


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

teldzc1 said:


> Nice system. Curious what you think of the scans. Do they work well in the dash location? I have the same location on my Accord so interested to know how they do there.


I like the Scans a lot so far. If you're looking for a tweeter with a small profile that can be crossed low in a 2-way these should be on your short list. I read that they are a close relative to the 6600 (Air Circ), which I really like in my home setup.

Are you running a two-way or 3-way front stage? If it's a two-way, depending on how similar your mounting locations are, you may want to consider the deep chamber version if you can fit it. It's got a lower resonant frequency and can be crossed a little lower if needed. I was gonna go with the deep chamber version, but there's an A/C duct right below the mounting hole, so my depth is limited.

They seem to do just fine in the dash. I have them crossed at 2khz @24db LW and they don't have any problems playing clean and loud. They were much easier to EQ than the mids in the door locations.

Here are some graphs from my tuning session (Spatial average w/ 1/24octave smoothing):





















Niebur3 said:


> Looks nice. You coming to the kc meet in June?


Thanks Jerry! I really do need to make it to a meet. I've spent all this time working on my car and I still have no basis for comparison. It would be great to get some feedback and listen to some other cars. Is your car going to be ready by then? I'm still waiting to see where you're gonna put those 110's.

I've been thinking about heading down to the meet in College Station next month since it's pretty close to me, but I also will be traveling through the midwest in June and July so I may be able to work something out.


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## Niebur3 (Jul 11, 2008)

rich20730 said:


> I like the Scans a lot so far. If you're looking for a tweeter with a small profile that can be crossed low in a 2-way these should be on your short list. I read that they are a close relative to the 6600 (Air Circ), which I really like in my home setup.
> 
> Are you running a two-way or 3-way front stage? If it's a two-way, depending on how similar your mounting locations are, you may want to consider the deep chamber version if you can fit it. It's got a lower resonant frequency and can be crossed a little lower if needed. I was gonna go with the deep chamber version, but there's an A/C duct right below the mounting hole, so my depth is limited.
> 
> ...


I gave up on the 110's. Just can't make them fit with the stock look I am looking to do. I am running the 102's in the factory locations. I do have more tuning to do with all the changes I did make, but so far, I like the results!!!


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

Is there not any way to remove the flange on those things? Those sound like some pretty worthless tweeters. Why don't you send them my way and I'll make sure to dispose of them in an environmentally friendly manner 

I know you added another 12. What other changes you got going? PS8? New midbass?


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## Niebur3 (Jul 11, 2008)

rich20730 said:


> Is there not any way to remove the flange on those things? Those sound like some pretty worthless tweeters. Why don't you send them my way and I'll make sure to dispose of them in an environmentally friendly manner
> 
> I know you added another 12. What other changes you got going? PS8? New midbass?


You can reduce by 1", but with our dash, it still make it very tight (on the drivers side). I tried a couple other options, but it just wouldn't look all that good for a "factory appearance". 

I added the 2nd 1200, Changed to Dyn MW172's for midbass, remade the kicks and found a way to make them more on axis (and removed the enclosure behind the midrange - used other treatments instead), increase the voltage going into the amps, remade the entire signal chain and did even more door deadening. 

You should some up to KC. Should be a good time.


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## teldzc1 (Oct 9, 2009)

Those graphs look pretty amazing. I think my dash locations are similar to the TL. I haven't done measurements try on my car yet but I hope I get that kind of extension. I am running two way, the seas I'm running seem to be fine going down to 2.5k and probably 2k, but I have them at 3k right now. Still tweaking. Anyways the scans are definitely in my radar now.


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

Nice! What model Seas are you running? I just picked up a pair of the aluminum neos (27TAFNC/G) to install in a friend's car. It's a Lexus IS which comes with a stock 3-way front stage and I'm wondering if the Seas/Anarchy 2-way would be better than a 3-way using the stock mid and tweeter paired with the Anarchy woofers.


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## bassfromspace (Jun 28, 2016)

Interesting baffle mounting method. Could you show more pics or explain your methods? Any issues with vibrations?


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

bassfromspace said:


> Interesting baffle mounting method. Could you show more pics or explain your methods? Any issues with vibrations?


You mean for the mids or for the subs?


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## bassfromspace (Jun 28, 2016)

rich20730 said:


> You mean for the mids or for the subs?


Sorry, the subs. It appears as if the sub baffle is bolted to the car's cross brace.


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## mattyjman (Aug 6, 2009)

is it just me or are the subs off center... sorry for my ocd...

looks good overall, and i'm sure it sounds pretty nice with those anarchy mids...


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

Yea, they are definitely off center. When I installed them I was trying to get everything done as quickly as possible and didn't center the holes properly. I also should have cut the mounting holes closer together. It would have made it much easier to fit both subs between the braces.


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

bassfromspace said:


> Sorry, the subs. It appears as if the sub baffle is bolted to the car's cross brace.


Yea, the baffle is bolted to the braces. It's just the four bolts that you see in the picture. I had to use a couple scrap pieces of mdf as spacers in between the braces and the baffle in order to provide some clearance for the subwoofer surrounds. If I would have cut the mounting holes closer together I think I could have fit them in between the braces. 

The baffle is made from two 3/4" sheets of birch plywood laminated together. In my initial install I just had one Idmax 12 and I made the baffle out of MDF. I decided to switch to plywood because it is much lighter, making it easier to work with than MDF. The plywood baffle vibrates a little more than the MDF, but not to the extent that I would switch back to MDF if I did it again.

Mounting to the braces is very sturdy and makes IB installation pretty easy in the TL. If I wanted to make it look nice I would have used some lag bolts to secure the baffle to the braces to avoid having the fasteners sticking out the other side, but I was in a rush to finish and was feeling lazy. I don't have a whole lot of other pictures, but here are a few, including some from the single 12"


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## mattyjman (Aug 6, 2009)

i like the false wall... seem to have quite a bit of room in there, i surely couldn't do that, but it makes it look all very well done up.


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

Thanks!


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## bassfromspace (Jun 28, 2016)

Are you in DFW?


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

East Texas (Longview)


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

I ordered some Scanspeak 10F's and attempted some kicks this weekend.

**Disclaimer: I stole or adapted pretty much all of the ideas below from Jerry Niebur's build** 

These speakers are so tiny it's almost adorable. Don't be fooled though, the little neo magnets will snatch up pretty much every metal object within a 6" radius.



















Chamfered the back side:










I aimed the mounting rings slightly inward and upward to be a little more on axis. Not a big deal though for these drivers since the off-axis response is nice and flat and I don't plan on crossing them very high.



















I had ordered lots of supplies - low temp plastic, Duraglass, Rage Body Filler etc. but ended up starting the project without most of it because I'm impulsive and have a hard time waiting on everything to arrive.

Both sides done with Rage Extreme:



















Stole my son's bouncy balls for the enclosures. I don't know if I'll end up using them.


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

Here they are with primer on them. I bought some textured gray paint, but since the primer is pretty close to the factory paint I'm not sure when I'll have the motivation to repaint them. I had also planned to add another layer of body filler to fix some spots, but it looks decent enough that it won't bother me if I don't fix it.



















I wasn't sure how I was going to do the grills, but luckily I spotted some old grills from my ID CTX set. After cutting off the outer spokes, the grills were almost a perfect fit.


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## Niebur3 (Jul 11, 2008)

That looks really good. You should cover the grills with grill cloth. It will match the doors and cover the image dynamics logo. Great job!!!!

And looking at the specs, I'd get rid of the enclosure behind the speaker.


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

Thanks Jerry! Yea, I was debating whether to throw some grill cloth over the ID grills and couldn't really make up my mind so I figured I'd try them bare first and then cover them later if I didn't like how it looked.

I'm glad you responded to this thread because I was just about to ask you about the enclosures. You might be receiving a phone call from me soon!


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## Niebur3 (Jul 11, 2008)

Call anytime!


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## Mless5 (Aug 21, 2006)

Wow, these kicks were begging you to do what you did!


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## teldzc1 (Oct 9, 2009)

Soooo how do they sound?


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

Ha yea. I'm not sure why I didn't do it sooner. 

The system sounds really good now. The scans and the anarchy's did perfectly fine in a 2-way from both an imaging and tonality standpoint, but the efficiency and the dynamics of the 3-way are MUCH better. In the 2-way, I had to cut a ton in the 100-300 area to smooth things out between the midbass and lower midrange. Now that the more-efficient Scans pick up around 6-700hz, the Anarchy's are free to play in the passband where they excel without being hindered by excess EQ.


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## teldzc1 (Oct 9, 2009)

rich20730 said:


> Nice! What model Seas are you running? I just picked up a pair of the aluminum neos (27TAFNC/G) to install in a friend's car. It's a Lexus IS which comes with a stock 3-way front stage and I'm wondering if the Seas/Anarchy 2-way would be better than a 3-way using the stock mid and tweeter paired with the Anarchy woofers.


I'm running the lotus rtf27f. They are really smooth. They work fine in two way, but I do have some rolloff around 16k. Probably due to how off axis they are minted. Still it doesn't sound closed or anything.


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

That wouldn't be a big deal to me. I can't hear anything over 16.5khz!


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

try cutting the anarchies at like 300. 

i have almost an identical 3 way as you, and i like a lower xover for the anarchies and midrange.

i have;

vifa xt25 sunk deep in sail panels (thinking of changing these)
fatial pro 4fe30 in kicks
exodus anarchy in doors
2x IA flatlyne 18's IB (used to have 2x idmax12's)
helix p-dsp (waiting on my ps8 back from arc)

but i agree, going from 2-way to 3-way with the anarchies really did it for me.


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

req said:


> try cutting the anarchies at like 300.
> 
> i have almost an identical 3 way as you, and i like a lower xover for the anarchies and midrange.
> 
> ...


Yea they are very similar. I'm pretty sure your build thread was at least part of the reason I decided to try the Idmax's IB. I probably would have tried some IDQ 15's if I was able to get my hands on them at the time. I'm also running a pair of 18's Infinite baffle (Stereo Integrity HT). Just in my home theater, not in my car. 

I seriously considered the XT25's before finally deciding on the Scans. In the end, large format seemed like too much of a pain to install. What are you thinking of switching to? Now that I'm running a 3-way, I no longer need a tweeter that can cross so low. I probably should have gone with a 3/4" dome or something with a little better off axis dispersion.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll definitely give that a try. I'm sure I will be spending lots of time tuning in the near future, but it's pretty exciting how good it sounds after just one session. Another good thing about switching to a 3-way is that it gives me 20 additional bands of parametric EQ going from two-channel bridged to 4 channel on my DC 1000.4.


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

the xt25 is great on axis, and helps a hell of a lot with reflections because it has horrible off axis dispersion. but the tiny neo magnets cant dissipate any heat - so at louder volumes they dont last very long. great sounding speakers though. i guess thats why the rated power is so low  i pulled off the mounting flange and the ones i have are small format. these cant be much different in size than the scans, but off axis in the dash like that i dont think they would work at all.

Vifa XT25SC90-04 1" Dual Ring Radiator Tweeter 264-1014

im not sure yet, i love ring radiators because of the reflection help. im in no rush.

and im flattered that you tried IB because of me 

i have two more flatlyne 18's im putting in my attic for my HT too... lol great minds right?


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

req said:


> i have two more flatlyne 18's im putting in my attic for my HT too... lol great minds right?


Nice! This will help me convince my wife that the amount of time and money I spend on home and car audio is totally normal.

Here's my home theater build thread: http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...reo-integrity-ht18-infinite-baffle-build.html


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## bullyx2 (Jun 27, 2007)

Very nice install Rich. Kicks especially look great. Your subs got me thinking again about an idea I've been contemplating. Thought I'd post and ask for your thoughts.

Does the TL come with the pass through behind the rear seat arm rest or did you cut that out? I have a TSX that has split folding rear seats, not a pass through. I currently have my SI BM MKIII in a fiberglass enclosure in the corner of the trunk. I have been thinking about possibly opening up the area behind the armrest and building an enclosure for the sub to fire through the opening. 

Any sharing of expertise is appreciated.


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

bullyx2 said:


> Very nice install Rich. Kicks especially look great. Your subs got me thinking again about an idea I've been contemplating. Thought I'd post and ask for your thoughts.
> 
> Does the TL come with the pass through behind the rear seat arm rest or did you cut that out? I have a TSX that has split folding rear seats, not a pass through. I currently have my SI BM MKIII in a fiberglass enclosure in the corner of the trunk. I have been thinking about possibly opening up the area behind the armrest and building an enclosure for the sub to fire through the opening.
> 
> Any sharing of expertise is appreciated.


Thanks! Yea, the TL has a pass through. There's a little plastic door/frame behind the arm rest that can be easily removed by unscrewing a couple bolts.

Is there anything specific you don't like about your current sub setup? Firing the sub or port through the opening is pretty common and I'm sure it would work well. I guess it just depends on your goals. I'm not sure that there's going to be a big difference going from sealed in the corner to sealed firing through the pass through. 

If you are concerned that some of the higher sub frequencies are being trapped in the trunk or absorbed by the rear seats, you could try taking out the rear speakers and/or stock sub to open things up a little bit.

If you're looking to add more subs/additional cone area then IB would be a good option to gain some output and low-end extension without taking up much more space than your current setup.


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

Quick update:

Fixed the grill cloth over the woofer so it fits under the trim ring and did the same with the midrange grills.


















I used some push nuts to help secure the trim ring better:


















The rings on the smaller grills came off pretty easily after applying some heat with the heat gun.

I still plan to do some more body filling to fix some spots and repaint with a matching gray, but I'm happy with how the grills turned out.

Thanks for the suggestions Jerry :thumbsup:


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## Niebur3 (Jul 11, 2008)

rich20730 said:


>


Now that looks Great! Great job!!!!


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

It does look excellent. The silver trim ring really sets it off. I think black might be a tad dark for the grill cloth, but it still looks awesome


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## Mic10is (Aug 20, 2007)

diggin the kicks. well done


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## xxx_busa (May 4, 2009)

Looking Good - Brother Acura !


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

Some additions in the works:

Center Channel: (Completed, except for tuning)
- Scanspeak 10f
- Dayton ND16FA
- Audiocontrol ESP-3

More power and processing (In process)
- Zapco DC 350.2 for midranges
- Zapco DC 350.2 for center
- Zapco DC 200.2 for rears

Yet to come:
Add a second pair of Anarchys in the doors for additional cone area and to maximize my available amplifier power. I plan to bridge the 1000.4 so I can send 500 watts @ 4ohms to each pair of Anarchys.










Center Channel:

Cut holes in the stock grill with the dremel and cut some MDF to match:









Rear mounting the 10f seemed the easiest so I chamfered the opening to hopefully reduce any resulting diffraction. I sandwiched some duraglass between the stock grill and the mdf baffle and added some body filler to smooth things out:


















Painted black so it wouldn't show through the grill cloth:









Hot glued the grill cloth on:


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

Hot mess of wire after pulling everything out of the trunk:









More manageable, but needs revisiting:









Amp rack:


















Current status. More to come when I get some more time to work on it.


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## strakele (Mar 2, 2009)

Very nice build so far! Interested to see how you install the pair of Anarchies per door.


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

Thanks! The plan is to mount them on the opposite end of the door. Hopefully that will be in the cone of confusion.


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## Gary Mac (May 12, 2009)

This is nice. I like the door grills


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

Thanks! It was an easy mod


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## BuickGN (May 29, 2009)

Looks good. I just did the same thing to my doors and it's significantly cut down on the door rattles I've been having. It not only looks factory, in some instances it looks better than factory.


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

Thanks! I'll bet it looks sharp with the black door panels. It really made it much easier to mount the Anarchys without having to worry about whether the door panel was pressing up against the speaker.


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## Eggroll (Mar 2, 2012)

How do those Max sound IB? Install looks awesome and I bet this car sounds great!


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## Maldonadosqs (Apr 16, 2009)

rich20730 said:


> Thanks! I'll bet it looks sharp with the black door panels. It really made it much easier to mount the Anarchys without having to worry about whether the door panel was pressing up against the speaker.


Nice work

Greetings


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

Eggroll said:


> How do those Max sound IB? Install looks awesome and I bet this car sounds great!





Maldonadosqs said:


> Nice work
> 
> Greetings


Thanks! The Idmax's sound awesome in IB


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

I finally got the ESP-3 set up and running properly. I took me several days to figure out exactly what was going on with it. The first issue was that the left RCA output was going out intermittently. I was able to fix the problem by soldering a jumper wire between a broken trace on the circuit board. 

After fixing the RCA output it was still acting crazy. For some reason the center channel output was canceling out the vocals and the left and right channels were outputting what seemed to be center channel information. I finally figured out that when I did some recent rewiring, I accidentally switched the L+ and L- signal from the headunit (balanced differential) which caused the signal that should have been summed to cancel and the signal that should have been L-R to sum :blush:

Since I'm running the left and right outputs of the ESP to the rears, I can increase or decrease the amount of spatial processing with the fader control on the headunit. After spending a little time getting the ESP dialed in I have to say that I am very impressed. It's going to be center channel and rearfill for me from now on!

I even added some tweeters back there. I wonder how many rules of SQ I can break before I'm done


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

I just finished installing the second pair of Anarchy's in the doors. It took a little while, but I was happy not to run into any major problems along the way. I currently have them wired in parallel bridged off of the 1000.4 @ 500 watts per side, but I might try running each on its own channel to give me more tuning flexibility, if needed.

Pictures:

Before:









After:









In between:


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

Door panel/grill pictures:

Cut the holes in the door panels with the router and circle jig. Laid a scrap piece of MDF on top so the router would pivot smoothly:


















Removed the individual panel and attached some grill cloth with hot glue:


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## fast94tracer (Jun 23, 2013)

now that looks good !!!!!! so how does it sound? any improvement?


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

Thanks! It's hard to say, since I've only gotten the chance to do about an hour of tuning and not much listening yet at all. One thing I noticed was that the midbass response is much flatter now and doesn't require much EQ at all. Also, the response is very sensitive to small changes time alignment. I'm going to have to experiment with it to see if I need to run separate EQ and time alignment for each speaker.


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## fast94tracer (Jun 23, 2013)

I was asking because I was thinking of running 2 8"s in my doors 

I don't drive fast I fly low!!!


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

fast94tracer said:


> I was asking because I was thinking of running 2 8"s in my doors
> 
> I don't drive fast I fly low!!!


Honestly, it's probably way overkill for me, but I already had the extra pair of speakers and available amplification so it was just a fun project to do. I'd say if you can fit em go for it! The only thing you may need to consider is how high you plan on playing them because it may impact how close together they need to be mounted.

This is a great thread to check out if you haven't read it already:
http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...iscussion/74088-midbass-arrays-revisited.html


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## fast94tracer (Jun 23, 2013)

well if i actually decide to run two i can do it like how you did or right next to each other my doors are versatile. i could also run a single 10" in the door if i wanted to.


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

fast94tracer said:


> well if i actually decide to run two i can do it like how you did or right next to each other my doors are versatile. i could also run a single 10" in the door if i wanted to.


fast94tracer:

I recently did 2 sets of cheap Arc XDI 6" comps in a newer Jetta and when I went back later and added a sub, it was hardly noticeable. If you ran 2 8's or a 10" you wouldn't need a sub. lol

Rich:

I like how everything seems to work out easily on this car. I expected several posts of fab work, and then it's like "I made some rings, cut some hole and wrapped it in grille cloth." Wish things went like that for me at work, lol.

Jay


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

fast94tracer said:


> well if i actually decide to run two i can do it like how you did or right next to each other my doors are versatile. i could also run a single 10" in the door if i wanted to.


It's nice to have options, although I'm kinda glad that mine were limited because otherwise, I'd probably spend months reading and trying to decide what would give me the best results.



JayinMI said:


> l
> 
> Rich:
> 
> ...


Haha! Things going smoothly and exactly as planned during an install is hardly the norm for me, but when it happens it's frickin' sweet. 

Because of time constraints with work, family etc. it's kind of a necessity that I keep things as simple and as straightforward possible, but I've spent many-a-night up until 4 in the morning working 8 hours on a project that "should" have taken 2. It also doesn't help that my problem solving skills pretty much go to **** after midnight :laugh:


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## moparman79 (Jan 31, 2008)

Build is look good, keep up the good work.


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## fast94tracer (Jun 23, 2013)

I wonder how a line array of 4 6" would sound across the bottom of the door?

I don't drive fast I fly low!!!


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

Only one way to find out! Well, only one fun way


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## fast94tracer (Jun 23, 2013)

true but very expensive


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## GlasSman (Nov 14, 2006)

Excellent build.....I _*LOVE *_those kicks.....easy, simple and elegant.

Nicely executed!

I've been considering a TL as my next vehicle so your build affirms whats possible with this vehicle.

Did you cut a hole in the metal of the kick to fit the 4" mid?

Do you think it's possible to fit a 5.25" in the kick using your method?

Also what do you think of the signal you're getting out of the stock head?


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

GlasSman said:


> Excellent build.....I _*LOVE *_those kicks.....easy, simple and elegant.
> 
> Nicely executed!
> 
> ...


Thanks! The scans are pretty small, especially with the neo magnet, so I didn't have to cut any metal. There's not a whole lot of room behind the kicks so I did have to relocate the hood latch and bend a metal tab on the driver's side and remove the stock amp on the passenger side to get them to fit.

I think you should be able to fit a 5.25" in there, but it would probably require a little more work than just basically cutting a hole for the driver like I did with the Scans. The 10F's have a diameter of 97mm or about 3.8". If you're planning to do a larger driver you should take a look at Niebur's build (linked below). It's a great reference. He was using Dyn 430's which are 110mm or 4.3"

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...dio-arc-ms-8-*pics-galore*-3.html#post1212832

Here's another build using a morel elate mid which is 88mm or about 3.5"
http://tl.acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=884522

The signal from the stock head-unit is usable. Some things to note:

- The front left and right outputs are full range.
- The sub signal is lowpassed at ~50hz, 12dB/octave. 
- The preamp signal is less than 1 volt at full volume and is balanced differential. 
- A line driver is often helpful for boosting the voltage and converting the signal to unbalanced, but there are lots of people who have had success using Zapco and JL amps without a line driver.
- There is a rather large dip starting around 1khz and also some volume dependent EQ

Here's a graph from someone who measured it on Acurazine:


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## Gary Mac (May 12, 2009)

Do you think you could about 5mm deeper into the doors with your install?


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

Gary Mac said:


> Do you think you could about 5mm deeper into the doors with your install?


Sorry, just saw this. Yea, I don't think an extra 5mm would be a problem (that's what she said). 

The anarchies are 93mm deep and, if I remember correctly, the tricky part about getting them to fit wasn't the depth, but rather it was getting the large diameter magnet to clear the bottom of the window while rolled down. If you're considering something like the Scan Illuminators (97mm deep), the depth shouldn't be an issue and I'd expect them to be easier to fit because of the smaller neo motors.


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

Finally got some time to work on my car after a busy few months, which included adopting a little girl and working on my home theater system, among other things.

Another reason I haven't done much with my car is that I've actually been very satisfied with the system for quite some time. My most recent projects have mostly been motivated by curiosity and wanting to experiment with concepts I've been reading about.

As such, I've been exploring options for implementing midbass arrays, rear-fill for ambience, and a home theater-like surround sound setup. 

As of this latest addition, I'm up to 7 amplifiers, 15 fully-active channels, 18 speakers, and 2,700 watts.

This diagram shows pretty much the current speaker configuration, except that I replaced the Image Dynamics Tweeters in the rear deck with a pair of Scanspeak D2904 600001's that I had in storage.










Scans installed:









Built some tiny boxes out of milk jugs and Duraglass for the Polk coaxials and stuck them in the rear doors:

























































Added CLD and MLV that I got from Home Depot:


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

Installed the Alpine PXE-H660 so I could run the rears active and add some more delay. The longest delay I can do on the Zapcos is 22ms and according to Toole, the surrounds need to be delayed close to 40ms in order to really trigger a sense of envelopment.

I added a Rockford Fosgate Punch PBR 300x4 to power the rears and used the 200.2 to power the coaxials in the doors.

The rears/surrounds/center are all run through the ESP-3 and can be controlled by the ESP remote or attenuated by fading to the front.









I also cleaned up the wiring a bit and added a cover to the amp rack that holds the H660 and the ESP-3. Right now it's just painted grey, but I'll probably end up wrapping it in vinyl or something that will look a little nicer.


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## Niebur3 (Jul 11, 2008)

Looks Nice!


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

Thanks Jerry!


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## optimaprime (Aug 16, 2007)

This pretty cool with the melting pot of gear you got !


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

optimaprime said:


> This pretty cool with the melting pot of gear you got !



Haha, yea most of it is extra stuff that I already had sitting around the house - either from a previous install or gear that I bought only because it was a really good deal that I couldn't pass up.


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## optimaprime (Aug 16, 2007)

rich20730 said:


> Haha, yea most of it is extra stuff that I already had sitting around the house - either from a previous install or gear that I bought only because it was a really good deal that I couldn't pass up.


Ya that happens a lot around here:laugh:


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## KP (Nov 13, 2005)

Looks good! Anthracite is my favorite color with black pearl a close second.


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

AcuraTLSQ said:


> Looks good! Anthracite is my favorite color with black pearl a close second.


Thanks Kirk! Yes, it's a good color. Good thing it hides dirt pretty well because I haven't washed my car in about a year. Hopefully I'll get to hear your TL some day!


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## donz88 (Jan 30, 2014)

Nice setup


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

Took some time this weekend to make things look a little nicer. I wrapped the amp-rack cover with some pieces of scrap vinyl from the local fabric store. I ran into a few issues along the way, but I eventually worked it out

I initially wrapped the cover with grey vinyl, but I couldn't get it to stretch all the way into the corners of the openings. Rather than peeling it off and starting over, I decided to lay the black vinyl on top of the grey and try again since it seemed a little stretchier, but I couldn't get that to work either. 

Finally, I just decided to stretch it the best I could and fill in the gaps with a black sharpie. I'm sure there's a better way of doing it, but I couldn't think of it at the time and it's not very noticeable even in direct sunlight.

I then made some trim pieces out of balsa wood and foam board, wrapped them in the blue vinyl, and used them to cover up the seam between the grey and black vinyl and to outline the amplifier openings.

I started out using spray glue to attach the vinyl, but eventually switched to contact cement, which was easier to work with and seems a lot stronger.


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

I ran into the same issues with wrapping the corners in a similar false floor build. I actually rebuilt the beauty panel using a larger radius for the corners of the amp cutouts and it made a world of difference.
If you use a 2” hole saw to cutout the corners then just use some scrap wood as a guide and a flush trim bit to finish the cutouts vinyl will wrap around nicely.
Do the lower amps have any issues with heat or do you have some ventilation I’m not seeing?


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

That makes sense about the larger radius for the corners. I will definitely keep that in mind for future builds. It's hard to really anticipate some of these issues until you've tried it yourself and learned the hard way.

Did you use 4-way stretch vinyl or just something you picked up from the fabric store?

There isn't really much more ventilation than you can see in the picture. There is probably an inch or so of clearance between the bottom amps and the top amps and I cut out as much wood as I could on the sides, but I haven't installed any fans yet. Since the bottom amps are just powering mids/tweeters/rearfill they actually don't get all that hot. The only one that really gets hot is the 1100.1 which is pushing the subs.


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## UNFORGIVEN (Sep 25, 2010)

amazing job! I bet it sounds ridiculous lol
pm coming your way


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

UNFORGIVEN said:


> amazing job! I bet it sounds ridiculous lol
> pm coming your way



Thanks! I am really happy with how it sounds. Got a few more cosmetic changes in mind and a bunch of MLV to install, then hopefully some day I'll get some time to really tune this thing.


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

rich20730 said:


> That makes sense about the larger radius for the corners. I will definitely keep that in mind for future builds. It's hard to really anticipate some of these issues until you've tried it yourself and learned the hard way.
> 
> Did you use 4-way stretch vinyl or just something you picked up from the fabric store?
> 
> There isn't really much more ventilation than you can see in the picture. There is probably an inch or so of clearance between the bottom amps and the top amps and I cut out as much wood as I could on the sides, but I haven't installed any fans yet. Since the bottom amps are just powering mids/tweeters/rearfill they actually don't get all that hot. The only one that really gets hot is the 1100.1 which is pushing the subs.


Yea I totally understand about anticipating issues, most everything I’ve learned about car audio is by screwing something up and learning how not to do it.
I used carbon fiber vinyl that has a very limited stretch. 
My first run at it I just used a 1” rabbeting bit on ¾” MDF so it only had a ½” radius and I wasted a rather large and fairly expensive piece of vinyl.
I sat back and stared at it for a while and came to the conclusion that if I couldnt change the stretch of the vinyl I had to lessen the distance it had to stretch.
Traced the original beauty panel and used the hole saw for the corners and voila it worked perfect.


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## luisc202 (Oct 29, 2013)

Man those doors came out awesome ....


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## luisc202 (Oct 29, 2013)

rich20730 said:


> Finally got some time to work on my car after a busy few months, which included adopting a little girl and working on my home theater system, among other things.
> 
> Another reason I haven't done much with my car is that I've actually been very satisfied with the system for quite some time. My most recent projects have mostly been motivated by curiosity and wanting to experiment with concepts I've been reading about.
> 
> ...




How do you like the Home Depot MLV? I just bought some but was thinking of returning it and getting another brand.


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

luisc202 said:


> How do you like the Home Depot MLV? I just bought some but was thinking of returning it and getting another brand.


Thanks! I like it just fine. It's not as flexible as other mlv and I think it's only .75lbs/sq ft. but the price is great and it's one of the few places I could find where I could get free shipping.

Another place to try if you want to look locally is at a fabric store. I found some really nice vinyl in the remnant section for $5 per yard. It wasn't quite as thick - maybe 0.5lbs/sq foot, but the quality was really good. You could use it for tight spots or double it up in regular areas.


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

Made a few small changes to the trunk.

Added a panel to fill in the empty space behind the amp rack and added vinyl to the underside of the hinged panel:

Before:

















After:

















I finally got around to removing the protruding bolts securing the baffle and replaced them with 1/2" lag bolts. I filled in the holes on the trunk side with some small grommets. Doubled up the washers on the other side for a little extra strength:

Before:









After:

































The real project this weekend was tearing out the interior and laying down CCF and MLV. After I pulled everything out, it was fairly clear why this car is already pretty quiet. Most of the floor is already covered in vibration damping material, there is MLV starting in the front footwells and running up the firewall, and the factory carpet backing is almost as thick and dense as the MLV I was installing. Although it took a really long time and was a lot of work, I'm glad I got it done. Having the everything out of the car gave me an opportunity to redo all of my crappy wiring that I had done previously.

MLV and CCF underlayment from Home Depot:









Seats and console out. Wires everywhere.









What happens when you decide to yank on trim panels with bare hands instead of using panel poppers:









Rear carpet removed:

















Factory deadening. Decided not to add any CLD.









MLV Starting in the front footwells and running up the firewall:









Started at the back seat and worked my way forward:



























Rear floor pan:









With holes cut:









Laid down some fabric store vinyl on top for additional coverage:









Rear carpet reinstalled with wiring cleaned up:









(Carpet under the driver's seat was discolored when I bought the car)


















Front driver's side floor pan with double layer of vinyl:


















Front passenger floor pan:









Now that it's all done, I can't really say that the difference is immediately noticeable. The car was pretty quiet to begin with and I think it's hard to tell when something is quieter because your ears seem to adjust to the change. I should have taken some dB readings beforehand, but I'm impulsive and just decided to start tearing the car up around 8pm on Friday night. I'll probably have a better idea once I do some driving on some of the rougher roads or on the interstate.


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## optimaprime (Aug 16, 2007)

Looks good I need damn garage so I can get back on mine. Yours gets me going


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

optimaprime said:


> Looks good I need damn garage so I can get back on mine. Yours gets me going


Ha yea. My wife is not too happy that I took over the garage while there's an ice storm going on. Get on it! You got a build log?


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