# 2014 Highlander - SQ build



## Mapletech (Jun 20, 2014)

OK - My turn. I've spent my time lurking, learning, and the odd technical post here and there whenever I could help out.

We just got our 2014 Highlander about a month ago.

The conditions, partly imposed by be, partly by SWMBO:
- Must be as transparent, physically and operationally, as possible. I've planned this down to having everything hidden, without taking up standard storage space, and with only the sub taking up any new space (and that taking up a rear corner and ending up flush to the wheel well, etc.)
- Car must remain usable pretty much every day through the process. This will mean 1 section / door / side at a time.

I had narrowed my equipment list to a short list. Once I had the car and tore into it a bit looking for space, here's what I'm working with:

HU - Stock unit
DSP - Helix
Amps - JL 600/6 and 600/1
Front MB (Doors) - SEAS W18NX001
Front Tweet (Dash) - SEAS 27TBFC/G
Rear Doors - JBL P662 Coax's
Sub - Image Dynamics IDQ10V.4
Damping - 60x SDS Tiles + Some butyl rope
Barrier - Barymat BM1A

Other - Prestigious Society NAVI enhancement to let me do Navigation and other stuff while moving.
- Trailer wiring and additional 12V outlet at the rear. Unfortunately no room for a power inverter since I would want true sine wave.

Note, partly to remind myself:
I intend to take measurements of the stock stereo 'as-is', as well as to get the curve of the electrical output (ie. minus speakers) to see just how much EQ is actually being done at the HU.


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## Mapletech (Jun 20, 2014)

Part 1 - The "Amp Rack" build:

My first search was for a place to drop the amps and processing. I found the back left corner had a nice deep storage pocket, which, If I do this carefully, can be converted into a shallow storage pocket with some fiberglass work.
Here's the new home for the electronics:










I had to measure this space very carefully, and found that I could fit the JL amps in here with not much room to spare.

First thing then was to create a base to level out the cavity. The center of the space, going front to back, is reasonably flat, so I put some rare-earth magnets to secure it. No need to drill into the chassis - these provide plenty of holding power. Also, the grommet at the back has to remain accessible for the hitch wiring:

Base fitting:









Underside of the base once it had been fully tweaked:









A bit of paint - now time to get building, starting with the fan since the screws will be buried:









Level 1: Sub Amp: All settings must be done now - no tweaking once this thing is together. Fortunately all tweaks will be done in the DSP, so I just need minimum gain on the amp and straight through otherwise:









Rails for Level 2. This is just stock Home Depot angle aluminum, radiused a bit on the corners to fit the JL curve. The 600/6 is longer than the sub amp - no problem on the front, but at the back I had to make the support rod just flush with the rail. It's held up by double nuts below, and once the amp is in place it's not going anywhere.









Level 2: Tweets / Midbass / FullRange:









And finally, Level 3 - Processing and Electrics:









The top layer is a piece of 1/4" phenolic that I had laying around from a garage sale years ago. To my surprise, I found that it had a copper layer on one side. So...why not - seemed like it would look cool (despite being hidden). Some sanding brought it back to a shine, and 6 coats of clear lacquer to protect it. Sorry no intermediate shots - this is now the finished product.
Connector at front left is for 2x smaller fans to pull air into the space (I take cooling seriously!). The open-ended fuse will be for 12V socket nearby. Relay is for the control line from the HU - it takes the fan load as well as triggering REM IN on the Helix.

More pics:








There's about 3/8"+ space between layers - not much, but not bad, and surely enough air will move. The fan is just a PC fan with a 3-speed switch.









The Phoenix connectors handle HU speaker line inputs, Remote In, and then the 6 new speaker lines. All have locking screws. So once I run the wires/harnesses, this becomes basically a "Plug & Play" module - mostly just power and speaker lines plug in. Unfortunately the sub line (blue one under layer 1) will be direct, but then again the sub will be 6" above the module.

Next Phase - a bit of shop cleanup and then the speaker mounts.


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## optimaprime (Aug 16, 2007)

We'll thought out and clean. I like it !


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## cerwinvega_fan (Nov 9, 2010)

Very nice!


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## diy.phil (May 23, 2011)

Whoa you need a federal permit to do it like that!!! j/k. 
That's a very nice arrangement and hook-up!!


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## reithi (Mar 29, 2012)

Neat and compact


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## Hanatsu (Nov 9, 2010)

Interesting little amp rack, looks fancy!


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## poochieone (Aug 25, 2005)

Very impressive arrangement! 
Sub'd.


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## Mapletech (Jun 20, 2014)

Thanks for the compliments so far.

Did testing today with a 5A PSU that I had kicking around - it's enough to warm it up and make a few watts of audio. So far so good - all channels work fine, zero discernible noise in the XD600/6 at turn on/off, so no worries about toasting tweets there. A very slight click in the sub amp - I was just using a full range 6" speaker on my bench as the test speaker, and I'd say the click is about as loud as dropping a small paper clip.

My initial impressions of the Helix are so-so. The EQ does not seem very 'effective'. The only way I can relate this is to different mixing desks I use - with some you only have to move an EQ Gain knob a wee bit and you hear the difference. Others like old Yamahas you need to really send the dial past 3-o'clock before you hear much change. I'll be trying some tests to see what the output changes are versus what's shown on screen. Also, Input gains would be really nice.

Long weekends are great - you get so much work done


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## Hanatsu (Nov 9, 2010)

The Helix is the best DSP I've used to date and I've tried quite a few. Not sure I understand what you mean by "effective", it does what you tell it do


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## Mapletech (Jun 20, 2014)

For the moment it's a subjective thing until I get a chance to properly bench test it. 
It could be just because if has a higher default Q per band, and therefore it's not affecting as much 'area' - therefore the impression that it's not being 'effective'. I have been certified on at least half a dozen professional DSP units, and regularly configure and tune those and many more (just pulling from my folder I have Biamp, Bose, BSS, ClearOne, Crown, DBX, EV, Lectrosonics, Polycom, Rane, Symetrix, Xilica and XTA). Of those, I like BSS and Rane the best - their EQ is fast to operate & react, and usually 'a little pinch will do ya', whereas with some of the other brands I find that I have to push/subtract more to get the results I need. I've never bench-tested any of them really - they get spec'd into a system - I create the config and then go tune 'em. This may very well go alongside the discussion about 'better' amplifiers, which I am in agreement with based on both subjective and measurable results in my past. Like the amplifiers, all of these products probably bench-test close to the same in terms of basic measurements, but there are those finer differences in engineering, build quality, and software that can make one product better than another.
All that said, the Helix "sounds" good so far with my limited listening on it thus far, and none of the EQ adjustments make it sound harsh when boosting nor do they seem to suck the life out of the signal when cutting.


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## Mapletech (Jun 20, 2014)

But FWIW, I'm happy to hear that I made a good choice. The mobile world is certainly an island of its own, and so I could only go by spec and a few opinions from here.


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## sirbOOm (Jan 24, 2013)

Where'd you get the barrier material?


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## Mapletech (Jun 20, 2014)

I got it from a local company called Acoustiguard. They seem to handle all types of sound control situations. Very easy to deal with, and they cut 'half' sheets for me at 36" x 54", so I've got one piece per door.
The BM-1C is the closest thing on their website, which is 1.6 lb/sqft, wheareas the BM-1A that I got is 1lb/sqft. Mainly I like that the foam is pre-attached to the vinyl, and then the vinyl has a backing that easily works with double sided tape or velcro. It is more of an open-cell foam, but it should still offer decent decoupling. I think it was about $90/full sheet, so $180 total.
Noise control composite materials - AcoustiGuard


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## Mapletech (Jun 20, 2014)

D'oh - Double Post


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## sirbOOm (Jan 24, 2013)

I wonder how different it'd be from LuxuryLiner Pro.


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## Velozity (Jul 6, 2007)

That amp/dsp rack is really cool. It's like a little "audio engine". Props!


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## WhereAmEye? (Jun 17, 2013)

Props on the 6" x 9" x 9" powerhouse box haha. In for more!


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## motomech (Nov 12, 2014)

Mapleleaf
Thank you so much for posting this project!
I have the same (2015 Highlander) vehicle and planning to do the same type of setup though trying to keep the cost down.
I just started to collect the pieces.
so far I have an alpine pxe h66 and a set of rs28f tweeters from parts express.
Have not decided on drivers for the doors yet.
Plan to go active. This is all a relatively new experience as my last build utilized ADS plate speakers back in 1985!
will likely build a sub above and behind LS wheel well.
leaning toward class D amps but have not heard them in an SQ installation.
Your work is top shelf!


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## Mapletech (Jun 20, 2014)

Well - you can call me Maple Leaf anytime...not a bad 2nd to being a Canadian Tech.
I'd be happy to help in any way I can. I haven't posted here for a while - once kids & school & real-world projects got in the way, things slowed down, but I'm right near the finish line.
I have some good info, measurements, and so on - speaker baffles, templates for covering the door openings, and such.
Unfortunately, the amplifier block that I was so happy with had to come apart. it was one of those 'awww crap' moments, when I took it in for rustproofing, and they sprayed oil into that area. Fortunately the gear wasn't in yet - I was waiting specifically for that - I didn't want oil on the speaker cones in the doors either, but I didn't know that the space at the back left was going to get it too.
I have the sub in the same space as well. The backbox is done, and will be handling the front end over the next few days. I chose the IDQ partly because of the reviews on here, and partly since the box volume works out to be just under 1 cubic, and with fill that can 'expand' to a bit more, and the IDQ works fairly well in that space. There's literally about 1/4" between the magnet back and the back of the box, but there's no air going through the magnet, so I figure that's OK.


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## motomech (Nov 12, 2014)

Sorry Mapletech!
Autocorrect is a mistress that can not be trusted!
Go Leafs!


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## JVD240 (Sep 7, 2009)

Really love the attention to detail here!

By looking at the cable and connectors I feel like you work in commercial/pro AV. Haha.

EDIT: Just read your other responses. Seems I was right. I'm a Rane/Symetrix fan myself. Never used the Blu stuff. Been using the Rane a lot lately because of their slick web interface for end users.


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## motomech (Nov 12, 2014)

Mapletech
Does the HU supply full range to both front and rear speakers?
Thanks in advance.


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## Mapletech (Jun 20, 2014)

It does...with the caveat that that signal is EQ'd in the HU. When I was doing gain tweaking, I scoped the outputs of the amps, running just sine wave from an ipod app. There is a notable hump around 75Hz, but then a fairly steep rolloff below that. Didn't really look at how flat it was to the lowest frequencies, but those will likely need a decent boost to get 'flat'.
There's some other EQ work done too - I'll put that up once I get to tuning stage - hopefully next week.


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## KyleMDunn (Jan 27, 2009)

Any shots of the amp rack installed? That's probably one of the most compact amp racks I have seen that include a DSP - awesome work!


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## Lorin (May 5, 2011)

Thanks for posting. Ive seen very few highlander \ lexus suv builds such as this one (and mine). Not a ton of room to be had, good job incorporating into the rear well.


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## Mapletech (Jun 20, 2014)

Nope.
It was all working great - the spacing worked out perfectly...and then I had that 'awww crap' moment when I took it to get rustproofed and they sprayed the spot it was going into. Here I was thinking it'd be real cool to have it buried under plastic body parts such that nobody would see it unless they truly tore the vehicle apart. So considering that rustproofing is a yearly deal here, and the high-pressure nozzles they use, there's no way I could have kept it there and not have it destroyed.
So...it came apart and got installed in the utility area - pics of that coming soon. Not bad usage of space there, but not as pretty!


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## Mapletech (Jun 20, 2014)

OK - after a longer hiatus than anticipated, I'm nearing the finish line.

Next step was the speaker baffles. I tried a few ways to trace the OEM speakers, and this was what I found worked best. I clamped a small spotlight on the ceiling joist in my basement workshop pointed straight down, and turned out all the other lights. I also hung a plumb bob about 3" away, but directly in line with the center of the light, so I made sure wherever I traced was that same 3" ahead of the bob. The angle of the photo makes it look messed up, but it was dead-on.











Gee...had to tell why OEM speakers are crappy (and this just versus the relatively cheap JBL coax's for the rears)











After depth measurements , I worked out the spacing for the front 6.5's to be about 3/16" from the window glass, and just a hair over 1/4" from the grille plastic in the doors...not a lot of room to maneuver there! I use 13-ply birch - gotta go with what you know. So these are the pieces for the front baffles:











First fitting with notes scribbled on:



















Seems I didn't take any pictures of the rears yet - but they go in this weekend I hope.


Sub - here's where we start...











I need to keep the whole thing flush, so I couldn't use quite the same method I've typically seen here where the speaker ring is fiberglassed in place, and then the speaker is mounted in front of, or only slightly recessed into the ring. So after measurement of XMax, plus depth of the whole sub driver, here's what the whole baffle looks like:










The saw kerfs are to allow lots of adhesion to the fiberglass. 3 layers of 3/4", where the back most layer is recessed only 3/16".










Temporary mount for fitting:









Fitting test: This looks really off-kilter - it really wasn't.









Mold V1: (sorry for the focus)









Ready to get some layers added on, with a few brace sticks to hold & tweak the shape a bit









Back Shell built up:









And finally the back shell trimmed, baffle resin-ed to the base, and wire mesh to make the rest of the shape:









Fiberglass is now done, no pic yet - tommorrow I hope.


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## sirbOOm (Jan 24, 2013)

Interesting approach. Now you can navigate without gps or a map too. Haha


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## Mapletech (Jun 20, 2014)

Doors - typical stuff - starting with the rear:



















The covers are some 1/16" phenolic that I had (and SWMBO always asks why I keep all this stuff!?!) It was flexible enough to curve a bit as long as you're careful.










Front Driver door:











Fitting of MLV, rear door. The cold weather hit before I could get to the fronts - spring project! By the time I got this squeezed in, I got some clicking when the window goes up/down. I think the screw tips from the hole covers are touching the mechanisms now...spring project #2!


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## Mapletech (Jun 20, 2014)

Finally - electronics day!
Started with prepping the controls for the Helix. I ran a Cat-5 from the DSP to the dash, and the highlander has some perfect knockouts in the dash for mounting controls (at least when you don't get the top of the line model).
The piece at the bottom goes to the Helix, and then the one at the top splits the wires to the main / sub controls - there are 2x 3-pins at the back of it - blue is for bass.










Finding nice small knobs can be a real pain - but I like the look of these:









Carving out the back was also a bit of fun with the dremel.










While i was at it, I added an LED light strip to the underside of the 'shelf' that the highlander has. It's a great stash spot, but completely dark at night. fortunately there was decent space on top of the plastic to mount the controls. I tore the guts out of a standard LED dimmer, replaced the rotary control with a slide (at far left), and then just velcroed the dimmer to the shelf cover. The relay takes the ACC trigger from the radio to turn the lights on. So - 1x dimmer - $15. 4' LED flex strip - $20. Buying the medium intensity strip and finding out it's stupidly too bright....priceless!! Now I have to go back and tweak the dimmer...



















Finally - the HU comes out. I just used a piece of shielded Cat-6 for the 4 speaker runs. The Helix has a 32-ohm impedance on the high-level inputs, so current is a non-issue. Unfortunately the Antenna / remote-turn-on wire included with the wire kit was literally 3" too short!



















And a forewarning to any other highlander and presumably Rav-4, etc. owner - the ANTenna connector at the back of the HU is NOT pinned out in the connector. It does work...it just doesn't have any wire coming out of the harness. Since I was doing trailer hitch wiring as well, I got lucky and found that the 4-pin connector at the rear for standard 4-pin flat trailer hookup has the same pins. (I'm doing 7-pin) So I just snipped that connector off and stole one of the pins from it. If this applies to you, PM me and I'll give you more info.


Completion pics coming shortly...


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## HondAudio (Oct 19, 2006)

How sturdy is that wire mesh you used for the subwoofer? Does it substitute for a few layers of fiberglass, or is it for form only?


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## Mapletech (Jun 20, 2014)

For form. I got the idea from another build on here.
Doing the first layer was tricky - the mesh has almost no 'stick factor' for the fiberglass, and as soon as I tried to bend it around the corners the other side would lift or move too much. So I pulled that layer off before it dried on.
I then cut some strips of the thin matting barely an inch wide, and applied those just around the 3 sides of the wood frame. This gave me a better anchor for the next layer, which was the heavy matting cut-to-size for each flat area. This way I ended up with corners that just met up. I laid the resin on thick for that layer and it stuck fairly well to the mesh (probably a few drips inside but that doesn't matter). After a quick sand of that layer to clean up the edges, I had enough sticky factor to wrap thin pieces around as desired. Finally, I let the last few layers of glass mat overhang the edges a bit, and then sat the whole thing on such angles that I could pour a bead of resin so as to 'caulk' the corners / joints to the backbox and let the resin seep into all those kerf cuts.


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## reithi (Mar 29, 2012)

The front speaker baffles are awesome.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## HondAudio (Oct 19, 2006)

Mapletech said:


> For form. I got the idea from another build on here.
> Doing the first layer was tricky - the mesh has almost no 'stick factor' for the fiberglass, and as soon as I tried to bend it around the corners the other side would lift or move too much. So I pulled that layer off before it dried on.
> I then cut some strips of the thin matting barely an inch wide, and applied those just around the 3 sides of the wood frame. This gave me a better anchor for the next layer, which was the heavy matting cut-to-size for each flat area. This way I ended up with corners that just met up. I laid the resin on thick for that layer and it stuck fairly well to the mesh (probably a few drips inside but that doesn't matter). After a quick sand of that layer to clean up the edges, I had enough sticky factor to wrap thin pieces around as desired. Finally, I let the last few layers of glass mat overhang the edges a bit, and then sat the whole thing on such angles that I could pour a bead of resin so as to 'caulk' the corners / joints to the backbox and let the resin seep into all those kerf cuts.


Were you using chopmat, or the woven variety?


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## Mapletech (Jun 20, 2014)

2 types:
Heavy stuff for buildup was a 2-layer - top was squarely woven, about 1/8" "strands", bonded to a quasi-chopped layer. It was probably 3/32nds thick when dry.
Then I also had some nicely fine woven stuff - it worked almost like an actual fabric, and apparently it's about 30% stiffer per thickness. So I started / finished, and occasionally added a layer of this.


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## motomech (Nov 12, 2014)

Mapeltech
I hope to start on my install this Friday.
Two questions.
1. Where (on the firewall) did you pass the amp power cable through?
2. How are you controlling the cooling fan on your amp rack?
Thank you in advance!


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## Mapletech (Jun 20, 2014)

1) I went through the grommet on the passenger side of the firewall. Even though all of the factory wire goes thru the center of it, you'll also see that they passed an air hose through one of the side 'ribs'. I just poked a wooden BBQ skewer through another of the side ribs to get my direction, and widened the hole a bit with a jacknife. It adds some length, but the driver's side grommet was just too hard to get to - this one's easy. Also, there's a nice cable bundle about 8" back on the underside of the firewall (sort of under the wipers) that runs the full width - perfect for securing the cross-engine-bay run. I think total length was 24'. It turned out to be a good idea to run it back on the passenger side anyhow - the space under the trim for extra wire is pretty tight, and the drivers side was full with the returns from the HU plus control from the knobs in one bundle, and the new speaker lines in another.
2) I ran the ANT wire from the HU to the coil of a relay - you can see it on the top circuit board. That relay then had a +12V switched (and fused) to drive the fans and the REM-IN's. I have no idea how much current the ANT line will drive, but this way it keeps it to a bare minimum, and isolates it from any electrical noise from the fans.


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## slickrock22 (Apr 22, 2015)

I am dying to know how this sounds. Is it amazing?


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## Phil Indeblanc (May 27, 2015)

Wow a pretty amazing job!

I too have a 14 HL with basic HU. I'm interested in hearing how things went./?

Would also like to know how you covered up the door holes with those pieces of something. I read the thread and I wasn't sure about what they are.
How do you have them screwed to hold in place? back metal clip? And the material around it is some black rubber something to make a seal?

That amp/rack is some piece of work! I'm just putting the amps under one of the chairs, likely front. That's the extend of my amp rack! Any place else you have to do what you did to keep it all out of the way.

That is the same spot I want to have a box for my sub. I have a 10" Kappa Infinity DVCoil VQ sub/400w rms. I have to look up what spacing is recommended for it.

if anyone else is gonna make this box...Make one for me!


The other thing I was wondering is how you went with 8Ohm speakers? How will that work with the amp? I think I should read up on this more, but I thought 8ohms are more effecient but I think draw more power, and so they are not well suited for cars, or something like that? Or are you running 2 drivers in parallel? Otherwise isn't there a voltage spike?
Well...how did things go?


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