# Completion of SQ Project - 2013 Scion FR-S :)



## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

Had a bit of time to get one more simple project done while we are working on two big projects. 

This one was a bit of a unique situation as the customer already had a build started, but wanted to switch things up and utilize our experience in building sq cars, as well as our familiarity with the FT86 platform.

The previous install wasn't terrible, but being that we are so anal about what leaves our hands, we ended up taking everything back out and redoing the whole build...save for the main power cable 

goals:

1. achieve a nice level of sound quality throughout

2. maintain the design from the previous install, namely, the amps under the seats and incorporate a DSP and wire for fully active power scheme.

3. keep a relatively low profile upfront.

the one part that is not fully complete with the build is that the customer is waiting on two custom fabbed side enclosures for the car, but the vendor has not yet shipped them, so currently, the car is rollowing with 2 JL audio 10w6v3s in a square dual chamber ealed enclosure in the trunk. 

lets get started.

the signal starts with a kenwood DNN990HD double din unit, it is the newer generation of kenwood that is andriod enabled. i wish i had more time to play with it but was too busy working on the car hehe. it was previously installed, we simply cleaned up the wiring behind the dash a bit and reoganized things:



















the system uses a mosconi 6ot8 DSP for tuning, so it can be programmed from the front seat via a BT enabled laptop:










the front stage consists of a set of Hybrid Audio Legatia three way compoents. the L6SE was installed into the stock location. The previous installer had soundproofed the outter door skin and inner door skin. we added a foam barrier to the outter door skin, some blackhole tiles to the outter skin, and also built a new spacer baffle match routed from the oem speaker, as the previous one was looking a bit ragged:























































we also fully sound proofed the plastic door cars with STP gold damper:





































the L3V2 midrange went into the stock location on top of the dash. borrowing a technique i saw from the ft86 forums, i first ground down the plastic on the bottom of the grille, and fabricated two mounting rings from black acrylic. this allows me to tap the holes so i can bolt the speakers in from the bottom:










the ring baffles were then secured to the grilles using HD plastic weld epoxy:










the l3v2s were then bolted in place with bolts, washers and lock washers:










and the entire panel was sound proofed. a piece of black foam was fit inside the tweeter hole and then sound proofed over so you cant see any random things through the empty grille:










then two midranges were then wired up and installed:



















for the L1pro radiator tweeter, i went with A pillar mounting. having just recently completed a FR-S with A pillars, drawing from my past experience with this tweeter, as well as the csutomer desire to try and keep things low key, i went with off axis design that pushes the tweeter as far foward as possible, aimed high to minimze reflections off the shroud. from past experience this gets me a nice high stage and imaging with good center focus. 

so here are the completed A pillars with the L1 tweeters:























































a few build pics of the pillar pods.

first, the pillars were rough sanded, and then rings aimed and attached:



















mold cloth was pulled, resin applied, allowed to cure, and then reinforced from the inside via the duraglass/resin mixture, and then any unneeded excess material trimmed off:










filler was then applied and the entire shape sanded smooth:



















factory matching vinyl was then used to wrap the pillars:










and the hybrid tweeters installed:



















a final look at the entire front stage:


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

onto some wiring pics...which incidentally for this car, is virtually all the rest of the build log, since the amps were installed under the seats 

but before any of that, Joey fabricated a metal bracket to solidly mount a fuse holder. replacing an abs bracket the previous installer used:





































next comes the amps. the car came to us running two JL audio HD900/5 5 channel amps. one amp was installed under each seat. after some discussion, we decided this was an ideal scenario to do left and right amps. One amp for one side of the car. 

the previous install had a piece of wood board under neath the carpet, andt he amp simply secrewed down into it, sandwiching the carpet. This is not a bad technique, but with how thin and flimsy the FR-S's carpet is, this resulted in a lot of movement on the amps and the customer reported that on spirit driving, the amp would frequently hit the underside of the seats.

so, we stripped the entire interior and bolted two boards under each seat. they are secured via 4 1/4-20 rivet nuts each, the board on the passenger side is slightly wider to accomodate the distribution block:




























next come a series of wiring pics as they run through out the car. it may be a bit hard to explain so here is a basic layout of what went on. but all the previous wiring was removed and most of it was not used as the new L/R configuration meant virtually none of the wires were long enough.

so from the headunit: a single pair of rcas goes to the back and inputs into the mosconi DSP. 

from there on, four pairs of rcas come out, each pair is split left and right completely, so four sets of left rcas went back up the driver side to the driver side (left side) amp, which four sets of right rcas went tot he passenger side amp. wiring for the speakers was actually pretty straightfoweard, as each amp connected to that side's speakers.

but through it all, all the wiring is zipted every few inches and secured to the car, eithre to the factory looms, to the boards, via quiet tape or ziptie mounts. the amps were then wired up to make sure all the cables fit:



























































































after this was done, the amps were unplugged, removed, and the factory carpet reinstalled. the amps were then secured in place on the boards, and the terminals and rca cables replugged in:





































and how they look with the factory floor mat in place:



















the power layout is this. each mid and tweeter receives 100 watts per driver from the front channels of the 900/5, the midbass gets 200 watts from the rear channels bridged, while the sub gets 500 watts per.

another request the customer had was to use a single JL bass knob to control both amps. so we got a cable and splitter, crimmed on our own ends, and installed his bass knob in his armrest area:


















the two amps were gain matched so this actually works out quite well.

the final piece to the puzzle was mounting the Mosconi 6ot8 DSP. Joey fabricated two metal brackets:










and i wired up the DSP in the stock amp location:



















so thats it 

this could be one of the best sounding FR-S we have built (8 so far) the imaging is very nice, with good depth and width. heigh is halfway between the windshield and the dash. and the bass, despite being able to get very loud, blends in very well. the car has pretty good toanlity out of the box and the 4 hours i spent tuning it got me a pretty good initial tune. 

I cant wait for his subboxes to get in so we can pop those in and make a readjustment of the subs if need be.

overall, a very enjoyable project.

cheers,

Bing


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## Tonyguy (Nov 15, 2007)

Love it! Awesome work once again!


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## ANT (Oct 15, 2005)

Looking professional as always

ANT


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## deaddawg (Jan 12, 2009)

I am so happy this is completed !

Started here


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## Bluenote (Aug 29, 2008)

Magnifique'!!! w/ Xtra Cheese!


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## HondAudio (Oct 19, 2006)

That thing with the dashboard grills:

why didn't I think of that?? 

He's done it again, folks!


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

HondAudio said:


> That thing with the dashboard grills:
> 
> why didn't I think of that??
> 
> He's done it again, folks!


haha, thanks, but as mentioned, i didnt think of it, i copied it wholesale from someone else who posted up a build log on the ft86 forums


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## koteman (Apr 20, 2013)

Love it can't wait to get my other amps and dsp. Do the a pillar tweeters sound a lot different then using the stock location and aiming like I did 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 4 Beta


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## kmbkk (Jun 11, 2011)

koteman said:


> Love it can't wait to get my other amps and dsp. Do the a pillar tweeters sound a lot different then using the stock location and aiming like I did
> 
> Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 4 Beta


I'm definitely interestd in this as well!


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

i really dont like how the stock location puts the tweeter so far in board. having done quite a few FR-S with the tweeter in the stock mid location, compared to this one, bearing in mind that we are talking about two way vs three way.

i feel that the center image is more focused, and width is better and also looks to be easier to tune tonality wise (but agian, this is a different speaker)

but honestly, if it was my car, i 'd put at least the tweet on the a pillar every time.

b


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## kmbkk (Jun 11, 2011)

If you don't mind me asking, where did you aim the tweeters? It's a little hard for me to tell from the pictures.


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## sirbOOm (Jan 24, 2013)

What are you using for the brackets? Are you welding, what metal bending technique, etc.? If I need to make a bracket, I need to carve something like a sculptor or a human 3D printer out of a block of plastic if it's going inside of the car but that takes a ton of time (just don't like pieces of plastic stuck together, never holds). Not good with metal (other than cutting it) myself... would be cool to see a demo. Probably simple but hey...


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## [email protected] (Nov 7, 2010)

I keep 1/2", 3/4", and 1" flatbar in stock that I use for making brackets. Bending techniques usually involve a vise and a hammer or some sort of jig I setup on the strongarm table. Any stuff other than simple bends gets welded together.

Demo... hmm.....




sirbOOm said:


> What are you using for the brackets? Are you welding, what metal bending technique, etc.? If I need to make a bracket, I need to carve something like a sculptor or a human 3D printer out of a block of plastic if it's going inside of the car but that takes a ton of time (just don't like pieces of plastic stuck together, never holds). Not good with metal (other than cutting it) myself... would be cool to see a demo. Probably simple but hey...


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## quietfly (Mar 23, 2011)

[email protected] said:


> I keep 1/2", 3/4", and 1" flatbar in stock that I use for making brackets. Bending techniques usually involve a vise and a hammer or some sort of jig I setup on the strongarm table. Any stuff other than simple bends gets welded together.
> 
> Demo... hmm.....


.

Welding demo with some DUBSTEP in the background would ROCK.... 
LOL

great job as usual guys, when i finally win powerball, i'm coming straight to you for a install!!! :laugh:


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## edikp (Jun 16, 2011)

Superb installation. Great work!


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## bicycle_wreck (Sep 1, 2011)

Such a clean and well thought out install. Great job.


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## sydmonster (Oct 5, 2009)

HAT Legatia SE 3 way combo!!! That is lush! This would be one fun filled car to listen and drive!!

Great SIS install work!


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## Voorttimies (Mar 19, 2011)

Very nice looking install. Clean and simple. Although "simple" looks often tends to be very time consuming and not exactly simple or straightforward to create, at least in my experience. 

So this car is what we would call a Toyota GT86 here across the pond, correct? The same as Subaru BRZ?


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## kmbkk (Jun 11, 2011)

Yes it is. Toyota branded it a Scion in the U.S. for some reason.


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## cnut334 (Oct 17, 2009)

Good work again gents.


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

sorry was too busy to answer the aiming question. 

basically going off my past experience, the were aimed relatively off axis, but up so its not reflecting too much off the instrument shroud...to me that is the DEVIL! 

b


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## Deadpool_25 (Apr 2, 2010)

I love this build. I should have bought an FR-S or BRZ when I was car shopping a couple months ago. I let an annoying few salesmen piss me off enough to get the Sonata. Now I'm thinking I'm going to bite the bullet and get one.

Hmm...maybe a drive out to Cali from Phoenix? I can use it as an excuse to visit Mom in Sacramento.


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

we would love to have ya...but please get a BR-Z, all 8 we have done have been FR-Ss


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## Deadpool_25 (Apr 2, 2010)

simplicityinsound said:


> we would love to have ya...but please get a BR-Z, all 8 we have done have been FR-Ss


Haha. Yeah the FR-S seems to be selling way better than the BRZ. I think I read that was the plan from both companies, but I'm not sure if that was a joke or just misinformation.


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## captainobvious (Mar 11, 2006)

Lower price and "percieved" better reliability because of the name. Personally, I don't buy into Toyota being more reliable than Subaru...or Mazda for that matter. Gotta love that marketing game 

Another fantastic build gents, way to go !


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## Deadpool_25 (Apr 2, 2010)

So I am very probably going to get the Scion version.  I actually like its front bumper a little better and don't need the Navi, push button start, or Alcantara that's standard in the BRZ Limited (I'd get the Limited if I went with the BRZ). I'd also rather not have that rear spoiler...also standard on the Limited.

Still...do you want to build me some A-pillars? LOL


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## kmbkk (Jun 11, 2011)

I agree with you, however HIDs and fog lights are nice.


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

i'd rather do the entire car 

small things like A pillars is one of those really strange things for us, we are so busy with full projects often its hard to find the time (or motivation) after a long day sanding and wiring to sit down and sand and sand some more  

but hit me up with a PM when you are ready, maybe i will be in the middle of doing my own car and have a lil extra free time


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## Deadpool_25 (Apr 2, 2010)

kmbkk said:


> I agree with you, however HIDs and fog lights are nice.


Agreed. But those are easy aftermarket upgrades.  With that said it's not quite decided yet. 



simplicityinsound said:


> i'd rather do the entire car
> 
> small things like A pillars is one of those really strange things for us, we are so busy with full projects often its hard to find the time (or motivation) after a long day sanding and wiring to sit down and sand and sand some more
> 
> but hit me up with a PM when you are ready, maybe i will be in the middle of doing my own car and have a lil extra free time


Understandable.  I will ask again when I'm ready to get them done. Worst case, I hit up the fabrication forum and give it a go myself. I might get it right after 3 or 4 tries. Lol


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## kmbkk (Jun 11, 2011)

Deadpool_25 said:


> Agreed. But those are easy aftermarket upgrades.  With that said it's not quite decided yet.
> 
> 
> 
> Understandable.  I will ask again when I'm ready to get them done. Worst case, I hit up the fabrication forum and give it a go myself. I might get it right after 3 or 4 tries. Lol


Oh, I know. I added both to my FR-S, in addition to several other mods. The main thing I'd like to have from the BRZ is the smart entry/push button start, but it can be added as well. As for A-pillars, I did my first pair 2 years ago for a tC. They turned out really well & weren't too difficult to do. It takes time and patience, though. I'm not sure if I'll do mine or not, as lack of time is a problem for me. Good luck with your decision, because you can't go wrong with either!:2thumbsup:


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

i dont mean to be picky - but isnt the point of a ring radiator speaker to have good on-axis response, and bad off axis response to help mitigate reflections in the off axis on hard surfaces like windows and dashboards?










i did find this post by buwalda - after reviewing the speakers off axis plot above i dont know what to think.

Ring Radiators, Domes, and on/off axis mounting [Archive] - Hybrid Audio Technologies Forum


but bing, what do you think. your opinnion is highly regarded to me 

//edit

oh, i just realized that graph goes WAY beond 20khz lol... so these things really have that good of a response?


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

i remember the first time i worked with these tweeters i struggled with the same thing, i talked to Scott, and he assured me it does good off axis. i forgot what he told me exactly but it was probably similar backed up by those graphs. 

i ended up going about 45 degress off axis, and wheni put it on the rta, i was pretty delighted, i mean the only real thing is a steeper drop off at the top end, which is common to all tweeters that i have used when going off axis, but truth be told, maybe its ears, i actually prefer it. i do give it a slight boost uptop at 16khz (used to 16khz high shelf with the zapcos) 

so yeah IMO, these work pretty good off axis. but again, wire up your own and let your own ears decide. thats what i did on the first one, a STI from about 2 or 3 years ago>? i placed them on towels and sat them on the corner, and it seemed okay to my ears so i went with the off axis design, which to me looks a whole lot better


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## Deadpool_25 (Apr 2, 2010)

simplicityinsound said:


> we would love to have ya...but please get a BR-Z, all 8 we have done have been FR-Ss


Well, I ended up getting a BRZ after all.  I'm planning a relatively simple install. Nothing too crazy: amps in the spare well, midbasses in doors, mids in stock dash locations, tweeters in a-pillars. Still working on the plan for subs.



kmbkk said:


> Oh, I know. I added both to my FR-S, in addition to several other mods. The main thing I'd like to have from the BRZ is the smart entry/push button start, but it can be added as well. As for A-pillars, I did my first pair 2 years ago for a tC. They turned out really well & weren't too difficult to do. It takes time and patience, though. I'm not sure if I'll do mine or not, as lack of time is a problem for me. Good luck with your decision, because you can't go wrong with either!:2thumbsup:


As you already know, I did get the BRZ. You were totally right about the smart entry and push button start. I like those more than I realized I would. The stock HIDs and fogs are definitely nice. All in all, I'm very happy with it.


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## quality_sound (Dec 25, 2005)

Hey Bing,

I know this install is a little older, but do you remember how much extra room, if any, you had under the seats? I like the HDs but I hate those connectors and I always had a soft turn-off pop so I want to explore other options.


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## deaddawg (Jan 12, 2009)

quality_sound said:


> Hey Bing,
> 
> I know this install is a little older, but do you remember how much extra room, if any, you had under the seats? I like the HDs but I hate those connectors and I always had a soft turn-off pop so I want to explore other options.


Here is a pic from the back, the amp is essentially touching the seat because I have the seat all the way down.



I tried to take a pic from the front with the seat back in driving position, but it is hard to really see anything.


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## quality_sound (Dec 25, 2005)

Did you ever have any overheating issues? I'm debating underwear or under the front part of the trunk floor. I won't give up the spare so I need to get creative. 

Thanks


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## deaddawg (Jan 12, 2009)

quality_sound said:


> Did you ever have any overheating issues? I'm debating underwear or under the front part of the trunk floor. I won't give up the spare so I need to get creative.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> ...


Sorry for delay, I need to turn on notifications 

No, I have never had an overheating issue. I have run the system pretty high for multiple hour drives without issue. I did have issues running dual 60A fuses to power the pair (900/5 recommended size), and ended up running dual 80A and have had no issues since.


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## cdaburnerb (May 29, 2019)

Good stuff in here dude.


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