# FRS SQ build - HAT Clarus + Si Mag v4



## theRESONANCE (Aug 28, 2008)

Hello all ! 
I started a thread on a different FRS forum, but being that many individuals who own FRS' aren't interested in audio; I figured I'd relocate my build log to this forum to share with individuals who actually care and can give me valid input!

Before things ramp up, I figured I would start a build thread to track my progress as the install goes. My goal is to upgrade the stock audio of the FRS. I drive the car up to Canada at least every other weekend to visit my fiance, making long commutes very brutal with the stock setup.

Some background on the car... It's Keith's KM4SH #0002. I flew down August of 2015 from SEA -> PHX, and road tripped it back up here. Since then I haven't done much to the car besides, well, daily drive it. I've put roughly 8k miles since then.. The car's been to SEMA 3 times, so i do my best to take car of it!

Since it's on bags, commuting up and down Downtown Seattle hills is actually possible! Not to mention the Washington State Ferry I use at least 4 times a month... You're getting the point... Air bags are essential to my commute!

What's in the car:


> KM4SH #0002 Widebody, first in U.S., second in the world after Kei Miura's FR-S
> 300 whp on Mustang dyno
> Innovate supercharger
> 69mm pulley
> ...


For more info on the car's lifelog, visit this speedhunter's archive!
Project ZN6 - Speedhunters











A few pics of the roadtrip back home. First picture is car fully raised.
























On to the next story... plan is to install a 'simple' active 2-way front stage with a single subwoofer to fill the lows. While I am at it, I will be deadening the entire car with proper treatment, installing a seperate backup/front camera system, and re-integrating my dashcams + radar detector (Passport Escort Max)

Following gear:
-Deadening treatment: MLV, CCF, CLD
-Front Stage: HAT C62-1
-Subwoofer: 12" SI Mag V4 D2
-Headunit: Pioneer DEH-80PRS
-Amplifier: Alpine PDX-V9 (5 channel, 500w sub, 100x4 to front stage)

I am currently renting a space by my work...luckily I was able to persuade my roommate to give me the garage. It isn't much, but should be just fine for what I'll be doing.

More to follow once gear comes in.

Here's my work space, and last wash before interior surgery.


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## theRESONANCE (Aug 28, 2008)

*Day one *
Bulk of the interior was removed. This car is really the easiest thing in the world. Can't believe it. Everything in this car was made to be modified/gutted. Got practically everything out of the car in a little under 3 hours, and that's with me taking my time making sure none of the pieces were damaged/misplaced (bolts,tabs). All I have left are the seats, floor carpet, and the driver side door. Should take my about 30 more minutes to get all those pieces out. Upon removal of some of the interior parts, I began to uncover a lot of OEM + other wires previously ran. This is what used to be in the car... All of the gear was removed by the time it came into my ownership. But that's okay, I was never a fan of Memphis.






















Sad to say, while it really looks great with all of the interior panels/carpet overlay on; once removed I was actually quite disappointed at how the wires were ran. Unorganized and all over the place.. Yeah, its probably my OCD kicking in (electrical engineer undergrad); but for a show car I would've expected things to be bundled more carefully and methodically. I also discovered a few spots where CLD was previously laid down. It was laid down underneath the two rear bucket seats, and underneath the spare tire. Not really sure why these specific locations, as CLD is really meant to deaden rattles as opposed to acoustics. The CLD looks like its sort of peeling off, and could really use reapplication. I won't criticize the brand too much, as I know the car must have sat in some serious Arizona heat.
















​

I didn't realize i lacked an E10 torx socket; quickly ordered one on amazon, should be here friday. A lot of my misc. parts are also coming in...(zipties, electrical tape, heatshrink, wires, etc). Stay tuned. Hopefully I get a hold of a better camera to track my progress.

















​
Outstanding questions:
-Best way to mount tweeters...
-How to mount MLV on vertical surfaces?
-How and where should the subwoofer be mounted? I wanted to place a backslanted 12" sealed enclosure placed in the trunk, facing the trunk...But the height clearance in the trunk from the trunk floor to the rear deck at its most constricted point is roughly 12-13".... This limits my idea of having a vertical facing subwoofer pointed to the trunk. What I could do instead is have it seated on the rear seats in the cabin (with seats down), facing the trunk... Placement is really just going to have to come down to experimentation. I have a spare box I'll use to see what works the best.


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## theRESONANCE (Aug 28, 2008)

More supplies arrived today..

Met a local FRS guy from NW fb group to purchase a velox lip... this thing is thick! Can't wait to finish aero on the car.. Plan is to also pair a velox rear diffuser (non-aggressive) and the race upgrade for the front lip. I also have a bunch of "30k tune-up" things I want to do to the car. 

Backup camera







Front Velox lip splitter














​Knukonceptz package arrived. I ordered 3 pairs of their basic RCA cables, in 5 meter lengths... Was only 5 bucks a pop. I'm not a strong believer in expensive ass cables. As long as there's moderately good shielding and the material qualities arent ****, it works for me. 

*KnuKonceptz order:*
-3x 5m RCA cables
-10ft Kolossus Flex 4 awg
-6x 4 awg crimp sleeves








Since none of the deadener arrived yet and the fact that I only had a couple of hours to work on the car prior to work, I knocked out what I could. Today I tackled the big 3 upgrade... basically involves upgrading the following wire connections:
-Positive battery to Alternator
-Negative battery to Chassis
-Engine ground to Chassis

I left all of the OEM cables in place and measured out the lengths I would need with the 4 awg wire. Measure, cut, strip, crimp terminal ends, heatshrink ends.

Battery before:









































Bear with me guys. Will try to get my dslr asap... and resize the photos better.


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## MantaOwner (May 15, 2007)

theRESONANCE said:


> .. -How and where should the subwoofer be mounted? ..


Is there any space available above/in front of the rear wheel arch for a fiberglass enclosure? In a Seat Ibiza coupe for example it looks like this:











Tõnu


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## captainobvious (Mar 11, 2006)

Nice car!

If you haven't already, do yourself a favor and read through my friend Jason's build log of his BRZ since it's essentially the same car. He has some great pics in there of the vehicle and the different iterations of builds in the car. It's a truly exceptional sounding vehicle with what he has done.

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...gallery/137652-2013-subaru-brz-build-log.html




-Steve


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## Zippy (Jul 21, 2013)

Also check out the NCSQ get together thread. Tons of killer installs. 

2016-spring-ncsq


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## theRESONANCE (Aug 28, 2008)

MantaOwner said:


> Is there any space available above/in front of the rear wheel arch for a fiberglass enclosure? In a Seat Ibiza coupe for example it looks like this:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks for links guys. Good inspiration.. Really glad to hear that the fr-s/brz are great platforms. I was really worried SQ wouldn't be that good in this car for some reason; probably due to the size constraints.

Tonu, I do have space behind the driver/passenger seat right in the location you are talking about; same as your ibiza coupe (btw very cool car). The issue is that the SI mag v4 needs ~.8-1 cu ft (up to 1.5 cu ft probably), and I dont think that there's really enough real estate just within the frame for me to fiberglass one into there. Its kind of silly because the si mag v4 is like a 6" mount depth, but requires such a larger volume relatively speaking for a shallow mount sub.

I was thinking of the possibility however, of leaving one or both of my rear seats out, and fiberglassing an enclosure into the empty bucket. Again not sure if there's enough volume there. I have also heard bad things about having the subwoofer located right in the cabin, as you aren't really benefiting from the gains which could be had from the trunk. That, and there would probably be a whole lot of reflection/cancellation going on throughout the cabin. Thoughts?


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## theRESONANCE (Aug 28, 2008)

This morning I removed the psgr seat and some of the tabs holding the carpet down. I am going to leave the driver seat on until I get the driver side door all deadened and finished up. The car has to be outside of the garage for the door clearance. I really wish this garage was 2-3 ft wider. With the entire interior ripped out... I should take this baby to the track !










Driver side door panel









Removed panel. I left the extruded butyl rope which normally holds the moisture guard onto the door on. Extra butyl here never hurt anybody. I left a portion of the moisture guard on where some oem CCF is already located. 









Going to swing by home depot in a bit to pick up a few more supplies
-Threaded inserts and machine screws
-Self tap metal screws
-Some perforated metal sheets or aluminum sheets to seal the door holes

Also going to look for this product:
24"x50' Surface Shield
Going to see if I can use it as a tracing film to cut MLV/CCF. Can also use it to trace template for the door holes.


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## Zippy (Jul 21, 2013)

theRESONANCE said:


> Thanks for links guys. Good inspiration.. Really glad to hear that the fr-s/brz are great platforms. I was really worried SQ wouldn't be that good in this car for some reason; probably due to the size constraints.
> 
> Tonu, I do have space behind the driver/passenger seat right in the location you are talking about; same as your ibiza coupe (btw very cool car). The issue is that the SI mag v4 needs ~.8-1 cu ft (up to 1.5 cu ft probably), and I dont think that there's really enough real estate just within the frame for me to fiberglass one into there. Its kind of silly because the si mag v4 is like a 6" mount depth, but requires such a larger volume relatively speaking for a shallow mount sub.
> 
> I was thinking of the possibility however, of leaving one or both of my rear seats out, and fiberglassing an enclosure into the empty bucket. Again not sure if there's enough volume there. I have also heard bad things about having the subwoofer located right in the cabin, as you aren't really benefiting from the gains which could be had from the trunk. That, and there would probably be a whole lot of reflection/cancellation going on throughout the cabin. Thoughts?


The sub in my BRZ is sealed up against a wall right behind the rear seat backs which fold down. There is some space for the sub to run with the seat back up. Jason's Sub is in the passenger foot well and a SI MK IV shallow. By not putting the sub in the trunk, you are reducing vibrations of the trunk. I have a little sound deadener on my trunk lid to keep my spoiler from vibrating a little and that's it for the entire trunk. My sub is anchored by my amp rack where the spare would be and a bracket to the rear deck area. Every sub I've heard in cabin has sounded really good. You'll be happy with it in cabin.


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## theRESONANCE (Aug 28, 2008)

Zippy said:


> The sub in my BRZ is sealed up against a wall right behind the rear seat backs which fold down. There is some space for the sub to run with the seat back up. Jason's Sub is in the passenger foot well and a SI MK IV shallow. By not putting the sub in the trunk, you are reducing vibrations of the trunk. I have a little sound deadener on my trunk lid to keep my spoiler from vibrating a little and that's it for the entire trunk. My sub is anchored by my amp rack where the spare would be and a bracket to the rear deck area. Every sub I've heard in cabin has sounded really good. You'll be happy with it in cabin.


Zippy, is your brz the blue one shown in the NCSQ thread you posted? Do you have a separate build log for your car? I'm curious to see what you did to it. Judging by the few pictures, that build looks incredible. All of those builds look great. How much volume is your enclosure ?


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## Zippy (Jul 21, 2013)

theRESONANCE said:


> Zippy, is your brz the blue one shown in the NCSQ thread you posted? Do you have a separate build log for your car? I'm curious to see what you did to it. Judging by the few pictures, that build looks incredible. All of those builds look great. How much volume is your enclosure ?


Yes, my BRZ is one of the two blue BRZs there. Jason's is the dark blue and mine the world rally blue. 

I do have a build thread, but the web server hosting the photos needs rebuilt. I'll see if I can set up a google doc share of the photos and PM you the link. Also, my build changed from the original. I'm using an iPad mini as my head unit with AirPlay to a Rainbow DSP 1.8 processor. The head unit I had is long gone. I'm using a parrot 9100 for Bluetooth calls. My tweeters got moved to A pillar and my mids are using the grills as the top for an enclosure on the dash. 

Both Jason and my BRZs have some similarities. We both moved tweeters to A pillars. Jason's A pillars are AMAZING IMO. Both our mids are re aimed. Jason's mids are better aimed than mine. I was not going to trim the vent ducts to get his aiming. Both our subs are in cabin. 

My sub is a Voce 12 in a 1 cuft sealed enclosure. 

My BRZ is getting the amps swapped out right now to 6 Bewith Accurate A-110S amps and a JL Slash 600/1. If the PS8 controller and Bluetooth module ever come in, I'll be swapping back to my PS8 as well.


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## theRESONANCE (Aug 28, 2008)

That would be awesome. Great set of gear you've chosen. If you don't mind me continuing to ask, where did you decide on mounting the amplifiers ?

I purchased an alpine PDX v9 which I was planning on putting on the rear trunk lid, however there's a local deal here for an audison LRx5.1k that would actually save me money switching over. Specs look a lot better, however the footprint is what would be more concerning. 
I'm going to grab some packing peanuts and mockup some 1 cu volume spaces in the car and see what looks like it'll work. My CLD tiles should be coming in today, so phase 1 of deadening will be this weekend.


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## Zippy (Jul 21, 2013)

theRESONANCE said:


> That would be awesome. Great set of gear you've chosen. If you don't mind me continuing to ask, where did you decide on mounting the amplifiers ?
> 
> I purchased an alpine PDX v9 which I was planning on putting on the rear trunk lid, however there's a local deal here for an audison LRx5.1k that would actually save me money switching over. Specs look a lot better, however the footprint is what would be more concerning.
> I'm going to grab some packing peanuts and mockup some 1 cu volume spaces in the car and see what looks like it'll work. My CLD tiles should be coming in today, so phase 1 of deadening will be this weekend.


The amps are under a cover plate/floor for my trunk in the spare well. I PM'd you a link to the photo's of my original build. That should give you a better idea of what I had originally. 

I know I'll get hassled for this by others, but.... If have room for Class AB amps, then get some. I know class D has come a long way and is really efficient and small, but to me it sounds very mechanical and not musical. I viewed my Hertz HCP4 amps as the weak part of my original install in my BRZ and am replacing them. I run old Rockford Fosgate amps in my RAV4 and they are great class AB amps for the money. Rockford still makes some power series Class AB. The T600-4 is a 4 channel Class AB amp rated 100x4 that will be closer to 150x4 actual power at 4 ohms. If you can get a better deal on a different brand, then do it. I just recommend AB over D.


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## theRESONANCE (Aug 28, 2008)

Yeah.. Wish I could spare the footprint.. I decided not to grab the audison. Great deal, but just don't have the spare space. I daily drive the car and always have a bunch of stuff in the trunk (luggage, toolset, spare supercharger belts+oil). I also want to retain my spare tire. 
I just realized however, that in my previous build I used a DLS a3 and a JL audio 300/2. I completely forgot I had them. They are at my parent's place collecting a nice dust layer. The DLS a3 i totally derped on, and I actually wired it in reverse polarity and blew some of the internal components (visually just looks like the caps). For some stupid reason, I had some wires in my previous build that were just miscolored, and I didn't double check prior to hooking it up. My ground wire was red and my live wire was black. I'm hoping to replace them and cross my fingers that it works. I will test the JL 300/2 once I get my alpine PDX amp though, and do some comparing between AB vs D class.

More on the progress
My deadener arrived..









Starting a mess in the living room.









Deadened the outer door panel close to 80% or more coverage. The inner door more staggered. Small pieces every couple of inches. I took the end of a screwdriver and tapped the panel, and added as necessary.









Started a bit of headliner as well. I tried to go light on the headliner, but its just such a thin piece. I started with a few squares here and there, but in the end really just ended up covering the whole thing.









I ordered a set of MDF speaker rings from amazon.com, they were 7 dollars. It sure as heck beats wasting my time setting everything up, and buying a large piece of MDF that I don't even need. Always double check measurements before you purchase! I was spot on, perfect fit.









Preparing the speaker ring, Pre-drilled and countersunk some holes. These will be for the self tapping screws that will mount the speaker ring to my door.









Since they're MDF, I sprayed them with a few coats of truckliner.









I put some weatherstrip tape along the rim of the speaker location. This is just to provide another layer of decoupling the speakers from the doors. I wasn't going to do this originally, but I was reading through the HAT clarus manual and it suggests that this is better. No idea how big of a difference it'll make, but heck, the tape is like 3$ a roll.









Speaker mounted on. Screws are zinc coated, so we're good !









After the adapters were mounted, I packed the rim of the adapters with some putty. I used duct seal compound.









I stuffed a bit of the duct seal putty behind the wires throughout the door, then used some duct tape to hold them against the door panel. I'm not relying on the duct tape to hold it onto the door, its really just there to help aid the CCF+MLV layer that will be added on top of it.









Both doors done. This pic was actually taken while I was on the Washington State Ferry. I had stuff to pick up on the Eastside of town therefore I brought all my tools with me. I only had time to do half of the headliner while I was at my rental. Since I had all of my tools and some material with me... I literally sat in my car, on the ferry, deadening the remaining half of the headliner. That was haggard as ****. But hey, No F's given. That ferry is an hour long each way!









Back to my parent's garage. This is spacious compared to my rental garage...









I wasn't kidding about my old amps sitting here collecting dust...









Dug through some more stuff in the garage and look what I recovered! My old SI MAG. Ready to pull and stick in my new build.
https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=8f37906b5374b9e7555d3fb5a47f610e&oe=57DB8C9B

Looking at my old gear made me go on a little hunt for my old build. Here's some old photos:

































Even found a pic with the box and my DIYMA R12! Man I shouldn't have gotten rid of it.









Check that fitment!









Even found an old picture of my old amp rack. Hey, Not bad! I was 16 for my first build.

















Sealing the doors is next !


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## theRESONANCE (Aug 28, 2008)

Sealing the doors !
I picked up this roll of 'Carpet shield' from Lowe's, this stuff is amazing. If you ever want to trace anything, pick this stuff up. It is just the right strength and tackiness for posting it up against vertical surfaces, whether they or flat or curved. To describe the strength, it's similar to the thickness of the OEM plastic moisture shields that we finddoor panels--only a little bit thicker, stronger, and slightly stretchy. It took my razor blade two scores to really cut it up. Its completely adhesive on one side, and is really easy to apply. Best part is it is extremely affordable. 50 feet roll cost me a little over 10$. Obviously I don't need this much, but I could really see this stuff being useful in the future.









Stuck it onto my door panel.. Free advertisement right here...









Sharpie it up.









Transfer the template to your material of choice and re apply


















Perfect fit.


















Stuck some more of the weatherstrip tape along the edge, again the idea is to decouple it from the metal to avoid any potential of causing a rattle.









Some self tapping metal screws and you're good to go.









Rinse and repeat for the rest of the door holes. This pic is before adding additional deadener and weatherstrip.









Door's complete









Had extra time so I treated the trunk. Went all out and even took off the trunk garnish and stuck a few pieces of deadener on that.









Now to wait for the rest of my stuff to come in..
-headunit, amp, MLV

Question for you guys, How do you guys go about attaching the MLV ?
I bought some hh-66 vinyl contact cement. I've heard about people using velcro strips, but they don't last that long, the adhesive on the vinyl melts off after a while. 
I was thinking about attaching the MLV to the CCF using the contact cement. Then the CCF to the metal using the adhesive on the CCF itself. 

Has anyone ever used some neodymium magnets on the doors? What about just screwing the suckers in?


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## Blu (Nov 3, 2008)

theRESONANCE said:


> Question for you guys, How do you guys go about attaching the MLV ?
> I bought some hh-66 vinyl contact cement. I've heard about people using velcro strips, but they don't last that long, the adhesive on the vinyl melts off after a while.


Sweet FRS! I look forward to seeing this install progress.

I bought my deadening supplies from Don at Sound Deadner Showdown - he's a great guy to deal with. He's on this site as well under the name "Rudeboy".

https://www.sounddeadenershowdown.com


I followed his tutorial (on the above site) to the letter and also used the industrial Velcro that he offers and it worked like a charm for me!

Hope this helps.

Cheers!
Charles


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## theRESONANCE (Aug 28, 2008)

Blu said:


> Sweet FRS! I look forward to seeing this install progress.
> 
> I bought my deadening supplies from Don at Sound Deadner Showdown - he's a great guy to deal with. He's on this site as well under the name "Rudeboy".
> 
> ...


I'll take a look through his instructionals again. Hoping my mlv will arrive sometime this week. Did you install.multiple layers of mlv ?

Hypothetical question for everyone as well.. What much more would I need to run a true 3way front stage ?
I was eyeing a set of legatia mids; I've heard great things about people having good results from the clarus mids and tweets paired with the legatia L3. (What about an L4 in the kicks even..)
Also saw a killer deal on a legatia l6v2,l3v2,l1pro set..

I guess I was pondering in my head if it would be plausible to use the pdx 4x100 to power tweets and midrange, and the jl audio 150x2 for midbass, since I have that amp sitting around. What I would be bottle necked at would be the headunit.. Network mode on the 80prs only really supports 2way+sub or 3way without sub.


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## Blu (Nov 3, 2008)

theRESONANCE said:


> I'll take a look through his instructionals again. Hoping my mlv will arrive sometime this week. Did you install.multiple layers of mlv ?


Here are a few photo's from my FRS door install.

Here is the MLV after test fit for the door:








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The MLV and Closed Cel Foam (glued together using the HH-66 vinyl adhesive) being test fit - you can see the windows cut in the CCF where the Velcro attached to the MLV is allowed to come through:








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And finally the finished two layer (CCF/MLV) attached to the door:








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The only area I doubled up the MLV was where where some of the wires and where the door handle cables came through.

Cheers!
Charles


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## theRESONANCE (Aug 28, 2008)

Blu said:


> Here are a few photo's from my FRS door install.
> 
> The only area I doubled up the MLV was where where some of the wires and where the door handle cables came through.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the pics charles. The fitup looks really good. Im thinking the CCF adhesive will be good enough to hold them up against the vertical wall. Might grab some velcro as well.

Some great weather over the weekend!









Today the driver seat went out, and so did the remained of the interior carpet.


















Remainder of the headliner deadened.









Started on the interior. Tiles spaced further out along the floor, not as important as the MLV will do the majority of the sound blocking here. Don't expect as much resonance along the floorboard.









Rear deck









Wheel well, you can see where the widebody flares were cut and welded on









Headunit arrived today.


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## capea4 (Sep 2, 2010)

those self tapping screws holding the plexi to the door may (will) rust, rot and make a mess of the attachment holes in the car. try to seal them with some rubberized underbody coating.


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## bertholomey (Dec 27, 2007)

Dropping in briefly while working :worried:

Love the car! I bet that is a blast to drive!!! 

These cars can be very good for audio - Zippy's car is a testament to that fact! 

I love that SI Mag! I really wish I hadn't sold mine - I loved that sub! That one would be a challenge in the footwell , but it would be an incredible sub to have in your car. Good choice of drivers as well......easy peasy would be to mount the tweeters where the stock mid range is - pointing up at the windshield - Bing has done that for customers. But if you are able to do pillars for tweets, and put midrange drivers (like the L4's) in the stock location, would give you some options. But like the old saying goes, more speakers, more problems (opportunities I like to say). More channels of DSP and amplification. 

You have some great guys here to bounce ideas off of. Great job on the deadener!


When you get things wrapped up - would be cool to add to the following thread.....didn't really catch on like I thought, but would be groovy to have your car included. 



BRZ / FRS Owners Unite! Thread


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## theRESONANCE (Aug 28, 2008)

capea4 said:


> those self tapping screws holding the plexi to the door may (will) rust, rot and make a mess of the attachment holes in the car. try to seal them with some rubberized underbody coating.


Hm.. yeah I completely missed that. I suppose I'll have to take the screws off and spray a couple shots of coating or put a bead of sealant. I have some plastidip lying around as well as a tube of silicon. I'll have to do that.. Shoot..thanks for the headsup!

@berth, its great fun to drive. It comes alive with e85, otherwise its actually in my opinion a little sluggish. The torque curve is a smooth 230ft lbs to the wheels all throughout the band which is great. I think I am going to buy a sealed box meanwhile and enjoy the car while I plan an alternative, more discrete plan of attack for mounting the sub. I've heard reflecting straight into the glass really hinders imaging. I'll try both locations and variations of directions.

Also think I'll bite what I can chew for now and keep with the 2way front. I didnt set myself up for success with the 80prs running 3way plus sub. Hindsight i think a dedicated DSP and stock headunit wouldve done the trick. 
I'll def check that FRS thread out, tonight I'll finish deadening car with clds, seal the door screws, and perhaps run some wires. This thing should be done by next week I'm hoping !


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## Bikerbrah (Dec 3, 2015)

SICK project


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## theRESONANCE (Aug 28, 2008)

Alpine PDX V9 just arrived. This thing has such a tiny footprint. My amp came in rated at 118 x 4. Not too bad I suppose, but I have seen them rated as high as 154 x 4 !









Started cleaning up the wires today, previous owner did not take the time to really plumb things nicely. Wires are all over the place, untaped, and scattered. Zipties, and a lot of patience..
Routing wires through the doors were really a pain in the butt. I struggled with the first door, but the second one was a bit easier. Oiling up the rubber boot really made things easy. I didn't even need to fish a hook through it.










RCA's were ran through the drivetrain hump then down through the driver's side. Power wire along the passenger side.



























Finished deadening the trunk as well.


















Wires ran for front and rear dashcam.


















RCA's and speaker wires finally done..









Here's a box full of crap I pulled out...









Wired up a relay to provide 12v power to backup cam with a signal from the reverse trigger wire.









Backup cam mounted on license plate









Stuck a couple pieces of CLD tiles and a layer of CCF. Opted not to drill a hole into the trunk garnish in case I end up replacing the camera in the future.









Relay's installed, harness and antenna adapter soldered up.









MLV comes in tomorrow. Real deadening begins!


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## Zippy (Jul 21, 2013)

Love the progress. Sound deadening the roof shows attention to detail. I cannot wait to see it finished. Keep going.


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## MantaOwner (May 15, 2007)

Zippy said:


> .. Sound deadening the roof shows attention to detail. ..


If you have already torn down the entire interior for deadening (floor, doors, side panels, trunk) then it's a small and logical extra step to do the roof.
I used to think that it's a difficult job to do the roof for some reason but on modern cars the headliner should be one solid piece more or less and come off quite easily like any other interior panel fastened with clips. I'm going to attack mine next week so we'll see how easy or difficult that really is.

Tõnu


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## theRESONANCE (Aug 28, 2008)

Thanks Zippy ! Its taking a lot longer than expected, but judging that its literally been a week since i've started; I think things are going pretty quick! 

Today I finished feeding the wires to the trunk lid...Left side I have the speaker wires + RCA's (there's a lot of them...) And on the right side I ran power/ground. I really learned the hard way here... It was a pain in the butt snaking the wires through the trunk boots to get them to the lid. I ended up doing hacking the OEM boot. I ended up using black silicon to patch it all up to make it water tight. It isn't pretty to say the least, but I'd rather have it be completely waterproof. I'll clean up the lines with an exacto knife once it cures.









Techflex bundled with high temp electric tape. The original boot was falling apart.


















MLV finally arrived. 


















Started laying CCF









The CCF is just the decoupling layer, so it can go in bits and pieces here and there.









Unfortunately I wont be home this weekend to work on the car, so things will have to pick back up on Monday.


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## theRESONANCE (Aug 28, 2008)

MantaOwner said:


> If you have already torn down the entire interior for deadening (floor, doors, side panels, trunk) then it's a small and logical extra step to do the roof.
> I used to think that it's a difficult job to do the roof for some reason but on modern cars the headliner should be one solid piece more or less and come off quite easily like any other interior panel fastened with clips. I'm going to attack mine next week so we'll see how easy or difficult that really is.
> 
> Tõnu


Exactly my thoughts, although I don't suspect that much noise to be coming from up there unless its raining. Due to this, I am really debating on what sort of deadener should be put up there in addition to the CLD tiles.
I don't want to buy thinsulate because I feel it is incredibly spendy for what it is. Sound deadener showdown recommends using this hydrophobic melamine foam; although I am not too familiar with how beneficial this would be. I know that melamine foam is typically used in studio / home theatre applications quite a bit to create panels across walls. 
Melamine foam can actually be bought for extremely low costs; its the same material as the magic eraser used for kitchen . I might pick up a few sheets and line the headliner + wheel well voids.


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## theRESONANCE (Aug 28, 2008)

Had a couple hours tonight. Started the MLV process, using 3m 90 spray adhesive. This stuff is super effective at bonding the MLV to metal/CCF... Even MLV to MLV. Screw the HH 66 stuff. 

This is after initial laydown; just trying to get the bulk of the area covered I will go in with strips to cover the seams. 









Covered up the void in the rear wheel well very well. About 3 layers on the wheel well itself, 1 layer surrounding it.









I'm going to have a ton of MLV left over, so I'll probably be double/triple layering the floor/drivetrain hump and wheel wells. With the spray adhesive, I'm able to lay this stuff down super quick. I suspect I'll be done with the entire deadning process by Wednesday hopefully... And get everything buttoned up by the end of the week.


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## captainobvious (Mar 11, 2006)

While the 3M Spray 90 adhesive is certainly easier, it doesn't hold up to heat nearly as well as some other adhesives. You'll be fine on floors, trunk and horizontal surfaces like that, but vertical surfaces like the doors and also in the headliner, you may want to use the HH66 cement. Those areas will be exposed to much more heat as well.

You always want the ccf to decouple the MLV from the metal as it should be a "floating" layer.

Nice job thus far!


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## theRESONANCE (Aug 28, 2008)

captainobvious said:


> While the 3M Spray 90 adhesive is certainly easier, it doesn't hold up to heat nearly as well as some other adhesives. You'll be fine on floors, trunk and horizontal surfaces like that, but vertical surfaces like the doors and also in the headliner, you may want to use the HH66 cement. Those areas will be exposed to much more heat as well.
> 
> You always want the ccf to decouple the MLV from the metal as it should be a "floating" layer.
> 
> Nice job thus far!


Gee that's a bit depressing. I looked up the tech specs on the 3m 90 prior to purchasing and I thought it would be good enough. Luckily the only vertical surface so far that was treated with it is the area above the wheel well. I have a few sheets of that hanging by 90 spray. Guess Ill have to see what else I could use to paste that **** on. The hh-66 was terrible on the doors, and really just kept on wanting to peel off. I must've used nearly 6 oz of the can on just the doors..

How about the weldwood contact cement spray ?? Has anyone got luck with that for high temp on vertical surfaces ?


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## theRESONANCE (Aug 28, 2008)

Update guys... MLV process is complete !
I used two cans of 3m 90 spray to adhere the majority of the vehicle; 90% of which is really just flat portions. With only 2oz left of my HH-66; I was actually able to seal probably 80% of the loose seams between MLV layers. I learned really that the trick is that really only a little drop of HH-66 is needed, a lot really goes a long way. Important part is really just to coat both sides you're planning on adhering. And I'll just say this again, dont waste it on coating the MLV to anything other than MLV to MLV. Hanging things on vertical surfaces; you're better off with the industrial velcro strips.



















Headunit was also installed today. I used some silicone to secure the coverplate of the dash trim to the metra kit as it was a bit loose. Also deadened the cubby and dash trim that were reinstalled. CCF layers also added on. I have quite a bit of extra material laying around so I dont feel bad wasting it here..


















Wires all tidy.. Made it a pretty tight wound to ensure nothing would rattle around behind the hu.



























Tomorrow I install front mids and doors. Also have the melanine coming in; ordered 100 magic eraser sponges that i'm pretty much going to stuff behind B and C pillars, rear deck, and wheel well voids.


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## Jscoyne2 (Oct 29, 2014)

Has any melamine testing been done?

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk


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## theRESONANCE (Aug 28, 2008)

Jscoyne2 said:


> Has any melamine testing been done?
> 
> Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk


Quite a bit. Melamine foam is used very commonly in studios and other industrial applications to treat acoustics. You can actually google 'melamine foam test'. There's a small study done by NASA as a first result. They tested variance thicknesses and combinations of other barriers with melamine.

Figured 100 sponges for 11$ would be a good test, I'll let you all know !


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## theRESONANCE (Aug 28, 2008)

Doors were treated with a few CLD tiles here and there, nothing crazy



























Strips of CCF along all the contact points of plastic to plastic. This was a big trouble area for rattles when the OEM speakers were in.


















Didn't take pictures, but installed a few spade connectors to the door wires and a layer of speaker gasket to seal the speakers into the baffle. Took a bit of trimming away at the mounting holes to get everything to fit just right.









Ran the mic, mounted to steering column for now.









Bag of melamine foam. I put one complete layer along the rear wheel well. Since I had so much I doubled up a couple of the portions facing to the cabin









Rear amp rack mounted back on the trunk









weather strip along perimeter of the amp









amp finally mounted up !









Same exact size as the memphis amps that the rack was made for... What are the odds..









Hooked up the RCAs, speaker wire, and power wire... Such a good feeling when everything turns on and you get sound on the first try.


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## bertholomey (Dec 27, 2007)

theRESONANCE said:


> Hooked up the RCAs, speaker wire, and power wire... Such a good feeling when everything turns on and you get sound on the first try.


You said something there my friend! Involuntary smile and everything!!!

Great progress - Finish line in sight!


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## captainobvious (Mar 11, 2006)

theRESONANCE said:


> Quite a bit. Melamine foam is used very commonly in studios and other industrial applications to treat acoustics. You can actually google 'melamine foam test'. There's a small study done by NASA as a first result. They tested variance thicknesses and combinations of other barriers with melamine.
> 
> Figured 100 sponges for 11$ would be a good test, I'll let you all know !



Do yourself a favor- grab some of this from home depot to use instead of sponges.

UltraTouch 16 in. x 48 in. Denim Insulation Multi-Purpose Roll (6-Pack)-60306-16482 - The Home Depot

Ultratouch recycled denim insulation by Bonded Logic. It's mold and mildew resistant and has a very good NRC coefficient so it's effective for absorbing high frequency content. It's also pretty cheap. That's $36 for a case of 6 rolls. They also sell it in individual rolls. The thicker it is, the more effective it will be. The more you compress it though, it lessens effectiveness. 

This stuff is great for filling cavities.


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## PUREAUDIO (Jun 16, 2008)

I might have missed it but what brand of CCF you using? Great build


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## PUREAUDIO (Jun 16, 2008)

theRESONANCE said:


> Gee that's a bit depressing. I looked up the tech specs on the 3m 90 prior to purchasing and I thought it would be good enough. Luckily the only vertical surface so far that was treated with it is the area above the wheel well. I have a few sheets of that hanging by 90 spray. Guess Ill have to see what else I could use to paste that **** on. The hh-66 was terrible on the doors, and really just kept on wanting to peel off. I must've used nearly 6 oz of the can on just the doors..
> 
> How about the weldwood contact cement spray ?? Has anyone got luck with that for high temp on vertical surfaces ?


I use DAP WELDWOOD HHR to do upohstety work . But i use a gun to spray larger areas and a small bush to do the smaller areas. Never had a issue here in S.Louisiana


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## theRESONANCE (Aug 28, 2008)

PUREAUDIO said:


> I might have missed it but what brand of CCF you using? Great build


I purchased the ccf and cld from amazon, brand is noico.

I put my interior back in over the past few days! Stuck the tweets on pillars with some 3m sticky tape just for temp and experimentation. I was wanting to drive the car this weekend, so haven't had any time to mess with the gains or much of the settings. Initially the tweets were extremely harsh; its been getting more tamed the more I play the speakers;

I'll post an update when I get everything more tuned in!


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## captainobvious (Mar 11, 2006)

EQ will help with that (any harshness you're finding). I've heard the Clarus before and they are nice. Once you EQ down any hot areas, you'll be loving them.


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## Coppertone (Oct 4, 2011)

^^^. Hey there young man, hopefully all is well with you. Op what you're doing so far is great. I'm hooing that you'll get out of this system all that you want of it. Keep posting and keep us informed.


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## theRESONANCE (Aug 28, 2008)

captainobvious said:


> EQ will help with that (any harshness you're finding). I've heard the Clarus before and they are nice. Once you EQ down any hot areas, you'll be loving them.


Yeah, I'm also really considering on ordering that bulk pack of ultra touch you linked me. Overall the car really benefited from the deadening treatment; It was raining very hard over the weekend during my long drive up. I was surprised that I could hardly hear the rain! Guess I did put a **** ton of CLD tiles on the roof. Didn't think the CLD would make that big of a difference.

I mounted the tweeters today. I am blown away at how good it all sounds already. I will be honest, I didn't spend a great deal of time experimenting different locations. I ended up using the angle mounts provided with the Clarus and faced each of the tweeters pointing towards the opposite headrest. 

Right now I have the midbass / tweets crossed at 4khz with a 12db slope overlap. The tweets are attenuated -3dB. I set the gains on the amp and have the gains on the mids turned about halfway up (I based it on 50/62 on the volume knob with a 1kHz -10dB test tone). I will probably go back and re adjust my gains to 55/62. I have the tweets basically set at zero gain on the amp... they are already plenty loud for me. Not sute if this is normal for an active setup, but it does make a lot of sense given the amp is rated at 120w x 4. We'll see how it all balances out once things get more 'broken in'. 

My initial impression of these speakers.. they are fricken awesome. They're detailed and articulate without sacrificing any sense of authority. I currently have the midbass highpassed at 63 Hz and they are taking it like a champ...Best part of being an stickler during the deadening process, zero rattles!



















Tomorrow the SI Mag gets mounted in the box and I'll work on its integration into the front stage. I'll also play around with the Auto EQ/TA and polarity swaps tomorrow. Any tips for tuning active for a first timer are welcomed.


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## Jscoyne2 (Oct 29, 2014)

So when you swapped out the oem hu for the 80prs. What did you have to do? There are like 6 connectors on that oem Hu. Did you just pull what you needed for 80 and tucked everything else in or? And what did u use for a screen for your back up camera? 

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk


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## solacedagony (May 18, 2006)

I'm also interested in the backup camera screen and camera quality.

Really thorough. Good combination of a fun car and a great audio setup.


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## captainobvious (Mar 11, 2006)

theRESONANCE said:


> My initial impression of these speakers.. they are fricken awesome. They're detailed and articulate without sacrificing any sense of authority. I currently have the midbass highpassed at 63 Hz and they are taking it like a champ...Best part of being an stickler during the deadening process, zero rattles!
> 
> 
> Tomorrow the SI Mag gets mounted in the box and I'll work on its integration into the front stage. I'll also play around with the Auto EQ/TA and polarity swaps tomorrow. Any tips for tuning active for a first timer are welcomed.


Awesome! Glad you're enjoying it already. Wait until you get that SI Mag installed to round out the bottom end. 

Initial crossovers sound decent. I might suggest trying a lower crossover point and a higher slope. Like 2.5Khz or 3khz at 24db and see what you think there as well. 


Once your gains are set for initial levels and it sounds balanced between left and right mostly (make sure you have any bass boost, eq, fader/balance, etc set to zero) then you should go to the step below:

For initial tuning, you can use this simple time alignment calculator: http://tracerite.com/calc.html

Use a measuring tape and measure from each speaker to the listening position right where your ears will be, then input those measurements into the calculator and have it calculate the amount of delay required to get it time aligned. This will be very close and should help tremendously. Caveat- make sure you click the button that says that it IS a Pioneer setup. Pioneer does their time alignment backwards from what everyone else does. Some add delay with each click, and some start with max delay and reduce delay with each click. 

After that, you can move on to doing some EQ. EQ allows you to do 2 things very well. First, it allows you to change the overall frequency response curve of your system. (Meaning, the overall sound- lacks bass? Add some bass, too bright?- Cut some high frequency)
The other thing it allows you to do is to get the LEFT side (all speakers on the left side of the car playing together) to closely match the sound of the RIGHT side speakers. Why is that important? Because if one side sounds different than the other and has peaks or dips that don't match up well, you will have soundstaging that pulls left or right and is not as coherent and focused. This is sometimes called "frequency dependent shift".

The simplest method for doing this is to burn yourself a cd that has 1/3 octave pink noise. As you go through each track, the goal is to have each track sound like it is emanating from the center of the soundstage. If it does not, you will use eq at that frequency to cut/boost on either side until it becomes centered.

Here's a quick tip for that- I like to adjust BOTH sides to get the change in place. For example, if I play a 1khz pink noise track and listen and I find that it sounds far to the right and not in the center of the soundstage, I will (a little at a time) CUT on the left side at 1khz and ADD on the right side at 1khz until it sounds centered.

After you go through all of the 1/3 octave tracks and they sound *centered*, the next thing you want to do is go back through them again and listen this time for overall *loudness*. They should sound a similar loudness to your ear with it sounding *very *slightly louder as you increase in frequency. (2.5khz will sound louder to you than 80hz for example). Now that left and right balance at each frequency is adjusted, you don't want to adjust them separately anymore, now you want to make the same adjustment up or down in level to both the left AND right at each frequency when you go through that way you are only affecting the overall level of that frequency and not the difference between right and left...make sense?

After you do those things, you should have a nice start and a more overall pleasing sound with better imaging.


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