# Rookie Silverado SQ Build



## Audio-Concepts (Mar 29, 2011)

Good afternoon ladies and gentleman. Ive been a follower for years, started a couple builds, but never finished (sold vehicles). Ive always considered myself more of a fabricator, with fairly limited knowledge of true sound quality. So for the last few years I tried to learn more and more and went to a couple SQ events to get a better listen to true SQ. All I can say is wow, I have a complete new appreciation for this genre. 

So that brings me to this. I have started a very basic, budget friendly SQ build in my daily driver. The tweeters I won at an SQ event (door prize), the amps are borrowed from a good friend (LSM) out of his collection of old school amps. So i have basically bought the radio, wiring and mids. 

So onto the build. 

*Vehicle: *
2008 Chevy Silverado Crew Cab

*Equipment:*
Pioneer AVH 4800 double din
Hybrid Audio Legatia L1V2 tweeters
Silver Flute 6.5" 4 ohm mids
Onyx Mobile Audio 12" sub
Soundstream D60 (tweeters)
Soundstream D100 (mids)
Soundstream D200 (sub)
Zapco 6ch DSP
Sky High OFC wiring


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## beak81champ (Oct 2, 2015)

Awesome! Back in the day, I had 3 of the D60's, 1 for mids/highs, and 2 strapped for subs. They absolutely rocked!!! Can't wait to see what you do with this!


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## Audio-Concepts (Mar 29, 2011)

Ive done little odds and ends to the truck from tinting the tail lights and third brake light and adding a tonneau cover. But you all prolly could care less about that, lol.

I started running my wiring and installed a 100 amp breaker under the hood. I also finished my tweeter pods which I fabricated using the trim pieces that cover the side view mirror bolts.

I choose these to use instead of my pillars because i wanted to keep everything fairly unnoticed, and more visually appealing. The shape of my dash also made it hard to keep the tweeters low and out of line of sight when on the pillars and keeping most obstructions out of the sound path.

so here are those updates.



these were built using PVC rings, dowels, and 3M 8115 panel bonding adhesive


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## Audio-Concepts (Mar 29, 2011)

Sorry for the crappy pics, phone camera has a crack on the lens

but the tweeter pods are painted semi gloss trim black to match the trim in the truck.

I will hopefully be starting the amp rack and sub enclosure after xmas.


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## Audio-Concepts (Mar 29, 2011)

beak81champ said:


> Awesome! Back in the day, I had 3 of the D60's, 1 for mids/highs, and 2 strapped for subs. They absolutely rocked!!! Can't wait to see what you do with this!


Thank you. Im looking forward to the learning curve. Just need to finish the build portion first.


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## Jheitt142 (Dec 7, 2011)

Those amps! And a serious score on winning those tweeters! Look forward to seeing more 

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk


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## Audio-Concepts (Mar 29, 2011)

street.terror said:


> Those amps! And a serious score on winning those tweeters! Look forward to seeing more
> 
> Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk


Yeah, never thought I'd win anything, let alone such great tweeters. I'm really looking forward to hearing these amps too.


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## beak81champ (Oct 2, 2015)

Looks like some really nice work, so far! Keep the pics and updates coming!


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## Audio-Concepts (Mar 29, 2011)

beak81champ said:


> Looks like some really nice work, so far! Keep the pics and updates coming!


Thank you! Updates may be fairly sparse for a couple weeks, xmas coming up gotta make sure kiddos are taken care of.


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## Audio-Concepts (Mar 29, 2011)

I ran the wires for the mids and tweeters through the factory boots and wired up the tweeters. I will be wiring up the mids when I make the mid baffles. Which will be in the next couple weeks when I build the amp rack and enclosure.


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## Audio-Concepts (Mar 29, 2011)

Part of my fabrication table showed up this past week. This should definitely help me out.


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## Mlarson67 (Jan 9, 2015)

Anything Jess-em makes is great stuff. I'm sure you'll love it. I have their fence and insert on my router setup and have been using it for about ten years. Wouldn't change a thing on their design


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## Audio-Concepts (Mar 29, 2011)

Mlarson67 said:


> Anything Jess-em makes is great stuff. I'm sure you'll love it. I have their fence and insert on my router setup and have been using it for about ten years. Wouldn't change a thing on their design


I've been using this for years, and built some cool stuff.



Built this with that!!


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## MB2008LTZ (Oct 13, 2012)

Looking good on your build....I have an 08 ext-cab and while I think it sounds great with my setup I could never truly find a happy medium. I think the cabin is just too large to get the soundstage dead center, and I have tried everything.


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## Audio-Concepts (Mar 29, 2011)

MB2008LTZ said:


> Looking good on your build....I have an 08 ext-cab and while I think it sounds great with my setup I could never truly find a happy medium. I think the cabin is just too large to get the soundstage dead center, and I have tried everything.


I've heard that from a few people about this body style. But it's more of a daily driver than competition car, so as long as I'm close I'm happy.


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## Audio-Concepts (Mar 29, 2011)

Well things have been fairly slow through this build. Ran into a few obstacles with equipment and design. My idea for doing a stack fab enclosure has come to a close. Not having the proper tools and templates has made this process fairly difficult. So I decided a basic amp rack and figuring out a new idea for my enclosure was necessary. 

But the first couple days I decided to build a fabrication table. this table houses my table saw and router lift. It will also act as a storage for all my other tools, that i can fit in it.

so here are some pics of the fab table





Amp rack build





gotta start them young



back to progress


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## Audio-Concepts (Mar 29, 2011)

Now onto the overall enjoyment of the wiring. The way i designed this was to have my distribution block, ground block, processor, and all wiring congregate and then flow through the 3 holes that are in front of the amps which sit on a flush mount tray. This tray can be easily removed to access any issues i have with the lower section. All wiring is still loose as of right now but will be secured properly with mounted zip ties that will screw to the bottom base.








The amp rack is secure under the seat to where it doesnt move. i will probably add some mounting tabs once final install is underway.

Im tossing around the idea of a center console sealed enclosure as the sub that is being used can work well in a small enclosure (.75 cu ft.). So this week I may take the factory console out and start the design process of making my center console work with the factory armrest.


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## knever3 (Mar 9, 2009)

I really like this build, great work on the sails and of course love the amp choice, even though they are on loan.


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## Audio-Concepts (Mar 29, 2011)

knever3 said:


> I really like this build, great work on the sails and of course love the amp choice, even though they are on loan.


Thank you, I'm saving for my amps, but it's only a small amount at a time. I'm really wanting to get the new Tru Technology Tungsten 4ch and 2 ch. Both of those will fit in this amp rack with no modification. But that's in the future.


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## knever3 (Mar 9, 2009)

Those are beautiful amps!


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## Audio-Concepts (Mar 29, 2011)

knever3 said:


> Those are beautiful amps!


Yeah, Ive been contemplating on a few choices depending on budget. I dont plan on being a full fledged competitor, so I toss up the ideas om what I can do with a set amount of income to spend. I look at my buddy Scott who owns the Fishman Challenger build and what he has, and my buddy Phil who started the year with Linear Power amps and Blues components, and now is full Sinfoni and what they spent to get to that point. I just cant and wont spend that for my audio needs when I mainly use the truck to go to and from work.

My other amp choices is a Zapco ST 5 channel, which has the perfect power for what I need, a Gladen 5ch, and maybe see if I can find someone to repair my Soundstream Reference 405, which also would be a powerhouse for this set up.

those decisions wont be made until I get everything powered up and a base tune applied.


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## Flashpoint (Jan 2, 2017)

Beautiful install!


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## Audio-Concepts (Mar 29, 2011)

Flashpoint said:


> Beautiful install!


Thank you, still a work in progress. Trying to keep it as simple as possible


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## Jheitt142 (Dec 7, 2011)

Love it. Also look at the ppi 900. 5 for some great cheap power. It's way up on my list of possible replacements for my rubicon 555 

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk


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## Audio-Concepts (Mar 29, 2011)

street.terror said:


> Love it. Also look at the ppi 900. 5 for some great cheap power. It's way up on my list of possible replacements for my rubicon 555
> 
> Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk


Thanks for the input, I'll check that one out as well. I've also looked at Arc Audio and if I really feel froggy Sinfoni and LP are up on my list to, but I'd need to rebuild my entire amp rack setup.


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## Audio-Concepts (Mar 29, 2011)

So I did some math and more math and figured out I could just barely have enough room for my sub under my seat, so today I set out to get the sub and amp rack in the truck and get it to about 85% installed. *I'm still waiting on fuses for my amps and need to make the baffles for my doors. I *also need to trim around the amps and the sides of the enclosure.


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## Jheitt142 (Dec 7, 2011)

Well it may be a tight fit but it fits non the less

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk


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## Audio-Concepts (Mar 29, 2011)

street.terror said:


> Well it may be a tight fit but it fits non the less
> 
> Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk


yeah it does!! Sub has 6" of mounting depth, there's 1/4" between motor and bottom of enclosure.


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## Audio-Concepts (Mar 29, 2011)

Im trying to figure out how to work my DSP. Im very new to this but am trying my best to figure it out. So I learned about time alignment and basic settings to get me started. Im gonna post my front stage settings that I think will get me started before I can get on an RTA and really get into the tuning.

Left Tweeter


Right Tweeter


Left Mid


Right Mid


this is my dsp screen, if any one could give me some solid insight on if Im going in the right direction, that would be great.


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## sinister-kustoms (Jul 22, 2009)

Sweet build so far! Love the mix of quality old school and new equipment!


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## Audio-Concepts (Mar 29, 2011)

sinister-kustoms said:


> Sweet build so far! Love the mix of quality old school and new equipment!


thank you, now just to get it fired up and figure out the tuning stuff.

Im literally lost in DSP hell!!


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## Audio-Concepts (Mar 29, 2011)

Front baffles update!! Ready to go in, just need to install rivnuts and wire up the mids. Then it's time to set the gains on all 3 amps and hook up the base tune to get started. I've decided to run the crossovers at 80 LP, 80-3500 BP, and 3500 HP. I think that will be a good starting point.


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## Audio-Concepts (Mar 29, 2011)

Well a bit of an update. truck has been up and running for a couple weeks now but ran into a few hiccups along the way. First things first, upon first install I noticed an issue. the D60 was blowing the internal fuse on initial turn on so it was unusable until it was repaired. So I was able to tune the front setup to at least listen to the radio using the d100 and d200. 

after a few days I started looking into getting a new amplifier(s). I started looking at Zapco, older Tru amps, Linear, and a few other ranges. I decided at this point to keep this build budget friendly, instead of having to rebuild everything just for an amp or amps. So I picked up a Zapco ST5XII its 80x4 and 350 at 4ohm, which is overall perfect for my install. 

Now on to my issues. I noticed I have a turn off pop when I open the door, thought it was the ground so I changed that to a nut/bolt chassis ground, still happening. I bought a ground loop isolator, still happening. So i tried other sources of this potential pop and disconnected my RCA input on the DSP and directed it into the amp itself. Now the pop is minimal but still relevant, and seems to be coming from the DSP, as the only pop seems to be coming out of the tweeters which are the only signal thats directed from the DSP as my Sub and Mids are directly from the headunit. 

So yeah things are getting there but definitely not where I want them to be. I need to really take a day and try anything and everything to solve this pop before it destroys my tweeters.


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## jm4c527 (Feb 24, 2017)

Were you able to figure out what the popping noise was? Also, how are you liking the Zapco ST5Xll?


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## WhereAmEye? (Jun 17, 2013)

Audio-Concepts said:


> Well a bit of an update. truck has been up and running for a couple weeks now but ran into a few hiccups along the way. First things first, upon first install I noticed an issue. the D60 was blowing the internal fuse on initial turn on so it was unusable until it was repaired. So I was able to tune the front setup to at least listen to the radio using the d100 and d200.
> 
> after a few days I started looking into getting a new amplifier(s). I started looking at Zapco, older Tru amps, Linear, and a few other ranges. I decided at this point to keep this build budget friendly, instead of having to rebuild everything just for an amp or amps. So I picked up a Zapco ST5XII its 80x4 and 350 at 4ohm, which is overall perfect for my install.
> 
> ...



My dad has the GMC version of the truck and I think his radio turns off when he opens the door right? Perhaps you could try putting a relay or a delay unit between your dsp and the remote wire, or try bypassing the door handle turn-off wire. Just an idea if you haven't fixed the problem yet.

Sweet install so far but get a good camera!


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## Audio-Concepts (Mar 29, 2011)

jm4c527 said:


> Were you able to figure out what the popping noise was? Also, how are you liking the Zapco ST5Xll?


yeah the popping is coming from the opening of the door turn off. I need to figure out a way to add a switch to slow the power down a second. that way its not shutting off directly and should solve the problem. Also if I use the the accessory turn I can use a resistor that will shut it off when I turn the truck off. its mainly because of using the remote turn on. I think if I use the factory ignition turn on, it will work to. Theres a few ideas I have that may or may not work, but I will get there.


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## Jheitt142 (Dec 7, 2011)

The gfs vw does the same thing. I pulled remote turn on for the system from the 12v socket as it's switched. Not only did it avoid the hard off it also saved me 200$ worth of harness haha

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## Audio-Concepts (Mar 29, 2011)

WhereAmEye? said:


> My dad has the GMC version of the truck and I think his radio turns off when he opens the door right? Perhaps you could try putting a relay or a delay unit between your dsp and the remote wire, or try bypassing the door handle turn-off wire. Just an idea if you haven't fixed the problem yet.
> 
> Sweet install so far but get a good camera!


yeah thats my issue. and my camera is my phone and I broke the outer lens, lol! I need a new phone, but I have other plans with the money for that. 

I want to do the DOD delete, BTR stage 4 truck cam, 3k stall, sheet metal intake, ls3 throttle body, long tubes with cat delete to full 3" to a borla XR1 muffler dumping right before the rear axle. After tuning I should be around 400-420hp at the wheels.

that'll come after I fix the little dents and dings and repaint the truck.

then after repaint and performance, she'll get a 7.5" lift and 20's on 35s


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## Audio-Concepts (Mar 29, 2011)

street.terror said:


> The gfs vw does the same thing. I pulled remote turn on for the system from the 12v socket as it's switched. Not only did it avoid the hard off it also saved me 200$ worth of harness haha
> 
> Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk[/QUOTE
> 
> my 12v sockets are constant, or I would try the same thing. thats why I think using my main ignition turn on, I should be able to avoid it


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