# Quick log - Basic SQ build - 2012 SRT Charger - Illusion and Mosconi



## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

This past month have been thus far, the busiest to date for us since we opened the retail location. Over the span of 3 weeks we have finished three sq builds and working to finish three more in the next few days. As a result, these next few build logs will be slightly sparse in pictures compared to the norm...both because they are on the smaller side of our typical builds but also Joey is doing a lot of the picture taking...or should i say a little? 

anyway, first up is a 2012 SRT-Charger...the owner is a super nice guy who drove all the way up from Southern California to have us build the car.

the goals were very straightforward:

1. elevate the sound quality of the system significantly over stock

2. achieve a totally stealth/oem look inside the cabin

3. maintain as much usable space as possible in the trunk and maintain the same stealthy appearance.

lets get started...the signal starts with the oem headunit with its rather unique CAN-BUS based audio signal output, we utilized a PAC audio adapter that interprets this signal and turns it into a standard line level output, we found this signal to be pretty good, though not very strong, hence the decision to utilize a mosconi 6to8V8 DSP instead of the standard 4ot6, to boost the signal up a bit before going to the amps.

the front stage consists of a set of Illusion Audio carbon C6 two way component set. the midbass was installed in the factory location in the lower doors. 

first, new wires were run through the factory molex into the doors:










next the door was sound proofed with blackhole tile on the outter skin and stp cld damper on the inner surface:



















one issue i encountered was that with the protruding front magnet of the C6, if i simply built a baffle onto the existing speaker mount, the motor of the illusion driver would contact the door panel speaker grille, so i had to come up with way to recess the driver into the door cavity. with the outter diameter of the illusion speaker being BIGGER than the stock opening, a lil bit of creativity had to be used, this is the two part mounting baffle system i came up with. the speaker mounts to an inner baffle with four threaded inserts and 1" spacers above them, this will be slid into the door first, and then the front baffle will be installed and the two pieces bolted together in the car.










but first, these pieces were coated with several layers of truck bed liner to protect them against the elements:










once that drived, the C6 midbass was mounted to the inner baffle:










and the edges received a layer of FAST foam rings to seal this baffle against the outter baffle:










then the two part was secured into the car, and we added a bit more sound proofing to the back of the door after noticing some resonances:



















the area on the outter door panel around the speaker also received some CLD to help with resonance:










the same procedure was of course repeated on the passenger side:























































the illusion tweeters were installed onto the stock to of the dash location, the metal bridge mount that they came with works great, the only modification i made was to trim them, and paint them black so the silver does not peak out through the speaker grilles:










these were then wired up and bolted using OEM hardware into the dash:



















next comes a series of wiring pics showing the main wiring bundle as it goes from the front of the car to the back. knowing that that previous generation charger was a major EMI crapstorm, we ran ALL signal wires, speaker and rca, down the driver side of the car, as far away from the main OEM power cable as possible. becuase most of the wiring got tucked into the factory wiring channel, i simply took a picture of the ziptied bundle outside the car:























































the only remaining task on the interior was to remove the oem subwoofer ont he rear deck, and fully sound proof both the metal deck and the rear deck cover with CLD and foam dampers:


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

moving onto the main attraction: the trunk. as stated, the goal was to be hidden and space saving, to that end, here is the normal view of the trunk. as you can see, other than a VERY low profile subbox on the passenger side, there is nothing to be seen. the box itself is covered in trunk liner with a matching grill:



















pop off the grille and an illusion audio carbon C12 greets you, this subs super shallow mounting and super low freq extension makes it the ideal sub for this car and enclosure, as you can see, there is very little room from the edge of the trunk to the opening threshold of the floor cover:



















another shot to show just how recessed the subbox is:










lift up the oem floor cover, and a very simple amp/dsp rack is seen. as directed by the customer, we contained every piece of gear with in the confines of the oem foam storage tray. though only a Mosconi ONE 120.2 and the 6ot8V8 can be seen, there is actually two additional 240.2s below them...power configuration for the car is thus 120x2 for hte tweeter, 240x2 to the midbass, and 700x1 to the sub. again, very simple and hidden out of view. the top cover is pres fit into the tub and has a mesh screen to protect the amps and dsp:





































and a final shot of the subbox 










onto the build pics, and again, they are a few steps missing here haha

here is the main baffle that will house the subwoofer being constructred:










the subbox is pretty simply, basically a back mold with the above ring attached, cloth pulled and fiberglassed/reinforced...so you will just have to use your imagination on those steps, but after that, a bit of backfilling and a bunch of sanding, joey had this box on his hands:



















two rivet nuts and bolts secure the box, one was an existing clip hole at the top edge of the trunk, while another was installed onto the floor:










once the enclosure was securely bolted in place, blackhole STUFF was used to fill the enlosure, and the C12 wired up, surprisingly, according to the measurements, this enclosure is at 1 cubic foot sealed. 










here is the construction of the vented grill, before and after carpeting:




























the amp/processor rack in the stock foam tray is basically a truss work of several pieces, here joey is building all the pieces and then wrapping all of them in vinyl:




























the first board was laid down and power cables run into the tray, and distribution blocks are wired up:










the two 240.2s are then installed and wired up:



















then all the signal wires are run into the well, the top baffle board mounted via bolts and threaded inserts and the top amp and desp was mounted and wired up:



















after looking around for a space to mount the fuse, joey came up with this simple bracket that bolts to the factory floor next tot he battery to house the stinger fuse holder:





































here is a shot of the main power and ground wires routed under the tray, if you are wondering, this car did NOT come with an oem spare 










here is a closer look at the amp well to cover, front and back:



















and finally, a shot of all the wiring in the rack:










so thats it, very simple 

sound wise, the stage is very wide and pretty deep with good height. center image isnt super precise but that was to be expected with the locations and lack of dash mat. midbass impact and nice and clean and the c12 really does a good job of shaking the car with authority when called upon and blending in nicely on more subtle tracks. i listened to the car before we took it apart the improvement is significant 

the pac audio module, which was an unknown factor, worked out quite well, it was quite and provided a clean output. the one downside, as mentioned, was it low voltage output...i feel that perhaps an addition line driver in between the module and the dsp could help clean things up a bit more at high volumes...the other odd things about htis module is that unlike most headunits, when you pause, it does not mute the outputs, instead, it JUST pauses the disk but keeps the gain at a high level, thus if you pause at near max volume, you can hear the accompanying floor noise...but a pretty esoteric situation that doesnt affect daily listening but it is pretty different. I am not sure also if its the module or the headunit that affects this situation. 

but overall a car that wasnt bad to work on and sounded great as a simple sq build 

cheers!

Bing


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## edzyy (Aug 18, 2011)

Nice.


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## eddieg (Dec 20, 2009)

Me is IN - what about a car pic? 

But why C6 in the doors and not C8? it seems it has 6*9 from the factory, should it not be possible to fit C8 easily to such a door or does the door panel still requires to be customized to close down on it?


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## Brian_smith06 (Jan 31, 2008)

My favorite realistic dream car!


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

eddieg said:


> Me is IN - what about a car pic?
> 
> But why C6 in the doors and not C8? it seems it has 6*9 from the factory, should it not be possible to fit C8 easily to such a door or does the door panel still requires to be customized to close down on it?


i myself prefer a 6.5" when doing a two way config, i always feel that doing an 8 should be best when using a dedicated midrange. 

a c8 would also likely require a lot more cutting to make it fit using the stock speaker housing


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## Mike Bober (Apr 11, 2013)

Are those C6's your favorite speakers to use? I notice them in many of your builds, but personally ive never heard any hi end speakers like them.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk


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## pocket5s (Jan 6, 2012)

I'm glad you had good success with the PAC. I have one as well but don't yet have it hooked up (build in progress). Their seems to be mixed results using it from what little I've read, but they've all been DIY installs so I took them with a grain of salt  nice that you mentioned the output voltage, so I'll keep that in mind. 

I still have my spare, being an RT model, but the sure is a lot of room in there. I was amused to see the tied own strap battery holder when I first looked. That was a first. 

Clever mounting of the door speakers by the way. I stared at mine for a good hour before I figured out what I was going to do, and it wasn't that neat


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## Coppertone (Oct 4, 2011)

Another wonderful build as usual and if you want Joey to take more detailed photos, have him buy my white camera lol.


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## MacLeod (Aug 16, 2009)

Excellent! Simple and elegant as always.


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## REGULARCAB (Sep 26, 2013)

I love the work you guys do. It makes me happy to see a shop doing well, and we all like seeing your build logs. I hope the business keeps coming in. With work like that I have no  doubt it will.


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## Blake (Mar 3, 2006)

Another great install!


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## cobb2819 (Jan 13, 2011)

I Like it!!!


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## Lunchbox12 (Sep 4, 2011)

Beautiful integration! The stealth look
Is badass for that car!


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## eddieg (Dec 20, 2009)

simplicityinsound said:


> i myself prefer a 6.5" when doing a two way config, i always feel that doing an 8 should be best when using a dedicated midrange.
> 
> a c8 would also likely require a lot more cutting to make it fit using the stock speaker housing


True True 

I am working with a Mid-Tweeter so I have no issues binding it to an 8 inch, my mind drifted to the wrong realms of diameters


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## colled96 (Feb 2, 2010)

Pretty nice on how you hid the amps. Over all; Pretty nice and clean


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## moparman79 (Jan 31, 2008)

Nice clean build guys. Nice and simple.


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## moparman79 (Jan 31, 2008)

eddieg said:


> Me is IN - what about a car pic?
> 
> But why C6 in the doors and not C8? it seems it has 6*9 from the factory, should it not be possible to fit C8 easily to such a door or does the door panel still requires to be customized to close down on it?


The C8 will fit, but not needed. I had a customer that had to have them, So I put them in for him. Ive done 3 dodges with the illusions c6 and they performed well. Here is a C8 set I did in 2013 Challenger.


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

customaudioman said:


> The C8 will fit, but not needed. I had a customer that had to have them, So I put them in for him. Ive done 3 dodges with the illusions c6 and they performed well. Here is a C8 set I did in 2013 Challenger.


Cool. Does the challenger have that raised speaker mount like the charger? 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk


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## moparman79 (Jan 31, 2008)

yeah they do also, but I didn't use the oem mounting adapter. I made my own and didn't have to cut any sheet metal.



















8" woofer metal ring, to test see where the mid would be. 


















test fit on my 11" dodge challenger


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## Coppertone (Oct 4, 2011)

Woah Howard, nice job there.


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## moparman79 (Jan 31, 2008)

yeah I wasn't sure if they would fit without cutting, but they did. I really need to work on my car. lol. I still have the stock system. Im just kinda waiting for GZ new processor that's in the work for late this year early next year. So Im focusing on the styling and performance. working with local dodge on offering a complete package for the challengers for performance, styling and audio( ( HDP-550 AND HDP-750). Ipad mini or android tab system.


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

its hard to tell, but i think the challenger is a separate adapter onto metal? the charger one is a single piece of platsic molded out of the factory plastic cover panel right? 










just wanna be sure if an 8 is ever an option for anyone on a charger


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## moparman79 (Jan 31, 2008)

Yeah I haven't done the newer chargers yet, It does look like that cant be removed without cutting. On challengers, magnums, 300's and older chargers they are removable. I see what your talking about now. Then the newer 300's 2011 and up are probably the same as that one, since they both were redesign that year. challengers stayed the same 08-14. So you can do the C8 on all of them. I think even Nick wingate has them in his challenger out in TX


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## VALLEDECALI1 (May 18, 2009)

This is or I actually should say was my car. I had all of the equipment removed and sold the car. The sound was incredible. If I have any regrets it is only that I did not do two of those Illusion subs in the trunk. The sound was so good that I listened to music that I normally have no interest in. I can't say enough good things about Bing and Joey and the work they do. 

All of the equipment from the car, even the wiring, rings, amp rack, was professionally removed by a shop down here in So Cal that Bing referred me to and is sitting in boxes. I am planning on taking some pics and putting the gear on ebay since I do not have enough posts on this forum to sell but if anyone is interested I would prefer to sell to someone in this community. Send me a message if you are interested and I can work on getting some updated pics. 

BTW this car was more fun to drive than any car that size has a right to be and if I ever get a chance to have a custom system again I am taking my car up to Bing and Joey!


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## optimaprime (Aug 16, 2007)

Awesome install as usual bing! Great work you and crew does !


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