# Install of the kenwood x4r/x1r



## tyroneshoes (Mar 21, 2006)

Finally had some time to install my amplifiers and get rid of this mess.










They were just sitting in that basin on some foam so they would stay put. No venting, wires all over.

So I deadened the basin (peel n seal works fine), traced the stock floor, and whipped up a much more solid floor with a recessed area for the amps. Want to still be able to return to stock if needed and not take up trunk space and keep the ability to lower the back seats. Made it the right hight and reinforced with 2x4s. Countersunk the stock bolts to keep it down and not vibrate.




























Then I had a friggin hell of a time carpeting this basin. Next time Imma just spray bedliner on the basin part and carpet the top. 

Here they are for now


No covers on amps



















Covers on



















Next up is making the cover to protect the amps. Either will do grillmetal, expanded steel or just cut some holes in wood and cover it in grill cloth. Havent figured that part out now. Im tired.


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## spudracer326 (Jun 8, 2006)

pics dont work


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## FrankstonCarAudio (Feb 2, 2008)

Pics are working fine, for me 

Looking good..
Amps are very neat, and floor fits well.

Mark


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## spudracer326 (Jun 8, 2006)

FrankstonCarAudio said:


> Pics are working fine, for me
> 
> Looking good..
> Amps are very neat, and floor fits well.
> ...




huh maybe i need to clean my cookies or something...


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## tyroneshoes (Mar 21, 2006)

Maybe its my host, shutterfly. 

Edit: got it working, nevermind.


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## spudracer326 (Jun 8, 2006)

i see it now i just reset my internet...looks great!!


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## tyroneshoes (Mar 21, 2006)

FrankstonCarAudio said:


> Pics are working fine, for me
> 
> Looking good..
> Amps are very neat, and floor fits well.
> ...


Thanks man. I wasnt going for anything flashy. Just functional and clean with no truck space lose. The sub I could remove easily. Even tossed in bananna clips to make removal easy for hauling stuff.


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## Antiwhy (Dec 20, 2007)

Nice work and thanks for making me want those amps.


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## DS-21 (Apr 16, 2005)

I'm thinking about replacing my 300/4 with one of those amps. How do you like them? Do you find the interface fairly intuitive?

Also, what's the crossover flexibility? I read sometimes that they're limited, and other times that they have at least as much flexibility as the Jello Slash-series amps (50-5k Hz, 12 or 24 dB/oct slopes.)


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## red03vette (Sep 3, 2007)

looks great! i really like those amps too. they look like they have pretty tidy dimensions. 

duce


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## tyroneshoes (Mar 21, 2006)

DS-21 said:


> I'm thinking about replacing my 300/4 with one of those amps. How do you like them? Do you find the interface fairly intuitive?
> 
> Also, what's the crossover flexibility? I read sometimes that they're limited, and other times that they have at least as much flexibility as the Jello Slash-series amps (50-5k Hz, 12 or 24 dB/oct slopes.)


Im 100% content with the amps for my setup. The interface is easy to work. The main thing that sets the amps apart from the others (besides zapco) is the built in TA and I suppose the PEQ. But there are limitations:

No bandpass. You can use the subsonic but it only goes as high as 60 hz

This amp is perfect for a 2 way active setup but channels a&b only have a high pass, no lowpass option. 

c&d and the line out have high or low and subsonic. So if you want to use two of these on a 3 way front stage bridged to 300x2 on some 8"s, the crossover on channel a&b is something that might make it tricky. Im sure you could use the line out lowpass to that input but I havent tried. I know someone on this board was tying to address this with these amps.

The crossover points are much like the active headunits and digital. Not the typical screwdriver pot knob like the jls. they do jump like the headunit active crossovers do. For my two way active, I know there's 2k, 2.5k, and 3.15k ect. crossover points for example. The adjustments are made on the amp themselves using the digital readout and clickwheel.


The peq has a selectable q and center freq but there a 5 channels of eq for a&b and 5 for c&d and another 5 for the line out. In my setup, my lotus mids are highpassed by the headunit at 80 hz an lowpassed at 2k on my x4r. I have two channels of PEQ that are being filtered out. I can use them as notch filters though. Same for the tweet. 2.5k and up leave me with 2 channels of peq I cant use. Dont need it, but it would be nice. Slopes are 12/24db selectable. Subsonic 24db.

Those are the only cons I can think of. 

Personally I just use the x4r for a 2 way active and because I have an eclipse double din and wanted to go active with TA. 

So it depends on your setup if its a good fit. No need for these amps if you have a headunit with lots of processing. For me, GPS and a double din was a necessity, so these worked out great after realizing I cant use passive crossovers anymore.

The manual breaks it down well. 

http://inform3.kenwoodusa.com/manuals\KAC-X4R.pdf


I know these do the power plus and they run cool and efficiently.


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## dtviewer (Dec 18, 2006)

The perforated metal grill I got from home depot works really well to cover amps. It was like 12 or 15 bucks for a piece that would easily cover your amps. Its silver but a quick coat of black spray paint takes care of that. 

Heres a pic of it on my amp rack:
http://dtviewer.smugmug.com/gallery/3324033_oEjFk#215642706_f2gXc


By the way-Great job! I love how clean that amp rack is! Simple and functional.


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## tyroneshoes (Mar 21, 2006)

dtviewer said:


> The perforated metal grill I got from home depot works really well to cover amps. It was like 12 or 15 bucks for a piece that would easily cover your amps. Its silver but a quick coat of black spray paint takes care of that.
> 
> Heres a pic of it on my amp rack:
> http://dtviewer.smugmug.com/gallery/3324033_oEjFk#215642706_f2gXc
> ...


Thanks, also thanks for the reminder. I used the expanded metal at lowes in a previous setup like this.










That is exactly what I'm going to do again. Worked perfect, cheap and easy.


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## DS-21 (Apr 16, 2005)

tyroneshoes said:


> The peq has a selectable q and center freq but there a 5 channels of eq for a&b and 5 for c&d and another 5 for the line out.


Seriously, these things have PEQ on the line-out? So one could run, say, this amp and cheap Class-D box for the subwoofer, and have PEQ for the cheap Class-D sub amp? That's damn impressive. I think you may have just sold me!


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## tyroneshoes (Mar 21, 2006)

Made a makeshift top as I had some scrapwood so I made a top just to protect the amps before I bring in the metal grill. If I do. I added some a fan to each end amp basin and if fllows out of the basin underneath. The amps also have two fans each on themselves and ran cool even with no ventilation so it was overkill but I had the stuff. The result is pretty stealth, except the box and fully functional as far as hauling.


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## BlueAc (May 19, 2007)

That looks awesome!!! Very nice work...
Any plans to make a fiberglass sub enclosure?


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## tyroneshoes (Mar 21, 2006)

BlueAc said:


> That looks awesome!!! Very nice work...
> Any plans to make a fiberglass sub enclosure?


Thanks 

Yeah, I plan to do a corner firing sub but I dont want to do it myself. I hate fiberglass working. I know a place that will do it for 300 hundred and have it done in a couple days but I dont know how good their work is. Anyone you might recommend in the NJ area for around that price range?


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## BlueAc (May 19, 2007)

Nah... I actually had trouble finding anyone in my area that made one for a reasonable price. I found this place online that had one for my car and it fit like a glove. http://www.wickedcas.com/product.php?productid=65&cat=12&page=1. Carpet is off but I'll change that a little later!


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## tyroneshoes (Mar 21, 2006)

Mtx makes a thunderform for my car up to 2004 but in the 2005 model, they changed the rollout curtain hook locations on the rear panels and I would have to chop them off which I dont really want to do in case I sell the truck. I made the false floor so I could just pop the stock one back in , Im trying not to damage any of the car. But Im getting to the , why not? point. Plus Im not sure if the icon will fit depth wise for the MTX thunderform. So for now, I just have the box hooked up to some banana plugs so I can just remove it when I need to easily.


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## quality_sound (Dec 25, 2005)

It looks good but it seems like you wasted a ton of space in there.


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## tyroneshoes (Mar 21, 2006)

quality_sound said:


> It looks good but it seems like you wasted a ton of space in there.


What do you mean? I should have created a larger amp storage area? I'm open to suggestions and constructive criticism.

The basin (the bare trunk) is only 2 inches deep and curves up to 1 inch 15 inches away from the back seat. If I mounted the amps next to each other (horizontally) the sub enclosure would be on top of the amps. I had to mount them as you see unless I wanted to raise the floor. 

Originally I had a shallow sub and was going to do an entire false floor but I won the ICON and decided to do a basic enclosure that can be removed if necessary.

If I do a fiberglass corner job, I plan to center the amps and mount them next to each other horizontally and create a little storage area.


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## quality_sound (Dec 25, 2005)

tyroneshoes said:


> What do you mean? I should have created a larger amp storage area? I'm open to suggestions and constructive criticism.
> 
> The basin (the bare trunk) is only 2 inches deep and curves up to 1 inch 15 inches away from the back seat. If I mounted the amps next to each other (horizontally) the sub enclosure would be on top of the amps. I had to mount them as you see unless I wanted to raise the floor.
> 
> ...


it just looked like in the pics you could have maybe gotten the sub in there too. Weird, the pics make it look much deeper than a couple inches.


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## tyroneshoes (Mar 21, 2006)

quality_sound said:


> it just looked like in the pics you could have maybe gotten the sub in there too. Weird, the pics make it look much deeper than a couple inches.


Yeah, it is deceiving. I have 5 1/4 inches of clearance from the top of the floor to the basin bottom in the deepest area. Would have worked for a shallow sub but not the ICON. 

I even had to remove the 3/4" wood on the base and sides of the amp area and use 1/4"base and 1/2" sides because I was still having depth issues and the sides of the basin are curved and it hit. I really thought I had more space than I did and after trying, I realized how limited I was without raising it up.


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## quality_sound (Dec 25, 2005)

Wow, that's crazy. Is raising the floor an option?


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## tyroneshoes (Mar 21, 2006)

quality_sound said:


> Wow, that's crazy. Is raising the floor an option?


It can be but then all the surrounding trim and clips would look awkward and not fit properly. I think its beyond my level of skill and really needs to be a fiberglass job to work. I just feel comfortable working with wood. I really didnt want to do any cutting of panels and be able to return it to stock when I trade the truck in. I kept the original trunk floor just so I could pop it in when the time comes. Really, my goal was just to keep the amps hidden, accessible and neat. Once I did measurements, I realized a false floor for my sub and amps would be a really hard feat even with my old critical mass shallow sub. Im no pro, so I just focused on fitting the amps in there.

I think my best bet is a corner fiberglass job as I dont want to give up the icon and I dont want to invert mount it. For now, golf clubs and fishing rods fit nice and I can always just remove the sub. Not optimum but practical and alligned with my skills


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## quest51210 (Dec 27, 2007)

whats that x1r wired at?


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## tyroneshoes (Mar 21, 2006)

quest51210 said:


> whats that x1r wired at?


4 ohms


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## quest51210 (Dec 27, 2007)

ever tried 2? is it stable over time? does it sound like 1200rms? i know i may get flamed for the last one, but my pdx1.1000 just ate dirt after about a year of service and wanted to know the performance of this as a replacement amp.


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## tyroneshoes (Mar 21, 2006)

quest51210 said:


> ever tried 2? is it stable over time? does it sound like 1200rms? i know i may get flamed for the last one, but my pdx1.1000 just ate dirt after about a year of service and wanted to know the performance of this as a replacement amp.


Yes my old critical mass was 2 ohms and the amp seemed too powerful for it. It ran cool and I never had a problem though. If the x4r was reviewed by ca&e to be underrated (give 135 watts stated 100), I dont see why the x1r wouldnt provide rated specs.

The sub is a dual 2 ohms and while the amp says its one ohm stable, Im pretty content with the power it provides at 4 ohms and it never gets hot. It doesnt have any problem driving the icon with 600 watts. If you get one, make sure you get the optional remote. Nice little peq with boost like my old basscube.

I also replaced pdx amps with these. Im happy I did.


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## tyroneshoes (Mar 21, 2006)

Had some time and whipped this cover up using some expanded metal. Sprayed black.




















Not to happy with seeing where the metal ends and the 1/4" I recessed around the metal really isnt very noticable with carpet. Im just going to turn the frame upside down and re carpet the frame and attach the lil creative handle. If I have some time to kill. Im fairly content as is.


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## Phil Indeblanc (May 27, 2015)

That floor looks nice! did your amps breathe well when you had this setup?

Maybe your the guy to make baffles for me


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## Pseudonym (Apr 17, 2006)

the post above yours was from 2008. sidenote, did anyone other than myself ever find out exactly what kind of shoes tyrone shoes are?


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

It's Tyrone's Hoes.

Jay


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## Phil Indeblanc (May 27, 2015)

hehe...thats what I figured it was....and Yes I knew the post was old. He linked me to it for the amps install. I have a cargo area too in a Highlander. 

But I'm just gonna go for a spot under the seats...he knows his way around wood and saw, I don't .


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## tyroneshoes (Mar 21, 2006)

tie your own shoes dammit

I know its an old post but was relevant to a different post I have going with phil.

yeah, amps have fans built in and I added exhaust and intake fans and kept them covered, didnt leave the expanded metal. Full stealth cover as seen in previous pic. No issues with heat. 

Then I changed to zapco dc 1000.4 and 500.1 and needed more space and air flow so I reinstated the expanded steel. 

So, I did end up with a fiberglass enclosure and enlarging and centering the amp rack to deal with zapco dc amps (not much of an improvement)










car is gone now. Amps under seat in current install.


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## Phil Indeblanc (May 27, 2015)

nice...that box to the side makes it all flush and has a uninterrupted flow. Looks like a Toyota as well?


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## tyroneshoes (Mar 21, 2006)

ford escape


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## Phil Indeblanc (May 27, 2015)

big cargo space.

Well, I have time to look for amps unless something pops up. But meanwhile I have to have some adapters made, as I dont think BestBuy is gonna do that for me. They use premade adapters if Im not mistaken.


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