Car Audio. Were/Are you an enthusiast?

Well, the small amp was installed yesterday evening. Mostly went smooth with one hitch. I had forgotten that I needed to double tap the accessory 12 volt line for both the Amp and head unit. A T tap fixed the issue. There is a very slight hiss when no media is playing at higher volumes. I must say that the Amp brought the mb quart speakers to life. Much more rich sounding now. The 6.5" in rear doors have something rattling/resonating now that they are making a bit more bass and mid-range.

It was a tight squeeze to get everything in behind the receiver. I happened to find an almost perfect spot to put the little amplifier. As if Toyota had thought...someone might want to out a tiny Amp here of these exact dimensions. The wires are the main issues as far as space. I coiled and twisty tied as best I could and stuffed them back into the small openings available around the receiver.

Still tuning. Almost too many options compared to what I normally have had in the past. Speaker size selections, sound lift options, crossover slopes, and various other sound enhancement features that the JVC unit offers. Currently, I have gotten it will play a CD at volume level 32 of 36 without any distortion. Mp3 and downloaded songs on USB stick and phone are of lesser quality so the distortion shows up a little earlier...say volume 28 or so. I used a db measuring app before the Amp and was getting ~75 decibels at volume level 20. I forgot to take another measurement afterwards but will do so today. Now I have to remeber what track I was using...lol. Played a whole bunch of diffrent stuff immediately after finishing to get an idea of the sound upgrade.

Looks like rain today. May start into the sound deadening process. I still haven't tried the baffles for the front speakers. Maybe those today as well depending on how the matting install goes.

 

Sound matting installed inside doors, on panels facing interior and on the backsides of the plastic door panels themselves. Did not do the complete covering, rather I cut a lot of pieces and fit them around all the stuff on the panels. The difference is noticeable to my ears. Highway noise lessened. Seems to bring out even more bass from rear door speakers. I recommend but be warned it is not a quick project. Still plan to do rear wall as well...another day though.

Speaker baffles installed. Do not seem to have negative effect on the sound. Perhaps lows down in 50-80hz range are lessened, but punchy mid bass has increased I think.

Time for a shower. My fingers are covered in tar and sore.

Now the project just needs finished up with a subwoofer and box. I am anxious. I think the whole package is going to be pretty awesome.

 

Update: Subwoofer is in the truck. Got it last Friday. Had taken vacation days from work on Friday and yesterday. Reconnected power lead (got some nice copper lugs and soldered the battery and ground connections, pulled head unit and connected the already ran RCAs, did a quick tune on it ending up with gains (amp is bridged, so gains must match on both channels) at about 40%. The Rockford amplifier has a built in lowpass xover, so output from the head unit is set to "through".

The newest development in the project has been media volume differences. I get differing output volume depending on the source. Most volume is available from USB sticks in front USB outlet. Auxiliary port via phone and cord in is next loudest, followed by bluetooth connection with CDs offering the least amount of volume. I can't make the stereo clip via CD no matter what...the volume just isn't there.

To combat the problem, I am going to increase line output via a Clarion EQ. I purchased the head unit partly due to 4 volt preouts, only to find out that those ratings are 'max' and the deck is likely putting out about 2 volts to the RCAs. The Clarion will increase that signal to 8 volts per channel via line drivers built into the unit. Now I don't want to make it seem as if the system is too quiet to enjoy...it's pretty loud actually. But...there is more 'volume' there. The higher the signal volume is, the louder the system can go without distortion or clipping. With most everything so far, I can go to max volume with no clipping at all. This tells me that the Sony (no gain adjustments) is not getting enough input signal via RCAs. The EQ will give me a 'gain' knob for the Sony amplifier that is adjustable, as well as 7 bands of adjustments and 2 additional Aux inputs (headphone jack and 1 RCA aux channel). It also has a subwoofer channel, but I think I am going to keep the sub ran through the head unit only to avoid any phase issues with the lowpass on the EQ and the built in low pass on the Amp. Where to put it? Don't have any good options under the dash or near the head unit, so it is going to live in my center console.

Back to the subwoofer. Anauthorized online JL Audio dealer had a Labor day sale going on...purchase 1 JL 12W3V3 and receive a free sealed or ported box...and free shipping. I couldn't click fast enough! I absolutely do NOT regret going with the JL W3 subwoofer. The box is about a quarter foot too big for the JL's suggested airspace, but I chucked a bunch of polyfill in the box with it and it seems to be absolutely slamming. The Rockford 60.2 rocks its world with 280 (rated) watts RMS. Knowing RF and their older and under rated amps, I'm guessing about 310-320 watts is the actual output via music signal. Perfect for the JL, which only requires "medium" (350w optimal) current. 8ga is used for power & ground on the Rockford amp. Old school Stinger RCAs and 12 ga speaker wire to get signal & power to the sub.

I know I haven't posted any pictures...my dammed phone will not focus. It's a problem that has come and gone a few times...I think it's here to stay now. Here's a blurry picture of the freshly installed sub & box. Had amp on pass seat so I could tune.



Other things that happened this weekend:

New Sway bar bushings
New Sway bar end links
New Spark plugs
K&N filter cleaned & oiled
New lower steering shaft - this was the chore, had to install twice before I got it right.

I have also started to work on exterior appearance as well. Mothers back to black was applied to all vinyl, plastic and rubber exterior trim Monday evening. I need cooler weather to start in on the paint...too dammed hot lately for that work, but I will get to it.

The truck is feeling almost new again going down the road....except for...my cupped and unbalanced tires. I am working on a plan to deal with them soon. Going to go basic and put on regular black 16" steel wheels just like my factory spare is on. Tired of clear coat fails and sticky weights coming off. All the steel wheels should require is a quick rattle can touch up every couple of years and weights can be hammered on, like they should be. I have had two sets of OEM Toyota alloys and both have had clear coat failure and corrosion issues.

I hope to tackle the equalizer install maybe this coming weekend. I will have to tear out the console completely and do some cutting on it for the RCA routing. Should turn out pretty good if my plans work out.

 

So it rained Saturday. I spent about 6 hours messing with the truck again. More sound deadening on back cab wall, then tore out the center console and ran RCAs and power for the equalizer unit. Have more available volume now. The higher voltage line drivers made the difference I was hoping for. I have the deck set at flat on EQ right now, managing levels at the EQ itself and the subwoofer is still being sourced by the head unit alone as volume is not an issue with the woofer. It will sound corny, but I have already heard things in some music that I never noticed before. I will say that the EQ added a little bit of 'pink noise' when nothing is playing, but not an unacceptable amount. I am using quality RCAs, but not reference. No idea if better cable would increase SQ, but I'm not going to find out after the fight I went through getting them down through the dash and center console.

I think all that's left is to get things fine tuned and start eliminating rattles. A new rear window area rattle showed up after I put the deadener on the back wall...and it's annoying so I'll be finding that one first.

I did run into another quirk with this project...some of my MP3s will not play via memory stick USB front input. Very odd...the songs will play via Bluetooth and phone jack/aux both, but put them on a stick and no go. I think I am going to reformat the songs and see if that works. USB seems to be the preferred input on this head unit, giving the loudest and clearest signal out of everything I've tried thusfar.

 

Hey RCBS After some time, can you give some more feedback on the upgrade? I've gotten to a point where I can put some $$$ in my truck audio and I'm looking at an Alpine 4x50 similar to your Sony. Do you have any regrets at this point? Would you have done anything different?