A little unusual one this time. David brought in his work truck for a full system. Not unusual till you hear the equipment. All DynAudio Esotar that's right Esotar. David wanted a serious upgrade to the system he had and I think he got it. We will be adding the Esotar E110, E650 and E1200 in a full active set up.
Now for starters he had another shop do the first install which to say was a little lack luster. I had to gut all the previous wiring before I started. This type of stuff just infuriates me. This is why I tell people you need to get picks everything a shop does.
With the truck back to stock so to say I started in with the doors. The doors will be getting a layer of Hush Mat Ultra sound deadening on the outside skin and inside skin along with a layer of Silencer Megabond foam insulation on the inside skin. The doors will be getting the E650's as well.
Before I did the inside skin I had to close up the big holes in the door skin. I tried something new this time around. I used a piece of 1/8" ABS that I was able to heat form to the contours of the door. With a few screws I had made panels that could be sound deadened and removed to service the door if need be.
With that done I moved on to the mounting rings for the woofers. True to form I used 3/4" plexiglas and used rivet nut fasteners to fasten them to the doors.
with those done I could move on to finishing the door.
I made removable grill covers to conceal and protect the tweeters for daily driving use. The inside edge of the ring I radius to help the sound waves roll off to reduce reflection.
Now as usual with me attention to detail is off the richter scale. On advice from Steven Hill at Straight wire I applied foam tape to the chassis of the truck then ran all the wiring over it will strapping it down with more foam tape. The process is to eliminate mechanical noise from entering the cables. Yes I said mechanical noise. Steve told me that even though you may strap a wire down but it still moves against the chassis of the vehicle and can induce mechanical noise. Now I learn something every day and this is new to me but it makes sense.
While on a wiring kick I did the wiring harness for the radio. All connections were soldered and heat shrunk. On the aftermarket wiring harness it had speaker wires out so since I wasn't going to be using them I removed them from the harness. After everything was done fabric electrical tape was used to make it look more OEM.
David went with the Pioneer DEX-P99RS for processing. Now it being a SQ deck only it was a little different in size so a little playing around had to be done with the mounting kit. The radio had to be spaced out a bit to fit inside the dash but it doesn't stick out to far. I actual like the way it looks.
Last thing on the docket was the subwoofer enclosure. I used the BlackHole Stuff enclosure fill to improve the acoustics of the enclosure. This stuff (pardon the pun) does magic.
The E1200 in it's new home. I also made a removable grille for the subwoofer as well.
David wanted to use the amplifiers from his previous install for now but a set of Arc Audio Se is on the way so I'll update this build when they go in. Since I was cleaning up everything I cleaned up the wiring going to the amplifiers. The amplifiers before were just screwed to the chassis of the truck this time I mounted them to a piece of carpeted MDF.
Now a final shot of everything installed.
As with the DynAudio Esotar the realism that is produced is something that needs to be experienced. Words don't do it justice but that's the DynAudio Esotar.
That's awesome. I miss my 650s already. It would definitely make going to work a little more exciting and I totally agree on the realism of the Esotar stuff.
'84 GN 10.60@ 127mph. Infinity 3.5 coaxials and a cheap Sony HU.
'06 TL. Front stage- Dynaudio 110, 430, 182.... 2x AE IB15.....2x JL HD600/4, Infinity Digital 300, PS8....SecondSkin....
I have a 2011 Tahoe, (same interior), with The Esotar E110 Tweeters in the dash, the Esotar E430's Midrange in the pillars, Esotec MW182's in the Doors, and a Esotar E1200 in the rear. I am a little surprised at the lack of output with the 1200. (had a ported W7JL 12" sub before this setup with Esotec 362 Dynaudio system, passive) I currently have everything hooked up active with Mosconi Amps / 6to8 Processor.
Thinking about selling it all and oing with Arc Audio Black Series / Amps. Opinions?
No. He wanted to go 2-way first with a possible addition of the 430's at a later date. First up though is new amps.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jrhunkler
I have a 2011 Tahoe, (same interior), with The Esotar E110 Tweeters in the dash, the Esotar E430's Midrange in the pillars, Esotec MW182's in the Doors, and a Esotar E1200 in the rear. I am a little surprised at the lack of output with the 1200. (had a ported W7JL 12" sub before this setup with Esotec 362 Dynaudio system, passive) I currently have everything hooked up active with Mosconi Amps / 6to8 Processor.
Thinking about selling it all and oing with Arc Audio Black Series / Amps. Opinions?
Lack of output??? I would have to ask what size box you have the 1200 in and how much power you have going to it? I will tell you selling it will be a mistake. If you're not happy, which is amazing, then I would have to say the install needs help. Shoot me some pics and a complete system layout with equipment and I'll see what I can do to advise you, octaveaudio@gmail.com. The Esotar is the pinnacle of speakers and for you not to be impressed by them is shocking.
Agreed. I did a 12w7 in a sealed enclosure once. I don't know how they call that sub one of the finest SQ subs. Ugh. It gets loud that's it.
Funny part is, most of the 'SQ' guys I've run across that use JL subs, use W6's.
The W7's have a unique sound to them, much like 5 liter Mustangs. You can usually identify them before you see them. They always seemed to get loud, and go pretty deep, but there are definitely better options out there, especially for the money.
Beautiful work. I'm a little surprised that the client wouldn't go with a nice Ddin nav unit in the dash, especially in a "work" truck, but I bet it sounds phenomenal.
I especially like the grills for the tweeters - that really looks nice.
Since I was cleaning up everything I cleaned up the wiring going to the amplifiers. The amplifiers before were just screwed to the chassis of the truck this time I mounted them to a piece of carpeted MDF.
I like the carpeted MDF concept. Can you describe this a little bit more? How does that secure to the floor of the truck?
Beautiful work. I'm a little surprised that the client wouldn't go with a nice Ddin nav unit in the dash, especially in a "work" truck, but I bet it sounds phenomenal.
I especially like the grills for the tweeters - that really looks nice.
David wanting more SQ than any creature comfort. I told him I good retain the steering wheel controls and he said he didn't care. He just wanted it to sound perfect.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mooch91
I like the carpeted MDF concept. Can you describe this a little bit more? How does that secure to the floor of the truck?
Basically if you screw an amplifier directly to the chassis there's a chance you can cause a ground loop. I try to eliminate any possibility by mounting amplifiers to something else other than something that is connected to the chassis. Even when I make a custom metal amplifier rack I make sure to isolate the rack from chassis because the amplifiers are usually mounted directly to the rack and if the rack is mounted to the chassis of the car you are in effect mounting the amplifier to chassis. In this case the piece of MDF is screwed to the chassis and then the amplifier is screwed to it. Isolating the amplifier from the chassis.
Work truck meets Esotar.....wait WHAT!!
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