One of the best sounding cars i have done so far :) 06 G35 Coupe

[simplicityinsound]

hey guys...well, i finally had the chance to do a proper SQ install in a G35, a car that i have worked on over 40 times in the last three years lol...and i am happy to say that, with some tuning help from Dingaling, this car turned out to be one of the bets sounding cars i have ever done to this date, maybe the best, definetly top three

It will be at Marv's if anyone is interested hehe...

the goals:

1. Superb sound quality
2. maintain a lowkey and stealthy appearance.

the signal chain starts with a clarion DRZ9255 cd player, whcih is linked to a 6 disc clarion changer. it is installed in the stock location via the JDM double din finisher:



the front stage is a pair of Seas Lotus Reference 6.5" two way components, for hte midbass, the stock door location was considered, but we felt that the stock door, with its big piece of plastic, is too prone to rattles and buzzing, even with significant amounts of dampening in it, infact, this particular car, has dampening in the doors on both sides, and still exhibited plenty of buzzing in particuar frequencies...annoying to say the least

so I made a pair of kick panels for him. I deviated from my usual kick panel deisgn for G/Zs, and instead, extended the mold from the factory kick panel down and outoward, to give a much larger back mold, this gives the kick much more internal air space and also can aim it more axis without taking up as room.

here they are:







here are a coupla build pics on the kicks, note they are open bakced to vent into the stock kick area and carpet, and a crap load of modeling clay, along with dampening, resides in each kick panel to kill resonance. (if you are famaliar with van ayken clay packages, i used 7 packages between the two). the whole thing was then wrapped in blacke suede for a stealthy, understated apperance.





the reference tweeters were installed off axis in the stock A pillar location, i played with a few location ideas, including on axis by molding off of hte little dash vents you see, but in the end, settled on this location, as it gave pretty dran nice stage height and depths.

the stock A pillar material was impossible to duplicate, its basically a grey/beige flocking, all the material i can find was either too gray or too beige, so instead, we decided to match the dash and doors with black vinyl.









two build pics showing the A pillars, molded, and then vinyled:





as the car features zapco DC reference gear, the tuning cable for the amps comes out of hte center console, and plugs into a laptop for tuning:



and finally, a full snapshot of hte front:

[simplicityinsound]

moving to the trunk ,again, the idea here is just to do a clean stleathy install, no emphasis on showy, or lighting or any of that...here is the view when you open the trunk initially:





a modified 4080enclosures subbox sits on the driver side, and then the stock trunk mat is fully in place.

pop off the trunk mat, and you see that a center rack has been built out and trimmed in black vinyl, with raised lettering on the center cover





and finally, lift out the cover for hte sub and the amps, and here is what you see...

an image dynamics IDMAX10 sub its in the subbox (hence hte need for the remolding of hte box to accomodate it), and three zapco DC refernce amps sits belowt he floor.

350.2 2 x 100 for tweets
1000.4 bridged 2x500!!!! for midbass
1100.1 1x1100 for the idmax

again, nothing fancy just straightforward.







and finally, here is the modified 4080 box, a new top baffle was molded in, spacing out about 2" so the idmax can fit:



and the wiring pics of the amps:



overall, i am pretty darn pleased with the outcome of this car, midbass is VERY solid, and so effortless with so much power on them, the stage is hovering above the dash, very well centered and focused, with good widths and depth, with leon's tuning, it sounds very natural, good detail and smooth highs...the max also provides plenty of bottom end.

i sat in the car today for a hour just listening to it after taking the pics hehe

[fredridge]

hey wait a minute- aren't you the guy who did my car you said mine was one of the best I guess you gotta love the one your with LOL

J/K - man it looks great

is it using the DRZ or the amps for tuning? I see the laptop, so I assume the amps, but inquiring minds want to know

[mavster]

Bing, definately sick install...

[chad]

Quick question, what's the concept of putting drivers, namely the tweets so far axis? If you go thru the trouble of building custom mounting for them why not angle them in a but to keep some wash off the windshield and direct more sound to the listener?

[capnxtreme]

I'll repeat the sentiment I recently saw here: you are the only person besides myself I would ever let touch my car.

The redundancy in processing b/w the Clarion and DC's seems like a waste of $ to me, but damn nice gear.

[t3sn4f2]

Originally Posted by chad

Quick question, what's the concept of putting drivers, namely the tweets so far axis? If you go thru the trouble of building custom mounting for them why not angle them in a but to keep some wash off the windshield and direct more sound to the listener?

I think this passes for most people since the stronger on axis is lost across the dash and you are left with a diffused direct and reflected off axis source that showers that whole area making it appear as a single point source.

[t3sn4f2]

Originally Posted by capnxtreme

I'll repeat the sentiment I recently saw here: you are the only person besides myself I would ever let touch my car.

The redundancy in processing b/w the Clarion and DC's seems like a waste of $ to me, but damn nice gear.

Not really, the Clarion unit acts as an excellent preamp and excellent upsampling DAC that feeds the Zapcos who have a feature rich DSP.

[chad]

Originally Posted by t3sn4f2

I think this passes for most people since the stronger on axis is lost across the dash and you are left with a diffused direct and reflected off axis source that showers that whole area making it appear as a single point source.

You work for Bose don't you?

[t3sn4f2]

Originally Posted by chad

You work for Bose don't you?

They didn't want to hire me, said I bullshitted too much

[beerdrnkr]

Thanks for making me feel like shit about my install That's a nice clean install, I hope I can make it to the bbq to have a listen.

[simplicityinsound]

thanks guys...to answer some questions:

1. the tuning is done solely through the amps, the DRZ is used as a really nice pre-amp in this case.

2. the whole point tweets on axis/off axis thing is a bit funny, to me at least, there is no chance i can even come close to debating theory with any of you, but all i know is, off aixs like this is not the devil, at least not to my ears, and i am far from the only person who do this kind of tweeter configuration, maybe Eng can explain it a little better from a theory standpoint han i can...but when i had it in the car aiming and testing, on axis did not really yield, tomy ears at least, any significant improvements, infact, i felt the depths and overall staging and imaging was better this way...so...

coupled with the fact that I think on axis tweeter mount on A pillars is ugly as heck, its a relatively easy decision for me. I know most of those on this forum are after the ultimate of the ultimate in SQ and perhaps in that case, on axis tweet is the only way to go, but I, and most of my customers, when i show them on axis tweeter mounts, refuse to have a tumor stuck in their A pillar

sorry if this offends some people but i am just stating my opinoin hehe...i think the only time i will do on axis tweets is either on the dash somehow or if the natural curvature of the stock A pillar makes it cosmeticaly acceptable to me or my customers, or if they specifically demand to have it done, then all i can do is do what i am being told

[BlueAc]

Damn u Bing... your really making it hard for me to downgrade from my DC's to PDX's! Nice work...

[DIYMA]

Very nice. Very clean.
I just got the same amps ordered today.
2 1000.1 for each cw-12
1 1000.4 foa pair of RB-13.2

Wish I was going to be at the BBQ to see this car in person...

ANT

[dual700]

Originally Posted by chad

Quick question, what's the concept of putting drivers, namely the tweets so far axis? If you go thru the trouble of building custom mounting for them why not angle them in a but to keep some wash off the windshield and direct more sound to the listener?

IMO, I always get better depth aiming tweeters like that. You give up a little top end extension, though.. Which is fine to me..

[Ge0]

Just one word of advice about those kicks. GET RID OF THE DAMN VAN AYKEN MODELING CLAY IMMEDIATELY!!!

If you look through my install log you'll notice I used about 10 pounds of it in each door for my midbass install. I found out recently it turns into runny, soupy, mud butt diarrhea in temps above 85 degrees F. It will make an absolute mess of that car if left in extreme heat.

Just thought I'd warn you. Foxpro5 had a good alternative modeling clay. But, for the life of me I can't remember what it is. I've recently changed over to super scuply stuff. Kinda expensive but won't harden unless your vehicles interior exceeds 275 degrees F. That and it's much less oily. I think its safe so far.

Oh, stellar work BTW...

Good day.

[atsaubrey]

Your work always amazes me! You and I really need to talk about doing a build in another vehicle of mine

[chad]

Originally Posted by dual700

IMO, I always get better depth aiming tweeters like that. You give up a little top end extension, though.. Which is fine to me..

IF the dash were symmetrical then I can understand, and trust me, I TOTALLY understand the tumor thing BUT the hump for the gauge pod can and will act as a waveguide and cause ER issues. In my original design I planned the whole top end around the predictable dispersion of a particular tweet and corrected with EQ, for one side it worked wonderfully, for the drivers side I had issues, big time. I tried an a-pillar scheme to back them off a bit from that hump, the problem was then compounded by the glass, still had issues with the darn gauge pod . Now, I DID notice more depth but that was greatly offset by tremendous amounts of listener fatigue and lack of intelligibility, others noticed this too as I though I was being biased. I ended up ditching those tweets and used ones with better dispersion, and again tried them in the pillars, and experienced the same fatigue issues due to reflection, I retained the stock sail panel position and soon plan to bring them in more on-axis, which I suspect will not look too far from stock.......................

Just sharing my findings.

[GlasSman]

Chad.....

What were your x-over points on the mids and tweets?

[GlasSman]

Almost forgot.....excellent work once again Bing.

[chad]

Originally Posted by GlasSman

Chad.....

What were your x-over points on the mids and tweets?

All over hell and back, Tried from 1.6K up to 4K, mids from 1.6K to letting them naturally roll-off.

[sr20det510]

WOW!

Very nice G!!

I'm still having trouble w/ my setup : (

Should have had it done right the first time!

[dual700]

Originally Posted by chad

IF the dash were symmetrical then I can understand, and trust me, I TOTALLY understand the tumor thing BUT the hump for the gauge pod can and will act as a waveguide and cause ER issues. In my original design I planned the whole top end around the predictable dispersion of a particular tweet and corrected with EQ, for one side it worked wonderfully, for the drivers side I had issues, big time. I tried an a-pillar scheme to back them off a bit from that hump, the problem was then compounded by the glass, still had issues with the darn gauge pod . Now, I DID notice more depth but that was greatly offset by tremendous amounts of listener fatigue and lack of intelligibility, others noticed this too as I though I was being biased. I ended up ditching those tweets and used ones with better dispersion, and again tried them in the pillars, and experienced the same fatigue issues due to reflection, I retained the stock sail panel position and soon plan to bring them in more on-axis, which I suspect will not look too far from stock.......................

Just sharing my findings.

Dashmat it, senor

[chad]

Originally Posted by dual700

Dashmat it, senor

Dashmat does not cover the winders, thankfully That's where most of my issues were, (tries towels)

[Skierman]

Great install and wonderful layout. Not overstated and works well.