SQ install, 2001 Acura CL-S, future show car :)

[simplicityinsound]

hey Guys,

Just finished my first full on install with Exile amps, (previously have only used the shallow xt10 and the xt65 component a few times)

The car is a 2001 Acura TL Type S, and is in the process of being transformed into a partime show car.

A note before i get started, if you are wondering about the mismatched interior colors, the car is currently under going a swap to all black interior from tan/beige and will go for a full interior retrim job soon

first pic of the car, borrowed from the customer,





Goals for the system:

1. good sound quality, maybe show up at a few of the socal iasca events?
2. a classy and clean design that goes well with the relatively subdue nature of the car
3. a fully stealthy system that can be hidden out of view.

lets get started:

the signal starts with an alpine 9887 headunit, supplied by the customer, installed in the dash:



The car features a Zapco DSP6-SL for tuning, and the USB cable comes out of the arm rest, plugs into a laptop, for full front seat tuning capabilities. its hard to see but the ipod cable also comes out of there. note the Exile remote bass knob install into a aluminum panel i made to the right of hte cupholders



Front stage consists of a set of Seas Lotus Reference 6.5" two way component set. the tweeters were molded into the A pillars, off axis, and trimmed in black vinyl, again for furture interior conversion to black.

[simplicityinsound]

a few quick build pics of the pillars, first the pillars were scuffed with 40 grit, then rings aimed and attached:



then mold cloth was pulled and resined, and the pillars are reinforced from the backside by duraglass:



then they were sanded smooth and blended in:



and finally, black vinly applied, it was late in the day so the pics came out dark, sorry

[simplicityinsound]

The midbass were installed in the stock door location

first, the hole was enlarged to accomodate the beefy driver, and then doors ran though the factory rubber tube into the door, here is a pic showing in the middle of the wiring process, note wire coming out of hte stock tube:



then, a combination of foam sound proofing and mass loader was applied to the entire door, and the speaker installed in coated MDF spacer rings to the door:



and finally a close up of hte seas midbass:



same thing goes for the passenger side:







thats it for hte interior, the only other things i did was to remove the rear deck 6x9s for better bass venting.

[simplicityinsound]

moving onto the trunk.

as mentioned, the goal was to be stealthy when need to be, and clean and classy when the need arises for it to be displayed.

so here is hte normal view, everything hidden from view by a piece of carpet i cut out to match the floor:



remove the carpet and you see a dark vinyl fake floor, with two big cutouts, with carpted and breathable grilles protecting the stuff underneath:





pop off hte grilles and here is hwat you see, again, sorry for the dark pics...its been raining all day here

two racks, both trimmed in white vinyl, showcases the products. the front one, flushes three EXile X series amplifiers. a X300.2 is upfront, sending 75 watts a piece to the tweeters, a X1200.1, running at 2ohms, powers the subs with 600 plus watts, while a X600.4 is on the right side, bridged, sending 300 watts to each midbass. all edges are roundover routed for a classy apperance.

in the back well, two XT10 subwoofers reside in a 1 cubfeet sealed enclosure. also flushed with white vinyl.

in between the two racks, i did a small cutout, with a piece of brushed aluminum trim, that matches the amp's center pieces. on it houses my logo

the Exile logos on the amp lights up blue whcih is a nice touch:

[simplicityinsound]

close up of the center trim piece:



and a view from the back of hte car:



IMO the install looks much better in person, beucase of the narrow angle of the camera, i cant relaly get the full effect of the trunk all in one shot

first on the mods i did to the exile amps, as you all know, here is what the X series looks like:



what i did was to remove all the trim off the top off the amp, and remove the plate underneath the mesh, so one can see into the circuitry board. a very Adcom look IMO:

here are the amps after i modded them:





now some build pics of the back

here is a shot of the full install being mocked up, before to vinyl application, all the bare MDF showing:

[simplicityinsound]

and here are three shots showing the wiring below the floor, all the wires are bundled and routed cleanly, the zapco DSP6 sits at the far back on the passenger side:







and finally, a few peeps have asked me about the grilles, here they are being made, a rabet was routed into the cutout, and HD mesh attached:



then nonbacked fully breathable carpet was attached, allowing heat to excape and sub to perform normally even when covered



overall, quite pleased with the exile amps, did some tuning with Eng last night down in LA, and these amps, for the money, are definetly pretty decent, they didnt run that hot with all the covers on the carpet on, during the 6 hour drive... overall SQ is not bad, though the realy low seating position threw Eng for a loop hehe, where as the customer, being much taller, has his head in a higher listening position. midbass impact is pretty good, wtih decent overall tonality and staging/imaging. with some more tweaking, i think it will only get better

dead tired after coming back from LA, gonna go pass out now :P

[Tonyguy]

wow great work as always! But you really are pushing the hell out of that Exile Stuff. It must be pretty decent.

BTW, I love what he did with the outside of the car. It looks really classy for a tuner.

[simplicityinsound]

i am? this is the first time i used the exile amps and i hae used the exile subs on only two prior installs, and the exile speaker on only one instance

over the past six months hehe, compared that wtih my usage of ID, seas and zapco

[Tonyguy]

Well before you, i haven't seen it used in any installs. Just an observation. I wish more brands were brought to light like you're using the Exile stuff.

[NOFATTYS]

to run the three amps...what distro block did you use? i am having a difficult time finding one that fits my needs.

[cedoman]

I like the Exile amps after your mod.... outstanding work as usual ... Your gonna blow up bigtime one day if you haven't yet...

[Echo42987]

I'm so jealous...

[simplicityinsound]

i use the soundquest dual 0 guage in 3 4 guage out d block on virtually all my instlals

[brianlin87]

Bing,

Just wanted to thank you again for doing such a great job with my car. For anyone that is curious about putting Bing to work on your car, rest assured, his reputation and workmanship is NO JOKE. Bing is the MAN!

Thanks again!

[simplicityinsound]

hey brian, i slept 5 mins after my last post at night, and just woke up now lol didnt even wake up once hehe

how did the gruppe-s car do?

[brianlin87]

^ Through all the controversial races and animosity between some drivers for brake checking, Gruppe-S 350Z ended up winning 4th place. Not too bad for the first event of the season.

[brianlin87]

Originally Posted by Echo42987

I'm so jealous...

and I'm so happy...

[strong*I*bumpin]

stunning!...like the modded amp look.

[KMelt]

nice work dude!!

[Eiswritsat]

looks hot, i like it

[Echo42987]

Originally Posted by brianlin87

and I'm so happy...

I could only imagine! lol I wish my CL-s turned out that nice.

[monkeybutt]

Originally Posted by brianlin87

and I'm so happy...

Simplicity and Brian great job on an incredibly executed system. As a fellow CL-S owner I'm...just not worthy. And of course how do you each like the new sound? Specifically I'm curious first about the tonality and secondly about the staging as I'm considering a similar front set up should I go active. I've never run mids and tweets so far from each other and the off-axis aiming of the tweeters are intriguing.

[AdamTaylor]

looks awesome... as always

[lpreston]

Amp mods look great. Hope you showed them to Exile....

[douggiestyle]

Bing,

Great work as usual, and def. worthy of that exterior.

Brian,

This is probably the motivation I need to complete my install and bring my junked out stock CLS to one of the meets.