[Turb0Yoda]

Hey all.
I finally made an account after lurking for a bit, and I'm about to start the build on my camry. I saved up ~650 total, and only spent 480 on the core bits and pieced with the recent ebay 15%. I also didn't want to replace the HU since the iDL stuff is stupidly expensive for my broke self.

Equipment:
-AudioControl LC7i
-Infinity REF-6530CX(fronts)
-Infinity REF-9632ix(rears)
-KnuKonceptz Kolossus Fleks 4 channel
-Another 50 feet of speaker wire(12 gauge)
-Precision Power iON i520.4 Amp
-Related speaker harnesses for the HU
-Related speaker adapters

Hopefully I'll have photos of the planning bits today. I do want a sub and sound deadening. Originally was going to get stuff from Sound Deadener Showdown but with only ~150 left for now, I've held off, and I sent an email over ~New Years asking for some guidance.

 

[Truthunter]

Cool... another Camry build. Subscribed :thumbsup:

For the acoustic treatments: The best bang for the buck (IMHO) would be to treat the front doors with some CLD/butyl rope, and seal up the large openings in the inner door skins with some sheetmetal or plastic panels.

 

[Turb0Yoda]

Cool... another Camry build. Subscribed :thumbsup:

For the acoustic treatments: The best bang for the buck (IMHO) would be to treat the front doors with some CLD/butyl rope, and seal up the large openings in the inner door skins with some sheetmetal or plastic panels.

Yeah. I'm probably going to do this sometime *after* I manage to not bodge up the actual speaker install.

I just pulled out most of the center console, and I realize that I have a *lot* less space than I thought to mount the lc7i/crossovers due to the A/C vent, so I'm back to the drawing board. I think I'll be able to mount the crossovers in up behind the glovebox/steering wheel fine, it's the LC7i that I might move under one of the front seats. Planning on slapping the amp under the passenger.

Maybe 16 feet of RCA was a bad idea.

 

[Turb0Yoda]

OK, time for an update.
I managed to do a few things today:
-Make a harness to connect the HU to the LC7i. This involved two 24 foot reels of 16 awg wire, one for positive, one for negative. I could have used the 12 gauge from Knu, but I only have 50 feet of normal wire and 25 of karma speaker wire. I underestimated the amount of wire I needed. I actually got two rolls of each, used two up, and now have two basically new ones sitting around. I did have to make a ground for the antenna, and that took ~3 feet.

The metra adapters were fine. The Scosche stuff I ordered was crap. It fits loosely for the main power/front side on the head unit, and the rear speaker connector got stuck in the headunit.

I've put the lc7i under the drivers seat.

I also ran the amp power wire. I used the passenger grommet, since I'm putting this amp under the passenger seat. I couldn't get my hands in the right position for the drivers side grommet so I basically said screw it and used the passenger one.


As of right now nothing is permanently installed, ie bolted down. Still working out the finer points.


I have a few photos but my post count isn't high enough

 

[Turb0Yoda]

Hit that 5 post count. Here's the photos for the last post.

Current 4AWG Cable Run

The "harness" to the LC7i

Planned amp location

 

[Chris12]

Nice start!

Do you have plans for mounting the amp? I’m interested to see how you go about it.

Something easy that I’d recommend you try out - get your front speakers set up first and try them out without your rears hooked up. I fought with myself about keeping my rear deck speakers for a long time, but one I disconnected them my system sounded much better.

 

[Turb0Yoda]

Nice start!

Do you have plans for mounting the amp? I’m interested to see how you go about it.

Something easy that I’d recommend you try out - get your front speakers set up first and try them out without your rears hooked up. I fought with myself about keeping my rear deck speakers for a long time, but one I disconnected them my system sounded much better.

Hey.
For now I've literally just used some industrial strength velcro I had laying around. BUT I do plan on making a rack out of wood or plastic/metal. I know some people have velcro'd amps down, and I feel it's a good solution for now, if not versus bolting it straight to the car. I'm not bolting it yet because I have yet to check if I will hit anything under the car, and I still have the warranty on this car since it was a CPO, and I'm avoiding doing anything permanent, ie leaving stock wiring intact and simply running my stuff alongside it.


As far as the rears, I actually just installed them today. I forgot to take a picture of them in the deck, but I did make a "comparison" photo between the old and new rears.

I just realized the poor quality of the photo.

 

[Truthunter]

Interesting - the headunit has "Harmon" on it. Does your vehicle have the JBL system?

 

[Turb0Yoda]

No. It Does not.

The Harman also surprised me, as I thought, on the non-JBL cars, it was a panasonic or other unit.

That said, this car has about every addon minus the JBL and the factory spoiler, although that might not have any affect on it.

 

[Turb0Yoda]

Sorry for going dark on this one.
Between being sick and my phone dieing, I have no way to take photos.
I'll try to upload pictures when I get a new phone sometime next week. I'm not done yet, since the lc7i's GTO wasn't working and I need to wire a remote out from the Head unit now.

 

[Turb0Yoda]

So...
quick update. I ended up returning the LC7i thinking my remote was faulty, and bought a used 360.2 for.. 80 bucks.. Turns out I was hooking into the wrong fuse.

My current setup is a complete mess, and I've been working on cleaning it up. Between school, work, and me being sick as hell most of the time, I've gotten little done.

Currently fabbing up tweeter mounts with a friend's 3D printer; right now I just ziptied the tweeters in the stock spot.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to ground the amp somewhere other than the seat bolt, since it's a crappy ground.

This is the woofer mounted up. When I eventually get around to doing sound deadening, I will be using silicone to help with any unevenness... I might have forgotten to do that on one side.

I know someone commented that my unit was Harman. I have no idea why, but here's some info I pulled from the diagnostics menu.

 

[Turb0Yoda]

I now understand the difference between left and right on setting gains and have fixed the static issue...

 

[No ConeSS]

Current 4AWG Cable Run

Do you happen to have any pics of where you ran the power wire through the firewall (or however you got the power from the batter to inside)?

 

[Truthunter]

Do you happen to have any pics of where you ran the power wire through the firewall (or however you got the power from the batter to inside)?

I think most of use 7th gen camry owners use the grommet on the passenger side firewall:

 

[Turb0Yoda]

Hey, sorry for the late reply.
I did indeed use that grommet that truthhunter mentioned, although not as eloquently as in that photo...

Currently need to work on mounting the front left crossover in a better place and amp "racks" for the DSP and amp... Although given the amount of workload from uni it might take a bit for an update.

 

[Turb0Yoda]

"A bit of time" Indeed.
I've basically finished off the build, but I haven't done much in the way of a log. I don't think I'll have much time this summer as I'm starting an internship in two days. That said, I did make a cost breakdown.

From where I left of...
-Got 3sixty.1 all hooked up to the PPI
-Got the rear deck speakers in
-Everything calibrated

What needs to be done:
-Finishing the sub install.

The duct tape is my crude attempt at humor, the amp itself is screwed in. Everything is ran but the ground.


Hopefully when I get around do doing the custom stuff such as the amp/dsp racks and the tweeter mounts I'll update, and make a "proper" guide with all the photos I took. Unfortunately, between classes and extra-curricular kicking my arse, and some maladies that have taken me, I have little strength of of now to do much physical work.


The last steps of this, should I ever get to it, is sound deadening and getting a better DSP eg Helix Mini... My on a budget lost it's meaning it seems.

 

[ToNasty]

"A bit of time" Indeed.

I've basically finished off the build, but I haven't done much in the way of a log. I don't think I'll have much time this summer as I'm starting an internship in two days. That said, I did make a cost breakdown.

From where I left of...

-Got 3sixty.1 all hooked up to the PPI

-Got the rear deck speakers in

-Everything calibrated



What needs to be done:

-Finishing the sub install.

The duct tape is my crude attempt at humor, the amp itself is screwed in. Everything is ran but the ground.





Hopefully when I get around do doing the custom stuff such as the amp/dsp racks and the tweeter mounts I'll update, and make a "proper" guide with all the photos I took. Unfortunately, between classes and extra-curricular kicking my arse, and some maladies that have taken me, I have little strength of of now to do much physical work.





The last steps of this, should I ever get to it, is sound deadening and getting a better DSP eg Helix Mini... My on a budget lost it's meaning it seems.

Dont ever use the word budget in this. I had a set budget of about 2500 bucks. And now im going on about 7k. Budget isnt even a word

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[Turb0Yoda]

Am I dead? No.
Do I feel like I am? Yes.

Dunno where the hell I left off, but I ended up buying knu knoise kolossus at some point... and a new headunit. Went with the DMX905S as it ended up to 350 post tax for me and has Android Auto, Maestro, and a Resistive touch screen. Happy with it except for the metra dashkit with looks and feels like crap.


HU:
OEM, Metra Dash kit, and the new.

Funky looking dude.

She's going in.

Basically in.

What I really don't like is the look, feel, and the fit around the A/C controls... I'm thinking of taking a dremel to it and making some space.



Knu:

Front Door Card before:

Front Door Card after:
I added a lil more after this photo.

Rear Door Card before:

MIA...


Read Door Card after:

Trunk Lid Before:

Trunk Lid After:
I added a lot more here after but forgot to take a pic..

Current SD-3 box:

I'm going to seal the holes in the door and knu the trunk even more soon... and a box hopefully this week, although given the current speed of everything... we'll see. Overall extremely happy with the knu. I took a few videos of the before and after on some bits but my phone did it little justice.

 

[Turb0Yoda]

This is very much a learn as I go experience... I might have skimped on the doors a bit but it's insane to work outside in SoCal, def got woozy/sick from working in the heat so I'm lacking on photos.

 

[saltyone]

Try doing anything outside in Louisiana 7 or 8 months out of the year. I don’t want to hear anyone complaining about “Southern California”...LOL. Suck it up and drink Gatorade...screw water. Don’t hate on your stuff or work because you believe someone will judge you. Some folks may give your tips along the way, but no one will hate on you.

We all started off just like you, and you’re actually off to a much better start than I was 30 years ago. Take your time and try to do it right the first time. It doesn’t take $7,500 for a system to sound great if it’s installed correctly and tuned a little. Keep going man!