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Zippy's 2013 BRZ build log

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11K views 27 replies 14 participants last post by  bertholomey  
#1 ·
Hi all,

This was my first system with a DSP so I wanted a pro to install it and learn from the experience. I went to Columbus Car Audio to have the install done. I'd like to personally thank Don(D-Bass) for helping me bounce ideas around of what to install and Dan(danno) for the incredible work done.

What went in:
  • Hertz Mille MLK 3 PA (Front stage)
  • Audison Voce 3.0 and 1.1 with AV CX 2W MH crossover
  • Audison Voce AV 12 sub
  • 2X Hertz HDP-4 amps
  • Arc Audio PS8 DSP
  • Pioneer AVH-X8500BHS head unit
  • Pure i-20
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Here is a before and after of the doors getting their sound deadener.
I had gotten the following sound deadener installed throughout:
hushmat bulk kit 30 12”x23” sheets
2 hustmat silence megabond 1/8”
and a 2 pack of 8” hushmat wave breakers (These went right behind the factory location for the 6 1/2” mid bass)

I’m going to start off with the head unit. The bracket was custom built to flush mount the bottom lip of the 8500 with the trim panel surrounding. The 30 pin apple adaptor is in the glove box and the factory USB location works.
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Here’s a close up of the IR repeater added for the Pure i-20 controller. It’s between the vent controls.
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And on to the doors.
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Here’s the wave breaker mat mounted behind the 6 1/2” door mid base.
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If you are going to sound deaden, then go all out.
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Here’s where the Mille 3” and tweets went in. I wanted as stock of a look as possible.
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Of course more sound deadener was used. :)
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More than a little custom fabrication was done.Here are the Mille 3” mounts.
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Here’s the Mille tweeters custom mount bracket.
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The foam surrounding the speakers was to seal up the speakers to the factory grills.

Here’s a couple of pics of the custom bracket for the rear voce 3.0.
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Did I mention sound deadener? :) The cavity behind the 3” rear fill was also filled with it.

Time to cover the amp rack and sub bottom mount.
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You can literally pick up the back end of the car holding it by the amp rack.
Here it is all wired up.
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Now on to the Sub box.
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The fill material used in the box was incredibly quiet. You could hear a difference with your head in there.
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Here’s the wall that was built for the floating sub box mount. The front of the sub box had leather glued to it to provide a flush seal and some grip. The back bottom of the sub is held in place by the amp rack. The top back of the sub is anchored to the rear deck with two brackets. Since no part of the sub box is touching the floor of the trunk, it’s a floating mount.
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Here’s the trim piece added to show off the sub a little more.
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Here a detail photo of blending the sub wall in to the factory panels to make it look like it belonged there all the time.
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Here’s where the Audison Voce 1.1 tweeters fit in to the rear panel.
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Here’s the assembly of the passive crossover mounts.
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Here’s how they look mounted on the sides of the floating Sub box in the finished trunk, without and with coverings.
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That concludes the photos. I was planning a video of the last bit not mentioned, but I'm going to be removing that when the PS8 controller comes out and going with a retina iPad mini head unit so.....There is also an Apple TV 3 under the passenger seat. The iDevice I use in the car is an iPad. It's the 3 with the 30 pin connector still. Since there is a HDMI interface on the 8500, the Apple TV uses that connection and comes up on the Pioneer. I hit applications to get to the apple TV. When I want to use the apps on the iPad I put the Apple TV to sleep and it drops me back to the last used screen. From there I navigate back to apps and I have full access to the apps. The goal of the install was as much of a factory look as possible.

I highly recommend Columbus Car Audio if you are in the area. They have been around since 1978 and still are going strong.

D-Bass and danno, if I missed something please chime in.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Well, I got the BRZ cause of it's handling. That alone put a smile on my face. With this stereo in it I don't want to get out of it now.

That's the reason my RAV4 is up on the chopping block to get redone. I've already removed a going bad pioneer AVIC from the RAV4 and put in an older Alpine 9833. Then I had to replace a speaker set up front with the newer T2652S after I blew out one of the mid-ranges on the T152S that were in it. The real surprise is when I turned the gains way down on the T212D2 subs they are really nice sounding and blend realy well. And I can still increase the bass with the RF controller for the amp and at the head unit to satisfy my inner bass-head every now and again.

Niebur3 said:
It looks really good!

A few questions.....

Why are you using passive crossovers with a PS8? Are the passives just for the rear speakers?

With all the sound deadening you did, why didn't you do any in the trunk?
Click to expand...
The passives are on the front and rear. The main reason to do active is time alignment. With the 3" & tweeter being so close to each other this is all but negligible.

I think the trunk lid itself may have some sound deadener due to the rear plate lighting vibrating some. With the trunk fully sealed from the passenger cabin, there is no air flow going back there. From outside the vehicle there is no trunk vibration.

t3sn4f2 said:
Gotta shrink those pics. It's taking minutes to download this page and I have a 70Mb DL speed.
Click to expand...
I'm hosting it from a linux box I have running apache. I have 1.5mb up and thought it would be enough. I'm working on resizing the images as I type.
 
#9 ·
I'll ask Dan to answer that when I get a chance to swing by the shop next.

JayinMI said:
I'm curious how long it took. My salesguy would probably underquote the labor and I'd have to do something like that in a day or two. lol

Jay
Click to expand...
The location I went to only has 2 installers. I knew that this would be worked on when they had time between other easy jobs. I was without it for 10 weeks total. My thoughts going in for them was take your time and do it right. The original quote for working on it between other cars was 4-5 weeks. I told them that sounded low to me knowing it was back burnered. I'm not a normal customer that wants it done yesterday. :)
 
#11 ·
I love the car.....too. Galaxy Blue or World Rally Blue - my guess is GBS. Great color!

My first thought was tweeters in the stock location, but I was worried about an overly narrow stage - is that your impression or did it turn out not to be an issue?

I like the Hertz stuff for sure! Very solid - and I like the amp rack / DSP rack - cool idea. Those small Hertz amps make it very easy to install.

I have yet to watch the game.......OSU........I'm one of those weeny fans that record it on DVR, turn off the phone and stay off the computer, finds out if they won, and then watches it. I didn't watch the MSU game.....but I'll probably watch the Orange Bowl.

Enjoy the car - I'll keep an eye on this if you do any car mods :)
 
#12 ·
With the windshield slightly curved as it is, the tweeters sound superb. The slightly directional and slight reflection off the windshield works well. The front sound stage is right where I want it. Toyota seams to put a lot of thought into their factory speaker locations when designing an interior unlike other companies.....GM.

I have a replacement head unit, an iPad Mini retina. I'm looking at leveraging existing mounts from home use to mount it in car. The iRoom miniDock mount is looking the best starting point so far. Motorized insertion and removal of the iPad mini. I'm still at a waiting point for the PS8 controller. Last I had called in to Arc Audio, they have started working on it. :) Once that is out I will be removing the 8500 and using the pure i20 connection to the iPad mini for the best digital quality I can get.


The OSU game.....I still can't believe that Urban Meyer left Braxton Miller in after he got hurt. This is not his previous college where he did not have depth at key positions on the team. Kenny Guiton would have thrown Baxton's last pass to the receiver that was wide open down field. Braxton is the more dangerous QB on the field due to his speed and scrabling, but Guiton is the better passer with better awareness of the receivers in my opinion. I'm more upset with Urban than anything else about the game.
 
#16 ·
Zippy said:
I have a replacement head unit, an iPad Mini retina. I'm looking at leveraging existing mounts from home use to mount it in car. The iRoom miniDock mount is looking the best starting point so far. Motorized insertion and removal of the iPad mini. I'm still at a waiting point for the PS8 controller. Last I had called in to Arc Audio, they have started working on it. :) Once that is out I will be removing the 8500 and using the pure i20 connection to the iPad mini for the best digital quality I can get.
Click to expand...
Zippy said:
I picked the PS8 mainly due to a restriction on the Bit One. I have a lot of 192khz 24 bit audio tracks. The Bit One freezes on anything over 96khz. The PS8 will play my tracks happily.
Click to expand...
Just to follow up on this......so you are planning on storing the 192khz 24 bit tracks on the iPad mini, and then feed them via the iRoom miniDock digitally - directly into the PS8? You are planning on taking out the Pioneer and have a digital only source?

I have considered various routes to play the few albums that I have purchased from HDTracks that are higher res content - with the P99, my options are a bit limited. I had looked at the HiFiman and A&K media players - but it would be challenging / diminishing returns to get the signal through the P99.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you get worked out - should be really cool.
 
#18 ·
Wow! very cool - now that I have seen a little video on the iRoom mini dock on a wall - I can see what you are thinking of - that would be very cool to have that mounted in the dash - simple push, and pull it out. I think it would look fantastic as well. Great solution! I'm looking forward to seeing it.
 
#24 ·
My build thread has gotten a little out of date. tweeters in A-pilars, removal of rear fill, mids on top of grills, rainbow DSP, iPad Mini in dash where head unit was..... So I figured I'd post up here my plans for next stages. I just got a SMSL X-USB and have tested it with my iPad Mini and a USB 3 camera kit to get toslink out and charge my iPad Mini. So, that with the PS8 controller and Bluetooth module.....It's time to put my PS8 back in and run toslink from my iPad Mini to the PS8.
 
#27 ·
Bit of a teaser. Here's some relocation of the traction control system to make room for the PS8 controller.

Here's the new home of my traction control system right under the headlights level set controls and trunk release to the left of my steering wheel.
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Here's the new home for the controller and old home for the traction control system. The bottom of the shot is the drivers seat. On the left in the photo is the center trim ring around the shifter. When my arm rests on the arm rest my hand is right at the controller.
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