The door panel fits! I lucked out a bit here since I assumed the openings in the frame and panel were concentric, but they are just a bit off. I could have shaped the rings to fit over the odd contours to get it perfectly centered, but it turned out ok. One of the grill's metal clips had to be removed in order for it to fit. That could have been avoided had I centered the ring to the panel, but oh well. It still pops in and holds well enough.
I just about finished applying a bunch of AlphaDamp to the passenger door. It closes with a nice thud now. Someday I might finish this thing.... someday.
The more and more I see these Focals K2 components I want them. But dayum, retail price is $1200. Is there something comparable but easier on the wallet? best bang for the buck?
I have been lurking the DIYMA forum. I like Boston Acoustics and I know Dynaudio is great too. Some guy on CL has a set of Phoenix Gold components (RSd 65cs) for $75 BNIB, never installed. Don't know much about the PG, tho. Let's hear more good info.
The more and more I see these Focals K2 components I want them. But dayum, retail price is $1200. Is there something comparable but easier on the wallet? best bang for the buck?
I have been lurking the DIYMA forum. I like Boston Acoustics and I know Dynaudio is great too. Some guy on CL has a set of Phoenix Gold components (RSd 65cs) for $75 BNIB, never installed. Don't know much about the PG, tho. Let's hear more good info.
I snagged this set of Focals from a forum member on DIYMA for less than half price. What's really crazy is the Focal Be 7 set at $5500. Really?? For a set of speakers and a fancy passive crossover? That's actually $100 more than what I paid for my Insight.
In my Vette, I was running a set of JL Audio TR650csi components and I thought they sounded pretty good for the price. I found a good deal on a used set locally. The Focals sound a good bit better, but unless the rest of your system is solid you'll never hear the difference.
Crutchfield has a nice search engine that lets you set the price range to what you're willing to spend and then sort by customer reviews, price, specials, etc. They are a great company to do business with and they are an authorized reseller so the full manufacturer warranties are supported. Amazon has a large review base, so I often check there too before I make a purchase. Polk Audio, Fosgate, Infinity, JL Audio, Arc Audio, and Focal are among the speaker brands I have used and recommend.
Lurking on the DIYMA forum classified is a great way to score a good deal if you're patient and know what to look for.
Yesterday, my 2nd replacement amp arrived. Powering the midbass and tweeters, an Arc KS125.4 mini and for the sub, an Arc KS500.1 mini. These pack a consider amount power delivery for their size which I will be tucking into the "shoebox sub" area in the back. As small as they are, I will have to get a little creative with the arrangement. I would have purchased these a while ago, but they retail at $400 each. I scored a nice discount by patiently lurking on the DIYMA classifieds.
[QUOTE=Gadget01;244943]The door panel fits! I lucked out a bit here since I assumed the openings in the frame and panel were concentric, but they are just a bit off. I could have shaped the rings to fit over the odd contours to get it perfectly centered, but it turned out ok. One of the grill's metal clips had to be removed in order for it to fit. That could have been avoided had I centered the ring to the panel, but oh well. It still pops in and holds well enough.
Great installation. Wondering if you have a plan for the tweeters? Do you locate the crossovers in the doors or somewhere where you can more easily adjust them? I have a set of Focals coming for install and your info has been very useful. Thanks for posting.
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Silver 2004 CVT. 55.6 mpg over 7000 miles. 2000 Citrus 5 speed. 72.5 mpg over 6000 miles.
Wondering if you have a plan for the tweeters? Do you locate the crossovers in the doors or somewhere where you can more easily adjust them? I have a set of Focals coming for install and your info has been very useful. Thanks for posting.
The tweeters will get fiberglassed into the A-pillar trim. For now, they are fitted into a set of PVC endcaps which allow for some experimentation with aiming. Once I'm settled on the angles, they will be permanently mounted and blended in. If all goes well, they should look like a factory option.
I omitted the passive crossovers with the Focal woofer and tweeter set. I am using an active/pre-amp level crossover (Audio Control 6XS). There are more independent options that I may take advantage of later, but for now, I'm running my Alpine head unit's front 2-channel output as a full-range input to the 6XS. I have 3 outputs set up as sub, midbass, and tweeter- each set for specific frequency bandpass. The sub channel is input to the Arc KS500.1 mono-channel sub amp and the midbass/tweeter channels are input to the Arc KS125.4 4-channel amp. Each speaker has a dedicated amp channel. The benefits of an active crossover setup are many, but the end result needs to be heard to be truly appreciated. After I finished working on this today, I ops-checked it for about 20 minutes with lossless audio tracks of Pink Floyd.
I work 2 jobs, so just in case you're wondering why this is taking so long, but here's what I have done over the last week or so....
I shaved the speaker grills down further and tried to have it not look like the neighbor's dog did the work. I think I'm done with these:
I found a nice sheet of HDPE at a local department store in the form of a 1/4" cutting board that needed minimal trimming to fit the shoebox area to serve as the amp rack's base-plate. The trick to securing this panel... at least in my mind... was to use the battery compartment's oem fasteners if I could since I don't like drilling more holes in a car than I absolutely have to. This mounting rail is cut from 1" square aluminum tubing. I will have to drill a couple of small holes for the rear mounting bracket not yet installed.
A side shot of the bracket:
Far from a completed amp rack, but at least it's bolted down now:
Gorgeous car, quality thread, great information, thank you.
My system is a crappy Alpine driving two Polk MMC6500s in the doors, two 6.5 do-nothing woofers in the rear, and a home audio powered sub in the front passenger footwell, driven from a 300w inverter. I know, I'm crazy, but... lol, it's enough to keep me from going truly crazy while I deal with crappy traffic in 1.5hrs commuting every weekday.
Thank you. It's been a lot of work and it's still a ways from finished, but it's functional and sounds pretty darned good, especially for having zero equalization at all aside from the bass/treble controls. This is Alpine's way to motivate you to buy their external processor. My first album selection for my little 5-hour road trip today was "Dark Side of the Moon," ripped to a lossless format from the gold ultradisc. I think "Time" is my favorite track from this album and when that first note hits after the ticking clocks.... goose bumps. No details are missed.
My previous system in my Corvette employed an AudioControl EQL, a 13-band EQ with separate controls for the left and right channels. Something like this takes considerable time to dial in properly- filling in the dips and attenuating the peaks using test tones and a real-time analyzer. Rather than take that direction with the Insight, I'm saving for a new head-unit (Pioneer DEX-P99RS) that integrates a dual 32-band EQ and 4-way crossover network which conveniently eliminates the need for external EQ/crossover components. Some would argue the Pioneer DEH-80PRS would easily be good enough, and they would be mostly right. For a fraction of the P99's price, you get a 16-band left/right EQ and a 3-way crossover network. If I did already have the Alpine deck and the 6XS EQ, I might entertain that idea, but this is a sound quality system and I'm not looking for a modest upgrade. I'm re-ripping all my CD's in lossless AIF format for a reason.
Since mounting the tweeters in PVC endcaps and "securing" them in place with velcro, I've not made any further progress with them. I still have work to finish in the doors, amp rack, and sub enclosure first. The tweeters will probably be the final detail once the rest is finished. The idea was to figure out a way to aim the tweeters at a precise angle and then adjust as necessary before glassing them in permanently. So far, aimed directly at each other sounds pretty good and I think I'll just stick with that.
This is the ghetto-ish setup at the moment:
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'03 Blue 5 spd with 900 watts of hifi audio, Matiz springs & Monroe dampers
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