The Stereo Slow-Build Begins

I did nt want to cut them either, and was going to try use factory wiring, but I had to remove interior trim, seats, and pull up carpet to run all the amp wiring, and rca s, so I decided to just ran my own speaker wires for components, back doors, and sub. The factory wiring will still be intact. Just disconnected.

 

I just ran new wire right next to the factory harness through the rubber boot into the door. Think I taped the wire to a clothes hanger, and fished it through.

 

Question for Dinimal86. First off, I hope you realize you started this thread 2.5 years ago because of your own build so just a thanks for keeping it up with the never ending question answering. I'm about to start the path with a 2019 CM non-JBL and absolutely want to keep the factory headunit. It seems many Tundra forums have noted the common hissing at low volume, engine noise, etc with our trucks when adding amps, speakers, and subs. Now that you have what seems to be an incredible functioning system do you also have the dreaded hissing, humming or whatever we call it now and if not what pieces fixed it? Just the FIX86 or more?

 

Hey 737 - Im running stock head unit with amp, LC7I LOC, factory door speakers, a sub and James JL Audio tweeters in the dash
and no hissing or engine noise at all.

 

Thanks for the quick response. Literally this issue alone is keeping me from starting a build. I must assume the LC7I LOC is cleaning up the signal and that's a small price to pay to avoid engine noise. Thanks.

 

most bass knobs have the same phone/eithernet style connection, but the jl DRC knob has two knobs built into one, the part the sticks out the most controls the door/dash speakers, and the inner ring controls the bass (if you click the outer button in you can program it to do certain things....its got a lot of features). One or the other miiiiiight work, but you are probably better off getting one meant for your amp. whats the model of your amp?
here's one with a quick search:
https://www.crutchfield.com/S-h9yBkOURYYF/p_500RUXKNOB/Alpine-RUX-KNOB.html

 

not a bad idea. I went back and forth about it, and ultimately figured that the factory wiring is sufficient for the amount of power i'm pushing. no problems even when blaaaaaaasting some music.

 

I've always loved working on car stereo's......definitely a hobby of mine.
So there was definitely a desired brand with this build if you didn't notice , so the fix86 was going to be the go-to option for my dsp. When i was doing a ton of research about needing a dsp vs a line-out converter, i read a lot about how the factory head unit has bass roll-off (less bass the more volume), and that it applies a sound curve that best suits the factory speakers (which you want to get rid of for a good sound quality). I wanted to get a digital signal processor and started researching the fix-86 and did what every other person in their 30's would do....hit youtube. I watched a bunch of videos of people hooking their stereo's up to a fix86, letting it auto correct and measuring it with an RTA and being able to get a flat sound curve (exactly what i want). I read about the DRC knob and was a little bit confused as how it would work, and found that its supposed to be used as a master volume......hold up.....if i want to keep the factory head unit, i sure as shit want to use the factory volume knob. I contacted JL Audio and asked them for clarification about wanting to be able to use the head units volume and not the drc knob. Here's their response:

"It can work the way you want, but we do note in the manual that you may experience a bit of a hiss, or white noise, when using the OEM volume instead of a DRC. The middle knob of the DRC-200 will always be a master volume so you would just leave it at Max and use the outside knob for the subwoofer. The reasoning behind the noise is that we are now using the OEM stereo as a source and not an amplifier as it was before. We calibrate the FiX device with the stereo at a specific level, when that level changes the FiX still wants to give you full output so there's a void created. In many cases this is barely audible and only heard when the OEM stereo is turned all the way down, but I did want to make you aware of why we make that recommendation.

I compare it to using a home theater receiver; once that is in the system you control the volume from there and not the TV or source unit itself. For example if you are watching a movie through a DVD player and pause it, but turn the volume on the receiver up, you create a slight hiss because it is trying to replicate a signal that is not there."

I thought that was a really good explanation and i was sold. Now, after i installed it, i have found that there definitely some white noise at low volume if you have the drc knob turned up a bit. What i do, is i leave the drc knob at a level that has no white noise and i can have the music at a low volume if i'm having a conversation with someone. With it set like this, i can turn the head unit's volume all the way up and it isn't loud enough for me if i have the windows down (its fine if they're up), so all i do is turn the main drc knob up and the it really pumps up the volume without adding any white noise because the head unit is still up around 80-90%......now we're blasting the tunes! Its something that some could see as a nuisance (and there might be better options out there) but i'm not loosing any sleep about it and am still very happy with how the setup sounds.

In summary, you defiantly need to buy the DRC knob to go with the fix86. In my opinion it should be included with the fix (you can lower the output of the fix via laptop without the drc). I have thought about adding the twk88 and play with time adjustment and maximizing the sound stage, but i have yet to dig into all the settings (via laptop) of the fix86, and i figured i should do that first.

 

On my initial research and looking at TundraTex's setup, i almost went with the Lc7i. It did check a lot of the boxes and seemed like a good option and at a great value.

 

Hmm. Didnt notice thread was that old but its funny: ive been at my system for over 2 years too. All I need is a mono block and inclination to install the rest of equipment.

 

I plan on keep updating it as things change with the stereo, so its gonna be here for a while. i'll eventually get a new head unit. Probably once kenwood comes out with a large floating screen and a has wireless android auto. i've also thought about switching up my amps, and getting a 8ch amp to power all the doors/dash tweeters, and a dedicated mono amp for the subs.

 

Im a newb when it comes to this audio stuff, but one member here 1lowlife was a tremendous help and answered every dumb question I had.

Learned alot from you all here. Gratefull....

 

Although the screen isnt really large, (standard double din size), my Kenwood Excelon has Android Auto capability. I had the app installed on my phone for a while. I really liked the navagation part of it, but the app took a lot of resources from phone, and seemed glitchy, so I removed it. I haven t used it for a while. I have different phone now. Maybe I will try it again.

 

I've always gone with pioneer head units in other vehicles. I've read some really good things about kenwood decks, and before the big floating decks have started to appear, kenwood was one of the few that allowed the screen to tilt so it wouldn't have to have that little shelf infront of the screen (that bugs me for some reason).
I have heard about android auto being glitchy, i'm hoping that it gets the kinks worked out in the next year or two.

 

I wanted more channels too. Although I went a different route. Instead of an eight ch amp I went with an eight ch dsp.

I can then use, along with a four ch amp, two smaller two ch amps, or one four ch, to boost all channels. I went with a four ch and two small two channel amps.

 

Absolutely what I was looking for in an answer. Thanks much.

 

You are welcome! Let us know how your build goes!

 

As a person who cannot leave anything alone, there are some big updates coming to "The Stereo Slow Build Begins" thread. Hopefully the last big change.....but i've been wrong before

I was fairly happy with how my audio build had progressed. One thing that it was lacking was the ability to tune and time correct the speakers. I noticed that if i moved my head in between the two front seats, its sounded drastically better. I had thought about adding a twk88 to my setup to be able to tune the system, but with having passive crossovers, you can only somewhat accomplish this. Sooo, after reading through @Vector W8 's build, picking his brain about all things car-audio (thanks btw) and doing some research i decided i wanted to go 3-way active crossover for the fronts. This means i would need to get a 8ch amp (assuming i would keep the rears passive), and a mono amp to push the subs, which is fine because i wanted to up the power going to the subs anyways.

I found that greater than 5ch amps get exponentially more expensive the more channels you add. I looked at the JL Vx800/8i (expensive) but decided to try to source another HD900/5 on the marketplace, which i was able to find for a killer price the next day. With the dual hd900/5's i'll have 8 channels at 100w rms and 2 channels at 500w rms. The next hurdle would be a dsp. I reached out to @james@tech12volts about a dsp and he recommended the Helix DSP Pro Mk2. I also looked at the PS8 from Arc that was recommended by Vector. I opted for the Helix because it had 10 channels of output so i would be able to keep my rear speakers (seems like a lot of people ditch the rear speakers all together, but i end up having passengers in the back seats often, so i wanted to keep them).

I really like how the AudioFrog g60s' i have sound, so i opted to add a 2.5" gs series to the set and ditch the passive crossovers. I had a nice chat with Andy, the owner of AudioFrog and he is a stand up guy and said that adding a 2.5" will work just fine as opposed to buying a full set of gs or gb speakers (lots of $$$ if i went that route).

I'm now confronted with the problem of where to put all this. I have an amp rack for under each of the front seats. I need to fit 2 Hd900/5 amps, a fix86, the Helix DSP and a distribution block. Everything is kind of boxy, so i cant really fit more than 2 items on a rack. I'm thinking that my best bet would be to put the fix86 and one amp on the passenger side (since thats where the fix86 pulls the signal from the head unit) and the Helix and the other amp on the drivers side. I'll probably put the distribution block on the drivers side also. There's going to be a lot of power and rca's going across that i'm hoping it doesn't because a mess.

While i'm at it, i'll be running new 1/0 gauge OFC wire from the battery with a 120amp breaker (i always wanted to use one of those) and i'll also be running new 12ga ofc speaker wire to all the speakers. I've also got speaker cups for the 6.5" front and rear drivers with foam rings (hopefully those will give me a little more midbass).

 

Dang, 2 HD 5ch amps! Going to sound killer.
Question, why do you need the fix86 before the helix? Couldn't you connect the helix using the high level speaker signal from the headunit? Or do you need the flat signal from the fix?
Didn't want the helix ultra 12ch to run the rears active in the future?

 

I'm not 100% sure about the benefit of keeping the fix for a preamp. James said that either the fix or dsr1 would be good, he said the dsr1 is better though for the record.
I'm thinking that it should give me a nice flat baseline that I can tune from there.

I did think about the ultra with its extra outputs. Reading through a lot of builds and many are not even running rear speakers, they don't really add much fill. I think I should be fine with keeping the rear passive, but who knows. We will find out this weekend.

 

Changes should make for some real noticeable improvements, especially after you get the tune dialed in. The Audiofrog RTA mic and Andy's tuning guide are a great combo for tuning.

If you end up adding a director controller to the Helix, the sunglasses holder makes for a clean and hidden install. Found a video from tech12v where they did it (skip to the very end)

https://youtu.be/3c6iwmJBNGI?t=92

 

You cannot go wrong with Audiofrog and Helix.

 

I went back and forth with him about the director. I dont really like the idea of having that thing visible, james mentioned that he put his in the sunglasses holder. Seemed like a good idea, but dang, that remote display/controller is like $350. Since i wanted something a little more stealth, i opted for the non display remote and it was only around $50. It just has two knobs and a button that you can program to whatever you want. I'll probably have it as a master volume, subwoofer volume and switching between presets.

 

I like that idea. Is it a Helix item?

 

I just bought a Helix V Eight DSP. I need to control bass volume and Main Volume. Does it come with extension cable?

 

Its the URC.3

 

Awesome. Where did you buy this?

 

Good lord thats a pricey remote! Always thought the director looked incredible but seemed a bit like overkill. Remote for my JL DSP is what you're thinking and i've never once wanted it to do anything more.

 

you have the twk88?

 

Had one, VXI now. Basically the same thing though