Stereo upgrade

Tossed the old factory head unit.
New pioneer nex1500.
Kicker ks 6.75 components ….
Silicone baffles
JL bass amp
Memphis 400/4
JL sub
Some sound matt from Amazon
Almost done.
Whew

 

Couple pics

 

Any questions feel free to shoot

 

If you still have your old factory radio I'll take it!

 

Nice. Covering the big hole in the door may slightly improve midbass response. Some use abs plastic or even the siless damping mat if you have extra. Really depends upon things like speaker characteristics, etc. Prolley not worth it unless you have a bunch of extra siless laying around.

 

Looks good! Do you want to do mine next?

 

Put in your year and truck and scroll down to "stereo", pick the one you want, and search near your zip code.

 

Man I would give you my factory radio but it didn’t work. The volume knob was shot.
Life is way better now.

I’m running an “active setup”. One channel on each tweeter. One on each mid in the doors.

 

Nicely done. Almost gives me the inspiration to do mine. Almost. Is that a silicon cup thingamajigger your speaker is sitting in... do you trim it? Or am I just baked. Strong work.

 

It’s a silicone speaker baffle.
To me better than foam that would degrade

 

Finished product, how does it sound?

 

It’s awesome. If you have never run an active system I really recommend it. You must have a hard fact way of controlling crossovers digitally.
Most amp crossovers (with a dial knob) will not be specific enough to control this. (Some amps of course have computer software that allow you to run the crossover digitally).

My pioneer head unit is run in “network mode”.
Allows for high mid and low rca out not the standard front /rear/sub rca out.

It was a lot of work. Kicked my bottom. Have door clips handy. Take your time and plan on having the seat in and out a few times.

 

Been a while. After tuning and working through everything this was a great upgrade. I love it. Also make sure you use oxygen free copper wire. It cost more but it’s the right way.

 

I need to get a few subwoofer photos. I went with a JLt 10 thin woofer. It’s in an enclosure that fits behind the passenger seat but will end up in my 2019 tundra someday (which is why it’s black). I have another sub (same make) I will have done for this truck in the same interior color. I like that I can remove it if needed. I haven’t had too and I’ve been on a few hunting camping trips already.

I forgot to mention I put tesa tape on all the door wiring. You don’t know how much noise your wires makes banging on the interior door panels till it’s gone. Mercedes knows this…. They come stock this way. It’s a cheap easy thing to do when the door panel is off.

 

For those that asked. I cut mdf to fit the amps. Liquid nails to the floor. Drilled amp into that.

 

i.e. "the right way to handle things w/o drilling body panels"!

 

That's how the original owner installed a pair of 6" enclosure upward facing speakers in my S-10 when I bought it in high school. These are the type you would see mounted on the back deck facing forward. glued a piece of 1" plywood cut to match the footprint of the enclosure and then mounted to that. Was nice having those speakers right behind your shoulders behind the seat.

 

It's how we typically installed amps to the floor. A lot of people make the mistake of zip-tying or velcro to the carpet. In a front-end collision, that amp is taking out someone's ankles. Then you have animals who'll use sheet metal screws to mount things, which can cause other issues (ground loop etc.)

In a pinch, 3/8" MDF Liquid-Nailed to the floor works fine, then 1/2 screws to hold the amp down. Proper-proper way to manage is 3/8" PVC or ABS with rivnuts or threaded inserts. Some companies like Ground-Shaker make prefab boards in ABS but they're $$$.

If the topic is interesting, Mark @ CAF does a great job of explaining misc board/mounting options and pros/cons in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WtmJdVHWUs
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And for amp racks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKlkZu11OXo

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