This message is primarily for all those who helped out in the purchasing phase of our project. To refresh your memories my son wanted to replace and seriously upgrade the sound in his new to him 2001 Civic EX. Well we started the install on Saturday morning. We only had about 3 hours then but we managed to get everything taken apart. Turns out that to replace the 6x9s on the back deck you have to virtually remove the interior from the front seats back. Bright and early Sunday morning we got to it and started actually putting stuff in. The Clarion HU went in fairly well thanks to Crutchfield instructions (they really are worth thier weight in gold. Don't think we could have done with out them.) He had opted for the Q-form custom kick panels to house Infinity 50.5 components and I have to say I was disappointed with the fit of the panels. They are in but not as well as I'd like. I think we will revisit that. The biggest headache of the morning was getting the 4ga power line from the front to the back. Took over an hour to figure that one out. In general everything took longer than we figured and we were closing in on 6:30pm and still needed to finish all the hookups to the amp and run the ground. Well the lug that came on the ground cable was too small to fit the seat belt bolt and after 5 trips to Home Depot during the day for various and sundry I decided that we better wait until Monday to finish. I was dead on my feet and so was he but he was trying to ignore it. He tried to mount the JBL 6x9s and ran into what looked like a fit problem so called it quits also. On Monday my son finished all the wiring in the back (very nicely done with everything neat and cable tied off) and after a quick call to Crutchfield figured out the 6x9 problem. I stopped at Home Depot on the way home from work and by 6:30 there was sweet music in the car for the first time. By some miracle everything worked the first time we tried it. Now he had to put the car back together and boy that was a pure grade b*tch. By 8:30 it was done and he and my other son went for a ride. When they got back I asked how it was and they both liked it a lot but my younger son said it needed more bottom end. I told him he could try turning on the bass boost on the AudioBahn amp. He did and promptly fried one of the JBLs. Bad buzzing even with the bass boost off. It was fine before that. At this point he's throwing things and swearing up a storm (I really couldn't blame him.) A quick call to Crutchfield to confirm that no that shouldn't have happend and a new set of JBLs are on the way.
We are short on time now due to trips coming up so when they get here we are going to have Tweeters put them in. Besides we really don't want to take the rear seat area apart again.
At this point he's got a real nice sounding Infinity setup and soon it will all hopefully be right. Thanks to all who encourage us to do this. It's been a great experience for us even with all the problems.
Brian
Replies (6)
uochronos on 05/18/2004 15:59:39
glad to hear it went realativly smooth. usualy my installed have quite a few more hitches then that. so9 i would say for a first one it didnt go too bad at all. sorry to hear about the JBL's though. i weould suggest giving the speakers a week or so of normal power with no boost before tuning it u[p loud. some speaker actualy say to do this but i always do it with all. after all it is a mechanicaly mechanism and it well need to wear in. after all you wouldnt get a brand new engine and start drag racing it that day... glad your son enjoyed he set up though. and hope you well come back again for any future questions.
Buffalo on 05/18/2004 16:35:30
Thanks and rest assured we will be around. We still have the sub to do when he gets the money. That's a very good point about the speakers and time. For my home theater I ran pink noise for about 12 hours just to let the suspensions move a bit and loosen up. Then over the first three weeks or so there was a noticable difference as the speakers broke in. they got a lot more open and seemed to get cleaner. Could just be what I wanted to hear but who knows. Oh and by the way I didn't mention all the stupid little irritating things that happened just the highlights.
swez on 05/19/2004 11:35:00
Also, when running smaller mids/high from an amp, need to use the proper filter settings to protect the speakers for excess lows.
Since there is no sub installed now, best to set the High pass filters for front & rear channel based on size of speakers used:
Small: 3.5", 4x6" & 5x7" Use ~120-150 Hz. (HPF)
Medium: 5.25" & 6x8" Use ~80-100 Hz.
Large: 6.5" & 6x9" Use ~60-80 Hz.
Glad to hear you did such a good job. Yes, it is tedious and knowing the tricks of the trade come with experience and trial & error. That's why highly skilled installers make a good income. They know their stuff.
Congratulations on a job well done! CLAP
Swez
ryan on 05/19/2004 11:36:15
For having installed your guys first system it sounds like u did a good job. And of course if you have to do this again or take things out it will go by quicker since you got to know the vechicle and how to do everything. But good job and im glad you like everythign.
Buffalo on 05/20/2004 08:27:03
Thanks gang. He's already starting to look at sub stuff and I don't think he'll wait too long. I'll have some other postings looking for advice on that.
Swez, thanks for the reminder on the HPF. in the rush to get everything up and going on Monday I don't think we did that and I'll check settings tonight.
swez on 05/20/2004 09:50:29
While at it, check your gain controls on the amp as well. It should be close to the same settings as your HU preout voltage. (Ie: If the HU voltage is 4.0 volts, set the gain to about 3.0 -3.5 volts sensitivity)
Bass boost should not exceed +3dB @ 40-45 Hz., if used at all. The Sub and amp will remedy that missing 2 octaves when installed.
Swez
We are short on time now due to trips coming up so when they get here we are going to have Tweeters put them in. Besides we really don't want to take the rear seat area apart again.
At this point he's got a real nice sounding Infinity setup and soon it will all hopefully be right. Thanks to all who encourage us to do this. It's been a great experience for us even with all the problems.
Brian
Replies (6)
uochronos on 05/18/2004 15:59:39
glad to hear it went realativly smooth. usualy my installed have quite a few more hitches then that. so9 i would say for a first one it didnt go too bad at all. sorry to hear about the JBL's though. i weould suggest giving the speakers a week or so of normal power with no boost before tuning it u[p loud. some speaker actualy say to do this but i always do it with all. after all it is a mechanicaly mechanism and it well need to wear in. after all you wouldnt get a brand new engine and start drag racing it that day... glad your son enjoyed he set up though. and hope you well come back again for any future questions.
Buffalo on 05/18/2004 16:35:30
Thanks and rest assured we will be around. We still have the sub to do when he gets the money. That's a very good point about the speakers and time. For my home theater I ran pink noise for about 12 hours just to let the suspensions move a bit and loosen up. Then over the first three weeks or so there was a noticable difference as the speakers broke in. they got a lot more open and seemed to get cleaner. Could just be what I wanted to hear but who knows. Oh and by the way I didn't mention all the stupid little irritating things that happened just the highlights.
swez on 05/19/2004 11:35:00
Also, when running smaller mids/high from an amp, need to use the proper filter settings to protect the speakers for excess lows.
Since there is no sub installed now, best to set the High pass filters for front & rear channel based on size of speakers used:
Small: 3.5", 4x6" & 5x7" Use ~120-150 Hz. (HPF)
Medium: 5.25" & 6x8" Use ~80-100 Hz.
Large: 6.5" & 6x9" Use ~60-80 Hz.
Glad to hear you did such a good job. Yes, it is tedious and knowing the tricks of the trade come with experience and trial & error. That's why highly skilled installers make a good income. They know their stuff.
Congratulations on a job well done! CLAP
Swez
ryan on 05/19/2004 11:36:15
For having installed your guys first system it sounds like u did a good job. And of course if you have to do this again or take things out it will go by quicker since you got to know the vechicle and how to do everything. But good job and im glad you like everythign.
Buffalo on 05/20/2004 08:27:03
Thanks gang. He's already starting to look at sub stuff and I don't think he'll wait too long. I'll have some other postings looking for advice on that.
Swez, thanks for the reminder on the HPF. in the rush to get everything up and going on Monday I don't think we did that and I'll check settings tonight.
swez on 05/20/2004 09:50:29
While at it, check your gain controls on the amp as well. It should be close to the same settings as your HU preout voltage. (Ie: If the HU voltage is 4.0 volts, set the gain to about 3.0 -3.5 volts sensitivity)
Bass boost should not exceed +3dB @ 40-45 Hz., if used at all. The Sub and amp will remedy that missing 2 octaves when installed.
Swez
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