tommie70

Hey everyone, This weekend I'll be tackling a major overhaul of my SV's sound system. I'm going to document the entire install and posing it to this thread.


The components I'm installing are;


2 - Focal PS165v1 Component systems. (Front doors, Rear deck)
1 - 12" Boston Acoustics Sub
1 - Rockford Fosgate 600W 5 channel Amp
1 - Rockford Fosgate Three Sixty .3 DSP


I'm disconnecting the factory Speakers and running heavier wire from the factory Head unit to the DSP.


This should be a good build to post as I haven't seen many pictures of the 8th Gen taken apart.


I'm not sure if I'll be posting the progress incrementally or if I'll do it all in one shot but come hell or high water, its getting done this weekend!!

JSROOKS

Oh man you are a life savor. I have been asking about this for weeks. I have the MAX S and know we have eight speakers total I just have no Idea how to remove the panels and what sizes we are dealing with. Thank You in Advance. I hope this can be done in Video usually a lot easier than pics IMO.

tommie70

Hoping to do a hybrid of vids and Pics. I Can't wait!

JSROOKS

Yeah if you figure it all out you are going to save us all so much money for having someone else do it.

tommie70

The install is complete, with the exception of the tweeters, they are just surface mounted and tacked into place while I find a hole saw the right size to.


I apologize in advance for missing some pictures. some of them either didn't come out good, or I forgot to take them. If I'm missing anything, feel free to ask and I'll try to explain it. The service manuals that I got from this forum actually help, it just takes a while to navigate them.


The tools pictured below are a must, and can be ordered on Amazon for just a few bucks. really worth having!

tommie70

The floor trim pieces can be carefully removed without a tool, but so much easier with. pay attention to how they overlap because I tried taking them off out of order and cracked the kick panel. luckily it's not visible where it cracked. The rear trim piece can't come out until the seat is removed, and I would do this one first. then the center pillar cover, threshold covers, and kick panel.


The Back seat is easy to take out. you just pull on two latches, one on each side and the seat pops right out.


The seat back and bolsters are held in with three bolts going across the bottom, plus five plastic anchors.


The rear deck finisher Can't come out unless you take the rear pillar covers off. be carful again because I put a crease in the rear deck cover trying to skip this step. I apologize again for the missing pictures.


The center brake light needs to be unplugged and the connector is *****y.


Once out, you can see you have room to put any size speaker you want back there.

tommie70

The door finishers were a snap. There are two bolts, one behind the door latch and one inside the door pull. After the bolts are removed, carefully work around the perimeter and snap the door finisher off. the trim tools come in handy again. the control panel is pressed in, just pry it up and it comes out. be careful with the little red light at the bottom of the door. you can easily break the clips that hold it on.

This reveals the gigantic, enormous, cavernous opening for the door speaker. I think Crutchfield tells you a 5 1/4 speaker is the only thing that fits because they only sell an adapter for a 5 1/4. I bet you could put an 8" speaker in there if you made an enclosure for it. I certainly would have gone bigger if I knew this up front. I have 6 1/2 inch speakers, and this is the biggest you can go without changing the stock enclosure. you'll have to make adapters out of wood if you want to put anything other than a 6X9 in. You could go with a 5 1/4 and buy the adapter from Crutchfield, but why?

tommie70

I needed to install the Amp control ****, and I also wanted to run Heavier wire directly to the outputs of the AV unit to feed the amp. If you are just replacing speakers, or want to tap into the speaker wires elsewhere, you can skip this step.


Getting the dashboard apart was uneventful. Just read the manual a couple times and get familiar with it. Grab the plasti-chrome ring on the l the leather shift boot and slide it down. it is snaps on, then there is a small metal clip that holds the shift lever on. The center of the console on snaps out pretty easily for access the screws for the leather finishers on the side of the console. the HVAC vents on top of the AV unit just snaps out too, revealing the screws for the AV unit cluster. Two on top, two on the bottom of the unit. there are also compression clips holding the AV unit in. A good yank and it come right out.

tommie70

I ran 16 gauge wire directly to the connector in the back of the AV unit to feed signal to the amp. This may have been overkill but the factory speaker wires are small. to do this I cut the wires right at the connector and soldered them to the heavier wire.


All of the wires are run through braided shroud.


The amp control is mounted in the accessory cup. its not visible, but the drill snagged and made an ugly opening.

tommie70

All of the speaker and signal wires were run through braided shroud and fit nicely into the channels on the rocker panels.


I don't have a picture, but the #4 Power wire for the amp runs through the hood release grommet in the firewall. #4 is the biggest wire your going to get through there.

tommie70

I made adapter plates for the speakers using the factory speakers as templates. The wood I originally had in mind just wasn't working and I wound up buying 3/8 birch plywood.


I put some sound proofing material inside the door panels as far as I could reach, and Silicone sealant was used behind the adapter plates. The adapter plates lined up perfectly for the factory placed foam gaskets to seal between the speakers and the panels.

The tweeters are temporarily mounted until I have time again to cut the holes.

tommie70

It is a definite improvement over the factory sound!


I will update the thread when I have the amp mounted better, the tweeters flush mounted, and the DSP installed. For now I have this time lapse video that I took of the first half of the install.


it's more entertaining than it is educational.

JSROOKS

Wow you did an amazing job. And I know you had to have a lot of patience and it probably took a lot of your weekend. But I am sure that feeling you get at the end when you are like I conquered that beast made it all worth it. I can't think off all the questions I have, but one would be are you going to do anything with the rear passenger door speakers and the dash?

tommie70

I originally thought that I would I find speakers that would fit, but it sounds great now. I'm not sure it would make a difference. A lot of high end builds I've seen do not use the dash unless your forced to.


I didn't take the rear door panel off, but it doesn't look like your going to get that much sound out of those two little speakers anyway.


If I can fin a good mid-range speaker that will fit I might add them when I have more control over the crossover points with the Fosgate 360

JSROOKS

In my experience with my old altima I removed those on the dash and it was night and day the sound bouncing off the windshield. But of course each to their own. I also had a Pioneer AVH 8500 that gave more power than what I am sure this head unit does. I just gotta figure out what speakers to go with. This guy at a shop I go through is trying to talk be in to the Hertz brand.

tommie70

I am going by a lot of the installs I've seen and the couple I've done. Having the tweeters high in the door is prefered because its better to have the sound delivered directly to you as opposed to reflecting off of the windshield. Especially when each corner is getting 50 watts RMS. In the dash, your getting some of the sound directly as well as some hitting you reflected at a delay.

JSROOKS

Yeah that is a very good point. I guess I am OCD when it comes to my car. I figure they gave it to me I might as well change out everything. I am shocked they went with a huge 6X9 in the front door though. When you took that off did they have like a factory harness connector or did it actually have wires inside the hole? In the Altima everything was connected outside the speaker enclosure kind of strange.

tommie70

Yes well if you notice, the premium sound package has tweeters in the door. Its a balancing act they have to perform when your getting the standard audio system. Not that the bose amp is anything to write home about.

There was a harness inside. I left everything intact and ran my own wire, one for my own preference and the other ao i can reinstall the factory speakers when i trade it.

JSROOKS

Yeah that is true. Well I can't tell you how much I appreciate all the hard work you put in to make this post for us. I am sure many will use it and will help make us less fearful of starting to install stuff ourselves.

tommie70

Hey no problem! I enjoy the interaction. I am by no means done, and hope to get some good feedback too.

JSROOKS

If you find some free time and wouldn't mind since you have the proper tools. Can you show us how to remove the A pillars and see what speakers are in the dash. And also show us how to remove the rear door panels and speaker size. I think the dash and rear doors are both 3 1/2's but not 100 percent positive.

tommie70

ok, I will be spending more time with it soon.


However, the service manual says they are 3" in the rear door and 2" in the dash. Judging by the manual, it does not look like there's a whole lot of wiggle room to put something bigger in either location.


Will get back to you soon with some pics of what's behind the door panel and dash grills.

JSROOKS

Thank you I'd appreciate it. Sometimes it is always hard to believe everything in the manual but it may be correct because of what I think are the automatic head light sensors on the dash may take up some space.

robtroxel

Thanks again for your concise and well worded instructions. I am in the process of adding more insulation to the rear passenger floor and the trunk area. Your rear seat removal tip makes it easier to do

tommie70

I flush mounted the tweeters in the window sashes on the doors, and in the vertical part of the rear deck finisher. Using the mounting pods that came with the tweeters, I made fillers so I could angle the tweeters inward a little.

tommie70

Using a scope, I determined the maximum the factory radio can be turned up before clipping, then adjusted the gain on the amp with it one notch below that setting. then with the scope attached to the amps output, I then adjusted the amp's gain until clipping occurred.


I thought it would be cool to mount the amp on a sliding shelf so I could slide it out to adjust it, but it didn't turn out the way I expected. The assembly takes up way too much room and it's a little crooked. This just isn't the look I had in mind. I'm sharing the pictures of it in case anyone has an idea for how or where to mount it. I'll probably end up having to mount the amp upside down under the rear deck, and stash the crossovers inside the trunk finishers. If I get a DSP, I stash it inside the finisher as well.


I still owe JSROOKS some pictures of the rear door, and dash speakers but I think this concludes the build.

JSROOKS

Damn man that is crazy but clean job with those tweeters. And as for those pics just whenever you can get to it no big rush. And depending how in love you are with a spare tire you could always clean that tray out and load your amps in there and go with the clean Plexiglas look.

tommie70

I firmly believe in murphy's law. The day after I take that spare tire out, I will need it! Years ago on my Probe GT, I removed the spare to make more cubic footage for the Sub Box, but I was young a dumb and not worried about being stranded.


You can say it, the shelf I made looks cheesy! I think I'll attach it where the bose amp would normally go if I had it.

JSROOKS

No the concept isn't cheesy just hard configuring with limited space I definitely get it. I have no place to say anything anyways. You manned up and tore her down mad respect for that.

tommie70

Just installed and tuned an Audison Bit Ten-D. Really makes a huge difference! I'm convinced that A good DSP is a must if you are doing aftermarket amps and speakers. No pictures to show, I hid everything inside the trunk shrouds.

JSROOKS

Yeah that is something I was definitely wanting to do but didn't know which brands are good I'm not trying to break the bank. Did that eliminate the clipping once you installed it?

tommie70

Well, the clipping is something you eliminate before even installing a DSP. It occurs when the source reaches its maximum output, which is not always 100% volume. I have an occilliscope that i hooked up to the output of the head unit. I downloaded some test tones and used them to determine the point of clipping. On the non bose system, this is at about 7-8 segments from the end. Your supposed to repeat this process on the output of the amp, and increase gain until it clips but this allowed too much "hiss" when the source was muted. I backed the gain on the amps down a little and the hiss went away. The main purpose of a device like the bit ten is to "de-equalize" the factory radio. They boost certain frequencies to help the crappy factory speakers get a decent sound. Once you install speakers that can actually reproduce these frequencies easily, your left with a very un equalized sound. In my case the highs were too high and the lower mids were sorely lacking. The bit ten smoothes the response and cleans up the sound immensely. For the money, the bit ten-d is a great buy. I originally wanted the rockford fosgate 360.3 but the reviews on the Audison bit tens were better.

JSROOKS

How much was it the processor? And will it give me enough channels to support all they speakers since the front ones are tied in together and both sets of rears are I believe and my two 12 inch subs.

tommie70

For some reason, They are hard to find online. I found one at a high end audio shop for $525.00 you can get the one without the remote control for $350.00. the bit ten has 4 input and 5 output channels. so it will take the four channels from the head unit and give you 4 out plus a sub. if you use Audison or Hertz amplifiers, you can connect them digitally and then it will have 8 output channels.

JSROOKS

Awesome well sounds like I have some pennies to save and do this right.

JSROOKS

What about something like this?


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Audison-Voce...gAAOSwV-RXEVbI

tommie70

Although that's a nice amp, it does not de-equalize. I also looked at Rockford Fosgate's offerings and they do not have an amp with those capabilities built in.
the only manufacturer that I've seen that offers a DSP with an Amp built in is JBL. it only has 20 Watts X 8.

JSROOKS

Bummer well was just trying to eliminate so many wires and boxes but it is what it is. That price tag for the bit ten is a bit much since its overseas now for the most part. Most shops don't carry if they do like you said it is up there. And I hate to buy used one and then it crap out.

tommie70

Yes, I spent quite a few hours looking and comparing. The guy I bought mine from seemed surprised that I had such a hard time finding one close to where I live. You could go with the Bit Ten, which would save you about $125.00. then if you want the remote, add it later. the remote is the only difference between the Bit Ten and the Bit Ten -D.


JL audio makes a basic one, but is only a 2 channel output.


http://www.crutchfield.com/p_1369810....html?tp=61671

JSROOKS

Yeah I will probably do that. The guys at the shop I go to I think they put down the Rockford one as what they were including in my quote, but alot of mixed reviews that I read and what you stated previously. Thanks for answering all my questions just trying to stretch my dollars wisely. It kind of surprises there aren't more options out there then again not alot of people stick with there stock head units.