Aight Guys, here's the drill. I am going to do the enhancement of the sounds in 2002. I am going to a store called Music in Motion out of Crestwood, IL to price the speakers and the amp. I want to run this by you and see what you think.

Amp: a/d/s
Speakers: JL Audio Evolution (6.5" Components)
Sub: Either a JL Audio 12W6 or Audiobahn sub




Also, since I am a novice in the competition arena, I would like to know what I need to look out for when setting up this system.

 

I'm not incredibly fond of the Audiobahn subs for competition, but they're fine for "regular" use...

if you plan on competing, I'd suggest going to a few shows and meticulously checking out some other installs.

As for recommendations on how to install it..

1. hide ALL your wiring. that's a gimme.

2. split loom it all for protection and to blend with stock wiring.

3. take pictures of everything. if the judge can't see it from walking around the car, he wants a picture of it. (i.e. the grommet where you ran the cable through the firewall).
best thing is to use a regular camera here- even cheapie disposables work great.. you have to go back and print digicam pics later- not cheap.

4. make up a folder with basically a step-by-step guide to how you installed everything..
i.e. take pics of sub box construction, and talk how and why you did things the way you did. it doesn't have to be a thesis about every picture, but if you've got something cool of different that noone else has, be sure to highlight it.

5. ALARM. make sure you have one. you'll loose points if not.

6. terminate all your wires correctly. and splices you have should be soldered and shrink-wrapped, not butt-spliced together.
Same goes for all connectors.. terminate EVERY wire with a connector, and solder/ shrink wrap everything together.

7. when you have a bunch of wires going places- like your amp rack.. make it extremely neat and tidy. judges hate to see a rat's nest when they look at an amp rack.

8. nothing wrong with throwing in a little flash and pizzaz if you can. colorful wires (as long as they're high quality) are always a plus, but make sure everything kinda blends together.
you don't want one purple speaker wire to your subs when everything else is orange or red or clear..

shall I go on?

 

I have a/d/s speakers and amp in my max, and speakers in my truck.

The amps are rock solid with great crossover versatility, but not conservatively rated for competition, and are a chore to tune right. My p-840 is rated at 8x40, but I have seen independant tests at 8x37. the beauty of say PPI or MTX is they rate lower so in competion you stay in a lower class.

I love the speakers, I bi-amp my drivers at 100-120 per channel so I get good front stage low end without hammering the tweets. I am an old-fart so my taste is mellowing, the 346s in my truck are silky smooth, but the A Series in the max have better mid-bass. Both have very warm silk tweets.

I bought the maxes a/d/s at a dealer and paid top $. There are some good deals for a/d/s online these days. I got the 346s at audio-n-more.com, and they appear to be top notch.

Forget the Audiobahn, hold out for JL-3, JL-6 or JL-7s,.

 

1. hide ALL your wiring. that's a gimme. (I want to go for a total stealth install)

2. split loom it all for protection and to blend with stock wiring. (Good thought)

3. take pictures of everything. if the judge can't see it from walking around the car, he wants a picture of it. (i.e. the grommet where you ran the cable through the firewall). Best thing is to use a regular camera here- even cheapie disposables work great.. you have to go back and print digicam pics later- not cheap. (I have a regular 35 mm SLR and will use 100 speed film to get the detail)

4. make up a folder with basically a step-by-step guide to how you installed everything..
i.e. take pics of sub box construction, and talk how and why you did things the way you did. it doesn't have to be a thesis about every picture, but if you've got something cool of different that noone else has, be sure to highlight it. (Good Point)

5. ALARM. make sure you have one. you'll loose points if not. (Oh believe me, that will be a high priority and I plan to have a :vampire: surprise afterward)

6. terminate all your wires correctly. and splices you have should be soldered and shrink-wrapped, not butt-spliced together. Same goes for all connectors.. terminate EVERY wire with a connector, and solder/ shrink wrap everything together. (Yet another good point)

7. when you have a bunch of wires going places- like your amp rack.. make it extremely neat and tidy. judges hate to see a rat's nest when they look at an amp rack. (I won't be doing the installation. I am leaving that to Music In Motion)

8. nothing wrong with throwing in a little flash and pizzaz if you can. colorful wires (as long as they're high quality) are always a plus, but make sure everything kinda blends together.
you don't want one purple speaker wire to your subs when everything else is orange or red or clear.. (I am planning to use Streetwires)

shall I go on? (By all means, bruh! I could use the insight.)

 

Initially, I thought about the a/d/s but I know they are kinda pricey. Another component set I thought of is Kicker's. If you can get me a good deal on the a/d/s, hook it up!

 

I was wondering if I could put an Eclipse 5962 6 Disc Changer in the storage area under the armrest of the Max.
Could this be done or would it take a lot of work?

 

probably not, but it depends on the size of the cd player
there isnt' much room in the armrest as it is and little to no room under it becuase thats where the seatbelt mechanisms are since we have auto seatbelts

 

Basically, this is an in dash unit I wanted to stick there.

If there isn't enough room, then I will stick with my original plan of putting the 5083 under the seat

 

I did some pricing or and listening to components Saturday at Music in Motion (Crestwood, IL).
This is the proposed setup:

Amp: a/d/s PH640.2 (70 x6)
Components: a/d/s 5.25" components
Rears: JL Audio Evolution 6x9
Sub: JL Audio 12W3

What do you think?

 

Sounds like a pretty good setup to me. What does the amp bridge to power wise? You might be under powering the 12 a little. If it is only 140x1 I would think about going for the JL 12W0. The W0 requires less power. Just a thought!

 

275 for the sub.

 

Well then...disregard my last comment. The 12W3 will love 275W. Hell, I would love 275W!! Sounds great!! So any kind of time frame for this, or are you gonna wait until next year?

I got a line on some amps. A friend of mine has family down in Missouri and he visited a shop down there a couple of weeks ago. The guy at the shop was having a huge sale on all of his Kicker amps. I just found out yesterday that he pretty much sold out of everything, but he had 2 out of the 3 amps I am looking for. A DX700, which is their D-class amp that is 700x1 into 2ohms. The other amp is for the front stage and it is a ZR360, which is 90x2. These 2 amps alone retail for over $1500 and he is shipping them to me for $775! That is an absolute killer deal!! I guess the guy really loves Kicker, but there really isn't a market for them down in Missouri. Everyone is buying Rockford, because it is a lot cheaper for more power.

So, I will be purchasing my front stage and sub amps in the next day or so. Now it's time to start playing with some head unit to figure out what I want! I'll let you know more later!

 

Looks good to me. You will find that the a/d/s speakers have tremendouns midbass attack. They are amoung the best I've heard in this regard, and that includes Dynaudio, CDT Audio and Focal. The a/d/s tweeters are a little more subdued and sound pretty close to Dynaudio's in their detail.

As for the Eclipse 5962 under the armrest, it will prolly fit on a custom bracket but I'm not sure if it can be vertically mounted like it would need to be in that location. Since it's an indash type unit and not a minichanger I believe it prefers a fairly horizontal mounting.

a/d/s Powerplate amps are very nice. You should be very pleased with this setup.....

Have you not considered a/d/s subs as well? I hear that many people like them...

 

I tested this setup playing Kenny G's "Duotones" and LL CoolJ's "Momma Said Knock You Out." I fell in love with the clarity of the a/d/s over the Focals and the JL Audio Components. For kicks, I had him run the entire setup through a McIntosh MC440M and it was silky smooth on the highs and mids.

I asked about a/d/s subs and they did not have any to demo.
I tested RF, Focal, and JL Audio. The JL won that with the RF coming in second.

Do you think I could compete with this particular system?

I kind of changed my mind about putting that CD changer in the armrest for one main reason. The changer is a slot loading unit and anything can fall in there. Plus, I need the storage space for my Palm Pilot and cell phone.

 

Sure you could compete with it....You just have to get the install done in top looking condition and keep a meticulously clean appearance.

That would put you in the Novice 1-600 Street class for IASCA competitions, and Novice 301-600 for USAC.

 

The shop I am having this done has done a lot of top notch custom installs. I have seen a Caprice similar to the one I had with a 4000 watt system and it was a very clean install.

With the thoughts of competing firmly entrenched in my brain, I probably need to scope out local events.

As far as meticulously neat appearance. Rest assured, the Maxima will not vary too much from its stock appearance.

 

I took a demo listen to the 6.5" a/d/s components and found that the it added more bass than necessary so I am sticking with the 5.25" a/d/s.

I am going to start putting some green on this system in a few weeks and I hope to get the sounds jumping off by either the end of this year or the beginning of next year.


Canuck: I have one small question. Would adding a 2nd sub hurt or would the single 12W3 hit hard enough?

 

You gotta go with 2!!!!!!! Ahhhhhh...BASS!!!!! No, seriously now, the only problem I see with adding a second woofer is the fact that your amp would be under powering the pair. I remember you saying that it was like 275W x 1. I would say don't give them anything less than 400W. I am going to put 2 12W3's in my trunk and shove 700W into them. This should be something to listen to. I will hopefully get it done buy the end of June or early July. My friend has 2 12" Type R's (Alpine subs) with about 600W going into them and it just slams. I think my car should be just as loud if not louder.

On the flip side, the guy that works at the shop that I will be getting my stereo installed at only has a single 12W3 in the back of his Saturn and it blasts too. Pretty darn loud, but I need more, so I'm gonna get more! Good luck with the install and let me know how it goes.

 

Will do

 

As you can probably see, I am very excited over putting the sounds in my car. If I play my cards right, this system might be in some time before Christmas (I really want to pull this off for my B-Day in October or sooner).

But the final system layout is:

Head Unit: Eclipse 4441
CD Changer: Eclipse 5083
Amplifier: a/d/s 640.2
Components: a/d/s 325i
6x9s: JL Audio Evolution
Subwoofer: JL Audio 12W3

Dealers
Source Components: Fox Security South; Oak Lawn, IL
Amp and Speakers: Music in Motion; Crestwood, IL