THought Id post up my current system

[caraudiodave]

haha thanks. and I still need to vacuum that black felt stuff as its like a magnet for saw dust and other garbage. Remember, I have 3 pairs of speaker cables going to each door, 2 pairs coming back from the factory deck, an extra pair of speaker wires for possibly a center channel, and a remote turn on wire coming from the factory deck. It took some thinking to figure out how to make it all neat and not a rats nest.

I started my beauty board since I was too frustrated to troubleshoot the MS-8.

heres the start...you get the idea of where I am going with it...Oh and a shot or two of my inline fuse, custom built mount and all:

[Metallman56]

man I love this project, almost as much as I love that Mac amp

[bricooper78]

Yea, I'm chomping at the bit and want to gut the GA and just go insane on it

Still have other projects, the stereo is the last thing I do anymore, remember the good ole days, when it was numero uno

[caraudiodave]

yea stereo would have been the last thing on the list, but I dont plan to do anything else since its a daily driver and I drive into some really bad neighborhoods. Anything like rims, exhaust, spoiler...will tip people off that its modified, and lowering it will give me issues with speed bumps. I want coil overs so bad...maybe it will happen.

also, down pipe and tune would hurt my warranty as the VW dealers are known for checking the tune files when i bring it in for the free maintenance.

[caraudiodave]

well its done. I still want to do some fine tuning, but the cosmetics are done (minus the Phoenx gold amp that wont be done until sometime around the end of the year.

This is the only picture for now. Im not posting any finished photos anywhere else until after a meet that I am going to this weekend. I am confident that nobody on here will be at the meet.

you can barely make out the VW logo that is in the floor...its hard to capture with the flash. Dont mind that wire...its the cable for the microphone for the DSP, i need it to tune. It unplugs and goes away easily. Also, the carpet is really a much better match then the picture shows. the flash makes it look lighter.

[bricooper78]

Very nice man!

[caraudiodave]

So like any car or system, it's not done.

I have my next step planned...get rid of my Mac amp and replace it with a ZED audio leviathan amp. The issue with my Mac is that it's 50x4 + 100x2, at 4 ohms. My Dynaudio 3" mids and tweeters are 8 ohms, and while it all sounds great, I want more for all my speakers (more head room). The zed amp is 6 x 190watts at 4 ohms, but 6 x 100 at 8 ohms, so 4times the power to my mids and tweeters plus double the power to my Midbass. This will be essential since I will have 1000 wants going to the sub. It won't happen over night, but should be done in the next few months. Look for my install to look much cleaner too (if that's possible).

For those unfamiliar with ZED audio, they are responsible for some of the best quality amps that came out in the 90s from soundstream, autotek, and few other companies. They are on their own now, and making some of the best amps out there. Best news is this is a current amp.

[bricooper78]

Man you had me until soundstream

There is never anything wrong with (Tim Allen grunt) more power! But, are they the same physical size, or do you have to redo your beauty board now?

[caraudiodave]

I'll have to redo the beauty stuff I think, but not sure. I kind of wanted to redo it anyway to show off the wiring a bit, and maybe use mdf. I would have to take measurements to see how close it is.

I could be wrong about soundstream. If it was soundstream it wasn't their entire line, it was just their high end stuff.

Here's the info on the amp: http://www.woofersetc.com/p-10523-le...amplifier.aspx

Edit: I did some searching, they made SOME models for Planet Audio, Autotek, US Acoustics, HiFonics, and I think I read sou dstream, but their high end stuff only.

[bricooper78]

330x6@2ohm RMS is pretty stout. That is a beast. .05% THD??? wow. clean! very nice man

[caraudiodave]

Thanks. Yea, I mean if it's going to replace the amp that I've been dreaming of owning for 10 years then it needs to be nice.

I couldn't find another 6 channel with more power that was this clean. I still need to do more research but I'm 99% sure I want this amp.

Crap, I think I just saw something...my RCAs are too beefy to fit on those connectors. I might need to use my cheaper connectors.

This amp looks way smaller than the Mac...e benefit of going class D. Not completely sold on class d, but I understand that there's a lot of difference in quality between cheaper class D and high end class D.

[bricooper78]

I had to grow up and go back to rent to own just as the D stuff started coming out, so aside of the basic understanding of it, I haven't so much as ever touched one that had power hooked to it. I have heard a lot of good things, however it was simply from kids that wanted to annoy people 3 blocks away.

I understand them as this:

They make retarded power, and can blow up walmart subs. those are the 2 things I've heard repeatedly about them

[caraudiodave]

Ill give you more info. They draw less current, they are way more efficient, about 80-85% (versus 60% for the A/B) meaning more power and less heat. They have a smaller footprint due to ICs (integrated circuits) rather than a large board with FETs, transistors and so on.

problem is, most of them have higher distortion and lower signal to noise ratios. typically they are better for subs (where distortion is preferred) and not ideal for components. lately, the design has become good enough on the higher end amps that you can get good sound from components as well.

I wouldnt use a crappy class D to run components, but some of the middle to upper end ones are great. I hear lots of good stuff about the JL audio HD series, the alpine ones too (they are stackable). I just cant use them because I need a powerful 6 channel, and they offer a much less powerful 6.

If I had a choice i would still take a nice class A/B over a D, but to get the power I need with a Class A/B i would need an amp the size of my entire trunk, with like 2 extra batteries and an extra alternator.

[bricooper78]

And 2 extra batteries are pretty run of the mill for a D.D.

thanks for the lesson

[caraudiodave]

Haha my point exactly.

So I got impatient with restoring my zpa0.5 and I'm buying another one. Not sure what to do with 2 of them, but it's a problem I don't mind having. I might have to upgrade some stuff on the new one...I'm waiting to find out if it's been updated.

[caraudiodave]

Update: I have been too busy to complete the repair on my Phoenix Gold amp. As a result I bought another one. They very rarely come up for sale, and I had a hit on one, but the seller flaked, but I found another one. It was the ultra rare white one.

Since I'd rather have the black I swapped the board over to my black case...









So now I need to decide what to do with the other amp once I'm done fixing it. Leave it in the white case, have it powder coated another color (dark blue or candy apple red perhaps) or have it finished in black texture like my other one. The black ones were more popular and the white one has been for sale for a while, telling me that even though they are rare, they really aren't that desirable.

[caraudiodave]

And back to life this thread goes.

I didn't like that last setup as it made my trunk too shallow. Also, I wanted to run a pair of matching amps rather than mismatched ones. The McIntosh was a great amp but it didn't have the power that I desired.

So out came everything and in came a new strategy. The spare tire is getting pulled so that I may use it's huge well. I then will make a way it can sit in my trunk for daily driving use. It can be pulled when I go to meets or out with the family (when I need the most trunk space).

Also, I have some fabrication pictures with a white amp..I have 3 of these amps in total and the white one will end up as a collectors piece when all is said and done.

So I made a fiberglass tub to fit in my spare tire well. I then payed the amps down to get an idea of how to build the amp rack.




So then I went to making e amp rack. I secured it to the tub using fiberglass resin. If you wondered why I made that tub, well this is why. I now have a removable amp rack.





And now with the amps on it...






And finally here's where I am now...

[caraudiodave]

And of course I made custom RCAs for this install. I need 4 in total, I have 2 sets made, so I'm 1/2 way there.

I think the next 2 will need to be about 1/2 the length, they don't need to go far at all.




So picture this, the next step is to make a new floor for the entire trunk that is flat. From that I have a large square that can be removed to access all of the above equipment. In the center of that is a smaller rectangle that can be removed or can stay in and puts the amps on display. That center piece I am thinking will be stained wood with a silver metal grill in the center of it.

I am putting blue ccfl lights down by the base of the amps to give a glow. Those lights will be on a switch that I can switch between those lights and the normal trunk light.

[caraudiodave]

It may not look like much progress, but trust me it is. I wired up a switch to toggle between the factory trunk light and cold cathode tubes down by the amps. I also straightened the top amp a little and mounted all of the surrounding items.

Here it all is with the cold cathode tubes on but with flash


And no flash


I might have to reposition the tubes to get better reflection.

[bricooper78]

Nice rack man!!! (get it Guise???!!??? bewbz joke!)
But for real, that's a pretty dang nice setup you've got going on there! I'm jelly of the skills
I wish I had any sort of ability to make anything from wood. It's deceptive in my opinion, sure looksl like it's easy to measure the same thing twice and they line up after being cut.. too bad I lack some ability in there somewhere