Stereo Overhaul - Mild Documentation

[brtd]

Yeah, that's another bridge I'm going to have to cross. I'll take some pictures as I work through that and share them here.

Nice. I reached out to Meshman, thinking that the plates were ready-to-install. Seems that more work is to be done after receiving them. I may still go with my plan to try the a-pillars for the tweeter location.

Sponsored

 

[Murph914]

Nice. I reached out to Meshman, thinking that the plates were ready-to-install. Seems that more work is to be done after receiving them. I may still go with my plan to try the a-pillars for the tweeter location.

I was thinking of installing Aluminum tweeter pods from ebay. I haven't heard too much about the JL line, but I love that brand.

 

[brtd]

Little update.

The buttons are installed and working. I was able to fit a refurbished Deftech AW5500 above the front bash plate.

After too much effort trying to make it work under the steering column, I finally figured out I could mount the amp for this side project under the rear seat, driver's side. I had to re-remove a bit of trim and splice my now-too-short wire runs.

It's clean, hidden, and works perfectly. It's loud and clear (outside).

I didn't get many pics at the time. I'll follow up later perhaps.

Front stage components and mounting plates are en route. ETA is Monday... So looks like next week I'll have audio inside my car again.

Here are the final pics from Meshman.

 

[gringoloco]

The meshman plates look great! Looking forward to seeing them in color.

What is your under hood fuse solution? Only pre fab bracket I’ve found is the Stinger version that comes packaged with their under seat wiring kit.

 

[brtd]

I assume you mean prefab?

For the smaller amp I used a cheap 10 ga power kit that included a floating inline fuse. That's near the battery.

The big amp is fused with a holder from Amazon, mounted to a tab near the battery along the fender line. See below.

Only pre fan bracket I’ve found is the Stinger version that comes packaged with their under seat wiring kit.

 

[gringoloco]

Yes, pre fab (thanks auto correct.). I was eyeing that spot you used under hood, looks good

I assume you mean prefab?

For the smaller amp I used a cheap 10 ga power kit that included a floating inline fuse. That's near the battery.

The big amp is fused with a holder from Amazon, mounted to a tab near the battery along the fender line. See below.

 

[brtd]

It gets the job done. Note the surface there is not perfectly flat, so be careful of overtightening if your fuse holder body is plastic.

Yes, pre fab (thanks auto correct.). I was eyeing that spot you used under hood, looks good

 

[brtd]

I've got most of the day to devote. Shooting to have a dry run test by the end of the day, at least with the front stage.

Quite a bit of Dremel work. The way the design sandwiches the stock grill piece is pretty smart.

I'll need to hack away a bit at the plastic in the speaker housing I think.

 

[eduard4us]

I've got most of the day to devote. Shooting to have a dry run test by the end of the day, at least with the front stage.

Quite a bit of Dremel work. The way the design sandwiches the stock grill piece is pretty smart.

I'll need to hack away a bit at the plastic in the speaker housing I think.

Have you got the chance to test the system? Any thoughts on the DSP/amplifier?

 

[brtd]

I warned the documentation would be mild...

Amp is plenty powerful for these three ways, and more than needed for the factory sub.

Lots of end of school year distractions and kid stuff lately. But we hit the road for a southwest road trip in a few days and I'm finally doing the dirty work to finish the mid/tweet mounts. Iowa to NM, AZ, CA, maybe CO (in the Bronco).

I'm planning to connect with Fraser from Mobridge for a little DSP help when I'm in CA. I've got it pretty good, but my measurement experience is mostly in home audio/home theater and I'm seeing some weaknesses in my skill. He was kind enough to offer.

I did get the time alignment dialed and it is amazing the difference that makes.

Waiting on the Stealthbox (ordered finally), so still have some panels removed and final wiring length work to do when we get back.

Racoon just for fun.

Enjoy.

 

[eduard4us]

I warned the documentation would be mild...

Amp is plenty powerful for these three ways, and more than needed for the factory sub.

Lots of end of school year distractions and kid stuff lately. But we hit the road for a southwest road trip in a few days and I'm finally doing the dirty work to finish the mid/tweet mounts. Iowa to NM, AZ, CA, maybe CO (in the Bronco).

I'm planning to connect with Fraser from Mobridge for a little DSP help when I'm in CA. I've got it pretty good, but my measurement experience is mostly in home audio/home theater and I'm seeing some weaknesses in my skill. He was kind enough to offer.

I did get the time alignment dialed and it is amazing the difference that makes.

Waiting on the Stealthbox (ordered finally), so still have some panels removed and final wiring length work to do when we get back.

Racoon just for fun.

Enjoy.

Those grills look OEM!! Great job!

 

[brtd]

Definitely harder to shape this clay in reality than I was imagining. Maybe I could have chosen better tools than plastic knives.

Let it dry overnight. Did some wet sanding this morning, followed by a few coats of matte black.

Results are... good enough for me, but far from show quality. Substance over style wins anyway.

Going to let everything dry up a little bit more before I reinstall the drivers and clips and snap it into place.

 

[brtd]

Time for a brief update.

I'll add some pictures of the installed tweet/mids at the end. Blends in perfectly from normal seated angles. Look closely and you can see my modeling clay work wasn't perfect, but I'm satisfied.

More importantly, I've finally got this thing dialed in with EQ and it sounds phenomenal! I had dialed in the delays to get the imaging just right a while ago, but I ran out of patience working on the EQ... I just don't have the experience with Room EQ Wizard with car audio/pink noise calibration. I'd only ever done sweeps for home theater and it doesn't works so well in a car.

We road tripped from Iowa to San Diego recently. We spent a day in LA a few days ago. While my wife and kids were occupied, I was able to spend the afternoon with Fraser from Mobridge.

Fraser has kindly offered to help me get the EQ tuned up if I found myself in the area.

It was a treat to watch him work... And the results were dramatic. This amp is now showing its potential. The active three-way front stage is perfection. The Stereo Integrity drivers sounded good with half-ass EQ job, but now they absolutely sing.

The factory BO sub is the only weakness now. The Mobridge amp definitely gets more out of it than the stock amp, but the sub is way out of place in the system now.

I've got a Stealthbox on order, hoping to have it soon after we get home next week. I suspect I might end up selling the 10TW1 driver and finding something with more excursion and power handling to fit in the enclosure.

I can say for certain that the sub channel on the mobridge amp has plenty of juice. Fraser let me sit in his car where the same amp is powering a 12" sealed sub. It was RIDICULOUS... gobs of power.

It was a smaller vehicle than the Bronco, and I'll be limited to the stealthbox enclosure, but I will aim to get close to that experience.

The journey will continue and I will sporadically update here.

 

[gringoloco]

Good to hear that it’s all sounding great. Makes me look excited for my full SI install coming soon.

Interested to hear what you think of the stealthbox, as I’ve pondered the same idea of swapping the driver. Tough to find something shallow enough, that works in the small ft3 enclosure, that handles more power or frequency range than the JL. SI is producing a new shallow, but it’s 11” diameter. For now, I’ve “settled” on an SQL 12; we’ll see if I miss the cargo space…

 

[brtd]

The BM-11 is quite interesting. I provided a little 3d modeling design help to Nick for the BM-MKV. The S-surround design is really neat.

I need to get the Stealthbox in hand to get some measurements before making any decisions. It might be possible to add a mounting ring/spacer to increase the mounting depth. Or even widen it to accommodate a larger diameter driver. But it's all guesses until I can see it.

I wouldn't mind butchering the trim panel a bit if necessary. It's not a show car after all.

Do we know the volume of the Stealthbox for certain? I might have read .3 cu ft, but since they don't even have a product page for it yet, I'm not certain.

I've got zero regrets about the SI 3-ways. Been on a road trip the last few days making our way home and have logged a bunch of listening time. It sounds incredible.

Good to hear that it’s all sounding great. Makes me look excited for my full SI install coming soon.

Interested to hear what you think of the stealthbox, as I’ve pondered the same idea of swapping the driver. Tough to find something shallow enough, that works in the small ft3 enclosure, that handles more power or frequency range than the JL. SI is producing a new shallow, but it’s 11” diameter. For now, I’ve “settled” on an SQL 12; we’ll see if I miss the cargo space…

Sponsored