2014 SHO amp/sub install

[jbeez]

If you have any questions about the things I did and why I did them just ask, I hope it helps anyone embarking on some audio installs, I made a few mistakes and ended up going back, the biggest thing I had to redo were my ground connections, I got almost OCD about it because they can cause alot of issues if they're bad, more than not doing a ground upgrade at all maybe. Always upgrade your ground though if you're upgrading the +12v

I'm curious about your pass through and any sound deadening. It looks like you took the speakers out of the rear deck from the pictures, where you just putting in upgrades or did you leave some or all out for the subs? Also, did you use any dynomat or something similar on the trunk?

That looks like one beast of a system, are those additional batteries or some type of capacitor in the spare wheel well? I can't imagine how hard that must hit, its been many years since I built a system even remotely close to that but it sure was fun. I appreciate the work you did to make a nice form fitting cover to make it all look like one flat piece. I did the same with a Acura RSX-S hatch install but it was dished rather than flat, with the amps facing out and the subs facing in. Please post a picture of the finished product with that cover installed. 

Thanks,
Scott

Those are 4 kinetik hc800 batteries, I choose them because of their size to fit under the sub, I would go with any xspower brand though if i did it again. They are supposed to add up to watts, so each theoretically supports 800watts of sound system by their numbers. My sub amp is rated for 3500wRMS. All the wire you see there is oversized car audio style 0awg, but 0awg crimp lugs wont fit I had to get all 2/0 awg lugs.

Those speakers on the rear deck were all removed. I wont be replacing them, they are for the air to make it through. The stock subs are very useless IMO and I'll never listen to anything in surround this is for stereo audio, so rear surround came out. I may reinstall rear surround just to use for another scanner channel not sure though.  Also I have a digital scanner and i installed a small/cheap 200w boss amp just to run the scanner audio, that is tapped into the center channel speaker up front. Since I didn't have any fine volume controls for it I bought a cheap rca level bass knob style device and mounted that back there too, set the vol to a comfortable level and left it at that. the boss amp has the gain all the way down, but its cheap so that didn't do much for attenuating the volume for me.  I did have it running through my helix dsp but I didn't like running two seperate audio streams through it so I bypassed it and thats where the vol knob came in.

I really really need sound deadening. I have a bunch in the house I haven't had a chance to install any yet, my typical battery of excuses goes as follows:
no time b/c work
weather is shitty(no garage)(pics of garage are at my friends house 2+hrs away where we did all the woodwork on his very nice equipment)
i just dont feel like working on it sometimes when nothing else is in the way.

The sound deadening I have is a bunch of leftover raamatt from my last car, and some new stuff I purchased from KNU. I think the KNU brand deadening(and wiring too since I'm using almost all KNU wire) is a fantastic value. You get alot for your money and its a very good product.

I used alot of relays to isolate things, even the battery isolator relay has a relay infront of that to trigger it to kick over because I was concerned with startup surge and the backfeed voltage on the collapse from that huge can to connect the rear batts to the front. I like to isolate circuits if I can at least minimally. I didn't opt for a battery isolator just a relay.

[jbeez]

This sounds 100% better than stock, but 10x better with one of the seats folded down.  I think I'm going to do something like Dxint1 and open it up a little bit in the middle.  I also have a lot of trunk rattle, so I need to invest in some dynamat.  I think I'm going to redo the amp rack to cover everything in front of the subwoofer, and the current one is ~1/2" too long front-to-back.

Otherwise, I'm happy with the result.  Obviously, I still need to build the floor that goes on top, but more material is required, and it doesn't affect the sound.

Amp rack in progress


Installed, mostly wired.  The ground ended up coming back towards the rear of the chassis.  Power was routed up the drivers side through the firewall near the brake booster.

I like it, let me know how that lc2i is, I had to go nuts on my lowend EQ to restore bass, my curve is maxed out at some points. And I did a very crudge job of it, im sure an automated processor would work better than what I did.  Still thinking of putting an lc2i infront of my helix just to level that out.

[jbeez]

after doing dual 12's I've come to the conclusion a single 12 would have probably been perfect

https://goo.gl/photos/e6yTfkg1vqQiPt3k8

this box must weigh 300lbs lol

For that reason, I experimented with my dual 12's. Folded back seat down to test sound quality. Then I ended up making a permanent fix. Sound quality much much better with air being able to move.

I like that fold down port you made.  The removal of the rear deck subs seemed to work great for me.  Right now the biggest difference I notice is when I have my car windows up or down. It seems considerably louder when the windows are down, even just 1 window down halfway, that sound pressure is trapped pretty tight in the cabin and as soon as I open it I get alot more response.  one of the pics in my album you can see the 3rd brake light, if you look closely the light shook loose. its just press fit in, i just pushed up to fix it, but i was getting a pretty wicked rattle and I didn't know why LOL

[glock-coma]

This is my entire sho album, i've redone things on my car so there are some earlier pics of wiring and amps, then I replaced amps, rewired things, etc.

https://goo.gl/photos/S4S7S5q5wMY9rQat9

I cleaned up all the underhood wiring, moved some fuses to under the sub box because new amp was longer for highs, i STILL don't have my highs tied in and im still running factory highs.  I need to solder a connector for the speaker wire to interface with the factory speaker wires, im using 8pin PC power supply extensions cables that I cut in half and use for connectors.  lets me switch back to stock easily.

I've strained my lumbar more than once moving that box and I do lift weights in a gym, i have over 400lb squats and 450lbs deadlift but that is just such an awkward movement to get the box in and out of the trunk it can irritate the hell out of my discs. Its a beast!

nice setup. How do you like that
Helix DSP?
I might go mini DSP in the future.

[Scott4957]

Those are 4 kinetik hc800 batteries, I choose them because of their size to fit under the sub, I would go with any xspower brand though if i did it again. They are supposed to add up to watts, so each theoretically supports 800watts of sound system by their numbers. My sub amp is rated for 3500wRMS. All the wire you see there is oversized car audio style 0awg, but 0awg crimp lugs wont fit I had to get all 2/0 awg lugs.

Those speakers on the rear deck were all removed. I wont be replacing them, they are for the air to make it through. The stock subs are very useless IMO and I'll never listen to anything in surround this is for stereo audio, so rear surround came out. I may reinstall rear surround just to use for another scanner channel not sure though.  Also I have a digital scanner and i installed a small/cheap 200w boss amp just to run the scanner audio, that is tapped into the center channel speaker up front. Since I didn't have any fine volume controls for it I bought a cheap rca level bass knob style device and mounted that back there too, set the vol to a comfortable level and left it at that. the boss amp has the gain all the way down, but its cheap so that didn't do much for attenuating the volume for me.  I did have it running through my helix dsp but I didn't like running two seperate audio streams through it so I bypassed it and thats where the vol knob came in.

I really really need sound deadening. I have a bunch in the house I haven't had a chance to install any yet, my typical battery of excuses goes as follows:
no time b/c work
weather is shitty(no garage)(pics of garage are at my friends house 2+hrs away where we did all the woodwork on his very nice equipment)
i just dont feel like working on it sometimes when nothing else is in the way.

The sound deadening I have is a bunch of leftover raamatt from my last car, and some new stuff I purchased from KNU. I think the KNU brand deadening(and wiring too since I'm using almost all KNU wire) is a fantastic value. You get alot for your money and its a very good product.

I used alot of relays to isolate things, even the battery isolator relay has a relay infront of that to trigger it to kick over because I was concerned with startup surge and the backfeed voltage on the collapse from that huge can to connect the rear batts to the front. I like to isolate circuits if I can at least minimally. I didn't opt for a battery isolator just a relay.

Thanks for sharing! I am also a scanner geek, I have a BCD996T but have not put it in the MKS yet. I'm also into amateur radio, still have not put any of that gear in either, don't really plan to. In my Mazda speed I removed the center console cup holders and built a custom single din insert that I installed the 996t in. I then installed speakers behind the plastic cover right above where the seat belt attaches to the door, putting the speaker right by my ear. I like the idea of using the center speaker in the SHO/MKS. Not sure where I could get a nice clean install of the 996T in the MKS. Right now I like to use the scanner radio app on my phone tied into the car via Bluetooth. I then setup my scanner at home via a broadcastify account and then i can listen from anywhere. Only issue is that I can't control the radio. There are some nice remote apps for my laptop and work PC, but I haven't found anything that works well for Android.

[Capri83RS]

I like that fold down port you made.  The removal of the rear deck subs seemed to work great for me.  Right now the biggest difference I notice is when I have my car windows up or down. It seems considerably louder when the windows are down, even just 1 window down halfway, that sound pressure is trapped pretty tight in the cabin and as soon as I open it I get alot more response.  one of the pics in my album you can see the 3rd brake light, if you look closely the light shook loose. its just press fit in, i just pushed up to fix it, but i was getting a pretty wicked rattle and I didn't know why LOL

I pop the sunroof into vent mode, it works the best for me.  Allowing the air to move out of the vehicle helps with the sound.  Kinda sucks that it's only 21 degrees out right now, but the heater works good

[Capri83RS]

This sounds 100% better than stock, but 10x better with one of the seats folded down.  I think I'm going to do something like Dxint1 and open it up a little bit in the middle.  I also have a lot of trunk rattle, so I need to invest in some dynamat.  I think I'm going to redo the amp rack to cover everything in front of the subwoofer, and the current one is ~1/2" too long front-to-back.

Otherwise, I'm happy with the result.  Obviously, I still need to build the floor that goes on top, but more material is required, and it doesn't affect the sound.

Amp rack in progress


Installed, mostly wired.  The ground ended up coming back towards the rear of the chassis.  Power was routed up the drivers side through the firewall near the brake booster.

I like it, let me know how that lc2i is, I had to go nuts on my lowend EQ to restore bass, my curve is maxed out at some points. And I did a very crudge job of it, im sure an automated processor would work better than what I did.  Still thinking of putting an lc2i infront of my helix just to level that out.

This is my first go with the LC2-i, I usually use a cheap Scosche line-out converter.  So far, I'm extremely happy with it, it's really easy to setup and use.

I need to tune the amp gain settings, but I'm leery of running a 50Hz test tone at 3/4 volume, when I can only disconnect the subwoofer.  It's going to be extremely loud in the car.  And then I need to run the remote level control for the amp, so I can turn it down from that "perfect gain" setting.

[jbeez]

Those are 4 kinetik hc800 batteries, I choose them because of their size to fit under the sub, I would go with any xspower brand though if i did it again. They are supposed to add up to watts, so each theoretically supports 800watts of sound system by their numbers. My sub amp is rated for 3500wRMS. All the wire you see there is oversized car audio style 0awg, but 0awg crimp lugs wont fit I had to get all 2/0 awg lugs.

Those speakers on the rear deck were all removed. I wont be replacing them, they are for the air to make it through. The stock subs are very useless IMO and I'll never listen to anything in surround this is for stereo audio, so rear surround came out. I may reinstall rear surround just to use for another scanner channel not sure though.  Also I have a digital scanner and i installed a small/cheap 200w boss amp just to run the scanner audio, that is tapped into the center channel speaker up front. Since I didn't have any fine volume controls for it I bought a cheap rca level bass knob style device and mounted that back there too, set the vol to a comfortable level and left it at that. the boss amp has the gain all the way down, but its cheap so that didn't do much for attenuating the volume for me.  I did have it running through my helix dsp but I didn't like running two seperate audio streams through it so I bypassed it and thats where the vol knob came in.

I really really need sound deadening. I have a bunch in the house I haven't had a chance to install any yet, my typical battery of excuses goes as follows:
no time b/c work
weather is shitty(no garage)(pics of garage are at my friends house 2+hrs away where we did all the woodwork on his very nice equipment)
i just dont feel like working on it sometimes when nothing else is in the way.

The sound deadening I have is a bunch of leftover raamatt from my last car, and some new stuff I purchased from KNU. I think the KNU brand deadening(and wiring too since I'm using almost all KNU wire) is a fantastic value. You get alot for your money and its a very good product.

I used alot of relays to isolate things, even the battery isolator relay has a relay infront of that to trigger it to kick over because I was concerned with startup surge and the backfeed voltage on the collapse from that huge can to connect the rear batts to the front. I like to isolate circuits if I can at least minimally. I didn't opt for a battery isolator just a relay.

Thanks for sharing! I am also a scanner geek, I have a BCD996T but have not put it in the MKS yet. I'm also into amateur radio, still have not put any of that gear in either, don't really plan to. In my Mazda speed I removed the center console cup holders and built a custom single din insert that I installed the 996t in. I then installed speakers behind the plastic cover right above where the seat belt attaches to the door, putting the speaker right by my ear. I like the idea of using the center speaker in the SHO/MKS. Not sure where I could get a nice clean install of the 996T in the MKS. Right now I like to use the scanner radio app on my phone tied into the car via Bluetooth. I then setup my scanner at home via a broadcastify account and then i can listen from anywhere. Only issue is that I can't control the radio. There are some nice remote apps for my laptop and work PC, but I haven't found anything that works well for Android.

I have a 396xt but my area recently switches to PII so I need to upgrade it again :< its dead for all the traffic in my county now and some surrounding counties. I'll replace it with a BCD325P2 soon I guess

[Capri83RS]

Realized I hadn't been on in awhile, and I forgot to post my "semi-completed" pictures.  The current rack is ~1/2" too long, top-to-bottom, but I just used a piece left over and didn't trim (in the interests of "let's just get it done, so we can clean the garage out before the wife gets home! ).  And I've decided I'm going to redo the amp rack, so it covers the entire front area in front of the sub enclosure, and I'll do smaller side pieces on either side of the enclosure.  Then I still need to make the covering section, which will be the trunk floor.




I'm able to keep the bass at 0 in the sound settings, and still listen at my regular volume levels, and get nice deep bass that's not over bearing.  I still have more headroom, but no real need for it.

[Scott4957]

I have a 396xt but my area recently switches to PII so I need to upgrade it again :< its dead for all the traffic in my county now and some surrounding counties. I'll replace it with a BCD325P2 soon I guess

Used to be an inexpensive hobby. Sorry to thread jack Capri, its looking great and can't wait to see the finished product!

[A 01 Badger]

This sounds 100% better than stock, but 10x better with one of the seats folded down.  I think I'm going to do something like Dxint1 and open it up a little bit in the middle.  I also have a lot of trunk rattle, so I need to invest in some dynamat.  I think I'm going to redo the amp rack to cover everything in front of the subwoofer, and the current one is ~1/2" too long front-to-back.

Otherwise, I'm happy with the result.  Obviously, I still need to build the floor that goes on top, but more material is required, and it doesn't affect the sound.

Amp rack in progress


Installed, mostly wired.  The ground ended up coming back towards the rear of the chassis.  Power was routed up the drivers side through the firewall near the brake booster.

I like it, let me know how that lc2i is, I had to go nuts on my lowend EQ to restore bass, my curve is maxed out at some points. And I did a very crudge job of it, im sure an automated processor would work better than what I did.  Still thinking of putting an lc2i infront of my helix just to level that out.

This is my first go with the LC2-i, I usually use a cheap Scosche line-out converter.  So far, I'm extremely happy with it, it's really easy to setup and use.

I need to tune the amp gain settings, but I'm leery of running a 50Hz test tone at 3/4 volume, when I can only disconnect the subwoofer.  It's going to be extremely loud in the car.  And then I need to run the remote level control for the amp, so I can turn it down from that "perfect gain" setting.

I know this is old, but I just finished my install using the LC2-i which I had from a previous vehicle install.  I also used cheaper scorsche in the past, but needed the LC2 with my last vehicle as I just tapped into the factory sub and needed to combat the bass roll off that was built into that system. 
I wonder though if it's necessary for this vehicle.  I tapped into the system pre-amp (I have the sony system) and it appears to be a clean-flat signal without volume control.  I am assuming that all processing including volume happens in the amp/control unit back there)  So in reality is there any type of roll-off or factory eq settings that need to be combated? It doesn't seem to me like I can get any change to the subs from the head unit settings.

It seems to me, that all that is really necessary is a remote volume/gain control coming from the amp to the driver so you can adjust the volume of the subs (otherwise full bass no matter what you have the volume set on the radio).  I guess if your amp doesn't have that option, you could use that option on the LC2 instead.  http://www.audiocontrol.com/product/acr-1/  But if your amp has that option (my Kicker ZX 400.1 does) then its just redundant. 

Someone please correct me if I have the set up wrong or my thought process is off.

thx

[Scott4957]

Sounds spot on to me, the only issue is that you have to adjust the sub gain independent of the rest of the system which I would not want to have to do. Using the LC2-i you are pulling the signal after the amp so you will have gain control over the entire system, you would just use the amp gain control to ensure it is set at the same gain as the rest of the system one time. Am i understanding you correctly?

[A 01 Badger]

Sounds spot on to me, the only issue is that you have to adjust the sub gain independent of the rest of the system which I would not want to have to do. Using the LC2-i you are pulling the signal after the amp so you will have gain control over the entire system, you would just use the amp gain control to ensure it is set at the same gain as the rest of the system one time. Am i understanding you correctly?

Yes and no.  What you are describing is correct, but we may be talking about different amps. 

In my set up, I tapped into the rear speakers lines from the head unit before the factory Sony amp.  It appears that by doing that, I have picked up the signal before any processing has taken place.  So I have no volume control or eq settings from the head unit, its as if I am just getting the straight signal from the source.  It's hard to say for sure because I am running a sub only which i have crossed over at 90hz max, but by adjusting bass/treble/volume at the head unit, nothing happens with the sub, which leads me to believe that all of those controls actually happen in the truck by the Sony Amp/control unit back there.  So by tapping into the input instead of the output on the factory unit, I have bypassed everything and have just a flat signal which I can only control with the LC2 or the controls on the aftermarket (Kicker Amp)  I hope that makes sense.

My point was, normally you set the gain on your aftermarket amp, to match the signal strength coming from the head unit to avoid clipping.  Turn up the volume on your head unit and then adjust the gain on your amp so that it doesn't clip at the level you like to listen (and perhaps scale back a touch to account for louder songs etc)  So stronger head unit signal, less gain needed at the amp, weaker signal (normal OEM HU or cheap aftermarket HU) more gain on the amp to get the volume you want.  BUT, in my case, it seems that by tapping in before the factory amp, I am not getting anything but a flat pure signal from the source (MP3, radio, cd, etc).  So the purpose of the LC2i, which is to clean up the signal and combat whatever bass roll off your OEM set up implements to protect it's cheap components isn't really necessary.  I believe I could run the tapped lines directly into my high level inputs in the aftermarket amp and get the same results.  But I am not sure.

[Capri83RS]

I haven't posted anything in awhile, around May the SPL 12" died on me, and I replaced it with a Soundstream Tarantula.  I also figured out my 1/2" problem on the amp rack.  I trimmed the plastics lining the trunk, and the box slid back 1/2", allowing the amp rack to drop into place.

About a month ago, I traded in the wifes Kia Sorento for a 2013 Mustang GT track package w/ Recaro's, so now she's driving the SHO daily.  She doesn't care for the sound system (doesn't turn it up very much at all, barely past the first tall hash mark), so I'm debating about pulling the system out of it.

[SHOdded]

Argh let her drive the GT already!