Alpine PDX-4.100 + Boston Pro60's ?

[lieos]

oops just realised you are dynamatting your doors lol

[EuroSteve]

(As I mentioned above, I decided to go with the SPZ60's over the Pro60's)

Here's some more pic'ies:

SPZ60's


SPZ60 Tweeter (right) vs. OEM Tweeter (left)


PDX-4.150


Points of interest:
- Very impressed with the size of the amp! Amazing considering the output!
- Tweeters fit snug in the OEM tweeter covers
- X-overs are HUGE, where am I supposed to put em?? I'm thinking under the seats...
- Build quality of the Boston's is impressive!, Made in the U.S.A

On other matters...After much thought, i've decided to go with Boston SL95 6x9's for the rear. They should arrive in a couple weeks along with a Kicker CK44 Amp. Install Kit.

Just about got all the bits together...

[cutchorama]

You got the 4.150? I thought you were going for the 4.100? I was thinking of getting the pdx 4.100 and so far have found it for a bit over $500. Where did you source your amp from?

Looking at the G4 now as well... looks great and would go well with the euro dash.

[ticklenow1]

EuroSteve,

I put my crossovers in the boot behind the liner. There is plenty of room. I also put my LOC there as well. You can fit 1 crossover behind the kick panel on the driver side.

Cutchorama,

I got my PDX 4.100 on ebay from the National Audio Centre (US). About $370 delivered.

[EuroSteve]

Yep, originally I was going to purchase my gear while in the US, but after seeing those ebay prices (and worried whether i'd fit all the gear in my bags), I got the stuff delivered. My PDX-4.150 and SPZ60's were from NationalAudioCenter also.

S.

[EuroSteve]

Ok, so most of my gear has arrived now and I need to start thinking seriously about exactly where i'm going to put it all / route the wires.

These are my thoughts, please let me know what you think!


Amp. Placement:
I've abandoned the idea of putting the amp. under the passenger seat, it's now going in the boot. The PDX's are pretty small, so i'm thinking of mounting it on the back of the left rear seat. I should be able to mount a piece of MDF behind the rear seat cover to the thin metal of the back seat. The amp. can then mount to the MDF. However, this would mean i'd be screwing holes through the back of the seat cover, which would be nice to avoid...

X-Over Placement:
The x-over's for the SPZ60's are friggin huge, which kinda sucks. I'm thinking they too will need to mount to the back of the rear seat beside the amp.

Amp. Power Wire (4 Gauge):
I'm thinking i'll route the power wire like this: Battery -> fuse -> firewall grommet -> behind passenger side kick panel -> along left-side door sill/panels -> behind far left section of the rear seat -> into the boot.

Amp. Ground Wire (4 Gauge):
I've read, though I haven't pulled the rear seat up to verify, that there is a good ground under the rear seat? I've seen the ground near the fuel pump in the boot, but that really doesn't seem like a good idea. loose ground = (sparks + fuel vapour) = BOOM!

Speaker Wire routes:
The left split pairs (one for woofer in door, other for tweeter in dash) will follow the amp. power cable back to the door and dash. Same route, but opposite side for the right front splits.

Signal Wire (inc. amp remote wire):
In my case, this will be a USB cable (digital audio). I'm running an external USB sound card (from my Infill G4 HU) that will mount close to the amp. with very short RCA cables. This should give me a good SNR. I think the USB cable should follow the same route as the amp. power cable, but on the right side of the car (follow the right front speaker wires).

Your thoughts/advice is greatly appreciated!

S.

[NVD52K]

ive got the spz in series in my s2000 and they are very clear although i have a alpine pdx 4 channel amp bridged out to both which they are very top quality sound

[KenL]

Amp. Placement:
I've abandoned the idea of putting the amp. under the passenger seat, it's now going in the boot. The PDX's are pretty small, so i'm thinking of mounting it on the back of the left rear seat. I should be able to mount a piece of MDF behind the rear seat cover to the thin metal of the back seat. The amp. can then mount to the MDF. However, this would mean i'd be screwing holes through the back of the seat cover, which would be nice to avoid...

Regarding the amp placement, perhaps under the rear parcel shelf (under the middle brake light, towards the driver's side) might be worth a look?

There are 4 'keyhole' shaped slots under mine (06 lux) and just measured up -the amp (26x19cm) should fit with no drilling in car required - this is where I am intending to put my sub's amp. My $0.02 follows (apologies for the long post!):

1. Hit Bunnings & get 4 longish M5 bolts, 8 std nuts, 4 nylon threaded nuts & 16 washers. Double check size of keyhole slot to make sure bolts can move through - I'm not 100% sure on the width of the slot as I checked in low light!
2. Insert each bolt and a washer through the 4 keyholes such that the long ends point down, slide it to the narrow end of the slot and lock in with another washer and a nut - tighten so the bolts do not move (spring washers are a better alternative given vibrations). Could be tricky to tighten the nuts given limited access to the top of the bolt - but this is the most difficult part.
3. Spin on a second nut - this will only serve to space the MDF mounting plate away from the curved parcel shelf (and provide some handy ventilation as well)
4. Cut up a piece of MDF big enough to cover the amp's mounting holes, drill holes for mounting the amp as appropriate
5. Measure up where the 4 bolts need to pass through the MDF, drill 4 holes to fit the bolts and secure the MDF with the 4 nylon threaded nuts and 8 washers on both sides of the MDF to prevent nuts from crushing through. Also, depending on the height of the nuts you are using, you may just need to countersink the nylon threaded nuts a little to avoid touching the base of the amp chassis...

What you will left with now is a suspended but secure piece of MDF for mounting the amp - you should be able to fine-tune the space between the parcel shelf and MDF using the nuts in step 3 above.

For a super-neat look, you could probably pass all the wires between the parcel shelf base and the carpet on top and then drop them down through holes on both the left/right ends of the parcel shelf. No wires to be seen unless you duck your head to admire your SL95s

Hope that makes sense - its just a suggestion, and could be better than screwing the amps to the back of the rear seats. Probably other ideas floating around in this forum. Note I'm yet to try this idea myself but the idea has been floating in my head for sometime.

X-Over Placement:
The x-over's for the SPZ60's are friggin huge, which kinda sucks. I'm thinking they too will need to mount to the back of the rear seat beside the amp.

Hmmm - could the x-overs go behind the boot liner in the vicinity of the rear wheels? I'm not sure how these would mount but I seem to remember seeing pics from a US Acura website putting the XM-radio units in there...

[EuroSteve]

Thanks for the post KenL, all great suggestions!! Don't worry about it being long, detail is good!

I just went and had a look at the parcel shelf, and you're right, there's actually a bit of a cavitity up under there that should fit the PDX nicely. I also see the 4 keyhole shaped slots you're talking about.

Also looking at the boot liner (I haven't pulled it all out yet), and you're right again, it's not that "tight" against the car body, so hopefully there's a spot there somewhere each side I can hide away the x-overs. I'm much more liking this idea than mounting the amp and x-overs to the back of the seat.

Any suggestions for grounding locations for the amp.?

Aside, I was Dynamat'ing my front doors this arvo and noticed a bit of a problem in the drivers side door. Where the wires route through from the car into the door (through the rubber thing); instead of the wires just going through a hole in the door, they go through what looks like a huge plug/socket. It's a little hard to describe, i'll take a photo tomorrow and post. But essentially, I can't see any easy way of routing my speaker wires There problem doesn't exist on the passenger side. Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks again KenL for the great post.

Cheers,
Steve

[Mattski_VTIR]

Nice system there, never heard the speakers but have heard good things about them! I know all to well the problems of mounting large crossovers.. i ended up building an amp rack to house everything (better option the screwing to back seet) As for the wire clip, if its what i think it is, i had a similar problem when installing splits into a friends SSS Pulsar. The plug ended up having plenty of un used pins.. i drilled them out and fed the wire through! I could possible dig up some old pic's and PM if your interested

[KenL]

Any suggestions for grounding locations for the amp.?

When finding a decent ground point, you're looking for some sort of bolt that actually screws into a part of the vehicle's chassis (or into a nut that is welded to the vehicle's chassis). As ya know car paint is a pretty poor conductor so and standard free-turning nut/bolt combos are no good, even if they have a spring / star washer... I guess not too many people are keen on scratching off their paint for the sake of a good ground point due to potential for corrosion in the moister climates.

Using that principle, I think there's a good grounding point right near the suggested amp location, under the parcel shelf. Just locate your boot isolator switch (the one that disables the electronic latch on the boot) - the frame that supports the switch is screwed directly to the parcel shelf with two bolts.

I checked with my multimeter just then and appears to be <0.5 Ohm resistance between each bolt and the tail light ground which should be good enough for your PDX4.150. You would still need to test this point if you were running say a 1000W amp tho (in that case, suggest you either find a proper ground or run a 4 gauge wire directly back to the batt).

If you're happy with the that approach, suggest you consider making the location into a neat multi-terminal ground point so its easy to add other stuff later (eg. sub-woofer amp, lighting, motorised boot opener etc. ) - might even want to consider rigging it in such a way that you can use a single beefy capacitor for multiple components...

Aside, I was Dynamat'ing my front doors this arvo and noticed a bit of a problem in the drivers side door. Where the wires route through from the car into the door (through the rubber thing); instead of the wires just going through a hole in the door, they go through what looks like a huge plug/socket...

Quite a common occurrence with the new cars with all sorts of switch gear in the doors (European cars are worse with stuff like heated mirrors as well). The easiest way I can think of is:

• Lift off the boot housing and disconnect the plugs from the door
• Push the socket into the door by squeezing the one-way clips at the top/bottom
• Reconnect the plugs inside the door (I think there is enough slack to do that... not sure tho)
• Secure the plugs using cable-ties and/or double-sided adhesive tape inside the door so they don't rattle around
• After you've installed the speakers and run your wires back through the boot housing
• Lastly, cut up some double sided tape to fit the rectangular shape of the rubber boot and stick it back on the door - make it a good seal especially around the top and sides to prevent moisture from getting in ya door

If there's not enough slack in the OEM door wires - just rig up some male-female connectors like you are doing with the OEM head unit in your car.

Again, this is only stuff I've planned to do on my own Euro but not yet tried (no flames please if it doesn't work!). Seems like a clean approach if you intend to return your car back to stock if it comes time to sell. Hope these ideas are able to help you and any others interested!

Cheers, Ken

[EuroSteve]

Thanks for the posts guys!

Had a much better look at the wiring going into the drivers door this arvo. Good news, turns out it actually is a plug and socket. After pulling the rubber conduit back away from the door, it exposes two plugs.

Here's some pics:

I'll probably end up drilling out some of the "unused" area of the plug to slip the speaker wires through.

KenL, I checked out your suggested grounding location, and it's perfect! Dunno why I didn't consider it earlier!

I've now finished Dynamat'ing the outer skin of the front doors. Dynamat can be tricky stuff to work with, but I didn't find it too bad. A small roller is a must! I ended up using 2 sheets per door. Once i've sorted out the speaker wiring, i'll Dynamat the inner skin (will probably take a little less than 2 sheets, making it ~4 sheets total per door).

I've been driving around for the past couple days without the door panels, feels very strange...

S.