MECA 2013 season - my setup

[MacLeod]

So Im finally getting back into this again. Had that Ford Edge that I just hated and couldnt do anything with and finally traded it in on a 2012 Accord EX. Love the car and cant wait to get started again.

Ive decided to stick to Street class this year and for a while. I cant do fancy installs. I dont have the time, tools or talent to compete with installs but I am a very good tuner if I do say so myself and have competed with the best in the biz in tuning. In Street class, we'll all have the same installs basically so its my tuning against theirs as opposed to my tuning and install ability vs theirs cause Im always gonna lose that especially when guys are getting professional work done.

Im also going with a simple, 5 channel amp setup. I gotta have room in my trunk. We go to Texas twice a year to see my folks and Ohio 3-4 times a year to see the in-laws and with a wife and kid, trunk space is at a premium. I just picked up this Rockford Fosgate Punch 5 channel for $525 and going to use it. I wanted the JL Audio 900/5 for its 100 watts per channel but the damn thing is $1000! This Punch is $700 regular but is on sale now clearing out for next years models I assume. Alpine has one for $700 but I keep hearing its plagued by noise issues and with all the noise I had with my old Alpine gear, I aint risking it cause MECA is on this noise nazi kick and you can lose some serious points for noise these days. This little beauty will fit right on the side panel of the trunk. No distro blocks, no wiring hassles, no fabricating anything other than a mounting block and itll take up virtually zero trunk space! Im giving up a little power from my PA amps (90x4 + 800x1 vs 75x4 + 500x1) but I dont think itll be that big a deal. The PAS review showed this thing making 80x4 and 600x1 at 14.4V so I dont think itll make an audible difference.

My head unit is my beloved Pioneer P99 that I bought last year. This thing is a work of art and has all the processing power I could need. The menu is a pain in the balls to work around in but its not so bad once you get the hang of it.

Mids will be the tried and true SR6500's. Theyre going in the heavily Dynamatted doors (1 door kit per door) via some spacers. Tweeters will be the best tweeters on the planet, the Scanspeak Illuminators. Going to put them in pods and mount them on the A pillars about 1" above the highest point on the dash and aim them towards the center of the car. Subs are a pair of MM104's for a 2 ohm mono load. Ive got the SR12DVC that Ive used since 2008 but since Im going down a little in power I thought it would be best to make up for it a little in cone area. For sound quality judging you dont really need a whole lot of sub. Plus Ive just always liked 10's for some reason.

For right now Im going to put them in a pre-fab sealed box and stick them in the front of the trunk firing back. This wont be "show worthy" by any means but itll be practical. When I need all the trunk space, Ill unscrew a couple bolts, unhook the speaker wires and pull the box out and Ill have my entire trunk and perfect access to the spare.

Eventually Ill do 1 of 2 things. Ill either make a trim panel thatll go in front of the box to make it look more integrated and a little worth showing off or Ill mount them to the rear deck firing thru the rear speaker holes in IB. That way I have my entire trunk and wont have to remove anything! Not sure which way Ill eventually settle on but knowing my lazy ass, Ill probably just cut out a trim panel, carpet it and be done with it. Never been that big a fan of IB subs anyway.

So thats my plan. Amp should be here Friday and Ive got everything else. Ill start work Friday night and Ive got a buddy that wants to come over and help Saturday so hopefully I can get everything in and playing music by Saturday evening! Man I cant wait to get back into it! FreezeFest will be my first show of the year in mid February. I aint quitting til I win a championship.......or at least win the award for most consecutive finals appearances without a win.

[exalted512]

Glad to see you're back doing what you love. I've kinda switched courses to a much more expensive - and much more dangerous hobby...haha
-Cody

[MacLeod]

Hey car audio can be dangerous! You can get a nasty paper cut from the Dynamat backside layer and then poke it with a strand of speaker wire. It could get infected and you could die!

Ive been fascinated by this stuff since I was 16 (1988) and I guess Ill always be tinkering with it. I mainly love the competition. That is the most fun and what really keeps me going.

Got my amp today! Cant wait to get this thing up and running and playing music. This is the longest Ive ever had a stock audio system playing in my car! LOL

[DSkip]

If you ever end up doing a show in TX, give me a heads up. I'd be interested in hearing what you've done and seeing a P99 in person. Meeting you, not so much....

[MacLeod]

Whereabouts in Texas? Im out there in central Texas at least once a year to visit me mum.

[EndersShadow]

Mac, if you ever do any shows over Turkey week let me know, the my wife and I go down to visit my family in Dalton, GA and Chatt town for about 10 days. I was VERY upset to see Chattanooga Cupcake went out of business shortly after we left (I literally think we got the last cupcakes outta there EVER).

Still glad Taco Mac is kicking as well as Sticky Fingers and a couple other small little hole in the wall places my uncle finds to take us

[MacLeod]

Much better places to go to now. Urban Stack is about my favorite. They basically only serve hamburgers but man theyre awesome! Community Pie is a awesome place that just opened up. Definitely worth checking out. Chatty is growing by leaps and bounds it seems.

Not too many shows around November. World Finals is in October and that wraps the season. There are a few outlier shows here and there but the season really gets "kicked off" with Freezefest in February. That is going to be my first show this year.

[EndersShadow]

Much better places to go to now. Urban Stack is about my favorite. They basically only serve hamburgers but man theyre awesome! Community Pie is a awesome place that just opened up. Definitely worth checking out. Chatty is growing by leaps and bounds it seems.

Yeah, my uncle suggested that place, but we stuck with some good old BBQ places the couple times we went out ....

There is always next year

[DSkip]

Dallas area, Denton to be more precise. My in-laws have a lake house on lake lbj and got family in Houston, so occasionally I do end up in the middle, just not often. You should try to come down in may for lone star audio fest. Good times with good polkies and lots of interesting setups. Nothing car-related, but fun nonetheless.

[MacLeod]

That sound fun. Might try to hit that. Doesn't have to be car audio. If you love audio, you love audio. Regardless the venue.

[MacLeod]

Man, 14 hours straight yesterday and I'm still not done. I've got both doors done and almost put back together, got the speaker and power wire ran and that's it.

God I forgot how much I hate installing especially on a new car. I spend 70% of my time trying to figure out how to get this part off or where I'm going to out that part.

Hopefully I can get it buttoned up and playing music by tonight.

[exalted512]

Break anything?

[MacLeod]

Not yet unless you count my back and possibly knees. I'm too old and fat to be doing this stuff anymore. Just spent 5 hours getting the factory head unit out which is half the dash and then trying to figure out how to get it apart to go into the Scosche dash kit. So far this Accord is a whopping pain to install in. Doors are a pain to take off and its a lot of work to get the head unit out. I so hope I don't have to pull this thing back out to fix something when I get done.

[Sherardp]

Can I ask why that choice of sub? I know those mids and highs will definitely shine well. I'm not sure about that particular sub, just wondering if they sound good and get loud. I usually roll with Sundown, SSA, DC Audio, Audioque, etc. Either way should sound good, and be accurate since it's Polk. GL with the install bro.

[MacLeod]

Can I ask why that choice of sub? I know those mids and highs will definitely shine well. I'm not sure about that particular sub, just wondering if they sound good and get loud. I usually roll with Sundown, SSA, DC Audio, Audioque, etc. Either way should sound good, and be accurate since it's Polk. GL with the install bro.

I've always loved Polk's subs since the old Momos. The SR12 I had is the best sub I've ever owned and I am still thinking of using it. I bought these MM's for last year and liked them. I'm not a bass head so I don't care about super loud. I just want them to sound good. Since I went down in power from 800 to 500 watts I wanted to go up in cone area too.

[Sherardp]

I've always loved Polk's subs since the old Momos. The SR12 I had is the best sub I've ever owned and I am still thinking of using it. I bought these MM's for last year and liked them. I'm not a bass head so I don't care about super loud. I just want them to sound good. Since I went down in power from 800 to 500 watts I wanted to go up in cone area too.

Oh ok gotcha now. Should be nice and crisp. I would love to hear it man, heard nothing but good things about the SR6500s. I may have to see if I can find some for my install too. I'm running CDT now, so I'm sure the Polks are a few notches higher.

[MacLeod]

Yeah man I'm not just saying it cause I'm on a Polk forum but the SR6500 mids are as good as anything on the market. About the only mids I'd take over them are the $350 a piece Scan Illuminator or Revelators. Don't think I could ever drop $700 on a pair of mids though unless I win the lottery. But I blew my whole income tax return on my P99 (had to sleep on the couch a few days over that) so I wont say "never".

[MacLeod]

Day 27: Still installing. Food low.

[exalted512]

lol.

[MacLeod]

Almost there! Man this was so much simpler when I only worked 1 job and didnt have a 3 year old running around. Cant do anything when the wife isnt here cause my boy seems to find every razor sharp cutting tool I have laying around the garage while Im under the dash. All I have left is to mount the amp to the back seat and then plug her in and Ill be set! Im so chomping at the bit that I was playing around with the crossovers on my P99 last night on the drive home even those there isnt anything playing! How sad is that.

[DSkip]

Almost there! Man this was so much simpler when I only worked 1 job and didnt have a 3 year old running around. Cant do anything when the wife isnt here cause my boy seems to find every razor sharp cutting tool I have laying around the garage while Im under the dash. All I have left is to mount the amp to the back seat and then plug her in and Ill be set! Im so chomping at the bit that I was playing around with the crossovers on my P99 last night on the drive home even those there isnt anything playing! How sad is that.

Everything is easier when a kid isn't involved, isn't it?

[MacLeod]

Tell me about it. Im home all day and the wife is at work. I couldve had that amp installed hours ago but I cant because as soon as we get out in the garage and my back is turned, he's got the drill out! Gawdamighty! 3 year old boys also have a knack for finding the sharpest, deadliest tools you have when youre not looking either.

[eloplayspolo]

what size box did you run your sr12 in?

[MacLeod]

1.25 ft3 sealed.

I got that from the Car Audio & Electronics magazine review. When they asked Polk what size box to put it in for best results for their review, that's the size they recommended so that's what I went with. Its about right cause it worked great that way.

[EndersShadow]

what size box did you run your sr12 in?

You can find those recommended box spec's here: http://www.polkaudio.com/products/sr124

[MacLeod]

Its alive! Its playing music and nothing is catching on fire! Woohoo! Now just gotta tidy up a bit and I can start tuning. Ill still have to go back and do some finishing up cause I didnt do any of the fine details cause Im just wanting to get this thing up and running. I can come back later and do the little things like carpet the mounting plate for the amp, hide the wires a little better and so on.

[eloplayspolo]

Its alive! Its playing music and nothing is catching on fire! Woohoo! Now just gotta tidy up a bit and I can start tuning. Ill still have to go back and do some finishing up cause I didnt do any of the fine details cause Im just wanting to get this thing up and running. I can come back later and do the little things like carpet the mounting plate for the amp, hide the wires a little better and so on.

pics.

[MacLeod]

Meh didn't take any cause there's really nothing to show yet. The amp is mounted to the back seat via a 3/4" MDF plate and I'm using a pre-fab box for the subs and the tweeters are in the A-pillars in some pods. Eventually I'll build a trim panel for the sub and finish up the amp's mounting plate cause you can see way too much of the MDF but that's down the line.

I'm going to have to get a cut off wheel for my Dremel cause I'm gonna have to shave off some sheet metal so I can mount my SR's more flush. The 1" spacer I'm using now is choking them off and I'm not getting good midbass. And I've gotta Dynamat the rear deck cause these MM10's move some serious air and that back deck is really rattling.

[MacLeod]

Yeah I definitely gotta get my mid mounted more shallow. I keep hearing everything coming from the bottom of the left A pillar and I thought it was the tweeter beaming at first but the frequencies were too low. Since my mid is on such a deep spacer like 1.5" the trim panel wont go all the way on. Right at the speaker, one popper wont go in and there is enough space to stick your pinky between it and its letting the sound come out and its echoing all around there and up to the dash.

I've also gotta get the door beefed up cause I don't have much midbass at all. Didn't think the "side projects" would start this soon. Oh well.

[MacLeod]

So here's my plan for Sunday. Gonna cut the hole for the speaker mount out better so I can mount the mid using just a 3/4" MDF baffle. That'll let me close the trim panel all the way and also let the mid breathe a little better since it wont be in a 2" long tube.

I'm also going to get some aluminum sheets from Lowes and cut out sections to seal up the gaping hole in the door panel. This should make the door panel a good bit more sturdy.

Lastly I'm going to use a trick a buddy of mine came up with. Get some silicone caulk and a bunch of BB's. Spread the caulk out thin and then sprinkle the BB's into it and once it dries, cover it with Dynamat. This will add about 10-15 pounds of mass to the trim panels which should cut WAY down on it resonating and vibrating.