Hey Guys,
So the title may be a bit of a stretch, but after getting my truck back last night from Bing at Simplicity in Sound I'm at a loss for words. The look and sound of this system is beyond description, the pictures don't do it justice. I'm just throwing this up quickly before I head back to work but I'll be sure to do a more in depth review when time allows. But for now....Enjoy.
A style of vehicle that I don't get to do often is a great way to kick off a new install session following my vacation to the OBX. In this case, it’s a 2011 Dodge Ram reg cab belonging to our member SFtrainer.
Goals for the install:
1. As this is his work truck, the install needs to be durable and hidden out of sight
2. No loss of seat movement fore and aft ; seat back must still go pretty much all the way back. (Not the easiest considering the amount of gear we needed to fit back there)
3. Obtain a decently high level of sound quality for daily listening and the occasional MECA competition
4. Still have a little bit of flash built into the design
Though the newer gen Ram have a lot of room behind the seat for a reg cab, the requirements above still made for a pretty challenging install space wise...but in the end, what surprised me the most was how this truck SOUNDED given the locations of the various components. I will touch on this more at the end.
Let’s get started:
The headunit and a small interim system was already installed by the time I received the vehicle, the headunit is a Sony XNV-770BT all in one NAV piece, the dash opening has been nicely trimmed by another shop to make for a precise fitment around the fascia, I went in and redid some of the wiring to accommodate the new system:
As the system uses Zapco DC reference amps, all tuning is done via Laptop from the front seat via the USB cable that is run into the glovebox:
It was decided a long time ago that this car was going to run a set of Audible Physics XR Duo...the advantage of having so much of the freq range above the dash cannot be overstated in a vehicle like this...we toyed around with the stock top of the dash location or A pillar mounting for the XR3...but in the end, after consulting with fellow Team AP member Chefhow who has a similar vehicle, we decided on the much simpler and stealthier stock location approach, not to mention wrapping the pillars with their integrated grab handles would present quite a challenge.
The XR6 midbass went into the stock lower door location, the customer had previously gone in and sound proofed the inner and outer door skin from the inside...I ran a new set of speaker cables into the door and reorganized some of the alarm related wiring:
Here you can see the ensolite install onto the outer door skin:
I then fabricated two sets of mounting baffles for the XR3 and XR6, the XR3 out of 1/8" hardboard so the phase plug can still fit under the stock grill, and the xr6's out of 3/8" MDF:
The midbass baffles were then coated with truck bedliner to protect them against the elements:
And the XR6s were bolted up:
Here is the termination point on the driver side midbass:
And the speaker fully secured:
The same procedure followed on the passenger side:
Next, the plastic door cards received a layer of Deamplifier pro to stop it from buzzing and resonating:
So the title may be a bit of a stretch, but after getting my truck back last night from Bing at Simplicity in Sound I'm at a loss for words. The look and sound of this system is beyond description, the pictures don't do it justice. I'm just throwing this up quickly before I head back to work but I'll be sure to do a more in depth review when time allows. But for now....Enjoy.
A style of vehicle that I don't get to do often is a great way to kick off a new install session following my vacation to the OBX. In this case, it’s a 2011 Dodge Ram reg cab belonging to our member SFtrainer.
Goals for the install:
1. As this is his work truck, the install needs to be durable and hidden out of sight
2. No loss of seat movement fore and aft ; seat back must still go pretty much all the way back. (Not the easiest considering the amount of gear we needed to fit back there)
3. Obtain a decently high level of sound quality for daily listening and the occasional MECA competition
4. Still have a little bit of flash built into the design
Though the newer gen Ram have a lot of room behind the seat for a reg cab, the requirements above still made for a pretty challenging install space wise...but in the end, what surprised me the most was how this truck SOUNDED given the locations of the various components. I will touch on this more at the end.
Let’s get started:
The headunit and a small interim system was already installed by the time I received the vehicle, the headunit is a Sony XNV-770BT all in one NAV piece, the dash opening has been nicely trimmed by another shop to make for a precise fitment around the fascia, I went in and redid some of the wiring to accommodate the new system:
As the system uses Zapco DC reference amps, all tuning is done via Laptop from the front seat via the USB cable that is run into the glovebox:
It was decided a long time ago that this car was going to run a set of Audible Physics XR Duo...the advantage of having so much of the freq range above the dash cannot be overstated in a vehicle like this...we toyed around with the stock top of the dash location or A pillar mounting for the XR3...but in the end, after consulting with fellow Team AP member Chefhow who has a similar vehicle, we decided on the much simpler and stealthier stock location approach, not to mention wrapping the pillars with their integrated grab handles would present quite a challenge.
The XR6 midbass went into the stock lower door location, the customer had previously gone in and sound proofed the inner and outer door skin from the inside...I ran a new set of speaker cables into the door and reorganized some of the alarm related wiring:
Here you can see the ensolite install onto the outer door skin:
I then fabricated two sets of mounting baffles for the XR3 and XR6, the XR3 out of 1/8" hardboard so the phase plug can still fit under the stock grill, and the xr6's out of 3/8" MDF:
The midbass baffles were then coated with truck bedliner to protect them against the elements:
And the XR6s were bolted up:
Here is the termination point on the driver side midbass:
And the speaker fully secured:
The same procedure followed on the passenger side:
Next, the plastic door cards received a layer of Deamplifier pro to stop it from buzzing and resonating: