My SC400 install thread

[Electrodynamic]

I tried posting this once before but the server had a problem the next day and lost a lot of data including my thread. at:

I'll start from the beginning again.

Keep in mind that this is a build thread. There will be a lot of changes throughout this thread to the audio, so be patient.


A little bit of background on me:

I own a car audio company named Stereo Integrity. I am the designer of all of our products. For the SC400 I am using twin Mag v4 subwoofers in the spare tire well. The great thing about the subs is that they only weigh 20 lbs each and are only 5.5" deep. All amplification is handled by Sundown Audio. Wiring is a combination of Tara Labs and/or Audio Magic interconnects and speaker wire. The front speakers consist of Morel MDT 12's and Scan Speak Revelator 7" mids all running active via a combination of the RF 3sixty.2 and the Sundown Audio amplifiers.

The build has gone from trying to keep things stock, including the head unit, to an all-out re-do everything.

Enjoy!

 

[Electrodynamic]

The Lexus SC400 is going to be my new demo vehicle to take around to shows and meets. I did a little bit of the install today (I'll deaden the doors later) and thought I'd post up pics.

Pretty much a full day doing this stuff, but it was a LOT of fun. The Lexus comes apart really easy. Ok, enough about the car.

I decided to install my tweets and see what options I have as far as mids are concerned. The tweeters that are in it are TINY neo's (0.75" neo's). The cars come factory with an amplifier in the back and I decided to use the factory wiring.

I had to modify the Morel MDT12 by shaving ALL of the flange off or it wouldn't fit.

Oh, hey, wait a minute, let's do this in order:

Door panel removed:

The cool thing about the tiny 4.5" speaker in the door is that it has its own ported enclosure from the factory.

Here's a comparison of the Audax Aerogel mid and the factory mid:

And the Audax by itself:

 

[Electrodynamic]

I made baffles out of 3/4" plywood to adapt over my 5.25" Audax Aerogel's. While making the baffle I had to recess the screws that were going to hold the baffle to the existing enclosure. I also had to flatten the baffle and the 5.25" mid in order for the door pannel to go back on.

And then the ring installed:

Mid mounted:

I soldered and the Morel's in with the factory harness from the factory tweeter:

And the tweeter mounted on the bracket and installed:

 

[Electrodynamic]

Here's the top door panel portion without the grille:

And with the grille:

And a picture of the Audax installed:

The factory grille won't fit so I'm going to have to modify it in order to get them back in place. For now they'll go as they are - without a grille.

I only have FM, so I'm not going to comment on how they sound until my CD changer gets here.

I'll post up more about deadening, wiring, and the subwoofer/amplifiers install when the time comes.

 

[Electrodynamic]

Here are pics of the tweeter grilles hogged out - one being covered in grille cloth already:

And today was the mid grille work. Man, this took a LOT longer than I thought. There was a LOT of cutting, more cutting, and more cutting. I basically had to hog out the entire grille. BTW: from the factory, the black mesh is metal. That's right, metal mesh inset into plastic. Odd. Anyway, here we go:

Here is the factory grille on the left and the grille with the grille cloth removed on the right:

I hogged out the port and shaved the extensions around the mid:

Here it is all hogged out:

and from the backside:

 

[Electrodynamic]

And here's what they look like after they are wrapped in black grille cloth and installed on top of the ported mids:

While I was at it, I tore apart and re-wrapped the rear speaker grilles. I also removed the two rear speakers and left the sub for now...until I install the pair of Mag's.

 

[Electrodynamic]

And yesterday I ran two 4 awg runs of power wire for the install. The wire is run along the drivers side of the vehicle, behind the rear seats, up and under the rear package tray, and then finally inside the trunk via the now deadened open hole where the left rear speaker was. Here are a few pics of how it sits now:

The only place I could drill a hole large enough for the two runs of 4 awg (note: this is for power ONLY, not power and ground - twin 4 awg runs is almost equal to a single 1/0 run but it lays under the carpet a LOT better) is about 3" above the drivers footrest. It opens up into the fender, but it's behind the tire and will never touch the tire - it's in a little nook, which I then went up into the engine bay via the opening that you see in the last picture. I'll take a pic of the hole when I have the car raised up again.

 

[Electrodynamic]

Oh, I was messing around with my company's prototype BM ultra-shallow 12" subwoofer and came up with the following mounting location:

Not too bad for a totally hidden location. It would mount via a fiberglass enclosure behind the factory cover panel so everything would look stock when you opened your trunk. Simply remove your rear speakers and sub and you would have plenty of room to let the BM fire through into the cab.

PS: Our BM series subwoofers are going to have 13mm of one-way linear excursion, encompass an XBL^2 motor, and are right at 3.5" mounting depth. Couple that with 0.5 ft^3 enclosure requirements and you've got a hellatious small box subwoofer.

 

[Electrodynamic]

Oh, and here's another update:

Updates:

First off, I got the battery installed. The connections were on the opposite side of what I needed so I purchased some aluminum (do NOT buy steel for something like this - it will rust) from a local hardware store and cut them to length. The finished look is this:

And here is where that big 0 awg ground goes to:

I then covered the dual runs of 4 awg and had to modify the fuse holder to accept the twin ring terminals. I didn't want to show the company of the fuse holder (SoundQuest) so I mounted it inverted:

 

[Electrodynamic]

And then I hopped into the trunk area and started taking out crap (like the POS factory amplifier and half of the CD changer mount, which the other half is the factory amp bracket). And of course, I deadened the CD changer mounting location.

I made a bracket out of 1/4" plywood in an attempt to have a good base to mount the SAZ-100.4:

I used the factory amplifier bracket to make the template for the bottom of the new amp bracket so I could secure it with the 3 bolts that are sticking up out of the floor:

However: all of that proved futile because even with 1/4" material, it's too thick and the nuts won't thread onto the bolts. Even after I routed out the plywood to 1/8" thick the nuts still won't thread on. I am going to purchase some thick aluminum to make the bottom bracket out of so it can be secured because the 1/8" thick plywood isn't cutting it. Here is the location where the amp will be mounted to. I only deadend a little bit of this just for mounting/testing purposes:

Disclaimer: I spent at least 2 hours cleaning the trunk, which is why I only got a little bit of work done yesterday. The trunk was incredibly dirty! I went through 75% of a roll of paper towels and a 1/4 bottle of Super Clean just cleaning the trunk. It amazes me how a trunk can get that dirty...but oh well, at least it's clean now.

 

[Electrodynamic]

So I made a plate out of steel and attached it. Yes I'm going to primer it so it doesn't rust, so don't ask. Anyway, here are the pics:

 

[Electrodynamic]

This is an old update, but anyway:

I spent all day getting the 3sixty.2 installed. Man it was a LOT of work! I had to tap into a lot of factory wires while leaving the wiring in tact. I also wired up the engine bay and spent a lot of time trying to figure out why in the hell my balance won't work on my head unit. I really need two people to figure this thing out. This Lexus is proving to be a *****.

Anyway, here are some pics of today's work:

Tapping into the factory plugs and covering them up so they don't rattle:

And the amp and 3sixty.2 mounted for now (obviously not finished properly):

 

[Electrodynamic]

Well there's not much picture-wise to update except the deadening of the rear seat area.

This was the feeble beginning:

And the best deadener out there (performance, affordability, it sticks VERY well even without a heat gun):

And the result:

Besides that, I HATE Lexus and their douche-baggery in not allowing anyone to integrate with the factory head unit!!!! I installed the 3sixty.2 and had noise right off the bat. This is with the car NOT running! I tried everything - ran a power wire from the distribution block to the 3sixty, that didn't work. I jumped the 3sixty to be always on to eliminate the remote lead, that didn't work. The ground is fine - it goes the same ground of my distribution block.

There is a constant scratchy/ticking noise that goes through the system that I can't get rid of. I even went out and bought two ground loop isolators and installed them after the 3sixty, that didn't work either.

No one makes an adapter for behind the head unit except on that allows you to install a new head unit. So if you install the adapter behind the factory head unit, your factory head unit won't turn on. Now I'm two things: *****ed, and pissed off. Now I have to buy a double-din head unit in order to have good sound.

So while I was deadening the rear seat area I went ahead and ran the Tara Labs Spectrum 3A interconnects. Oh, and I ordered a Kenwood DDX7017 double-din head unit last night also.

 

[Electrodynamic]

So I got pissed today.

Thinking of how I'm going to have to re-wire all of the system. If I'm running a wire up to the fronts just for the tweeters, why not add all new wiring? If I'm doing that, why not upgrade the mids? A single 5.25 isn't going to cut it for me. So here's what I'll be using instead.

Audax on the left, new woofer on the right.

And what is this mystery woofer?!

That's right, a 7" ScanSpeak Revelator. :bowdown: I figure one per door aught to cut it.

 

[Electrodynamic]

And here is today's acquisition:

Yep, that's right - a 50.4 per pair of Morel MDT12's and a 50.4 per pair of ScanSpeak Revelators. Not to mention a pair of 1000D's per pair of new Mag v4's.

 

[Electrodynamic]

Ok...here is a BIG ASS update:

There was a LOT more work that went on other than what is pictured. I have to "give a shout out" (yes, I know that's gay) to Jacob, Brandon, and Justin at Sundown Audio. Without them, none of this would have been accomplished. I employed Jacob's OCD skills in sound deadening to do the doors "half-assed" as he calls it. From the following pics, you'll see that his half-ass is most people's over-kill. We had to keep the metal tape away from him or he would have gone ape **** and would probably still be deadening my doors.

Brandon did an excellent job on the door pods! They are smooth, fit perfectly, and are completely sealed. Thumbs up man!

Justin focused on the trunk portion and did a damn fine job! We tried to fit 3 Mag's but it simply wasn't working out with the diameter we ended up working with. Losing a Mag only lost 1.5 dB (theoretical), so it's no big deal.

The install isn't finished yet, but everything is neat and tidy. Wires are all tucked away, tied down, zip tied, soldered, shrink-wrapped, etc. It was quite the day! Now, on to the piczorz!!

 

[Electrodynamic]

First up is a picture of my deadened door in progress:

Notice the proliferous use of Second Skin deadener along with the gargantuan opening being filled with Second Skin Luxury Liner before it was to be sealed up.

Here is the door panel sealed up (AKA: the huge hole taken care of):

 

[Electrodynamic]

And now onto the door pods. The door pods from the factory are ported. We went sealed. The factory door pods are made out of stiff HEAVY plastic, so there was no need to strengthen the back of the door pods. The front of the door pods needed to have 7" adapters made and fiberglassed onto them in order to mate the Scan Speak Revelators into position. Brandon headed up this section of the install and he did a fantastic job. Here are some pics of the progress:

 

[Electrodynamic]

And here are the sex pictures of the SS being mated to the pod:

 

[Electrodynamic]

And here are the gold tipped, insulated, and color-coded female fittings used for the speaker wire to go onto the SS's terminals:

And here is the SS being installed onto the door: