Yep....Its started

I started the install of an old school system in the ol ladies Intrepid.

Been a while since I ran into a car with a VERY difficult firewall! Had to asume a most akward position to get the roto-broach to drill through the firewall!.... Only took about 5 minutes, but dang it!

I got the jole drilled and the power wire run through.....BUT, I had no grommet to fit the old 4 Ga. power wire, so.....I did an old trick, double loomed the wire where it passes through the firewall. A little RTV around it and all is good

I run all the power wires down the drivers side. this includes the main power cable, a 10 Ga. ground wire for the source unit/preamp, and a 12 gauge remote turn on lead.. All went smooth to the trunk area. No difficulties other than the lower dash does not come of readily! makes for an awkward position to get the wires run right!

All the audio cables will be run down the passenger side, pretty much free and clear of any factory wireing..... ill be running an Orion DIN cable, 4 runs of 16 Ga, speaker wire, 4 runs of 18Ga. stranded and 2 RCA cables. I ALWAYS run an extra RCA cable and extra wires for future expansion.....I hate having to tear into cars more than neccasary/

For right now, the sytem will be pretty basic. Will be running an old (7 year old blaupunkt) head unit. This will fees into an Orion 300 PRQ. Not really sue where I will mount the damned thing. I am thinking about shytecanning the ashtray and mounting it in that location, if it looks good. From the 300 PRQ it will go to an Orion 275 SX. Thats all fine and dandy, BUT, I am still running factory speakers in this car, so, here is where my dilema arrives.....

I actually LIKE the sound of the factroy speakers! they perform quite well! Did some critical listeing and they really do EXCELLENT! Now, to run this 275 SX on them wil surely be the death of them! Not from ne, but the ol lady who drives the car 90% of the time! So I will use it to run the sub only. the sub will be an ol XTR 12. Gunna use a vented box, about 2.5 cubic feet, and still have moe than enough room for access to the spare. Being that the sub is dual voice coil at 4 ohms each coil, will have to run it stereo on the amp, its not 1 ohm stable in mono! will do it and kick ass, but its really hard on the power supply.

the factory highs will be run off an old sony 20w x 2 amp.......LOL!!!! what a POS!!!! but it works good and really does a fine job right now on the factory speaks.

I cant find my 200 CRX x-over.........DAMMITTT!!!!!!!!!!! so I gues I will use all passives for the x-overs. But thats OK... I like them anyway.

Actualy, when the factory speaks get replaced,i will probably use the 275 SX to run it all using passive x-overs. Done many sytems that way, and almost all, when properly tuned, tweaked and adjusted, sounded better than most actively x-overed systems. It just takes alittle time and effort....


Cant wait till its done in its first stage!!!!

Later on I will add some components to the front stage....I have some ADS 320i and Oroin carbon fibre drivers that need used up!!! Probably use the ADS drivers... maybe, I sure do like then Orion carbon fibre 5's, they ae the ones made by ADS after the 2 companies were combined....hell i dont know....

Just need to finish up the basic install for now.....

 

AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CRAPSTICK!!!!!!!


So much to go wrong in so little time!!!


LOL!!! the dammed head unit's rear ouputs are shot in the arse! No problem I say. So I go ahead and run it all off the 275SX. threw on some caps for the highs and called it good. I test fire the sytem with no sub, sounds like dog poop....i start the engine and come to find that the engine noise gods are displeased. Really bad too! I unplug the rca cables and the noise is gone. Hmmm. I reconnect them and play with the gain a little, LOL forget it! The head unit has some serious issues!!!! I substituded an old clarion DIN tape deck, works fine with no noise issues.

Moving on to the sub..........I thought I would double check the imedance of the voice coils of the sub, both check out at 3.8 ohms, good. I move the cone up and down to check for any issues in the excursion, fine. BUT.....The place where i put my fingers felt a little flimsy, DAMMIT! some critter such as a phucking mouse has chewed and scratched at the back of the cone enough to weaken it, not go through, but make it super thin over a 6 square inch area..........SHYTE!!!!!!!!!

Ok, i found a plan "B"....an old Savard 12 incher high Q i got about 12 years ago as a sample to try out......Do I have the specs for it? HELL NO!!!! Screw it, make a 1.5 cubic foot sealed box and hope for the best for now. Box is built, using a dammed circular saw and straight edge, why not a table saw? Cause the SOB has just brike a belt!!!! I have NEVER seen a table saw break a belt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am about to give up on this shyte!!!


I get it all together and it sounds..........well, like dogass.....The clarion tuner suucks, its old i know, and all my old cassettes are well, gone, too bad too, had some good recordings, oh well, it works and makes some noise for now...The sub bass is OK, the highs really need a good source unit though, hell, the factory head unit had better upper register FM response than this dammed clarion!


Looks like I got to pawn off the ol lady for a night or two to some horny basterd to make enough cash for a new HU, (I hope she never reads that!!!)

To be continued, PHUCK my bad luck!

 

Actually its in your girlfreinds right now!