2012 Silverado 1500 Crew Cab Standard Radio

joeybutts

Doing an install for a guy at work who wanted to improve the overall quality of his truck's audio.  

Budget Max: $1500

Prospective Equipment:
Kenwood DDX396
Fountek FR58EX
Seas L16RN
GRS 10SSW-4 (x2)
Pioneer GM-D9705

I've always liked Kenwood HUs and this one comes with 3way network active in a double din for under $300, seems like a no-brainer.

You guys here convinced me to go with a 2" full range to help with the gap between the A-pillar and lower door and I have these on hand.  Great reviews, I've used them in a BT application and they sounded very nice with no network on them, so we'll roll with them unless anyone sees a glaring issue.  

Seas L16RN.  Great deal and overkill for what's going on here SQ wise.  Doors will be sealed and lined with foam.

He isn't worried about lowest octaves so I figured the GRS slim subs would work perfect.  (I received them as a secret santa from PETT and used them in my car for a while, should be good)  Going under rear seat to spec, .5cubes sealed and stuffed.  I was considering a pair of eD 7kv.2's ported but can't get myself to let go of them..... 

Honestly the most difficult decision I've been faced with and am still on the fence about, but it should honestly be perfect for this situation, lots of headroom on the top end and low end, which will hopefully leave the mids to be solid on power.

If you guys have any rec's or criticisms let me know.  

Tom_S

Sounds like a good plan! I'm still amazed how small boxes can be for modern car subs. It sure didn't used to be that way. But then, back in the day, 1000W amps were just a pipe dream.

joeybutts

Thanks Tom!  Yeah, I remember my dad's truck and how everything was pretty low power and large.  

joeybutts

Just waiting on the amplifier and woofers for the doors, vehicle comes in Sunday and will hopefully be wrapped up by Wednesday.  Eager to hear how this one turns out.

joeybutts

This job got under way today with vehicle drop off at about 0915A.  Got started around 1000A with disassembly, head unit harness wiring all connected, soldered, shrinkwrapped and tested, then power wire run and loomed, with fuse holder and ring terminal installed, crimped and soldered, remote wire roughed in and then RCA's run to head unit and to back where amp will be mounted.  

Stopped to watch the super bowl at about 1715-1730 with a quick pull of the A-pillar tweeter grills to see about fitment of the Fountek 58's......not gonna fit.    So I need to come up with another plan quick.  I'd like to keep it in the A-pillar but the owner isn't adverse to cutting and fitting in the door panel.  

Tomorrow I'll run speaker wires and start tearing apart doors and A-pillars and start subwoofer enclosure/amp rack.

Pics to come and trying to figure out the high end.....

joeybutts

So after scouring the vendors and wanting to keep the stock location of the tweeter in the A-pillar I went with the MDT-12.  Great power handling, crossover relatively low, size should be perfect for location, and after wiring up the front stage tonight with the shitty stock tweeters and hearing the system with just the front stage done, the Morel's should be the cherry on top.  

Today I finalized the wiring, got the doors treated and sealed, woofers reused the mounting carcasses from the stock woofers, stock tweeters I got wired up for the time being as I wait for the new ones to come in, HU got finalized and installed and amplifier wired up and everything checked for function and learned my way around the HU.

For what it is, this system sounds absolutely amazing.  The tweeters are a bit harsh and less than smooth but they don't sound as bad as I was expecting.  Those Seas woofers.....ERMAHGERD.  They are beautiful and I am jealous I can't use them in my car.  

The head unit I chose does 3-way networking and though it doesn't have an infinite number of options for crossover points and other adjustments, there is enough to get it wrangled in, and with the time alignment and  gain adjustments at your finger tips instead of needing to go to the amplifier it is real nice for tuning.  

I sat in the truck for about 30 min and could have easily stayed in there a while longer listening to what I consider some quality testing tracks including dire straits, pink floyd, regina spektor and a few others.  Definitely could have gotten lost in there...I don't know how people just don't truly enjoy and love music.

I am over the moon about how this turned out.  Hoping to get the sub-stage completed and in tomorrow before the owner comes over for a listen.  

6thplanet

Sounds great, just not enough pics!!!

joeybutts

Well shit, all the pics loaded out of order!!!🤣🤣🤣

Sorry guys...I'll reconfigure ....

6thplanet

I used to do electrical repair on cars and used that very trick of busting out the center part of those speakers to mount other ones in there. Several GM cars use that method of mounting. Even the 6x9's in the rear deck. I would use little jumper wires from the new speaker to the old tinsel lead mounts so it'd plug up to the factory connector. Also hated having to fix broken wires in door boots. Ford explorer being one of the worst for that.

joeybutts

Ooooo you know, I was looking at the old speaker thinking I should be able to use this some how...that tinsel lead to the factory connector is a great idea.  Going to have to remember that one.

Yeah, the boot was starting to be a pain but then figured out there was some kind of rubber strips in there lining it or something, so jammed that long ph2 through, taped it up and then put some gold bond on it and zip!  right through.

joeybutts

Finished!  Will post pics shortly, though the truck looks stock.

So MDT-12's ended up in the A-pillars.  I was able to trim down the face plate on opposite sides so it had an "eye" shape, and hot glue it behind the A-pillar tweeter grills.  Took some finessing and grinding but made it in there.

GRS 10SSW-4's got put in separate .5 cu ft enclosures fully stuffed with pillow stuffing, downfiring under each side seat and the amplifier in the middle with a removable top panel.  They were worth every dollar of the $25 they cost.  Fantastic and perfect for the customer's listening preferences.  Mated with the L16RN's lots of kick in the mid bass and still hit hard in 90% of rap and electronica music.  Only sub 30hz really struggled.

Very clean as far as distortion, so that was good.  I could not quite eliminate all the shoutiness with certain female high notes and electric guitar, not sure the reason for that..... tweeters in A-pillars shooting at approx 1/3 location of windshield and woofers in doors, sealed and some foam filling.

If I remember correctly, LPF of 1.6 with 12db slope and HPF of 70 6db slope for L16RN and HPF for MDT12 of 4k with 6db slope.  Love some constructive criticsm on this.

Also, left rear door speakers hooked up, so they ran as mids only and I think they were dragging down the rest of the system, lots of distortion and adding mid coloring.  I told the owner I didn't like them hooked up and if he finds that stuff doesn't sound right to disconnect them or have me do it to see if it improves the sound, but the first time I test ran the system they were hooked up as only tweeters and definitely was an improved sound.....I'd rather they not be in at all.  Oh well.

Over all it is a very capable system that could benefit from a few more tuning options to really get it tuned in and maybe a bit more high end subwoofer setup.  For the budget it is killer.

Let me know if I missed anything or criticsms or anything, I'm a novice at this stuff in its entirety.....

joeybutts

jr@mac

Cool install. You may have some distortion coming through from the shallow slope on the tweeter, might be causing some of the glare.

joeybutts

Thanks JR.  When I run into him I'll change it if it's at 6.  I dont think the head can do more than a 12....

Wolf

Could it also be the cone breakup of the L16s, since they are metal?

joeybutts

The description on them says something about 500-1500hz..... maybe you are right.  

Maybe I should have tried a LPF at 1K with 6slope and put the tweeter at 2.5 at 12 slope......  didn't even consider that an option......

If I work with him soon I'll definitely ask to fiddle a bit and see if it helps if you guys think that is a viable option for improving.  Also wondering if the amp was running out of steam for all those drivers as they are 8ohm drivers and the amp is rated to 75@4ohm....I mean it's plenty for most and where it was starting to sound bad was just about maxed out.

Ed_Perkins

Wolf said:

Could it also be the cone breakup of the L16s, since they are metal?

+1. The LR16RN has a large (15 dB) breakup at 5 KHz (see the FR graph at madisound).  With 6 dB @ 1 KHz that breakup is going to be about the same level as the rest of its output.  

joeybutts

Ahhhhh.....ok.  Is there any way for me to address that without effecting the rest of the sound?

Thanks guys.