This build log is a bit different in a couple ways. For starters, i forgot to get any progress photos for the first time ever. I have been skimping lately, but no progress photos is a first. Sorry for that. Another way it is different is that the owner of the car is actually the first industry rep to put his faith in me, Frankie Mark of 12 Volt Marketing Group. Frankie is too date, one of the most solid people i've met in this industry. At the 2018 Dallas Knowledgefest, my first one where i'd know no one personally, Frankie made sure i wasn't wandering around alone for 5 days. 12v Marketing Group has one of the most stacked lineups (Audiotec Fischer, Morel, AAMP Global, Ground Zero, Sound Digital, Compustar, iDatalink, Hushmat, and much more) and while Frankie would be extremely busy talking with the manufacturers he works with, he still made plenty of time to show me around and introduce me to countless people, some of which i call personal friends to this day. For that, and much more, i cannot thank him enough. Couple all of that with the fact that Frankie is the most densely packed bit of energy that this universe has to offer... well, those are stories for a different day. What we are here for is the build log in his Subaru Outback, which he drives between 100 to 250 miles A DAY to various 12v stores and accounts that he works with. While he did have a system in here already, it was not up to par to demo a select few brands that he wanted to use. Cue him giving us a call asking us to do a build in the car with all Morel speakers, Helix processing and amplifiers, and the new Stinger High10 head unit and Stinger wiring. The goals of the car were to obviously sound as good as possible, to maintain trunk space to allow Frankie to carry promotional/demo products around while traveling to accounts, and.... to fabricate a center channel to show off the Helix Ultra's 2 seat tuning capabilities using its Real Center center extracaction feature. The list of equipment is as follows..
. Stinger High10 radio with Stinger X series optical cable for signal
. Helix DSP Ultra with the Director
. Stinger 9000 series RCA's
. (2) Helix M Six amplifiers
. Helix M One X amplifier
. Morel Ultimo SC 12" subwoofer
. Morel Elate 6.5" components ran passively for rear fill
. Morel Elate 6.5" midbass drivers
. Morel Elate Prototype 3.5" midrange drivers
. Morel MT350 tweeters
. (2) Morel CCWR254 2.5" wideband drivers for the center channel
Now, on to the end product of what we came up with.. Kevin handled the entire trunk, door deadening, and electronics install as well as finishing off the pillars while I did the center channel and pillar design/install. As you can probably tell by now, he is much quicker than I am lol.
Starting with the signal, Frankies car already had the Stinger Elev8 radio, and we upgraded it to their new 10" free floating screen radio, the Stinger High10. Like the Elev8, the High10 also has a variable volume optical output which im sure has a lot of you SQ guys doing a double take. At the end of the day, its a nice radio with a modified Android interface that is simple and easy to use and features Android Auto and Apple Car Play as well as a load of other features. In this situation it also controls multiple cameras as well as 2 headrest monitors. My only complaint about this radio is the volume knob. I know it seems silly, but if you have ever used a high quality volume knob and go to a less than ideal one, you already know.
Underneath the High10 sits the Helix Director. This controls master volume (if needed), Subwoofer volume, HEC Volume (we are using a bluetooth card as well, so this is handy), Digital Volume, preset storage and switching, bluetooth controlls, manual input switching if needed, and much more.
The center channel was a fun one since we have never fabricated a center channel location before. I took this one on myself. The center channel location that i made sits on top of a blank panel in the center of the dashboard that im assuming would house a center channel speaker if this car came with with OEM Harmon Kardon option. Thankfully, this panel and location made things very easy. It houses the pair of Morel 2.5" widebands. The reason we went with the pair aside from the obvious "if it fits, why not", is because when doing a center channel you want as much output and low end extension capability as possible. This is to ensure that your center image from the extracted center signal can match the output of the side speakers, and play low enough in frequency to where the recordings typically start being mono. To make this, I scanned the panel on my printer, traced the scan in my CAD software, and started designing around that. What we did was just match the outer shape and add some styling with some chamfered edges, a pressed grill, as well as a 12 Volt Marketing Group badge. One of the requests that Frankie had was to not block the display behind the center location. Noted and fulfilled.
On to the pillars.. Since this was a car that Frankie is going to be using to demo to not end users, but shops, i originally wanted to do something that would impress other shop owners/salesman/installers.. Built a good sounding car that uses all typical OEM locations. One problem, hardly anything fit in the OEM dash location of this car, and certainly not the drivers Frankie wanted to use. Back to the custom fabricated locations idea.. we settled with both in the pillars on a horizontal plane to keep things clean looking. I came up with a shape/design for the grills and pillar and got to work. I was going to use the standard red and black epoxy morel logo that you can find on some of their speakers and crossovers, but was informed that Morel was starting to move away from that color way. No worries, i lasered out a new piece that features their updated colors for the higher end drivers, Silver and Black. The baffles are made out of acrylic and the back is open to give the midrange drivers enough airspace. I did the design and baffle/grill work, Kevin did the fiberglass, and then I handled the upholstery and painting.
The goal of the trunk was obviously to show off the equipment that Frankie chose for the build, since this is a demo car after all. But, i know Frankie pretty well by now. He cant just have a bunch of gear in his trunk as he is always lugging promotional and demo gear around to show dealers on his trips to accounts. This means everything needed to be confined to either the sides of the trunk (where the old sub enclosures were), or in the spare tire well. We decided to keep it all in the spare tire well. We managed to fit a pair of Helix M Six's, Helix M One X, Helix DSP Ultra, and a 12" Morel Ultimo SC in a 1.3 cubic foot enclosure all under the oem floor. The OEM floor didnt need any modification since its very thin and doesnt seal the sub under there, so everything sounded fine. Kevin is responsible for the entire design and work for this portion of the build. Hats off to him. Dude kills it.
. Stinger High10 radio with Stinger X series optical cable for signal
. Helix DSP Ultra with the Director
. Stinger 9000 series RCA's
. (2) Helix M Six amplifiers
. Helix M One X amplifier
. Morel Ultimo SC 12" subwoofer
. Morel Elate 6.5" components ran passively for rear fill
. Morel Elate 6.5" midbass drivers
. Morel Elate Prototype 3.5" midrange drivers
. Morel MT350 tweeters
. (2) Morel CCWR254 2.5" wideband drivers for the center channel
Now, on to the end product of what we came up with.. Kevin handled the entire trunk, door deadening, and electronics install as well as finishing off the pillars while I did the center channel and pillar design/install. As you can probably tell by now, he is much quicker than I am lol.
Starting with the signal, Frankies car already had the Stinger Elev8 radio, and we upgraded it to their new 10" free floating screen radio, the Stinger High10. Like the Elev8, the High10 also has a variable volume optical output which im sure has a lot of you SQ guys doing a double take. At the end of the day, its a nice radio with a modified Android interface that is simple and easy to use and features Android Auto and Apple Car Play as well as a load of other features. In this situation it also controls multiple cameras as well as 2 headrest monitors. My only complaint about this radio is the volume knob. I know it seems silly, but if you have ever used a high quality volume knob and go to a less than ideal one, you already know.
Underneath the High10 sits the Helix Director. This controls master volume (if needed), Subwoofer volume, HEC Volume (we are using a bluetooth card as well, so this is handy), Digital Volume, preset storage and switching, bluetooth controlls, manual input switching if needed, and much more.
The center channel was a fun one since we have never fabricated a center channel location before. I took this one on myself. The center channel location that i made sits on top of a blank panel in the center of the dashboard that im assuming would house a center channel speaker if this car came with with OEM Harmon Kardon option. Thankfully, this panel and location made things very easy. It houses the pair of Morel 2.5" widebands. The reason we went with the pair aside from the obvious "if it fits, why not", is because when doing a center channel you want as much output and low end extension capability as possible. This is to ensure that your center image from the extracted center signal can match the output of the side speakers, and play low enough in frequency to where the recordings typically start being mono. To make this, I scanned the panel on my printer, traced the scan in my CAD software, and started designing around that. What we did was just match the outer shape and add some styling with some chamfered edges, a pressed grill, as well as a 12 Volt Marketing Group badge. One of the requests that Frankie had was to not block the display behind the center location. Noted and fulfilled.
On to the pillars.. Since this was a car that Frankie is going to be using to demo to not end users, but shops, i originally wanted to do something that would impress other shop owners/salesman/installers.. Built a good sounding car that uses all typical OEM locations. One problem, hardly anything fit in the OEM dash location of this car, and certainly not the drivers Frankie wanted to use. Back to the custom fabricated locations idea.. we settled with both in the pillars on a horizontal plane to keep things clean looking. I came up with a shape/design for the grills and pillar and got to work. I was going to use the standard red and black epoxy morel logo that you can find on some of their speakers and crossovers, but was informed that Morel was starting to move away from that color way. No worries, i lasered out a new piece that features their updated colors for the higher end drivers, Silver and Black. The baffles are made out of acrylic and the back is open to give the midrange drivers enough airspace. I did the design and baffle/grill work, Kevin did the fiberglass, and then I handled the upholstery and painting.
The goal of the trunk was obviously to show off the equipment that Frankie chose for the build, since this is a demo car after all. But, i know Frankie pretty well by now. He cant just have a bunch of gear in his trunk as he is always lugging promotional and demo gear around to show dealers on his trips to accounts. This means everything needed to be confined to either the sides of the trunk (where the old sub enclosures were), or in the spare tire well. We decided to keep it all in the spare tire well. We managed to fit a pair of Helix M Six's, Helix M One X, Helix DSP Ultra, and a 12" Morel Ultimo SC in a 1.3 cubic foot enclosure all under the oem floor. The OEM floor didnt need any modification since its very thin and doesnt seal the sub under there, so everything sounded fine. Kevin is responsible for the entire design and work for this portion of the build. Hats off to him. Dude kills it.
