2014 Toyota Tacoma Double Cab

[ImmortalFreak 10+ year member]

So I can't say I'm entirely too happy to be here. I've always wanted to do a build log 100% start-to-finish, but never saw myself doing it at this point in my life.

A little background on me and where I've been-

I started out in this car audio thing at 16 with a 2000 Ford Ranger. I paid $600 for a stereo shop to install 1 Kicker 12 CVR in a sealed box, powered by a Z-Edition (I know, I still haven't even heard of another "Z-Edition Amp" aside from mine) bridging 2 channels and pushing the other two channels to miserable door speakers that came with the truck. They were never 100% identified, but we "think" they were Orion's from years and years before. I acknowledged the need for new speakers and invested in my first set of components, which I installed myself: Image Dynamics CTX65CS. Same setup, 2 channels bridged to the Kicker, the other two to the CTX comps.

In 2010 I bought a 2008 Scion TC, which I purchased another set of CTX65 components for, as well as 2 ID10V3 subs. The Z-Edition stayed with me and was put in the car (but at this point 2/4 channels blew out and 2/4 were going to the comps), I bought a Cadence ZRS-C65 to push the ID10v3's, and a Pioneer AVHP4200DVD HU and I was ready to rock. I built my own box (2 chambers at .70^3 in each chamber) and mounted my amps to the box, worked with an amazing person by the name of IDHorsemanwill, whom I met here on the forums and was able to do the entire install myself from brute labor to tuning. For what I had, the system sounded fairly good.

Well, now it's 2014 and I'm at it again. I bought a 2014 Toyota Tacoma Double Cab and sold the Scion as well as the POS Z-Edition amp and the ID CTX65 comps (and I'm never looking back). I'm here with you all tonight looking for some coaching as I take on the new challenge of setting up my Tacoma because I can't afford the $1500 in labor that the stereo shop wants to do the install for me... That said, as we speak I'm looking at a brand new ARC Audio FD2200 amplifier, ID CXS64 Chameleon Comps, an Audison BitTen, and my old trusty Cadence ZRS-C65 as well as the 2 ID10V3's that it powers. I'm going to be purchasing a sealed GroundShaker 1.85^3 shared double chamber box, the wiring kits, fuses, etc tomorrow in hopes of getting the ball rolling on this thing on Saturday.

I'm looking forward to this log, and I would greatly appreciate any questions, comments, concerns, etc that any of you care to share with me. I know out of the gate I'm going to be dead in the water when it comes to installing this Audison BitTen, and as such would be beyond grateful to anyone who can help me in this respect. I am open to paying someone, but just so you know I don't have $1500. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

On that note, let the log begin. I'll be checking in tomorrow as soon as I purchase my wiring kits and such. For now, it's time that I get myself some sleep. Again, please let me know what you think on this. Some big questions I'm asking myself right now are:

• Is 1.85cu ft sealed for 2 ID10v3's too big?
  
• How the hell am I going to install this BitTen? More particularly, I have 5 RCA outs on the BitTen, 4 for speakers (Front Right, Front Left, RR, RL) and 1 out for my subs... But I need 2 outs for my subs, no? Since I'm not powering the rear speakers with my amp, but rather the stock Entune HU, can I use the rear outs for the subs and leave the "Subwoofer" RCA open?
  

• If I did decide to move from active to passive later on, would I be able to just add another FD2200 as a third amp, or will I need to can the current FD2200 that I have and buy a 4-channel?

Thanks in advance! Again, I don't mind paying someone to answer my noob questions.

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[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

When you're adding a DSP, all speeakers and subs need to have their power coming from amplifiers fed by outputs of that DSP. Any DSP(I'm referring to BitTen) adds latency. It's a byproduct of digitally manipulating the signal. Either run the BitTen as front/rear/sub or get a Bitone so you have more channels.

 

[ImmortalFreak 10+ year member]

Thanks for the response Trumpet!

Based on what you said I have a couple of options, if I understand correctly:

1) Get a BitOne

2) Wire my chameleon's in series to the rear speakers (a bad choice I would presume)

3) Get rid of the rear fill all together and roll with just the front comps.. If I went this route, would I later be able to buy a second amp and put the rear fill back in while still working with the BitTen?

One other question I have is:

If I run the BitTen and do a Front, Rear, Sub setup, I'm only able to have a single sub, no?

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

you just want an amp channel for each speaker. so two channels for front tweeters, two channels for front woofers, two channels for rears (if necessary), and another channel(s) for sub(s). you can run as many subs as you want.

best to not have rear speakers if you don't have enough amp channels for them. BitTen and BitOne are different pieces. You mention both. the BitOne is expensive itself (totally worth it), are you getting it for the OEM interface with the stock HU? there are other OEM interface options that cost less and may let you get another amp to run rears properly. i'm a fan of DSP for control of crossovers and time delay.

don't wire front and rear speakers together.

 

[Valsmere]

Hey ImmortalFreak not sure if you know about it but there is another really good message board called Tacomaworld with a really good audio section be worth it to check it out for ideas and specifics that really apply to our trucks. I am also in a Tacoma, 2013 TRD Sport double cab. Give it a look pretty good info on there too

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