After 6 years of abstinence, here is my new build...

[MiniflexAlex 10+ year member]

Hello all,

After almost 6 years without car audio I took the plunge again.

Upfront, a special thanks to mylows10 (Jim) who guided me thru the jungle of good and bad components and recommended this imho sweet setup.He also hooked me up with some good prices as well...thanks mate //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/thumbsup.gif.3287b36ca96645a13a43aff531f37f02.gif

Things have changed quite a bit over the last 6 years, I would have been LOST amongst all these new and for me unknown brands.

I’m planning on posting some pix of the build along the way, if anyone with a Passat or anyone else has some suggestions or improvements, let me know.

Here are the components of this build:

HU: AVHP8400BH

Front stage: CDT Gold ES 642i

Front stage amp: American Bass VFL-350.4

Sub’s: 2 x DC Audio lvl4, strapped to 1Ohm

Sub’s amp: American Bass VFL-175.1

Custom ported enclosure: 3 cft.

Batteries: Stinger SPP2150 in the trunk, Stinger SPP1500D under the hood.

Wiring: 0 gauge throughout.

Big three with 0 gauge wire

It all goes into a 2008 VW Passat wagon.

I’m planning on running the front stage kickers on one channel and the mid’s/tweeters on the other (will use the CDT cross over for the mid’s/tweeters). Due to the size of the VFL-450.1, I had to mount it in the trunk as well.

Next thing to upgrade is the alt as I still have the OEM unit generating juice which very likely will not be sufficient.

Last weekend I build the mounting for the amps and the housing for the battery…fotos will follow.

Well, I hope to have this thing wrapped up by the end of this week….can’t wait to fire it up for the first time //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/santa.gif.e1ec9cf2e0a0dd232ad35aa594a126d0.gif

Alex

P.S. this forum is AWESOME, lot’s of information and great folks in here….

Click to read more...

 

[DoesDad 10+ year member]

Sweet! Post some pics up....//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/cool.gif.3bcaf8f141236c00f8044d07150e34f7.gif

 

[sacsking916 5,000+ posts]

No pics??? Jim is a good dude online an offline. An hes an ok dbdrag judge lol

 

[MiniflexAlex 10+ year member]

Sweet! Post some pics up....//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/cool.gif.3bcaf8f141236c00f8044d07150e34f7.gif

No pics??? Jim is a good dude online an offline. An hes an ok dbdrag judge lol

Not much to take pictures from just yet, I'll snap some pic's later tonight of the amp mounts.....

Just got the cable in, so I can start wiring tonight....

Alex

 

[Below20hzonly 10+ year member]

holy that box is small man is it ported or sealed

 

[MiniflexAlex 10+ year member]

holy that box is small man is it ported or sealed

Thats the manufacturer recommendation for a ported enclosure, see here:

DC Audio - Level 4

1.5 cft each.

 

[infamous_e46 5,000+ posts]

Im still wondering how he is using a vfl 450.1 for front stage

 

[THATpurpleKUSH 5,000+ posts]

You list of equipment looks good, now lets see some pics!

 

[MiniflexAlex 10+ year member]

Im still wondering how he is using a vfl 450.1 for front stage

ups....I mean 350.4....I just changed it in my original post.

You list of equipment looks good, now lets see some pics!

Yeah, will post some pix tonight...but as said before, there is not much to see yet.

 

[Below20hzonly 10+ year member]

wow thought it would be 2-2.5 cubes,at least

 

[MiniflexAlex 10+ year member]

Alright, here are a few pix....sorry for the bad picture quality, better ones to follow the next days.

The picture on the right shows the trunk with the OEM floor pannels down....can't see anything from the amps and the batt....only the subs will be visible...

Thats the battery box / amp rack.....

The box is bolted to the floor pannel with machine screws and lock-nuts. I put some foam between the floor pannel and the box to prevent rattling.

The lid for the amps is connected with an piano hinge to the box. Down the road I have to build some sort of 'lid holding device' //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

The amps are bolted to the wooden board with machine screws.

The amps are slightly shifted to the left since I'm going to mount the cross-overs for the front stage right of the amps.

All cables will be run thru holes down into the battery box, so it should look pretty clean once done.

Once I have the layout finalized and the holes for the cables drilled, I will wrap everything in fabric.

I got the wires today, so I'm going to run the power lines for the batts and the RCA's tonight.

I hope the subs coming tomorrow.....MAN, can't wait to crank this thing //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/toast.gif.bc0657bf54b9ee653b6438524461341e.gif

 

[MiniflexAlex 10+ year member]

more pix

 

[MiniflexAlex 10+ year member]

some more

 

[MiniflexAlex 10+ year member]

last one

 

[THATpurpleKUSH 5,000+ posts]

Don't build that box any further- you are using the wrong kind of wood

Thats particle board, you want something more dense and heavy duty like mdf or birch or some other sort of hardwood plywood.