Ijcobra 10+ year member
Member
Mostly done with my newest installation.
Automotive Concepts did the a-pillars and doors. Mobile Essences did most everything else. I was the good idea fairy, selected the equipment, and paid the bills.
Here is the sub box and beauty panels. 2 13.5" JL Audio 13W3V3 subs in a big ported box. I switched from a sealed box and it is so much better now! I still have room to put a dufflebag or groceries back there, and can always put the seats down and push the sub box back if I need more room.
Here's with the beauty panels removed, the sub box pushed back, and the trunk lid off. The driver's side storage bin still works, the passenger side opens to the JBL MS-8 (DSP).
I got rid of my JL HD900/5 amps for these old "Slash" v1 amps I bought used on eBay from user passby69_1. 70 pounds of amps tank-like awesome old school amps. The HD amps, while all Class D and small, wouldn't work because they don't have the "x10" switch on the crossovers. I would not be able to high-pass my tweeters and low-pass my mids at the amps. I previously did it at the DSP, but since adding a center channel and rear speakers, I was fresh out of channels! (The DSP only has 8 channels). The fans are in a push/pull configuration in the cooling channel between the rows of amps. It's winter now but I suspect it will work well when it's hot out.
Here is with the trunk floor removed exposing all the wiring. The wiring is pretty complicated. My JBL MS-8 DSP is fed by just 1 set of RCAs from the Pioneer headunit. From there, it equalizes, applies crossovers, and time aligns the 8 channels signals:
Front Left High
Front Left Low
Center
Front Right High
Front Right Low
Rear Left
Rear Right
Sub
The 300/4 amps power the Center Channel and Front Left & Right (High). The amps perform highpass/lowpass from a >300hz signal. All crossovers in the DSP and amps are 24db/octive Linkwitz/Riley.
Here's my custom rear speaker pod which holds a set of AudioFrog GS-42 4" coaxials. Doesn't it look just like a frog's head??
Up front we have the A-pillar pods and JL Audio ZR-800 8" midbass woofers in the doors. The A-pillar and center channel speakers are JL Audio C5-400cm 4" midranges (typically seen in the C5-653 3-way component set) and an AudioFrog GS10 1" tweeter. I was using the JL Audio ZR-100 tweeters, but they are 8 ohms and caused my amps to run at half power on all channels (this is dumb).
Side view of the center channel.
Mounted the display for the MS-8 here. This photo caught the SRT-8 splash screen on my headunit as it was starting up, and before the MS-8 display turned on.
Billet t-shifter and gain/bass boost control knobs.
0 gauge power wire with JL Audio connectors used throughout the install. My Jeep is filthy because I live in Minnesota for now.
There are a few more things I need to wrap-up but overall it is done. The new ported box slams. I'm now a fan of ported boxes. SQ be damned. It sounds good to me. I'm probably going to need to get a bigger/better battery.
The JBL MS-8 was developed by Andy Wehmeyer when he worked at Harmon Kardon and his new company is AudioFrog. I spoke to him on the phone a few times to plan out the 5.1 system and troubleshoot the auto-tune, even though the MS-8 is not produced or supported by HK anymore. I thought that was pretty cool of him so decided to go with his speakers for my tweeters and rear coaxials. The MS-8 does 5.1 surround and the center channel and rear effects really makes things sound cool. I swapped a Rockford Fosgate 3Sixty.3 DSP which I wasted way too much time tuning and re-tuning for the MS-8 and couldn't be happier. I love the MS-8! The auto-tune is simple and awesome. Why don't more DSPs come with auto-tune??
OK I'm going to go rock out in my car for a while now.
Automotive Concepts did the a-pillars and doors. Mobile Essences did most everything else. I was the good idea fairy, selected the equipment, and paid the bills.
Here is the sub box and beauty panels. 2 13.5" JL Audio 13W3V3 subs in a big ported box. I switched from a sealed box and it is so much better now! I still have room to put a dufflebag or groceries back there, and can always put the seats down and push the sub box back if I need more room.
Here's with the beauty panels removed, the sub box pushed back, and the trunk lid off. The driver's side storage bin still works, the passenger side opens to the JBL MS-8 (DSP).
I got rid of my JL HD900/5 amps for these old "Slash" v1 amps I bought used on eBay from user passby69_1. 70 pounds of amps tank-like awesome old school amps. The HD amps, while all Class D and small, wouldn't work because they don't have the "x10" switch on the crossovers. I would not be able to high-pass my tweeters and low-pass my mids at the amps. I previously did it at the DSP, but since adding a center channel and rear speakers, I was fresh out of channels! (The DSP only has 8 channels). The fans are in a push/pull configuration in the cooling channel between the rows of amps. It's winter now but I suspect it will work well when it's hot out.
Here is with the trunk floor removed exposing all the wiring. The wiring is pretty complicated. My JBL MS-8 DSP is fed by just 1 set of RCAs from the Pioneer headunit. From there, it equalizes, applies crossovers, and time aligns the 8 channels signals:
Front Left High
Front Left Low
Center
Front Right High
Front Right Low
Rear Left
Rear Right
Sub
The 300/4 amps power the Center Channel and Front Left & Right (High). The amps perform highpass/lowpass from a >300hz signal. All crossovers in the DSP and amps are 24db/octive Linkwitz/Riley.
Here's my custom rear speaker pod which holds a set of AudioFrog GS-42 4" coaxials. Doesn't it look just like a frog's head??
Up front we have the A-pillar pods and JL Audio ZR-800 8" midbass woofers in the doors. The A-pillar and center channel speakers are JL Audio C5-400cm 4" midranges (typically seen in the C5-653 3-way component set) and an AudioFrog GS10 1" tweeter. I was using the JL Audio ZR-100 tweeters, but they are 8 ohms and caused my amps to run at half power on all channels (this is dumb).
Side view of the center channel.
Mounted the display for the MS-8 here. This photo caught the SRT-8 splash screen on my headunit as it was starting up, and before the MS-8 display turned on.
Billet t-shifter and gain/bass boost control knobs.
0 gauge power wire with JL Audio connectors used throughout the install. My Jeep is filthy because I live in Minnesota for now.
There are a few more things I need to wrap-up but overall it is done. The new ported box slams. I'm now a fan of ported boxes. SQ be damned. It sounds good to me. I'm probably going to need to get a bigger/better battery.
The JBL MS-8 was developed by Andy Wehmeyer when he worked at Harmon Kardon and his new company is AudioFrog. I spoke to him on the phone a few times to plan out the 5.1 system and troubleshoot the auto-tune, even though the MS-8 is not produced or supported by HK anymore. I thought that was pretty cool of him so decided to go with his speakers for my tweeters and rear coaxials. The MS-8 does 5.1 surround and the center channel and rear effects really makes things sound cool. I swapped a Rockford Fosgate 3Sixty.3 DSP which I wasted way too much time tuning and re-tuning for the MS-8 and couldn't be happier. I love the MS-8! The auto-tune is simple and awesome. Why don't more DSPs come with auto-tune??
OK I'm going to go rock out in my car for a while now.
