Nissan Murano SQ and Stealth...ID CTX65CS, Goldwood 6.5" Subs, MB Quart Discus Amp

[Jarick 10+ year member]

Hola! I saw there was a build log section and thought I'd through the pics of my install up.

I've always been a car audio nut, at least since I've had my license. My first real job was at Best Buy, so of course I bought a deck, some speakers, and some subs with an amp. Eventually I "learned" stuff from the internet, and overhauled the system several times, eventually going fully active and hacking up doors and what not.

I bought my Murano used last spring as my girlfriend and I were expecting our son, my BMW was breaking down constantly (including a full transmission replacement!), and I've always wanted a larger vehicle to carry around my drumset, hockey gear, etc.

My lovely car before some dumb ***** ran a red light and smashed the front corner two days after I bought it, then drove off (never caught her, never got it fixed):

It turns out that Muranos don't have any room for an aftermarket head unit, which was fine by me as I was getting sick of going bigger and bigger with installs. So I thought I'd throw in the gear I had laying around (Phoenix Gold Octane 4-channel amp, Seas W18NX mids, and Alpine XT19 crossover and tweets). But it didn't sound right, so last week I ripped it all out and started fresh.

For this project I used:

- PAC auxiliary input adapter

- PAC RCA output adapter

- Image Dynamics CTX65CS component speakers

- Goldwood 6.5" DVC subwoofers

- MB Quart Discus 480 amplifier

- Dynamat Xtreme

- miscellaneous wires and screws and MDF

Click to read more...

 

[Jarick 10+ year member]

So the first step was running the wires for the amp. I used a cheap 8 gauge kit from Parts Express (best place ever) because I have no intention of showing off wires to people, and I don't exactly draw a lot of amps listening to music at a low to medium volume. I also ran RCA's back from the head unit adapter to the amp and an 1/8" jack to the auxiliary input.

Next, I tapped into the factory speaker wires because I'm lazy, and because I can't figure out (yet) how to run wires through the door to the cabin. I've looked, and there's basically a harness, not just a hose, so I'd have to drill. In the process, I blew my old amp, hence the new MB Quart. I did run separate tweeter wires though, because the factory tweets shared wires with the front speakers.

At this point, I ripped the door panels off and measured for baffles. I cut a set for my Seas, but had to cut new ones for the slightly small ID's. Here they are, lovely things:

I actually cut the big ones out for the rear doors but they wouldn't fit, then coincidentally they fit the front doors great. It's really nice to have screwups be useful, especially since I've probably cut out 15 pairs of baffles for only a few installs. Anyways, the mids went into stock door locations, which are close enough to the kick panel area that it works out.

Here are my ID mids compared to the Seas:

Not that much smaller surprisingly, since the Seas are large 7" speakers. The 3" mounting depth of the ID's was no big deal after running those bad boys. SUV's give you a lot more room to work than little sports cars!

I then did the rear speakers, replacing them with 6.5" Goldwood DVC subs. I'm not a big bass head, listening to mostly rock music of various kinds, and every previous sub system (dual 10's, dual 12's, single 12's) has been overkill. So at about $10 a pop, I bought a couple of these to try out. Here they are compared to the stock systems. Just a tad beefier.

 

[Canaan 10+ year member]

If you are building for SQ, I would recommend using a processor of some kind w/ that stock HU.

The Rockford 360 or Audison BitOne would work well.

 

[Jarick 10+ year member]

I don't have any pictures of the tweeters, but here are the stock locations and my old Alpines:

Side note, here's a fun little crossover I built for the tweeters:

Right now I'm still playing around with the positioning, but I've got them in the kick panel area. Up in the dash they were just overbearingly loud. Down in the kicks they have great detail and balance, especially since I have no processing. But I'll get to the full sound later.

Also, here's the amp:

And the crossover compared to the old Alpine:

Today's big project: sealing the doors! I had a big box of Dynamat leftover from my last couple projects, so I thought I'd throw some up. If you couldn't tell, I'm a lazy bastard, so doing the full car is out of the question. I can barely do a full door. Here's my half-assed attempt today:

Before (notice the large holes):

After:

I've just done the rears, about to do the fronts, but the difference was pretty big. To be honest, every time I've used Dynamat I can barely tell, but because of the giant gaps my sub bass increased quite a bit. You'd be surprised to know it's just a pair of 6.5" subs in the rear doors, aside from the fact that it doesn't really kick hard or anything, which is fine by me. Also, it helped that I actually screwed the baffles into the doors this time!

Up next I'll seal up the front doors, and before the weekend is through, hopefully I'll have the tweeters screwed into position, aimed, the settings set, and I'll be done!

 

[Jarick 10+ year member]

I would *love* to get a 3Sixty.2 in here, and maybe I will down the road. But for now, I'm on a tight budget, and I'm trying to get the best sound with the install first. The important part is the RCA outputs are clean 20-20k.

Actually, so far the sound blows away my old system, which was a fully active 6-channel system driven by a Premier 880PRS (best head unit ever) going into a couple Phoenix Gold Octane amps, with Seas W18NX mids, Alpine XT19 tweets, and an Image Dynamics IDQ 12" sub. That wasn't bad, but this is much more coherent since I'm using a much simpler system and fewer phase problems, and the kickpanel tweeter install is key!

 

[Jarick 10+ year member]

Little update,

I've played around with the positioning of the tweets a few times, and I think I like them best closer to the doors and higher up, basically just a bit below the bottom of the dash. They're pointed roughly in front of the opposite side listener. Having them lower made them muffled and skewed the imaging, while pointing them more on axis was obviously harsh and biased toward the far side.

Here are the front doors before and after:

I will say, sealing the giant holes and deadening the rear doors REALLY made a different. I was listening to "Cave In" by Owl City, which is a great test of the highs and lows, and all the lowest synth parts played really well. The higher pitched bass synth is coming through louder, so I'll probably try the "low EQ" boost and lower the volume a bit and hope that evens out. But holy crap, it sounds at least as good as a single 10" sub, and with a bit of EQ these would MORE than do the job. Not heavy hard hitting bass, but just really strong musical low end. I don't think they'll take a lot of power though. But yeah, sealing the rear doors was huge.

But the fronts...didn't make much difference. I'll say I rarely notice much difference when deadening doors, and these ones were already fairly well sealed (unlike the rears). It did reduce some rattle, but the sound didn't clean up much. Oh well. Maybe I'll get a bit less road noise out of the deal.

 

[Brian_smith06 10+ year member]

are your baffles just mdf? If so try to wrap them with some sound deadener or get something to seal the wood with so they dont swell up from moisture. Other than that I like the install

 

[DB-Audio 10+ year member]

nice job so far

 

[Beerdrnkr 5,000+ posts]

Nice simple setup. I've been thinking about doing something similar in my girlfriends yaris. Probably a simple 2-way component set up front and the 6 1/2" Tang-Band subs in the rear. You should throw an Audiocontrol EQx to you're system or something similar, really made a big difference to one of my first setups in my car when I had the stock HU in. Good work.

 

[Jarick 10+ year member]

The baffles are MDF, and I've never had a problem in any vehicle. If they were rotting from moisture the speakers would be exposed too! But the old MDF baffles were in there for a year and no problems, so I don't see any in the future.

Really the only thing I could want right now would be a slight time delay on the left channel, because I do have just a bit of bouncing from left to right. Sonically, it's really, really nice. Just about got the tweeters dialed in too. Will have some "final" pics up this week.

 

[Jarick 10+ year member]

Little update.

About to glue the tweeters into place this weekend. Been listening for a while now with them in the "kick" area under the dash and they sound great. Head unit "treble" control does a great job of taming them (usually run it at "-1", but sometimes will go to "-2" or "0").

Woofers still sound the same. No more or less bass or detail. Even after deadening, there wasn't much change.

The rear door "subs" are giving me fits though. They drop off pretty quickly under about 70 Hz, so I have them crossed over at about 80 Hz and turned them up a bit to give me a flatter sound. But they rattle the hell out of the rear doors, so it sounds like garbage. I've already deadened the doors really well, so I may have to rip it apart again.

But I may just bite the bullet and run a separate sub. There's a 10" DVC on Parts Express I could get for $25, and another $25 for the box, and that might be a nice cheap alternative. Although I do want to see if I can hide a sub in the back somewhere before ordering.

 

[richie92ex 10+ year member]

Yea, I have the same comp set and have the tweet actuation set @ -3 in the crossovers. I have them mounted on the bottom of the A pillar adjacent from the side view mirrors on the doors. They were a bit much at +3 and better at 0. But -3 cleaned them up nicely. I also run a dsc amp too, a 4125, and those comps deal with everything it has to offer with the gain set right above the lowest setting- I think in the neighborhood of 5v. I now have my deck treble set to 3 of 6 and my Parametric equalizer on the deck set at 7.5k hz. It seems to do well there. I can know only imagine how well The XS's preform! And imo, get that 10" sub. It will blend really nice with your comps, and kill that rear door panel buzz with some egg create foam or carpet underlayment and you'll be in biz!

 

[Jarick 10+ year member]

Yeah I do think that 10 will be fantastic. I am REALLY kicking myself for selling my old IDQ 12 (I bought it for 75 off a friend and I think got 125-150 for it, but they go for 200+ a lot too). But I'm not a huge basshead.

Last night I turned the subs down a bit, turned the LP up from about 65-70 to closer to 85-90, and turned the 45Hz boost way down. It helped quite a bit. It doesn't kick as hard, but no more rattling, and it's smoother and blends better. I might turn it down a hair more and bump the 45Hz up just a bit to try and smooth out the EQ.

Still need to sell my old speakers though before I can buy anything else.

I bet those XS are MONEY. I'm really surprised how nice this tweeter is actually, the weaker part of the comp set IMO is the upper midrange detail on the mids. But for highway driving I'm okay with that, since I prefer a speaker laid back in the upper mids anyway, and mounting the tweets so close to the woofers helps with any phase and crossover issues.

 

[richie92ex 10+ year member]

Man, shame on you!!!! That IDQ would have been icing on the cake. Even if your not a bass head, it would have been ideal for your comps, I rather have an IDQ than my RE any day of the week- but ya, there like 239ish and I was on a budget of sorts. I believe an IDmax and XS's will be my next move.....