I started the install last Saturday and I finished tonight. I found out one thing pretty quick and that's that I'm not 25 anymore and crawling in and out vehicle nooks and crannies is much more difficult than it used to be. The following components were installed:
Alpine 9887
JL XR650-CSi tweets (and passives)
Illusion Audio Luccent LM-6 mids
ED e12k sub in a 1.25 c.f. sealed enclosure
Kicker KX 600.4 amp
This stuff was installed in a '99 Corolla and for the most part it's a pretty easy car to work with. There isn't much room under the dash and you can forget about running any wires through the firewall cause there's just no openings, but other than that, not bad.
The install didn't go without its hitches. Once I got everything hooked up I wasn't getting any output from my left tweeter. The problem turned out to be a bad crossover network. I called JL yesterday and they sent me a new one free of charge (though I did pay $25 for overnight shipping). JL didn't have to do that as the unit was 5 years old and I purchased it from an unauthorized online dealer. JL's customer support is awesome! My next problem I still haven't figured out. I have the imprint device for this HU, but I can't get it to run through the setup process. It'll get about 5-6% through the first measurement and the program stops with an error (it's saying my system's front left speaker has no output). I called Alpine tech support, but they were no help. I guess the only thing I can try is to take it to a shop that has an imprint to see if they can get it to run, in case the problem is with my laptop, program, or the imprint device itself.
Luckily, the 9887 offers a lot of manual tuning flexibilities and I was able to get the system sounding pretty darn good without the imprint. I set the time correction and made a few minor adjustments using the parametric EQ, but the system really didn't require much EQing. The one area I'm not too please with my system is the sub output. I'm running it with 2 of the Kicker's channels bridged for 300 watts. In order to get a sub level that I like I had to turn up the amp's gain all the way, it's bass boost all the way, and the HU's sub level is set for about 10 (out of 15) (and I'm no basshead by any means) for most sources. I don't think the amp is running out of power and I say that because even with everything cranked all the way up, the sub doesn't distort at all. It almost seems like this amp would perform better with a preout voltage that's higher than the Alpine's 4V outs.
I have to make special mention of the Illusion mids. I only paid $25 for these speakers (they're only $45 new shipped). I bought them from a guy who used them for one day and I had never heard them before. These could be the nicest sounding mids I've ever heard, and certainly they have got to be the best ever in terms of performance per dollar. They're very warm sounding, the clairty is amazing, and while they don't put out massive amounts of midbass, it's definitely there. They're way better than the JL mids and they compliment the JL tweets perfectly. I paid special care to deadening and sealing my doors too which probably helps a lot with the mids.
The 9887 is also a wonderful HU. Sound reproduction is nice and clear and the number of features this thing has is unreal. It offers so much in the way of tuning flexibility.
The only thing I might consider doing in the future is bridging the Kicker's 4 channels into 2 mono channels (for 600 watts) to power a JL 12W6, then buy another 2 channel amp to run my comps. Maybe then I wouldn't have to have all the amp's gains cranked all the way up to get some decent sub output. I'm also looking forward to getting the issue resolved with my imprint device so I can use it to setup the system. I'm really curious to hear how it will sound after using the imprint.
