Bigpete123

looking good.

nice! you're gonna love the CD-400. Great bang for the buck, and mostly unnoticeable by potential thieves... most of your friends will think it's a POS because it won't have crazy japanimation-style graphics and strobe lights. But it sounds fantastic.

nice! I'll have a look! If I hadn't already dumped so much money into my car, I'd go looking for a '95 e300d bigtime... and convert to biodiesel. Oh and JL Audio supposedly fixed it themselves... Very frustrating. I'm gonna call them today and see if there's anything they can do for me.

Man, it's been a hell of a morning... First, I noticed one of my tires was very low. I stopped by a gas station on my way out to my shop (to work on troubleshooting my system) and started filling it up... It wasn't anywhere near full when BANG!!! the thing damn near exploded on me. It was like a gun shot in my ear. I didn't over-inflate it at all, like I said, it still looked flat when I blew... So my ear has been ringing all morning from the sound. Luckily I have a full-size spare. Then I get out to my shop and get to work. I tested my system in every way I could think of. regrounded the amps. Regrounded the HU. Noise was still there. Noise was there when the HU wasn't even plugged in. It was coming though all channels, including the sub. I plugged my second amp into the front speaker cables and voila. no noise. My 500/5 is kaput. The noise actually got much much worse the more I tested it today. It actually sounds like a pack of dophins talking to eachother (super-high pitched wave sounds- the frequency goes up and down fluidly). the frustrating thing is, I had to send my 500/5 in for repairs about 8 months ago. I haven't had a chance to even test it since I got it back because my car has been torn apart this whole time. So basically, they didn't fix it because I was having similar noise problems when I sent it in the first time. Now I have to wait like 2 months go send it to the east coast to get fixed... I'm extremely disappointed... after ALL THIS WORK, the amp that's been sitting on my shelf this whole time was bad. But at least it wasn't anything I have done wrong... :( I can't afford to replace the amp right now, so let's hope it's fixable.

Actually, yeah. That's a good idea. I have two amps I'm running in the trunk... I didn't think about that. The only problem is that I won't be able to test my tweeters cuz my second amp doesn't have the ability to do a high pass at around 2khz. But I can at least check to see if the mids get noise through both amps... good times.

man, I sure hope that's not the case!! Isn't it a little strange though that the noise is probabably 3 times as loud when I connect the EQ? The EQ and the amp share a ground... could that be causing it? ugh

Sure enough, I unplugged the RCA's from the amp (too lazy to pull the HU), and the static is still present... Maybe I have too many speaker cables in close proximity to my amp's power cables? I'll check the ground when I have time... it's kind of a biatch to get to since it's behind my amp rack. Other than that, I have absolutely no idea what could be causing this... Except for the amp itself... I blew my 500/5 a while back and sent it to JL Audio for repairs... The SQ is fantastic as long as I turn it up loud enough to drown out the static/buzz sound. But it now seems like a line driver wouldn't help me here...

I'm not using the HU's amplifier. In other words, if I unplug the RCA's, of course there won't be any sound cuz the amps won't be getting a signal and therefore the speakers won't be getting a signal either. I think I'll try to re-ground the HU first and see if that works. Cuz the more I think about it, the more I think it IS the HU itself that's causing the problems... not noise that the RCA's are picking up along the way. The sounds are mimicing the CD player's activity (the CD shuffling sound). So something is up with it... It's just strange that I haven't touched anything having to do with the HU since my previous installation.

Actually it looks like the audiocontrol Matrix is what I want (it's 6 channels vs. 2 channels).

Excellent information, thanks! In terms of the EQS, I never really bought off on its "line driver" capabilities... mostly because it's mounted in the trunk, so it's just gonna amplify any noise that the RCA's picked up going back to the trunk... Which is somewhat proven from what I experienced yesterday- the EQS just made the system noise WAY louder. So I don't see the point in having a trunk-mounted line driver. I just wanted to be able to fine tune the sound in the car, so that's why I got the EQS... My HU, the Nakamichi CD-400, claims 4v outputs. But I'm actually starting to doubt that's true... because when I was setting the gains on the EQS, I had to completely max out the input and output gains to get the 5v light to barely blink. If the EQS is truly capable of boosting the voltage to 13 volts, then I would say this indicates that my true HU voltage is much less than 4v. That's frustrating. Otherwise, I absolutely love the Nak unit. My RCAs are approximately 15 ft long. I used Monster cable's interconnects, which cost me around $150... So I don't think it's the RCA's themselves, especially because I didn't have this problem with my previous installation... which used the same RCA cables (in the same locations), same HU, same amp and grounding locations. I ran all new speaker cables. But again, this problem doesn't seem to be an amplification issue... because I get the noise even when the system us muted. I'm confused about why I'm hearing the HU's CD tracking sounds through the speakers. It really seems like the problem is coming from the source- the HU. Line drivers sound like a reasonable solution. Which line driver should I have a look at? Audiocontrol has a unit called "overdrive", is it any good?

^^Thanks man. So I finally got to listen to the system today. Overall, I'm pleased. The Focal tweeters sure are edgy though. My ears actually kind of hurt right now. So I'll have to lower the gains on my tweeter channel. I am having a problem though, and I need you guys to help... When I have the volume turned all the way down, I'm getting some noise. It doesn't matter if the car is on or off. It's like a light amount of static. In addition to the "fuzz" sound, there's another sound... You know the sound all CD players make when they're searching for a track? I think its the sound of the CD spinning and the laser moving... I can hear that sound amplified through my speakers. It's faint, but I can hear it. I also took it out for a drive just now for the first time and did notice that there is a bit of whine that fluctuates with my RPM's... I don't think it's alternator noise, because like I said, I experience it (except for the whine sound) when the car isn't running also. I haven't finished mounting the amps and stuff... cuz right now I'm actually wired up to bypass my audiocontrol EQS 6-channel EQ... Because the noise was actually unbearable when the EQS was connected. I think it's because the line voltage amplification on the EQS is amplifying the noise. The power cables and RCA's are run down opposite sides of the car... Do I need to do the big 3 or something? It seems like something coming from my HU... Do I need to check the grounds? I'm running off of the stock wiring for the ground and power to the HU... So I'm a little dissapointed at this point. I need to connect my EQ and get that going so I can tune the system a bit better. Thanks!

So most of the exciting stuff is complete in my car. The trunk (amps, etc) still needs to be set up and I need to do some tuning. I have spent the last weekend or two splicing, stripping, cutting, and connecting wires. There are still tons of cables hanging out in the trunk that I need to attend to. And eventually, I'll get the trunk all prettied up with some matching vinyl and trim. But like I've said before, I'm ready to move on to new projects. I'll post pics of my progress when I have something worth posting. Until then!

nice, dude. I cut the same sort of hole in my rear deck. It's very tough to make them pretty- it's not like putting a circle jig on a router. Looking forward to more progress pics.

oooh, looking at those pics of sound deadening made my skin crawl. I hate doing that. But it sure does pay off! Good work.

Do you plan on putting grilles over the subs? I would think they could get damaged if they're in the open like that, especially in a trunk. good-looking install, btw.

Sweet. So I take you plan on using FG for the front of the woofer as well? I assume so since you're making speaker rings like that.

yep, a definite improvement. I'm not diggin the ghetto 80's grille and emblem though.

true.

well, all you're gonna hear is bass. So I think that's what he's getting at!

scheisse.

You've worked hard on this thing. Why not finish it off right? Spray painting it black will look cheap, IMO. Take the time to carpet it! Looks great though. Good work!

very nice!

Looking good. I too am curious how these will go into the trunk.

is that gold, frankincense, or myrrh? (yes, I had to spell check that!)

oh yeah, and I'll give the car a deep detailing. I might even consider taking it to a shop. My poor car has earned it!!