95 replies to this topic

[ulrisa]

Hi!

I am rebuilding my whole system this summer. This build is going to be slow because I will be getting things as I get the money for them. My goals are: Loud, great sounding bass and mids/highs. Basically I want to have the ability to get loud when I want it, but I want it to sound good so when I'm just on my way to work the sound quality is still amazing. Trunk space doesn't really matter, but backseats do. I also want to upgrade my electrical system at some point. What kind of electrical engineer student would I be without a strong electrical lol.

The plan so far is:

• AA Carbon Fiber Mids w/ Havoc ST010 tweeters (2 way active)
• 2 Xcon 15"'s or Death Penalty 15"'s
• Sundown SAZ-3500D and Rockford T-400-4
• Redo Big 3 with Knukonceptz Fleks, HO alt (still not sure from who), possibly XS Power batteries

Alright so it's time for some pictures! Sorry this is going to be a long first post, but I already got the doors deadened/sealed.



This is what I got in the mail today!



CLD tiles and extruded butyl rope from Don at SDS. Great stuff, I wouldn't buy anything else.

Here is the door panel in question.

Yes that is the speaker wire that is outside of the rubber boot. I tried to run it through the boot, but Volvo's seem to be specifically designed to make any audio modifications impossible lol. This doesn't look as good, but it's still safe.



Door panel is off. I proceeded to take off the vapor barrier (plastic stuff), and clean the surfaces with brake pad cleaner. Very powerful stuff, but if your not careful I can take the paint! haha.



Just showing the inner CLD tiles off. The beauty of these tiles is that you don't need to completely cover the surface for them to be effective.



This is the finished door. I sealed off all possible holes.

Here is the driver side before and after.




That does it for now! Stay tuned. I'm going to deaden the roof next. I'm saving the butyl rope for later when I get my new speakers so I can properly seal them.

Let me know if the pictures are too big! I just realized it and it's a little late now haha.

[Mac N Cheese]

pics look good! keep up the good work

tuned in

[stefanhinote]

Looking good, nice selection of products

[ulrisa]

Thanks! I'm hoping to do the roof today. Too bad it looks like it's going to rain

[stefanhinote]

Sucks when you have the time than it rains, luckily for me it doesn't rain too much in arizona.

After seeing so many build logs with cld tiles and what not has me thinking I should add that to my doors. It's cool how you don't need to cover the whole thing but just a portion

[ulrisa]

Sucks when you have the time than it rains, luckily for me it doesn't rain too much in arizona.

After seeing so many build logs with cld tiles and what not has me thinking I should add that to my doors. It's cool how you don't need to cover the whole thing but just a portion

I would definitely recommend it. If you want to take it a step further, you can get mass loaded vinyl and make a sound barrier for the door. I wanted to do this, but MLV is kind of pricey.

I forgot to mention it before, but I had NO midbass before. It was depressing how crappy it was lol. After doing this, my current speakers sound 5 times better. I am blown away by how different the sound is. It just makes me more excited for when I get the AA Carbon fiber mids

[j-roadtatts]

Keep up the good work and keep them pitcure's a comin'.

[ulrisa]

It's been a while! My computer decided to die a while ago, so I've been on my laptop. I finally figured out what was wrong with it and sent out the part for a warranty replacement. I did end up deadening the roof that day, I'll get some pics up later. Unfortunately I did not take into account that there is a sun roof tray, so I didn't get to deaden as much as I wanted. Also, the headliner will not come out in one piece in my car (yay Volvo! lol) unless you take out the back window. Space was tight and I couldn't get the stuff where I wanted. It did help though, it got rid of some annoying squeaks and rattles, so I am satisfied for now. The only thing I'm worried about is for when I get the 15's, roof flex might kill my sunroof/roof. I'm probably going to have to figure out some bracing, but I'm not ready for that yet.

Still saving up to get the SAZ-3500D before the sale ends. Hopefully I'll have enough. Unfortunately that won't be that interesting for you guys until I get my speakers with my next paycheck 3 weeks from now lol.

Just thought I'd give a quick update and explanation for my sudden disappearance lol. I'll post the pics up in a bit.

[ulrisa]

Ok, sorry for the wait, but here are the pictures of the deadening of the roof.

With this car, it is pretty much impossible to take the headliner out of the car without damaging it unless you take out the back window. Volvo's FTW! lol j/k. I think part of this build log is to demonstrate that you do not want to do car audio with a volvo unless you are up to a challenge (and I mean, EVERYTHING is a challenge.) So what I ended up doing is just letting it hang while I applied some more CLD tiles. The problem I ran into was that the sunroof tray took up most of the work area, something I entirely forgot about. To truely deaden the roof I would have to take the tray out, so I wasn't up to that yet.



This is the car with everything just hanging down. Looks kind of sad.



This is the bare sunroof tray.



This is the tray with 5 CLD tiles on it, kind of looks like the Purina logo.



This is at a different angle, capturing the tiles that I put behind the sunroof tray, near the back of the roof.



And finally, this is a little deadening I did in the front.


Overall, was it worth the effort? I guess so, it got rid of some annoying rattles that I've had even without the bass. I really wish that it wouldn't be a big deal to take out the sunroof, but it is.

In other news, I ordered my AA carbon fiber mids and AA Havoc tweeters today!! I didn't get paid as much as I thought I would so the sundown will have to wait

[Cablguy184]

interesting ...

[SteveMead]

interesting ...

Is this all you can add to peoples build logs?
Every build I've looked at has this.

[ulrisa]

So I realized that I hadn't really gone into detail with my plans for the front stage. Right now I have these crappy Rockford Fosgate Power 5.25 coaxials. Not bad for $20, but I need more! My doors only fit 5.25's, so I am going to be doing my first fiberglassing project, and I am kind of modeling them after j-roadtatts' Alpine type R door pods. Thanks for the idea! I am going to have the mid angled toward the driver/passenger. They are going to mount to the door's current screw holes, and be sealed with SDS extruded butyl rope. I am also going to make tweeter pods to go on the A-pillars.

[ulrisa]

I made a video today of my current system. I thought I'd throw it in here, it gives kind of an idea of where I am now and I'll have another one posted after I am finished (hopefully with a better camera). This camera really sucks, it seems to destroy most of the flex I am witnessing lol, but it's still interesting I think.

[lithium]

good job wit the deadening, personally i would have used slightly less on the roof, saving it for the trunk, rear deck, etc. irregardless its nice to see someone who's got the right idea with deadening and not going overboard like you usually see.

[cranberryyumyum]

how is that zune hooked up to the hu? lithium it looks like he has a fair amount of roof flex so he probably wants to control that