Phoenix Gold Phorum

I didn't want to make everyone sift through my old install thread for new pictures so I'm making a new thread. I'll let the pictures do the talking...
I made a fiberglass mold of my spare tire well. I then made an amp rack and secured it in with resin.


Amps test fit






Cover with the processor, power distribution, and line driver




Wired


Beauty cover test fit


Beauty cover carpeted


Access panel test fit


Lit up with cold cathode lights


I still need to carpet the access panel and make an amp protector cover. In all likelihood it will not be carpeted but some natural wood color with metal grills.

And I swapped my xmax12 for an IDQ12 v3 and I cut out the opening for the sub. I'm still working on the grill.
Old




New





Other system notes, I am using he white ZPA for now while I finish restoring my other black one. Once it's done I will have both black ones installed.

Also, the spare tire will ride along for daily driver use but will come out when I need the trunk space (with kid and all of his accessories).

The line driver made a HUGE difference. I still have hours of tuning ahead of me but it already sounds much better. I have way too much sub with zero gain and line driver at zero gain.

great job...

Thanks. The final details are taking forever to get to. I have been busy with work, and now that I have music and I am not preparing for a meet I am taking my time. I have been working a little on the subwoofer grill. I keep going back and forth on if I want the sub visible or not.

vwdude wrote:Thanks. The final details are taking forever to get to. I have been busy with work, and now that I have music and I am not preparing for a meet I am taking my time. I have been working a little on the subwoofer grill. I keep going back and forth on if I want the sub visible or not.

visible.. and then make your own custom grill.. a cutsom build vw logo maybe?

Check out mine though, impala logo´s for the sub !

Corty75 wrote:

vwdude wrote:Thanks. The final details are taking forever to get to. I have been busy with work, and now that I have music and I am not preparing for a meet I am taking my time. I have been working a little on the subwoofer grill. I keep going back and forth on if I want the sub visible or not.

visible.. and then make your own custom grill.. a cutsom build vw logo maybe?

Check out mine though, impala logo´s for the sub !

I saw your install...wow. I'm particularly happy hat the cap didn't burn everything to the ground as you have a beautiful car with a great install.

So I'm still not at a point of deciding how to finish the grill, but I'm very close. Made some progress after picking up a craftsmen plunge router, so e bits, and a jasper circle jig.

I'm using a finger to hold it I. Place but I buried magnets in the wood that will correspond with magnets that I will glue behind the carpeted panel. The bottom is held in by a groove cut in the grill.


Here's the back, cut to fit the shape of the opening. You can see one of the magnets attached to the back (it's stuck to the one that's buried.

even with some strong magnets I will be surprised if it doesn't rattle the grill off. I would try to use a dowel rod or two going through to the box in addition to the magnet to help it if its possible

Once I get it all on I wil see what it does. If it falls off I will work on re-engineering it.

Remember, the magnets are not what's holding it up,it's being held up by a tongue and groove at the bottom, the magnets just keep it up against the panel. I might even try a 3rd magnet pair if the two don't hold it.

Oh crap, I guess I never updated this thread.

I still haven't finished the install but I did make progress after I last updated this thread...




Still deciding what to do for the amp cover. It will be a wooden cover that the VW logo carved out, but will the wood be MDF with a veneer wood over it, solid wood (teak or walnut) or something else...still not sure. Taking suggestions.

Also never got my other black ZPA working right. I did get the matching plexi so now all 3 amps have original PG plexi, but I might just get the white ZPA painted to match the other black ones and leave it in there. I do need to work on the SLD44, the sound keep cutting out on the right and it's distorting when he gains are increased on it. I'm sure if I replace it's caps and upgrade the resistors for 1% ones I'll resolve the issue. I might even try to find ELNA caps for it.

Man it´s nice!!

Why not make a Phoenix gold logo.. carved in plexi, With LED back light? now THAT could turn some heads!!

About the sld44, check your ground wire, my pld1 was screaming and failed when high volume was provided in it, and the issue was bad ground/ negative connection!

As we ALL know, bad ground / Negative wirering is the cause of every evil!

I might talk to my plastic guy and see what he can do. I need him to make me a new plexi for the 0.3 that I just bought anyways so it's worth asking.

Well I opened it up and check out these caps...




I have all new caps and ICs coming for it. I'm using a PLD1 in the mean time (no sub) and it's better.

coming along rather nicely!

brenzbmr@sb wrote:coming along rather nicely!

Thanks.


So new plan. I'm getting one of these...
http://www.eonon.com/Car-GPS/Specific-C ... M5152.html
Then I'm going to upgrade the internals. Not 100% sure who is going to do it! either I will do it or I have someone in mind but he hasn't gotten back to me yet. I'd like to upgrade all caps to ELNA caps, the d/a converters to burr brown, eliminate the built in amp, and maybe improve the RCA out portion (opamps?) I have seen the work of Matt R on diyma and I'd like to get him to do it, but no word back yet.

Then I'll mount a TBAt right behind it and send a balanced signal to my eq232 in the rear, then to one of my ZPx2 balanced crossovers. From there I can send balanced signal directly to my ZPA0.5s. I currently have 2 of them installed, I'm going to sell the white one (I have a potential buyer) once my other black one is operational, then I'll try to find another black one, so I will have 3 black ZPA0.5s. 1 for sub duty, 1 for mid woofer duty, and the other to run my mids/tweeters.

So this means no more DSP. I have decided that it alters my sound too much and I loose a lot of Midbass. I also don't like the time alignment. It messes with the polarity to accomplish a sound in the middle of the car but it sacrifices the natural sound that my Dyns do so well.

Right now I'm fixing the TBAt. I got it for free but it was blown. The board was good but something was causing the fuses to blow so I tested all components. The resistors are good but I was not confident with the diodes so I am replacing all of them as well as the OP amps. I'm also putting in all ELNA caps.

Did you check out Q1 and 2?

Nope. Do they tend to be a problem? I can't believe I missed them. Would they be a dead short or open circuit if they are bad?

If all the diodes tested good out of circuit then I would test Q1 and 2.

http://www.onsemi.com/pub_link/Collateral/2N4401-D.PDF Datasheet for Q1 and 2.

Ah thanks for the info Ricky. It's all coming back to me now...I haven't dealt with these little guys since college.

Nice install. Very attractive and with awesome equipment. I like the idea of the 4 way system with mid bass, I hope it works out well for you. And the attention you gave to the signal with the TBAt, EQ, and crossover. I think that would be a very nice SQ setup along with those ZPAs.

Thanks man. I'm really excited about there...it's just going to take time as I need to move some amps first.

So I havnt changed much in the car yet but I have made some progress.

Here is what's going in this week: eq232, zxps2, dd5, black zpa0.5 (with red terroids), and black TBAt.



I got the TBAt up and running. It got all new diodes, both transistors replaced, all caps replaced with ELNA caps, and all IC chips were replaced with sockets and new chips.



And my red terroid ZPA came. The seller claimed that all that was wrong was a 5w resistor broke off. I replaced the resistor and all ps caps and yes it works like a champ. I want to upgrade to v2 but it will work for now...

I got the red terroid amp in the car and it sounds phenomenal (well just like the white one that I took out).

And I started getting the next phase going. I removed the ms-8 and got the dd5 and zpx2 in. I started to run the balanced cable from the front, so all I need to do is finish running the balanced cable and put the TBAt up front and solder RCA ends onto the speaker leads coming off the back of the radio. I the. I'll have my factory radio outputs converted from speaker level to RCA level.

So the moment of truth came today. I connected up the dd5, TBAt, and zpx2 all through balanced cables, and soldered RCAs onto the speaker wire coming out of the back of the factory unit. I then had the factory unit switched to low level output. It all worked mostly. I was getting and intermittent I therefore cd coming through my sub so now my other zpx2 is in my car. Well see if I get it on that.



If this other zpx2 works better then it will give me an excuse to work on the ore one. I'll get burr brown opamps and stuff. Not even sure what's in there to upgrade, but I'll see what I can do.

Love your equipment, but why not use the black ZP distribution blocks? My install is coming very soon too, all black, and all PG as well.


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AVICJR wrote:Love your equipment, but why not use the black ZP distribution blocks? My install is coming very soon too, all black, and all PG as well.


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Thanks.

I would use it but I kind of like how the Audison works by combining it all. You do have a good point though and I do have the space and the pieces.

I'll have to think about that.