Phoenix Gold Phorum

I'm nearly finished acquiring the items I need to begin my new install. The vehicle is a 2015 F-150 crew cab, with basic factory stereo consisting of tweeters in the pillars, 6x9's in the front doors and 5-1/4's in the rear doors. I'm still saving up for sound deadening materials, and once I get those items I can begin wiring and deadening.

The equipment in it will be as follows:

Headunit: Pioneer DEX-P99RS
Mid/Tweeter Amplifier: Phoenix Gold X200.4
Woofer Amplifier: Phoenix Gold XS2500
Subwoofer Amplifier: Phoenix Gold Ti21000.4
Tweeters: Scanspeak D3004/6020-00
Midranges: Scanspeak 10F/4424G
Woofers: Pioneer D901P
Subwoofers: Phoenix Gold RsdC 102

The Scans just showed up today and I'm excited to begin work on enclosures for them.

For those who aren't familiar with the Pioneer D901's, they are the yellow REV series 6x9's with coaxial mounted tweeters. I've had them for a while now and I love the sound of them. I also didn't want to spend another $500 on some Scanspeak 6-1/2's or Image Dynamics 6x9's.
Since I don't need the tweeters, and they will interfere with the door panel when mounted in the factory locations, I needed to remove them and install something to prevent dirt and dust from getting to the voice coil. The tweeters were held in by a bolt and some epoxy, which weren't too difficult to remove. A guy I know machined these phase plugs and I bolted them to the speakers.

Here's a quick pic of the tweeters and midranges. The mids are listed as a 4", but are actually closer to a 3.5", which will make finding a home for them much easier.

I've finished fabricating my housing for the Pioneer P99. It will be located above the existing stereo, in place of a tray centered on top of the dash. It's a tad unorthodox, but I needed a location that is accessible and there are currently no dash kits available for my vehicle. I have not modified the vehicle in any way that can't be returned to 100% stock, just in case I decide to go a different route in the future.

The receiver housing is built from aluminum plate, ABS sheet and a modified universal single DIN mount kit and bolts in using the existing mounting locations for the tray that was removed. The color is a little off, but looks better in person.

I've also begun work on the tweeter housings. They are made from 3" diameter wooden spheres that I cut and drilled to house the Scanspeak tweeters. They will be painted black and will be mounted using an articulating Ram mount to allow for adjustments later on.

...and painted. I tried a wrinkle finish, but it didn't match the interior texture well so I went with a lighter textured finish instead.

You need horns .

freudie1 wrote:You need horns .

I have never heard an install with horns before. Don't you have to have some serious midbass to keep up?

and a good eq to tune the horn down. I got to listen to a couple that had them and if its done right it makes for a nice sq system but most require a good eq.

Define "serious" midbass?

Check out my install in the "Project Serious" thread. I'm using two JBL 2118h 8" midbass in glass kick pods I made (they are massive and go way up under the dash). FYI...I have several pairs of these on a shelf that were professionally reconed. If you want to try them I will make you a good deal on some.

Powering them with a bridged Xenon 100.4. They definitely work!

You need high efficiency midbass drivers with horns is the trick. Those mids are 97db at 1 watt (that's higher than a lot of tweeters). It's also, the reason I'm fighting noise floor issues without very careful tuning.

EQ? Check out the Helix DSP Pro (or the non pro if you don't need as much granularity and want to save some cash). I'm still enjoying the ability to tune everything from xover, eq, time delay, phase, and levels all from my laptop in my driver's seat. The days of "Run to the trunk, turn a dial...run back to drivers seat....rta....run back to trunk....repeat repeat" are long over. Even funnier is this unit has none of the old issues (think shitty pots that become scratchy over the years OR having to construct elaborate acrylic "protection" covers for the eq's). Best part? The dsp is TINY. You can easily hide these in your install.

I would consider two (2) 8" midbass drivers each side "serious" midbass. I know a lot of folks use pro audio drivers for midbass in a system with horns. I don't need anything like that and I don't want to fiberglass any enclosures or hack up my door panel in this install. I don't need the efficiencies or the volume of a horn install.

I finally started tackling the sound deadening/proofing project this week since I have the week off. Food poisoning, kids and other medical issues have slowed me down, but I've made good progress. I purchased CLD Tiles, CCF, velcro strips and vinyl contact cement from Don at https://www.sounddeadenershowdown.com. His CLD Tiles are the best damper I've ever used, better than Second Skin's Damplifier Pro IMO. Make sure where you begin sticking them down is where you want them to go, because I found out the hard way that they don't peel back up very easily. I sourced 1LB/sq. ft. MLV from a place that was slightly cheaper than Don could provide, for what appears to be similar quality virgin material MLV.

I went with Don's recommendations for 25% coverage with the CLD tiles and as near 100% coverage for the MLV on top of that. Ford was very generous with dampning material from the factory, so I didn't need many tiles on the floor. I was a bit hesitant tearing apart a brand new truck, but it's gone better than expected and everything went back just the way it came out. (Yay!)

Anyways, here are some pics of the progress. I forgot to take pics of the MLV before I put the flooring back in, but it looks the same as the CCF so you get the idea.

I also got some help installing from Spiderman! What kid doesn't want to install audio on spring break?

As a side note, new vehicles SUCK to run wire through the firewall or doors. I FINALLY found a spot to run the 1/0 power wire through the firewall, but I had to drill a hole and install a grommet. It made me cringe to drill a 1-1/8" diameter hole through my new truck, but it went fine.

I have the drivers door yet to do, but all of the pieces are cut and ready for it. Doing the first door, rear and front takes the most time to make templates for the MLV, but once you get a template you can trace it and use it for the other door since they are just mirror images of each other. I placed CLD Tiles on the inner door skin front and back, as well as the outer door skin. Since I ordered too many tiles, I applied closer to 75% coverage on the outer door skin. They are VERY well damped.

I made HDPE mount rings for the front 6x9's for the front doors. I'm leaving the rear door speakers alone since I won't be having rear fill in this install. I also made HDPE panels to seal the doors up better than the factory plastic moisture guard.

Just having the three doors done and floor makes a WORLD of difference in lowering road noise. I am amazed at the quietness inside the vehicle, definitely several decibels lower. The windows are still a weak link, but there's not much that can be done to fix that.

Been there done that with my Tundra.

Same sentiments as you ("New truck, tearing it up, etc").

I am a firm believer that 95% + of "sound proofing" in a vehicle is achieved via the ccf and mlv combo. The CLD type products do very little (if any) in the noise reduction category.

In other words, unless you are building a bass monster, I don't see much need for a ton of cld. I used about 25% coverage only on the back wall of my truck and absolutely zero on the floor/doors. The truck is quieter than my wife's SUV (and that was her saying that!).

So yep, looks good!

Have fun building that amp rack. I went through a month of head banging and routering to get the panels the way I wanted.

Yes, it is a bit unnerving to tear into a new vehicle, but the benefits are definitely worth it aren't they?

I agree that the majority of blocking unwanted noise from the exterior of the vehicle is accomplished with CCF/MLV. Covering the floor contributed to a significant reduction in noise, but covering the doors had even a larger impact.

The CLD Tiles don't contribute much in reducing noise, but there is no doubt that they do a fantastic job damping panels and lowering their resonant frequency. Just tap an untreated panel and then tap on a treated panel and you can hear the difference. IMO the doors are the best source for this application and contribute to that luxury car dull thud sound when you close them.

My amp rack won't be nearly as elaborate and nice as yours freudie1. I am just going to use a flat panel to mount the amps on. There will be no trim panels or covering of the amps. I wish I had the time or patience to do what you did, but I'm going with a more simple approach than I have done in the past.

I finished with the power wiring under the hood today. There's not much to see there that hasn't already been seen/done, so I'll spare the pictures unless someone really wants to see it. I did finally install the Pioneer DEX-P99RS in my custom dash mount. I think it turned out pretty good. The factory radio is still connected, and will remain so. The plan is that everything can go back to looking and working 100% stock if I ever want to change.

sweet idea for the tweeter housings!

dwnrodeo wrote:I also got some help installing from Spiderman! What kid doesn't want to install audio on spring break?

As a side note, new vehicles SUCK to run wire through the firewall or doors. I FINALLY found a spot to run the 1/0 power wire through the firewall, but I had to drill a hole and install a grommet. It made me cringe to drill a 1-1/8" diameter hole through my new truck, but it went fine.

You got lucky to find a place to pass through. My 16 F-250 Diesel has no place. Also for anyone with one of these trucks DO NOT unplug or bump to hard the module in the middle on the floor, it can cause codes. To clear them you will be paying the dealer.

NOT 2 OLD YET wrote:You got lucky to find a place to pass through. My 16 F-250 Diesel has no place. Also for anyone with one of these trucks DO NOT unplug or bump to hard the module in the middle on the floor, it can cause codes. To clear them you will be paying the dealer.

I can only imagine what the 250 diesel looks like to run wires through. Fortunately, I have the 5.0 liter with no additional plumbing for a turbo setup like the diesel/Ecoboost engines. I disconnect the battery before doing anything where I could accidently touch or bump something. Especially when there are airbags behind every trim panel. That module in the center I'm assuming is part of the airbag system.

dwnrodeo wrote:

NOT 2 OLD YET wrote:You got lucky to find a place to pass through. My 16 F-250 Diesel has no place. Also for anyone with one of these trucks DO NOT unplug or bump to hard the module in the middle on the floor, it can cause codes. To clear them you will be paying the dealer.

I can only imagine what the 250 diesel looks like to run wires through. Fortunately, I have the 5.0 liter with no additional plumbing for a turbo setup like the diesel/Ecoboost engines. I disconnect the battery before doing anything where I could accidently touch or bump something. Especially when there are airbags behind every trim panel. That module in the center I'm assuming is part of the airbag system.

It is! And what a dumb place to put it in my opinion. Problem with the diesel is you cant see the firewall from under the hood no less even fit your hand in there. My 07 F-150 was easy to work on, this beast is a bitch!

I've finished with the meat and potatoes of the amp rack and just need to finish my trim piece to cover all of the wiring. I was going to leave it as is, but feudie1's install encouraged me to go a bit farther. Mine won't be nearly as nice as his, but similar in concept.

I also changed my mind about what woofer amp to go with. Rather than use my XS2500 I have sitting on a shelf, I decided to purchase an X100.2 to match the X200.4. You can still get them brand new for $130 on fleabay.

I am also excited to FINALLY use a custom made ground distribution block that was given to me by thingy when I visited Scandanavia 5 years ago. He custom machined this piece and was kind enough to offer it to me. Now I finally have an install where it can be put to good use, providing power for PG goodness!

The rack fits on the back wall of the truck cab perfectly. I had to remove the scissor jack to fit everything there. I purposely purchased a truck without a rear sliding power window for this amp rack location.

So glad to see that the distribution block installed.
You've given it a better install than i would ever come around to. I struggle to find time to even get my speakers upgraded.
I am truly glad to see this Keep up the good work My friend

thingy wrote:So glad to see that the distribution block installed.
You've given it a better install than i would ever come around to. I struggle to find time to even get my speakers upgraded.
I am truly glad to see this Keep up the good work My friend

It is tough to find time for car audio with kids and a wife, but I manage to do a little bit at a time. I even have them help from time to time. That's why this install isn't super time intensive like my last install with lots of fiberglass and MDF work. Keep checking in on the progress.

No picture update, but I got the amp rack installed, wired up and gains set using an oscilloscope. I'll post pictures after I finish and install the trim piece. I did learn a cool little piece of information about the Ti21000.4 this weekend. I was setting the gains, watching my o-scope and the clip indicator lights on the amp and noticed that the clip lights activate EXACTLY when the signal was starting to clip on my scope! If anyone was wondering if they could trust those clip indicators, I wouldn't hesitate to.