MEMORY LANE -- Where did you start?

[SolacE]

okay so i thought i would share what I could find in my mess of photos from my first real install i did on my 1990 eclipse.

Here is where we started with it. An mtx 4320 on briged down on the orion nt12 and the mtx 280 on aria coaxs. man those were some sweet coaxs.





Here we changed things up a bit. We had 6 mtx 12 ohm 8" subs. I think they were hooked up on a mtx 2300 but i dont recall. The box was covered in formica. We had grills that coverd the subs on both sides.



Now starts the transformation to PG. I originally had a zpa0.3 and a zpx2 installed in the rear seat. We moved the xover and installed a second 0.3 in the seat back. I wish I had pics of the plexi cover we had perforated by a water jet cutter.

There was a 0.5 in the wheel well along with the xover and eq232.





Then we moved to a PG zeropoint 3 way active setup and I believe a pair of xmax 10s.
I had a 0.3 running the 5.25 and tweeters and the other 0.3 running the 6.5s. I had the 0.5 running the xmax 10s.



Here is the final door panel with my 1st fiberglass project.




Eventually we had a cyclone on a 0.3, a pair of xmax 8s on a 0.5, and the front 3way on another 0.3 with a custom passive xover network a gracious professional hooked me up with (thanks mad dogg!) Sorry cant find those pics.

However, I think this was 94 SBN...anyone remember this tbird?

[Rold Gold]

Due to a monster bitch, I don't have any of the pix of MY first install. These are my best friends pix. He died 2 yrs ago and his mom gave them to me as this was always what we did. He's the one that started me into this world. After watching it being done in alot of cars @ CSC, we came up with this.
The year is 1996..........
















It took me forever to scan all of these.......

[ELmx479]

I really love this site, i'm glad I found it. Really enjoy checking out some of the older PG installs. Anyway I really wish I had some pics but it all started with an old beat up green rusty Jeep. Wire's everywhere, house speakers, had no clue what ohm load the amp had. 8 gauge wire melted once. After that started learning a bit, heard some decent stuff. Then came the day I first heard of "Phoenix Gold" threw a friend of a friend that everyone knew about this amazing system that just sounded awesome. I finally got a ride in this thing and just couldn't believe it, I just said to myself. I will own something like this. System was 2 PG ZX600.2ti's. The old school Boston Pro 3 way front stage, and 2 PG Xmax 15's in a sealed box. All in a suv, still one of the best systems i've ever heard.

So my first real install was all PG, very similar to that but with Xmax 12's. I didn't have a digital camera back then but I think I do have a few pics. I'll try to scan them.

[Audiophiliac]

I have no pics to show, but my first car audio venture was installing an alpine cassette deck my buddy stole in the '81 caprice wagon my mom passed down to me when I was 17.

My first legit install was a pretty nasty looking install in my escort wagon. I had a MS2125 running a pair of Kenwood dualmags 6.5" coaxes in the doors. I later added a RF 200M or 250M or whatever it was and a JL Microsub 8.2...which I later threw some HE2 8" subs in. The rest is history.

[nico boom]

Forgot yesterday; NICE,NICE,NICE TOM!!!!!
You have come a long way, and I guess you're FAR from "done"....

[nico boom]

O.K; Before I start posting here, I need to say;
These pics, and story's are for real, and are NOT ment to boast about anything I've done [or NOT done] in the past.
Nor are they intended to make a fool out of myself, showing my misstakes.
I will post here with intervals, to prevent this thread to become 30+ pages long while I'm "getting in the mood".
[and to be able to look at YOUR pictures and story's as well!!!]
These pics and story's are just for you to enjoy, and "CAPTURE THE ATMOSPHERE" from those days.
********************
After only riding bikes from 18-21 years old, I decided to by a car for the {many} rainy days here in Holland.
Year; 1985.
My first car was a b-kadett, that I bought for 230 euro, and I put a radio in it, along with a in-dash booster, playing on those round bookshelf-speakers that you saw in almost every car those days.
I connected the booster to the battery with the type of wire used in homes; yep the solid stuff.
It was easy to mold into corners, could handle more power than the original mini-wires attatched to it, and, but most important; my dad had a load of it in his shed, so it was FOR FREE.
I went on holiday to France, and had to re-connect the booster 3 times because the wire broke again, and again ,because I attatched it to the engine on it's way to the booster.
The two girls I picked up along the freeway, were very impressed by the sound...MAYBE the basis for my later escapades in the car-audio scene was created by their enthousiasm....
After returning from france [2400+ km. later], the car went for it's yearly inspection and was found TOTALLY RUSTED THROUGH.
The mechanic did not even want to drive it because the bottom was.. LOOSE.
[No pics of this one]
Next there was a BMW 525I, [1987],a TOYOTA CARINA[1990] , and then THE C-KADETT[1992].
This orange little car had an automatic transmission, sunroof, and it was rapidly away from zero.
I had my first little real install in there; pioneer radio, osio amp, 6x9 speakers in a wooden shelf, and later one bazooka basstube.
One day my former girlfriend called after 15 minutes from leaving the house;"honey, I'm O.K, but your car is totall loss"
She bent the car around a tree..
Without that tree she would have been tumbled upsidedown in the canal the police said.
I retreived what was left from that car, and bought... MY BELOVED GREEN D-KADETT.
That's all for now.
The best is yet to come hehe..

[nico boom]

Nice pics Fuzzy!!!
GOLF 1 is it?
You guys already had PG gear in your first installs

[stipud]

Harold, COOOL Vdub! I would love to own a car like that... but they are so insanely popular here, I could practically buy another Saab for the price of one

Nico, you too were infected with the audio virus in your first car! I guess you were already DJing before that right?

[Rold Gold]

Matt got a job at the stereo shop @ 16(1995) and spent 75% of his P/C's for the first 3 months on TOP OF THE LINE gear. I spent alot of time there watching the installers do everything from decks to full custom. I bought my M100 cus he had one and it was the shiznit.

[Silver Supra]

Wow... Concord gear... I don't feel as old now.

I don't have any pics but I will give a brief timeline of my systems.

1st (Highschool - Chevy pickup): Cocord Cx70 head unit - pull out baby! Proton 250 amp dribing a pair of RF series 1 10"s - boston acoustic seperates driven off head unit.

2nd (College - Acura Integra): Alpine 7803S head unit (I still want another one), 2 alphasonik GP-2075's each driving a soundstream SS-12, MS-275 driving Altec Lansing seperates, Nak EC-200 x-over.

Later I ditched the SS-12's for a single Boston pro-12, and added an audio control ESP-3 center. Things were getting out of hand at this point.


Latest is a work in progress - but there will be another Ms-275 in there. I am also using an Audison Vrx 2.150.2, Nak CD700II head unit, and Focal 165k2p's. Sub is undetermined.

Those pics take me back! Thanks for sharing guys.

[nico boom]

Nico, you too were infected with the audio virus in your first car! I guess you were already DJing before that right?

yep.... 1983.
I was 19 at the time.
Played on barn-party's, schools, you name it.
In those days, every small village had a guy like me, who did that.

[gkitching]

More like I've been doing it way too long

You must have pictures of your FIRST install. You weren't always a professional installer right?

Well .. um .. technically yes. (At the risk of admitting my old fartitude) I started working at my dad's shop in my first year in highschool. After school and saturdays. Back then we did vinyl tops, pinstriping, body moldings, sunroofs and audio. Strictly dealer work. Those days cars might come thru with am/fm radios if it was a luxury car. Otherwise if you wanted a radio in the car, we were the ones who put them in. My primary job was the one who got to crawl in the trunks and cut rear decks for speakers. You know .. the shit work .. low man on the totem pole stuff. Jensen triaxials and Craig powerplay's were the high end then! By the time I got my first car, '67' GTO (a funny story all on it's own) I had been doing it for a couple of years.

I have no pics of that car or the install. It had an underdash amp and speaker system from a little know company called Bose and a head unit from a lesser known company called Alpine. Funny story with that was the Bose system came with the speaker wires. 4 runs about 30ft each, pre-terminated. I was afraid to hack down the lengths fearing it might screw something up. With all the slack that was left I balled it up and shoved it up under the dash. That ball of wire was about the size of a soccer ball. It took like 10 'back straps' to keep it up there.

My next car was my first attempt at a nice install. I have pics of that and will post them as soon as I can get around to scanning them.

[gkitching]

WOW Nico! That was a awesume system from back then! I was in a band in those days and we dreamed of stuff like that! We used an Electrovoice speaker system that had 4-10" drivers and a powered Fender mixer. Sounded like crap! But thinking back it's probably because we always had it on '11'!

[Bfowler]

haha, volume at 11 is the only way real bands keep it

[nico boom]

Hey Greg; I guess I was already into heavy bass at that time.
You had some serious stuff as well; 4x10 also rocks!
I did not dream about putting stuff like that [or more] in a car; hell! I didn't even have my drivers licence then.
A shame I never tried this set at "11" , "6"was the loudest I ever was allowed to play in a school, before somebody came complaning about "that awefull thumping inside this building"

[Rold Gold]

Here's "Tha G-ride"...... Build 2

1962 Buick Electra 4dr w/ "drive-by" windows on 15" gold spokes & WW tires......













**If you can see the lid has "ISCA" in raised leters**


The M100 is hiden behind the driver-side panel but is pushing the dual 6ohm W6-15's. There was a set of MBQ comp's upfront in kicks but I can't find that picture.

[gkitching]

Nice! I miss BIG trunks!

[gkitching]

OK here is my first 'install' (honest). 1987 Chrysler Le Baron. Not my first car but my first system that was more than a head and 4 speakers.

When Lanzar was a good company. Lots of fuzzy carpet and mirrors! It looked like I had a hundred subs maaaaaannnnnn.



The 1 amp for my entire system. My passive x-over set-up was ridiculously huge. OPTI100 rated 50w x 2. Ran a 3-way set up front consisting of Lanzar TWS tweeters, 4" MWS mids in the dash and 6" MWS bidbass in the doors, Clarion 6x9 comp's in the rear and the 2 LP12 subwoofers. Back then we only carried PG accessories.



The eq was a rockford OEQ-1. A 10 band, semi-parametric eq with individual left & right control. It was a great eq. but was a pain to make adjustments with the tiny screw driver.


Then a shot behind the rear seat. It looked like I had 100 subs maaaannn.



My head unit was the original Alpine 7909. Back then I hated the f'in thing. Constantly skipped. Would chew up my cd's and the slide-out cage would jam up every time. I ripped it out and practically gave it away. Then saw everyone and thier brother trying to buy these up because of how 'great' they were. And paying as much as $2000 for them. Of coarse I kicked myself in the ass over letting mine go. After some years I managed to find another one and spent an arm and a leg to have it upgraded and modified .. right before they came out with the Anniversary model. !#@^#$!$@^^!

[stipud]

Maaaaaaaaaaaan Greg, I think I have a new hero

Your installs have been awesome since day one.

[gkitching]

haha! You could say I've been anal since day 1.

[Rold Gold]

I hope yer pitchen and not catchin.........................

[gkitching]

I hope yer pitchen and not catchin.........................

Why .. is that an invitation? jk

I should know better then to leave myself wide open ... now wait .. did I just say wide open?

I'm gonna shut up now ..

[Rold Gold]

[brenzbmr@sb]

here is my first major install.
some have seen it.

[nico boom]

So I see that you guys had acces to the good stuff way before I had...
Here's how it went on.
After the orange C-kadett had it's encounter with that tree, I bought my green D-kadett, and installed the stuff I already had, with two more CONCORD amps, and a bazooka.
Later added a second bazooka.
Some weeks later, I heard a Van drive buy every day, and MAN that thing thumped!
So I made sure to talk to the guy, his name was Marko, and he had a..15 inch Cerwin Vega STEALTH woofer
Never seen such a monster in a car...so you already guessed.
Few weeks later bought my first 15 inch Cerwin.
few weeks later bought my second Cerwin.
Few weeks later bought my thirth and fourth Cerwin.
One year later bought my fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth Cerwin......
You see the resulting installs in the pics.
With four of those I won a lot of SPL competitions all over Holland.
It was one big cabinet, and the amps[PPI 4200AM, and Caliber CA450], were mounted in the backseat.
I could have passengers there, or fold it down and COMPETE.
Later on, the W-wall with 8x15's appeared in my dreams, and that just HAD TO BE BUILD.