Phoenix Gold Phorum

Sorry this is nothing special compared to some of the installs here.

Products:
Factory stereo
Audio Control LC6i (line out converter)
Mcintosh MC-440 (6 channels, bridged to 200x2 + 400x1)
Dynaudio system 360 3-way components
Phoenix Gold Xmax 12" v2
Phoenix Gold ZPA0.5 v2 (soon to come)






factory speaker:



cut up:


door trimmed:


Mid and woofer mounted:


wires run:


xover in door panel:

not sure what you mean its a clean system that would sound as good or better then a lot of others.

nothing special ??

don't i see there a zpa0.5

i see you work passive. please put the zpa0.5 on the front 3way...

i hope you have a pre amp line driver (pld1 or something)....

i stated before the zpa0.5 is the best 12V amp i ever heard play (on speakers)......

you will not believe you're ears.... make sure you have a good batterie !!!!!!!

zeropoint0.5 wrote:nothing special ??

don't i see there a zpa0.5

LOL That MC440 isn't cheap garbage either.

thanks for the positive responses.

I havnt tested the zpa yet. I did a preliminary test on the zpa with a 50 amp fuse and it blew it after 2 sec of powering up, no signal going to it. I am going to retry with a 100 amp fuse. If the amp is good I will hook it up to my system and see how it compares.

I do not have a line driver. the mac is running at 1/2 gains and the output of the LC6i is almost all the way at the bottom with my stock stereo at 1/3 volume, and thats as loud as I can handle.

BTW im still searching for the perfect sub for me. it will be fiberglassed into one of the side panels of my trunk for a stealth install, and the current plan is to power off the 5 and 6 channels of my amp (400 watts at 4 ohms bridged).

blowing a 50 amp just on power up doesn't sound right. Take a piece of paper and slide it under the caps to see if its dry.

ttocs wrote:blowing a 50 amp just on power up doesn't sound right. Take a piece of paper and slide it under the caps to see if its dry.

x2

probably the 50A fuse saved the amp !!!

please don't power it up again before the ps caps are replaced......... this is a must !!!!!!!!!!!

the PS caps were replaced. rail caps have not been replaced yet though.

so what I did was I ran power and ground and it was fine. When I shorted the remote turn on the fans came on for a second and then it blew the fuse.

vwdude wrote:the PS caps were replaced. rail caps have not been replaced yet though.

so what I did was I ran power and ground and it was fine. When I shorted the remote turn on the fans came on for a second and then it blew the fuse.

i would try it again with a 5a fuse....(turn gains and head unit on zero)

if the fuse blows again there is a problem......

i hope the fans didn't suck up a little copper wire............

so what is the idle draw for a zpa0.5? like fans, boards... i didnt think it would be enough to blow a 50 amp fuse, but if there was a short I would have expected it to blow the fuse before turning the fans on.

vwdude wrote:so what is the idle draw for a zpa0.5? like fans, boards... i didnt think it would be enough to blow a 50 amp fuse, but if there was a short I would have expected it to blow the fuse before turning the fans on.

Unless that is where the short is, or like someone else said, the fan sucked in something.....

at idle current should not go over 5-10 amps after the caps are charged I would think. 50amps is enough that if there was something wrong that there could be something friend. If you do power it on as said above use a MUCH lower fuse and before you do that check under the caps as well as just turn it upside down and see if shaking it shows any small wires. Be aware it will NOT work with the plexi removed....

i know that the fans didnt suck anything in as I was very careful about that. Also, i had the plexi in place, but i know that theres the switch by that plexi screw as I had to replace it since the old one was bad.

I will take all of the covers off again and see if the rail caps are leaking and also check for any stray metal.

I was thinking that maybe i blew the fuse because i was charging the caps, as this was the first power up since replacing the caps. this occurred a few weeks ago, i just didnt have time to further troubleshoot.

i have a lot of zpa's, and personally recapped them all, cleaned them all out, etc.......

unfortunatly also i had experiences what little copper wires can do

stripping a wire 20inch away from the amp, can result in a burned amp !!!! the fans are

powerful enough to suck it up from that distance...... please solder every wire before you

come closer to the amp.... i even use banana plugs for speakers and remote !!!!!


please open the amp until EVERY transistor is visual and check under good light,

under and aside every transistor or place on the board....sometimes they hide themselves very good....


for me this is standard work if i get another zpa from somewhere........


good luck !!

vwdude wrote:i know that the fans didnt suck anything in as I was very careful about that. Also, i had the plexi in place, but i know that theres the switch by that plexi screw as I had to replace it since the old one was bad.

I will take all of the covers off again and see if the rail caps are leaking and also check for any stray metal.

I was thinking that maybe i blew the fuse because i was charging the caps, as this was the first power up since replacing the caps. this occurred a few weeks ago, i just didnt have time to further troubleshoot.

leave the rail caps alone, they don't leak...............

charge the caps with a light or a 50 ohm resistor in series on the B+ terminal...................

Nice clean stealthy install with great gear!Whats not to like!

zztunnell wrote:Nice clean stealthy install with great gear!Whats not to like!

thanks. stealth is the name of the game. This is a daily commuter and I drive to some shady neighborhoods. Beyond that, i have to open my trunk to get my tools out, so prying eyes cant see whats in my car. This is also why I will not do anything to the outside of the car (other than the minor things that ive done).

BTW here is the car itself...




original steering wheel


new steering wheel

Looks really good, certainly freshens things up alot. Kinda reminds me of mine as I just had it rewrapped last year and replaced the cruise control buttons with polished billet buttons. I padded mine though and was glad I did. Never thought I would actually thing to myself, "this steering wheel feels good!" but I do nearly every time I drive it now. Hopefully we both get to enjoy them for a long time huh?

Yes it freshened up the interior quite a bit. It beats me why Vw would make an r-line steering wheel but not put it in an r-line car. It does come on my model in Europe. I had the same issue with the OEM dynaudio system. If I wanted it on my car I needed to get the v6 which isn't available as an r-line and get 10 mpg less with marginal go increase.

Back on track with this install (sorry I forgot to update this thread)...

I rebuilt the speaker mounting adapters out of MDF. I did 2 3/4" pieces, so 1.5", very close to the factory spacing and I have plenty of room...







And I got a great deal on a Dynaudio 12" sub (MW190), but since it requires an insane 2.5 cuft of airspace I tried to build ai fiberglass enclosure behind the trunk panel on the side, but i couldnt get it over 1.3 cuft, so I went IB. My first attempt at an IB setup. Not super loud, but it gives me some GREAT SQ. For all of those who claim they want a true SQ system...I now know what a true SQ system is. It doesnt shake the rearview mirror loose, but when you play a song iwth REAL instruments, it reproduces it like ive never heard.

steering wheel looks like mine

Ahsmo wrote:steering wheel looks like mine

In what car? The Z?


Thanks...?


Update... The dyn sub is for sale now. I decided to go more traditional with a sealed box. I'm trying out a few different subs, one of which is a 12" Xmax.

vwdude wrote:

Ahsmo wrote:steering wheel looks like mine

In what car? The Z?


Thanks...?


Update... The dyn sub is for sale now. I decided to go more traditional with a sealed box. I'm trying out a few different subs, one of which is a 12" Xmax.

Sorry, my audi S4.

... need to update my signature. Car looks great.

Thanks.

That makes more sense now as they are the same parent company. That's a badass car. You doing a system in it?

vwdude wrote:Thanks.

That makes more sense now as they are the same parent company. That's a badass car. You doing a system in it?

no. I am actually pretty happy with stock system. The best I've heard in a car, aftermarket or stock.