MEMORY LANE -- Where did you start?

[M.Hendrix]

Yeah I know. I got a little more into SQ with my second car. Done it up with Cliff Designs front stage. Petra Prowlers (10") in a 6th order iso-bandpass box ported through the rear deck. Still liked the HiFonics series vii amps. (2 Zeus and an Olympus this time)

[bruther]

Here is another one of my old systems.....Pathfinder. Had the old PG Ti and Soundstream amps powering Infiniti Kappa Perfects. Young and dumb.


Here is the link of when I got rid of all this and installed all the Titanium equipment. I can't seem to find the pics from Car Domain to post them on here.

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/107575

[ChaosWarlord26]

I'm so old that I don't even have digital pics of my first install!!!

I can second that notion!!!! The mid 1990's were a great time for Car audio!

[octane1117]

So here is my first glass job in my personal... Figured I'd also throw my first bed cut through in... This was all 2001ish.

[KUB3]

Great thread, I'm loving the pictures. I only wish I had some images from my early days.

I first got into hifi at home. When I turned 18 my first stereo arrived - Yamaha CD & amplifier, which was rated at 85W per channel - which was pretty decent back then. The speakers were Cerwin Vega three ways, with 10" subs and around 97db efficiency. I wasn't disappointed with the volume!

The next year I got my first ever car system for my brand new '95 fiesta Si, in black. It was a "warm" hatch with free insurance. The kit list was:

Alpine CD player
Rockford Fosgate 200ix tri-amped into:
Infinity 5.25" two ways
Celestion AD15" sub, ported

Later that year this quickly evolved into:

Alpine CD player
Phoenix Gold ZX200 (or was it 250?) running:
Dynaudio 7" two ways
Rockford Fosgate 200ix running:
Celestion AD15" sub, sealed

Finally in winter of that year the sub was changed to:

JL Audio 10 W6v1 (x2) sealed


It was an amazing time!

[gbody805]

This is still my daily driver.

I put it together in 2005.
It was not my first try at audio install but it was my first big install.
Not as good as so many of the others I've seen posted here.
I didn't want a noise box but a very clear sound.

98' Durango
240 amp HO alt.
PG powercore
Optima yellow top
PG xenon X6.5 front doors.
Pg Xenon x5.0 rear doors.
Audiobahn Alumn12 x 2 in lower box.
Peavey Sp-218 upper box.
I know. It was cheap at the time and funds were low so I used it.
Honestly it has very good sound.
PG Xenon x1200.1 x 2
PG Xenon 200.4

I put this together with the intent to replace parts as funds allow.
Just got one of the 1200 amps back from repair.
I have an old school Sherwood 4 channel in place of the 200.4 while it is getting looked over.
Currently trying to fix the powercore after reading the thread about them.
Next upgrades will be finding Tielite12 to replace the audiobahns.

Please be kind I do not do this for a living just a hobby.

[ShockTherapy]

Post pictures of your first installs in this thread! Oldschool and hackjob installs rule here! Don't forget to tell the story behind the install, as that is the most entertaining part! Hell, even if you don't have pictures, please tell us your story!

My first install was in a 1978 Honda Accord hatchback. Here is what I was running.

- Sony CDX-80 motorized cassette. (was considered pretty nice for 20 years ago.
- Jensen 40x2 amp (tiny little thing but it actually sounded nice from what I remember)
- Rockwood Detonator 300x2 amp (yeh right, more like 75x2)
- 2 MTX Blue Thunder 15" subs (These are to this day one of the cleanest sounding subs I've heard)
- Pioneer dual cones and Pyramid tweets in the doors.

This ghetto setup was so loud that my girlfriend at the time could hear me a block away coming to her house. The components were mostly garbage but when I popped in that Stevie B tape or the latest EazyE cut I was loving it. Over the years I have slowly upgraded my taste in stride with my wallet. If I were to see the equipment I'm running now back then I would have seriously considered ripping myself off. lol.

[Tiger]

The first car I had (as a P plater) was a Toyota Corolla KE35 and I started with an ALL - Kenwood setup (bought it off my neighbour).



A pair of Kenwood 6.5" splits up font, Kenwood 6x9" in the shelf, Kenwood PSR100 x 2 running the speakers, Kenwood PSR-150 running the Earthquake BR-10 I had. Never took the boot shot (dunno why.. stupid p plater I was! haha) But the rear shelf looked like:



I since then bough a 1988 Mazda 929 and just installed a VDO Dayton CD3300 head unit, with a pair of Kenwood 7x10 speakers, running off an Altec AC-7500 2 channel. From there, I moved onto an 1989 Holden Astra sedan and this is where I started getting louder. I had the same VDO Dayton head unit from the 929 and this sent the signals to the old Kicker Impulse 6.2 splits up front and Impulse 6.5" coaxials with 2 x Jaycar Response Double Magnet subs, running off AMA amplifiers

The backseat looked like this:



Now... I'm working on my car..... I'll start a thread shortly for that, when I finalise my components

[HoseHead]

I'd love to show you my first install, but cameras hadn't been invented yet.

1968 Pontiac Parisienne, 327 Cu in V-8 and TurboHydramatic 3 speed automatic. Craig AM/FM w/ 8 track player and a pair of self powered MindBlower 6X9's in the rear deck. Rock on Aerosmith, Black Sabbath and Foghat.

HH

[Tiger]

Nevermind the install... show us the whole car!!
That has to be one of my favorite (if not, THE favorite) Pontiac(s)! Gorgeous car. My friend had one with a 454 big block in it. Good for 700 horses! It idled rough as hell, but when he opened it up.... wow! Tear jerker! hahaha. Too bad someone wrote it off on him

[bruther]

Second Install on my Pathfinder-

[joyride]

This isnt my vehicle, but it was a pretty loud van. It had 4 15" strokers and 8 8" xmaxs around the bottom. I found these pics from a competition way back when (I think it was the first year the ti's came out, so around '99). No idea why they ended up pano, but you can get the idea of whats going on.

[reallyxxxxxxloud]

Holy cow that's a lot of AMPS....

[NewOldStock]

Yeah I know. I got a little more into SQ with my second car. Done it up with Cliff Designs front stage. Petra Prowlers (10") in a 6th order iso-bandpass box ported through the rear deck. Still liked the HiFonics series vii amps. (2 Zeus and an Olympus this time)

oh damn!! I remember those old Petra's, a buddy had some way back in the day running off of some crazy looking purple amp... that I would later covet as a Linear Power.

[scottx]

Oh wow, I've been doing this too long to have those pictures. It was an 84 El Camino (my dads's) and I was 15. Some 6x9's in boxes and a Sony XR something pullout. Had some cheap eq/amp thing under the dash. It shook the mirror

[ttocs]

the back of that truck must have glowed a fairly cool electric blue!

Thanks for scanning and sharing all these old memories fellas!

[ChaosWarlord26]

Here is one of the first builds I had in my Neon from the late 90's......(I only like 18 at the time)

[holmis]

Back in the 90`s we made a Demo car from an old VW 1/2 Golf II ...
Its the only pic I got, but it was mobile, so we could take it with us.

& it had to have The phoenix Gold colors of the 90`s too...


//Asle

[stipud]

Wow! Cool idea! Got any other pics? Where were the seats located?

[holmis]

The back seat is intact.... Front stage was removable kick panels (with magnet system to remove them).
It had an external box with 3x optima yellow, 1 zx450 & 2x 1,2 farad PG Powerflow caps...
Front baffle of the car is 3x22mm MDF with noisekiller glue sandwitched together.....

In the back there where removable subboxes with speacon...

//I dont have anymore pix as I can find...

This was pretty nasty when we put stroker 18 in thisone...

[Haakon]

I found some old pictures in an album here the other day, and although my first system is not pictured here, my first car is, and I had about 10 headunits, 6-8 sets of different speakers, at least 20 different amps and 10-15 different subs in it over the 3 years I had it

First "system" was a Blaupunkt cd-player that was installed by the car dealer when we bought the car in 95 (the car was a 1986 Nissan Cherry :p ) running stock 3" speakers on the underside of the dash, playing downwards. Score! To this I added a Orion 250SX amp, running a Pyle 8" subwoofer in a 0.8^ft ported box made of 3/4" MDF. I still have a pair of these subs

Only have pics of the second to last sub I had in it, a 15" Stroker Never got to use its full potential, I ran it from a Kicker Impulse 1252, putting out about 500W. Had a RF Punch 4020 for components. The last sub I had in this car before I sold it was a Soundstream SPL160 Guess where THAT sub is now? :p

Clarion DRX9375R head unit, Caliber 2-way speakers with the tweeter placed inside the coil for the mid, just like Kef Kar/Uni-Q drivers.


Stroker 15" in 4,5^ft box with 6" aeroport




Next car was a 1996 VW Polo, had a couple of setups in this. Back then I was working with prefabricating aluminium constructions for the offshore industri (oil drilling platforms and such), so I had unlimited access to aluminium, fabrication tools and welders. Those were the days Made an amprack from 3mm aluminium, painted the inside with the stock VW colour. Had a pair of Sounstream Rubicon amps in there, a 404 and a 1002. 2 Polk db10 subs in the back, Boston Pro 6.43 3-ways in the front, and a Pioneer DEX-P99R head unit.




After this, I made my possibly best sounding system to date. Sold the rubicons and the Polk subs, invested in a brand new Soundstream Davinci, a brand new Cyclone and changed the 6" boston mids to 8" PG QX woofers in custom doorpanels








Cyclone placed vertically in the wheel well in a 3^ft sealed slotloaded box, amazing clarity and output

Thats it for pictures from memory lane. All of this were once sold, but I'm such a nostalgic that I have gotten hold of both the first Pyle sub, and a twin for it, I got the SPL160 back from the buddy that purchased it, he hadn't even used it in the 11 years he had it Also got hold of a Davinci a while back.. And yeah, some weeks ago I came over an ad for a BNIB SPL160 in sweden, tomorrow I'm collecting it from the post office

[lukeman269]

Although I don't have pics of all the details of the install, here is a short story of my first install. I am only 19 and this was only 3 years ago. My grandma sold me her car for 3000 bucks, yeah 3000 bucks. You would think a grandma would sell it to her grandson really cheap, but nope. She let me pay it off in payments so that was nice. But on with the install. My deck which isn't pictured was a bottom of the line jvc deck that I bought from best buy for 80 bucks. My dad showed me how to build my first box for my car and it was terrible. Way too big for tens! Ohh I also thought that it would be cool to mount the terminals on the top of the box haha. The subs were Obcons, bought them for 20 bucks for the pair at Mach 1 car audio in Little Canada, MN. The amp pictured wasn't the first amp with the install though. I had a pyramid crystal amp that said 600 watts on the top and I thought it was real power haha. I paid like 65 bucks for it new. It really only pushed like 120 rms bridged at 4 ohms. And I didn't know how to wire subs up very well so I just hooked each sub down to 2 ohms each and wired them 2 channel stereo. So like 60 to each sub lol. My neighbor made the grills for me which I actually still have! The silver paint on the box would rub onto your hand if you wanted to move it too. The ports were tuned way too low but the subs hit pretty hard surprisingly. The kenwood amp ended up blowing each of the subs with time.... So there it is, my first setup.

[mixmaster68]

This is still my daily driver.

I put it together in 2005.
It was not my first try at audio install but it was my first big install.
Not as good as so many of the others I've seen posted here.
I didn't want a noise box but a very clear sound.

98' Durango
240 amp HO alt.
PG powercore
Optima yellow top
PG xenon X6.5 front doors.
Pg Xenon x5.0 rear doors.
Audiobahn Alumn12 x 2 in lower box.
Peavey Sp-218 upper box.
I know. It was cheap at the time and funds were low so I used it.
Honestly it has very good sound.
PG Xenon x1200.1 x 2
PG Xenon 200.4

I put this together with the intent to replace parts as funds allow.
Just got one of the 1200 amps back from repair.
I have an old school Sherwood 4 channel in place of the 200.4 while it is getting looked over.
Currently trying to fix the powercore after reading the thread about them.
Next upgrades will be finding Tielite12 to replace the audiobahns.

Please be kind I do not do this for a living just a hobby.

Only bad part about the whole thing is the sp218 don't drop very hard below 50hz, but 50-100hz they do make some noise and those Widows don't need a lot of power to do it!

[PhuckinGood]

What a great thread, keep them coming

[Lowcountrypsulion]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pyramid-Car-Amp ... 738wt_1100

I am so close to actually buying this set of equipment! That Pyramid amp, the PB400A was the very first amp I ever owned way back in 1993.

The alternator whine was deafening, as loud as the music most of the time. Although, at the time I'm sure that my incredibly elementary understanding of car stereo systems had more to do with the alternator whine than the amp did.

To prove how green I actually was, consider that I was using the PB400A to power (full-range, of course) two used RF Punch 8s and two incredibly cheap Pyle 12s that were all installed in one box sharing the same airspace.

I also seem to recall that I was powering the front 4" RadioShack mids and tweeters with the Kenwood cassette head unit with no crossovers, of course.

That "system" sounded like shit! But everyone has to start somewhere.

Has anyone else experienced the same type of Ebay or Craigslist flashback?