Yet another stereo install.

Finally got most everything together and in the car this past weekend. I have little car audio experience, but I think it came together pretty well. The plan was to add much more volume and fill out the bottom end without breaking the bank or sounding like crap. In my opinion, I accomplished both. So without further delay:

 

1 Polk Audio DB6500 6.5" components

1 Polk Audio GNX10DVC 10" dual 4ohm sub

1 Boss Audio Riot 745 400w amp

1 Q-logic sealed sub enclosure (on clearance for $21!)

1 loc from Circuit city

Rockford fosgate amp kit

speaker wire, crimp on connectors, rca patch cable, etc.

 

Disassembly is so much fun:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v390/Helfrick/Scooby/da2ebf07.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v390/Helfrick/Scooby/8bf764fd.jpg

 

As you can see from the above picture and the two below, the 2.5i is not cursed with a single HVAC/Stereo unit.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v390/Helfrick/Scooby/1fa02420.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v390/Helfrick/Scooby/4c34e0a3.jpg

 

The door panel was much fun. Needed to drill holes for the x-over and speakers. The 2" mounting depth on the Polks makes for a squeeze, but they fit without spacers.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v390/Helfrick/Scooby/f5271be3.jpg

 

I know some of you are groaning at my choice of an amplifier. I like it. It was cheap, met my size, power, and signal requirements. It also has a crossover (not on my previous amps from waay back), and a remote sub level control that I mounted behind the fuse door.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v390/Helfrick/Scooby/d8d4985b.jpg

 

And finally, the sub. I really didn't like the grill on the sub enclosure, but because of the design, a regular grill would have looked worse. A couple of coats of spray paint and it looks a bit better. At some point I'm going to sand down the rough spots and redo it. The sub itself is wired series to raise the load to 8 ohms with the amp's rear channels bridged. It should be seeing ~100w.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v390/Helfrick/Scooby/175a5e50.jpg

 

I won't win any spl competitions, but it sounds just like I wanted. It is perfectly capable of rattling everything in the dashboard.

 

A quick word of thanks to everyone that posted instructions and walkthroughs. I would not have been able to do this without all of the information available here.

Nice! Loved the walkthrough.

Don't let anyone give you guff about your amp choice. I've had a Boss Audio REV 5-channel amp in my car for 4 years and it has never given me any problems and sounds great with my Infinity 6.5s.

Crossovers in the doors.. I've heard different things about doing that, especially since Subaru doors seem to let water in.. Just something to keep in mind.

You'll notice the crossover is on the "dry" side of the plastic. It's completely safe.

 

Threads like this keep reminding me to get out there & install my speakers!

How did you attach the tweets?

you bastard with your manual climate control.....grrrrr

Thanks for the positive input. I am now looking for even more excuses to go drive my car.

 

The tweeters are actually held in with a small amount of silicon. They are a bit wider than the stock units so they don't fit completely in the factory mounting bracket. They seem pretty stable with no rattling that I can hear.

 

The manual climate control may make it easier to build a new face plate, but the relative obscurity of the 2.5i may mean you GT/XT dweebs get one before we do.

Since you have the manual controls, Is it possible to put in an aftermarket head? If the manual controls don't go through the radio, it should work right?

 

Or is it harder than it looks?

I would imagine a little custom fabrication work would be in order, but if the controls are not part of the radio it can most definetly be done. lucky 2.5i !!

Thanks for the great write up. How easy is it to separate the head unit from the front plate?

BTW - an 8ohm bridged load would yield 200w RMS from that amp.

 

Check out a JL Audio dealer for a JL grille. It's designed different than others and may work better for you. It has a base plate the mounts under the woofer and then the grille snaps in place in front of the woofer. It has a very basic, classy look. Runs about $20/pair, but most shops will sell them in singles too.

Since you have the manual controls, Is it possible to put in an aftermarket head? If the manual controls don't go through the radio, it should work right?

 

Or is it harder than it looks?

 

It is possible, but I'm not aware of a face plate on the market yet.

 

 

Thanks for the great write up. How easy is it to separate the head unit from the front plate?

 

I didn't actually look to see if you could detach the face plate from the deck.

 

BTW - an 8ohm bridged load would yield 200w RMS from that amp.

 

Check out a JL Audio dealer for a JL grille. It's designed different than others and may work better for you. It has a base plate the mounts under the woofer and then the grille snaps in place in front of the woofer. It has a very basic, classy look. Runs about $20/pair, but most shops will sell them in singles too.

 

Hmm, I was thinking it would be around 100w RMS since it is rated @100w per channel @4ohms.

 

Good call on the JL grills. I will have to look in to those.

100Wx2 at 4ohms = 400W bridged at 4ohms. Since your impedance is double, halve the rated power for your config.

100Wx2 at 4ohms = 400W bridged at 4ohms. Since your impedance is double, halve the rated power for your config.

 

Aha. I wasn't 100% on that. Good thing I didn't wire it to 2 ohms.

yeah...some amps will drive that load, but you lose all damping factor or control of the woofer's motion, I doubt the Boss amp could have handled that load for long anyway. That's like 1 ohm stereo.

Digging up an old thread here..

 

question, does the 2.5i not have tweeters in the door stock? Reason I ask is are there two leads going to the door or just one and they have one of those ghetto ass piggy back crossovers soddered to the back of the woofer?

Digging up an old thread here..

 

question, does the 2.5i not have tweeters in the door stock? Reason I ask is are there two leads going to the door or just one and they have one of those ghetto ass piggy back crossovers soddered to the back of the woofer?

 

There are tweeters in the door. I don't recall where the crossover is. I just ran new wire and left the stock stuff in place. I don't remember if there was anything soldered to the woofer.

So just to confirm there is only one lead going from the HU to the door (per door)

Damn, putting me on the spot. There should only be one. There was only one when I tapped into the harness to run to the loc. As far as between the head unit and the door, I can't say for sure.

Yes; the stock setup splits to the tweeter inside the door wiring harness. The stock speakers have no crossover device except for the standard capacitor on the tweeter.

One more question, you mentioned that the sub can rattle the car but you never went into detail on the sound of the polks vs the stock speakers running off the stock HU's wattage...

The Polks get 100W each from the amp(4 channel). The other two channels are bridged to the sub. I wouldn't dare run them from the stock HU. They sound fantastic. I hate driving my wife's Outback now partly because of the difference in sound.

i tried to see where the speaker wire went for the front speakers in your pic. the stock speaker wire is connected in front of the door metal rather than behind like most speakers. where did you run the speaker wire to get it behind the speaker? is there another hole in the door that you used?

There is an opening just to the left of the crossover. I dropped the wire into that opening to get it to the back of the woofer.