roybfr Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 Figured I would make a thread to chronicle my install. The car: 2005 LGT Wagon MT SRP. Bought November 07, my 3rd Subaru, previously had an 02 WRX Wagon and a 04 STI. What is going in: Factory Deck in to Alpine PXE-H650 Alpine PDX 4.150 (Front/Rear) Alpine MRD-M1005 (Subs) Boston SPZ60's (Front, going to make them fit hell or high water) Rears (TBD) 3 Boston 10" G5's or 1 JL Audio 12w3v3 (have both with box) Kartboy spacers Forward and Reverse harness from SVXDC (thanks David) Streetwires 9 wire cable (from deck to PXE) A mix of Dynomat Extreme , Damplifier Pro, Dynaliner and Overkill Pro (left over from last install). I received my spacers last week, they are made for WRX/STI's so the mounting holes don't quite match up. But they are nice and thick and upon original inspection looked like they would allow my Boston Z's to clear. Today I decided to mount them up and the plate the window is mounted to was just barely hitting the speaker. Also I found out the the Z's tweeter plate was going to contact the door panel due to how far it protrudes out. I went to the local stereo shop to look at the alternatives, I actually bought a pair of speakers but once home decided to return them as for the money I can have something custom done on the door panel and the depth should be an easy fix. Plus I can't give up on the Z's. The Z's came out of my 04 Z06 (traded for way cooler LGT Wagon lol). The plates looked to be just about the right thickness. Matched up the plates to the Kartboy spacers, did enough hacking to them so I could test mount them. Found some longer screws and mounted one to the passenger door. Tested the window, clearing nicely now. Insert NASIOC dancing banana here. I would like to keep the tweeters coaxially mounted vs in the stock tweeter location. But before I got hacking a $300 door panel I will test both locations. Today I also hooked up the forward and reverse harnesses together as well as attaching the speaker portions of the streetwires 9 wire cable. Thanks to str8dwn for posting a diagram of how he used the harnesses to hook things up to his 3Sixty. I snapped a few pics but don't have them up yet, will try and ftp and post them tomorrow. Tomorrow I plan on getting the streetwires cable ran from the dash to the rear where I am mounting the H650 and amps and hopefully run some speakerwire to the passenger door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NSFW Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 Subscribed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roybfr Posted March 30, 2008 Author Share Posted March 30, 2008 Did some more today. Got the Streetwires 9 wire cable ran from the dash to the cargo area. http://www.thebfr.com/pics/lgtinstall/IMG_2442.jpg Radio out, 9 wire and new harnesses going in http://www.thebfr.com/pics/lgtinstall/IMG_2449.jpg http://www.thebfr.com/pics/lgtinstall/IMG_2451.jpg In the past I usually removed the seats, making the install a little easier, but this time I just removed the sills and a few other interior pieces. I will say that IMO the Legacy comes apart a little harder then my WRX and STI. The door sills are horrid to remove especially the ones on the rear doors. The dash was not to bad. I removed a PAC line in adapter and a FM modulator the old owner had installed. He did run a 12v power cable to the rear of the car so I can thank him for that. He must of had a sub as the car has no spare and a nice bit of expanding foam where it should be. http://www.thebfr.com/pics/lgtinstall/IMG_2447.jpg I ended up running all my speaker wire to the front and rear doors. I am trying to get most of the stuff done in the rear so I don't have the whole car tore apart all at once. Normally I used dual pair phoenix gold speaker wire that I had a ton of but ran out last install. My last employer gave me a ton of wire after they closed so I decided to make use of it, hence the rainbow of wire. 2 pairs to the front for the Z's http://www.thebfr.com/pics/lgtinstall/IMG_2454.jpg One pair to the rear for the TBD http://www.thebfr.com/pics/lgtinstall/IMG_2455.jpg Cargo area chock full of wire. All the colors will make it nice for knowing what is what and not having to look for a plus or a minus. http://www.thebfr.com/pics/lgtinstall/IMG_2457.jpg Also snapped a pic of the mounted Z, still need to trim the extra spacer. http://www.thebfr.com/pics/lgtinstall/IMG_2445.jpg Next I plan on deadning the passenger door. My roller went MIA since yesterday So this should be fun. I also got some non hardening modelers clay for help seal up the speaker to the door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roybfr Posted April 1, 2008 Author Share Posted April 1, 2008 If I did not live where it snowed I probably would do that. This is going to take a while to get it "done". It's still in the 40's here and I am not quite as hardcore as I used to be with the desire to work on it nightly till finished. Just to get every thing running I will probably reuse the foam tray. I am toying with just hooking up the fronts and the 12W3 to the PDX like I had it in my vette to forgo the extra amp. I like the MRD-M1005 but I wish it were the size of the PDX's. I may end up with another in the end. Another thing I noticed about this car vs my WRX/STI/Vette is that even with interior panels removed it is still a decently quiet car. Not just from an engine/exhaust standpoint but from general road noise as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
executor485 Posted April 1, 2008 Share Posted April 1, 2008 subscribe... Lookin good so far If I pass you on the right, I'm flipping you off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roybfr Posted April 5, 2008 Author Share Posted April 5, 2008 Did not get much of a chance to work on it during the week due to work, family, ect... you know how it goes. Tonight I put some dynamat on the passenger door and got both extra spacers (the ones from the vette) trimmed to go under the Kartboy ones. I also messed around with my amp/crossover/PXe-H650 layout in the cargo tray. Truthfully it is just to much to go in there. I either need to mount something else where, maybe the underside of the tray or in the spare tire well... or replace the MDR-M1005 with another PDX. Also tomorrow I should be getting back a set of Diamond Hex S600's, 6.5" Diamond coaxs and a set of Boston Imaging tweeters I had in another car. The coaxs are going in the rear. I am going to try both the Hex's and the Z's and see which I like better in the car. The Z's are a little more pure IMO, the Hex's have better midbass and play louder. Oh well here is a pic of the dynamat, the speaker area is bare since I am going to use the clay to seal off the spacer. Will put some dynaliner on top of the plastic barrier and on the inner panel as well. http://www.thebfr.com/pics/lgtinstall/IMG_2462.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roybfr Posted April 5, 2008 Author Share Posted April 5, 2008 Yes it is on the metal under the plastic barrier. I just pull the barrier back and put it on. I also put some on the reverse side around where the speaker is mouthed. There is also a piece on the on the inner part of the door skin (on the inside part of the outer part of the door, no matter how i say it it sounds confusing). I have done less and I have done more. Personally I think the dynaliner, which is the foam barrier does more over all then the dynamat as it reduces road noise, making the cabin quieter. I think it is easy to go overboard on all the deadner. Plus to much deader and liner and your panels fit like crap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roybfr Posted April 7, 2008 Author Share Posted April 7, 2008 Got a little further this weekend, not as far as I would have liked. Spent a good chunk of Saturday removing my stuff from my old Jeep GC that my mom now owns, I also put all the stock speakers back in and hooked them back up, which is what most of the time was spend doing. But it was worth the time to get the speakers. Come to find out the coax's that I had in the Jeep were 5 1/4, not the 6 1/2 I though they were. Not a huge deal since I had adapter rings for them. Well later that day I went to the local SS to get some dynaxorb and dynaliner. They quit selling Diamond a while back and had one set of 6.5 coaxs left on deep discount, so I bought them. Saturday I added some more dynamat to the front door, then covered the door in dynaliner. I tried fishing the speaker wire in to the door but gave up after about an hour. I mounted the spacer then put the clay under and round it to seal it and absorb some of the vibration. I have never done this but though I would give it a try since the clay was less then $5. Here is a pic of the done door, tweeter is not mounted yet http://www.thebfr.com/pics/lgtinstall/IMG_2479.jpg You may notice the speakers are not he Bostons. Since I can get the Z's to fit under the grill with tweeter in the bracket I am going to first try the Diamond Hex's. They have better midbass and play a little louder. Plus with the rears being rears being Diamonds I feel the sound should "match" a little better. Here is the tweeting in the factory bracket. The silicone holding it in should be set by tomorrow so I can get them in stalled and get the door panel back on the door. http://www.thebfr.com/pics/lgtinstall/IMG_2480.jpg I also did the rear passenger door. Before doing it I had conqured the wire feeding with the use of a 36" wire tie and some Ideal ClearGlide wire pulling Lubricant. I did in about 2 minutes what I had tried to do for more then an hour other ways. Pays to have the right tools. Here is the tie coming out in the back door http://www.thebfr.com/pics/lgtinstall/IMG_2470.jpg End coming out the door http://www.thebfr.com/pics/lgtinstall/IMG_2472.jpg A little pull and walla wire is fed http://www.thebfr.com/pics/lgtinstall/IMG_2473.jpg I put dynmat on the rear door as well, lined it with dynaliner and mounted the Diamond coax also using the clay. This is before all the dynaliner was on. http://www.thebfr.com/pics/lgtinstall/IMG_2477.jpg I got the rear door back on and pretty much all of the passenger side panels back in the side and floor. All that remains in the front passenger door which should be complete tomorrow when the tweeter bracket is dry. I drivers side should go much faster, may even get the rear door done tomorrow as the first side is always slow. Thinking if all goes well things should be hooked up and running by the end of next weekend, then I can decide on where to go with amps ect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roybfr Posted April 8, 2008 Author Share Posted April 8, 2008 Got a little done tonight. The silicone on the tweeter mound was dried over night so I got he tweeter mounted and the passenger door all snapped on and screwed down. Will see if there are any rattles or buzzing when I get things fired up. I also got the stock sub out, the drivers rear door panel off and made a run a getting wire into the rear door. I got the wire tie through but the wire came off mid pull so I will have to get it later. Hoping to get the passenger door done Wednesday night, probably the drivers on Friday paving the way for things to at least get turning on this weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Town Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roybfr Posted April 10, 2008 Author Share Posted April 10, 2008 Not much to add. I got the wire run into the drivers side rear door. This time I put a little lube on to the zip tie, electrical tape holding the wire, and the wire. Once it got tight coming back through I gave it a little back and forth motion to work some of the lube in and it slid right through. I also finished the dynamat and dynaliner on the door as well. I would have mounted the speaker but it was getting late and chilly out so the clay would have been tougher to mold so I will wait on that. I need to stop and get more clay as I don't have enough to do this and front drivers door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roybfr Posted April 11, 2008 Author Share Posted April 11, 2008 I got the rear drivers side door finished tonight so I am back on schedule for now. I am out of clay so I need to get some tomorrow so I can get the front door done Friday/Saturday, then get the amps/crossovers/PXE-H650 wired up. I have a feeling I may get some buzzing there and there and will be taking the doors off at least once more to fix that, but that happens usually no matter how good of a job I do the first time around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roybfr Posted April 14, 2008 Author Share Posted April 14, 2008 Well not done yet, imagine that. Was 30 deg Saturday and it snowed so I waited till this afternoon. I have the drivers door almost done. Got it dynamated, dynalinered, wires run through, tweeter mounted and hooked up, dynasorb pad in, and spacers mounted and clayed. Should get the speaker mounted tomorrow and the pannel back on, and maybe get some of the amps hooked up. Figure Wednesday or Friday I can power it all up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roybfr Posted April 16, 2008 Author Share Posted April 16, 2008 Made some headway last night and tonight. Finished the drivers door so all doors are done. I started setting up my crossovers, amps and the PXH in the cargo tray. Long term probably need to build a new tray as I will have to leave my MRD-M1005 out of there for now as there really is not enough space. Need to get me power and ground hooked up to the battery, amps and PXE and I should be good to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItalynStylion Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 Sweet...sounds like you are going about things the right way. It's hard to take your time, I know. I hate having the car apart. I always want to get it done as soon as I can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roybfr Posted April 17, 2008 Author Share Posted April 17, 2008 Well I got it powered on tonight, well just the fronts and the rears, no sub yet. I had a few bugs to work out. Had the positive wires going to passenger components crisscrossed. I blame my camera, I took pics for reference, oh well that was easy. Next I found that I had the LPF on the rear channel of the amp on as in the last car is was powering fronts and a sub, that was easy two. The only thing that made fixing the issues take longer then it should was the fact that when you turn on the PXE for the first time it goes to setup, granted I should have been smart enough to use the pink noise track to fix the issues, hey what can I say I was excited, I'll chalk up all the extra calibrations to experience. Thus far the sound is not bad. I have no midbass, but I now have the HPF on on the amp, I am going to shut it off and just use the PXE to set it, as the amp is a dial and it's to hard to know where I am at. I don't have any buzzing, so that is nice. Both my WRX and STI needed the speaker grill trimmed, we will see if this is still true once I get the crossover changed. I am still reserving my final judgment for when I get my sub amp hooked up and sub in there. I am going to just use the 12W3 at first even though it is still in the Vette box (fits in the read cubby of a C5 vette), if that is not enough I will put the 3 G510's in there but I need to fix the box first as I noticed one of the chambers is leaking The only 2 negatives for me are having to use the volume on the remote and the lack of a read out up front. If I had the balls (and I just might), I would take apart the PXE and relocate the LCD read out to somewhere up front. If the box were not so big, and had some much crap running to/from it I would have mounted it else where, like the glove box so I could have easy access to changing things. I still have a 9887 and a IVA-D105/H700 so I could always get a kit for the cubby and do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roybfr Posted April 19, 2008 Author Share Posted April 19, 2008 Recap of the past two days Last night I redid my "amp rack", got rid of the stock tray and trimmed a piece of MDF I had. I used a kicker ZX150.2 that I had for the rears and the PDX for fronts and sub (12W3). Tuned again and while the sound is not bad the bass output is low, very low. So I turned the gain up on the amp and made some adjustments on the PXE and it got to the point that it was not to bad. I also had some issues with one of the rears shorting out, I think I got it figured out this morning. This morning I swapped the ZX150.2 for the MRD-M1005 and moved the rears back to the PDX and the Sub to the MRD, though on my way to work I quickly figured out the LPF was still set on the rear channels of the PDX grrrr and this far I am not getting any out put on the MRD, I had maybe 5 minutes to mess with it so I am sure it something simple. After I was done at work I had some errands to run so I got the listen to the subless, sub 80hrz rears, basically front only setup for a good hour or so. The more I listen to it the better I realize it sounds, I had made a few changes on the DB level of the fronts as the auto tune had them miss matched making the passenger side a little to pronounced. Overall with a few tweaks things seem to be pretty centered, the sound is pretty full minus the bottom end but really clean even at higher volumes. So I hope to get a few more things sorted out with the sub and rears then redo it and see where I am at. I am trying to avoid using a line driver or run my gains high, hoping the extra power on the MRD will help with that One thing I think people who are thinking about a PXE or anything like need to do is approach it with the attitude that you are going to have to do some tweaking. I have been using Alpines time correction since the 7878 came out, ~ 2001, so maybe I have developed a personal taste for what I like to hear imaging wise, but still I think it once of those things that if you expect to install, do some auto tuning you may walk away unhappy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roybfr Posted April 20, 2008 Author Share Posted April 20, 2008 When all else fails read the manual. I hooked up the MRD and once again found that I very little bass. Frustrated I grabbed my 9887 and ghetto hooked it up in the rear quickly... no much bass there either. That ruled out the PXE, which oddly made me happy. I dl'ed the manual on the MRD and got my memory jared on how the gain works (not a dial but settings to match pre amp output voltage), changed it to match the 9887...boom boom, switched every thing back to the PXE, set it down to what the PXE puts out (from what I have read something low like 1.5 or less) and there we go. Also I switched from the sing JL 12W3 to 3 BA G510's, thought one is out while the some sealant dries as 1 chamber had formed a leak over the winter. Before I ramble on I wanted to make an important note. I sat in the front seat with the 9887 playing, and though it really sounded 100x's better, then I switched back to the PXE, put the same CD in and honestly the difference is minor, slightly in the 9887 favor, which is to be expected. Now later I got my ipod hooked up to the PXE, very nice. It sounds better then out of the factory deck IMO. It is to bad the PXE does not have a-inet as I have a Alpine disk changer, be nice to play CD's through it, and not have the processing of the factory deck to see who that sounds. Regardless after all that it sounds pretty damn good. I must say I am impressed considering the last time I used the auto tuning I was using a different sub, with the rears and subs on different amps, and one of the rears unhooked due to the short. Tomorrow I hopefully can reinstall sub #3 and give it a reauto tune and see where we are at. I will snap some picks of the subs and amp rack through they still need some work. I plan on redoing the sub box in tan vinyl or carpet to match the leggy. I need to route the IR for the remote and the mini cable for the ipod, plus I may look for a mount for the ipod. I also need some really short RCA's to clean up my amp rack. I don't plan on "finishing" the rack, as all the cables are strapped down and it is hidden by the cargo lid. Maybe someday I could carpet the board but for now I would rather enjoy listening to the car then working on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfalk Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 Very nice looking. Im planning on putting a set of components in my front doors. How much space do you think you have without using any type of spacer? I know those Z's are pretty beefy in size, how far did the spacer end up sticking them out. Lastly do you have any problems with the speaker hitting the door panel? EDIT: Forgot to ask are those 6 1/2 or 5 1/4 in the doors? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roybfr Posted April 22, 2008 Author Share Posted April 22, 2008 6 1/2. The spacers were about 1 1/4", the drivers them selves don't hit the panel even high excursion levels so that is nice, I just could not mount the Z's tweeters coaxially with the plates due to how far they stick out so I put a set of Diamond Hex's that I had instead. Without the spacer the Z's with the tweeter mounted coaxially would clear but you could not roll your windows down then as the window will hit the magnet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfxdave99 Posted April 23, 2008 Share Posted April 23, 2008 Great work so far cat wait to see the finished project If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough. - Mario Andretti Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roybfr Posted April 24, 2008 Author Share Posted April 24, 2008 Thanks. I am taking a break from doing any work on it this week since it is up and running. I did install the 3rd G5 tonight as the resealing I did on the box had cured. Should be interesting to see how it sounds tomorrow. I just listened long enough to see they will all firing the same and that there were no leaks. Need to find a place that sells carpet that matches the legacy's (tan) so I can recarpet the box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roybfr Posted April 29, 2008 Author Share Posted April 29, 2008 Well the PXE is on it's last nerve with me. When it works the sound is not bad, but I have a could of quirky issues that are driving me to just put a deck in. Sometimes when I turn the factory deck off if I don't wait 5 minutes for the PXE to shut off, when I turn the deck back on there is no sound for several minutes, some times every thing comes back on but the subs. Similar issue is I put my car in acc mode with out starting it, then when I finally go to start the car 90% of the time there is no bass, I have to completely shut the car off, key position to off for it to come on. Lastly the lack of any readout where my bass/mid/treble level is at bugs me to no end. So now I just need to order a din kit for the pocket and either install the 9887 or the D105 I have in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Town Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 Future of the PXE in mine is not looking good... Have you considered the RF 3sixty.2 or AudioControl DQL-8? I don't want to go in the cubby with a dual HU, so that's what I'm thinking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ean611 Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 roybfr, I never had that problem with the PXE-H650. The way you fix that is by running switched power from the stock radio to the PXE-H650's remote in. This let me have the PXE-H650 turn on and off with the car, none of this 5 minute waiting stuff. As a result, I never saw anything you're talking about. It always turned on and off predictably Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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