Audio build. 2018 runner

Dang @Kyblack76 no update pics brah!? Man the way u we're talking it sounded just like me and was looking forward to seein ur build my man. Late 30's guy myself with a 2nd gen Tacoma lookin to break into the 4RNR family soon. You seem to have that Steve Meade Designs SMD energy goin. And with tha B2 sweet like danish sounds I gotta see this whip!

This is my first post here. I come from the TacomaWorld nation in peace.

 

Right? Where this dude go

 

I love music!
But I don't know how to plug everything in and insist.
Thank God I've got some great friends who are great car enthusiasts and they always help me with that.

 

Meh, sold all the other shit, .... then, got the bug again, so, here we go.
D'Amore 400.4 amplifier
Dayton audio 408 dsp
2- Satori Egyptian mids (one per front door)
2-Scanspeak tweets (dash)
XS Power 1/0
Knu 4 gauge
Second Skin damplifer pro
Both doors skinned, and drivers in and playing off HU (it's the same kenwood) all wire ran,.. I'll get back at it soon.
Got 2 NorthStar batteries coming,... hoping to get both under the hood.
Cheers and happy listening all...

 

Sorry my peeps,..... i got into it,.. and then meh, lost it. But, im back at it. All apologise .....

 

Had a monster dental appointment today. A very not fun day. But packages where waiting, if i feel up to it, it could be playing (with all the gear i mean, it "plays" now, but...) anyway, cheers all. Im gonna go to bed.
SMD fuse holders and fuses
NorthStar amg
Short rca - dayton to dsp
Other needed swag

 

And, in. (Took about 20 mins)
Ordered another bat, to swap the oem location. My buddy has my hydraulic crimper, so that sucks, but im close to a full start up on all the gear. Perrrttty siked about it. Cheers all.

 

Hadna huge dental appointment. Feel like a fucked butthole, but, still trying to get something done.
Dual under hood battery link today. Ughhhhh.. anyway.



In, and doin its thing. The "front to rear", will get hooked up/fused tomorrow. Then its hook up source, amps and drivers.
Cheers all

 

Good to go on both cells.


Also got behind the HU, got the RCAs in, and turn on (remote) for the amp(s) ..done and done. Ill keep plugging along.

 

Second NorthStar came in, to replace the OEM one. It is a bit larger (i could only fit so big over on the pass side) than the other NS one, and i was a bit worried, it wouldnt fit. Not so much "fit" in, but, the OEM pos/neg cables are so stubby/short, i was worried they wouldnt reach. Meh, like it was born to be there. Now, fuse the front to cabin run, and start hooking up the amplifer, and dsp, and mids and tweets. Stoked.

 

Hmmm, i may have to rethink some things. Tweets/dash drivers. Space, is always a premium. I had no idea, the dash driver area, was soooo roomy.
Hmmm.. now, something like a 3-1/2" coax, or the like may be to go to here. Plopping a nice 1" dome in there, seems sacrilegious to me with all the room for activities. Hmmmm....
Hold the phone for a bit, ill work on the driver side wire runs, and think about it.

 

Our left to right.
OEM , the Hertz 87.3's im thinking of using in the dash (coax) and the Scanspeak domes, i was going to use in the dash. But man, all that room.


Dsp, and Damore board mounted, (will go under pass side seat), test of turn on and such.


The 408 (dsp) has a remote OUT also. And, it also works (will be used to turn the board on)

 

hmmmm.. just not sure, what direction to go, with all that room..

 

Welp, i went the rhe 3.5.coax. (they are from Hertz for those that care)

I will use the Scanspeak tweets, some where. Maybe glassed in the A pillars, maybe in a book shelf enclosure im also working on.
Anyway, amp, with knu 1/0 to 2-4 gauge fuse block, dsp, and all, is in. Powered up, with all 4 drivers wired in. I left the wire dongle for the dsp, so i can hook the laptop up to it, for first go. Setting slopes, cuts, pass bands, and parametric eq. After that, my phone, bluetoothed to it, can handle it from there.



And, once all playing, and im happy, ill make the piece really live there.



Cheers, and happy jammin your tunes all...

 

I just found an old Bob Dylan recording on cassette, someone left in my 4R on a camping trip 20 years ago! The staging and vocals are IASCA class. And I’m still running stock equipment....,

 

I dig Dylan. If i hear "Most of the time" i will bawl lol , for real though.
I never got into IASCA, It was all DB Drag here. Did win a lot local, and out, and took our class 2 years back to back, in PSYCLONE.. got world Rings back to back in our big rig.

 

The most I’ve had was 6 JL W-6 twelves in the Z28. Four isobaric in the hatch and two boxed on the fold down back seats. Dropped the amp down to 1/4 OHM I think??

 

Power was an extra gel cell with an isolator separating the two, and three 1 farad caps. And Stinger 1/0 gauge of ofcourse..

 

Front to cabin run,... fused/in.


I dig, how awesome, the eyelets i got, fit that cut on the Knu block. Was like it was milled for it...... Or something.



Rock and roll ......... leggo !!!.....



DSP turned on, as well as the amp.... life is ok
The dsp, is awesome........ so so soooo much control.


Bummer, the lap top was dead,.. oh ya... thats right !!!


Anyway, i set the high pass on both sets of drivers. Zero eq'ing, or time alignment, ... also, zero adjustment on the amplifer (gain set) and i am already thrilled. Super stoked everything had a green light, and super stoked how things sounded, just flat, plugged in, turning on with ZERO issues.... super stoked. Also, i thought id have to trim the inside of the dash grills, to fit the Hertz coax drivers, but, nope, they fit right back, like OEM.
Ill charge the laptop, and take it to work, and play with it on site, (work always gets in the way) when i have some breaks..... i love the tuning part. I have a MINI DSP mic, and use the REW software (which is free by the way). Ill set up the mic, at the head rest, run some 20-20k sweeps, check out the graphs, and adjust accordingly to the vehicle harmonics/resonance, and to my liking. And, dick with time alignment....
Im just super happy, there was zero issues. Also, from having a 700 dollar dsp , to this one, that cost 120 bucks, hell, im stoked. I may buy another, if it keeps doing its thing for a while, and put on my home set up.
Cheers, and happy adventures, and happy JAMMING all......

 

Was able to get the new version of REW (Room EQ Wizard) installed, and up and running, with the Umik microphone. Played around with it, running some pink noise. I need some time to get use to this version. A shit ton going on there. But, should be fun to dick with. (Mic placed at drivers side head rest, pink noise, everything from source, to dsp set to flat)


And, found a simple, effective way, to up the charge voltage. All new rigs, charge on the low end, gas sipper option i guess. And yeah, that extra volt and change, bugs me. But....


Been rollin this way for about a week, and all is well, and my resting voltage, has never been higher. Cool beans. Cheers all.

 

Usb deal done, hooked up to the deck. Good shit.

 

So impressed with the Hertz coaxials, i went larger/bigger. So much room in these dashes. And, sorry for many of you, myself included,.... bigger, is BETTER here. Leggo...


I got more Second Skin, cut, and warming up, to lay around them.. then, ill crack the dsp open, and drop the high cut even lower.
Also, these have adjustable tweets,.. sharp eye, would see im aiming them, at the corresponding A pillar. What im trying to achieve is a broad, or wider stereo affect. If that makes sense to some.


Ill add the SS, and, then, with the laptop connected to the dsp,.. go for a ride, run my SQ type songs/files. See whats up. Ill get the mic on it, this weekend. I saved files if the previous tweets. Be interesting to see any and all changes. Cheers all.
KB

 

Been a bit, but, I am sincerely happy with my front stage. The Satori mids, dig low, take the power great, and sound well doing it.
Front doors - Satori Egyptian Mid-woofer 6" 4ohm , DC resistance is actually 3.2 ohm - Butterworth High pass set at 70hz, on a 18db slope, pass band at 6000hz.
Dash location - Hertz CX100 4ohm, high passed at 125hz on 24db slope, running out to 20000k.
Damore Engineering 400.4 amplifier - runs cool, with great out put.

Finally time for some low end (my favorite). Nothing at all like my previous builds. Just simple, reliable, and decent sounding. I've ran crossfire drivers in the past, won 2 rings back to back in the PSYCLONE division at worlds. (#1 in the world), and also took top 5, 3 years in a row in BASS RACE discipline. They use to be built at a build house in Las Vegas. Fi Audio use to build for Crossfire in my day, now, I THINK they are built at Incriminator Audio's build house. That said, they look good on paper, and in my hands. But, time will tell how they do once i get them in, and running.

2- 15" Crossfire C5 subwoofers. Dual 2ohm, will show the amplifier a .5 nominal load. Also a Damore Engineering 1k. Will see how they do, and if i move up to a 1.5k, or, buy a second 1k and run one on each. But, i think it will all be fine, and have some nice low output.



The C5's are on the lower end, tier wise of the line up, but, the C7's (the level up) just seemed like way to much driver for my needs this go around.

Enclosure is also getting built. Im shooting for 3.5 cubes per woofer, tuned around 32hz, with around 96sq-inches of port area, (adding in woofer, brace. and vent displacement) 7cf net should help these perform well. Enclosure will have NEO magnet wiring connections, or at least some binding posts, so ill be able to unplug,and remove the enclosure in seconds, for the long camping trips/need for all the room.
I'm on shift, solid the next 10 days or so, but, ill get it tossed together as soon as I can. (I'm super stoked. I've been jonsing for the low end, ever since I got the door and dash drivers in)
With using ROOM EQ, and a mic, i do see that the dash speakers are struggling on the upper end. Theres a good amount of output after around 10k. I still have the really nice Scan speak 1" dome tweets, that I think would fill that loss in REALLY well. I ordered a pair of crossover's from parts express for those. Just a simple 3.5k 12db slope crossover. Not sure exactly where they will go, but, i have some ideas. I think those will really pick up, where the mic shows me losing. The REW software, and mic was super cool helping me get the mids and dash drivers sounding great, as well and getting the time alignment dead bang. Like i said, im super thrilled how this is going so far. Just wish i had more time. Guess thats the story with everyone. Anyway, happy listenting to all my audio peeps. May your roads be unpopulated, your music touching your soul, and adventures be awesome. Cheers all.

 

what size are the new coaxial in the dash?

also did you see the new post on Meade YouTube, 2 15s and it looks stock haha crazy

 

I started with 3.5", then put in 4" (both hertz) because there's is so much damn room for activities. I also have some really really nice ScanSpeak 1" domes, that, i think i can also get into the dash pockets, with the 4". My last mic test (I also put 15"s in, so I've been testing/adjusting again, but, in a large enclosure, that takes me 3 minutes to remove if needed) showed a good dip at 13000khz all the way to 20k, so, it needs some love there, and will try it soon.

And yep, I did,... I've followed Steve for a long LONG while, was a mod on the SMD forum. Partied with him some years ago when i went to Auto Rama, for a competition. Me, Mike Singer (Singer Alternators) and a few of us went to SMD headquarters, played ping pong (and some other fun ) till 4am. Was super rad.
And yes sir, Audio916 did one hell of a job. Those drivers, still look like 12s to me lol, i think the guy was wrong, they don't look like 15's lol, but, one hell of a audio build there for sure. Those Zapco boards, if they are anything like the OG older ones, they will be fucking awesome. Class A/B sex.

 

forgive me if I missed it but are the dash speakers running off your 4ch? I'm working on putting together a small system. dug out a rockford T400x4ad and a JL 1000.1 going to run it off the stock hu for now. not sure what loc or maybe a dsp. as for sub I got a 12" w6 or a dd1508 laying around. it's been years, maybe since 2008 since I've tinkered in car audio lol. the times have changed

 

Welp, welcome back to it boss. For me, I need some audio. I live for music, and is one of few things, that mello's me out, and helps me cool down after work, or a shitty day, or what have you. I LOVE, just driving around, horsing around, and, having my music with me. Its a must for me. And no worries, if Im able to help you at all, Ill try.

Yes sir. The 4" coax hertz in the dash, and 7" satori mids are ran off my Damore 400.4 all 4ohm nominal , the subs on a damore 1500.1 at .5ohm nominal (Yes POINT 5 ohm nominal). I have some scanspeak 1" domes, i wanna get on as well. (I see a massive drop off, running REW and my MIC at the head rest, starting around 14khz through to 20khz, and im sure the scanspeaks would very much help)

I've had several RF amps in my day, never ran any of the AD series boards, but a ton of the T-series (the bdcp) From the older gen silver ones, to the newer black ones. If you got the line out converter method to get some low levlel signals, be very carful on what one you go with. Most, just add a ton of noise. Kicker ( i know right??) actually makes a nice unit, as well, as (Yes, i nut hug the hell out of Tony Damore, and his gear) Damore has a very very nice one. Costly for a loc ??? , yes, but, very very worth in my opinion. Start with noise, you will end with noise.

https://damore-engineering.myshopify.com/products/hlc-2-active-high-level-converter

Vids showing how much noise/distortion most locs add.

Tony testing other loc's (A MUST watch, imho if your going the LOC route, and a nerd like I am)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lkei6B-M4fs&t=121s

Steve running several popular LOC's. The kicker that did ok, as well as the Damore are in the links below in his vid, if your interested. Id stay away, far away from the others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIpJmY6xGTM&t=1324s

If you are going with several, separate channels, vs just wanting to add a sub/sub amplifier, a dsp would be the way to go ihmo. I understand, it adds cost, and complexity.
Helix makes some sexy dsp and very powerful units, with awesome OS/UI. I will be moving to a Helix very very soon myself. Audio control also has some nice dsp's, and the JL audio twk88, is also used by many with awesome results. Best of luck mate. Hope it goes well for you. Get to jammin mate. \m/

 

yeah I've been watching Tony's vid and meades vid. I was suprised as well with the kicker of all brands loc lol.

I feel ya on the music aspect of relaxation, kinda why I need a system in the new rig.

thx for the info bro, much appreciated

 

I just purchased a 2018 4runner sr5 non jbl audio system. Finished up all the suspension work now wanting to upgrade the audio it's pretty bad. For now want to upgrade the door speakers and trunk speakers. Do you know the sizes? I looked at Crutchfield but there were so many options and speaker sizes. Thanks much and nice audio build