DIY is fun. Managed to hook up everything.
Apologies upfront. No snaps. I worked alone, against time and the hands got really dirty, so dropped the idea of taking snaps.
Primary lesson learnt. Newbie DIYers, should
factor in a lot of extra time. I had planned to complete the following in 1 day.
1. HU to rear speakers wiring
2. Amp to front speakers wiring
3. Damping front doors
4. Connecting amp power cable fuse in the engine bay
5. Fit the Neutrik Speakon in the box, connect the sub and fix it to the box, Fix sub protector grill
6. Connect the sub to the Amp
I received the parcel from B&T on Thursday 17th Jan. Planned to finish the setup on Friday.
Thursday night
Status Completed Step 5 above. Did not fix protector grill, since did not have proper washers/screws.
Friday morning started work around 11:30ish. Connected the rear speakers to the HU quickly. Then got stuck. It took me 3-4 hours
to pass the speaker wire from the driver footwell to the right door. In the process sprained my left arm/shoulder. At one point of time I had almost given up and resigned to sticking the stock wires. But the Illusion Reference wires looked/felt so good, they kept me going. I just HAD to use them. So went to a nearby hardware store, bought a few feet of stiff wire (
'taar') and finally met with success. I was getting late in picking up wifey from office, so hurriedly connected the sub and called it a day.
Status Completed Step 1, Step 6 and 50% of Step2. So much for my project plan.
Saturday morning, had just enough time,amidst other household chores, to fix the fuse and attend to a bit of static that had crept in. I realised India was faring better when I was not watching the match, hence had a quick lunch and went back to the garage.
With the confidence of having cracked the wiring for the right door, I attacked the left door with gusto. This time it was a lot quicker. Managed to wire the left front in an hour and a half! Cleaned up some wiring.
Then went onto damping the left door. Finished the inner metal frame around 6pm. Went home for tea with the left door panel. Damped the door panel at home and fixed it later at night.
Status Completed Step 4, step 2, 50% of step 3.
Sunday morning was spent at the doc (Son's throat infection and viral).
Completed damping the driver side door in the afternoon. Took me another 3 hours approx. Tried to do a neater and more comprehensive job compared to the left door. Then spent some time tuning the setup.
Status Competed Step3
PHEW !
Started off for work this morning and realised for the first time how different the music sounded compared to Saturday morning, ie. post damping. The depth has increased a lot. It sounds so full now. And am loving the sub, more for the bass guitar pieces than the drums. Lovely.
Pending tasks.
1. Cleanup wires in the boot.
2. Fit sub protector grill.
There's one
issue though:
The rear ELs are very faint. Barely audible at a volume level of say 30 (the Pio 4950 goes up to 60 odd). Even when I fade it fully to the rear. Doesn't seem to affect the listening experience, but am just wondering why it is so. The current settings are:
- EQ Flat
- Sub LPF 100hz from HU, HU boost 0
- Speakers HPF 100hz from HU
- Fader at centre/0
- SLA set to 0
- Amp gain for both sub and fronts are at around 2-3V
- HU speaker level out directly connected to rear speakers. I have tested that the correct wires are connected. This has been done using janta local speaker wire that the car acc shops use.
Ajay ! A truckload of thanks to you