Rochambeau

Guy on audio forum sent me over here and he wanted to see pics so I figured I'd post this for anyone who is giving thought to going nutz on their 05+ Vert's audio system.

I rescued this Mustang from it's previous owner... A San Diego State University coed who did NOT know how to treat a legendary car like the Mustang. Already had the top replaced, rehabbing the finish is the next challenge.

I wish I could take credit for this install, but I haven't the talent nor the time to do what you see here. Credit has to go to SpeakerWorks in Orange, CA for a fantastic job. (SpeakerWorks is literally a legendary shop in the car audio world.) For anyone with aftermarket bass who hate the buzz coming from the trunk when it bumps, pay particular attention to the way they redirected all that pressure into the car. Very creative and a wonderful solution.

I like to call this the Shaker 2000 as total RMS wattage exceeds 2kW. For the record, I hate stock sound and I really hate automanufacturers pretending their stereos are anything but the bottom rung garbage they are. To anyone considering the Shaker 1,000... Take the same money, put it into aftermarket stuff and you will be SO much happier. (No my setup didn't cost the same as a Shaker 1000.)

Equipment list:

Alpine:
IVA-W200 double din DVD w/touchscreen
PXA-H701 processor
NVE-N872a nav system w/XM Traffic & voice control
CHA-S634 6-disc changer
PDX 1.1000 sub amp with 1124W per the birth sheet
PDX 4.150 bridged to 314W per channel for the front stage
PDX 2.150 pushing 171W per channel to the rear fill

Boston:
Two G512-44 12" subs getting 500W+ each @ 4 ohms
A pair of Z6s mounted coaxially in the factory mounting locations in the doors
A pair of SL80s providing the rear fill

Nothing in the factory door sub holes... yet.

Motorola IHF-1000 voice activated Bluetooth hands free kit
80gig iPod filled to the brim with Apple Lossless rips of most of my CD collection, roughly 2,600 songs
Backup camera
Two 1.5 farad caps
Optima yellow top with wire upgrades
1/0 wire to the distrib block, 4ga to the amps,
12ga to front and to the subs, 16ga to the rear
a 2-way paging alarm, details are classified
Doors completely deadened & sealed, trunk completely deadened as well. (They were supposed to take pictures while it was being installed, but forgot. )

First, the car: 2006 Ford Mustang GT Convertible (tragically stock exterior and performance wise)




Head Unit: Alpine IVA-W200 + PXA-H701 (not shown) Note the flush mounting, had 3 different shops tell me that it wasn't possible with this head unit. This proves that they were wrong.




Note the Motorola IHF-1000 hands free kit and the super clean install of the Voice-Activation button for the Alpine NVE-N872a nav unit. Also, towards the bottom, the alarm LED is in an unused button next to the AC button, first shop told me it couldn't be put there.




The trunk was gonna be a challenge because, being this is a Mustang convertible, there is not much room. In that tight trunk, they had to get two 12" subs, a CD changer, a Nav system, a processor, three XM boxes (XM radio, XM NavTraffic and XM digital adapter), two caps and three amps. Even more problematic was the fact that it seemed next to impossible to get enough venting to keep the air pressure from blowing through the trunk lid seals causing a horrible buzz (yes, ladies & gents, the car was farting with every bass hit).

So they installed the sub box where the spare tire was and then sort of 'horn loaded' all of the air right through the rear seat (without modifying the rear seat one bit). What you see here is not the sub enclosure, it is what they built to channel the air into the car. The result was ultra clean look and great sound. And so much bloody bass that I keep it turned down to between 3 and 5 (of a possible 15) lest I shake my fillings loose. Actually those are the settings I use for rock & jazz, when I wanna bump I go to about 8 or 9 which gives me enough sound pressure to make your scalp tingle and make you a little dizzy. 15, well that is just more bass than is listenable.




I love the way they did the amps...



CD Changer & Nav, the custom trunk mat is slightly out of place in this shot causing it to ride up on the nav unit. It actually looks pretty clean normally.




Under the hood:




My plans are to add midbass in the factory sub enclosures in the doors, go 5.1 surround and maybe add some staging tweets to bring the stage up a little bit.

But first, I gotta finish paying off what you see here.

Infinity

Nice. Glad to see you here.

n8rfastback

wow.... nice setup... custom beats all

titanjc

Nice setup. Looks like a very clean install overall.

slipnotovk

setup is awesome..but godD@MN does that engine need some TLC

RedDragon777

hey man are the speakers you running in the front the BA SPZ60 speakers, and how easy was it to mount those, did they come with their own bracket to fit in the 6X8 opening

Rochambeau

They are the z60s, the previous model of the SPZ60s. They improved the midbass response with the SPZ60s. I didn't install them personally but the first shop had to break them out of the coaxial mounting configuration to get them to fit (they stuck out just a hair too far). Then I was told by the 2nd shop that they would fit coaxially (which is the ideal way to mount them, short of putting them into custom kick panels), the 2nd shop just made a thinner ring for them, saying the 1st shop made way too thick of a ring. Although they come with brackets, both shops made custom rings, out of necessity I presume. Speaker rings are the easiest of things to make, especially if you know someone with a router.

Sure sound great though and I am sure the SPZs sound even better. Most important though is to make sure you properly deaden & seal the doors. It makes all the difference in the world. And don't forget the deflex pads behind the speaker, it keeps the rear wave from coming back through the cone and gobbling up (canceling out) the front wave.

See this link (these aren't Mustang doors but the same principles apply):

http://www.caraudio.com/forum/showthread.php?t=95925