Probably not of interest to most, but - major audio overhaul

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defiancecp

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 16, 2010
Messages
367
Location
Little Rock
I've been tweaking design documents on how to put together a major audio system in my leaf since about 4 months before I got it, and now I'm actually finally getting some time to start working on it. Yay!

So quick summary of the design goals:


DESIGN GOAL 1: <10% reduction in range in most conditions, even if system cranked continuously

If we maximize time in-car driving, say 25mph average (city driving), that's 4 hours. It's possible to be in-car driving on one charge longer, but unlikely. Most other conditions will be less time, so very rarely will we pass 4 hours of usage.
Ok, so we have 4 hours, and the total pack is 24kw/h. Therefore, it's using 6kw/h per hour: 6kw continuous while driving.
With that in mind, if the stereo consumes 660w, that brings consumption in this scenario to a total of 6.66 kw consumed when driving with stereo blasting. 24kw/h consumed at 6.66kw gives us 3.6h - 10% down. from the initial 4hr figure.

Therefore, limit of additional consumed pwer is 660w. Converted to amperage at 12v, that's 55A
Of course, the system will rarely constitute that much of a continuous drain, so range impact should be much less than 10%.

DESIGN GOAL 2: minimal increase in weight

This one is pretty self explanatory, and also contributes to the idea above about not reducing range.

DESIGN GOAL 3: Minimum long-term impact on interior

Another self-explanatory one - I want to keep the interior looking as close to stock as possible.

DESIGN GOAL 4: retain stock head unit

So the main control unit is integrated with charging systems, climate systems, etc.etc.etc... Extracting it without losing functionality is implausible. Thus, I'm stuck with it.



So those all relate to the car's specific design goals, now my personal design goals (taste, preference, etc.)

DESIGN GOAL 5: stealthy install- that's just the way I like it.
DESIGN GOAL 6: <$3000 budget
DESIGN GOAL 7: Focus on front stage sound quality
DESIGN GOAL 8: retain functional rear speakers (but have them faded off when no rear passengers)
DESIGN GOAL 9: Still want nice sub system


The design I settled on involves:

-Front outputs from the stock player disconnected from speakers, and instead connected to speaker level inputs of the factory integration unit
-Alpine imprint factory integration unit converting the speaker inputs to line level, equalizing them to compensate for the relatively low quality output, controlling crossover points and time delays, and outputting to the amplifier
-JL xd700/5 5-channel amp routing 300+ watts to the subwoofers, 100x2 to the midbass, and 100x2 to the mid-highs
-Precision Power 3.65c 3-way components with active crossover between midbass and mid, passive between mid and tweet
-Midbass mounted in front factory locations
-mid-tweet mounted custom fiberglass pods in small 'door window' areas
-Rear outputs from the head unit driving polk coaxials (can find the model number if needed) with external crossovers in the factory location in the rear door

So the components have been here for weeks waiting for me to start, but when I first tried to get started I just couldn't do it - it's been 100+ just about every day for over a month, and the garage was bar studs & rafters with siding/roof... meaning it was 5-10 degrees HOTTER than ambient.

So I spent about 2 weeks insulating and drywalling. No I've got r13 in all walls, insulated garage door, r49 in the ceiling, and drywall all around. I got a small portable A/C (12,000 BTU, which is just a bit small for 550 sqft), and it doesn't quite cut it, but it brings the internal temps down from 100+ to <80 - quite workable.


SO - I finally got started tonight! Woo!





I got main power wire run (4gauge from battery with ANL 60A fuse 11 inches of wire from batt), I got the head unit wiring done (used a pair of aftermarket/factory harnesses to make a super-short tail I can cut into so I can access wires at the HU without altering factory wiring), installed the rear coaxes (a pair of polk 2.77 ohm coaxials with an external crossover) and installed the midbass in the front doors (basically just made quickie MDF baffles in the factory locations, nothing special.

None of that is really pic-worth...

But then I decided to put a few more hours in and put together the skeleton of the trunk:

39267194012_large.jpg

39267194013_large.jpg

39267194014_large.jpg


So hooray for progress!

What you're seeing is both the top of the box and the trim panel all dummied up. The bottom of the box is an exact duplicate in shape of the hard plastic panel that sits in the bottom of the hatch, and the top will rise 10" from the bottom of the trunk to sit approximately level with the 'hump' and the back end. Then the trim panel pieces will be fiberglassed together and smoothed out to fit exactly out to the sides and will sit atop everything somewhat like what's shown here - but there won't be the gaps between pieces, that'll all be 'glassed. Once it's all completed it'll be sanded and painted in a dark grey.

Now I gotta get up in about 4 hours and get ready for work, and with conversion starting in less than 24 hours, it'll probably be a week before more progress :(

Oh well. I'll post more when I can get to it.
 
Wow - can I assume you are a professional sound system designer? Or do you just spend all your time reading up on the subject ;-)
My other question is, are you likely to use 300 Watts only when the system is cranked up enough that it would blow you out of the car, or would it use quite a bit of power even at modest volume levels?
I'm very interested in the tradeoff between audio performance and power consumption. I told a Nissan engineer that one of the things I found disappointing about the Leaf was the poor bass response of its audio system, which is the worst of any car I've owned in the last 25 years. I am NOT an audiophile, but it did still not meet my expectations. The engineer told me that putting a "normal" stereo for a car of this price (larger door speakers and a subwoofer on the dash or rear parcel shelf) would significantly reduce the range, which I thought was surprising. If anybody has collected power consumption data from typical car stereos, please share it here!

- Bob
 
Nice project - FWIW - I would be interested in the pics of the "easy" stuff you did earlier as I'm sure many others would be if you have them. I expect that many will end up replacing door speakers - but a lot fewer will go as far as you are with the rear-sub setup. :)

PS - Look into adding insulation to your garage door - that's likely a major source of heat gain now that you've insulated the rest. And if you do decide to get more AC in there - look for a mini-split - super efficient and not too expensive.
 
Not quite a professional at it - I did stereo installs for a small-town shop in the late 90's, but there I never did anything serious. On my own I've done this kind of thing in most of the cars I own, but I think this is the one I've put the most pre-install design work into; most of the rest I didn't have to worry about power consumption.

95% or so of the additional power consumed is consumed by the amplifier, and at rest the amplifier should consume somewhere around 5% of its max current at idle. So, given that most music is naturally transient, I'd estimate about 20% or so of max current (so if max is 10% total range impact, that would be 2% range impact) is used on average at "relatively loud" (not 'booming') volume with normal music, and "family driving" (loud enough to listen to but still talk over) should put the additional power at something like 10% (so something like 1% range impact). Of course, Start playing the 60hz sine wave crap the bassheads play and that'll go way up, of course (not that I haven't used some sine waves for test/setup purposes, but still).

Honestly, I seriously believe the weight added will be more of an impact to the range than the power. The equipment altogether weighs about 40lbs, and that's not including the enclosure or speaker pods.

But that's OK, since I've lost 40lbs in the past couple months, and plan to keep going (I was at 260 May 14th, now I'm 220, shooting for 180). So I've already gained that efficiency back! :D



As for comparing normal factory high-end stereos, I never really payed attention to what those consumed in power, but I can't imagine how it would have a significant impact on range... I'll monitor my own range closely once everything's in and see if my math holds true in real-world application, but I'd be really surprised if it went significantly above that. And factory systems all get their power out of the main fuse panel, which is limited to 30A, right? So that puts any factory system powered that way at about half what this one will consume, meaning full blast would cut 5% of range, and most of the time a user would never come close to that...

But then again, if they're using worst-case as the basis for their 'power budget', 5% is a significant range impact on a car like this, so I can see where they're coming from.


Anyway, I'll get some pics of the front/rear speakers and any relevant wiring as soon as I get more shop time.

*edited to clarify percentages*
 
Bet no one will complain about the factory installed predestrain noise maker when you have this system fired up!
 
Sorry to have near-zero updates for a while, it's been crazy at work and this project has sat as-is for a while. I just finished up fiberglassing the rest of the box, though, and now I'm working on the a-pillar pods (FINALLY). I'm going to try to rough-complete (complete them functionally and shape-wise) the a-pillar pods tomorrow, but I seriously doubt I'll have the time for the cosmetic finish-up. Either way I'll get some pics up tomorrow, and I'll get detailed pics of the tweeters, door speaker area, etc. as requested.
 
New update. Started on the speaker pods. First pulled the a-pillar trim:
39267194021_large.jpg

then made some speaker mounts:
39267194024_large.jpg

Then taped up the trim and figured out my speaker mounting position:
39267194022_large.jpg

then layered on the bottom glass:
39267194023_large.jpg

flip panels, top glass:
39267194025_large.jpg

finally put in the speaker mounts and glass the gaps:
39267194027_large.jpg

and here's the rough shaped panel:
39267194028_large.jpg

And removing the tape, no damage to the stock panel :)
39267194026_large.jpg

Yeah, there's some residue from the tape, but nothing that won't come off with soap and a scrub :)

Obviously far from finished. I need to get an angle grinder after them to cut the panels into the shape I want, then rough sand, then body filler, then smooth sand, prime, perfect sand, prime again, then paint. Then they can go in :)
 
btw, sorry I haven't gotten pics of the speaker mounts and stuff yet. The fiberglass staging area I have set up takes up a full bay in the garage, so no room to pull the leaf in until I complete the fiberglass projects (leaf lives in my carport; the garage is separate so it's just more convenient that way). The garage is nice & cool now, so I don't really want to work on the actual car until I can pull it in the garage :)
 
One last quick update, finished up the shaping. Next comes the finish work.

39267194029_large.jpg


An another cool bit is now I got the box finished, I can check the weight - total weight of everything gained is around 65lbs. That sounds like quite a bit, but for a sub box, 3 12" subs, component set, crossovers, speaker pods, power wire, amp, etc.etc.etc. it's a really lightweight setup actually. And I've lost nearly that much in the past few months, so it's like nothing was added :D :p
 
Very ambitious. I've never been able convince myself that I wanted to have anything to do with fiber-glassing!

How close do you think you will be able to get the color? Or, do you plan on going with a contrasting shade?

Somewhat off-topic: I noticed that you plan to use an Alpine integration unit. Probably the PXE-H660. I found this to be very interesting, since I wasn't aware that such things even existed! I spent some time reading up on the unit, which led inevitably to discussions of the JBL MS-8.

I'm currently lusting after the JBL unit. ;) I love the fact that the thing has got 8(!) channels of amplification built into it. I could do a fairly nice system upgrade without having to add any more amps. (Okay, I'd need a powered sub-woofer.) The downsides are that the JBL is dang expensive ($500-ish), and the internal amplifiers are pretty weak.

Still, the geek-appeal is off the charts. :) If I end spending that money, I'm blaming you!
 
Oh, I lusted after the JBL unit before the alpine! That thing looks amazing, and I've been a fan of JBL for a while... I just couldn't get past the price difference.

If I were planning to do any form of competition (iasca/usaci/etc), I'd have definitely sprung for the JBL though.


As for the color, I don't know. I know there's a spray texture that a lot of guys in the audio industry swear matches the 'feel' of most stock plastic interior components, and I've got that stuff on the way, but as for the color, I've got a sample of 3 different grey vinyl dies on the way that I'm seeing if I can match it. I think I should be able to get pretty close to *something*, since there's actually 3 different shades bordering there (the a-pillar, then two shades on the dash), but if not I may consider doing a darker charcoal color or something like that.
 
Well, I've got it in the car and working ... Still a lot of cosmetic work to do; (pods color just looks bad, I need to trim the upper curve on them to mesh better; the sub/amp trim panel is still a skeleton; etc.etc.) but I'm taking a break and listening to them for now.

I gotta say I *REALLY* don't like the alpine unit at this point. It's firmware is glitchy, the PC software is crappy, the auto-setup doesn't work properly, etc.etc.etc. So far:

-The software wouldn't install on my laptop. Gets at 95% or so, gives an error (numbered without description) and backs out. A call to support just blamed the laptop (a dell netbook with win7, good antivirus, all updates, and no other issues). Ended up having to get my wife's PC, haul it downstairs, get an extension cord, and run it by the car.

-The software in the unit concerning the microphone is often disfunctional (mic tests out fine on my PC, but plug in to the box and try to run a sweep and it says "mic error"). Unplug and plug the mic 5-6 times and if I'm lucky it'll start working. However, if I connect to a PC - even WHILE it's got the mic error - it will pick up and utilize the mic no problem.

-The unit will not work until you've completed the auto-setup process. The auto-setup process must complete 4 mic sweeps (see above for why that became a HUGE issue).

-According to the instructions, if you get to the mic sweep portion of the setup, you can then plug in a PC to complete the setup that way. Great! Only if you do that, it doesn't consider setup complete, so next time you boot the unit up it tries to go through the setup process again.

-During bootup it gives you an option to set your crossovers for a multi-way setup (as mine is). Then it just ignores your selections and you have to set it again later. No idea whether it uses the settings for the mic sweeps.

-Manual includes not one single shred of instructions for the PC software, only a vague reference to being able to use it.


In short, it does exactly what it says it will do ... but only after several hours of armwrestling the stupid thing around its own firmware. I don't think I've ever messed with a less functional setup process in my life.

It's in and working and sounding great now, but I just can't recommend this thing. Maybe I got a defective one, but other than the mic error these all seems like design flaws...



Having said that, I'm liking all the rest of the setup! The crossovers in the JL amp are excellent - I'm not using them because I want to keep the time delay from the Alpine working... If it wasn't for REALLY wanting time alignment, a $20 line converter and the amp could do the job without the alpine being in place at all. And it's got plenty of power - The subs will boom if I make them, and the whole system gets crazy loud with no clipping. The speakers are excellent; I've got the mid/highs crossed over in the 400hz range, which I was nervous about considering it's a 2" mid, but it handles it fine even at very high volume. The midbass is almost like a little sub; I'm playing around with the crossover point there - I think 70hz is probably going to give the smoothest transition while still maintaining bass-up-front illusion (any higher and I start picking up cues from the subs), but I was able to go down to 60 without losing any significant oomph! :)


I'll get some pics later, but right now the RCAs are something of a rats nest from the fight with the Alpine, so I need to at least straighten those up a bit first :)


Also... I don't listen to a lot of extremely bass-heavy music, but as a test of power consumption I cranked the subs quite a bit past what I normally would and listened to Rage Against the Macine on my drive in this morning. Not enough to see the impact, that's for sure. I pulled in with the dash showing pretty much exactly what it normally shows for efficiency, range, and battery. I didn't see any change at all in power consumption on the energy meter. I'm starting to think none of the gauges really measure the energy that goes to the 12v battery... or maybe consumption is even lower than I thought. Either way, good news, but there might be room for an even larger amp system without major power impacts.

I know that's not enough of a long-term test to really say for sure, but I'm not going to do that more, so that's all the high-output test you're getting :) The long-term test will be "enthusiastic normal" :)
 
You've inspired me, defiancecp!

My all-time favorite car audio speakers were a/d/s/ 346is's back in the day when I used to drive a car with Sound. The poor factory stereo sound quality and the fact that I love this car and plan to keep it just about forever mean it's time to do an install for the first time in probably 15 years!

I'm a bit of a purist with respect to audio--I generally feel the less processing and manipulation the better. My musical tastes are probably best described as 'schizophrenic'. I like a little bit of music from a lot of different genres. For example, I listen to a variety of music from bass-heavy rap to classical, to pop, Electronica, folk music with rich, strong vocals, and unusual stuff like Apocalyptica.

My goal is to do justice to whatever the material is, from 20 to 20K. ;)

The plan:
Front: a/d/s/ 346is two-ways; for sound stage tweets need to be within 24" of the mids, so I assume I'm going to need a small kickpanel for the tweets, as I plan to mount the mids in the doors.

Rear: My concession to non-purity--a/d/s/ 346is mids only

Trunk: 2x10" 4ohm JL Audio subs, sealed enclosure; push-pull configuration. Wired in parallel for as a 2ohm load

Amp: JL Audio HD 900x5

Cabling: Kimber Kable

Questions:

1) Any recommendations on what to buy to restore the signal to line level for the amplifier?
2) Any suggestions for subwoofers? I'd consider 12's but I'd like to hear thoughts on driver sound quality. I'm looking for a good, detailed bottom-end to handle whatever I might row at it well.
3) Thoughts on adding capacitance for transients? (If yes, how much?)
4) Thoughts on Dynamatting the (front) doors for improved speaker resonance? Do people still do that, or is there a new, improved way to do this?

Pretty excited to hear that your install hasn't hurt your mileage appreciably. I'm hoping for the same.

All the best,
Brad
Questions
 
bradleygibson said:
You've inspired me, defiancecp!

My all-time favorite car audio speakers were a/d/s/ 346is's back in the day when I used to drive a car with Sound. The poor factory stereo sound quality and the fact that I love this car and plan to keep it just about forever mean it's time to do an install for the first time in probably 15 years!

I'm a bit of a purist with respect to audio--I generally feel the less processing and manipulation the better. My musical tastes are probably best described as 'schizophrenic'. I like a little bit of music from a lot of different genres. For example, I listen to a variety of music from bass-heavy rap to classical, to pop, Electronica, folk music with rich, strong vocals, and unusual stuff like Apocalyptica.

My goal is to do justice to whatever the material is, from 20 to 20K. ;)

The plan:
Front: a/d/s/ 346is two-ways; for sound stage tweets need to be within 24" of the mids, so I assume I'm going to need a small kickpanel for the tweets, as I plan to mount the mids in the doors.

Rear: Door mounted a/d/s/ 346is mids only

Trunk: 2x10" 4ohm JL Audio subs, sealed enclosure; push-pull configuration. Wired in parallel for as a 2ohm load

Amp: JL Audio HD 900x5

Cabling: Kimber Kable

Questions:

1) Any recommendations on what to buy to restore the head unit signal to nice, clean line level for the amplifier?
2) Any suggestions for subwoofers? I'd consider 12's but I'd like to hear thoughts on driver sound quality. I'm looking for a good, detailed bottom-end to handle whatever I might row at it well.
3) Thoughts on adding capacitance for transients? (If yes, how much?)
4) Thoughts on Dynamatting the (front) doors for improved speaker resonance? Do people still do that, or is there a new, improved way to do this?
5) I'm able to do much ofmthe install myself, but will probably have to farm out the kick panel manufacture. No Fiberglas experience here!
6) Any additional thoughts are welcome.

Pretty excited to hear that your install hasn't hurt your mileage appreciably. I'm hoping for the same.

All the best,
Brad
 
Nice amp choice - given the complete lack of impact on range I'm seeing with mine, a step up definitely doesn't hurt :)

For the signal, I just picked it up right at the back of the head unit. I can't find anywhere that's not speaker level, so I just picked it up as close to the unit as possible.

As for subs, so far I don't think I like these ... They have this occasional artifact that sounds kind of like subs sound when clipping, but at volume levels well below clipping levels... I think it's some kind of resonance in the materials. Almost inaudible (and in a trunk it probably would be inaudible), but enough to prevent the subs really being completely transparent. That's really my only complaint, and I can't say for certain that it doesn't originate with the alpine or with the amp, but it seems far more likely to be the subs... I've had great luck with dayton before, but these just didn't impress me. Unfortunately I've been out of the game for a while, and other subs I have used are no longer in production, so anything I recommend would be based on specs and brand preference, not any actual experience.

I personally was never much of a fan of caps; With a high-current battery and sufficient size power wire, given that a good amp will have built-in capacitance to avoid short-term loss, it shouldn't be necessary... In the leaf I could see going with one, though, given that the leaf's battery is so small in comparison to a normal 12v system. Plus, it would reduce peak load requirements on the inverter.

Dynamating is definitely still done and is still highly recommended... I chose not to because of weight, but it could definitely use it, and I think I'm probably going to back up and do it.


I need to get pics of the 'not-finished' version of my dash pods. Not happy with how they came out, I need to reshape the window side a bit, the texture didn't come out right, and the color didn't come out right, so that'll all get redone... It's just hard to pull it apart now that it's WORKING :)
 
Few quick updates, and a not-so-quick realignment...

For the pods, they're in there and they work great, but the texture is all wrong and the color's way off too... Need to pull & refinish. There's a little bit of reshaping I'm going to do as well, just to mesh better. The stage sets up nicely though, so I like them.

Also, the three sub config wasn't quite right; the subs were being underdriven and the enclosure was a little tight, leading to some noticeable very low frequency dropoff. I tried it with two and it sounded pretty good and I used it like that for a while - but I really liked the aesthetics of the three. So after playing around with a bunch of things, I came up with - two, but leave the third in place as a passive radiator. I had to add a bit of mass to the third to get the tuning low enough (epoxied some small washers evenly distributed around the underside of the cone). Sounds extremely good and keeps the look I was hoping for. I'd originally wanted to do a low-tuned ported enclosure in here anyway, but didn't have the room for the size port I'd need - this gets close to that effect.




Having said that, I'm going to end up going to some extremes to get rid of this head unit. The alpine integration unit is CRAP for someone like me; there's basically nothing really user configurable beyond crossover points, levels, and time delays - all the eq stuff is autotuned by mic and not user-configurable, and the software is horribly glitchy. And I like to tweak. Plus, doing line level conversion is a problem; I managed to get the signal *somewhat* clean, but not as good as I'd hoped for. The factory unit clips at different volumes across different frequencies, and I think even that varies based on the overall level at other frequencies. So I can get it to where I *think* there's no clipping, then I'll play a different song and it goes nuts. Not to mention hugely imbalanced relationship between frequency response and volume. I could put a remote knob from the alpine to control volume, but it would look out of place and would not be as ergonomic. Not to mention nissan's UI design is, in my opinion, complete and utter crap. There's a lot of awesome stuff about this car, but the head unit/control center UI is probably the worst single aspect of the entire vehicle, in my experience.

Of course replacing it is going to be more of a project than the entire rest of the audio system has been... the head unit handles all kinds of things: Besides the obvious audio/phone/nav/backup cam stuff, I already know it is responsible for sending the remaining range estimation to the dash, recording charge timers & turning on the charger as needed, displaying power/efficiency-related info, displaying climate control info, displaying and changing settings related to how door locks, lights, and other bcm functions operate, etc.)

So my plan is- build a car-PC, and write the software to handle the functions it's replacing. I plan on using one of these: http://www.bybyte.com/BBX-1_content.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; as the screen/case in the factory location, with an AMD e-350 APU/motherboard (I thought APUs were pretty stupid until I started looking at what I needed for this project - The mobo I'm looking at has a good audio chip, toslink output, reasonable efficiency, passive cooling, draws less than 40w in cpu/gpu burn-in testing, and can even play some older games), a small (60gb) ssd, and this PSU (80w, 96% efficiency, TINY!: http://www.mini-box.com/picoPSU-80" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ) - plug in a USB GPS & bluetooth dongle (the mobo has wifi built in), then either a usb 3g/4g modem or just autoconnect to my phone for net (it's rooted and will do wifi, bluetooth, or USB tethering). Then this guy for interpretation of all the buttons: http://store.mp3car.com/Joycon_EXR_S..._p/com-159.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; .

Still deciding whether a USB AM/FM radio and/or CD/DVD drive is worth it. I rarely (but not quite never) use either. The AM/FM would be easy to hide, but they're ridiculously expensive for what they are (~$120); the CD/DVD is just the opposite - dirt cheap, but not sure where I'd put it.

The real interesting part will be the CAN interface. I figure I'll just build a little board with a USB controller, Atmel ATTiny chip, and 3 CAN chips - I initially thought I'd just program it to act as a 'dumb' go-between, sending the PC everything and letting the PC interpret and act on the signals, but that would mean the PC would have to operate 24/7 since it controls charging as well... at 40w that could run for hundreds of hours on a charge, but that would be wasteful- So instead I guess I need the miniboard to function as a standalone charging controller at a minimum. Nothing else I've found needs to function when the vehicle is off, so everything else can still go through the PC software.


As for audio, the plan is to completely yank the alpine. Send a USB and toslink cable from the head back to where the alpine was, and input it this guy http://www.minidsp.com/onlinestore/detail/7-minidsp-kits/flypage/73-minidsp-2x8-kit?sef=hcfp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; by way of a minidig. Basically that means the optical signal goes to the minidig, which interfaces directly with the minidsp via digital i2s, where all crossover/time delay/ equalization/ etc. will be done - all before the first DAC. The only RCAs will be the 1-2ft long RCAs from the minidsp to the amp. (I do love this amp, btw... slightly larger than a paperback book, but quite surprisingly powerful, and dead cool every time I've checked it). Also bonus - I can then pull the minidsp configuration up on the screen and configure crossovers, eqs, delays, channel designations, levels, everything!


Also as a note, before I was just doing 3-way crossover & time delay, then driving the rear speakers with the factory outputs (faded almost to nothing so they didn't interact with the driver, but the rear passenger could still hear them). The minidig would allow me to independently control each of the 8 channels, so I'd be able to do left/right mid/twt, left/right midbass, sub, a true rear fill (low volume, crossed over, eq'd, delayed, and driven with something tiny like a miniamp), and still have an extra channel (center channel maybe? whatever I later decided I wanted.)



So anyway - the canbus is going to be a major hurdle. I've already got a bunch of AVR USB kits just lying around anyway, so once the mcp2515 & 2551 chips I just ordered get here I should be able to get a monitor running in no time. Then it's just a matter of logging the messaging and interpreting it all (or at least all that relates to the head unit)... No problem right??? :D

wish me luck....
 
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