Goodbye Shaker 500, hello Pioneer, Sony, Fosgate system!!

[darien87]

I thought that the factory stereo was actually pretty decent. But it just wasn't enough for me, nor did it have the right features.

So I ended up getting a Pioneer 3100 CD/DVD deck from Amazon for $285. Pretty good price, but unfortunately, it only has 2 sets of pre-outs. Oh well. I went to a local stereo store and got some pricing on replacing the speakers with Kicker 5'x7''s and 8"s for the doors and a 4-channel amp to run them, and a 12" Fosgate sub with box and 2-channel amp.

They quoted me $325 to install my deck and put in the Fosgate amp and sub. I ended up getting a 4 channel Infinity amp, (475a for $150) and some Sony 5" x 7"s from Best Buy. So I took everything over to the shop yesterday and had them install it. Well, after being there for a few hours, they told me that the Infinity amp kept running very hot and going into protect mode. I read numerous reviews of this amp online and many people did say that the amp runs hot, but not that it shuts down. Oh well, I ended up having them put in the 4 channel Fosgate they originally quoted me. They gave me a bit of a break on the Fosgate amp and charged me $200 for it, (originally $250). I returned the amp to Best Buy.

Well, the Kicker 8's they planned to put in the doors didn't fit. When I saw them, I thought, "No ****. Those magnets are huge!" So they're going to order some shallow mount 8's and install them this weekend. So right now, I've got just the 5" x 7"s in the doors. Still sounds pretty good though. Also, they originally told me that they would run all 6 speakers in the car off of the 4-channel Fosgate amp. But yesterday they told me that they couldn't do it. The guy's explanation didn't really make sense to me, but I think it may have to do with my deck only having 2 sets of preouts. So now they tell me that I need a third amp to run the 8's in the doors.

Also, I don't know if it was because they had the doors open all day and they had the system running for a while with the car off while they were testing it, but I went home and sat for 5 or 10 minutes, changing settings and stuff, then tried to start the car and the battery was dead. Luckily my neighbor had jumper cables and got me going.

Anyway, here are the pics.

Pioneer Deck

View attachment 260337
Sub

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Sub

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Amps

 

[kooldawg6]

Looks pretty nice. Too bad for your misfortune of parts not working correctly or fitting.
I installed 8" woofers in the door and we had to mod the door panels so they'd fit. We cut the lip off where the two panels join at the top and used a heat gun to make it a little more round and cut off the factory speaker mount. Then they fit with no problem.

 

[darien87]

Looks pretty nice. Too bad for your misfortune of parts not working correctly or fitting.
I installed 8" woofers in the door and we had to mod the door panels so they'd fit. We cut the lip off where the two panels join at the top and used a heat gun to make it a little more round and cut off the factory speaker mount. Then they fit with no problem.

Cool.

Do you have any more pics of your door mod? Also, what kind of 8" did you put in the doors?

 

[kooldawg6]

I put in the JL Audio 8W1v2-4

Here are a few pics of the door panel and the door after Dynamat.

 

[darien87]

How did the Dynamat work out for you?

Was it worth the money and effort?

 

[GreyDiesel]

I think you are definetly going to want to dynamat the hell out of your car with the new system. The weak point in the current system is the cabin vibrations more than anything else. I dynamatted my car, without a stereo upgrade, and the sound improvement was amazing.

 

[kooldawg6]

I used 3 3/4 boxes of Dynamat in mine and it made a huge difference! The stock system and no Dynamat could rattle a little bit and was somewhat loud outside the car with the windows up. After Dynamat and adding a lot more power and better equipment, almost nothing rattles and with the windows up, almost all of the sound is kept inside the car I got a little carried away with the trunk lid and haven't come up with anything to help cover it up yet...
I didn't take any pics of the inside of the trunk I Dynamatted, but it was fairly well covered from where the back seats are all up in the 1/4 panels, spare tire well, back wall between the tail lights and under the package tray in spots as well.

 

[knowlegeable1]

Kooldawg, Do you have pics of the finished product? Also a list your setup? If its already been posted somewhere i apologize ive been out awhile. Thanks

 

[mustangdave]

Am I right in assuming there is no sound deadening from the factory in the doors or did you remove it in favor of dynamat? I'd like to cut down on road/tire noise. Do you think it would help with that?

 

[kooldawg6]

Kooldawg, Do you have pics of the finished product? Also a list your setup? If its already been posted somewhere i apologize ive been out awhile. Thanks

I will have to sit down and compile a list at home tomorrow as I can't recall what all is in there, but everything got replaced except for the front door speaker wires so we didn't have to fool with running it through the fender and door looms.

I need to take some pics as I've since swapped out the Alpine 205 (6.5" screen) for the Alpine 505 (7" screen) head unit. Also I need to finish off some work in the trunk appearance wise.

mustangdave
Am I right in assuming there is no sound deadening from the factory in the doors or did you remove it in favor of dynamat? I'd like to cut down on road/tire noise. Do you think it would help with that?

Correct, there is no sound deadening from the factory on the door panels. There is only a moisture barrier on the door. I don't have pics of how much Dynamat I used in the trunk area and can't as it now has carpet glued down. The quarter panels are bare so I put several pieces on them. There is very little sound deadening "caulk" across the back behind the rear seat and then some on the area above the rear shock mounts and some down under the factory trunk mat. I'd say to cut down on the road noise, you'd need to pull the seats out and pull the carpet out and put it along the floor pan and transmission tunnel and in the trunk area. Is it effective for road noise? I don't know as I haven't really noticed a difference in the road noise with the stereo off with all that I used behind the rear seats.

 

[knowlegeable1]

Thanks. It doesnt have to be every exact piece of your setup but major componenets if its not too much work. Ill stay tuned for the pics. Im eager to do some upgrading to my system and would like to see what others have used/done. Thanks again

 

[gameguru1360]

the dynamat extreme really does help and there other types of dynamat extreme for different parts of a vehicle.

There are cheaper forms of dynamat extreme, but I've found that ones like Raamat don't have the same tar materials like dynamat extreme that withstand extreme temperatures of heat and so those cheaper materials tend to melt in the hot sun.

Yeah the shaker 500 and 1000 aren't that great and you spend lots of money on that option. Better to just get the standard stereo package so that the wiring is in there, then go back and upgrade the components like using 8" compact subs in the doors, using 5.25" components instead of the usual 5x7/6x8's in the doors.

The dynamat extreme bulk pack is a nice option if you want do the whole car, but when it comes down to it, you'd probably have to get the bulk pack and perhaps the wedge pack to cover the whole car.

I'd personally use something more powerful than that Fosgate amp...maybe a Lanzar or Zed or hifonics mono class D amp.

Some audio aficionados say that it's better to just get a 2 channel amp and 5.25" components for the doors and leave out the rear 5x7/6x8's because those are usually rear fill and if you don't have passengers in the back, having rear speakers won't really make much difference

 

[kooldawg6]

Thanks. It doesnt have to be every exact piece of your setup but major componenets if its not too much work. Ill stay tuned for the pics. Im eager to do some upgrading to my system and would like to see what others have used/done. Thanks again

Major components of my system:

Alpine IVA-W505 (7" screen-DVD/Nav ready)
Alpine NVE-P1 (dockable Nav/bluetooth unit)
JL Audio TR50-CXi (5x7"-door panels/rear deck lid)
JL Audio 8W1v2 (8" woofers)
2 Kicker CompVR 07CVR124 (12" subs in sealed trunk box)
2 Kicker MRP-300 (1 powers driver side door, woofer and deck lid and 1 powers the passenger side)
Alpine MRD-M605 V-12 (powers the 12"s)

My car came with the Shaker 1000, but it was a left over '08 and the price was reduced so much below sticker that the system ended up being free to me I just can't believe it lasted 2 1/2 year before I replaced it

 

[darien87]

I dumped my Shaker 500 after a couple of months. It wasn't bad for a factory system, I just couldn't stand the lack of low bass and features in the head unit.

Here's my system:

Pioneer AVH3100 DVD head unit
Sony XS-GT5726A 5" x 7" speakers in doors and rear deck
Kicker Comp VT 8's in doors
Fosgate R1 12" sub in sealed box in trunk

Fosgate Prime R300-4 powering 5" x 7"s
Fosgate Prime R150-2 powering 8"s in doors
Fosgate Prime R150-2 bridged, powering 12" sub

I'm having a Kicker 3-way crossover installed this weekend to properly crossover the whole system and fine tune everything.

 

[darien87]

Ok, made some changes today.

I wasn't happy with the sound coming from the Kicker 8's in the doors. They would distort at high volumes. I thought that the shop had hooked them up like the door speakers, so I thought they were getting crossed over at 63Hz, like the 5" x 7"s. It turns out they had daisy-chained the amp running off the 8's off of the amp running the 12". So those poor little 8"s were trying to pump out all that low bass. No wonder they were distorting!

So I ended up getting a Kicker KX3, 3-way crossover so that I could fine tune my sytem and have everything crossed over correctly. So now the 5" x 7"s are crossed over at about 65Hz, the 8"s are playing from there down, and the 12" is crossed over at 50Hz.

The system sounds much better now. I guess I could have avoided all of this, had I just purchased a deck that had 3 sets of pre-outs to begin with. Oh well. I also added a cap. I didn't have any headlight dimming with the first 2 amps, but I thought 3 would be pushing it.

View attachment 258626
Sub amp, Highs amp, Cap and Crossover

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Kicker 8"s amp

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Kicker 8"s

 

[gameguru1360]

actually that cap might hurt your system. Most installs I've read from other forums like carstereo.com or sounddomain suggest not using a cap. Here's info about doing the Big 3 electrical upgrade:

http://forum.sounddomain.com/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/312025/page/1#Post312025

it's a cheaper alternative to upgrading your main battery to a kinetik or upgrading to a high output alternator.

Basically you're increase the factory wiring to 4ga or larger. Most factory wiring is only 8 or 10ga.

Yep...having a deck with 3 sets of preouts really does help!

 

[darien87]

Thanks for the info. I just might try that big 3 upgrade.

Like I said, I didn't notice any headlight dimming or voltage drops when I had the first 2 amps. I just figured the cap would be insurance when I added the third. It was only $99. No big deal.

 

[kooldawg6]

I've got my 5x7s and 8s cutoff at 60 hz. The 12s in the trunk take care of the rest. It still feels weird after a month having all that air hitting my leg now the that OEM 8 is gone! I have three amps in mine with no cap and the lights don't dim at all

 

[knowlegeable1]

Major components of my system:

Alpine IVA-W505 (7" screen-DVD/Nav ready)
Alpine NVE-P1 (dockable Nav/bluetooth unit)
JL Audio TR50-CXi (5x7"-door panels/rear deck lid)
JL Audio 8W1v2 (8" woofers)
2 Kicker CompVR 07CVR124 (12" subs in sealed trunk box)
2 Kicker MRP-300 (1 powers driver side door, woofer and deck lid and 1 powers the passenger side)
Alpine MRD-M605 V-12 (powers the 12"s)

My car came with the Shaker 1000, but it was a left over '08 and the price was reduced so much below sticker that the system ended up being free to me I just can't believe it lasted 2 1/2 year before I replaced it

Thanks for the info. Seems like a nice system you have going there. Any pics of the finished product? Also, about how long/how much work for all the dynamat install? Thanks