My beloved wife went out of town Saturday night so naturally I worked a bit on the audio system. It took me WAAAAAY longer than it should have because I had to clamp all the joints on the box since I couldn't find the switch to turn on the air compressor for the wood shop at work so I could use my brad nailer.
The first pic is of the speakers (Boston RC41 components) mounted to the baffles along with the grille rings. I used hot glue (no air compressor) to make them stay and I used the cardboard from the back of an old entertainment center.
The second pic is the same but from the back side. Notice the use of "T-Nuts". I would recommend them highly. They work great but you have to make sure they mount securely to the wood.
The third pic is of the plumbing strap I hot glued to the back of the baffles and the factory kickpanel to allow me to adjust the mounting angles for optimum staging and imaging.
Fourth pic is of the driver's side kick installed for testing. Once I find the best position for the speakers I will fiberglass them.
Fifth pic is the passenger's side.
Sixth is construction of the box. I can't believe how strong the box is and there isn't a single fastener holding it together.
Seventh pic is again of box construction.
Eighth is picture of the terminals I mounted to the vehicle for quick removal of the enclosure.
Ninth is a picture of the rear of the vehicle and the sub. The box needs carpet but other than that it's done and sounds amazing. I can't believe how much it makes the car flex.

I'll post more as I make more progress. Mark

 

Nice! Door pods are sweet. I like the quick access terminals in the back.

Nice, an xB! You go, Mark! What is the rest of your system consist of?

 

Up front I run an Eclipse 8454 CD player and I have an Delphi XM MyFi plugged in to the AUX input. I use a Directed (Viper, Orion, PPI, etc.) 1100d5 amplifier. It's rated at 75 x 4 plus 275 x1 at 4 ohms and 14.4 volts, though I wish they could give me a 12.5 volt rating. The power cable is 1/0 AWG from the battery to the distribution block. From there it's Stinger PRO 4 AWG. The interconnects are MTX balanced and shielded cables and ran along the opposite side as the power wire. The speaker wire is Raptor (cheap stuff at the local shop but at .35 a foot I can't complain) 10 AWG, Stinger 12 AWG, and Metra 18 AWG (for the tweeters.) The subwoofer is a JL Audio 13W1v2 in an approximately 1.5 cubic foot sealed enclosure. The terminals for the sub were a pain in the rear but worth it to me. I am really happy with the progress so far, especially the kickpanel enclosures. I don't have them completed but they already sound pretty amazing. I can't wait to see what they can do when I can utilize the time allignment on the deck and finalize their locations. Mark

 

I have wanted to do pods. Seems like it would give you the optimum SQ. Does it sound way better than the factory locations?

Wow, monster power wire! Amp under the pass. seat? I went with 4ga, was afraid that it would be too hard to run any larger.

OT, isn't the xB "factory cavern" for the tweeter sweet? Its huuuuge! My Vifas are 4" faceplate with a 3" dia. x 2" deep magnet...it fits fine.

Be sure to post progress pics!

 

I believe factory location for speakers is good enough to produce good SQ. My tweets are in the front dash, while mid is at door. Have two way in rear and sub way back.

Important thing is good tuning. Me running a HU of Pioneer DEH9650, where it has capabilites of fine tuning for optimum SQ, with the shifting of centre stage to driver's location. Anyway, my system was tuned by a professional aided with computer..... pic show my car in sound garage during tuning...

 

To address your first question the answer is yes, it does sound way beter than the factory locations. Even with the pods just mocked up the imaging and staging are FAR superior to the factory setup. This is probably attributed to two factors: 1. More equal pathlengths due to kickpanel mounting and 2. Better sound due to better speakers. Yeah I mounted the amp under the seat, well at least part of the amp. At 25" long it's hardly discreet but I am in the process of fabricating a panel that will hide the amp from prying eyes, protect it from abuse, and lend itself to easy removal in the event that I need to tune. The 1/0 AWG wasn't too bad to run actually, the hardest part was getting it through the firewall. If you would use a premium cable like Stinger's PRO 1/0 I would imagine it'd be even easier. I just like to know that I won't have issues in the future with inadequate cabling. In regards to the factory tweeter locations I actually disconnected mine not long after getting the vehicle as I found that the image and staging was better when I didn't use them. In time I may utilize the factory door locations for some midbass drivers to play in the 60-200 hz area. If I run them any higher than that I fear that the overall sound quality of the vehicle may be comprimised. Overall I would say that for your general listener the xB has a pretty decent sounding system, with a little work it appears that it can be excellent. Mark