tC Sound Quality Build from Simplicity in Sound *pics*
 

So the basic story goes I wanted my music to sound more full like it does at home. So thought I needed more bass and I was ready to have someone add a subwoofer to fix that. So I ask around the regional forum to see who could help me out. 1_kLEan_tC pointed me in the direction of a master installer named Bing.

I stopped by his shop and let him know what I wanted to do. There he introduced me to the world of sound quality. SQ is where the sound is clean enough that you can actually hear each instrument in the music (as opposed to loud even in the car next to you). In his demo / personal car you could feel the strings of a guitar being plucked coming at you. I was blown away, I wanted one! :silly:

He does a lot of show cars so a simple setup like mine was cake for him. I started backwards and told him things I didn't want and left it up to him to fill in the blanks. It usually works out better to give the expert the freedom to do as they think best.

The no-no list:

Parts:

The result? Every goal met or exceeded. I have a sound system that rivals the clarity of a home theater. I have bass that you can feel when playing Timbaland. It looks super clean and we came within my budget. And it looks really cool. Thank you Bing!

He posted a description of the complete setup over at http://www.icixsound.com/vb/showthread.php?t=59535 and I'm reposting that a copy here.

:bow:

Nice install........I went for a clean sound over the loud sound too.....pain in the butt to get my amp all tuned in but I got the crossovers set so well that if you use the decks points the sound does not change at all from my settings.

It still is loud as heck but clean all the way up.....love how they set your amp intothe floor liek that.......I am gonna do that with my NINe.5 soon just gotta go get some MDF.....and find that paint they use onthe boxes.

Sound quality is awesome I wish the other cars on the road believed the same. Too many rattle boxes. With my setup I'm not going to win any SPL competitions but its loud enough for me and WAY better than stock.

Yeah break in time is good........I finally got mine up to full power and glad it took me 3 months to tune it in.......the sound is awsome.....

SQ FTW!!!

very clean install, CDT's ftw!

Bing does great.....and I know this for a fact!

was their any cutting of the pannels for that sub box to fit?

niceee lookin!

hey.. come by tomorrow at stevens creek scion.. i wanna see!

hey guys...to answre a question.

not a signle stock panel was cut to do the subbox. its fully fiberglass molded against the stock side carpet.

i've seen your work all over the place. you do great work man! :bow:

Yeah.... that is really nice. Do it to mine. lolllololol

very clean

I'm going to be in Vegas tomorrow so I won't be able to make it out to Stevens Creek. I'll be at the meet on Wednesday though. :) I love this i want to go for a drive now. :)

next weds? sweeet!

i'll see it then! :)

well, maybe someday, i will get a TC to do a really serious SQ installs in, i think these car's interiors are really well fit for SQ. But not sure if i will ever find the right customer with the right desires and budget hehe ;)

in the mean time, i will get to do a serious SQ set up in a new civic, whcih also should be an excellent sounding platform...:)

well there's the kicker right there.. :?... :(

i got a friend who is a complete audiophile.. but his setup is pretty already great for SQ what he's done so far and is content in his current setup.. (you should maybe come out sometime and hear it? :P )

sure, i wouldnt mind it, he can take a listen to my car as well...though i still need t do more tuning on mine :)

okay.. yea! you and him need to talk for sure.

you busy next weds night?

ughhh... you ____ed up by putting the tweets in the a piller.. mainly because you have no time correction going and they arent on axis as they should be since they are soft domes, no?

anyway.. slick sub box.. how much did it all cost?

I was curious as to why the tweeters were put into the pillar as well. I don't know too much about car sq, but I thought they sounded best in the door similar to where the stock tC tweeter mount is?

wrong, they will sound best as close as possible to the midbass driver.. in our cars the easiest place is to put it in the kick panel... really easy to wire as well!

How do you like your F90BT?

okay...but the stock location is closer to the midbass driver than the A pillar...so again why the A pillar.

well sometimes with metal dome tweeters you dont want it to fire directly into your ear so reflecting off the windshield can help with the harshness...

but i prefer soft tweeters so that you can have them close to the midbass and still fire on-axis

hmm I prefer metal tweeters too as I find they're clearer generally speaking.

hey guys,

in my expereince competing in and building cars for SQ competitions, i dont agree with you guys on a few things:

1. putting metal dome tweeters off axis does indeed help with harshenss in certain vehicles, but it certainly isnt not done so by reflecting off the windshield. infact, windshield reflections cuase the exact opposite effect, it cuases harshness in the upper mirdange and highs.

2. there is no such rule as you MUST have time alignment to put tweeters into the A pillars, it varies a lot from car to car. sure, the combinationof TA and a pillar works well to gain a high stage and good center image for a single seat listening position, but there is nothing to say that having A pillar tweets without TA for some odd reason would sound horrible. especially in a car such as the TC, wehre the long dash and windshield makes for a relatively equal pathlength mount for the A pillar.

3. In the TC, i have done kick, mounted tweeters: http://www.icixsound.com/vb/showthread.php?t=37244
and we talked about doing it again for this car, but the customer ultimated chose the A pillar location, comparing the two, the A pillarlocation yielded a less overall rainbowing of the sound staging versus the kick panel. my opinion is without an full array of DSP and active amping, the two locations in the Z, isnt all that different SQ wise.

4. the stock location tweeters in most cars, upper door or saile panel, is one of hte worst locations you can do, they for hte mos tpart, yield way too much highs and cuasing even normally smooth speakres to sound harsh. the idea in general is to put tweeters as far forward as possile in the vehicle.

5. the debate of on axis versus off axis tweeters is one thats been ongoing for a long time in the SQ circles. beyond the fact that this is not a serious SQ vehicle, my experinece with doing more serious SQ vehicles and off/on axis tweetrs is this, off axis tweeters often yields a deeper stage and better overall imaging, while on axis tweets is easier to tune for tonality. but there are plenty of SQ comp cars out there, htat feature both designs.

in the end, my suggestion is to pay less attention to theory and just go out nad listen to various cars at sq comps, you will find that many different solutions can get you great results :)

b

i might be, depends on what time and where :)

cool! thanks for this post :)

also that kick install is what inspired me to do my car like that, you're so good! :D

good deal :) i have laways said, i love working on scions, :) the interior is really nicely set up for SQ...and there are quite a few options avaialbe to get great results..whcih is why i am so keen on one day getting the opportunity to do perhaps a SQ comp install in one hehe

Very nice! Perfect tweeter positioning too! Just over the dash to create a proper stage