My New Car Audio System - 03 CObra

Tmac01baller

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Finally got my car back from the Audio place. I listen to all types of music and wanted a nice sound quality setup so I went with the best JL had to offer. This thing sounds crazy! The subs get very loud and they are very clear. For a 10" sub the w7 cannot be beat. No other subwoofer can compete with the W7 series. They are expensive but you get what you pay for and that's all there is to that. I also like the subs because I don't like to listen to my music with the subs constantly killing my ears so for the most part I have them turned down, and they sound awesome. But when I want to crank them up they have no problem getting loud as hell and still sound as clear as if they were turned down. I'm pushing 500 watts to each sub and they eat all of it up.

I fully sound deadened the trunk as well as the doors. I highly recommend doing this. When my trunk is closed you can hardly tell that my subs are back there pounding from the outside, which is what I wanted. This also allows me to enjoy all the sound from the inside. I wasn't going for this, but I did notice that after putting all that sound deadener in the trunk it lowered down the exhaust noise from the inside and I no longer hear anything that's going on back there. This almost made me want to put deadener in the whole interior (might do this one day).

To be on the safe side I beefed up the electrical system as the total combined wattage of the amps is 1450watts. I had my alternator upgraded to 200amps. Changed over to an Optima Yellowtop battery (ideal for car audio), installed a BatCap Model 800 (has 800 peak amps equal to an 800 farad capacitor), and I also put in a 2.5 farad capacitor. I planned on showing the 2.5 capacitor but it ended up being hidden behind the rear seats in order to keep everything symmetrical (I should have just sold the thing).

The headunit is a beast. I pretty much looked at every double din headunit out there and it came down to the Pioneer Avic F90bt and the Kenwood Excelon DNX 8120. I liked the look of the Pioneer unit but after reading all the negative reviews and finally testing out one for myself I decided to get the DNX 8120. The Avic unit is not as responsive as I kept having to push the touch screen buttons several times, it was sluggish, and the Navigation looked like it needed work. Just as I was about to get the 8120 I saw that they were coming out with a new updated unit so I waited. The new unit is the Kenwood Excelon DNX 9140. After reading all of the new features it had I very patiently waited for it and bought it the day it came out. The unit does everything. It has Garmin GPS, Bluetooth, Plays DVD, Full Ipod compatibility, USB, and MicroSD. It had so many features I'm still learning how to do everything on it. Oh yeah...it is also voice activated. By pushing the button that you can place anywhere you can control just about everything. My car is loud as hell with the exhaust but for the most part people say I come in clear. Of course no one is going to be able to hear you if you're driving with the windows down going 100mph, so if you are going this fast just roll the windows up:idea:. The graphical interface of the headunit is also nice and it has very colorful 3D graphics. Garmin GPS is the shit and it does an excellent job of refreshing the map while I'm driving. You can also add your own background which I haven't done yet which I thought is pretty cool. I know I'm missing things that it does but like I said it has a ton of features and I'm still learning them.

Here's a breakdown of the whole Audio System:

Subs: Two JL Audio 10" W7's
Front Speakers: ZR570-CSi
Rear Speakers: C5-570x
Subwoofer Amp: 1000/1v2
Speaker Amp: 450/4v2
Headunit: Kenwood Excelon DNX 9140
Wiring: Memphis 0 Guage Amp Kit

I'll try go out and get some pics at night so you can better see the effect the LED's have cause they look pretty sweet shining down on the amps and subs. And at night it will also make the headunit look better cause there is a lot of glare in the pics above. The material used is black vinyl and grey suede. I did this so it would match my seats. If you guys have any questions whatsoever let me know:beer:

And the pics...


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Try to ignore all that dust..
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r6bullet

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Looks real nice, also LOL at the paint missing on your trim. My car was the exact same way.. gotta love that factory shifter!!
 

XyX

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Thats an expensive setup, that headunit alone is 1000+. You just went and dropped a lot of money on all that, but it is great equipment.
 

x0lizzbeth0x

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Wow. That looks awesome - it isn't just a whole big mess of wires or whatnot. I love touchscreens and navis.
 

CobraMac

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That's sick man! Had a similar setup a whileee ago but took it all out because of too much weight! It's a ton of fun I know how you're feeling right now. Congrats big time man! It looks great!
 

Redmustang47

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Wow thats a really nice set up, how much do you think the dynomat helps, I have been thinking about putting some in my car
 

Nino S

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damn you did not skip a step and went with nothing but the best. I think it was already asked but what did that whole set up cost with labor? did you happen to weigh your car before and after to see how much you picked up? I want to go all out in mine but dont want to add a couple hundred pounds either. very clean install
 

03 black gt

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Damn, pretty insane setup with 2 w7's! Looks like you chose top of the line stuff, and it all looks great. Smart move with the sound deadener, I used to have 2 rockford fosgate power subs in my trunk and it loosened up everything in the entire car from the vibration, especially the dash pieces.
 

Tmac01baller

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That's sick man! Had a similar setup a whileee ago but took it all out because of too much weight! It's a ton of fun I know how you're feeling right now. Congrats big time man! It looks great!

Yeah I thought about the whole weight issue but honestly I don't think I added more than maybe 150lbs. Sometime in the near future I do want to take it to the drag strip but I didn't want to hold back on my audio system just to take the car to the strip a few times. I'll have to worry about that when that time comes lol. But I'm definitely glad I got it all installed..it sounds sick

Wow thats a really nice set up, how much do you think the dynomat helps, I have been thinking about putting some in my car

I definitely think it helps. Like I had mentioned earlier the trunk is almost tomblike and I really can feel the subs when I'm in the car, and then when I step outside it and listen it doesn't sound like my car is about to fall apart. It also eliminated some of the road noise I had. I'm seriously considering doing the whole car one day.

damn you did not skip a step and went with nothing but the best. I think it was already asked but what did that whole set up cost with labor? did you happen to weigh your car before and after to see how much you picked up? I want to go all out in mine but dont want to add a couple hundred pounds either. very clean install

Haha, as things started to add up a few times I thought about going with some cheaper alternatives but I said I'm only going to do this once so might as well go all out. It took me a little while to save up for everything and it definitely wasn't cheap, but I'm glad I got everything I did. I see why they say JL is the top in sound quality equipment.

Altogether with labor, and wiring kits, and electrical upgrades, and speakers, and amps, the headunit and materials it came out to almost $7k:uh oh:
 

XyX

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I figured at least 5...but 7? Props to you, I love my sound but I doubt I could ever drop that much on it.
 

Storm_jordan

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Yeah I thought about the whole weight issue but honestly I don't think I added more than maybe 150lbs. Sometime in the near future I do want to take it to the drag strip but I didn't want to hold back on my audio system just to take the car to the strip a few times. I'll have to worry about that when that time comes lol. But I'm definitely glad I got it all installed..it sounds sick



I definitely think it helps. Like I had mentioned earlier the trunk is almost tomblike and I really can feel the subs when I'm in the car, and then when I step outside it and listen it doesn't sound like my car is about to fall apart. It also eliminated some of the road noise I had. I'm seriously considering doing the whole car one day.



Haha, as things started to add up a few times I thought about going with some cheaper alternatives but I said I'm only going to do this once so might as well go all out. It took me a little while to save up for everything and it definitely wasn't cheap, but I'm glad I got everything I did. I see why they say JL is the top in sound quality equipment.

Altogether with labor, and wiring kits, and electrical upgrades, and speakers, and amps, the headunit and materials it came out to almost $7k:uh oh:

:eek:
 

Tmac01baller

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I figured at least 5...but 7? Props to you, I love my sound but I doubt I could ever drop that much on it.

Haha...I had to make a decision dump money into making the car go faster or build an audio system. I knew I was going to do both but just wasn't sure which one to do first. After like 3 days of debating this I got a speeding ticket so I decided at that moment that the audio system sounded better:thumbsup:
 

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