[Beerdrnkr]

Posting up my build log a little earlier than I intended but here it goes. I recently just got rid of my 2015 subaru wrx and picked up a 2015 Chevy Colorado Z71. As I do with all my vehicles first, I decided to tackle the stereo system.

So the plan was to not go as crazy as I always do and go with a simple 2way active frontstage, leave the stock rear speakers with fader control, and add a couple of 10" subs under the rear seats. I had some extra speaker wires ran to the doors just in case I decide to go 3way active later down the line. Here's the equipment:

Stock Headunit
Mini C-DSP 6x8 - https://www.minidsp.com/products/minidsp-in-a-box/c-dsp-6x8
Arc Audio XDi1200.6 - XDi 1200.6*| Arc Audio
Arc Audio XDi1100.1 - XDi 1100.1*| Arc Audio
Hybrid Audio Imagine I69-2V2- Imagine I69-2V2 Speaker Set - 12v Electronics
(2) Dayton Audio LS10-44 -http://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-ls10-44-10-low-profile-subwoofer-dual-4-ohm--295-251


Here's a pic of the vehicle and some more to come.

 

[Beerdrnkr]

Did a few other things to the vehicle. I added some tint, blacked out the tail lights, and added some LED's to all the interior lights. I'll get some pics soon of that. And here's a few pics of some of the items I'll be installing.

 

[Beerdrnkr]

I had a couple of issues with the Rockford Fosgate 3sixty.3 that I traded for, apparently it was a bad unit and ended up having bad outputs and blew my tweeters. So now I have the Mini DSP and some new tweeters ready to install. I have tomorrow off so I'll be able to get more into detail and provide more pics.

Here's a few pics of part of the install including sound deadening. Tomorrow I'll have the replacement tweeters installed, mini-dsp and controller installed, raamaudio ensolite and fast rings applied to the doors and rear wall, mdf baffles for the 6x9's (factory plastic baffle comes too far out and the speaker hits the factory grille when played loudly), and finally once the box for the subs come in those will be installed as well.

 

[mango87]

You aren't one of these guys that go racing down my street bumping S**t so loud my windows vibrate are you?

 

[HotHead]

I know there is good stuff comin', but that pic of the torn apart cab is depressing. But keep us posted on the audio progress of course!

 

[Beerdrnkr]

You aren't one of these guys that go racing down my street bumping S**t so loud my windows vibrate are you?

If I wanted to be that loud I'd remove the back seats and throw some 18" subs back there or do a blowthrough setup. I like my music to sound the way it was intended to sound.

I know there is good stuff comin', but that pic of the torn apart cab is depressing. But keep us posted on the audio progress of course!

I let the professionals handle this truck, after doing my own install on my Subaru I realized I just don't have the patience and my anger ends up breaking clips etc. Lol

Pics of my last setup and vehicle:

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[USAFquez]

I just ordered the same box from SubThump yesterday. It should be here on the 11th. I'll be throwing in a pair of Rockford P3SD2-10 powered by R500X1D that'll all be here tomorrow. Since you mention you'll be keeping your factory head unit, where will you be tapping factory speaker wire to get your audio signal?

 

[Beerdrnkr]

I just ordered the same box from SubThump yesterday. It should be here on the 11th. I'll be throwing in a pair of Rockford P3SD2-10 powered by R500X1D that'll all be here tomorrow. Since you mention you'll be keeping your factory head unit, where will you be tapping factory speaker wire to get your audio signal?

I tapped into the front left and right speakers. If you tap into both front and rear speakers the door chimes and stuff will be too loud.

Got some more sound deadening done, added some mdf baffles and fast rings. I don't have any resonance or vibration issues. The doors were already solid so this was just added security. I really enjoy how quiet this trucks interior is.

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[Beerdrnkr]

So originally we had the front and rear speaker level outs going to the processor but the chimes etc were way too loud, even when I turned all those down through the settings. So we ended up only running the front level outs to the processor plus it allowed me to keep my rear speakers with fader control. It also fixed the issue with the loud chimes.

The 0/1g was ran through the firewall and fuse holder added near the battery.

The dash speaker pods are about 4" wide which is already giving me ideas about a possible 3way setup...lol

The amps are mounted underneath both front seats with plenty of room for me to go back to my normal seating position and the rear passengers aren't going to have their feet on top of them either.

The processor is sitting behind the rear seats. I still have to take off the rear panel and add some more deadening before I install the subs. Should be done soon!

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[tourenwagen]

Wow nice set up so far! Look forward to seeing the end result.

 

[Beerdrnkr]

Wow nice set up so far! Look forward to seeing the end result.

Thanks!

So I received the box and the ribs from the subwoofers baskets are a little too large. So I got out the dremmel with the small sanding attachment and went to town on the box. In the end the subs fit perfectly.

Added some polyfill to the box. I wasn't too scientific on it but I tried to add it evenly on each side even though the subs share the airspace.

Added the box to the truck and it fits nicely. Fired it up quickly but didn't really have any time to tune it before heading off to work. So far I'm really happy with how they sound. I wanted to add some ensolite to the rear wall behind the seats but I have no rattles at all so I might not go through the trouble.

The subs seem to drop off around 30-35hz so I'll experiment with the eq, and also removing and adding more polyfill.

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[RatRacer]

That squared corner sticking out below the rounded seat bottom would drive me nuts. Otherwise, nice job.

 

[Beerdrnkr]

Yeah it does bother me too. I have a friend who could build me a box with kerfed edges but he's been really busy building other boxes for much bigger builds and I'm impatient. Lol

Next mods will most likely be to black out the third brake light to match the tail lights, get the tune for some more power, and possibly the intake or some side steps. Also thinking of going with 3" mids in the dash and moving the tweeters to the sail panels on the doors for a 3way active setup.

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[Beerdrnkr]

Got my Colorado all cleaned up. And here's some shots of the smoked rear lights. LED's in the interior and license plate lights have also been replaced.

Another shot of the processors preset box and I installed a remote bass knob.

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[Beerdrnkr]

After I finish the system I'll be getting the trifecta tune which has an eco, power, and towing mode and will add about 30hp/30 ft/lbs of torque. Should be a tad better on mpg in the eco mode with better shifting as well.

I'm also going to black out the front/back chevy emblems and the side colorado badges and de-badge the rear colorado badge.

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[Toughsox]

Im loving it all, nice job.

 

[Toughsox]

@Beerdrnkr I noticed you have the steering wheel controls on your steering wheel. Were you able to maintain those and if so, where the heck did you tie in.

Same goes for the USB connections. While the Kenwood I picked up has a wire to use one, is there a way to tie it in to the existing ports in the vehicle?

 

[Beerdrnkr]

@Beerdrnkr I noticed you have the steering wheel controls on your steering wheel. Were you able to maintain those and if so, where the heck did you tie in.

Same goes for the USB connections. While the Kenwood I picked up has a wire to use one, is there a way to tie it in to the existing ports in the vehicle?

Sorry, I didn't see this post til now. Yeah I was able to maintain mine because I'm using the factory head unit into an outboard processor.

This also allowed me to retain all my USB ports. In my Subaru there was an adapter that would basically plug in to the stock USB harness and then that runs to your aftermarket headunit. I don't know if anyone's made one for chevy. I haven't opened up the back of the USB ports to see what kind of an adapter it would need.

Maybe there's a way you can just run the USB from the kenwood and mount it to where your stock USB plugs are?

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[Beerdrnkr]

Got some more work on the truck done over the last two days. Only thing I still need to do is add some fast rings to the 3" mids in the dash (forgot to add them).

So I ordered a new pair of unity 3" mids for the dash location.

Pretty beefy little speakers. I haven't heard or read much about them so I didn't really know what to expect.

With just a little trimming with a box cutter, I was able to fit the speakers in there. I stuffed the pockets with some polyfill I had left over but totally forgot to put the fast rings around the speakers. I'll do that some other time. Here's the speakers mounted.

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[Beerdrnkr]

So then I had to figure out where to put my tweeters and decided on the sail panels.

The nice thing about these is that I can still play with the aiming on the tweeters.

And here they are with both installed and the mids.

With a simple tune on it today, I'm 100% happy with the setup. The midbass is excellent, the mids are great, the highs I had to turn down a bit because they were a bit bright and I still have to play with the aiming, the bass sounds great as well. The bass doesn't have a ton of extension at the very low end around 25hz (I haven't tried boosting the low end yet), but overall the bass is super tight and clean. I have 0 rattle with sub bass and just the slightest bit in the doors with the midbass which I'm playing down to 55hz at the moment. Really excited to see what this will do once I get some more tuning time with it.


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