Andrew LB

Well... today was a fun day tearing apart my 1 month old beloved Evo IX. I recently installed a Clarion Pro Audio DXZ655MP and hard wired it up to my I-Pod as well as into the Infiniti amplifier. Today i was a little more ambitious and installed my SoundStream Reference 500s amplifier running at 1ohm to power my two 12" Boston Acoustics Pro Series subwoofers. Since the car was new, i took my sweet time... mainly because i had not taken apart an EVO before. It was much easier than I thought. Well... except for getting the 4ga power cable routed properly from the battery, across the sway bar, through a gromet which leads into the fender well and about 2" later, back into the car through another gromet... then along the right side of the car where it then popped out of the carpet to plug into the amp which i mounted under the front passengers seat. The remote wire runs down the left side of the center console and the RCA's run down the right side of it.

The subs are only sitting on my back seat for the night since i need to pickup some longer speaker wire for them since the length i had was for my Audi which had the amp mounted to the back of the rear seats. I found the way i mounted it much easier and adjustments are very easy to get to.

Yeah... its plain and simple.... but thats the way i like it. I'm planning on making a quick disconnect system for the subs so i can take them out for the track. Havent figured that out yet.

Its now raining out so i still have to clean everything up, move the box to the trunk, re-install a few things like the front passenger seat and center console... and the cubby below the climate controls. The sound is simply amazing though. The deck has so many custom settings i can program in to change with the push of a button according to what music i'm listening to or if i want to just annoy the neighbors.

Everything went very well. I didn't manage to shock myself this time like i've done on a few of my dozens of installs i've done over the years.


Well... enough of my talk. Here are a few photos of my afternoon.

crazy4ozs

looks good man, what about the subs tho?

Andrew LB

I only had the subs sitting on the back seat just to test it out. They'lll be moved to the truck tomorrow when i build brackets for them and get longer speaker wire.

The 12" Boston Acoustics Pro Series in a sealed box REALLY ROCK. They excell in all types of music and sound just beautiful.

I'll put them back there when i get some longer speaker cable. Until then, i'm leaving them as-is since i have to unbolt the seat again in order to just change cables unless i find an allan wrench shaped flat head screw driver.

I've also got 100sq ft of www.fatmat.com on the way. I'm dying to deaden the trunk and door panels.

Here they were in my Audi A4.

Andrew LB

Here are the subs in my trunk: I left the stock sub connected and in place due to mitsubishi saving $0.05 on the square foot of carpeting that they trimmed around the sub. If i took it out, i'd have a section of bare metal showing.

As for the sound quality.... its AWESOME. I'm suprised how little rattling i hear in this car when i crank up the music.

I also have 100sq ft of www.fatmat.com which is just as good as dynamat extreme at a fraction of its price. The huge roll was only $100 and is enough to do the entire trunk, all four doors, and probably some floor sections like under the back seat and the rear deck.

Its also pretty light weight. The entire 100sq ft is only 30lbs. I'll post up some pics of the install when it arrives hopefully tomorrow.

13-0

iTrader: (1)

oldies but goodies- are you sure those are the pros? look like rallys to me but Im not too familiar with the BA subs. The 500 is a classic. Now get some BA zs up front.

Andrew LB

Yep they are pros. I ordered them directly from Boston Acoustics about 6 years ago when my friend worked at a stereo shop. Paid $130 each instead of the MSRP of $399 each at the time.

The amp is also an oldie. Its roughly 9 years old but is in perfect condition. I replaced the power supply about a year ago and all is well. Not many companies these days make amplifiers with this kind of quality IMO without charging you over a grand. Soundstream made the most amazing products back in the day but unfortunately they went down the drain since they got bought out a few years back.

I dig the amp so much i'm considering buying a 4 channel Reference amp used of Ebay and having the manufacturer refurb it so i can power the boston pro components i'm saving for.

Right now i'm in the middle of a sound deadening job. 100sq ft of www.fatmat.com extreme is currently being put in my Evo in my garage. I have almost the entire interior gutted.

Kurt

iTrader: (1)

I see you mounted your amp under your seat. I did that too. People often wonder why I have a sub in my trunk but no amp. I find that the amp doesn't get as hot under the seat than it did in my trunk.

Nice job on the install.

SLVROZ_03

iTrader: (10)

Soundstream was the **** back then...Couldn't afford any of them back then, but always admired their quality...

Andrew LB

I got the same response from a few friends already. I figured under the seat would get better airflow, i could use shorter wires, and IMO.... EVO's don't have the greatest locations in the trunk to mount amplifiers unless you bolt them to your box or get some crazy custom enclosure.


Yeah. I've had this amplifier for about 10 years now and it rocks just as good now as it did the day I bought it. And yes.... it was VERY expensive back then. I think i paid around $600 back in 1997 for this amplifier and DAMN did i get my money's worth.

Whats amazing is how well built they are. not only do they have true Dual Class A output stages which handles like 6 times the drive current of almost any amp of its day, it also can run all the way down to 1/2ohm. It also uses a way overbuilt Darlington Power Array and military spec circuitry.

Personally, i cannot think of many amps built today which use such insanely high quality design and parts that are anywhere near that price range. I think you'd have to spend thousands to get that kind of quality.

The only issue i had with it was "user error" and something caught the ground cable in my trunk of my Audi and it yanked the ground OUT of the amp. Sparks flew, smoke filled the car. I was devastated.

But the good side was that PowerAcoustik (who now owns soundstream and destroyed their quality) only charged me $125 to replace the power supply and it was good as new.

I recently found a Reference 1000s on ebay with a blown power supply for only like $180. If its still there, i'm grabbing it tonight.

I would love to power my Boston Pro 12's with 1000w RMS of power.

Andrew LB

Well.... i won the auction for $169 USD. Plus another $125 to refurb..... and i'll be rockin.


I'm going to use my reference 500s for my front components.

ThunderOZ

iTrader: (26)

looks good...Whats the rms on those speakers and amp?

Andrew LB

The amp is rated at 500w RMS. But I just ordered a used (which soundstream will be refurbing for me) SoundStream 1000s which is 1000 watts RMS.

Boston Acoustics Website says these Pro Series 12.5L 4ohm subs can handle up to about 1200w max. So basically i'll be powering them to the very limit of their power handling.

diegoalunan

cant wait to do my own audio system on my 9!!