High End Audio Build - 2018 CX-3 - my neighbors are gonna hate me...

DavidRam

Member
:
2018 CX-3 Touring Ceramic
I'm an audiophile and one of my passions is car audio... Don't confuse this with loud bass that you can hear from a mile away, that is NOT my cup of tea. I like an in-car listening experience that has the detail of a high-end pair of headphones, but can get as loud as a concert!


Just started getting the pieces together for the build:

-Audiofrog tweeters and midbass (active)

-JL Audio TW3 10" (2) subs in a sealed box

-Zapco amps 480watts to front, 1000watts to sub

-MiniDSP to tune, and Fiio X3 hi-res player as the source


With the Fiio as source, the factory audio will be completely bypassed and mostly left functional for phone calls, etc., except for the door speakers.


The entire vehicle will be fully sound deadened with KnuKoncetpz and Soundskinz products.
All wiring will be KnuKonceptz and RCAs will be Stinger 8000 series.

I will be building a sealed sub enclosure out of baltic birch plywood.
The amp rack will be made out of perforated aluminum with LED back lighting.

I'll post pics and progressive as I go... :)
 
LOVE my Focal Polykev's. If you want bright highs, give em a listen.

I'm right there with ya on the Zapco/JL stuff though. Definitely post some pics as you go along
 
Sub box is done.

Sealed with 1.3cf of air space. Built with 3/4, 13 ply, void free, baltic birch... Subs are JL Audio 10TW3-D4s.
 

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Got some work done on the drivers door:

- Sound deadening
- Drilled hole and installed wire loom
- Ran speaker wire for mid bass and tweeter (2 pairs)
- Made a speaker baffle out of HDPE and mounted with AudioFrog adapter
- I didn't like the cheap factory door clips so I replaced those

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Made some little pods to put the tweeters closer to on axis, and especially away from firing directly at the windshield.

After lot's of searching, I found some vinyl that is a near perfect match to the dash.

PVC pipe fitting, aluminum base and epoxy...
 

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Better pictures.

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Ripped open the passenger door to begin sound deadening and mid bass driver install

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Drilled a hole in the factory plug to run the big fat 14 gauge Knukonceptz Karma SS Kable speaker wire

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Progress

pics

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I will drill two large holes in the factory lid/cover for the subs and mount some brackets to the back of the trunk to support it over the amps. The lid will rest on the sub box in the front and on the brackets in the rear, allowing for normal use of the trunk and also be somewhat discrete...
It will easily be able to hold 100lbs again! :)
 
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Finished up the passenger door:

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The doors are much heavier with all the sound deadening, but there is also zero noise coming in from the outside through the doors.

Next I am going to deaden the hell out of the dash and and firewall to reduce the engine noise coming in the cab...
 
Next, is chop up the trunk lid:

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I tried really hard during the measuring process to make sure that the lid would still line up with the car. It would worked :)

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Next is to make a faceplate the will hold the digital audio player, the DSP remote and the bass knob:

all this
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needs to fit here
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Here is the faceplate:

Cardboard template and then cut and bend the stainless steel.

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Test fit. I tapped it up so it wouldn't scratch anything...

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Made the cuts and holes.

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Still need to clean up the back and tighten some of the vinyl edges.

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This should work.
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