pAge oNe: intro
pAge tWo: sound system design
pAge tHreE: pics of it all
pAge fOur: a bit about me
pAge fiVe: ramblings and rants
pAge siX: ********updates*********

********UPDATES***********

So i figured that this is easier to see what changes i'm making.
i just added some LED's to the interior of the car. 15000mcd typ at 20mA; 18000mcd max at 20mA. 30000mcd at 50mA. I paid $18 +ship for 100 QTY from BestHongKong on ebay.




9 in each front door. 5 in each rear door. and two in the rear reading lights. all of the LED's are for courtesy illumination and come on when i open my door, or turn them on manually using the headlamp knob (retains factory operation, just a new glow). i can also use the incandecent bulbs for whatever by pressing their button. they don't come on with the doors now (cuz that would be stupid).
The original door bulbs were removed and two led's were put there. They get 18mA of current at 13.8 VDC. The front doors received seven led's as pictured. they illuminate the ground when i open the door because of how they are aimed. I tried to limit their current to 10mA-15mA. I have two groups in series, 4 and 3 each with different resistor values in series. I utilized the factory plug for the door light so that when i remove the door skin i only need to unplug the harness! Each rear reading led is at 20mA. The radio pictured is an Alpine CDA-7949. I pulled the Blaupunkt to do some bench tests for my latest project. I'll put it back in a couple weeks. The Alpine is a passive head unit, meaning it doesn't have a amplifier. So I have the Rockford 451S running my mids and highs. I'm installing a MTX 3902 to run the sub. It already sounds so much cleaner.

This took about 10 hours start to finish. It would have went quicker, but that includes testing and measuring currents and voltage drops to perfect the install. It has been a month now (installed end of March, 04) and my install has proved to be durable.

I also installed a different sub box, and put two led's in the port. they strobe with the music, since they get their voltage from the amp. I used a Zener diode in parallel with a led and a 120 ohm .5W resistor. finally, another 120 ohm .5W resistor is in series with this combination so the current is controlled when the Zener opens and the sub still gets almost all of the power. This was replaced by the MTX 10's. And the Rockford was replaced by an Xtant 403A (I bought another for my car. The first one is pictured below.)

Added an eq (sorry it's not pictured in the car yet):
Replaced all the speakers in the car:
And replaced the headunit:

As promised, here's a pic of my 98 camry. it's going on 120k mi. I installed the first Xtant 403a, Massive 6.5 components front, and the other Vega 124 sub. This has become my wife's car, and our travel car. I left the stock cd/cass cuz she want cass for books-on-tape (she's an english teacher). And it keeps the system stealth so she doesn't have to hassle with security. and really, it sounds amazing. the xtant does a better job than most. it has built in fans that channel the air across the heatsinks. intake on the right, exhaust on the left. since the rear seats are always up, there is a few inches of space between the amp board and the rear sheet metal on the sides. this allows for easy air flow. The same attention to detail with wiring is used in this car too. it is a very, very musical system. a new head unit would put it above mine in sound. I was going for a stock look with the tweeter placement and paint. what do you think? I must say that this car is hands down the most reliable car i have ever owned. the engine looks like it was just cleaned, and it hasn't been. no oil leaks, no problems. it's riding on Goodyear Regatta II tires and new suspension.