Custom surround system in car

Regarding the sticky topic "Who has surround sound in their car(s)?" I was about to ask you guys who have a custom made system to put on some pictures of your system.

I had to upgrade a basic 4.0 system in my car to a better designed and configured 5.1 system
It took few months to think, design and realize it but now I have almost finished it and I'll put on some pictures.
I first thought that front and rear seats should play in surround in just the same manner.
With factory system I had 4 speakers, one for door, nice in stereo but awful in surround.

As soon as I get it working with the upgrades I'll tell you how it plays.

Ok guys,
everything works!
Here are some pictures taken from my setup

All right, let's explain the pictures above:

pic #1 is my custom-made center speaker, it took a lifetime to understand where to put it in my car without break anything. I had two mini battery lamps which weren't working and I've found out it could fit into car's bottle carrier. And it was! now let's go further with this tour, I'll be back on this on the last picture

pic #2 it's a 15 years old Sony 40+40W amplifier I bought when I was younger. I plugged in the center channel and a subwoofer. No filters needed.

pic #3 and 4 It's my subwoofer. I saw various setups in internet where the sub was placed in spare wheel compartment. I had to turn my wheel upside down and add some adhesive foam because of the sub magnet which was too close to the wheel. Believe it or not that 80W subwoofer placed there plays so good I couldn't believe to my years!!!

pic #5 and 6 here you will see I wanted to place my original speakers because I thought everyone, both in front or in the rear seats should enjoy surround sound in almost the same condition...

pic #7 ... and that's why I had to mod my ISO connector to play front/rear door speakers both the same front channels, and rears on those speakers you saw in pic #6

pic #8 here's my jewel JVC KD-AVX33 in its full (dirt) beauty. It's playing my own J5 in Japan DVD-A conversion

pic #9 it's a close-up on my center speakers. I think I payed the 9 euros. They are 2-way 8 cm, because of their mid-high frequency range I had to change my JVC setup to play it as small (they are small! )

Here's how it sounds.
My little amp is completely dedicated to the center and sub, and initially I was a little afraid I couldn't get enough punch and power (all the other speakers are driven by my JVC)
Guess what??
It's loud and clear, no eq or filter applyed and the center and the sub are perfectly balanced with the rest of the setup. The last test I did was to listen to it both in front and in the rear seats... PERFECT!

p.s. I once filled my car's trunk with various things to hear if the subwoofer would have changed sound, but it plays as if there was nothing there!

To me it's a full AAAAAAA++++++++

(sorry if it took a long reading and space)

p.s.2 Should I wash my car one of these days?

Very nice Luca. It looks like you spent a lot of time and effort, I'm glad that it turned out so well. I assume that there is a opening for the subwoofer?

Car installs are fun, and challenging as well. Looks like you did a really great job!

That is a really cool install. I'll bet it sounds great. Which sounds better, the front seats or the rear seats?

BananaSlug said:

Very nice Luca. It looks like you spent a lot of time and effort, I'm glad that it turned out so well. I assume that there is a opening for the subwoofer?

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Thanks, as the pictures tell, there is no opening and that's the fun.
I once had this subwoofer in another car that was done "professionally" by a friend of mine but it never played so good :banana:

georgeshannon said:

That is a really cool install. I'll bet it sounds great. Which sounds better, the front seats or the rear seats?

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George, front and rear seats sound equal.