I've just bought an Impreza RB5 Prodrive and so I need to get the stereo put in, most of it was in my mondeo up until last weekend ....

comments would be welcome on my plans, as i've not really been paying much attention to the car hifi scene recently and the subaru
was a bit of an impulse buy!

Alpine 7939 with PXA-H600 (linked by optical) I'll buy a changer (probably cha-624 as its the only current with optical)

Amp is a Soundstream Continuum (5 channel)

Dynaudio system 240 mkII in the front: I'm not sure where to put them as the stock location seems to be totally covered by my legs. not much room for kick panels either so a door build may be necessary.

sub is a jl 12w6 which will need a new box in the boot, probably sealed. Hopefully a subaru is a bit more 'bass friendly' than my mondeo as i never really got the bass end
to 'kick' as i would have liked - it always seemed to be missing something. any suggestions as to which way to face the subs eg into back seat, towards boot, upwards?

i've got some infinity 60cs which i can use for the rear, but i'll need another amp (probably a small soundstream or maybe a genesis) to run them. stock location is rear deck but i guess i'd need to box in
underneath to avoid the sub affecting them badly.

anyone know of any subaru installs on the sound off circuit? i've done a few web searches and have found an alpine of australia demo car, but the info is a bit lacking.

 

An RB5 was an impulse buy!!!!!!!

I wish I had your wallet

[This message has been edited by Doc (edited 23-05-2000).]

 

You've got great components, and a wonderful amp. I'm just installing 2 10W6s, but the 12W6 will provide a goodly amount of bass. Most people recommend firing "out of the boot", as in facing towards the rear of the car.

You'd be surprised how good your midbass speakers may sound in the stock door locations. You should be able to mount them in the door fairly easily by modifying the original pods. Don't be afraid to experiment with tweeter positioning. I'm doing the unthinkable at the moment and it doesn't sound too bad. (tweeters on a-pillars, so I should be getting nasty reflections from the windscreen and they're far too far from the midbass to give coherent tonal balance, but they do - CD Technologies HD62DTs...)

Rear fill: hmm, I have some, and am not sure that it's necessary other than to keep the rear passengers happy (and drown out their screams). I've not actually boxed the speakers off to stop the subs affecting them, but they're playing so quietly that I probably couldn't admit to hearing them distort/bothered. My reasoning was that if the amp has a high damping factor it should control cone movement of the rears well... This is no doubt quite badly flawed as theories go...

There's a guy over in the states selling reconditioned soundstream reference amps that are a couple of years old for exceptionally good prices. (2 x Reference 604 = $525 inc 7 day shipping). I'll let you know more when the amps turn up - drop me an email if interested.

Are you going to be running the front components actively? I guess so if you've run out of amp channels... I don't recall if the 7939 has any amp stage on board, but if it does why not try using that on the rear and see how you feel as to whether you need rear fill or not.

Paul McLoughlin used to do well with his Impreza on the soundoff circuit (in Ireland, I think) until it was stolen. He reckoned it was one of the easier cars to make sound good, but as I'm used to working with smaller cars (hatches), I'm finding otherwise. Still, the panels are easy to get off!

Cheers,

Nick.

 

e - mail this bloke he nows the score:Adam adammessulam@hotmail.com

 

Firstly, as for wanting my wallet: not any more you don't!!

Thanks for the advice, Nick. I'll give the stock locations a try for the mids. I guess having the PXA may enable me to mount the tweeters up on the dash but when i've tried that before it never really sounded quite right.

rear fill is for when I loose the 'what cd to put in' discussion with my 3 year old daughter (which is most of the time) and so that I can fade to the rear to avoid having teletubbies etc sat on the dashboard - must admit, theres some decent basslines on some of the kids stuff

i was using a small kenwood kac-425 to power the rear before, but its useless and so i thought i'd get a half decent amp - how soon will they be arriving?

it looks like there's space for speakers in the bottom of the rear doors though it would require cutting the panels so i'm not too keen.

As for running actively, I'm undecided: i was in my mondeo but was thinking of trying them off the passives and bridging the continuum into 3 channels - i may try both if i get the time!

i assume you're spending a small fortune on dynamat?! the panels seem really tinny and it seems like a ton will be needed (especially in the boot!).

looking at it, i reckon i can get a 2.5 cu/ft sub box in the boot without too much hassle, so i may get the extra 12w6 and run them in 1.25 each, sealed

thanks again.

 

Is this a foreign language to anyone else?

I was just browsing to get some ideas on replacement speakers but…