JonW

Said Id write it up... Here's the first installment for the speakers, Dynamat and foam to follow when I get time... Nick if you want to use this for the FAQ drop me a line and I'll send you Word Docs, Jon.


Fitting Infinity 6.02CS speakers to MY00
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(My own experiences interspersed with info from other posts)

You will Need:
· 6mm MDF
· The FAQ
· 1-2metres of quality speaker cable (more if rewiring from headunit to the doors)
· two spade connectors (if using Subaru loom from headunit to Doors, an interim solution at best)

Warning: If you break or ruin anything doing this you’re on your own, this worked for me and I supply this information in good faith, errors and omissions excepted.

Notes:
· This guide is to be read in conjunction with the FAQ.
· This assumes you start with all trim and old speakers removed.

Woofer
As I didn’t want to cut the splashgurad off the back of the Subaru fitting I decided to use a spacer, I also didn’t want to alter any of the original bits too much in case I needed to put the old stuff back in at any time.
Removed the steel grilles from the Infinity ‘spacers’. Place these on the MDF and draw round. Cut these out with a jigsaw. Place the plastic spacer on the MDF ring and mark the 3 holes for the 3 pins on the Subaru speaker to door housing, these are the small hole all out on its own (turn the ring round and look at the hole pattern and you’ll see it. Also mark the two elongated holes that form a triangle between the 3 points - If you’re not sure what I mean, place the plastic spacer over the Subaru fitting and it should be quite obvious. Drill these holes out and test for fit on the Subaru fitting. Once happy with the fit of the spacer, lift it off and check to see where the 3 screw holes are on the Subaru fitting for the speaker, compare these with the plastic spacer and mark them on the MDF spacer and drill out (they are all elongated holes). With the MDF and plastic spacers fitted test the speaker in the subaru fitting and see where the connections touch the bottom of the fitting. Use a Jig saw to cut a piece out of the fitting to accommodate the connectors (about 7.5mm to 1cm deep and a good 2 to 3cm wide). Fit the MDF spacer back on the Subaru fitting and mark the 3 ‘corners’ where the flanges are for fitting to the car door. Jig saw these off at an angle to give more room for fitting the screws.
With all this done, give it all a good clean up and bolt together. Solder on some decent speaker wire (I used 2.5mm stuff) and after Dynamating the doors fit the woofer. Run the cable up the inside of the door and into the hole for the wiring of the crossover, approx. 6" in from the hinge half way up the door.

Tweeter
Ignore all the fitting bits in the kit and start with the standard tweeter as no drilling is to be done here. Unsolder the existing bell wire and fit new cable (I actually used the spare length of cable in the kit as it was better quality than the stuff fitted and not too big to fit on the unit) 1.5mm is about right it seems.
Cut the plastic door liner open with a knife just in front of the door handle (check the placing by offering up the handle / tweeter cover) and then put bluetak on the metal, covering the split in the plastic, keeping everything watertight. You could tape the plastic back if you prefer. Fit the tweeter on a blob of bluetak and run the cable taping it down the door liner to keep it neat.

Crossover
The crossovers can go into the hollow in the door about 1/2 way up the door and about 6" from the hinge along the door. Cut back the splash guard I did this in the shape of an asterisk (*) and then used duct tape to stick everything down providing a nice hollow. In this space there is a nice 1" wide bar (backside of the window winder mech.) there which accepts a blob of blu-tak quite nicely on the back of the x-over. Tight fit but that's good. Make sure you site the Crossover with terminal facing down in case it gets wet.

Make sure all cable ends are soldered up and screw down tight, clip on the cover and one extra piece of tape over the Crossover will hold it all in place. I also taped on an extra bit of foam offcut to the unit in case it decided to move (unlikely but I didn’t want to have to take the door panel off too many times!), this will be fine but leave this off if you intend to put the 1 inch foam in the doors.

Cabling
Make up a small cable with two make connectors on it. Insulate and then connect this to the Subaru connector that brings the head unit output to the doors. The +ve is the red and yellow speaker wire on an MY00, but to check yours trace the wires from the ISO output on the headunit to the Subaru loom if in any doubt. This is a bodge really as the standard loom cables are awful bell wire and you really do need to think about wiring the Crossover back to the headunit with decent cable (or to an amp if you have one fitted)

Connect the Tweeter and Woofer to the sections of the crossover as indicated in the ‘manual’ or as etched into the crossover board. Once you've fitted the wires to the crossover, grease or vaseline the contacts.

Hints -
"do it in daylight, when it is not windy, and go slowly. Use hand tools gently, your trim may be removed/refitted several times. Soundproof the door skins, especially behind the speaker magnet. Screw everything fairly tight so it doesn't vibrate. Ideally change the speaker wiring all the way back to the source - especially if using an amp - makes an obvious difference just like with a home system. Add an amp, it makes a huge difference to the sound quality, and get one more powerful than you think you need - the Infinitys are rated at 90WRMS 270W peak, and they happily take 150WRMS (in reality headunit outputs claimed at 4x50WRMS are actually <4x15WRMS). If installing an amp, get good thick cable (pref 4AWG or at least 8 - I went for 8 and wish I'd got 4). Buy good quality RCA cable to minimise noise. Get a good earth connection - just as important as positive from battery."

gregh

Interesting topic, I just swopped my fronts for Infinity 605CS, are the 02's a better speaker? The 605CS drops straight in, uses the Subaru splashguard, with no drilling, spacers etc.

cheers,

Greg

JonW

Cheers Greg. No idea what the 605's are like im afraid, im guesing they are not as deep hence they dont need any spacers / trimming of the splashguard. The 6.02's are the Kappa range of Infinity (and the new model of the 6.01CS), cost about £160 or so, they should be 'better' than the 605 (about £90 IIRC) but weather I'd tell the difference I dont know, I just felt flush at the time so bought the more expensive ones.

Jon.