My Custom speaker box for the 370z
 

I supplied the amp and speaker to my installer. I get all my parts from Sonicelectronix.com (amp + speaker was $530). The installer charged me $600 to build the box and install everything (install parts included), which would put the cost of the box alone in the $350 range.

The amp is a Kicker zx400.1 The speaker is a 12" JL audio 12w6 dual voice coil. Wired in parallel, it is 1.6 ohms, both rated and on my ohm meter. The zx400.1 is rated at 400W into 2ohms. At 1.6 ohms, it is 500W rms (tested).

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k3...utt/Stereo.jpg

The box is coated in a black vinyl with color and texture just like the plastic panels in the rear hatch. The base of the box is done in fiberglass. They layed down sheets of tin foil on the carpet in the rear hatch, then layed sheets of fiberglass over that, then the hardening agent, to build the base of the box so it fits the cargo hatch perfectly (the tin foil was just to protect the carpet and once the resin dried, the foil was removed). The sides and top are MDF particle board. The bass boost control is in the center console next to the the Ipod connector.

The box fits very tight, but can easily be removed and does not rattle in any way. The box is 2" taller than the aluminum cross brace, but does not obstruct rear view in the mirror, or looking over your shoulder into the cargo bay. The flush mount area for the amp is actually a boxed in recess with a sheet of vinyl over particle board with a cutout the size of the amp, then the amp bolted to the back side of the particle board. If I wanted to change out to a bigger amp, They would just have to re-cut a bigger hole for the amp to mount a new one.

I have the sport/touring model with nav, so this is in addition to the stock bose nav system. It sounds fastastic. My first speaker was defective and my installer gave me a kicker CVR as a loaner and the sound sucked in comparison. The Kicker was probably 2 db louder.....which is noticable. But, it rolled off around 60hz, so the sound provided was 30-80 hz and that's it. I had a big gap in the frequency range between 80-150 hz until the stock Bose system started to come in. When I got the JL audio speaker, it was night and day. It still gets louder than I need and can easily overpower the stock Bose system even though it is not as lound as the Kicker speaker was. The JL speaker doesnt start to roll off until around 120hz and with the amp set at frequency center of 100 hz, it fills very nicely all the way up to 150hz and meets up where the Bose system starts to fall off.

^^ Do you have a picture ??

More pics please

I will. I have been shooting from iPhone because I couldn't find the usb cable to my camera. I left for vacation and won't be back until mid next week. I found my usb cable in my suitcase. LOL!

I uploaded this pic from iPhone to laptop in my hotel room.... so probably next weekend before I ahve more pictures up. :icon14:

Hey Phimosis - How was your experience with sonicelectronix.com? Would you reccommend them? I'm looking into getting some focal speakers and a jl audio amp from them.

I have personally done all of my business through sonicelectronix for the last year or more and I love them. Fast delivery, good customer service, but kind of a crappy return policy. I have never had to return anything from them, but if you read through the policy, it kind of sucks. Anyway I give em 2 thumbs way up.

(I do not work for this company)

I'd like to see more pics of this too. Like from the front and as close of a side view as you can get.

Good location. Still have lots of usable trunk space with it.

I have bought about $3k worth of stuff from them and this was my first defective product. It got fixed, so still no problems overall and since I live in SoCal, I can will-call stuff and get it the same day.

Will get more pix next week.

-Phim

Thanks for the quick review of sonicelectronix.com rreign and phimosis. I am going to order an amp and some components from them. I'll start a new thread when I get everything installed.

Rock on... it's no problem at all.

Looks pretty nasty man. That's a great design. I like

where did you pick up the signal to add the sub amp?
looks bad A$$

Pick up what signal? H/U + Wiring Harness + Speakers/Sub + Amp and wires = Sound. There is no "signal" to pick up. He has the Bose system and they make a Bose integration system for just about everything. Even if he didn't have the bose integration he could just splice RCA's from the amp to the stock speakers and voila.

There are a few ways to get the audio signal to the amp with a factory system. Often you can just splice off of the speaker wire output and use a line level converter which results in an RCA output.

HaHa, see shouldn't try to post when I had only been up for like an hour. He was talking about the audio signal... my dumb *** was thinking signal like from satellite or something

That's exactly what my installer did. Remove 4" Bose subwoofer, splice input wire, add hi/low convertor, send rca off to the new amp and 12" sub.

I've done this before on my current car that has a Bose system, and everything the bass hit the treble would lower...it got really annoying. I had to get a new headunit and run the subwoofer directly to it and that fixed the problem.

More pix as promised:
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k34/ldmcnutt/001.jpg
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k34/ldmcnutt/002.jpg
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k34/ldmcnutt/003.jpg
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k34/ldmcnutt/004.jpg
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k34/ldmcnutt/005.jpg
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k34/ldmcnutt/009.jpg
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k34/ldmcnutt/010.jpg
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k34/ldmcnutt/015.jpg
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k34/ldmcnutt/016.jpg
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k34/ldmcnutt/017.jpg

You can see a tiny ammount of particle board around the vinyl on the amp board. when it bugs me enough, Ill get out a black sharpy and color it!

I lifted the box so you can see the fiberglass job on the bottom side. When its sitting in it's proper position, it fits in there tight as shiznizzle and you don't see any unflinished edges (except the amp board). It won't move at under under acceleration, cornering or braking.

PS. Yes, I know my job with Maguires vinyl conditioner sucks. I did it in a poorly lit garage and couldnt see the missed areas like you can when the flash is on!

PPS the box was made by "The Audio Shop" 1330 23rd St, Bakersfield, CA (661) 864-0954

That's a really nice box. I'll have to gauge my system and see if a sub is necessary. If so this seems to be a great route.

I have done some more searching and found that CustomBoxMan on eBay has made some really nice set-ups for around $130-$160. I always do my own builds so I'll probably just steel his idea.