# Complete Alpine-R Audio Upgrade!!



## Cruzified12 (Sep 29, 2011)

It will not be finished for a few more days but here is whats going in.
Front: Alpine SPR-60C
Rear: Alpine SPR-60
Trunk: Alpine SWR-T10
Amps: Alpine PDX-M6
Alpine PDX-F4
Processor: Alpine PXE-H660
Wiring: Kicker PKD1 Dual-Amp Kit
Metra Multiconductor Cable
Monster 16 Gauge Speaker Wire 50'
Personally the downgraded pioneer speakers sounded better than the $400 upgrade that sounded, in my opinion, like garbage. I planned on ripping it all out anyway. I'll get some pics up during the install for those wanting a much better audio set up while keeping OEM look.

I'm unsure where to mount the 2 amps and audio processor but I'm sure someone will give me a good idea. Custom fiberglass sealed box is already in progress for the area between the wheel well and tail light on the drivers side to save what little trunk space there is.


----------



## pntballer925 (Feb 27, 2011)

just mount the amps to the back of the seat in the trunk


----------



## Rescue09 (Oct 6, 2011)

I plan to put my sub there too. How much did this whole setup run you?


----------



## osiris10012 (Feb 4, 2011)

just a heads up the backs of the seats in the cruze are metal with carpet overlay.


----------



## Cruzified12 (Sep 29, 2011)

My trunks normally filled with tools and gear so the back of the seats wouldn't work anyway. They're gonna end up where the 6x9 holes are more than likely. I have about $1500 wrapped up so far but I'm sure I'll have to add at least one more thing as I go along.


----------



## Sour Kruat's 951 (Nov 9, 2010)

Cruzified12 said:


> They're gonna end up where the 6x9 holes are more than likely.



Are saying you are going to mount your amps where the 6x9's would go? Amps do not like to be mounted upside down because of heat. Now if you want to flip them over and make some kind of a rack to where the heat sinks face up, go ahead.


----------



## queencitypr0 (Feb 16, 2011)

Sounds like a pretty good setup. How much did it cost you? I'm planning something similar with some JL stuff. Has anyone actually hooked up a real time analyzer to see if and how much the oem unit is equalizing the sound. I want to upgrade my system to but not sure if i'm going to need a dsp. I know the unit is cutting bass but if that's all its doing then I will just buy a bass processor for less than half the price of a full dsp.


----------



## Cruzified12 (Sep 29, 2011)

*Amp mounting and wiring*

Here's some updates on the install. I had it all hooked up to hear it and the digital processor definitely makes a difference when you have subs hooked up. Mine has Alpines imprint tuning built in which I just set up but since my car is still half torn apart I'll have to re-tune everything once the cars back together. I've also heard people say that the door chime and other chimes linked through the radio become amplified with just an output converter but no matter what tuning I've done the chimes stay the same volume. The only problem I have so far is I have that annoying whining through the speakers from the alternator. I have never had that problem so hopefully someone on here has a good solution.


----------



## FatKidsCruze (Sep 2, 2011)

Looking good, are those replacement grilles or is it a decal of some sort?


----------



## Cruzified12 (Sep 29, 2011)

FatKidsCruze said:


> Looking good, are those replacement grilles or is it a decal of some sort?


 The stock grilles do not come out so I just took the decal that comes with 3m double stick tape and put it on the stock grille.


----------



## joewatson86 (Jul 6, 2011)

"The only problem I have so far is I have that annoying whining through the speakers from the alternator. I have never had that problem so hopefully someone on here has a good solution. "

Hey Cruzified12, I like your amp install, very clean and it doesn't take up our valuable trunk space. To answer the question above, this is from your RCA signal wires and your power cable running side by side. The RCA'a act like antennae and since the power is a noisy signal, it will pick up on that and transfer it to your speakers and subs. Since the car might still be apart, I would suggest running the RCA's on the other side of the car (passenger side) to avoid this. The further these cables are away form eachother the less chance there is for crosstalk (RCA'a picking up the power noise). All in all though, nice setup!


----------



## Cruzified12 (Sep 29, 2011)

joewatson86 said:


> To answer the question above, this is from your RCA signal wires and your power cable running side by side.


If your referring to the picture I put up that's actually my speaker wires. My RCAs come out of my sound processor mounted directly below my amps so those are only 1 meter long. If speaker wire has the same effect I can just run those elsewhere. Surprisingly there's room in the Cruze to run wiring just about anywhere!


----------



## joewatson86 (Jul 6, 2011)

The speaker wires do have the same effect but unless it's running the entire way (from your amp to your speaker) along with the power cable then this shouldn't happen. If this *is* the case, try keeping your power cable away from the signal cables (RCA's, speaker wires etc.) as much as possible (opposite sides of the car is best) and that should fix any noise coming from the engine bay. Also, make sure your grounds from your amps are metal-to-metal and not metal-to-paint. This could create a different reference ground than seen by the alternator and might be causing some issues but this is very unlikely to cause the whining you are hearing.


----------



## Cruzified12 (Sep 29, 2011)

*Update*

After running the power wire away from everything else it fixed most of the distortion problem so the rest is a little tuning. However after my sub quit yesterday I checked all the wires and no shorts so I pulled the sub out of the box and it was toast. Pieces of the burnt voice coils filled the inside of the sealed box so its going back to alpine for replacement. I have heard this from someone else with the same sub online with it repeatedly blowing. It sounded pretty good but I was not impressed for what I paid for it unless I really did have a defective one. The audio guy I use has done $20,000 systems so I believe him when he says that alpines audio processor is probably the worst one I could have bought so that's getting replaced with something else after a little trial and error with some other converters and processors. Speakers, Amps, Wiring and everything else is installed. Sounds awesome but I'm held up till he orders my new processor and replacement sub. Here's the box I started.


----------



## Rescue09 (Oct 6, 2011)

Looks like the box will come out pretty sweet. Keep up the good work.


----------



## SuperRS (Jan 6, 2012)

HeyCruzified12,

I am planning a similar project, I have the Pioneer crap upgrade and i amlooking to to do Alpine amps. Did you have the Pioneer amp? Did you replace thefactory head unit? I see from your pictures it looks like you had twisted RCAcables, if you did not replace the head unit did you use converters?

I have done these projects before many times, and I know they are completelyeasier when you replace the head unit, but I am trying to keep the factory headunit or get a factory styled touch screen. The wiring to the factory pioneeramp it the rear of the vehicle leads me to think i can reuse this wiring forthe speakers..

If you have and advice I would really appreciate it!

Thank you
SuperRS


----------



## Sandman (Dec 31, 2011)

Cruzified12 said:


> The only problem I have so far is I have that annoying whining through the speakers from the alternator. I have never had that problem so hopefully someone on here has a good solution.


I read the other poster's comment about the wires running side by side - that's definitely a recipe for noise. Something else to look at though, and keep in mind it's been a long time since I did car audio (I still have my old amps from my system in the early 90's - Orion old school stuff!), but you may also have a ground loop. I've avoided this by making sure the only ground that my amps see is the ground wire. If the chassis of the amp is grounded as well, it can cause noise... at least it could back in the day. I always mounted my amps to something non-conductive. Maybe that'll help...


----------



## Cruze_EcoJAY (Nov 29, 2011)

If you made these boxes and sold em on here I bet you would get quite a bit of sales


----------



## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

Cruze_EcoJAY said:


> If you made these boxes and sold em on here I bet you would get quite a bit of sales


Assuming you had a sub that worked well in a small sealed box, yes.


----------



## Cruze_EcoJAY (Nov 29, 2011)

XtremeRevolution said:


> Assuming you had a sub that worked well in a small sealed box, yes.


Could make it ported too if needed


----------



## Cruze_EcoJAY (Nov 29, 2011)

I am not really big into subs but I would do that on either side with like 8inch kickers


----------



## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

Cruze_EcoJAY said:


> Could make it ported too if needed


Judging by the size of that box visually, you would be limited to a 6.5" if you wanted to go ported. Very few subs do well in small sealed boxes. Even fewer subs do well in small ported boxes. 

The 8" Alpine Type-R is arguably the best 8" driver on the market. Its motor strength to cone area ratio is very high, making it an excellent SQ sub that works very well in small boxes. Its a very different subwoofer from the 10" and 12" versions. If you're looking for SQ and want something bigger, you'll be looking at the expensive Alpine Thins or another brand entirely.


----------



## Cruzified12 (Sep 29, 2011)

Cruze_EcoJAY said:


> If you made these boxes and sold em on here I bet you would get quite a bit of sales


 I made that box as far as the picture shows. I soon realized one 10" sub was not enough so I ended up getting 2 12's with a ported box. If anyone on here knows fiberglass and wants to finish it, send me the money to ship it and have a blast. Its for a single 10" Alpine Type R shallow mount sub with inside cubic dimension of almost exactly what Alpines shallow mount calls for. Sealed of course.


----------



## Cruzified12 (Sep 29, 2011)

SuperRS said:


> HeyCruzified12,
> 
> I am planning a similar project, I have the Pioneer crap upgrade and i amlooking to to do Alpine amps. Did you have the Pioneer amp? Did you replace thefactory head unit? I see from your pictures it looks like you had twisted RCAcables, if you did not replace the head unit did you use converters?
> 
> ...


To answer your first question, No. I used 2 alpine PDX amps, a mono block for the subs and a 4 channel for the speakers. The head unit stayed for the simple fact is I've done all the adapter bs to keep Bose and steering wheel controls and whatever else and I always had that one glitch somewhere that drove me up the wall so I tried Alpines audio processor to keep the stock head unit. After tons of tuning and trial and error I ended up taking it to my audio guy because I could not get rid of the ground loop and music itself sounded like ****. He laughed at me when I told him I bought the processor and was like tear that thing out and try this. This being a simple Metra 4 Channel output converter hooked up to all 8 speaker wires. So thats exactly what I did and thats how its installed now because it sounds ******* awesome. Most other cars Ive put subs in have a wild stock eq setting that messes with subs pretty bad, meaning too much bass in the low volume and not enough in the higher volume, making you system sound like garbage. Surprisingly the Cruze had a pretty close to flat eq setting so a simple output converter will do just fine. Had I know this I wouldn't have bought the processor, but a simple ad on ebay and solved that problem. I am installing a bass controller for the simple fact is I want to control the subs separately from the speakers but the settings in the stock head unit are more that suffice for 99% of people. I purposely ordered this car without the upgraded pioneer system because I was planning on ripping it all out anyway, and in my opinion, its one of the worst upgraded stock sound systems I have ever heard in a gm. Everyone thinks those are twisted RCA cables but they are actually my Monster speaker wire I ran for the speakers. I think stock wiring is 18 gauge and that wasn't enough for what I was running, but is for most speakers. I tapped into the speaker wires I ran to the amp for the output converter so my RCAs for the amps are pretty short. I don't have any recent pics or vids up but will soon.


----------



## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

18 gauge not enough? Lol. Guess what thiel audio uses in their multi thousand dollar home theater speakers...

I can make your ears bleed with 18 gauge wire.

Sent from my Bulletproof_Doubleshot using AutoGuide.Com Free App


----------



## Cruzified12 (Sep 29, 2011)

XtremeRevolution said:


> 18 gauge not enough? Lol. Guess what thiel audio uses in their multi thousand dollar home theater speakers...
> 
> I can make your ears bleed with 18 gauge wire.
> 
> Sent from my Bulletproof_Doubleshot using AutoGuide.Com Free App


More of a suggestion from a guy that knows audio. If I had to do it again I wouldn't re-wire anything. I would try and cook the stock wiring first then change it haha. That twisted wire is like trying to shove a marshmallow in a piggy bank when it comes to tight spots.


----------



## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

Cruzified12 said:


> More of a suggestion from a guy that knows audio. If I had to do it again I wouldn't re-wire anything. I would try and cook the stock wiring first then change it haha. That twisted wire is like trying to shove a marshmallow in a piggy bank when it comes to tight spots.


I hear ya. 

Want to know what the best wire to use is? It's not flexible, but it works. Thermostat wire. It's solid core copper 18 gauge. You twist it yourself to help avoid interference (using a drill helps with long lengths), wrap it with some tape to prevent any shorts against the body of the car, and make your runs. 










The only need for higher gauge wire is when you run long distances *and* need high amounts of power. I use 12 gauge for my subs, and 16-18 gauge for my speakers because you really don't need anything more than that unless you have an inexplicable desire to cause permanent hearing loss and the ability to do so without that single digit percentage of voltage drop at those levels.


----------



## kylevh21 (Mar 3, 2012)

Nicely done I did the same type setup in my wifes Yaris two dc audio 8"s 








http://static.photobucket.com/playe...obucket.com/albums/t73/kylevh20/VIDEO0037.mp4


----------

