well, after a coupla years of building dozens of 350zs that sounded great in an everyday sense, i finally had the privilige of working with a customer who had the desire and budget to do a system in his Z that dived a littled into the true Sound Quality side of mobile audio
After it was all said and done, I am happy to report that this Z, is definetly the best sounding one i have personally done...
goals:
1.superb sound quality
2.full stealth hatch area with zero space sacrifice
3.clean and classy
lets get started:
The signal starts with the alpine iwa-205 double din dvd headunit, and processing power for the entire car is provided by the optional H701 multichannel processor. An Ai-net and optical cable links the headunit and the rear mounted processor. The 701 provides us with full control on individual channels interms of equalization, time alignment, xover, and phase.
note the ipod cable in the upper cubby:
for the front stage, a pair of Seas Lotus reference 6.5" two way components were used. the midbass is flush mounted into a pair of off axis kicks as usual:
here are some build up pics of the kicks...
and of the Seas driver itself:
the Seas tweeters are located on dash corner pods...originally, i was going to mold them in the A pillars, facing each other, about 1/3 of the way up...but due to the rake of hte windshield, this would put them quite a bit closer to the listener than i wanted, so, to maximize path difference, i located them to the far forward edge of hte A pillar, right where the windshield meets the dsah:
again, a few build up pics of these little pods, which were quite a pain due to their small size and difficult location...to mold
so thats about it for the interior:
moving on towards the trunk...so...as promised, the trunk is totally stealth, here is the view with the carpet on, the entire floor was raised only 1/2" total
once you remve the carpet, you see a full vinyl floor, with two removable covers
note raied 350z logo on the front cover:
once you lift off the two covers, the equipment reveals itself to you. two of the New DLS reference RW SQ 10" subwoofers reside in a flush mounted white suede trim panel, and what appears to be a DLS ultimate amp sits under plexi in the front rack:
if you look closely, you can notice that what appears to be a single DLS A-5 three channel amp, is acutally two amps, an DLS ultimtae A3 dual mono amp sits below it, the top amp is raised up by a platform in the back and two copper tubes in the front...its hardly noticable in this pic though
so here are some build up pics of the hatc harea:
dampening of hte floor:
the wires, distribution blocks, ran and loomed:
the start of hte amp rack:
bottom amp (A3) mounted:
amp rack installed in the hatch and wires ran and organized for hte A3:
now the second amp is added, and wires ran and organized, also the H701 is installed on its own rack on the driver side:
so here ist he brand new sound quality sub from DLS, very efficient, and very musical, and not too expensive.
now here is a neat feature i like baout the sub, when you are space limited and dont need the cosmetic magnet cover, you can remove it and gain more than 1" of clerance
so here is the subbox, about 1.1 cubic feet sealed, a smidgeon smaller than recommended but the biggest i can fit. note the high capacity crossflow fan on the front to circulate air in and out of the amp rack
here ist he subbox installed in the hatch, note that even though its full of gear, one can reach all the adjustments on the amp and reach the h701 without removing anyhting
and finally mock ups of hte fake floor when it was being built:
overall, it sounds excellent, of course the interior of hte Z, presents some challenges for achieving the best possible SQ...but this car sounds really great. midbass response is awesome, you really feel the drum beats on your chest, imaging is spot on dead center, and stage is about half way up the windshield. tonally, its extremyl even, and smooth, very laid back and natural, a very ease to listen to kind of system. and the subs blend in with the front stage perfectly
anyway, thats about it...i really hope in the future, i get to do more of these in the Z hehe, i had a few freinds and former customers come and listen to the car, and all of them were quite amazed
The Best Sounding 350Z i have ever done :) pics...
I'm in the middle of building my box for this location right now so it's awesome that I have something to reference. Did you have to raise the overall height of the trunk floor to accommodate the subs? I was going to put the sub behind the seat but decided that this would provide a better bass response. I need to keep as much space as possible we do a lot of touring with the car.
IT'S NOT THE DESTINATION IT'S THE DRIVE REMEMBER LIFES JOURNEY IS NOT TO ARRIVE AT THE GRAVE SAFELY IN A WELL PRESERVED BODY, BUT, RATHER TO SKID IN SIDEWAYS, TOTALLY WORN OUT, SHOUTING "HOLY SH!T WHAT A RIDE!! 
Thank you, Bing!!!
). It is difficult for anyone to impress others with the fine details of large size works, but Bing does it with ease. I am a very difficult customer, even the smallest details can not escape my senses. But I am truly impressed this time by Bing's attention to detail. His work just oozes quality, like when you sit inside a Porsche 911 for the first time. However, the most important feature of his work is the sound. I can feel the singers breath and the drums in my chest, and be in awe of the effortless power of the bass. The sound stage extend beyond the windows, and its depth reach to the hood ornament. All this are done without me sensing any intrusion by the electronics. You hear the music as it is intended to be heard, and all are done at a very fair price.
