2017 Nissan Altima

i guess it's about time to post this, since i got things making noise today :)

i got rid of the soul back in early january - mostly just personal reasons, and i decided it just wasn't really the car i wanted right now, so i switched things up. i traded it in for more than what i paid (thank you rebates!!!) and got a good deal on one of the last 2017 model altima's on the lot. so here we are! the gear list is all the same as the soul. to recap, that includes:
- factory radio
- rockford dsr1
- jl rd900/5
- audiofrog gs60 in doors
- audiofrog gb10 in dash, factory location
- 2x jl w1v3, sealed

i've been working on this over the past few weekends and finally finished things up today. this summer i hope to move the subs out of the temporary, pre-fab enclosure from crutchfield ($40, scratch and dent - enclosure is in perfect condition, though) and do a false floor for the amp & processor.

pictures!!! i don't have many, and i'm not re-posting the pictures of the gear...for any close ups, feel free to go visit the kia soul thread.
https://i.imgur.com/x9eJRE3l.jpg
the car itself
https://i.imgur.com/IttqffQl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/kSTa3rpl.jpg
my tax return gift to myself. andy had these on sale for something like 25% off for a week, so i snagged one.
https://i.imgur.com/ScvFFypl.jpg
the pre-fab enclosure, nothing special but it was cheap and is in perfect condition despite being marked "scratch and dent" by crutchfield. i probably couldn't build this any cheaper than i bought it for. i believe it is .75 cubic feet per sub
https://i.imgur.com/rdBaffml.jpg
plastic speaker adapters from car-speaker-adapters.com - these are really nice. the fit was perfect, but they are made in several pieces - i'm assuming they re-use the "risers" and the top rings on most of the products, so they can just be screwed onto whichever base is needed for each car. because of this, there are holes between the risers as you can see, not ideal...
https://i.imgur.com/oSsXsF3l.jpg
better shot at the hole between the risers.
https://i.imgur.com/dNJZz5ll.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/X1LpVatl.jpg
the solution - pretty simple, stuff duct seal in between the base & the top ring to seal everything up. the bonus is, this added a good deal of extra mass. not sure if it did anything, but it couldn't hurt!
https://i.imgur.com/KEZ2pF0l.jpg
factory speaker in the doors. these were pretty nice for a base system

https://i.imgur.com/suU3QvEl.jpg
THERE'S NO MOLEX CONNECTORS IN THE DOORS!!! speaker wire ran through the grommet.
https://i.imgur.com/lAx3j7sl.jpg
test fit the audiofrog gs60 with the speaker adapter, installed into the door. fits nice, depth of the magnet is about the same as the factory speaker with these adapters. i cut out noico foam to make a gasket between the adapter & the door, and between the speaker & the adapter. as you can see, not the cleanest of cuts - the adhesive on this stuff is super sticky and got stuck on the razor blade constantly. scissors do better with this stuff but i couldn't find any, and it didn't have to be pretty!
https://i.imgur.com/ZXouspfl.jpg
fast ring installed, door panel ready to go back on!
https://i.imgur.com/dx9gICKl.jpg
passenger side done up the same way
https://i.imgur.com/TzcXZMvl.jpg
test fit of the tweeter - i didn't get any final shots of either side of this, but they'd be the same...i only pulled it out, wired it up & tucked the factory speaker wire out of the way and taped it up with tesa tape so it wouldn't rattle around.
https://i.imgur.com/dDhRvgCl.jpg
kind of a bad picture, but this shows the mounting of the fuse holder. it's mounted to a factory bracket that supports the air box from the bottom (air box just sits on it, no clips/screws). this was a perfect spot & very close to the battery. from here, the wire continues to follow that main wiring harness into the car, through the factory grommet. i didn't take any other pictures of wiring because no one wants to see that shit anyway.
https://i.imgur.com/1qONGwPl.jpg
sub level control knob for the dsr1 mounted in a blank switch plate. easy access! this thing works well, but if i had to do it again i would probably have gotten the jl knob for the amp instead - the rockford one feels a bit cheap and the PCB isn't symmetrical so it couldn't be mounted in the center of the switch plate (i don't know if the jl one is symmetrical, but just thought i'd mention that)

that's all i've got for now. i was planning to do a hanging amp rack from the rear deck, but there's a lot of things going on under there that i don't want to mess with, so everything's mounted to the sub box & the box is secured with L brackets currently. i don't have any shots of that stuff just yet.

the car sounds surprisingly good with 0 tuning (no ta, no eq, only crossovers set). there's a bit of hiss with the engine off, i think that's pretty common when retaining factory radios so i'm not going to put any fault towards the amp or processor. with the engine running, the hiss almost unnoticeable. i updated the dsr1 software a few weeks ago and today when powering it up, never had any issues with the bluetooth connection and everything seems to work really well. the tweeters are fantastic as can be expected from the audiofrog stuff, but i was really impressed with the mids for only being the gs line, they just disappear completely. midbass is not bad, could be better but i didn't do any deadening on the door really, only a few small pieces on the outer door skin right behind the magnets. there's a crossbeam running right behind the magnets so i didn't bother using the big piece of foam that comes with the fast rings there, it wouldn't have anything to stick to & would interfere with the window i think.

one kind of surprising thing to me, there's good output all the way down to 20hz even though i'm tapped into the front outputs from the factory radio...i expected some kind of rolloff but it seems to be okay. nothing looks super weird on the rta. i'll post some pictures of the curve once i get some time to start tuning. i'm on meds right now, i just had 3 wisdom teeth pulled on thursday and i feel like my hearing is not fully working properly right now so i didn't want to mess with things too much.

more to come once the tuning begins! :)

Chris,

Very nice ! Bass knob looks fine.

Where are subs going?

I'd like to hear H by Tool in this car. Should be fun.

Good work Chris!

Good idea using duct seal on the holes in the risers. When I first saw the photo I thought is was butyl.

I've never used duct seal but I may have a good application for it. Is that stuff real hard to remove once applied or does it remove cleanly fairly easily?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hic

Chris,

Very nice ! Bass knob looks fine.

Where are subs going?

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thanks :) it'll work for now.

the subs are in the pre-fab box up above, i didn't bother taking a picture of them installed in the box yet

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Notloudenuf

I'd like to hear H by Tool in this car. Should be fun.

Good work Chris!

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thank you sir! i hope to take a small vacation to drive over to NC sometime in the future - maybe early-ish next year. melody's cousin lives near duke so we're wanting to visit her & i want to go back and visit some friends :) i'll get that song queued up for you if we go!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Truthunter

Good idea using duct seal on the holes in the risers. When I first saw the photo I thought is was butyl.

I've never used duct seal but I may have a good application for it. Is that stuff real hard to remove once applied or does it remove cleanly fairly easily?

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i can't take credit for the duct seal idea on these, req from DIYMA used it on some that he reviewed over there years ago. i stumbled across his post and thought it was a good idea. i do have some butyl rope from second skin that i thought would work well in there also, but i forgot to take it with me to my parents while i was working on this. i imagine that would have worked well in there though!

this was my first time using duct seal for anything, so i can't give any long-term details but right out of the package, it's pretty easy to work with. it's sticky enough that it isn't going to unintentionally come off of wherever you put it, but it feels like it'd be pretty easy to pull off if you needed to. if you ever took a pottery class in high school or college, it almost feels like a slightly wet clay. the details on the sheet give a pretty extreme temperature range that this stuff is good for, and i know there's a few people between here & DIYMA that have used it in the doors around speakers to add mass (i think clay may have used it at some point, but not sure there), and i haven't read any horror stories...no melting or running.

p.s. the dsr1 is great so far. some of the reviews online are negative and have some comments about bluetooth disconnecting, etc - there have been several software updates since it was released. i updated to the most recent version a couple of weeks ago and haven't had any issues like that. it's connected to the app without any issues every time i've tried so far, and hasn't disconnected on me at all. i played with the app in the car for about an hour yesterday and all good! super easy to work with, i love having all the tuning capabilities on my phone at any time.

It's a shame you are getting floor noise hiss; maybe it's just Nissan in general.

I'm a new owner of a 2016 Altima; I'm debating keeping my factory radio or going aftermarket. I just really dislike floor noise. The noise is almost non existent with the stock radio, only noticeable when I turn the volume way higher than I ever would normally (not because it gets too loud, but rather the oe speakers start sounding bad and I can hear distortion lol). I know an aftermarket radio will sound better, but I'm not an audiophile. Really like the integrated look and a rotary volume knob.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lukaa

It's a shame you are getting floor noise hiss; maybe it's just Nissan in general.

I'm a new owner of a 2016 Altima; I'm debating keeping my factory radio or going aftermarket. I just really dislike floor noise. The noise is almost non existent with the stock radio, only noticeable when I turn the volume way higher than I ever would normally (not because it gets too loud, but rather the oe speakers start sounding bad and I can hear distortion lol). I know an aftermarket radio will sound better, but I'm not an audiophile. Really like the integrated look and a rotary volume knob.

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yup, definitely could be Nissan head units in general. it's not the worst that i've ever heard but it's just a mild annoyance when i do notice it in certain quiet parts of songs. it's hard

a few more updates here since i've been slacking...i sold my desktop about 2 months ago now i think so i could get a better laptop for tuning, so i now have a fancy new 6 core laptop that should do the job nicely. the old 11" inspiron was a bit too slow & small for my liking in REW. also, i had the most annoying constant buzzing from the tweeter areas in the dash ever since i put the tweeters in, i fixed that last weekend...i thought maybe i just didn't get one of the screws on the mounts tight or something, but it was actually the grill on the left tweeter as the main culprit. there's still a bit of a rattle somewhere on the right tweeter over sharp bumps, nothing too bad but need to look into it more, i tried tightening everything up again and it's still around. the grill on the right tweeter wasn't buzzing like the left side but i went ahead and pulled it off anyways, i'll probably pick up a hot glue gun this week and put a little dab on them so i can run with the grills for protection. interestingly, there's a noticeable difference in the sound w/ the tweeters off, they're a good bit more sharp on s sounds.

to add to this, there's some weird kind of static that comes and goes in one of the channels. i think it may be related to heat since it didn't start until we started seeing some warmer days but i'm not totally sure...i played around with muting each channel one at a time and i think i found it to be in the right mid (it's either that or the right tweeter), but i can't say for sure just yet, i'll have to do some digging there.

lastly, i think i'm giving up on my quest to keep the stock head unit, and i'm thinking the sony xav-ax5000 will be the replacement here soon. i miss having nav in the dash & i don't think this thing will ever sound the way i want it to with the stock head unit. i'm hoping to not need to make any other equipment changes (besides a better, permanent sub enclosure), i think it sounds pretty decent without the static and i think with a good, flat signal out of a different head unit it'll clean up really nicely. as usual, more to come once i stop being lazy and start actually working on things :)

Sorry to hear about those woes - but at least you have some solutions in the works!

time for an update, i suppose :)

about 2 weeks i tore the doors apart and did some more in depth testing to verify what the issue is with my passenger side mid, and it seems to follow only the speaker. i tried moving it to the driver side to verify there was no issue with the speaker wire run, swapped the inputs to the processor, swapped the outputs on the processor, and swapped amp channels as well just for a triple check, and seems like it's definitely the speaker. i contacted andy @ audiofrog to ask if he had any suggestions on saturday, and as per usual he got back to me in less than 5 minutes and offered to warranty it if i send it back to him. i don't feel good about doing that as i don't believe this is a manufacturing defect. i don't think i pushed it hard enough to cause damage, so i think the previous owner (these were purchased as open box on crutchfield) may have damaged it and returned...crutchfield probably didn't test them loud enough to trigger any issues and so here we are - just my guess, it could also be as simple as having some debris stuck in the coil gap or something else, i'm not too sure...

anyway, i asked if he'd do a trade up deal for the gb60's instead and he said he'd cut me a deal. i wasn't ready to purchase just yet so i told him i'd get back in contact with him to figure out the details & how much i'll owe him, but thought it was cool that he offered the deal. i was initially going to save up for awhile to pick them up, but my girlfriend and i separated last week & my bonus at work comes in this coming friday...it was originally planned to help fund the engagement ring but that funding is now free ;) so, i should be ordering up the gb60's from andy this week. i considered asking to purchase a single new gs60 mid since i like them pretty well so far, but i'm wanting something i can abuse a little more and not have to worry about...

may also spend some time & money redoing the trunk to clean it up - i'd like to do a simple false floor to hide the amp & dsp, and i'm thinking that i want to do IB subs instead of sealed enclosures, so i may be selling the pair jl's and picking up something more beefy, the jl's sound fine but i think they're a bit light on displacement for an IB setup. i'm thinking something like the dayton ultimax's would be cool, either a pair of 12's or maybe a single 15 - if i can swing it, i think it'd be cool to offset a single 15 off to one side and hinge the other side of the baffle so it can be opened for longer items (i.e. snowboard/skis...i'll be picking up a pair of wheels & winter tires to go with my season pass this year) in a pinch. i think the biggest thing there is ensuring that the baffle still seals well when closed...and making sure i have room for that kind of setup, lol

anyway, should have some more updates w/ pictures soon. when i install the gb60's i'll be doing a bit more work on the doors to seal & deaden them up, i'm sure those things are going to vibrate the piss out of everything in there. i got the passenger side done pretty well when i was testing the speaker a couple weeks ago, but i didn't have time to do more on the driver side and i've got a few buzzes popping up.

Sorry to hear about break-up.

Best of luck with mids !

Two words - Fit. Teen.

A little hiss is indeed common when using the factory headunit. Mine ha a little hiss when the H800 is turned all the way up and the factory headunit volume is used. If I set the headunit to its calibrated setting and used the RUX knob, I get no hiss.

yup, i suspected that - i think i can get around it if i up all the amp gains just a bit and go slightly lower on the head unit, but honestly i don't ever even notice it anymore, it's not too bad. i had thought of using the knob on the DSR1 for volume but i like having my steering wheel controls for volume, and it's been great having a sub level knob again.

daniel, no teens :D haha kidding. feel free to ship those GZ's to me!

I only use the RUX volume at a comp, you cannot hear the hiss once the music starts, or you are driving.

https://i.imgur.com/YHwbuTO.jpg
gb60's on the way :thumbup:

Heck yeah! Audiofrog is on top of some customer service.

new stuff today!!

car got tinted, i did 20% with xpel ceramic
https://i.imgur.com/kvfQ4tnl.jpg

gb60's arrived today while car was getting tinted...
https://i.imgur.com/O67L7BOl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/tcAMxoYl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/VF0HK7al.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/UtzcV5Pl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/euNsMItl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/s8rcgCWl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/PnXQS1Zl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/0pSOFjIl.jpg

to be fair, these really don't sound super different from the gs60's at normal volumes. it seemed like they had a touch more midbass and sounded a little more snappy, but not really huge differences there. i think the gs60's are excellent drivers especially at their price point, if one of mine wasn't bad i think i probably would've stuck with that set.

the biggest difference is when you turn it to 11...i've never had a midbass stay so composed while blasting so much output. the l6v2's in the fit were pretty nice (admittedly not known for having the absolute greatest midbass - lots of emphasis on midrange there) and i would say those were the most impressive midbass set i've owned, but they don't have anything on these gb60's. these things just sound absolutely fantastic at any volume you can reach for. my goal was to get something i could really crank up for some fun once in awhile without worrying about breaking things and these are absolutely perfect with that in mind

i did a quick bit of tuning (finally) and got some of the eq dialed in. the subs sound much better now, they were pretty peaky around 40-50hz in my car, i got that all toned down so the subs are mostly flat, and i got the midbass dialed in at the crossover so they meet up fairly well. i worked on getting a smoother curve throughout the rest of the range, far from perfect but i was able to get rid of a few small peaks and dips here and there and it sounds a bit better. i also got the l/r curves matching fairly well so the image is a lot more stable. i'll post some pics some other time once i get some more work done in this area, it's been too hot lately to want to go outside and work on this stuff. i'm super stoked that i can jam out on the highway without my passenger side midbass going to shit, though.

That is awesome!

Now it's time to get some pimp azz wheels for that whip!

haha, i've been thinking i'd like to get these, they're from the altima sr midnight edition which adds a few blacked out parts on the exterior (wheels, trunk lid spoiler, and i think has smoked tail lights?)...i don't want anything super flashy, but these are alright, much better than the steelies & hubcaps but look oem (because they are). i suspect they'll be hard to find for a decent price, though, and i'm not totally certain i want black wheels, dark gray/gunmetal-ish may be better
https://i.imgur.com/3KhmEWrl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Otu0LkZ.gif?noredirect

Meshhhhhhhhh...

:hahaha:

did a thing this weekend, finished up today with a new kit (metra sucked, bad fit - this one is american international, fits much better and paint is a nicer finish). i'm debating on whether to try to paint it flat black to match the rest of the trim, nissan changed these to flat back instead of gloss black in 2016 but none of the dash kits were updated. it doesn't look too bad now and i suspect if i try to match it, i will end up needing to repaint the a/c control trim & the U trim around the whole stack on the top part where it goes from silver to black, else i'll have a mismatch...

https://i.imgur.com/wJvUbgyl.jpg

alpine ilx-107! i was debating between this and the sony xav-ax5000, i ultimately knew i wanted the alpine since it does wireless carplay but was having a hard time justifying the price difference ($700 vs $350 for the sony) - the day i went on crutchfield to order, they had the alpine available as a scratch & dent for $500 so i ordered it up. as far as i can tell the thing is brand new, there's no scratches or dents on the unit itself or on the packaging and everything was packaged/sealed like it came straight from the factory. functionally i really like it so far, the screen is nice and bright, and capacitive touch is so much better than the resistive screen on the pioneer i had in my fit.

i need to retune, may get to that tomorrow. the factory head unit definitely did some weird things to the sound, not just to the response curve but i also found when plugging this in that the left side was now much louder than the right side...kind of strange. i was always lacking a bit of midbass previously which i suspected was from the head unit and can confirm that was the case now, so that's nice.

next step is likely going to be changing the subs, may be another month or two before i order them. debating on what to get but i'm thinking either a pair of dayton ultimax 15's to run ib, or maybe an audiofrog gb12 ported...

That looks great! No need to paint.

Serieus,
Love Alpine, matte black might look nice, if you paint it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Serieus

did a thing this weekend, finished up today with a new kit (metra sucked, bad fit - this one is american international, fits much better and paint is a nicer finish). i'm debating on whether to try to paint it flat black to match the rest of the trim, nissan changed these to flat back instead of gloss black in 2016 but none of the dash kits were updated. it doesn't look too bad now and i suspect if i try to match it, i will end up needing to repaint the a/c control trim & the U trim around the whole stack on the top part where it goes from silver to black, else i'll have a mismatch...

https://i.imgur.com/wJvUbgyl.jpg

alpine ilx-107! i was debating between this and the sony xav-ax5000, i ultimately knew i wanted the alpine since it does wireless carplay but was having a hard time justifying the price difference ($700 vs $350 for the sony) - the day i went on crutchfield to order, they had the alpine available as a scratch & dent for $500 so i ordered it up. as far as i can tell the thing is brand new, there's no scratches or dents on the unit itself or on the packaging and everything was packaged/sealed like it came straight from the factory. functionally i really like it so far, the screen is nice and bright, and capacitive touch is so mcdvoice much better than the resistive screen on the pioneer i had in my fit.

i need to retune, may get to that tomorrow. the factory head unit definitely did some weird things to the sound, not just to the response curve but i also found when plugging this in that the left side was now much louder than the right side...kind of strange. i was always lacking a bit of midbass previously which i suspected was from the head unit and can confirm that was the case now, so that's nice.

next step is likely going to be changing the subs, may be another month or two before i order them. debating on what to get but i'm thinking either a pair of dayton ultimax 15's to run ib, or maybe an audiofrog gb12 ported...

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An audiofrog gb12 ported would be fine

this came today...

https://i.imgur.com/WFliYLtl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/qwWJegEl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/itxaxBnl.jpg

having used it for awhile now (nearly 2 years), i've decided that the dsr1 (for my purposes) is absolute trash.

the dayton isn't as capable as some others, but should be plenty for me for the time being, and certainly seems to be much easier to work with than the dsr1. excited to be able to really start tuning with this thing.

more to come soon.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Serieus

the dayton isn't as capable as some others, but should be plenty for me for the time being, and certainly seems to be much easier to work with than the dsr1.

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Maybe not but the price is right and IMO it does 95% of what you need. :thumbup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Notloudenuf

Maybe not but the price is right and IMO it does 95% of what you need. :thumbup:

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agreed! definitely no complaints out of me, it has more than enough at the price point.

wired it up and installed yesterday, and got a quick tune in place. initial impressions are good, software is straightforward, no real complaints...and i was able to get rid of the little bit of hiss i had with the dsr1. i think i could have fixed that by running through the dsr1 setup process again and changing the input voltage setting, but was having issues with that clearing my settings & the presets didn't always function correctly (didn't always move over all the settings), so i just dealt with it. may do some more in depth tuning later today.

That is good to hear! Or read... you know what I mean.