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Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
I did it. I finally did it. Got myself a new to me big boy car with the sole intent of making it a marketing tool for my shop, while also being my daily driver. Frankly, I only did it because I've been losing sales because my current car isn't relatable to customers and doesn't make them feel "warm and cozy" inside even though it sounds great. I ended up choosing this 2019 Volvo S60 R Design for a few reasons. It checked off probably the most boxes in my requirements/wants list, which wasn't very long. List in no particular order..
. Nice car that my target market can relate to and feel comfortable in? ✔
. All black interior? ✔
. Center channel from factory? ✔
. Quality OEM radio or something that can take an aftermarket radio? ✔ (has a nice oem radio)
. Pillars/dash that give me enough room to allow me to really show off what I can do? ✔
. Trunk space that would allow me to have some fun while still allowing the trunk to be usable? Ehh, kinda. Its enough to make it work, but not as roomy as one of the other options on my list of cars
. Enough room for kick panels? ✔
Bonus points for this car? Has awesome oem locations that actually made me not want it at first (didn't want to see multiple speaker grills all over the car), but then I got the bright idea to do not only one demo system, but TWO demo systems in one car. One of them will be what we refer to as a "Stage 2" sound system at Apicella Auto Sound. It will include our most commonly used speakers, the Audiofrog GB60, GB25, and GB10, as well as two GB25's and a GB10 in the center channel. The next system, which is what I wanted to do from the start, will most likely be what we refer to as a Stage 4 system. Our top of the line offerings (minus Brax amps and DSP, as I cannot afford those after this lol) will be used in this system and feature very intricate custom fabrication in the pillars, kick panels, and trunk.
To be honest, I'm still working out how I'm going to pull this off but I think I have an idea to pull it off properly without needing to have two directors or wifi modules.. OEM system, coax, and/or any other sources into DSP Ultra. Have this handle *everything* for the signal. On the last two outputs though, send full range out to a Helix V Eight Mk2 to power the 3 way door speakers, and center channel. I might utilize the Harmon Kardon upmixer that is already in the car for the two seat tune. Im not sure yet. We'll see.
I also plan on doing ceramic coating, tint, extensive radar/laser countermeasure system (hoping to do a Stinger, but not sure I can afford it right now). I'm hoping to pull out the big guns on this car right out of the gate so I don't have to do this car more than once.
Tommorow night after work I'm going to start taking the doors off and see what I'm working with. This should be fun :)
https://i.imgur.com/1GoTtz4.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/6cgd1aL.jpg
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Very nice! Congratulations! Looking forward to following along.
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Nice car, love the color, and look forward to seeing what you end up doing with it. Congrats.
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Sweet! Eager to see what you come up with.
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Congrats! I'm excited to see what you do with this car.
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
This may be the only Volvo in the USA with Death Metal pounding through the windows. I think thats a great idea to have two systems in one car. The everyday customer probably doesn't want custom anything. Keep it clean and free of debris, that will be tough to do in a daily driver. Kevin just got a new job--clean Nick's car everyday. Just kidding Kevin, don't hurt me. Congratulations Nick.
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Stycker
This may be the only Volvo in the USA with Death Metal pounding through the windows.
I genuinely laughed lol
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Awesome, Nick. Congrats
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Started on the build a bit while i had some free time.. Last night before i left the shop, i decided to test out the OEM system as far as acoustic output goes. I realized when i set it to "Driver", it actually had good imaging and staging and tonality actually wasn't bad. After some EQ and balance, i ended up with a solid center image, and decent tonality. Problem is, there might be a limiter or something, idk. Something sounds a bit off. But there is a linear frequency response minus a few exceptions, as you can see in the graph below.. again, this is after a bit of eq on the OEM radio. With no eq, it had less of a rise on the low end.
https://i.imgur.com/g29yzUd.jpg
What i started today before i go home was checking out the pillars to see what i can do for the big bad system (i already took the doors off to see what was possible.. easy drop in for Audiofrog GB 3-way in OEM locations). What i did was make a mock up of some Focal Utopia M 3.5's and took off the pillar to see what would fit. Honestly, its a bit tight. Tighter than i had originally thought, but i have worked with worse. After that, i took the baffles for the Tesla Model S pillars i did and enlarged them and then modified them to fit Focal Utopia 3.5WM. Again, its tight. But i think i can pull it off how i want. Itll come down to the millimeter though. If you see the AC vent, i do NOT want to block that in any way. Remember, some of my potential clients may be turned off by that, even if we're not doing pillars in their car. It may come off as lack of attention to detail, or can come off as poor design, or anything of that sort.
https://i.imgur.com/96nEBfx.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/xpHNdgM.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/FpXdqco.jpg
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Quote:
Originally Posted by
SkizeR
It checked off probably the most boxes in my requirements/wants list, which wasn't very long. List in no particular order..
. Nice car that my target market can relate to and feel comfortable in? ✔
. All black interior? ✔
. Center channel from factory? ✔
. Quality OEM radio or something that can take an aftermarket radio? ✔ (has a nice oem radio)
. Pillars/dash that give me enough room to allow me to really show off what I can do? ✔
. Trunk space that would allow me to have some fun while still allowing the trunk to be usable? Ehh, kinda. Its enough to make it work, but not as roomy as one of the other options on my list of cars
. Enough room for kick panels? ✔
Sounds like my requirements before I bought my Mazda...but I don't have Volvo money.
Looks awesome!
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
WSo you aren't orienting your mid/tweet vertically like it seemsd you prefer to do?
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Making some progress this weekend. Yesterday after some work in the office, i managed to get the doors off, oem speakers removed and converted to CAD files for baffles, made the baffles, deadened the doors which required kevin to help remove the windows, speakers wired and installed, pillar baffles fully designed and made, grills designed, baffles installed into pillars/mold, fiberglassing on pillars started, removed the OEM sub and made a cad file to cut out an acrylic piece to fit in its place, and got said acrylic piece installed. When i read that back i almost start to feel like a real installer lol. Thats a very productive day for me considering i started at like 1pm. Today i am removing the passenger seat to sort out the OEM amplifier, which i just finished. I have one problem with what i found... The oem midrange and tweeter are on the same channel and there is what seems to be no way to run wire into the door without drilling new holes and adding my own boot. Fuck. i really didn't want to do that. I also found out the 3-speaker center channel is also only one channel. That one isn't as big of an issue, but still annoying. Up next is getting signal and speaker wire back to the Helix V12, install said V12, and run power and ground for it. Hopefully today is just as productive as yesterday, because i wont be able to work on this for a bit. very busy week ahead of me.
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Keeping this here for my future reference and anyone else to use it..
2019 Volvo S60R with Harmon Kardon. Amp under passenger seat.
Not sure of polarity or response or crossovers yet
Plug with smaller wires..
Front left mid/tweeter: brown/gray+brown next to bundle of other wires
Front right mid/tweeter: brown/gray+brown isolated on other side of plug
Rear deck left: purple+orange/gray/orange
Rear deck right: brown+purple/green+purple
Plug with larger wires..
Left midbass: brown/green+yellow
Right midbass: purple+brown/yellow
Center: white+purple/green+orange
Rear left door mid and tweeter: green+purple/light purple+dark purple
Rear right door: green/light purple
Sub(?.. not sure since sub was uninstalled before this, but this wire didn't have any continuity and is thick. Sub is the only option left): purple/yellow+light purple
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
57 wires so far, and not even done yet. Ughhttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...cd87b59c6b.jpg
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Many wires have been run. What a pain in the ass..
Also, made my order today for the other system.
3 Mosconi Pro 4|10
3 Mosconi Pro 1|10
2 pairs of Focal TBM tweeters
2 pairs of Focal 3.5WM
1 pair of Focal 8WM
3 Illusion C12 slim subs
2 Focal 3.5WM and one TBM will go in the center channel. One TBM will be extra.
This system is going to be fucking nuts.
Finishing up a batch of stuff on the laser and heading home to do pictures. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...af0b304036.jpg
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
This build is starting to look like getting the "OEM Style" system installed first is the most important thing, which makes sense. Itll be much quicker, much easier, and still provide a demo vehicle to anyone who might stop by. First part to this was getting the front door speakers installed. This consists of the Audiofrog GB10, GB25, and GB60. The 2019 S60 has oem speaker locations that are pretty damn good, and partially what initially caught my eye about the car. The midbass location is standard, located in the lower corner of the doors. The midrange and tweeter are located in the top part of the door and are unobstructed. Pretty damn good speaker in most cars location regardless if OEM or not. We can go into the whats and whys once everything is installed and tuning begins. That way, i can actually show why.
Side note: It also seems like this entire build is mostly being done after hours at the shop. I was at the shop until nearly 5am I think 3 nights out of the past 5. Hell, its 4am right now. No wonder my hair is already turning gray.
That said, heres the speakers all wired up, baffles installed, deadening applied, etc.. Midrange baffles were made out of 1/4" acrylic. I took the OEM speakers and drew them up in a cad software and added the GB25 cutout and bolt pattern.Stainless steel M4 machine screws secure the GB25s to the baffle. Before the GB25 was secured, i used some ResoNix CCF Decoupler 7 to seal the driver to the baffle. ResoNix CCF Decoupler 7 was also used to seal the baffle to the door panel. The GB10 got the same treatment. OEM tweeter bracket was replicated out of acrylic. The gb10 got a light coat of black paint so you dont see the chrome ring behind the grill. Midbass drivers, same deal. OEM speakers coppied into the software and converted into baffles for the GB60's. ResoNix CCF Decoupler 7 used to seal the baffle to the door, and the GB60 to the baffle. XT30's were used on the GB10's and 25's, XT60's were used on the GB60s, which were all pulled out of my previous car. GB25 and GB10 installed into the oem locations on the door panels using all of the oem hardware. 2 layers of ResoNix CCF Decoupler 7 was used to seal the GB25 to the grill to prevent unwanted interference from all other areas in the door panel.
https://i.imgur.com/KTjnosn.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/b1rWMcf.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/v2vzlff.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Ronog4H.jpg
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https://i.imgur.com/oMh1BgS.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/nhvMRKe.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/tWTNCHl.jpg
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Fuck volvo for how they designed the inner skin and how it has to be removed. What you dont see in this photo is the fact that the window has to be removed in order to get the plastic inner door skin out to access the outer skin. I was looking into this and taking peeks at it over the course of the entire day. It was clear that the window needed to be removed, but removing it was not obvious. Not a single one of the access holes in the top of the door allow you to access the clips that hold the window in. It wasnt until kevin came in and we both looked at it hard until he figured out how to do it. Once he figured it out, it wasnt bad. But figuring it out sucked. I should probably do it again and take detailed pictures for anyone else with this car who might want to do this. Once we got the window and inner skin out, the OEM deadener was removed, and ResoNix Squares were applied. I think i used 4.5 per door (which is 4.5 square feet). Butyl rope was added to the gap between the outer skin and crash bar to help even further. 25 Blackhole tiles were added to each door before the inner skin was reinstalled (not pictured). Once that was done, the inner skin (which didnt receive any deadening since it is strong enough on its own and shaped in a way that would make it very difficult to apply effectively) was reinstalled and the GB60 baffles were installed. 2 layers of ResoNix FD2 were added around the GB60 to seal it to the door card to "couple" it to the cabin and funnel all acoustic energy through the grill and outside of the door panel instead of allowing a lot of it to get "lost" and cause problems behind the door panel.
https://i.imgur.com/YxgXhj4.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/vohd0fk.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Tbf28yx.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/8W99LVq.jpg
The OEM Hardon Kardon amp is located under the passanger seat. This amp and the processing inside of it may be essential into some of the tuning i do for the 2 seat tune/setup. Regardless of what you think, Harmon has more advanced processing and upmixing going on in here than anything that is offered in the aftermarket. Might as well utilize it, while also giving me access to all speaker wires since the molex plugs on these door specifically make it seemingly impossible to run new wire. These make Mazda door molex plugs look like a walk in the park. I will most likely have to drill a hole and make another boot to get a wire to the tweeter since the oem midrange and tweeter are on the same channel with a basic passive crossover at the tweeter. At the end of the day, i have to grab 10 speaker signals from this amp. Front left and right midbass, front left and right highs (midrange and tweeter), front center channel (2 mids and a tweeter on a passive crossover), rear left and right doors (passive 2 way set up in the door), left and right rear deck speakers, and sub. The reason im deciding to grab ALL of these signals isnt because its necessary. Its because i want to, again, utilize the Harman processing to its full potential and have the option to use or not use whatever signal may or may not work. I have a reason to believe that the rear door signal and the rear deck signal are not the same. I will be evaluating the signal soon enough and post my findings. Unfortunately the Helix DSP Ultra only has 8 channels of analog inputs, so i will probably put the rear deck signal into the V Twelve so long as it is a clearly different signal than the rear door speakers. I will not only have to test for response, timing, phase, and input mixing on that channel, but also signals unrelated to music, such as back up beeps, etc.
OEM amp removed. The harness doesnt look like much.. but it will when 23 pairs of speaker wire are run to/from here, as well as 5 extra pairs of accessory power/ground wire and a single turn on wire just in case. 57 wires total. im not even sure how i fit it all, especially considering i ran out of Stinger speaker wire and had to borrow some home audio style wire from another installer i know locally (Thanks Chris). This stuff was stiff as hell, had an extra external jacket, and was a pain to work with since it was so stiff.
So, the green plugs with the harnesses shown above are the outputs of the amp that feed into the processors/amps. The amplifier outputs were then wired to the oem speaker wire harness. The 5 pairs of extra power/ground are under the carpet on the left in this picture, and the 3 extra pairs on the right are to run extra wire for the side tweeters, and the center midrange. Its not as pretty as i'd usually do it and would like it to be, but I cannot stress enough how hard that wire was to work with, let alone when there are over 20 runs of it in one bundle underneath a molded foam backed carpet.
https://i.imgur.com/sHdG92i.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/xxOynU4.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/2ehwQFG.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/3h7dcqh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/vzo360w.jpg
Spare tire lasted like 5 days lol. Fiberglassing started for the enclosure to house the 3 Illusion C12's. There were a lot of random studs protruding from the trunk floor, that's why some of the pieces of Biaxial fiberglass has holes punched in them. 2 layers of biaxial were set to cure. You can see the red lines i drew with a grease pen to mark where i am cutting the top section off. Yeah, i glassed a much larger area than i needed. Once this mold is trimmed, the sharp bits will be grinded down and many more layers of biaxial will be added. Im honestly looking at a sealed enclosure that is a bit too small for the subs, but i am still confident that they will still play down to 20hz. I have done these subs in very small enclosures before and had good luck. Great luck actually. Hopefully my own car is no different. Next up is getting the Helix V Twelve bracket installed and the amp wired up and actually have some music again.
https://i.imgur.com/aLfoFKY.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/0ZIVkI0.jpg
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Looking forward to final product,.... nice work as usuall!
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Hahaha, I’m exhausted just reading about and looking at all this good work!
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Quote:
Originally Posted by
SkizeR
...The 2019 S60 has oem speaker locations that are pretty damn good, and partially what initially caught my eye about the car. ...
It cracks me up the way car audio has changed the way I look at vehicles I'm thinking about buying. What size speakers can I get there, will the amps fit in that space, what's a good place for the sub and so on. I caught myself doing that a few times before I realized I didn't even like the rest of the car.
Great build!
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
I hope your planning an event this year. I'm already thinking about a field trip. I would love to see and hear this beast.
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Dan17ExplLtd
It cracks me up the way car audio has changed the way I look at vehicles I'm thinking about buying. What size speakers can I get there, will the amps fit in that space, what's a good place for the sub and so on. I caught myself doing that a few times before I realized I didn't even like the rest of the car.
Great build!
Same with me... picked my car because I'd seen others put a 3.5 mid in the dash, only to find that the GB25 was too deep... was pretty bummed!
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Quote:
Originally Posted by
mumbles
Same with me... picked my car because I'd seen others put a 3.5 mid in the dash, only to find that the GB25 was too deep... was pretty bummed!
Ouch.
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Dang nick no rest for the wicked. Or the talented .
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Work is done for the day. Time to have some fun :)
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...ef803b40aa.jpg
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
By fun, I hope you meant you drove home with the door off!! Lol
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Quote:
Originally Posted by
DavidRam
By fun, I hope you meant you drove home with the door off!! Lol
I wanted to so badly
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
this is looking great Nick!
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
This is really cool, and I love the car. I look forward to watching the progress and seeing the dual system setup you come up with. I know it is going to be a huge investment, but I am sure the ROI will be substantial.
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Quote:
Originally Posted by
rton20s
This is really cool, and I love the car. I look forward to watching the progress and seeing the dual system setup you come up with. I know it is going to be a huge investment, but I am sure the ROI will be substantial.
Let's just say that my wallet is hurting lol
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
i am guessing if this works like like it should it be quick return in vestment thou. if one can say car audio has return invest. seems theres always new toys.
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Optimaprime
i am guessing if this works like like it should it be quick return in vestment thou. if one can say car audio has return invest. seems theres always new toys.
I sure as shit hope so. That was the whole point of buying this car. Otherwise i would have driven my civic until the wheels fell off
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Hopefully I'll get this bad boy playing today
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Exciting! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on how it sounds
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Also, removed the center channel and ran the appropriate wires. Planning on a pair of Focal 3.5WM and a single Focal TBM. But, its going to be a lot trickier than I anticipated. I wanted to make it look like an OEM "plus" option. The oem grill is flat with the dash, and everything else in the dash is sunken in. In order to do these without cutting an hvac vent underneath, I might not be able to follow that theme. Ughh.. we'll see what i can figure out. But priorities now are getting the v12 installed and the Audiofrog GB 3 way i installed in the oem locations playing. Then will come the rest of the trunk, pillars, center channel, etc.
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Writing this down for myself..
9 wire input:
White: rear door left
Gray: rear door right
Green: rear deck left
Purple: rear deck right
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Today's progress so far (as well as a few other things in the trunk). Taking a break now since I forgot lunch at home and coming back to get it installed and tunedhttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...352ddf8acb.jpg
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
Well, my biggest fear has become reality.. the oem signal is mega-fucked. Just got it playing and the signal flattened and looking fine on the input rta. Sounds worse than my phones built in speaker. Gunna call it a day and break out the big guns tomorrow to see whats up with the signal
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Re: Apicella Auto Sound Demo Vehicle - 2019 Volvo S60 R Design
I lied. Im just tired and am overlooking simple things [emoji2357]
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