2002 Acura RSX Type S (3-Way On Axis Rebuild Alpine/Audison)

Going to be making some changes to the old system and adding new equipment. I'm going to be ditching the 2-way + rear fill and going 3-way on this one. Ever since I went 3-way in my daily driver, this car just never seemed as enjoyable. I will be removing the ipad mini and pure i20 as the main source. I will also be fabricating sail panel pods for the mids and small pods for the tweeters.

Old Equipment
- iPad Mini (Optical Out)
- Audison Voce AV5.1k (Front Stage/Sub Amplifier)
- Audison Voce AV K6 Component Speakers (2-Way Front Stage)
- Alpine DVA-9861 (Head Unit/Processor Controller)
- Alpine PXA-H701 (Processor)
- Kicker PX 100.2 (Rear Fill Amplifier)
- Alpine Type S 5.25 Coaxial (Rear Fill)
- Audison AV10 (Subwoofer)


New Equipment
- Android Phone LG G7 (Optical Out)
- Audison Voce AV5.1k (Tweeter/Mid-range/Sub Amplifier)
- Audison Voce AV5.1k (Mid-bass)
- Alpine DVA-9860 (Head Unit/Controller)
- Alpine PXA-H701 (Processor)
- Audison AV1.1 (Tweeter)
- Audison AV3.0 (Midrange)
- Audison AV K6 (Midbass)
- Audison AV10 (Subwoofer)

The Audison AV3.0 midrange are pretty small. I decided to install them on axis in the sail panels.

Had to cut a piece out of the passenger sail panel so the door would close.

Painted the pods in a rustoleum black for now.

I ordered some ABS plastic rings to replace the wood rings I previously had in the doors. I filled in the back of the rings with a mixture of bondo and fiberglass resin to add some rigidity.

I had some kilmat laying around, so I decided to put another layer on the doors.

Deadener on the door panels and fast rings on the mids.

Ran new speaker wires for the midrange. Also put some techflex on the old wires to dress them up a bit.

More wiring with tesa tape and plastic sleeving.

This is where I left off after last weekend. Here are some pics of how the tweeters look in the stock locations. I got the basic shape mocked up for the tweeter pods. Still a lot of sanding needs to be done.

I'm still waiting on the closed cell foam and reticulated fast dry foam to complete the midbass in the doors.

I ordered a sub enclosure from concept enclosures online. Its pretty much a subwoofer box for a 10 with 2 plexiglass amp racks under a false floor. I will post a picture of the enclosure when I am at home. They have great customer service! They did a very good job and made the enclosure with custom cut outs for the amps I have. They were very quick to reply and had great customer service.

I figured I would work on the wiring during the week for a few hours a day. I already messed up on the wiring for the first amplifier https://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...ilies/bash.gif. I had to remove the bottom piece of wood from the amp rack and reverse mount the amplifier. This way the wires are run in the proper direction.

Got a little more done on the wiring.

Here are some pics of the old fiberglass sub enclosure that will be replaced by the new box and false floor. Cool thing is I can still retain the spare tire.

Here is are some pics of the box from concept enclosures.

Finally finished up the doors. I added a layer of CCF and added some fast dry reticulated foam around the midbass driver. This helps avoid moisture when mounted in the door panel.

Got the power and ground wire good to go. Just need to mount and attach the amp rack.

I have the optical for the head unit ran to a splitter in the glove box. This allows me to add in an ipod our android phone with an optical out. I have been using a type c otg cable to a usb soundcard with optical out . This will be replacing the ipad as the main source.

Here are some pics of the old ipad dash that will be removed. Some pics of the Alpine dva-9860 installed.

inally fixed the rear seat release knob https://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...ilies/afro.gif. Without the release, I couldn't put the rear seat down which was a major pita. I was able to use some quick drying ca glue and a chopstick to pull the release up. Once the seat was released I could use a screw driver to push the knob up. I should be good to wire up the amp rack and sub now.

Got the led lights and processor added to the amp rack. Just need to mount the sub and put the amp rack in the car. I hope everything works properly with no issues. I didn't make the amp rack super accessible and it weighs a ton.

Finally got the tweeters painted and mounted on the dash.

A few shots from the outside.

Pods on the casing of the rack did not want to put?
https://i.ibb.co/BVJvGVz/IMG-20191103-WA0012.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alexander612

Pods on the casing of the rack did not want to put?
https://i.ibb.co/BVJvGVz/IMG-20191103-WA0012.jpg

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I have done a pillars in my other car and it is way more work. I honestly wanted to make the least amount of modifications as possible in this car. Super easy to buy sail panels and snap them back into place if i need to. I also have an extra set of the oem tweeter grill covers if I need to return it back to stock.

Here are some shots of the mids and tweets mounted. I am actually going to wrap the pods in a black headliner color. I think it will show less scratches and blemished over time.

Some final shots of the hatch area. The LED's I got were kind of cheap and didn't stick very well to the plexi glass when I put the enclosure in :mad:. Looks like I'm gunna half to take the enclosure out and put some better ones in when I have some time.

I might try to add a projection puddle light to the hatch that displays an Acura logo. I just need to find out a good place to mount the light.

Here are some final shots of the sail panels and tweeters. I wrapped them in a black headliner color.

I was able to get about an hour of tuning in this past weekend. My ipad and car battery died on me, so I'm gunna half to pick up where I left off this week. I hope my processor saved some of the tune lol. The system imaged extremely well and I was able to get the curve pretty flat within just an hour of tuning. The stage height is nice and the vocals sound like they are a foot in front of the dash. One of the challenges in this car is how close together all the speakers are. I was impressed with the way the systems L + R imaging exceeded the boundary of the speaker. I would say most songs imaged about 6-12 inches passed the midrange on the left and right side. So far, I am pretty happy with the imaging results.

I haven't been super impressed with the tonality of the Audison Voce speakers. They are a bit more bright than the dyns in my other car. I feel like these speakers can really point out the flaws in a bad recording and make it not so enjoyable to listen to. I'm going to play around with them a little more before I give them a critical review. Maybe the midrange will break in a bit and sound difference in a few weeks.

Nice install. How do you like the 5.1k? Its on my list of new amps to try out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by C0sm01

Nice install. How do you like the 5.1k? Its on my list of new amps to try out.

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I like the 5.1k Voce because of all the power it provides in a small chassis. I have the older lrx 5.1k in my other car and I prefer the sound of those amps over the Voce. I probably wouldn't pay the retail amount for these amps, but if you could find one for $500 or less I would pick one up in a heartbeat. If you want a pure SQ amp I would probably go with the Zapco AP amps or the Tru Technology Billet series. Those amps seem to have a better transparency but a more expensive price tag.

Was able to spend a few hours tuning this weekend. I'm pretty happy with the results and how flat the curve is. The speakers are a little on the bright side still. I crossed the tweeters at 7k and they still seem a little hot. I currently have the gain all the way turned down.

Here are some shots of the speaker measurements.

Attachment 14522Attachment 14523Attachment 14524Attachment 14522Attachment 14523Attachment 14524

Figured I would post an update on this car because it has been awhile. I was able to finish the a pillars for the AV3 Midrange. The mids sound a lot better since they are vented into the a pillars. The stage has a lot more depth now versus when the mids were in the sealed pods. I also moved the tweeters to the sail panels. Sorry for the lack of pictures on those.

Here are the final pics of the front stage. This build is pretty much 100% done for the time being. I do want to order the Mosconi Amas-2 for this car, but I don't want to shell out the money for it lol. I use it in my other vehicle and I can't tell the difference between that and the usb optical output. The PXA-H701 doesn't support hi-res playback anyway.

Some a pillar shots