2016 Subaru Crosstrek - Audiofrog, Helix, Zapco, Illusion, ResoNix

[SkizeR]

Happy Saturday everyone! We just wrapped up a video for my friend Johns 2016 Subaru Crosstrek. This video is a bit different in that it is pretty much a time-lapse of the whole process of building the sail panel "monitors", as well as some tidbits of making the custom amp cover, and a final walkthrough/thoughts from John. Pics and descriptions will come later. Enjoy

[goatpanda]

This was a really cool video, thanks for doing this. As a casual shade-tree hobbyist with minimal fabrication skills, seeing stuff like this blows my mind. I'm more appreciative of the builds that integrate everything so cleanly (vs. the over the top in-your-face kind of aesthetic).

[Stycker]

Great work as usual Nick. I always look forward to seeing your builds. Now I get to have one of my own. I just dropped off my 2020 Subaru Outback XT at Nick's door step. I will be the second Subaru mentioned in the video. After listening to Nick and Kevin's cars I realized that they are playing in a different league. What impressed me the most were the vocals. Not only were they centered on the dash, the singers were literally coming out of the dash. Now I was sure that I had this whole tuning thing down to a science, but boy was I wrong. I have been doing car audio (shade tree) for the past 35 years. I've done at least 20 car installs and have experience with 4 different DSP's. I've seen every tuning video out there. Researched every speaker and amplifier out there. Never, and I mean Never have I heard such sound coming from a car. They truly know what they are doing. Artists and engineers rolled into one. I've heard many systems over the years and even been to a few competitions and the only car that ever impressed me this much was actually a car that Nick built and tuned. This is why I decided to drive six hours to drop my car off at Apicella Auto Sound. Hopefully we can talk Nick into another build log and video. Keep up the great work and keep giving us pointers. Obviously I still have a lot to learn.

[SkizeR]

This was a really cool video, thanks for doing this. As a casual shade-tree hobbyist with minimal fabrication skills, seeing stuff like this blows my mind. I'm more appreciative of the builds that integrate everything so cleanly (vs. the over the top in-your-face kind of aesthetic).

Thank you, it means a lot to know that people get something out of the extra work we put into making these videos. If there is anything in particular you want to see in future videos, you and anyone else are more than welcome to make suggestions.

Great work as usual Nick. I always look forward to seeing your builds. Now I get to have one of my own. I just dropped off my 2020 Subaru Outback XT at Nick's door step. I will be the second Subaru mentioned in the video. After listening to Nick and Kevin's cars I realized that they are playing in a different league. What impressed me the most were the vocals. Not only were they centered on the dash, the singers were literally coming out of the dash. Now I was sure that I had this whole tuning thing down to a science, but boy was I wrong. I have been doing car audio (shade tree) for the past 35 years. I've done at least 20 car installs and have experience with 4 different DSP's. I've seen every tuning video out there. Researched every speaker and amplifier out there. Never, and I mean Never have I heard such sound coming from a car. They truly know what they are doing. Artists and engineers rolled into one. I've heard many systems over the years and even been to a few competitions and the only car that ever impressed me this much was actually a car that Nick built and tuned. This is why I decided to drive six hours to drop my car off at Apicella Auto Sound. Hopefully we can talk Nick into another build log and video. Keep up the great work and keep giving us pointers. Obviously I still have a lot to learn.

Thank you Brian, that truly means a lot. Kevin and I have worked really hard at getting to where we are and we have no plans of slowing down. Your car will absolutely have a build log and video even though it is very similar. The grills for the sails we are going to do for your car are going to be a level above these. I already have a couple of ideas

[SkizeR]

That said, heres the rest of the build log..



Hey everyone, we are back with another build log. This time its my buddy John's 2017 Subaru Crosstrek. I met John via Facebook years ago, back when he was into SPL and didnt have any experience with sound quality what so ever. Fast forward a few years and he stops by my place (back when i was working out of my driveway) to start going over options for a system that would be on the sound quality side of things but could still get loud enough to satisfy his output desires. Long story short, what he was seemingly looking for would require a ton of work with some larger and/or higher efficiency drivers with a lot of power. We did that system together over the course of a few months and it sounded great, but it was a bit much install wise. Fast forward to today, and hes much busier with work, and his needs/wants in the system have shifted. This time he wanted to tone down the "extremeness" of the install while still having great sound with plenty of output, a usable trunk, and door panels that didnt weigh a ton. This led us to the following equipment list.



. Kenwood DMX705s

. Helix DSP Pro Mk2 with the Helix Director

. Zapco Z-150.6AP . Zapco Z-2KDii

. Audiofrog GB10

. Audiofrog GB25

. Audiofrog GB60

. (2) Illusion Audio C12XL

















The Crosstrek has a small triangle shaped window that is forward of the main door windows. If you have been following our recent builds, you will have noticed that we are a fan of placing speakers in the sail panel area, and this window spot just makes things easier. This location for mounting mids and tweeters in a vertical arrangement have proven to work extremely well for us on multiple occasions for us in the past, and we decided to stick with a proven formula. Here you can see the laser cutting out the acrylic layers that will make up the baffles to house the GB25's and GB10's.

















Baffles and grills cut. The layers for the baffle were adhered with acrylic cement, and then the grills with a 45 degree chamfer applied.





















Riv-nuts were placed on the doors window frame to secure the pods.

















The grills were painted in a matching silver and clear coat

























The pods finished with the drivers installed before the grills were put in place.

[SkizeR]

Sail pods finished and grills installed

































Unfortunately, we didnt get much of the trunk build besides the finishing bits. On the Zapco Z-2KDii, we fabricated an acrylic cover with the zapco logo engraved into the underside of it and installed an LED strip to light it up. It was a nice finishing touch and will actually be a service we offer from now on. We also fabricated aluminum mounting feet that secure to the amp using the OEM machine screws on the side plates.

















































The best part, we made a carpeted cover for the whole trunk and the whole trunk space is fully retained.

















Thanks for looking!

[Rockinridgeline]

Great work Nick!

[SkizeR]

Great work Nick!

Thanks Tony!