Bought the Civic Hatch lease out, so rebooting the install thread

[geolemon]

In today's episode of "unrealistic expectations and too tight tolerances"...

...this is going to be fun routing 4 gauge wire and 4 channels of speaker wire into this amp.
Swearing will be involved.

Although I can't wait to tackle that, because I can't wait to see how this will look with the lid on and lit up.

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[geolemon]

Before that swearing, this swearing -
Totally forgot about my Epicenter.

It's not pretty, has somebut I've had it for a couple decades so what do you want?
Actual plan is to replace it with an Epicenter Mini, but that hasn't been released yet so for the short term - why not?

So I'll have to make another set of interconnects. And those took forever. My hands just healed up from the friction burns. Oh well.

And I'll have to reroute slightly under the DSP.

After I smooth out those new holes and get more bed liner sprayed on there.

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[geolemon]

On a different note -
I love my Focal TN52s, but also never imagined I'd be so blown away by Bohlender Graebner magnetic planar speakers.

So Parts Express had a buyout deal on some Foster planar ribbon tweeters - I impulse bought two, to see if they could compete in the same way the relatively inexpensive planar mids do:

And while I was at it - what's theoretically better at high frequency detail than magnetic planar ribbons? Air motion transformers.

I bumped into a pair of compact sized Dayton AMT tweets that were also impulse priced - so, let's see if the quality sound is fundamental in the tech, because neither of these are exotics:

So I tied all the negatives and used alligator clip test leads on each positive so I could really quick-swap them.
I even listened with my head inches from the tweeters, almost wearing the tweeters as headphones - first going back and forth between the Foster and the Focal... Then between the Dayton AMT and Focal TN52.

In the end, no surprises. Those TN52s are legendary for a reason. These all sounded good, but the detail and realism from the Focal are just next level compared to these.

If I were going to rank them, of the ones I have considered now:
1) Focal TN5s
2) Pro Tech Time Lense
3) Dayton AMT
4) Foster magnetic planar
5) Focal TN45

So - sticking with the TN52s. Love them, still.

[geolemon]

So my old Epicenter is epic old, scratched up. Maybe on the chopping block for replacement with a new one.

What the hell - waiting for some supplies to arrive. Let's repaint it crazy style.
Turns out I have to de-solder 3 wires - no biggie.

Sand...

Prime...

And since this metallic isn't metallic enough...

Oh yeah

Now for sure I'll have to add lighting to the lower chamber for this disco ball to rise up from!

Hey - maybe I won't replace it after all.

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[geolemon]

Still waiting on some supplies so I pulled all my door panels to do some damping.

Made my two extra RCAs.

Also made some arrangements with a buddy who runs a vinyl graphics shop to make me some stencils to paint the Epicenter logo back on. Why not, right?

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[BigAl205]

Is that Fleck-stone?

[geolemon]

Is that Fleck-stone?

No, I left fleck stone back in the 90s...
Did LOTS of those though, that and faux marble... Oh man.

It's hard to capture the effect on camera, even this video doesn't quite:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/3r8hqWVDvNwbA8Xv8

It's a base using the same grey metallic as my window frame, and massive silver reflective flake over the top.
It's a big disco ball now, so it'll be reflecting the light from below as it opens.

My buddy is making some stencils out of vinyl - I'm going to spray an Epicenter logo back onto it. It would also be fun having an unmarked magic mystery box with one lone red power LED on the surface but... It'll be cool with the logo.

[geolemon]

Did some speaker wiring down below and ready to jump into the power wiring...


Realize now that I picked up some nice white NVX OFC 4 gauge for this side of the distribution block in the amp rack - and apparently I didn't order any blue.

I guess we'll see if I have enough scraps from my leftovers bin. Otherwise I guess I'm ordering some blue...


Would be nice to have more than an hour or two a night to get it done... Adulting sucks.

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[geolemon]

I decided to not use my blue - or any blue at all. I ordered some NVX red, overnight, mainly because I used a spool of 20 gauge red wire for my remote wire, and also a spool of 14ga. red/black wire that I'm using both as speaker wire from that little Banda rear-fill amp, as well as power/ground wire to it and the DSP.

I originally wanted to wire it up all vertical/horizontal, pretty and separated, crossing at right angles - but I can't for a few reasons... including where the wires pass through the amp rack floor:

The tape lines correspond to the lower chamber, which is smaller. The speaker wiring terminal blocks will hang outside the chamber, with the power and ground distribution inside the lower chamber.

On the vertical tape line I've marked the cutout that I made for wiring to pass over the wall, which you can see here (right below the can of sanding sealer):

You can see that's where all the wiring is crossing the tape.

I might still consider splitting the power and speaker wiring into two tiers, but I don't think I'll have room below, since I'm already fitting two caps down there as well - also a reason I'm not too worried about the power/ground in such close proximity.
I'll look with fresh eyes tomorrow, though.

From a cosmetic standpoint it will be fine - here's a simulated view of the amp rack lifted by the actuator:

[geolemon]

Here's a better preview of that:

And can see how it's going to rest into the spare tire well:

Power distribution down below and I'm pretty close to install time.

Here's a pic with the carpet glued and caps mounted, actuator mounted,fused distro block where it will live, and ground distro MIA. Had to order a new one. Oh well.