Maxima Stereo Installation
My Maxima came from the factory with the Bose stereo system. This system is decent but lacks the high power and pounding bass that I like. This lead me to change out the speakers, add a sub, and power them with a couple of amplifiers.
Specifically, I added:
MB Quart PSD216 6.5" components in the front doors and A-pillars
MB Quart RKC113 5.25" coaxials in the rear doors
JL Audio 10W7 subwoofer in a custom built ported enclosure
JL Audio 300.4 to run the 4 door speakers
JL Audio 500.1 to run the subwoofer
Rockford Fosgate 1.0 farad capacitors and wiring
My intent was to keep the factory head unit and retain a stock look inside the car. A convertor, made by PAC (part# OEM-1), was used to provide 2 sets of RCA plugs as well as the remote turn-on for the amps. We used the factory door speaker mounting brackets which required very minimal trimming to mount the MB Quart speakers.
PAC Convertor |
Speaker Mounting Bracket |
The speakers mounted smoothly but the wiring of them was a bit tricky. There isn't a wire loom that brings wiring into the front doors so the speaker wire was brought in through the grommet around the pin connectors on the front door jamb. The A-pillars also needed some massaging in order to mount the tweeters. 3 holes were drilled into the A-pillar, 2 for each end of the mounting bracket and a center hole which needed to be larger in order to accomodate the screw which mounts the tweeter to the bracket.
Front Door Jamb |
A-pillar Tweeter |
The next issue was where to mount the amps. After a few mock-ups, we decided to mount them behind the rear seat. Both amps use the same case and were just wide enough to fill the opening when mounted side-by-side. A neon light was mounted above the amps which lights up the entire area at night. The crossovers were mounted on a board and angled under the amps to fill-in that entire area.
Amplifiers |
Crossovers |
Two 1.0 farad capacitors, mounted below the crossovers, were used to help alleviate the draw on the car's electrical system when the bass hits. 0-gauge wire was run from the battery to the rear of the car where a distribution block was used to separate the power for each amp to 4-gauge wiring.
Capacitors |
Battery Connection |
A platform was built onto the trunk floor to give the subwoofer enclosure a level mounting area. This was made with 3/4" MDF and goes from the front of the trunk and covers the front 1/3 of the spare tire. By keeping it this far back, I am still able to get the spare tire out should the need arise. The ported subwoofer enclosure was also made out of 3/4" MDF and then carpeted. It was built to JL Audio specs, 23 1/4" wide x 13 1/2" high x 11 7/8" deep at the top and 16 7/8" deep at the bottom.
Trunk Floor |
Subwoofer Enclosure |
This system sounds fantastic and the JL Audio 10W7 subwoofer pounds unbelievably hard. I'd like to give a big thanks to Matt and Keith Imbriglio and all the guys at Long Radio for an outstanding install job.
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