Pelican Pete

I took my car to the shop on Friday -- just in time for the NE event, and the long drive from NYC to Boston.

They spent ALL day on my car, from 11am til 7pm.

Here's the scoop. The Stealthbox is gone. I sold it a few weeks ago.
I purchased a Kicker CompVR12 used from a friend of mine. (I know it's not the greatest sub, but for only $100, I wasn't about to complain.) It certainly suits my needs in the car.

This shop ripped out ALL the crappy wiring that the previous shop did. They replaced it with beautiful blue wires for power, signal, and speaker -- to match my Pelican Blue car. :-)
The RCA cables are Phoenix Gold. Don't know what the speaker cables are. But they are respectable 16ga wire.

I also replaced the Phoenix Gold 4 channel amp with an Alpine 357 5-channel amplifier, and had it mounted to the rear deck.
(Yes, I know that it won't cool properly hanging upside down, but that's how I wanted it, because I value my trunkspace.)
I replaced the amp for two reasons: The Phoenix has a respectable output stage. But not a very sensitive input. I'm sure it would be great with an aftermarket radio, or even a line driver.
But I was just using the Concert stereo, and I could not get it to sound how I wanted it to.
Also, since I removed the Stealthbox, I am able to get rear speakers again. So I needed the 5 channel amp to drive the extra speakers.

The Alpine has a much more sensitive input stage than the Phoenix, and is much more flexible with input voltages. As a result, we were able to tune the system pretty damn loud with no distortion.

I went to Endless Possibilities in Elizabeth, NJ -- exit 13 off the NJ Tpk. These guys did a beautiful job on my installation. Very professional. Even before they started working on my car, I was impressed by the cleanliness of the shop.
I am VERY pleased with the final product. Brian is the head installer, and he really knows his stuff. Some of the guys at the NE event checked out my stereo, and agreed that Endless did a very nice job on my installation.

I kept the Focals in the front doors, but I had them move the xovers to the trunk, and run new speaker cables. (BLUE cable -- I love it!)
They are also ordering me the Focal 165HC 6.5" coaxial speakers for the rear deck. I told Brian about the MBQ adapters, but he said he prefers to make his own out of MDF. Okay.

I'll post pictures later this week.

Cheers,
Peter
(oops, I just realized I have to change my sig text to reflect the new toys.)

TEDS4

You have 5.25 focal speakers in the front right? What model are they and were they easy to fit in the door. (ie arent too deep and are easy to fit without door mods)

TIA TIA

peace

Pelican Pete

I have the Focal 130k -- kevlar. That is their 2nd to top of the line series. They are installed using the MBQ adapters, and they fit right in. No mods needed.
Although I did have the MBQ adapters siliconed to the door panel.

The tweeters are installed in the factory locations as well, but they required some creativity on the part of the installer.

My car is a 98.5. However the 99.5 and later cars have an additional door brace which gets in the way of deep aftermarket speakers. I think most people are cutting this brace, but I am really not sure, as my 98.5 does not even have it.

Good luck,
Peter