ekrunch

I've decided the Bose has got to go. It sounds horrible. The sound stage is too far forward, the high end is scratchy, the bass is a joke, and the radio is just clunky at best. That 6-disc in-dash is so slow i'd rather go back to a single disc... I swear I can outrun it. The other thing is that my '09 has no iPod option that's worth having and no A2DP bluetooth streaming so I think it's time to just trash it all and upgrade!

Let's start out with the basics, here's the equipment list for this build.

Signal Sources
Alpine CDA-117 (with iPod interface)
Alpine PXA-H100 IMPRINT Processor
Alpine KTX-H100 IMPRINT Sound Manager Kit (Mic and Software)
Alpine THA-T550HD HD Radio Tuner
Alpine KCE-400BT (Backordered, but on it's way!)
Alpine RUE-4190 Remote Control

Amplification
JL Audio HD600/4
JL Audio HD750/1 (Planned - Pending Financing!)

Speakers
Front : Hertz HSK-165XL 6.5" component set
Rear : Diamond Audio HEX mid drivers (first generation, back before they got bought out. These are my "until I get something better" speakers)
Sub : Kicker Solo-Baric L7 - "Old Faithful", 2002 model, the first year they released them and pretty much the last year I liked Kicker products.

Wiring
JL Audio / Stinger 4awg OFC Power Wire
Stinger 12awg OFC Speaker Wire
JL Audio ANL fuse holder for under the hood

Extras
Phoenix Gold "Powercore" 15 farad capacitor (the original re-branded AlumaPro models)
Racingline Grounding Kit
Optima RedTop Gel Cell Battery (Planned - Pending Financing!)
Lots and lots of Singer RoadKill Expert

And now on to some photos of the equipment!

The start of the Alpine gear


A little Stinger Roadkill to quiet things down


Power / Speaker wire and my fuse holder


JL terminal for the negative post


My super sweet HD600/4. Can't wait to hear this thing rockin' my front stage and rear fill.



Old faithful, my '02 Solo Baric L7. Still in great shape so i'm going to run it again. I had it in my '02 accord up until '05 and it's been put up ever since.




My Hertz HSK-165XL component set and my new TUA-T550HD HD Radio tuner


And my faithful installation assistant

ekrunch

Day 1 : Power/ground wires

So for day one I started with running the power and ground. Thanks to the guys on this forum who told me that the "professional" car audio shop I spoke to was just trying to rip me off and trying to make me pay for running a ground directly to the battery. That ground under the back seat was a whole lot easier than shoving another 4awg wire through that thick grommet up front! (Thanks to LVleo78 and this thread where he shows how he got his power wire through the firewall. That was helpful!)

On with the show.
Step 1... Jerk the seats!



Step 2... Get the ground in place.


Oh yeah. Nice wire!


Step 3... Get that power wire through the @#($*@(#*$ firewall!


And now it's time for the hood work. I really didn't think about it when I ordered my grounding kit. I would have gotten it in black instead of blue. Oh well, now my power and ground wires match.




Now I just have to connect it up to the dash and the hood work is done!

ekrunch

A few fun shots from todays work.

A few posterity shots of the Max.





A quick shot of me about to install that fuse holder.


And my fan club, aka the "Are you done yet?" crew.

rtitan

iTrader: (1)

Looking good so far!!

Kmoney

looking good. keep it up

Shift_Max

iTrader: (18)

I agree with you about the stock Bose sound system not being ideal. In for more progress pics...

wope

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the pics. Looking forward to the rest.

Car Addict

subscribed

ekrunch

The morning's progress...

Hood work done. Now all I have to do here is drop in the fuse to energize the system.


Power wire run under the door trim


And out the back ...


Then into the trunk.


And now for some sounded deadening in the trunk. It's definitely not as radical is some of the other guys i've seen on here.



More to come as long as the weather holds up!

maxedout4

looking real good so far.

bluelion

looking good....although an aftermarket system is far superior than factory bose....i'm content with mine now cause i came from a mazdaspeed 3 without bose/subwoofer, so the maxima's system sounds good TO ME...hehe

Car Addict

You would change your mind once you heard an aftermarket system. The day I bought my Max I was like WTF? Since I had an aftermarket system in my last car. It took a few weeks to adjust to the Bose. Adding a sub helped a lot though.

bluelion

i'm not disagreeing with you at all.. i KNOW an aftermarket system will be superior. but coming from a non-bose factory system in my ms3, this bose system DOES sound better than that....

HOKUSMAX

NICE cannot wait to see how this works out for you.

ekrunch

Day 2, part deux! It stopped raining so I got a little more work done today.

First, I put together the speaker/remote/ai-net connection wires that have to run from the front to the trunk. The speaker wire will go to the passive crossovers for my door speakers and the ai-net/remote wires will go to the dash. I even ran two extra pieces of primary wire ... just in case.


I started the run from the trunk


Then through the back seat under the carpet


Through that nice factory groove Nissan provided for me.


And under the beam here so the seat won't catch on it.


Almost home now


And we're done! Ready to go to the passives and the dash. I've bundled them up behind that panel for now so they're all hidden away until I'm ready to wire.


And now the rear speaker wire


I thought my speaker wire was Stinger, but it's JL. The shop I go to had both but I liked the JL better so I went with it.


The trunk is now ready for an amp rack.

Kmoney

nice job so far

gtmassive75

iTrader: (1)

Fantastic....looking good bro...keep the pics coming.. going to do the same to mine(winter project)....can't wait to see how to replace those speakers in the dash..

ekrunch

Thanks to everyone for the compliments! I'll keep the photos coming as I do the install. There will be a little delay once I get to the trunk part though. I'm probably going to enlist AMI Creations for some help with the box. I used to do this stuff for a living but I just don't have time or the tools to build a good box anymore and AMI's work is nice.

ekrunch

Unfortunately you won't get to see that in this thread. I'm just disconnecting them! In my book, dash speakers firing into the windshield = Bad front sound stage. I'll be skipping the replacement of those and just going with a really strong setup in the doors. I'm actively seeking out some kick panels so if that happens i'll add in some 4" midranges and move the tweeters to those. Until then it's just 6 1/2's and tweeters in the doors.

If you really want to replace those speakers though, grab the field service manual for the Maxima. It probably has a diagram that would help. It shouldn't really take more than an angled screw driver bit and possibly a pick to remove those grills and then pull the speakers. I've seen them from under the dash, that wouldn't be a fun place to run wires!

the_tags

Funny, I bought mine from M'Lady too (although I don't advertise for them for free). I Live in Lakemoor, what are you going to do with the old gear?

ekrunch

Funny you should mention that, I always meant to get some new plate frames and never did. I suppose it's time. The dealership hasn't been bad to me, but they certainly haven't done me any favors either!

As far as the old gear, i'm going to hang on to it. The modifications i've made (so far) are reversible and I'd like to be able to restore the stock audio system when I get rid of the car since I certainly won't be letting all of my aftermarket gear go with it!

1sik4dsc

iTrader: (1)

this is coming out nicely, alot of good stuff your putting in there, wish i could hear it in person when finished

sgirgiss1214

That thing is gonna freakin bump man,lol.

Kmoney

i got a question. the carpet you remove on the trunk before u get to the license plate bulb, whats it called?

ekrunch

I really don't have any idea. Are you talking about the trunk floor carpet or the panels on the sides of the trunk? I haven't changed my license plate bulb yet so I really never dug into it.

ekrunch

Time for today's update. Back doors now have sound deadening in them. I was going to go ahead and mount my speakers back there, but they don't fit. Looks like i'm going to have to cut out some metal or fabricate some sort of riser.

On with the show!

Drivers side rear door





Passengers side rear door



I've got a surprise in store for this piece and my install kit tomorrow.

the_tags

Yeah it's just one of my pet peeves, $35k for a car with a $1 license plate frame drives me nuts. I love seeing a Lexus or Beemer with them though, cracks me up. Maybe I'll pay you to do mine next.

LtLeary

what's the power draw on that system? Wire like that 4AWG seems like it would drag you from 70 to 60MPH just turning on the system!!! I know you mentioned a better battery but are you going for a bigger alternator as well?

ekrunch

If you go by what the recommended fuse sizes are for the amplifiers, the max draw is 110 amps. JL says the HD600/4 needs a 50A fuse and the HD750/1 needs a 60A fuse. I'm not bridging the HD600/4 and the HD750/1 will be running at 4ohm mono so hopefully it won't be that bad. I also have a Phoenix Gold 15farad cap that's going in the system, which should help smooth out the current draw and provide me with some buffer to get through the more demanding sections of the music.

With all that being said, I probably won't go for the larger alternator right away. The stock Maxima alternator is 150amps so it will probably be alright unless I have extended periods where I'm just jamming on it non stop and running the headlights or something.

qbenjamin

I will definitely be following this thread, as I have plenty of aftermarket products to put in mine, but I wanted to see what it looked like first in another Maxima first.

Car Addict

Thought the alternator was 110 amps

ekrunch

Oops! Good catch! I do believe you are correct sir.

Must have been typing too fast and thinking too slow!

Kmoney

am talking about this last pic.the carpet that covers it

ekrunch

Ah, okay. That's called the "Trunk Lid Finisher". If you download the Field Service Manual, look at the "INT.pdf" file, it's the second to last page. (Page INT-35)

Kmoney

thanks

ekrunch

Today's update. I got some time this morning to do the sound deadening in the front doors. I concentrated more on the inside of the door but you can't really see it in the pictures. I added a few pieces on top outer skin to help out with resonance.

Passenger's side front door




There's a lot inside of the door. Fortunately I have long arms and was able to do pretty much the whole inside skin of the door.


I even threw some on that plastic speaker pod.


Just as a quick point of reference, these pictures show what you need to remove off of the front door before you can take the panel off. The cover under the handle has to go, then you remove a long screw. Then pop off the cover piece that runs diagonally, start from the bottom and once you remove all of the clips it lifts upward. There's a clip at the bottom of this handle and a screw at the top. Remove them. Then use a panel tool (or a screwdriver) to lift the power window switches (from the back) and disconnect them. Once you remove the switches you'll see another Phillips screw. After that just remove the light at the bottom of the door by pulling on it and then you can pop the door loose. As always, grab from the bottom and pull outward to start disconnecting the clips, then it pulls up a little once all the clips are out.

ekrunch

Another update for today. After doing the front and rear doors, I still had a LOT of sound deadening material left so I decided to go ahead and get crazy in the trunk.

I'll probably do some under the floorboards as well and some more on the back doors. Here's the photos of the trunk now.

This is where I left off last time.


First we'll add some on the sides.



And then go ahead and do the entire spare tire well


And of course the back wall of the trunk


And here's my sidekick letting me know I've been spending too much time working on the car and not enough time throwing the toy bone.

PetitFrereMaxima

iTrader: (2)

All I can say is WOW!!! Man, keep up the great work. This is a HUGE task. Would be really nice to upload a youtube video on here so we can listen to it.

OneWhtMax

glad to see your doing everything to a 10 and not half ***
thats gonna be sweet

ekrunch

And now for the head unit!

I didn't have a ton of time today but I did get the head unit mounted up. The wiring harnesses are on my coffee table and getting ready to go in tomorrow morning. Saturday is Amp/Box day so I need to get the dash and speakers fixed up. I may have to ditch the HD Radio module because of the way all of the Alpine AI-NET stuff hooks up. I'm waiting for a call on that tomorrow.

Factory radio is out. Just a note for you that are thinking of doing this, the white module stays in the car.


Goodbye and good riddance!


Here's the Alpine CDA-117 in the metra kit with the brackets they supply. The factory brackets have all been removed as per the Metra instructions.


And here's the radio installed the way Metra intended it and boy is it UGLY! Look at that nasty trim ring! On top of the uglyness, the flip down face won't open because of the trim ring. Forget this!


Back to the drawing board, factory brackets reinstalled and the Alpine radio is now properly ISO mounted to the car's brackets, as it should be. It holds about 10x better in these brackets than in the Metra ones. What a joke. Metra should be ashamed of themselves on this one.


And here's a shot of the way the kit looks from Metra with the fake Carbon fiber trim piece reinstalled.



And now for what it *should* look like. I had some help from a friend and we got crazy with some vinyl so now the kit matches and that fake carbon fiber is no more!