# Altima stereo upgrade - in progress pics



## wickedsr20 (Aug 8, 2002)

Finally had a day off work and the weather cooperated, so I decided to tear stuff apart today. It was interesting to say the least.









The naked door panel. OEM speaker removed and got the new 14 gauge speaker wire through the door jamb. That was an adventure within itself.









The next step.









Just looks so pretty. I've seen real good results from others who have used it, including a Ford Econoline cargo van that convinced me to give this a try.









The OEM Bose door speaker. It's sitting on a plastic template made from another OEM speaker which makes tracing out a wooden spacer/baffle much easier. 









How much was this factory option again?????? Note how much it is spaced out to clear the window track inside the door. This is why a custom spacer must be made. No universal spacer here.









Got the ol skool 6.5" MB Quart QM160's on custom baffles. The baffles space the speaker 1.25" outward which is just enough to clear the window and not cause interference with the door panel. I also added a layer of Roadkill between the speaker and the baffle which is not visible in this pic.









The finished product. Did the inside of the outer door skin and also the inner door area under the door panel. So far only got the one door totally done, but at least I did get the spacers made for both front doors and the speaker wires are ran through both door jambs. Tomorrow, I look forward to finish deadening the other door as taking a short ride with just the one deadened door shows a very noticeable improvement in noise level inside the car. Can't hear a thing from the front driver's door, but the other three are still in need. 
More pics to come as I get time to get stuff done.


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## myoung (Apr 15, 2002)

Nice Job! Well documented..

Seems I've seen others that have used the OEM speaker frame after cutting the speaker out..


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## wickedsr20 (Aug 8, 2002)

Got the passenger's side door done. 










Now if I can fit the tweeters in the stock location and wire up the x-overs, the fronts will be complete. Then it's on to the rear doors. Got another set of QM 160 mids going in there (if they'll fit) and then I'll figure out what to do with the back deck. I'm contemplating making sealed enclosures under the rear deck for a good set of midbasses (8's), but haven't made a decision as of yet. More to come later.


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## wes (Apr 30, 2002)

Looks real good man. My only advice is to NOT use midbass drivers in the rear deck, 8" subs would be nice but not mid-bass drivers. Also I am a fan of forgoing any high pass frequencies in the rear of the car, just use mid-range....


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## wickedsr20 (Aug 8, 2002)

wes said:


> Looks real good man. My only advice is to NOT use midbass drivers in the rear deck, 8" subs would be nice but not mid-bass drivers. Also I am a fan of forgoing any high pass frequencies in the rear of the car, just use mid-range....


I'm definitely not planning on putting any tweeters in the rear anywhere. I am going to do an a/v set-up and I'm trying to build it so it can do both well. Would like that sense of surround when running the video and just enough rear fill for music. Real easy to defeat the rears if I ever decide to get back into sq competitions again, but just looking for a good all around sound for now. I'll have another set of 6.5" Quarts going in the rear doors if they fit (not sure of how much room is back there and unsure of the size of the OEM speaker) so I'm still not fully sure what to do with the rear deck locations just yet since I'll already have some rear fill and don't feel a need for 2 sets of mids in the rear. In the meantime, I'll be trying to apply more Roadkill to the interior and get wires run.

I finally got to pick this up to run my highs. 



















US Amps vacuum tube 60 x 4. Has a real smooth overall sound to it. Looking forward to hearing this hooked up soon. 

Here's what will be running the show.










More pics to come as progress is made. (If some of the pics come out huge, I can't figure out how to resize them smaller)


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## Jasper (Apr 2, 2004)

that USAmps piece is nice ...how's the Stinger deadening? i looked into it, but it was three times the money of everything comparable.

a buddy of mine has that Pioneer, he loves his. i wanna see install pictures!


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## wickedsr20 (Aug 8, 2002)

Jasper said:


> that USAmps piece is nice ...how's the Stinger deadening? i looked into it, but it was three times the money of everything comparable.
> 
> a buddy of mine has that Pioneer, he loves his. i wanna see install pictures!


The Stinger Roadkill is great stuff. It has lowered the noise level inside the car significantly with just the four doors being done. The car is quieter @ 100 mph than it used to be @ 55 mph. Gotta really keep an eye on the speedo, as you can no longer gauge speed by road and wind noise. It's a bit pricey, but the results are worth it and then some. Got some more done today so here are the newest pics.










The factory Bose tweeter and the MB Quart tweeters on the OEM mounts. They are very similar in size and the MB's bolt right up to the OEM mount perfect, even using the OEM screw to hold them in place. The panel fit perfect. No modification needed here.










The factory 5.25" Bose unit compared to the 6.5" MB QM 160's. With a little custom work (making another 3/4" spacer), the 6.5" will fit easily. Don't believe those who say only a 5.25 will fit.  










The naked door panel. Note that with the window fully rolled down that it poses no interference with the door speaker depth wise. Which makes fitting the 6.5 that much easier.










Those large holes makes doing the rear outer skins so much easier than the fronts. Doing these doors killed a lot of outside noise.



















The finished products. Got the new speaker wires run through the rear door jambs and also got the speakers in the doors. More pics to come as more progress is made. We'll see what tomorrow brings.


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## Jasper (Apr 2, 2004)

rear speakers!!! tsk tsk


looks good though man. good to know those MB Quart's bolt right up to the factory tweeter location

i still prefer 'em in the kicks though


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## wickedsr20 (Aug 8, 2002)

Jasper said:


> rear speakers!!! tsk tsk


There are certain things that had to be agreed to before I could go through with this upgrade. This is because the wife drives the car on a regular basis and she gave me her input on what she wanted if I did the install in the Altima. The Pioneer head unit has the ability to play in dual zone mode, which will allow rear seat passengers to watch a movie or play a game while the radio plays in the front. She liked that feature and it takes rear speakers to achieve it. Easy to turn off completely if needed for sq competition purposes, but can also act as surrounds when playing movies. That's why they're there.



Jasper said:


> looks good though man. good to know those MB Quart's bolt right up to the factory tweeter location
> 
> i still prefer 'em in the kicks though


The other things she requested were:

A factory appearance. 
She has to retain the steering wheel stereo controls.
She has to retain some trunk space.

Kick panel speakers aren't totally out the question. If I catch a good enough deal on a matching set of Quart 4" mids and a pair of the big dog 3-way Quart passive x-overs, I would do a 3-way set-up with the 6.5 as a midbass, with the 4 and the tweet in the kick panel. I wear a size 13 shoe and I need my room in the footwells. A 6.5 and a tweet in the kick panel area would cut into that precious space a bit too much for me.


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## sr20dem0n (Mar 19, 2003)

looking good

is it going to have a sub or just the 4 fronts?


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## wickedsr20 (Aug 8, 2002)

sr20dem0n said:


> looking good
> 
> is it going to have a sub or just the 4 fronts?


I'm planning on installing a pair of subs. Not sure what size (10's or 12's) or brand yet, but I still have a little while to narrow it down. I have decided on using a US Amps 1000 to run whatever I decide on. I got the 1/0 gauge power wire through the firewall, got a Stinger 5 farad capacitor, and got 3 Stinger Expert RCA cables. Still got a long way to go.


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## wickedsr20 (Aug 8, 2002)

Got a few more toys. Pics to come when I get my camera back.
Got an Audio Control 6xs crossover and also a US Amps 1000x sub amp.
Also finished putting the Roadkill deadening on the floor of the cabin and under the rear seat. Just have the trunk left to do now. Didn't notice as large of an improvement in noise reduction inside with the floor as I noticed after doing the doors, but every little bit helps. 

Getting there slowly, but surely. More to come soon. :cheers:


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## Jasper (Apr 2, 2004)

wickedsr20 said:


> Got a few more toys. Pics to come when I get my camera back.
> Got an Audio Control 6xs crossover and also a US Amps 1000x sub amp.
> Also finished putting the Roadkill deadening on the floor of the cabin and under the rear seat. Just have the trunk left to do now. Didn't notice as large of an improvement in noise reduction inside with the floor as I noticed after doing the doors, but every little bit helps.
> 
> Getting there slowly, but surely. More to come soon. :cheers:



niice 

im soooooo torn with the new car (05 WRX) as far as audio. i got it, thinking "yay, double din, plenty of room for my $1500 Eclipse AVN2454"....and now im thinking "hey! $1500 would get me my downpipe, midpipe, muffler, UTEC, and about 50-60whp!"


its a tough choice ....ESPECIALLY since i still have all my CDT EuroSport drivers, and like 150^2 yards of fiberglass, and a gallon and a half of resin sitting in my room....that's begging to be installed and amped! (im probably going Cadence though, plenty of clean power, about the same price as the USAmps stuff, but USAmp's doesnt have any 2channel amps that'll do 300x2 @4ohm's stereo ...i wish they did.


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## wickedsr20 (Aug 8, 2002)

Small update

Over the weekend, I put the Roadkill deadening in the trunk. Ran out of material, but was able to do about 85% of the trunk. Did the rear wheelwells, the sides behind the carpet panels and the floor including the spare tire well.

The final verdict came this weekend when I took my moher's Lexus GS 300 for a cruise (very very quiet interior) and it rode the same as the Altima. My goals as far as noise levels were reached and I still have a little bit more to do. Can't wait to begin building the trunk and get the equipment in there. :cheers: 

The Roadkill may be expensive, but it gets results. Thoroughly impressed.


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