mazdaspeed protege system build

Stage 2 Amp Rack: I am about as far along with the amp rack as the sub box so here are some progress pics. Test fitting the amps...nice and tight I am also going to re-make the trim piece out of MDF for a better finish. Because I'm broke I hooked up the XA4200 temporarily so I would Have tunes. I decided to throw the anarchy in the back for some temporary thump. At first I had it on the floor in the back seat hooked up to one channel of the XA4200 and it sounded good. Then I threw it in the trunk for safer keeping and... I forgot it was 8ohms so instead of maybe 50-60watts on one channel its getting about 200watts bridged...and I am putting those in my doors... WOOOOT! That thing has surprised everyone that has heard it! This is what the final product will look like. I thinned the trim piece down to one inch to match the trim on the sub box. Dodge Magnum in progress:

Pioneer DEH-80PRS - PPI Amps - Dayton Subwoofer(s) - Exodus Anarchy's - Vifa Tweeters - Kinetik Battery

Stage 3 Doors/Anarchy's : Well its been a while because I've been busy finishing school and working now that its summer. Anyway... I was on the fence about fiberglassing my doors because I couldn't find any proteges at any junk yards within two or three hours of where I live. Fortunately I found one a few months ago at my favorite junk yard and salvaged the front door panels and the rear trunk lining that was ruined from resin along with other bits and pieces. My next dilemma was whether or not to use the power hungry anarchy's or find some different midbass drivers. I have had the one anarchy in the box in my room breaking in and decided to test it out in the passenger footwell on one channel of the 4200 and band passed with the hpf on my hu at 50hz and thethe lowpass filter on the ampfence at 500hz. I alsohave high passed the ppi's at 500hz. That made up my mind with no feeling of compromise. With two of those up front it will be like adding another 12" sub but even better because all the sound is right up front. Now im going to start working on the doors whenever I have time.Dodge Magnum in progress:

Pioneer DEH-80PRS - PPI Amps - Dayton Subwoofer(s) - Exodus Anarchy's - Vifa Tweeters - Kinetik Battery

BTW I finished the sub box and amp rack about a month ago just after I got the stuff from the junk yard. I am very happy with how it came out. The Rust-oleum truck bed liner and gloss yellow paint look just like what I wanted. I basically just had to decide that sanding everything about elevendy times was enough and paint it. Im doing this on my phone so ill post pics later. Dodge Magnum in progress:

Pioneer DEH-80PRS - PPI Amps - Dayton Subwoofer(s) - Exodus Anarchy's - Vifa Tweeters - Kinetik Battery

These are some highlights of the project. Dodge Magnum in progress:

Pioneer DEH-80PRS - PPI Amps - Dayton Subwoofer(s) - Exodus Anarchy's - Vifa Tweeters - Kinetik Battery

Bump for comments or questions at this point?Dodge Magnum in progress:

Pioneer DEH-80PRS - PPI Amps - Dayton Subwoofer(s) - Exodus Anarchy's - Vifa Tweeters - Kinetik Battery

About a week ago I noticed a weerrring noise coming through my speakers. so I have been troubleshooting a ground loop for the past few days. I started by ripping the HU out because the RCA's had come loose before and I figured it was the same thing again; but they were all good. When I took out the HU I also took apart the wiring harness (which I had done with crimp connectors) and brought it up to my current standards of installation (which I have been practicing on my friends cars) basically tidying everything up and soldering the wires and using heat shrink. I also put quick connects on the power, ground and remote wires because they are all run separately from the factory wiring. While I was at it I I adjusted some of the slack in the RCA's from the trunk to the dash where there was plenty of room for it. Figuring all this would have fixed the problem I was annoyed when it didn't. I just redid all of my settings and ran the Auto TA and EQ this morning and discovered an interesting phenomenon. The front speakers were receiving a weak signal from the rear channel signal...WHAT? I have both the front and rear RCA's hooked up to the amp but the front speaker wires are the only one's connected to the output of the amp. I left the rear speaker wires disconnected because I don't have rear speakers and I'm not bi-amping or bridging the fronts. So I guess there is either a short in my 4ch Monster RCA cable or there is something terribly wrong with my XA4200. Is there anything else that could be causing this that I haven't thought of? Will ohm out the RCA's when I get a chance in the next few day's. Tonight I have calculus and tomorrow morning I have and interview for my first legit engineering job so it'll have to wait until after that.Dodge Magnum in progress:

Pioneer DEH-80PRS - PPI Amps - Dayton Subwoofer(s) - Exodus Anarchy's - Vifa Tweeters - Kinetik Battery

On top of the alternator wine my LSD decided to break on my way to dc the other week so I haven't had much time to work on my car while I've been making money to fix it... A few days ago I did take my HU out and apart to see if the ground for the RCA's was good.... I think the fuse (with a "P" on it) is to the left of the white connector that goes to the RCA Harness and it appears to be fine....other than the fact that it has been repaired? I did buy my HU pre-abused. I don't think this is the problem because the fuse would have smelled like and looked smoked. Dodge Magnum in progress:

Pioneer DEH-80PRS - PPI Amps - Dayton Subwoofer(s) - Exodus Anarchy's - Vifa Tweeters - Kinetik Battery

Those fuses can blow without any visible damage.  You need to use an ohm meter and see what the resistance is from the chassis of the radio to the shield connection of one of your RCA cables. 

I am grounding all of the RCA outputs to the aluminum heat sink on the back of the HU to see if that fixes the problem. I will be soldering one grounding wire with a ring terminal per pair of RCA outputs (6 RCA channels = 3 grounding wires). Wish me luck! Dodge Magnum in progress:

Pioneer DEH-80PRS - PPI Amps - Dayton Subwoofer(s) - Exodus Anarchy's - Vifa Tweeters - Kinetik Battery

IT WORKED!!!!!! 100% NOISE FREE!!!!WHY DIDNT I DO THIS A YEAR AGO!!!!!????

Dodge Magnum in progress:

Pioneer DEH-80PRS - PPI Amps - Dayton Subwoofer(s) - Exodus Anarchy's - Vifa Tweeters - Kinetik Battery