Finally have music in my truck. My primary goal was to have a stereo without a head unit. Last time I had a stereo in my K5, jackasses broke into and ruined it trying to steal it. So I want a hidden stereo.
I had planned to put a subwoofer enclosure behind the rear seats. I built one but unfortunately it didn't fit and building one that would isn't practical. So I picked up a 6.5" Bazooka tube based on the reviews and that it was a perfect fit.
Per the instructions, it's mounted facing into the cab corner about 4" from it. Here it is with the seats installed.
You can see in the pictures above the amp is also mounted behind the seats. And I took the opportunity to add some sound deadener.
It is a 4 channel amp meaning it will run 4 speakers, 2 front & 2 rear. You can also run it like I am as a 3 channel amp, 2 front speakers and the sub. The 2 rear channels are bridged for the sub.
I wanted to be able to connect my phone without wires. I found a bluetooth adapter sold for boats. I uses RCA inputs. I also still want to connect with an audio cable from the headphone jack because my MP3 player will use that cable to act as an FM antenna. I had to figure out how to get 2 inputs into the amp.
If you only have a single input, you can just use an adapter cable with RCA connectors on one end and an headphone audio jack on the other. This would allow you to connect a phone or MP3 player directly to the amp.
Another thing I realized was that I needed to have 2 outputs for the amp; front and rear channels. If you only need 1 pair of speakers you can still connect direct to the amp like I mention in the previous paragraph. Another option is to get a Y connector or splitter to make the one signal into two.
This was looking complicated; I somehow needed to get 2 signal sources coming together to then split out into 2 channels, front & rear. I found an equalizer for $30 on Amazon that had 2 inputs as well as outputs for front, rear, and subwoofer. Not to mention the tuning benefits it will provide. I mounted this in my Tuffy console.
It comes with L brackets to mount it under the dash. This won't work with the Tuffy console so I made my own brackets using the factory mounting screws.
I don't have my DIY4x dash in yet so I just threw a switch in the dash. This switch turns on the amp, equalizer, and bluetooth antenna.
The bluetooth antenna is hanging there below the switch.
The amp and equalizer also need battery power. I pulled that from the battery through a 50amp circuit breaker mounted on the fender by the battery. The amp has two 25A fuses so that's why I went the the 50A breaker. The equalizer only pulls 3A.
I mounted component speakers up front so i could mount tweeters up on the pillar to make it easier to hear. I mounted the woofers in speaker pods on the kick panels.
I forget to get pictures of the tweeters.
You can see the passive crossover in the first picture above to the left of the speaker.
I ran the speaker wiress from the amp under the door sills wrapped in some nylon sleeving.
The system works great. I'm really impressed with the base from the Bazooka tube. Still playing with the filters and levels. It was kinda weird driving home with music and not hearing the motor so much.