TRANSFORMERS THE MOVIE!!!

This is it, 07/04/07. Mark your calendars!

http://www.transformersmovie.com/

AVN6600 complete! (more or less)

I received the iPod controller module in the mail last week and installed it right away. It wasn't bad, in fact, the void that was left after removing the stock amplifier was a perfect spot to mount the iPod module. Now I can control my iPod nicely from the touch screen and store the iPod itself in the glove box. I'll get some pictures up later when I have time.

The 2nd thing I did last week was mount a little switch so I could turn on and off the subwoofer from inside the cabin. This was just a touch that I have always done in the past so in case there are people with "sensitive" ears in the car, I can appease them with a flip of a switch. Pictures to come!

The 3rd and final thing was installing the rear speakers last weekend. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, however it did require me to remove the entire backseat as well as the rear deck lid. The part I'm most proud of was fashioning some wood spacers to fit the aftermarket speakers into the rear deck. The rear deck didn't have standard speaker holes or screw holes to fit a typical aftermarket speaker. I had to cut out a piece of wood to get the rears mounted. I'll also post some pictures of it when I have some time.

Anyway, the system is pretty much done for now. As for the level matching gripes I had from my last post, I'll have to live with it for now. Maybe that will be my next project, a nice little amp for the cabin speakers. I'm dreading the drive to LA this weekened because my wife and I have been driving down there every 3 weeks since our wedding (this will be the 3rd time in a month an a half!). At least I'll have the new system to keep me busy on the drive down this time!

Car system drama

Ok, this blog is starting to become "The story of the AVN6600." So, I hooked up my sub to the AVN6600. My first impression, "Man, I forgot what clean bass sounds like." Before I got the AVN6600, I just used the speaker level inputs from my rear speakers as input to my amp. I thought it sounded ok. Now, with the dedicated sub-out from the AVN6600, the difference is like night and day. I had a dedicated sub-out in my Civic a long time ago too, but I forgot what it sounded like.

Anyway, now with the sub in.... I'm frustrated with the cabin speakers. The internal amp of the AVN6600 does them no justice compared to sub's sound quality. I'm especially frustrated by the fact I can't control and fine tune the gain of the cabin speakers. With the sub-out, I have awesome crossover, slope, and gain controls via the AVN6600, in addition to another gain knob on the sub amp itself. I could tweak the sub until my heart is content. With the cabin speakers, what do I have?... volume UP and volume DOWN on the headunit. It's pretty near impossible to level match them with the sub.... unless I turn the gain on the sub amp all the way up, which I don't want to do because you can start to hear distortion when you do.

So what to do? Now I'm thinking about getting another 4 channel amp just for the cabin speakers.... when will the madness stop????? When my wife reads this, she'll either 1) Scold me or 2) Start a shopping rampage of her own..... I don't know which would be worse.... =) But you can't blame me hon, blame my high school friends from back in the day who introduced me to this wonderful world of car audio. Vijay, if you're reading this, back me up man.....

Eclipse AVN6600

I thought I'd put up at least one blog entry because I created this account just so I could comment in my wife's blog. Anyway, besides the whole marriage thing keeping me busy, my new toy, the Eclipse AVN6600 in dash navigation system has been keeping me extra busy on top of that. You might have seen my wife mention it in one of her blog entries.

Anyway, this unit ROCKS. The navigation is very well done and the units sounds great as a stereo. I am eagerly awaiting to get the iPod adapter in the mail so I can control my iPod via the head unit. I still have to hook up my rear speakers as well as my subwoofer so the system isn't complete yet. However, I have the unit itself pretty much installed so I've been able to play with it. When every last thing is up and running, I'll post some pictures of it.