Improving Macintosh

[loweart]

As Ric has already mentioned, you won't be able to use the McIntosh amp as it takes balanced input.

Just bypass the amp completely and either use the inbuilt amp of your Pioneer unit or add a separate amp. I spliced into the speaker wiring loom that connects to McIntosh amp and ran new cabling from there into my Kenwood head unit.

[at last!]

For those that want an improved sound (and even if you are going to replace everything) I highly recomend installing sound deadening in the 4 doors.

It made a significant diff to the audio quality. Significant.

A great first step and even more important if you are going to all the expense of a full install.

[AndrewCowley]

For those that want an improved sound (and even if you are going to replace everything) I highly recomend installing sound deadening in the 4 doors.

It made a significant diff to the audio quality. Significant.

A great first step and even more important if you are going to all the expense of a full install.

Can you recommend somewhere in Sydney where this can be done?

[at last!]

Can you recommend somewhere in Sydney where this can be done?

Sorry, no, I am in Melb....but if you have a day free over the Easter break, it's quite easy to do yourself.

See my other post here for a link to the manual which shows how to remove the panels from the deers...http://forum.liberty.asn.au/viewtopic.p ... 1&start=25

And see earlier in the same thread for others pic's and details of the install.

All in all, an easy, but time consuming task - just make sure you have surgical gloves on. $180 for a box of 10 sheets should do all 4 doors with a single coverage of the deadener.

Andrew

[llbjt]

Speaking of improving the Mac, just came across this little number from Jaycar:

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.as ... BCATID=396

I've had some experience with the Response amps and they were good, cheap audio gear, not sure about their subs though. I was hoping someone could shed some light.

From what I can tell its has 200WRMS built-in and can accept line level or hi inputs, so this thing should be as simple as plug and play into the existing Mac setup????

[cpitts]

If it takes line level, then pretty much plug and play for signal, but you've gotta get some power to it from the battery. Ultimately, you get what you pay for with these kind of solutions. Can't comment on it directly though, sorry.

Saying that though, a lot of people do buy the Jaycar stuff as a cheap upgrade option.

[04 GT WA]

gold thread!

nice install there buddy!

anyone used the alpine pxe-h650 on the mcintoshy?

keen to extract a little more out of it to fill in a few small holes without cutting it all apart. it has its flaws yes, but for a stocky system its not too bad, considering what they used to put in subaru's

[nytrojen]

If it takes line level, then pretty much plug and play for signal, but you've gotta get some power to it from the battery. Ultimately, you get what you pay for with these kind of solutions. Can't comment on it directly though, sorry.

Saying that though, a lot of people do buy the Jaycar stuff as a cheap upgrade option.

I originally had a Jaycar response amp in the silvia. That thing went hard for surprisingly little money at the time.

[Drew]

I'm sure it's been asked before, but I couldn't find it using search... how did you mount the Sat Nav like that? looks fantastic, and very clean...

[loweart]

Hey Drew,

You did the right thing by searching these forums for the answer, sorry it didn't return any info for you because this subject hasn't come up before from what I know and I guess I "might" be the only one on this forum that attempted this sort of "mod".

Ok, that said here goes ->

What I did in my MY04 2.5 Liberty to mount my Tom Tom One V3 GPS unit was purchase an

in-line mini USB power car adaptor/charger



and then a

Akon bendable mount suitable for the Tom Tom. ( check out eBay or just google )



The easy part as you can imagine to is wire the in-line mini USB adaptor/charger to a 12v line in the car.

The more difficult part is routing the cable behind the dashboard up into the back of the centre cubby and cutting a small notch into the bottom of the cubby as so the mini USB connector can be threaded through to the front and not be crushed when the lid of the cubby is in closed position.

Now, the really hard part ( don't rush this ) is to cut a 1mm horizontal slit across the bottom lip of the cubby ( yes, you'll need to remove the cubby for this ) equal to the width of the bendable metal arm of the Arkon mount. The bottom lip I'm referring to is the part the cubby lid closes down, but not completely as the lid has to rubber cushions so that when the lid closes it actually leaves about 1.5mm gap, is so that when the car moves the lid doesn't knock against the bottom edge/lip of the cubby.

I used a fine conical hot tip soldering iron to scribe a line into that lip's edge and then used a 1mm drill to drill along the width of the line. Cleaned up with a thin bladed hacksaw.

When you receive the Arkon bendable mount, it's made so that you fasten a tapped retaining cup to what ever surface using the pre-mount double side tap and then the end of bendable mount arm has a U shaped tongue that slides into the retaining base/cup and you just tighten the screw knob and mount your Tom Tom on the other end using the supplied clips.

In my situation, you throw away the mounting base/cup and only use the bendable metal arm and Tom Tom mount clip.

You'll need a good pair of long pointed nose pliers and a good work bench vice to do the adjustments as the rest of the work is purely bending the metal arm so that the U shaped tongue end slides into the 1mm slit that you cut into the bottom lip of the cubby. All the while, you need to make bends in the mounting arm so it comes out of the slit in the lip, but curves downwards as to avoid touching the cubby lid when it's in the shut position and then bend the metal back up and slightly inwards, but not too much as it has to not touch the cubby lid when you open the cubby. Once you've achieved that, you then need to twist the arm slightly to one side so that when the Tom Tom is mounted, it's angled a little towards the driver's line of sight.

Now, when you've done all that, the U shaped end that goes into the slit that you cut into the lip of the cubby either needs to be fastened to the underside of the cubby ( this is portion of the cubby that's behind the dash vent and behind the info panel ). You can choose to use 3M heavy duty double side tape or drill a small hole through the metal bendable arm and through the inside of the cubby and then fasten with a small screw, washer and nut. This has to be done, otherwise your bendable arm has nothing to hold on to and will just flop !

Now, that all the hard work is finished, you simply slide your Tom Tom into the bendable arm's retaining clip, and plug the mini USB in-line charger into the bottom of your Tom Tom and you're away !

If you're interested in this little project, I do have one spare in-line mini USB power car adaptor/charger left that I can sell you for $30 ( postage included anywhere in Oz ). Just PM me if you're interested.

Enjoy !
Lok

[THERB3]

Hey,

Can I ask how you secured your navigation TomTom with the storage component door shut ?

Pics would be great.

Thx.

[loweart]

Hello Harry,

Sorry if I sound a little confused as I'm not too sure what you mean with your question about how I "secured" the Tom Tom with the cubby lid in the closed position ?

By "secured" I assume you mean mounted ?

If so, then the post I made that's above your post explains how this is mounted when Drew asked the question of how to mount the Tom Tom.

I hope I've answered your question ?

Cheers,
Lok

[THERB3]

Sorry I should of explained myself a little better but you hit the nail on the head with your last post.

Thx

[loweart]

PHEW, glad that I was able to answer your question Harry !

That photo of the Tom Tom mounted in front of the cubby was when I had a 2.5 safety pack prior to my 3.0R. That was the only photo I took and it was more to demonstrate the Double DIN AV panel set with a single DIN headunit moreso than the mounting bracket for the Tom Tom.

Cheers,
Lok

[bennygsr]

Off topic, but related to previous posts:

RE: Cubby sat nav installs:

I know THERB3 wanted storage door shut, but just in case for those who didn't know:
http://www.subarucubbymount.com/

http://www.legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83077

Maybe its already been discussed on these forums, so sorry for doubling up.