So I got this half din active/EQ/line driver thing, and wonderfully sexy she is too.

But the problem was my dash. Let me rewind a bit.

When I got the car there was a Sony (eww eww and double friggin eww) in there. Now it was a nice head unit but like every other sony the person who designed it forgot to add any bass.

Almost like the guys at JVC who also have no idea how to make a f***ing head unit.

Look Mr Corporates, leave it to the professionals huh? (Alpine, eclipse and so on Denon being my favorite)

So anyway, at the time I got the Tib I was a bit of a lowly pauper. So I got a Infinity Din out of an 04 and set to work with a dremel, large set of pliers and a hacksaw and made it fit. The problem was when I reverted back to using a single Din I had all kinds of problems getting it back in there, cue the duct tape and so on.

So I knew that the Active etc was going to be a problem hence why I have been putting that off and favoring other things.

Anyway this wednesday is the day of truth, and probably the last day with any kind of warmth to be kneeling on the ground running RCA's (I have to run 3 sets to the trunk.)

So I had a few great ideas here, and Im proud my brain came through today.

Idea # 1 - To set the active up above the head unit so I didnt block any vents I used some motherboard mounting things (the brass ones) which were the perfect height for that.

#2 a chopped stereo strap and some dremel work held it in place.

#3 an old single din cubby hole thing (those scosche things) attacked with the dreemel made some nice filler strips to bring it to full din.

#4 I remembered that the head unit had gaps around it when in the dash. It wasnt bad but I am a perfectionist. So this was where I hatched the best plan, and one that will stop coffee that spills from going inside the dash.

I made a carpet 'skirt' using some leftover acoustic carpet.which really finishes it all off nice and covers any tell tale brackets and stuff you might normally see.

This isnt fully trimmed yet because I have to do that in the car, but piccy shows how tidy my little dashoard stack will be smile.gif

 

good work mang! fing02.gif it should look fine.

But if it dosn't come out as planned, remember you can always fiberglass. That piece of carpet trim would work well for a base to start. Glass it over and adhere it to the trim on the face plate.

 

Once the surround goes over it it looks really nice smile.gif

I tell you though man its a RIGHT bastard to set that fusion up, a REAL bastard.

I have been out there for 3 damn hours and I honestly thought it or my amps had blown. Then I realised I needed to switch it to unbalanced inputs and it sprang into life. However, one damn milimeter too zealous with a gain and the amps go nuts. It really is super hard to set it up.

Im getting there now though, Im setting it so that the front controls are not going to cause damage to the amps or speakers if overturned.

and it involves so much running to the trunk and back it made my head spin. one small twist of a gain up front and then run to the back for another one.

one thing I have noticed though is that my system is going to be about 3 times louder than it was before, so frighteningly loud then lol...

Plus this time i am finally utilising ALL 3 amps. At current I have the MPS running the front and rear stage and the audiobahn on the amp, but now I am going to run the front stage (the clif stuff) from the mps at 2 ohm highpassed and the 6x9s from the zeropoint at 4ohm full range. The Zeropoint has a bass control, so I want to be able to get the audiobahns in the back thumping out even more bass lmao.gif

So overall yes I am very impressed with the fusion, especially for $49 shipped, but I tell you I *WOULD NOT* reccomend this unit to anyone but a complete pro with ALOT of patience. first off it has a set of RCAs going in and 3 sets going out. Its serious man lol.

Oh, one SERIOUS downside is when lit green it looks bloody horrible 02.gif the green lighting in it is dark green and would not match an alpine or any green head unit I have ever seen. However in bluw? with my NESA HU? it looks *stunning* so I am thankful for that...

Pics soon, right now I have RCAs all over the seats and floor as I havent ran them properly yet, weds I will be going to fit my new black back seat (to match the fronts sorta) and finish this part of the system. Then saturday I am going to fit the clifs and re-enable the zeropoint. At that stage the fundamentals of the system will be complete, all that will leave is the theme work in the trunk, the 0 gauge ground wire for the battery and the gamecube smile.gif

 

isn't there gain conrols on the top of the unit you might be able to set to reduce the sensitivity? I knew that high voltage would be a bit too high. Remember, gain controls are usually labeled by votage. If you have any that accept 8V inputs, set them there and you'll be able to turn your RCAs all the way up on your cross over without problems. If you have access to an oscilliscope you can monitor the waveforms and get a perfect non-clipped wave out of it for maximum loudness and quality.

you're so making me want to replace my cupholder with a EQ.

 

The fusion is a technical nightmare. TBH its over engineered and it makes for alot of headaches.

There are input gains, output gains and then 5 other gains for every frequency level. Get one wrong and you get a serious amp howl and flapping speakers lmao.gif

Switching it to unbalanced basically allows you to take control of all the gains, having it balanced just cranks out 8v into all the pres which is too much for the PG amps.

Even the audiobahn doesnt like it.. I have set it to unbalanced and my system is so loud now Im frightened to go over half way. Im just burning a brutal british rap cd to test with and have a long drive to go get my new black back seat, so Ill report back when I get home smile.gif

RCAs all over the car atm theyre not being routed til I get to the heated garage tomorrow on me day off

Oh, and yeah I would get one tbh. I cant tell you how much better and more open and hard driving the sound is now. Its also awesome because my hu has no bass treble fader or balance and the fusion has all of that. The EQ part is fantastic too.

 

Did they put the output gains on the front of the unit or the top? I'd set output gains to a good level with system in balanced mode and then use unbalanced to modify the sound and turn it up if you need to.

you have installed pix?

 

yeah the output gains are on the front, as in pic. but the input ones are on the top.

Here pic smile.gif

 

so what were all the knobies and swithces on the top?

Looks nice too by the way.

 

From left to right.

Master Gain.
Fader (front to back)
Subwoofer linedriver/gain

LED color (green/blue)
Aux/main switch (it has 2 inputs, cool smile.gif )

Sub bass Level
Mid Bass Level
Mid Level
Mid High Level
Treble Level.

Then on the top where you cant see are.

Aux input gain
Front input gain
Rear input gain

Bass frequency (30-200hz)
High pass frequency (cant remember this off hand)

2 or 4 channel input switch.

And on the back.

Ground mode selector. (iso, 200ohm, gnd)

Aux balanced/unbalanced output
Main balanced/unbalanced output.

As I said it's one seriously complicated motherf***er lmao.gif

 

looks nice man! just don't get it roughed!