2009 GTR Focal, Mosconi, JL Audio

Scott brought in his GTR after not being impressed with the big shop in town, to quote him "Their demo GTR sounded like crap". He also went so far as to say he wanted a proper stage to go along with great clarity. Now I never had a client ask for a sound stage before so I told him he brought the car to the right place.

Scott had a JL Audio XD400/4, XD600/1 and 12w6v2 left over from previous install so he wanted to use the equipment. Since the GTR radio could not be removed a new Mosconi 4to6 was adding for OEM integration and DSP control. For the front stage a set of Focal Performance P165 V15 was added to the mix. Since he had the XD400/4 the decision was made to run the P165 v15's in an active set up controlled via the 4to6. 

Not being just an audio shop I reupholstered his headliner in black Alcantara and also dying the grey plastic parts black. This is truly an option the car should've come with.

With that done I move into the audio portion. The front door panels received a treat of Focal BAM sound deadening.

The inside skin of the doors was covered in Hush Mat Ultra sound deadening in black.

Running wires into the doors was a straight forward process thanks to Nissan leaving an opening area in the molex plug. Some careful drilling and the wires were able to pass right into the doors.

The tweeters fit in the OEM location without any modifications needed.

As usual the door speaker mount rings were milled out of plexiglass to ensure that moisture would not be able to deform them in the future. They also utilize the OEM mounting points.

The speaker terminals were heat shrunk and the speakers were mounted to the rings.

With the signal from the radio to the OEM amplifier being a low level signal a set of RCAs were soldered to the radio leads.

Attention was turned to the wire runs. Hush Mat Quite Tape was used every 8" to secure the wires in place.

The subwoofer enclosure was made out of Birch plywood to help keep down on the weight.

The enclosure was bolted to the back seat wall using nutserts.

With the enclosure in and mounted the amplifiers could be mounted and the finish wiring was done.

The USB cable for the interface to the 4to6 was ran and hidden under the trunk carpet trim. The cable can be accessed without removing any of the panels in the trunk making any system tweaks to the 4to6 an easy process.

With the system done the beauty panel was made. The design of the trim was designed to mimic the shape of the Nissan logo. White LEDs were used to illuminate the subwoofer while green LEDs accented the amplifiers. From the OEM matched vinyl, to black Alcantara and green LEDs that match the brakes the overall enclosure design was design to incorporate all the elements of the car to tie the enclosure in.

Now the question is how does it sound.....SURPRISING!!! Now mind you the OEM speaker locations were used for the 2-way and every other speaker was disconnected since the amplifier was removed but with a simple setup the system is on point. Image is centered and focus reaching out to the windshield wipers while being at the pillars. Tonally the vocals were clear and defined. Of course everyone says the Focal tweeters are bright but I tame them and they now give a nice crispness to the system. The subwoofer is loud and clear playing through the OEM subwoofer area. Also surprising was the amount of rattles or lack of. All in all the upgrades gives the car that little extra.

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