Acura TL Arc Audio, Focal, Mosconi

This being the second car I built for Roberto he said he wanted to do something special with it. The last Car was just purpose built with speakers in stock locations and a basic subwoofer box but it featured high end components. Those components were to be transferred over to the newly acquired TL.

First up was to get all the system wiring ran starting with the power. A spot was found to mount the main system fuse. All wiring was covered with flex loom giving a completely stock appearance. 

The remote turn on was tapped at the driver side fuse box using an add circuit giving a fused out. 

The Power Wire and remote Wire was ran down the driver's side and zip tied every 6".

The Speaker wire run was started on the driver's side and ran across to the passenger side to avoid being ran with the Power wire. The wire was zip tied and held down with Hush Mat Quite Tape.

The Speaker Wire bundle was tip tied every 6".

Audio signal was tapped at the OEM amplifier in the trunk. Connections were soldered and heat shrunk. 

With the wiring ran I moved onto to the pillars. The pillars house the Focal K2 tweeter and 3" midrange. Roberto's original system was the Focal 165 KRX2 active so when we moved to this system we decided to add the K2 3" and make it a 3-way active system. 

Moving onto the doors I started with making mounting rings for the woofers. As always I made them out of plexiglass because no matter what you do to MDF you'll never truly seal the wood. Do it right the first time every time. 

Running Wire into the doors was an easy task because there was plenty of room to pass the Wire past the molex plug.

The outside door skin received a layer of deadener.

A foam gasket was applied to the woofer to seal it and offer some decoupling to the mounting surface. The connection were color coded heat shrunk.

The inside skin also received a layer of deadener. Once mounted the mounting ring sealed up against the deadener. 

A small note. Most shops only use 4 out of the 8 holes on these speakers. I ask….would you mount a subwoofer only using 4 of the 8 mounting holes? These holes are here for a reason. It's these attention to details and understanding that separates Octave from the pack.

Once the driver's side was done the same process was applied to the passenger's side door.

With the front done the subwoofer enclosure was next on the to do list. For subwoofer duty a Focal Polyglass 33 V2 is used. The enclosure was bolted to the vehicle using nutserts and 1/4-20 bolts. 

To give extra capacitance to the system a BatCap 800 was added. Mounting brackets were welded up to mount the BatCap to the side of the subwoofer enclosure.

The Mosconi 6to8 DSP was mounted to the top of the subwoofer enclosure.

The amplifier rack is a separate board that mounts to the back side of the subwoofer enclosure. The Wire layout is clean and separated. All Speaker leads connect right to the amplifier ensuring no voltage drops. The system fuse box is easily accessible and fuses the BatCap and amplifiers. An Arc audio KS 300.4 runs the tweeters and midranges, a KS 300.2 runs the woofers and a KS 300.4 powers the subwoofer. 

The trim panel borrows from the angles of the interior and the ovals of the Arc audio logo plates. Genuine Alcantara covers the center trim and an Acura logo was embossed into the upper trim. 

Being a long time Car audio enthusiast Roberto knew what kind of sound he wanted so did Octave deliver….well the system is DYNAMIC!!!! It stages pillar to pillar at mirror height while reaching out to the hood. The one thing that I love is the system attack. The snare drum opening of Dave Matthews "Ants Marching" can physically be felt and the mid bass punch is enough to make you think there are subwoofers in the doors. Speaking of the subwoofer it's enough to fill in those low notes while blending in with the front stage but when turned up is enough to flex the roof. Roberto's one request was to have a dynamic system that made his long work road trips enjoyable and I think he got just that. Being an enthusiast you will catch Roberto at competitions so if you're in the Florida area there's a good chance you can get a demo of this system. I would like to listen to it more but he lives in Jacksonville so not often enough.


For more information please visit www.OCTAVEONLINE.com