Just wanted to share the highlight of my week. After 4 months of shopping and saving I finally got my stereo installed. I had a set of Infinity Kappa components from my previous car, an 8" kicker sub, and a pair of aura bass shakers. I bought an Eclipse 8053 head and 2 eclipse amps. The shop installed everything and it sounds awesome! Only complaint is the sub is a little weak, but I expected that going in. I am going to replace it next. I only have 2 complaints. 1) The shop installed my shakers in a different location than I had specified. I wanted them behind the seats where they would be sandwiched between the seat and the back of the car. They installed them under the seat where it only vibrates the floor of the car. When you start moving you can't feel them at all. They are going to have to be moved to a place where they touch the seats. 2) I had them build an amp rack across the back of the trunk (where the spare used to be), then they mounted the 2 amps so they are visible when you open the trunk. They moved the rack too far forward to avoid the trunk spring rods and now my trunk is tiny with a lot of empty unaccesable space behind the rack. Any suggestions for getting around those rods?

All in all the difference in incredible!

 

I would offer congratulations but you seem to have gotten mixed results.

My shakers are mounted to the bottoms of the seats but I didn't do it myself so I'm not sure how to go about it.

I'm especially surprised about the amp rack. For around $150 PAS2KNUT will make you a really nice one that sits behind the trunk springs and looks like it came from the factory.

 

I wonder how they got your shakers under the seat. I don't think mine would fit. I have the pro's which are a little bigger than the regular ones, maybe that is the difference.

I did not know that PAS2KNUT made racks. The shop I went to essentially threw it in for free. I just paid for the amp installs, so I am not really out any $ if I change it. I was looking through pics and it seems that people are cutting the wood part shorter to clear the springs, then they just attach the carpet to cover it up. I may try making one myself, worst case senerio is I waste some wood.

 

If you want to see some pictures of the flat cover I've made look here. The pictures are at the end of the thread. If I can be of any assistance please PM me. Also, post some pictures of your system.

 

Mine are Pros, too. The installers were very skilled and had to work hard to make them fit. Some day I'll peek under there and try to figure out how they did it. Sorry I don't have more detail.

 

Welcome to the 8053 club

 

You'll more than likely have to flatten out a small portion of the seat bottom to get them to fit, but they will fit. I cringe to think of those guys drilling large holes through the bottom of your car... make sure they coated the holes to prevent rust, especially if you move the shakers.

 

I think I have decided to move the amps to where the spare was and put the trunk back to stock. My amps are pretty big, so I think the reason they put the rack in front of the springs is because the amps are too wide and would hit the springs. I would post some pics, but I am not a member so I dont think I can. If anyone would like to post some for me I can email them.

I am going to go over to a buddies house later in the week and unscrew one of the bass shakers and hold it up under the seat to see if it fits. I am also a little woried that it might be too much to have the shakers on the seats, so I want to experiment before I have the shop move them. Didn't think about rust, the screws look pretty small, so I imagine they didn't go in too deep.

Flitcroft: I have not had the problems with my remote that you mentioned in the other post. Mine works well. My only complaint so far with the 8053 is the bright blue lights on the side buttons. They are really bright at night and the blue clashes with all the orange. I wish they would have put a dimmer and some color options for those buttons. During the day, the unit looks awesome!

 

^ You can change the colors somewhat -- check the manual or go through the settings. I can't remember which menu it is. If you want to match the color of the instruments to the radio, check out DJQube's blue light kit. The color match is almost exact. It looks frickin' awesome to see the MPH and Revs in blue. I've seen Art's car in person and it's drool-worthy.

Check your remote and see if one stop on the rotary NOB control makes the volume go up one or two integers. On my year, the remote can't make the volume move by one unit -- it's always two. That makes the DCIs much less accurate. Also try playing something very quiet (like the space before a hidden track) and turn the remote's NOB really fast between left and right several times. After 5 seconds of that my HU volume is hopelessly out of place every time. It just can't deal with quick inputs.

Is the background behind your clock light blue or black by default? In the 8544 they made the background black but on my MY03 HU the default is blue on light blue and the clock is essentially invisible. I think I may be able to change that but I always forget to look it up.

 

Pic's