Surrounded By Sound

Driving a custom truck creation down the street and watching as others admire the work you have performed is the most rewarding experience of owning a customized pickup. It is the pride of driving something a bit different than everyone else that keeps enthusiasts building project after project. Many elements make up these restyled rides, including custom paint, suspension, body modifications, and wild interior treatments, but some upgrades that enhance the cruising experience cannot be seen.

We are talking about aftermarket audio systems, and how combining the right components can turn the Monday through Friday commute into a daily concert, and all you have to do to change the main act is switch CDs. It is amazing how music can change one's whole perspective on things, and while hearing it through aftermarket speakers, the clarity of the musician's lyrics and harmonies is enough to make you want to take the long way home.

Recently, we grew tired of the stock stereo system in our project '95 Chevy C1500 Extended Cab, and decided it was time to install a custom aftermarket system which would deliver our jams with authority. After talking to a few audio gurus and figuring out the type of system we were looking for, it was decided that a collection of products from MTX Audio would be perfect to upgrade the truck's sounds. MTX Audio is a division of Mitek out of Phoenix, which specializes in aftermarket component speakers, amplifiers, and subwoofers.

Mitek also owns Coustic Car Audio, Atlas Sound, Esoteric Audio USA, Xtant, DCM Loudspeakers, and StreetWires. The company enjoys unprecedented success in the aftermarket audio arena, and its products work exceptionally well. To give our '95 Chevy some heavy audio artillery, we selected an MTX MagnaForm pre-fabricated subwoofer enclosure filled with an MTX Thunder 6000A 10-inch subwoofer to handle the bass.

The enclosure is specially designed for this model truck and fits perfectly under the driver-side rear seat. To bring out the wail in our favorite guitar licks, a pair of MTX Audio T6.6 Thunder 6000 Convertible speakers were placed in the doors. The Convertible refers to the speaker being versatile, in that it allows the installer to remove the built-in tweeter and install it in another place. For the rear of the cab, a set of 4x6 MTX coaxial speakers was put in behind the cab plastics. Running all of this new audio gear is handled with an MTX five-channel Thunder 895 amplifier. Although MTX designs its systems to use the stock head unit, we opted to install a Kenwood KDC MP522 head unit to further enhance the system's clarity at volume.

To ensure a quality installation, we commissioned the car stereo pros at Audio Innovations in Glendora, California, to turn our Chevy pickup's cab confines into a concert hall. Company owner, Joe Provenzano, has more than 20 years of aftermarket audio experience and does everything from the simplest drop-in systems to full custom speaker enclosures and a wide array of video upgrades. Follow along as we upgrade our '95 Chevy with a collection of MTX Audio gear.

Here is a shot of our new MTX system featuring the MagnaForm CXP10L enclosure with MTX Thunder 6000A 10-inch subwoofer, T6.6 Thunder 6000 Convertible mid-range woofers, MTX 4x6 rear cab coaxial speakers, a pair of MTX crossovers, and the MTX Thunder 895 amplifier. Mitek also provided wiring from its StreetWires line of products.

Before any components were installed, the Audio Innovations technician, Anthony Asencio, removed the door panels, and proceeded to install Dynamat material to insulate the doors from outside road noise.

A bit of splicing and dicing was done to smooth the installation of the provided MTX crossovers.

The speaker wire for the MTX door speakers was connected to the supplied MTX crossover.

After the speaker wire was hooked into the crossover, the unit was mounted to the inner door skin. A separate high-frequency signal was ran to the tweeter, while a mid-frequency signal was connected to the mid-range woofer.

Here is a shot of the MTX crossover, finished off with the MTX cover plate.	The MTX Thunder 6000 T6.6 mid-range woofer was connected to the factory speaker wire before being mounted into the door panel.
With the speaker connections made, the MTX Thunder 6000 mid-range woofer was fastened to the door panel before Audio Innovations' Anthony moved on to relocating the supplied tweeter.	To distribute the sound, the tweeter originally enclosed inside the Thunder 6000 door speaker was removed and relocated to the factory tweeter location as shown.
After the tweeter was secured into the factory location, the connections were crimped to supply power.	A lead post was added to the positive side of the battery to hook the hot lead power wire to the battery and amplifier.
To run the hot lead cabling inside the cab, Anthony bored a hole into the firewall to snake the cable through.	The hot lead wire was ran through the firewall into the cab as shown. It would be tucked neatly into the doorjamb under the sill-plate panel before being hooked to the amplifier.
To protect the MTX Thunder 895 amplifier from any unexpected power surges, a StreetWires fusable link was installed in the engine compartment just before the hot lead hooks to the battery. Audio Innovations does their best to do the cleanest install possible, as evident by the shrink-wrapped hot lead wire.	StreetWires RCA cables for the Kenwood head unit were routed through the dash as shown.
A supplied wiring harness adapter links the Kenwood head unit to the factory speaker wire harness.	To facilitate the installation of the head unit, the wiring harness adapter was plugged into the back of the head unit.
Before the Kenwood KDC MP522 head unit was slid into the dash, StreetWires cables for the subwoofer output were plugged into the back of the unit.	Here is a shot of the Kenwood head unit installed and ready to play our favorite musical selections.
Speaker wire was ran along the doorjamb and neatly crimped, wrapped, and tucked away. Again, Anthony took the extra steps to hide the wiring, giving us an extra tidy install.	In order to install the amplifier, the rear 4x6 speakers and the subwoofer the rear bench seat had to be removed. This allowed Anthony to work with extra space and ensured a clean installation.
The RCA cables for the head unit were routed through the dash and wrapped in electrical tape before being tucked under the passenger side sill plate and ran to the amplifier.	After Anthony removed the rear cab plastics, the MTX 4x6 coaxial speakers were plugged into the factory wiring and bolted in place.
With the rear bench seat removed, the MTX Thunder 895 amplifier was mounted to the rear cab wall.	After the amplifier was mounted into position, the speaker and subwoofer wire was plugged into the MTX amplifier inputs.
Prior to hooking the power lead cable to the amplifier, a connector was soldered onto the end of the cable.	Here, the power supply cable was hooked to the amplifier before the ground wire and associated speaker connections were made.
A supplied ground wire was soldered to the metal floor of the truck under the seat before the other end was connected to the amplifier.	The ground wire was connected to the amplifier as shown.
Here is a shot of the MTX Thunder 895 amplifier with all the appropriate connections made. On the right side, the speaker wires running from the amp to various components were hooked in.	Before being installed into the truck the 10-inch MTX Thunder 6000A subwoofer was mounted into the MagnaForm CXP10L prefab enclosure. To ensure a good seal, Anthony pressed the supplied rubber seals onto the base of the woofer before putting it into position.
The new MTX sub was screwed down into the Magnaform enclosure. The crew at Audio Innovations takes their time with every install and has earned a reputation for being one of the most respected audio shops in the business.	The speaker wire connections coming from the amplifier were hooked to the subwoofer enclosure to power the subwoofer.
To finish off the install, the enclosure was placed under the back seat and secured in place with the supplied brackets and fasteners. The unit looked factory and blended in with the rest of the interior. Tremendous sound performance was produced from the subwoofer as it fired down toward the floorboard.