OK. I've been working on this car for about 2.5 years (not real diligently) and finally got sound a few days after attending Finals in Tennessee. I was hoping to have sound for Finals and maybe take advantage of some experienced ears, but software issues kept that from happening.
Many people have probably seen this over on the "DIY" site, so I'll condense things to get to the point I'm at now.
4/12: Purchased car
2012 Kia Rio5 EX Auto with UVO. Factory HU does AM/FM/SiriusXM/CD/Aux/USB/iPod/Zune (!)/backup camera and voice commands. Not changing it for a while.
Tinted all the windows. 30% all around except 40% on the windshield. Yes, it was illegal. lol
5/12: Wheels, Tires, Vinyl
First set of wheels. Drag DR23's, 16x7 with 205/55/16 Nitto NeoGens.
Wrapped the mirror caps, roof, rear spoiler, chrome trim on the grill and foglights in gloss black vinyl.
At this point, this is the equipment I had:
Audison Bit One.1 that I won from a Mr. Marv raffle on DIYMA, the Vifa Ring radiator tweets I had been sitting on for about 3 years, the Tang Band 3" Bamboos I used in my Genesis Coupe, my 7" Dayton RS180's as well as my Dayton RSS265HO (also from the GC).
I decided to run some old school Sony Mobile ES amps, and picked up (2) XM-2100G's and an XM-5046. I went with the 5046 because XM-450G's don't come around often. I looked on and off for about 2 years before one finally fell into my lap.
Next, I built some pods for my 3's and tweets to use the the area by the small front windows. I aimed them with a laser pointer at the opposing corners above the A pillar at the headliner, intending to reduce reflections from the glass.
Sometime around early '13, I started playing with an Arduino microprocessor kit. The intent was to have it intercept the steering wheel control commands, filter out volume up, volume down and mode, pass the remaining commands on to the radio, and use another portion of the Arduino to simulate the rotary encoder of the Bit One. That way I can set the volume on the radio and forget it, and use the steering wheel controls as master volume. I can also write software that would allow me to add secondary functions to certain buttons if I so desire. I got the filtering part done, and wrote version 1 of the software for the volume control, but haven't tested it yet.
(continued...)