I have been considering a new audio system for my car for over a year, after having the factory door speakers replaced twice under warranty, the passenger side had started buzzing again. It was when the non-navigation factory radio in my car started to turn on and off randomly I decided it was time. I could not associate the problem to anything specific such as bumps, temperature etc. it was totally random and very annoying. About a month ago I was walking through my garage at night and seen a light flashing in my car. It was the display on the head unit flashing on and off. It had run the battery to all but dead and the self-induced reboot caused the problem to go away for over a month. Knowing it had not truly fixed itself I started looking again a lot harder.

There were two things that I had not decided on, one was the specific sub enclosure I wanted to use, the other the head unit.

The head unit ended up being a lot simpler than I thought, I wanted hands free calling and digital media with an emphasis on sound quality. I chose the Pioneer DEH-80PRS, it in my opinion is the best sound quality head unit short of the DEX-P99RS which costs four times as much. I won’t go into the details of how the deck works, there are a lot of good reviews on it and it has been around for a few years. The thing that it does that is important is allow you to control speakers individually through active networks versus using passive crossovers.

For the sub I had decided on a JL enclosure with two 8* subs, I was going to lay it flat on the package tray behind the seats. Before I pulled the trigger I decided to do one last search on what was available. I had ruled out any type of stealth box or similar because of the price and I didn’t want to lose a cubby. Searching Google photos I came across a single 10” box that was placed in the same location I wanted to use. it was a photo from Double D Mods website. I navigated to the site and found they had an “audio upgrade package” that included everything except the head unit. The price was almost too good to be true, so I called them the next day. A very helpful person answered the phone and for the next 20 minutes told me all about the “audio upgrade package” and gave me numerous tips for my project even before I had committed to buy. As I was wrapping up the call I asked him if he was Dennis to which he replied yes, I thanked him for his help and clicked buy on his website.

I am not associated with Double D Mods nor did I get a discount over the advertised price, I just wanted to give kudos to someone that provides a great service to our community and share my experience with others.

Parts Used:
Head Unit

• Pioneer DEX-80PRS

Dash Kit

• Metra 99-3304

Interface

• PAC RP5GM11

DD Mods Audio Upgrade

• Focal RSE-165 Auditor Series 6.5” front components

• Focal RCX-130 Auditor Series 5.25” rear coax speakers

• Kenwood Excelon XR900-5 five channel amplifier

• JL Audio TW3 10" sub

• DD Mods Sub Box

• JL Audio 4 gauge amp kit

• JL Audio RCA cables 3ea

• Speaker Wire

• Metra speaker adapter plates

I’m not going to post picks of each step of the install, there are plenty of those on here. I do want to relay some things I learned.

1. Any of the fitment guides I looked at showed he Pioneer DEX-80PRS as too deep for installation on a C6. Being single DIN it does not come close to touching anything and requires no modification other than a dash kit to fit. It sticks out less than .25” and could be mounted flush if you don’t mind taking the face plate off to change the CD.
   
   
2. The Metra 99-3304 is very sturdy and well made but does not match any other piece of plastic in the car. It’s black and textured, not a deal breaker but something that surprised me. I thought it would be more of a charcoal color and smooth, it must match some other vehicle it fits.
   
   
   
   
3. The PAC RP5GM11 will allow the factory Bluetooth to work, I left the center channel speaker wired to the factory amp for this. Pushing and holding the phone off hook on the steering wheel will turn off the Pioneer DEX-80PRS, trigger the factory amp and allow you to interface with your phone. The only problem is with it wired this way the volume is fixed and only through the center channel speaker. The DEX-80PRS does not have a mute input but it does have provisions for high level input, which means you can hook another stereo to it. I may look into this more but I don’t know if it is workable if the PAC interface is turning it off. For now the DEX-80PRS works fine for making hands free calls.
   
   
4. The Kenwood Excelon XR900-5 (from the DD Mods Audio Upgrade) is a beast for its size, its footprint is smaller than a sheet of paper and its two inches tall. I have channel A or network one driving the front tweeters 60watts @ 4 ohms. Channel B or network 2 driving the front and rear midrange wired parallel for 75watts @ 2 ohms and network 3 the sub 600watts @ 2 ohms, all from one amp (it’s actually 3 amps in one chassis).
   
   
5. DD Mods Audio Upgrade: I was looking at completely different components than came with this upgrade and I doubted the Focal speakers would work for me. I must say I am pleasantly surprised by how good it sounds. I have the amp at the out of box settings and did a couple tweaks on cutoffs in the head unit, literally 10 minutes of tuning. I can drive the car at 65 on the highway with the top off / windows down and hear the stereo fine.
   
   
6. Two final comments on the DD Mods Audio Upgrade, other than it being a steal. I ordered the sub box with lids on the cubbies a $25.00 options, the lids didn’t survive the shipping, the small hinges had pulled out of the lids. This was no fault of DD Mods, the box was packaged and marked correctly. Rather than dealing with the freight company or shipping it back, I bought two 12” piano hinges from a home improvement store, cut one inch off each and installed them. The last comment is the speaker wire, if you install an active system you will need more than supplied, it would have been plenty for a normal front, rear, sub installation.

Other than that the only thing I had to buy were some 2 pin deutsch connectors for the tweeters in the door panels, I wanted to use them versus taping the crimp disconnects. This simplifies removal of the door panels in the future and provides a more positive connection.

The system has incredible clarity at all volume settings and hits hard enough to bounce my key fob on the closed cup holder. After driving the car now for a couple weeks I think the rear coax Focal speakers make the system a little bright, so I may see if I can tune that out some.

Over all I couldn't be more happy with the system.

 

Well chosen components, especially the head unit.

 

I purchased all upgrade components from Dennis for my C5. Really love the focals made a huge diff in sound quality over the stock bose speakers.

 

I just installed the same audio "rock in a box" system from Dennis in my car this past weekend. I also thought the price was too good to pass up and I liked the idea and look of the cubbies on the side. My cubby lids also came off during shipping and I went to home depot and bought slightly larger and sturdier hinges to reattach them. Dennis would probably be better off shipping it with the lids unattached but with the hardware since the FedEx guy had it standing on end as I was signing for it.

I wired mine up a little differently than you did. I have the door component speakers on channel A and the rear coaxial on channel B. I also have the dash speakers still hooked up via the original Bose amps with the remote/trigger wire also. I haven't had much of a chance to drive the car much since the install, so I haven't gotten much ear time with the new system. But so far I've been pleased with the new system. I have it all hooked up to a Pioneer 8200 which I previously installed.