2012 Tahoe: 60 speakers on 42,000 watts

This one's a big one. It's a 2012 Chevy Tahoe that we stripped down and rebuilt from the floor up at Stereo Sales: 60 speakers on 42,000 watts, all powered off 6 batteries.

The plan

The truck runs two big walls. One stands behind the front seats with the eight Sundown 12s, four up top and four on the bottom with a port window in the middle. The other fills the rear hatch with eight PRV 12s, a row of eight PRV horns between them, and sixteen DS18 tweeters across the face. The doors carry the DS18 8s and 6.5s, so there's sound coming from everywhere in the cabin.

Floor and walls

Everything behind the front seats came out first: seats, carpet and trim. A new MDF floor went in to tie everything together. The baffles and rings were cut on the CNC at the shop, and the sub wall was built over a grid of internal bracing. With this much power on the subs, the walls have to be rock solid or they'll flex and rattle. The bracing is painted white so it looks clean through the port window.

Rear hatch

The rear baffle fills the whole hatch opening. The PRV 12s sit in two rows of four with the horns in a row through the middle, and the tweeters mount in front of the 12s. LED rings light up around each of the 12s.

Doors

Each door got a custom MDF board, templated off the factory panel in cardboard first, then cut for the 8s and 6.5s. That puts the mids and mid-range up at ear level inside the cabin.

Power

The Sundowns get 12,000 watts and the PRV 12s get 18,000. The DS18 8s and 6.5s each get 2,500, and the tweeters and horns get 3,500 apiece.

That's 42,000 watts total, so the charging system matters as much as the speakers. Six batteries keep the voltage up when everything is playing. Big power wire runs through the floor to the amps, and the source is a Sony XAV-AX8500 in the dash feeding a JL Audio TwK-88 processor, which handles the crossovers, time alignment and EQ across all those speakers.

Next

Final wiring, tuning the TwK-88 and the finish work are still going. I'll post more photos, video and the full tune when it's done. Want something like this, or just a solid sub and amp setup? Come see us at Stereo Sales.