New install

[Junglist]

Just have ot find an amp at a reasonable price, and decide whether i want to upgrade the speakers or not!

DEFINITELY upgrade the speakers. Even a £20 pair will be a massive improvement on some 20 year old paper crap!

[Beddo88]

Well, fingers crossed i've got a new on-going contract starting as of tmoz, so i'll be back in the moneys :)

Which naturally means my list of 'ooo shiny i want one of those...' will double. Cant wait for good weather again, jobs are piling up slowly lol

[Beddo88]

Oh PS junglist, just read your comment, I only have the 2 6x4s in there atm, binned the two old crappy ones, guy before me obviously got pissed off too, cos he'd put in two new jbl numbers. So they can handle a bit of bass.. just not enough!!

[Beddo88]

RIGHT.

Havent added anything on here for a while, been putting some cash together etc. Now looking at getting a pair of components up front, larger speaker in the door where the 6x4s fit (will need to build pods for them) and the tweeters sat on each corner of the dash. Hide the crossover in the dash somewhere for them.

Seperate sub in the boot, already in its own sealed enclosure. Likely to still opt for a 4 channel amp, bridge 2 channels for the sub, and have the other two channels for the front comps.

Shopping list:

pair of components up front (kit comprising mid-range, tweeter and crossovers):
Was looking at a set of Vibe Slick 5 comps, but having read a few reviews on talkaudio i've veered away. Not sure what to go for now :(

Amp in the boot. (4 channel bridgeable jobby)
Same with the amp... still looking.

But at least i've decided on a layout finally!!

[fonzooorooo]

Good news!

When you're doing our front pods, make sure they're deep enough so the magnets clear the metalwork of the door frame... Looking at the door card, you think there'll be acres of clearance, but then when you go to fit the card to the door, if they're not deep enough, you run into trouble.
Never did get pics up of mine finished... i'll get on to that later!

As for the actual kit - I put a real mish-mash in mine...(Longmill 5 1/4"s, Phoenix gold tweeters on capacitors - so no low pass for the 5 1/4"s, Mutant front 2ch amp, Boschmann rear 4ch amp, JBL 4x6"s rear, pioneer 12"sub, all running off an old Alpine headunit) but I can run it with no EQ, it's plenty loud enough (for me, anyway!) and I'm happy enough with the sound. (especially all in for about £100!)

Jay's put Cerwin Vega 6 1/2 comps in the front of his - a bit of a mission to get them to fit apparently, but you can hear the improvement in bass from them over mine. That said, I've got my fronts fed high-pass... I've not compared them full range.

[Mr Funk]

I think the components issue is definately a lot easier if you run leccy windows. Currently trying to put my hands on all the bits I need so I can convert.

[Beddo88]

I'm still thinking along the 5 1/4 inch range. If i can get them to fit nicely. I might mock up a couple of cardboard circles to compare the two. Either way, i'll try and get some CAD drawings or something put together for them when i get around to doing it. Try and help out anyone that wants to do something similar. Tweeters on the dash should help to move the sound stage forward a bit right?

Already got some 4x6 jbls in the rear, not sure whether to keep these rear mounted (off to the side, no speakers in my parcel shelf) with the sub in the boot. Its a 12" sealed unit, but i dont want to damage the speakers? (altho im more concerned with the sub ruining the (actually alright) sound that comes from them.

[fonzooorooo]

The volume of air in the boot is massive (even disregarding leakage round the shelf, into the inner structure of the car etc) compared to the displacement ( even at XMAX) of a 12" sub... You won't realistically damage the 4x6"s...(perhaps you would with a couple of 18"s) You'll find once your 5 1/4"s are up front, you'll need very little output from the rears anyway.

[Beddo88]

Yea that sounds good, thinking of just powering the rears off the head unit anyway, leaving the amp to power the little fellas up front. Just gotta figure out a layout for the boot now! Dont want to lose too much space with the sub. Anyway... back onto the ebay hunt!

[DT1]

Tweeters on the dash...

I'm mounting the tweeters in the lower dash vents so that I don't have to damage the dash.

[fonzooorooo]

Yea that sounds good, thinking of just powering the rears off the head unit anyway, leaving the amp to power the little fellas up front. Just gotta figure out a layout for the boot now! Dont want to lose too much space with the sub. Anyway... back onto the ebay hunt!

My sub box is just over 1 cu.ft. and sits behind (and around) the n/s wheel arch. It's all in 18mm chipboard, and is as close fitting to the body as I could be bothered to get it (!) EVIL shape to cut out though! - you can see why so many of the guys on talk audio etc. use fibreglass. I'm ultimately going to panel mine in right up to the back of the rear seat and up to the shelf support to pretty it up. you only lose about 6" of width off the boot doing that. Again, i'll pop some pics up. Honest! you may find them useful.

[Beddo88]

Pics would be great yea cheers! I've currently got a sealed unit the sub came in when i bought it, and i've tested it with my home amp (obviously not designed for it) just to check it works. Sounds alright, but its difficult to tell until its setup properly etc.

Gunna have to do some research this weekend me thinks. Try and start pulling it all together.

[Jay4424]

Pics would be great yea cheers! I've currently got a sealed unit the sub came in when i bought it, and i've tested it with my home amp (obviously not designed for it) just to check it works. Sounds alright, but its difficult to tell until its setup properly etc.

Gunna have to do some research this weekend me thinks. Try and start pulling it all together.

It may have come in a box, but it worth getting al the data from th speaker and findin out exactly what size enclosure you need for optimum performance (no high spots) via the free downloadable soft wear, or via fonzooroo (sorry john!!!)

...oh, and foonzoo, you rally think mine have better bass? ...w must compare, just fonts, on a flat eq, same tune. ...be amazed if it us as my craftsman shi is nothing compared to yours, so yours will have been fitted better, and so have less phase cancelation! ...but cheers anyway

...nb, I'm also don the sub x like foonfooroo but havemt got as far as to finish it yet.. Other mattee such as. Small engine fire have got in the way!


...beddo88 def go compolent, def run an external amp to the head unit, def run a seperate sub, but you HAVE to make the box right!

Jay.

[Beddo88]

There is minimal chance of finding the info online. It took me ages of googling to find the rough specs of the sub, let alone the box size. (Soundstream Rubicon ONE (as in first edition, no longer available as the company was bought out)) TBH, i'm happy with what its in, i'll leave it for the minute. Anythings going to be an upgrade to the 2 6x4s i've got running in the rear atm

Maybe when i'm earning a bit mroe i'll look into a decent full setup, with new speakers/amps and the like.

[fonzooorooo]

There is minimal chance of finding the info online. It took me ages of googling to find the rough specs of the sub, let alone the box size. (Soundstream Rubicon ONE (as in first edition, no longer available as the company was bought out)) TBH, i'm happy with what its in, i'll leave it for the minute. Anythings going to be an upgrade to the 2 6x4s i've got running in the rear atm

Maybe when i'm earning a bit mroe i'll look into a decent full setup, with new speakers/amps and the like.

A way of "testing" the setup you've got:

Plug your sub in to an amp with NO crossover, NO low pass, NO EQ - totally flat. Play a "frequency sweep" through it starting at 20Hz. (There's one in winISD - I'm sure there are many others out there to download!) What you should hear is notes getting progressively louder until they reach the tuning frequency (40Hz or so) then consistant volume up to 200Hz. Any higher than that doesn't matter, as you'll be crossing over before that (at no more than 150.. probably nearer 90.)

If you hear "flat spots" low down, chances are the box is wrong - usually too small. If that's the case, try wadding it (either proper stuff from a haberdasher, or the contents of a cheap pillow or 2, some loft insulation.. you get the idea) which'll make the driver "think" there's 10% more volume in the box than there really is. Any more'll need bigger box.

Putting a port in your existing box WILL NOT work. I know that logically you'd think it would, but to work properly, a ported box needs to be MUCH bigger than a sealed one.

I know it's all a bit trial and error, but that's the only way without all the theille small parameters for the driver.