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Yu-Gi-Ho! posted:Is each voice coil 4 ohms, or is that combined? (I'm suspecting each is 4 ohms, so you can wire each sub as either 8 or 2 ohms if you're combining the voice coils into 1 set of wires). Yes, each is 4ohms. Olympic Mathlete posted:A 2ohm load by parallel wiring 2x 4ohm drivers is just seen by the amp as 2ohm. So correct me if I'm wrong wish the reason you might want to play with resistances just to be able to get performance from smaller power?
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Feb 25, 2018 10:01
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Karma Comedian posted:So correct me if I'm wrong wish the reason you might want to play with resistances just to be able to get performance from smaller power? At the end of the day, voltage is voltage and is the thing that actually moves the voice coils. Resistance is how easy that voltage gets to your voice coils from the amp. The reason why you see higher power ratings on amps at lower resistance is because it's that much easier to push power with nothing bottlenecking it. Ideally you'd use an amp powerful enough to run each driver off a single channel each rather than bridging. People bridge when their amp is unable to supply enough voltage swing for their drivers to hit their displacement limit. If you bridge when you don't need the double voltage swing, that's when you start frying voice coils.
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Feb 25, 2018 11:59
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Olympic Mathlete posted:People bridge when their amp is unable to supply enough voltage swing for their drivers to hit their displacement limit. If you bridge when you don't need the double voltage swing, that's when you start frying voice coils. <looks at "1100 watt" Crunch amp that was $75 brand new, retail> <looks at sub rated for 720 watts peak/~300 RMS.. that has survived for years on this amp> Uh, yeah. Also, cheap amps lie like hell about their peak and RMS output. Their "peak" is basically "when lightning strikes in perfect conditions with 99% THD", and you may as well treat their RMS like a peak number with a bit of extra padding. If you actually drop some coin on a good name brand amp, then you can treat their ratings as real. But the cheapest amp that actually does real rated output is Fosgate, IMO (they used to include an actual testing sheet with every amp, no idea if they still do). So long as you setup the amp properly, the sub should last until the foam surround wears out. I've had this sub for 8 years (in 3 enclosures and on 2 or 3 different amps now), and it still sounds great (to me anyway). Only $20 on Best Buy's former open box warehouse (cowboom).  Also, thanks to everyone else for correcting my misinformation. It's been a long time since I really played with stereos; I just have a basic Pioneer stereo/Polk speakers run off of the stereo/1 amp+12" Polk sub these days. I'm too deaf to really appreciate a good system now, and I haven't had to pay attention to much beyond "can it handle 2 ohms bridged?" since the late 90s. I'm just happy if I can feel every drum kick in my spine now, even if I can't hear it.
randomidiot fucked around with this message at 12:22 on Feb 25, 2018 |
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Feb 25, 2018 12:20
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And that's why I refer to actual voltage being output by the amp, the wattage rating is utterly useless at telling you anything! Let's use this as an example; http://www.eminence.com/speakers/speaker-detail/?model=LAB_12 That's an Eminence Lab12 driver which I have in 4 PA subs. It states 800w program. From the specs there I can figure out that in an enclosure it'll take 50v reasonably happily, any more than that will toast the voice coil in the long term. I have 2 pro audio amps rated 500w per channel and I never use them bridged. Using a 60hz sine wave and a dummy (4ohm) load each channel on the big old toroidal amp will output 80 something volts constant which is getting on for double what the voice coil will fry at in a Lab12 woofer. I'd toast them in short order if I were to hook them up and let rip. Watts are an incredibly dumb measurement in the audio world, luckily car audio amp numbers are the result of hopes and dreams rather than having any actual base in reality.
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Feb 25, 2018 14:05
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Martytoof posted:I have an 08 Mazda 3. I’ve been happy enough with my stock HU and aux input from my iPhone. That is, until I upgraded from my old iPhone to an 8 with no 3.5mm jack. Now I’m looking for a decent BT -> Aux converter. I've been using one of these for about two years now in conjunction with a mid-2000s head unit that doesn't have built-in Bluetooth. You'll either need a 1.7 x 4.0 barrel to USB cable or else splice the barrel connector on the included AC wall wart onto a USB A cable, and then power it off of a USB charger/power supply. Only major downside is you can only pair one device at a time, and pairing requires you to push a small button on the back to place the device into pair mode. Once paired it has no problem remembering a device. Geoj fucked around with this message at 21:00 on Feb 26, 2018 |
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Feb 26, 2018 20:33
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Thanks for the advice guys. I'll end up trying the amazonbasics receiver.
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Feb 26, 2018 22:07
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I'm doing some research on a Sony XAV-AX100 (thinking I'll install it come spring). There's a camera input. Is there a good cheap backup camera that's worth the trouble of installing? I'm thinking under $70. (My sister has a minivan with terrible sight lines and a backup camera that I almost never look at it when driving her car; I can't imagine it being that useful on my small car that I've been reversing successfully for ten years. But, if the head unit has the capability and a decent camera is cheap, no harm in throwing one on there.)
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Mar 3, 2018 17:32
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Uthor posted:I'm doing some research on a Sony XAV-AX100 (thinking I'll install it come spring). There's a camera input. Is there a good cheap backup camera that's worth the trouble of installing? I'm thinking under $70. I have that exact head unit, and I went with this one. That head unit also supports it's own line overlays and video mirroring, so you can literally get the cheapest one that fits your needs and use the head unit to add those features if you want. Just splice in the reverse light to the included wire, and connect it to the "Reverse In" on the harness, and plug the RCA cable into your header and you're done. That is a solid header. Has tons of features in an easy to navigate menu system, which is more than I can say for most of the ones I demoed at Best Buy and Fry's. All the wires are clearly labeled and you can also disable the safety disclaimer startup nag messages with a firmware flash. Wasabi the J fucked around with this message at 18:42 on Mar 3, 2018 |
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Mar 3, 2018 18:35
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Wasabi the J posted:you can also disable the safety disclaimer startup nag messages with a firmware flash. I saw this in a YouTube video. It's a safe flash? I'd hate to brick it out of the box, but would probably hate the safety message even more.
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Mar 3, 2018 19:17
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Uthor posted:I saw this in a YouTube video. It's a safe flash? I'd hate to brick it out of the box, but would probably hate the safety message even more. It was a little janky to install but yeah it's completely safe. Basically I merged the modified firmware to the factory one, and then flashed it. Took some trial and error but nothing unrecoverable.
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Mar 3, 2018 20:10
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Tell me about travel trailer audio: Is this a standard size I can look for replacement head units in? My dad wants to swap it for something that can at least play CDs.
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Mar 5, 2018 03:55
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Javid posted:Tell me about travel trailer audio: Hoo boy. Best bet is to make a new wooden panel to go in that spot and mount a decent head unit, it's what I did in mine because factory stock was lowest-bidder Jensen-brand garbage. RV stuff all seems to be nonstandard sizes, unfortunately. I bought a 1.5 DIN Kenwood DVD/Bluetooth touchscreen unit that does well. It has the standard 25Wx4 RMS power and enough inputs to juggle the TV audio as well. I mounted two JVC home theater satellite speakers inside at the factory ceiling locations and two 6.5" Infiniti Marine speakers outside. I use the fader on the head unit to switch outputs between inside and out, with a Rockford Fosgate slim-mount 10" subwoofer and 350W amplifier under the master bed to make it sound really good. The amplifier has a fused connection directly to the RV battery and has the turn-on lead wired to the head unit. It's going to be custom work. My travel trailer is two years old and didn't have a wiring diagram, but I traced it out.
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Mar 5, 2018 05:32
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This one is model year 1998. I know literally nothing else about it, my dad is supposed to text me the make and model tomorrow. However, "nothing will fit so throw whatever head unit in there with a custom chunk of plywood" is a fairly liberating piece of info, so cool.
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Mar 5, 2018 06:45
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Alternative solution: if the tuner and tape deck feed into the equalizer before running to the speakers (and its not all just some inter-connected unit) you could probably tie in an auxiliary input in, and then use a bluetooth receiver or 1/8" stereo cable to feed it audio from whatever source. e: just noticed the equalizer function switch has "AUX" at the bottom - if there isn't an input somewhere in the RV you might find an unused connector inside the cabinet. Geoj fucked around with this message at 17:51 on Mar 5, 2018 |
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Mar 5, 2018 17:31
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I would expect that the aux input on that (if it has it) will be connected via RCA cables, while what we think of today as "aux" is usually a 3.5mm cable. But a 3.5mm -> RCA cable is cheap. Probably on the back of the EQ. So my own question.... my sub enclosure barely fits through the trunk opening, and usually takes a bit of jiggling to get through. I snagged it on the latch last time I pulled it out (have to pull it to get to the spare tire) and shattered the connection plate. I've tried a couple of local car audio shops, along with Fry's Electronics. Fry's didn't have jack poo poo, the local shops had a couple, but were smaller than what I need. Where's a good place to find one of these?  e: looks like the hole is 2 3/4" across, the actual terminal plate (cup?) is 4" corner to corner. I'm finding a couple that are 4" (either round or corner to corner), but seem to need a larger hole? randomidiot fucked around with this message at 23:45 on Mar 9, 2018 |
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Mar 9, 2018 23:34
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Car toys or Crutchfield. https://www.crutchfield.com/p_120TCRB/Metra-Speaker-Terminal.html?tp=855
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Mar 9, 2018 23:52
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Crutchfield didn't have one in the right size, and the nearest Car Toys is a 20 minute drive. Darchangel helped me track down the right one on Amazon though.
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Mar 10, 2018 06:35
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I've traditionally always blown my car's stock speakers, then went to replace them with good aftermarket speakers/amp/sub. I have a 2006 Durango. It has a stock Alpine system, and apparently a 8" sub in the back. It sounds excellent! I love it. But I want to avoid the same mistakes I made with all my other cars. How do you know what volume to keep your car's speakers at, so that they don't blow out (I'm assuming "blow out" is what you call it when they start cracking and go to poo poo) ? I never turn it to MAX of course, but is getting even close to max volume too dangerous?
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Mar 10, 2018 17:27
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I'm trying to see your end game here. I understand you don't want to break poo poo, but the alternative is doing something you don't really want to do. I may just be a filthy poor, but I have yet to come across a factory audio solution that wasn't engineered to a price point, rather than engineered for longevity and quality. What you're doing already seems like the best solution. Just enjoy what you have till it breaks. Listen to what you want to listen to how you want to listen to it. Just upgrade as needed.
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Mar 10, 2018 18:06
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If you want to know when your kit is taking a beating you need to listen to it, it should be really obvious when drivers are being driven to the point of hitting xmax. My sub makes a very noticeable metallic clacking when being driven stupidly hard, and that's the pole piece hitting the backing plate. Most drivers will just be making distortion when overdriven, if it sounds like poo poo then it's being driven too hard and you need better drivers for that SPL level. Get a set of musician's earplugs ($10/15) and put them in and crank the audio, the earplugs will keep out a load of the noise letting you hear easier when things are starting to flap and distort. Annoyingly a lot of music these days is intentionally distorted to begin with and mastered at different levels so one song could be fine, the next song could cause your drivers to hit their limits. 
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Mar 10, 2018 18:27
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Great advice thanks guys. The previous owner left about 200 rap/hip-hop CD's from the early 00's (Wu-tang, Ludacris, Eminem, Jay Z) so I don't have to deal with any of that modern day distortion poo poo as much!
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Mar 10, 2018 18:50
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I recently bought a 2006 Subaru Impreza wagon that came with the stock stereo. I replaced it a couple weeks back with a cheap JVC unit from Crutchfield, and after doing so discovered that the left front speaker is broken in some manner. No sound coming out of it when I push balance all the way to the left/fade all the way to the front. No static, nothing. Double checked my wiring today and it all looks good according to the manual, so I guess that means I need to replace the speaker. I'm not picky and don't need anything pricey, probably going to order from crutchfield again, but I don't really know anything about speakers at all. Any advice?
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Mar 12, 2018 21:02
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When you had it out to check the wiring did you try and hook the stock one back up? I’d try that and push the bal/fader on the stock one to rule out the new head unit.
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Mar 13, 2018 03:39
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Also if you can see the cone, put a 9v battery across the speaker wires. If it moves then the problem isn't the speaker.
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Mar 13, 2018 08:29
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Hey guys it was suggested I come over here from the Mustang Thread to ask my Car AV question. I have an 01 Mustang GT. I ripped out the Mach 460 and had an installer put in a new 5 channel amp and I got a Kenwood receiver. This was about 5 or 6 years ago. I now have this new radio I want to install, Its a Pioneer AVH Nex series. Crutchfield sells it with the Metra 70-5701 Harness. Sonic Electronix sells it with the Scosche FDK9b Harness. Both harnesses claim to be compatible with my car and my new radio. But both harnesses have totally different wiring pins, the colored wires are on opposite sides of the harness too. I am not sure which is the correct one to use. The picture below shows my old Kenwood using the Metra harness (the RCA is not used since I don't have a factory amp anymore) its next to my new Scosche harness. disregarding the RCA issue, the blue wires are on the right on the Metra, and left on the Scosche. uggg. I think I will just recycle the metra harness from the kenwood radio, because i know it worked. But why are both harnesses totally different from each other? the connectors are the same though? should i use the Scosche harness as is? i am not really sure where to go with this. 
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Mar 13, 2018 18:06
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I may be a bit biased since my 4200NEX is using a metra harness, but I'd go with the one with more wires rather than less in case you do need to short those pins and have the extra connector pins to do it.
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Mar 13, 2018 18:28
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um excuse me posted:I may be a bit biased since my 4200NEX is using a metra harness, but I'd go with the one with more wires rather than less in case you do need to short those pins and have the extra connector pins to do it. yes i would agree with that, but the power on wires on on opposite sides of the harness, if both companies harnesses are designed to work with my car why are the pin outs radically different?
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Mar 13, 2018 18:42
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Is one harness for the barebone option stereo, and the other for the premium audio option? Usually factory installed premium audio has extra wires run to the headunit.
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Mar 13, 2018 19:04
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Hmm without any further information I could only guess one of them is incorrect. I don't really have Ford background knowledge for their connectors but I did find something that might help. https://www.stangnet.com/mustang-forums/threads/guide-to-replacing-your-2001-mach-460-head-unit.482713/ This guide suggests using a 70-5519 https://www.crutchfield.com/p_120705519/Metra-70-5519-Receiver-Wiring-Harness.html
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Mar 13, 2018 19:13
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um excuse me posted:Hmm without any further information I could only guess one of them is incorrect. I don't really have Ford background knowledge for their connectors but I did find something that might help. the 70-5519 is the same thing as the 70-5701. the 70-5701 comes with a 3rd harness for power antenna and mute. both of which the mustang does not have. Anyways.... the metra wired into my existing kenwood i know it works, with my current setup, so I am going to recycle that particular harness and hopefully everything will be ok. i am just curious why its wired so wierd. Geoj posted:Is one harness for the barebone option stereo, and the other for the premium audio option? Usually factory installed premium audio has extra wires run to the headunit. I entered 2001 Ford Mustang GT coupe with Mach 460 factory stereo for both websites, they provided two different harnesses. lol
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Mar 13, 2018 19:24
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savesthedayrocks posted:When you had it out to check the wiring did you try and hook the stock one back up? I’d try that and push the bal/fader on the stock one to rule out the new head unit. ...you know I thought about doing that after I had put everything back. I'll check it out again tomorrow afternoon.
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Mar 14, 2018 01:45
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Got a couple of questions. First off, I've got an '07 Legacy Sedan. Stock radio and auto climate control. I'd have replaced it by now but with that climate control it's impossible without a really expensive JDM kit. Anyhow, the stock front speakers were blown and I had a pair of Kickers from my old car. I hacked the stock speakers up for makeshift adapter rings and threw them in. They are certainly better than blown stock speakers but I wanted the proper adapter rings and something nicer in the back doors. Like the clownfucker I am I went on a drunken impulse shopping spree on crutchfield and ended up buying these for the front... https://www.crutchfield.com/p_136C2650X/JL-Audio-C2-650X.html?tp=78072&omnews=9319063 And these for the back... https://www.crutchfield.com/p_1085211I/Infinity-Kappa-52-11i.html?tp=97&omnews=9319063 I would have gotten the Kappas for the front too but Crutchfield says they wont fit. Anyhow, for my questions... Did I buy lovely speakers for my stock radio? Pretty sure the JL's will be fine but I didnt notice that the Kappas were 2 ohm. Is that gonna affect anything? I also bought a bunch of generic (but highly rated) Dynamat too. Figured if I'm gonna peel the doors apart anyway it couldnt hurt. My doors are thin and lovely so they can probably benefit from it. What sort of horrors am I in for when I put that stuff in? I plan to slap some in the trunk too. Not like my subwoofer is rattling anything apart though. It's just an old pioneer 12 in a ported box with a flea market amp.
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Mar 15, 2018 06:50
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Wasabi the J posted:I love me XAV-AX100 and have it 95% installed. I got my head out of my rear end and realized Android Auto far outweighs the ability to play CDs. I still need to route and hook up the mic on the XAV. I love it so much. Can anyone recommend a backup camera that uses a standard RCA plug. A lot of the ones I was looking at on Amazon had a lot of poorly translated english in the descriptions which made me wary of them. And the stores I've been too don't have poo poo for selection.
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Mar 18, 2018 07:15
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MonkeyFit posted:I got my head out of my rear end and realized Android Auto far outweighs the ability to play CDs. I still need to route and hook up the mic on the XAV. I love it so much. I got this one. Pretty simple to install works better than you'd think. It's not the BEST at night, but definitely still usable and during the day is incredibly clear. The great thing is any camera you get for your xav is gonna work because it can overlay it's own lines and flip the video on it's own. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P3RWzMiyOM Oh and I fixed my steering wheel control problem by relearning how to solder. Soldering is definitely the best way to connect up harness adapters, after trying Posiloks and Dolphin connectors; they did the job when I was figuring out connections but they began to give me problems. Posiloks got brittle and snapped when too much was being spliced together, and dolphins just looked ugly and made the connections too bulky. Think the last thing I need to do is get a parking brake sensor bypass so my wife can browse playlists without seeing the ”browsing locked for safety" warnings. Wasabi the J fucked around with this message at 14:21 on Mar 18, 2018 |
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Mar 18, 2018 14:12
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I wouldn't bother with a parking sensor bypass, you can get past the android auto lockout screen on your phone by hitting whatever button allows you to switch apps. Alternatively, you can use voice commands to play named playlists.
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Mar 18, 2018 16:33
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EightBit posted:I wouldn't bother with a parking sensor bypass, you can get past the android auto lockout screen on your phone by hitting whatever button allows you to switch apps. $12 is a small price to pay to not deal with nag messages.
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Mar 18, 2018 18:57
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My 2010 Honda Civic has tweeters in the dash, two 6.5" speakers in the door, and two more 6.5" on the rear deck. If I buy a component set, will I need to rewire anything or install the crossovers that usually come with the set?
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Mar 22, 2018 16:05
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I need help to get my old head unit out! It is this thing, which I think was a dealer option in a 2002 Mazda MX-5 sold in Germany. Some kind of flip-front 2-din unit with some ancient navigation in it:   I took the center console bezel off (to avoid loving it up), and there are a couple of little covers on the sides of the head unit that I also popped off, and it now looks like this:   Here, for other Miatas from the same era, the documentation says to use two sets of those puller-things in a bunch of little round holes, but alas I cannot. The round holes that are there are those that hold the little cover bezel things, and I can't feel anything inside for any tools to poke at (and the distance is all wrong). The smaller rectangular holes near the middle are just solid metal, seems like unpokable bits of the case of the thing. The tall rectangular holes out by the corners are my prime suspect. I've been poking in them (with table knives and such implements) and it feels like there's something there but I'm not sure what and I am not able to make it want to come out even a little bit. Is anyone familiar with this kind of mounting? What do I stick in what holes (or elsewhere) to get it out? I don't know if this is a Mazda-specific thing, or something more generic. The head unit has no logos on it except a Dolby one, and the German manual for it has a Mazda logo on it, but I have had zero luck finding anything online about it.
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Apr 3, 2018 21:23
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My guess would be a long, flat piece of metal is what you're after. Insert into the corner rectangular holes, and it will push a catch piece out of the way that allows the stereo to slide out. I've used trimmed pieces of steel strap banding (usually used to secure loads to pallets in warehouses) to pull aftermarket single DIN units out that I lost the extraction tools for. You might also be able to buy a piece of thin aluminum bar stock from the hardware store that will fit into the opening.
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Apr 3, 2018 21:34
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Yep, like he said, flat piece of metal in those corners. I like to jiggle the head unit (  ) to free it as I work at each one. There's probably a catch at each corner, and it won't come out until you release all of them, so angling the head unit back and forth can help each one stay unhooked once it is released.
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Apr 4, 2018 00:05
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