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The 22 year old CD player from ebay showed up and good god it was a delight to wire, 12V, ground, ACC, amp trigger and antenna motor trigger. 5 wires god bless. Then just plugging in a few sets of RCA's and fiddling around with the mounting bracket. The dog helped.   
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Jun 28, 2022 18:11
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Darchangel posted:
I had a Blaupunkt Toronto several years ago, although mine was the Toronto 420BT. It was the best single DIN stereo I ever had, and if CarPlay hadn't become a thing, I'd probably still have it installed in my truck.
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Jun 28, 2022 21:49
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intheflesh posted:Aside from the WICKED SICK MONSTER ENERGY 110% ERXTREME branding, I'm feeling pretty good about Skar amps. What am I missing here, would this be stupid to run the front channels then have the rears bridged to a 12"? I'm not the biggest fan of class AB amps for subs. It's less efficient so more current draw and more heat for not really any benefit. Ideally you'd have a separate class D amp with it's own remote gain and clipping indicator, but that amp should be just fine as long as you don't try to wire it down too low.
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Jun 29, 2022 00:51
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intheflesh posted:Well thanks for reminding me that BIG D exists. Love his content, but I had only ever seen him in the context of old skool stuff. I guess it is still just shocking to me how far the low end of the market has come in the past twenty years. Hahah you're very welcome. Look, while I think in Car Audio things are a lot more noticeable, I would say the last 5-10 years have seen a general massive leap forward in both the availability of actually reliable, good quality cheap electronics. There are a fair few sectors that have traditionally been dominated by a select few brands, however you can safely say that the actual construction of most of their stuff has been happening in China for at least 15-20 years now, since consumer electronics manufacturing as a whole moved from Taiwan and South Korea. I think the big difference is that Chinese domestic manufacturing has both taken cues from the QC processes brought over by those brands moving their factories in, and a general improvement in understanding around where it is okay to cut the odd corner or use a cheaper component and where it isn't. Another space it's been really visible is guitar effects pedals - it used to be that you bought Boss if you wanted cheap, and spent a fucktonne on a more boutique brand if you wanted something else. Now, you can buy a $30 pedal from Ebay/Amazon/Aliexpress that sounds almost identical to something that cost $200 a few years ago, and will generally last as long as something made by MXR or EHX if treated right. intheflesh posted:Aside from the WICKED SICK MONSTER ENERGY 110% ERXTREME branding, I'm feeling pretty good about Skar amps. What am I missing here, would this be stupid to run the front channels then have the rears bridged to a 12"? Another thing that's analogous to the whole effects pedal situation is that some of the budget brands are actually starting to achieve Known Quantity status, Skar seems to be a big one in car audio. That comes with a downside, in that they sometimes become harder to find, or start being marked up by online retailers or the brand themselves. But given the absolutely insane margins the big US and Japanese brands seem to charge for similar quality kit, you're still going to be better off for your money unless you want something really feature rich, like the AudioControl stuff. Pioneer seems to be the one exception, they seem to be happy to chuck out their amps and low/mid tier head units for drat cheap while the quality seems to be even better than when I was first getting into building systems. Kenwood have gone the other way, they've stayed cheap but the quality has come up quite a lot since the hey day of car audio, but they don't have a particularly big range, and are still mostly competing against other more reputable brands in the low-mid tiers these days. Car Audio speakers I think are the one area that I haven't really seen any major competitors to the big brands pop out and achieve popular status, but I know there are a lot of contenders on Amazon. I just don't know if I'd go through the trouble of replacing factory speakers for an unknown quantity, vs just throwing money at something by Kicker or JL. I'd say your front components also have the greatest impact after adding a sub, so it's probably not the worst investment either.
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Jun 29, 2022 06:28
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intheflesh posted:Aside from the WICKED SICK MONSTER ENERGY 110% ERXTREME branding, I'm feeling pretty good about Skar amps. What am I missing here, would this be stupid to run the front channels then have the rears bridged to a 12"? Generally, speaking, yeah. Almost everything today is so much better than, say 10, definitely 20, years ago. A $100 deck will be pretty drat decent. OEM stuff is at least 300% better than it was. A lot of newer cars I would just leave alone. Speakers, and sub, maybe. That puts me in mind of a vintage (1990s  ) ad, Precision Power I believe it was (back when they were Good Stuff) that was mocking cheap brands. It had something to the effect of "1000W*", with the asterisk being "when lightning strikes it," referring to the ridiculous power claims made by disingenuous manufacturers. Their amps, of course, were labelled with RMS power at a reasonable THD.DoesNotCompute posted:The 22 year old CD player from ebay showed up and good god it was a delight to wire, 12V, ground, ACC, amp trigger and antenna motor trigger. 5 wires god bless. Then just plugging in a few sets of RCA's and fiddling around with the mounting bracket. The dog helped. Isn't it nice? I need something simple like that for my '79 RX-7. Something period-ish. quote:That is the cutest dang picture. empty baggie posted:I had a Blaupunkt Toronto several years ago, although mine was the Toronto 420BT. It was the best single DIN stereo I ever had, and if CarPlay hadn't become a thing, I'd probably still have it installed in my truck. 420 Blaze Tokin' amirite? I gave one to my dad to install in his '70s tractor - it has very little depth to work with , since the factory unit was just AM/FM. Darchangel fucked around with this message at 22:45 on Jun 29, 2022 |
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Jun 29, 2022 22:31
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I'm the household lightbulb presumably hanging from the headliner.
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Jun 29, 2022 23:25
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Darchangel posted:Isn't it nice? I need something simple like that for my '79 RX-7. Something period-ish. Dogs make absolutely everything better, and yeah being vaguely period correct was key because the dash would just look monumentally stupid with a big flashy double din or something similar wedged into it. KillHour posted:I'm the household lightbulb presumably hanging from the headliner. Can you tell I'm an engineer by my precision tools?
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Jun 30, 2022 19:09
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How's everyone liking the Atoto F7? Coworker is looking for a Carplay capable head unit and I'll be doing the installation.
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Jul 4, 2022 15:14
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Seems car audio has become a tiny bit more complex in the 15 years since I left Best Buy. I've got a 2015 Jeep Cherokee with the base uconnect head unit. It's been acting wonky and not pairing with my phone lately so I'm debating getting an aftermarket unit. Went to Crutchfield and there's just so many options out there. Any recommendations for a decent head unit that has great Android integration?
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Jul 4, 2022 19:29
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Bulk Vanderhuge posted:How's everyone liking the Atoto F7? Coworker is looking for a Carplay capable head unit and I'll be doing the installation. Still liking mine that I use with wireless Android auto although it has developed a few quirks such as starting in night mode when it's daytime till I cycle the headlights and it doesn't start the home screen sometimes I have to press the home button to get it to go to the home screen.. but those are very tiny quirks everything else has been pretty flawless
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Jul 4, 2022 22:28
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Bulk Vanderhuge posted:How's everyone liking the Atoto F7? Coworker is looking for a Carplay capable head unit and I'll be doing the installation. The only issues I have with mine are occasionally the wireless CarPlay dongle not starting up and connecting properly, and also occasionally the CarPlay connecting, but displaying a black screen. The former is a simple fix of disconnected the dongle form the USB, and the latter takes a reboot of the head unit, which is a key cycle, as I’ve not found a way to actually power the unit off. Put on standby, yes, but no “off” without removing keyed ignition power. Those issues only happen once every 10-20 startups, possibly less. I do need to check if there is an update. I updated when I got it, but not since. I believe I recounted it here, but do not get the plug-in steering wheel remote. It prevents the u it from booting about 1 out of every 3 startups. Use the wire-in universal style remote instead. Edit: overall, I like the thing.
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Jul 5, 2022 21:28
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Darchangel posted:occasionally the CarPlay connecting, but displaying a black screen. My 2018 Hyundai does this same poo poo, but just requires removing and re-plugging the cable (I have a wireless CarPlay dongle but prefer the cable 9/10 times).
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Jul 5, 2022 21:46
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I had a 18 hyundai and the factory unit with car play would stay black or the screen would stay on after turning car off. Bought new and no accidents. I tried updating it but it still acted the same way. When in use it worked great.
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Jul 5, 2022 22:34
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Don Dongington posted:We all know that the Ultimate Force in amp teardown and review is Big D over at WillestonAudioLabs I've been binge watching his dyno tests and 100% agree. It's the Big D I didn't know I needed in my life. I'm impressed enough I'm going to buy a JP95 and consolidate 3:1 in my trucks system. Now I just need a good head unit with 5 channel outputs in a single DIN form factor.
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Jul 6, 2022 00:57
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the spyder posted:I've been binge watching his dyno tests and 100% agree. It's the Big D I didn't know I needed in my life. Alpine always used to make the best single DIN source units, I had one of their top end early 2000s ones for years (CDA-7894 or something like that) with 6v preouts, time alignment, internal amp shut off and even an aux in via a cd stacker adaptor. These days all that stuff is practically standard on all their units, plus you can set them up with an app via Bluetooth which is pretty great. I have a double din one in my car atm and my only complaint with it is that the Bluetooth has been a bit iffy and now doesn't work at all for sending audio via voice calls but I think that's actually an issue with my unit specifically. It is about 6 years old by this point.
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Jul 6, 2022 01:22
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Alpine and Pioneer were my go-to head units for installs in all my friends cars. I've still got a couple of the classics around, but I just want bluetooth and good sound quality. A decent Pioneer looks to only be around $140. Maybe I'll give it a shot.
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Jul 6, 2022 01:35
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the spyder posted:Alpine and Pioneer were my go-to head units for installs in all my friends cars. I've still got a couple of the classics around, but I just want bluetooth and good sound quality. A decent Pioneer looks to only be around $140. Maybe I'll give it a shot. I have a pretty new Alpine in the van that has USB input, bluetooth, and a microphone that people I've called say sounds brilliant. It's also pretty easy to use and changes color.
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Jul 6, 2022 05:38
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I just ordered a Sundown SD3 8" subwoofer for my '97 C230, it was on clearance, asks for a very very small sealed enclosure and apparently good sound quality so I went for it. Will I be upset? Was this dumb? Is this good? I'm old now and treasure having some trunk space and don't want to rattle my teeth I just want music to sound like it's not missing 100Hz of information. *powering it with a D4S JP8 that someone on marketplace won in a raffle and sold half price new in box.
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Jul 6, 2022 17:29
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DoesNotCompute posted:I just ordered a Sundown SD3 8" subwoofer for my '97 C230, it was on clearance, asks for a very very small sealed enclosure and apparently good sound quality so I went for it. Will I be upset? Was this dumb? Is this good? I'm old now and treasure having some trunk space and don't want to rattle my teeth I just want music to sound like it's not missing 100Hz of information. If you got a good deal on the stuff then screw it, it'll be better than nothing, at least for a while. Maybe set the gains a little low because the power handling won't be that great.
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Jul 6, 2022 22:12
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I have two 8 inch subs under my seats in sealed enclosures. They do okay driven at 500W. You can definitely hear they're small since the mid and high bass are much louder than the really low stuff. You can equalize it out, but it will never be that rich creamy bass you hear from larger drivers.
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Jul 7, 2022 00:42
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um excuse me posted:rich creamy bass I'm mostly not a fan of 8"s just because they often end up facing compromises on stuff like coils and spiders and even motors because otherwise they wouldn't fit in a box. Their parameters can start edging towards midbass instead of subwoofer. It can also be annoying to build a nice stable and well loaded port in tiny boxes because it might have to start turning or sticking out if you want to tune it low. I think sealed sub boxes just kind of suck. Great for midbass, but if you're actually looking to play below 50hz where all the good stuff is it just doesn't work all that great. If I really didn't have the space in something with a trunk I'd just go infinite baffle in the package tray instead. It would still have crappy power handling and not get that loud, but at least it'll probably play a little lower. Lowclock fucked around with this message at 08:15 on Jul 7, 2022 |
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Jul 7, 2022 08:05
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Lowclock posted:And half the calories! I used to have a proper stealth set up but my car got broken into and my speakers and amp stolen. Now you physically can't remove them from the car without spending 20 minutes taking out the seats and center console. The decision for 8 inch drivers was out of plain security, since 8" subs are better than no subs.
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Jul 7, 2022 12:21
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I guess it depends on what you like your tunes to sound like. I vastly prefer sealed boxes because I like a good solid thump. Ported boxes to me tend to be more blurry and muddy rather than just deep. DoesNotCompute posted:I just ordered a Sundown SD3 8" subwoofer... That sundown oughta do just fine driving it hard. They are often very underrated. One thing I have heard is that their subs that don't have vents through the magnet have to do side venting below the spider, and it can manifest as a sort of whiffing/popping sound on higher frequency quick hits, like the bass drum. This video pretty much demonstrates it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJAZeioWCbM There are several other videos including sundown's own promo videos that have this noise present. I actually test drove their 6.5" sub because I loved the idea of that small of a woofer/box. I tried it in a sealed box and it made almost no bass at all, switched to a ported box and it was surprisingly loud, but in both cases it made that same noise. If it were in a trunk it wouldn't have been a big deal at all but it was in the cabin of my wagon so I heard it all the time. I hope yours doesn't do that but if it does don't fight it and just send it back and get one with a magnet port. I ended up going with a single E-12 because I already had the box, and I bought a 10 ga trailer wiring plug so I can just yank it in and out of the car at will. It sounds absolutely beautiful, zero whiffing noise and goes louder than I will ever want to listen to it even though it's pretty much their cheapest sub.
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Jul 7, 2022 19:03
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Please don’t jump me if I get any details wrong…but remember JC Whitney? Mtx speakers? I put two 8 or 10” subs in sealed JCW boxes UNDER the bench seat if my single can z71. The guys at work (and olds/Honda dealer) could not believe it. These guys had the huge boxes replacing the back seats if their crx or lovely thunderbird or whatever… I also got a noise pollution ticket for blasting bust a move at ear deafening levels in 2nd Ave with it in mid 90s They were good. Nothing I am interested in now but that alpine head with budget boxes and speakers really worked
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Jul 7, 2022 20:14
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RIP Paul Walker posted:I have a pretty new Alpine in the van that has USB input, bluetooth, and a microphone that people I've called say sounds brilliant. It's also pretty easy to use and changes color. I have an Alpine iLX-W650 mechless double DIN CarPlay in our Outback, and my only complaint id that it doesn't have a knob for volume. One of the neat things they do with this unit is, because it's so thin, make an amp that mounts piggyback to it, allowing 4 x 45W in-dash. I didn't use that, but am considering it, since the factory McIntosh amp in the Subaru hates aftermarket head units. That way I can put a dedicated sub amp where the McIntosh lives rather than trying to cram a 5-channel in there. Then I need to replace the factory 6x9 "sub" with something that really is. everdave posted:Please don’t jump me if I get any details wrong…but remember JC Whitney? Mtx speakers? I always thought MTX was a decent low- to mid-tier brand with reasonable price/performance. JC Whitney was always a mixed bag, but as long as the box was screwed together solidly and about the right size, that's all that was important.
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Jul 7, 2022 23:07
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LloydDobler posted:I guess it depends on what you like your tunes to sound like. I vastly prefer sealed boxes because I like a good solid thump. Ported boxes to me tend to be more blurry and muddy rather than just deep. LloydDobler posted:SD3 rattles
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Jul 8, 2022 01:19
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Lol I listen to like…fleetwood mac and just want 40 to 100Hz to exist at a relatively flat response while having as much trunk space as possible so honestly all of these responses are actually fine to me. The weirdo venting noise I’m assuming will be masked by it being in the trunk but if not I’ll just send her back. Thanks everyone.
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Jul 8, 2022 13:56
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I'm picking up a 2011 CRV today and it looks like it may not have bluetooth (EX model). I shied away from loving with my '15 Civic because I didn't want to lose use of my side view camera and such, but that isn't going to be an issue this time. I'd like to pop something in the dash that has wireless android auto, dont want to be loving around plugging in my phone every time. Anyone have suggestions on a decent in dash unit? Quickly looking at Crutchfield (CA) looks like it ranges from about $350 up to astronomical prices. Want to keep it on the lower end as while I'm very serious about audio, its just a cheap car.
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Jul 12, 2022 12:21
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codo27 posted:I'm picking up a 2011 CRV today and it looks like it may not have bluetooth (EX model). I shied away from loving with my '15 Civic because I didn't want to lose use of my side view camera and such, but that isn't going to be an issue this time. I'd like to pop something in the dash that has wireless android auto, dont want to be loving around plugging in my phone every time. Anyone have suggestions on a decent in dash unit? Quickly looking at Crutchfield (CA) looks like it ranges from about $350 up to astronomical prices. Want to keep it on the lower end as while I'm very serious about audio, its just a cheap car. My buddy suggested this one, but we don't have first-hand experience with the actual unit. I think he has an earlier model, but he's been very pleased with it in his RAV4. https://www.amazon.com/ATOTO-Receiv...deae8f9840&th=1
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Jul 12, 2022 13:37
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That's literally the model I have. Works as advertised with a few tiny quirks but they aren't deal breakers or anything. Well worth it for how cheap it was.
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Jul 12, 2022 15:02
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BonoMan posted:That's literally the model I have. Works as advertised with a few tiny quirks but they aren't deal breakers or anything. That's awesome to hear! I want to upgrade my 2019 Camry's stereo, but I'm afraid I might loose something important. Can I still adjust my clock in my instrument cluster if I remove the factory head unit? 
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Jul 12, 2022 16:03
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Bump because it just went on a lightning deal for $175. I'm going to take the plunge.
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Jul 12, 2022 16:44
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Dang that's a great price
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Jul 12, 2022 16:51
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Nocheez posted:My buddy suggested this one, but we don't have first-hand experience with the actual unit. I think he has an earlier model, but he's been very pleased with it in his RAV4. I have the 10" floating screen version of that. Seems to work fine. Only thing I don't actually like is that the music volume is independent of the Waze (and others, I assume, but have not tried) navigation voice volume. That is, the nav doesn't turn up with the music volume, and doesn't mute the music when it speaks. The Alpine in my wife's Subaru does both. I also have the wireless CarPlay adapter for it, and that works well, too. Very occasionally I have to unplug and reconnect the adapter, and also occasionally I have to turn the car off and back on to power cycle the head unit to make CarPlay display. It connects, just no display. Someone else in this thread commented that their name-brand head unit does that every so often as well. Support from Atoto was pretty good - had an issue with an incompatible remote control causing it not to boot - they figured that out pretty quick. Be sure and register so you can check their support site for firmware updates.
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Jul 12, 2022 17:12
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Good advice, thanks. It's odd that you can't control the navigation audio separately. I've had plenty of rental cars that do that properly, hopefully it's just a firmware update thing.
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Jul 12, 2022 17:32
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codo27 posted:I'm picking up a 2011 CRV today and it looks like it may not have bluetooth (EX model). I have nothing to say regarding the replacement gear but you definitely don't want factory Honda bluetooth from that era. My '13 CR-V had horrendous bluetooth lag that made any sort of voice control impossible.
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Jul 12, 2022 18:58
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I need to do some digging some time and see what those Linux decks are actually like to screw with. If you could get something like Carla or EasyEffects working on there that would become the best deck by such an extremely huge margin. An Android deck with Viper or JamesDSP would also be pretty high up there, but I haven't really found any way of manipulating individual channels in Android.
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Jul 12, 2022 19:31
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Nocheez posted:Good advice, thanks. Hopefully. No updates since 11/18/2021, though, which is the firmware I'm using.
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Jul 13, 2022 23:59
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Built and upholstered my first box since I was a 16 year old idiot (for reference I'm a 38 year old idiot now). Went with a double thickness front baffle, one brace with a circular cutout in the middle, 3/4" MDF all around with 1/2" roundovers and t-nuts with allan bolts for mounting the woofer. Calculated the volume in CAD at 0.41cu ft, so 0.31 with the woofer in there minus a few cc's for all the silicone sealing up the corners. Also did binding posts so if I want to wire it 1ohm instead of 4 ohm at some point I don't have to take anything apart. Literally the first time I've laid carpet on anything so it went "just fair" with a rotary cutter, razor blade and a straight edge. My partner is a wedding planner and she often needs me to come pick up decor after weddings which are all stored in identical totes, the footprint of this (and going with a small sealed 8" in general) was all designed around still being able to fit 3 of those totes in the trunk, seems like mission accomplished. Also holy jesus does a sealed 3/4" MDF enclosure with a double baffle and brace feel like an absolute brick when it's this small.   Bonus photo of my DIY laser cut acrylic router template to make a 7.375" diameter hole. 
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Jul 14, 2022 13:39
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Here's an old memory: I built a ridiculous box for my 1990 Cutlass Supreme (the w-body, Lumina clone). My brother and I called MTX and spoke with an engineer there who asked what we were doing, what components, type of music, etc. He then faxed us (lol) some build sheets and we went to work making a ported box with 2x10" subs. That box sounded so loving good and punchy, and it took up a third of my fairly large trunk. To be 17 again 
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Jul 14, 2022 14:06
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