Ask Us About Car Audio, Part 4: Gasp Harder

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Ask Us About Car Audio, Part 4: Gasp Harder

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

Geirskogul posted:

Screwing a speaker into the existing hole is less.

That's great. He asked how to upgrade his speakers, not how to be as lazy as possible. Using spacer rings to go from 4" to 6.5" is an entirely reasonable thing to do that will give you a lot more volume and low end, and save you some distortion, even if you don't have an amp, especially if you don't have a subwoofer. You can even buy them premade for a perfect fit for a lot of applications. Another alternative would be kick panel enclosures, but it might take some more money and research to find them if you cant make them yourself. efb kinda.

Kontour posted:

I'm in the middle of upgrading my system in a 1992 HDJ80 Landcruiser, and I have a few questions about installing speakers.

Just to be clear, I wouldn't even cut the door. I would just use a spacer or two so that the frame of the speaker actually sits a little outside where the stock size one would, and then it would be like fitting just the magnet of the new speaker where the whole frame of the old smaller size would go. Might have to unscrew that little plastic frame piece. As for the strength part, most speakers can accommodate 1/4" socket headed cap screws nicely, and should handle a demolition derby if you do a good job.

e: I think you would also really like adding a 4 channel amp to power them with. It makes a big difference just sending more power to the same speakers.

Lowclock fucked around with this message at 10:16 on Mar 13, 2013

# ¿ Mar 13, 2013 10:02

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 00:08

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

Mouse Cadet posted:

What other options are there?

Is there an option for a factory CD changer? You may have either a pair of RCAs or something like a DIN cable hidden in the trunk that will give you pretty direct audio into your deck. Might have to rig something up to be able to change to the CD changer input. I don't know, google.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2013 20:37

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

Yeah that should work. Seems kind of pricy, but still a little cheaper than replacing the deck.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2013 23:36

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

KakerMix posted:

I'll think about tackling the issue of replacing the amp+everything else in this car later, but right now I'm quite pleased with the difference.

If you decide to do this, here's a tip. If you have one of the ones where all the speaker grounds seem to be tied together and/or not present at the amp connector (91-92?), unwrap the harness for it a couple inches and you'll find them all hidden in there. You can also disassemble the amp and just use the crossover section so you can keep it a 3 way in front, but the cutoffs won't match up well with aftermarket speakers and I think the sound stage sounds better in my sedan without the mids in the dash.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2013 17:59

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

leica posted:

So I've been thinking about keeping the stock head unit in my '97 Miata because it sounds pretty good and I want to keep things as low key/stealth as possible. The problem is I bought some Alpine 6.5 coax speakers with 80 watts RMS and I'm afraid they may over work the stock "amp" if you want to call it that.....I'm not even sure how powerful, if at all, the stock amp is, so I'm going to need some sort of line output converter like this:

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_142LOC80/Scosche-LOC80.html?tp=2001

Anyone ever use one of these? Do they actually work well, or should I forget about trying to make my stock unit work with these speakers? If there is another way to do it I'm all ears.

[edit] Actually, this looks like a better but more expensive option:

http://www.amazon.com/LC2i-Audiocon...io+control+lc2i

You're kind of losing me here. Is it that you want to get an aftermarket amp? You shouldn't need to do anything and your stock amp should be fine if all you want to do is change to those speakers. If you want to change amps then you might need a line output convertor if your new one doesn't have speaker level inputs, but otherwise you're good to go.

# ¿ Apr 5, 2013 08:44

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

Inept posted:

I have a 2003 Civic EX and I'm just going to pay someone to replace the head unit because I watched a youtube on how to do it and it looks like a huge pain in the rear end that I could conceivably do, but would never bother to. In any case, is there anything I need to buy besides this dash kit: http://www.amazon.com/Metra-99-7899-Honda-Civic-01-05/dp/B0002BETUE A wiring harness? I'm just going to have them put in a JVC KD-X50BT.

If you're talking about the one with the dumbass that disassembles and removes the whole center console for no reason, yeah, that's retarded and you don't have to do that.

You'll also need a wiring harness. Just google "(my car) wiring harness". They're a couple bucks on amazon.

# ¿ Apr 13, 2013 21:12

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

Throw some "bass blockers" on the mids, use the high level inputs off either both back or front speakers (using R+ and L- or vice versa will give you a pseudo-surround type of thing you don't want), start at 120hz and work down by ear depending on the slope, just forget you ever heard the term damping, go with total 1 or 2 ohms for almost all class D amps, and if it was me, I'd do one larger driver instead of two smaller ones.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2013 00:47

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

jonathan posted:

We may do that, the 1 large driver. However there isn't room for a 15 with a box design he wants, so it could be either 2 10's or 2 12's. So far the idea is 2 JBL 10" GTO's. From simulations I can get 120db out of them open air without exceeding xmax, and roll off at 20hz.

This is with 4 2" round ports.

A 15" will take less space than 2 12"s, and only a little more than 2 10"s, but I can understand if he wants it to look a certain way. Those JBLs are pretty decent. Simulations are neat to look at but don't actually mean anything in the end unless you're doing it with some crazy CFD suite. You should be able to get a lot more than 120db, but there's no reason to tune any lower than like 30hz unless you watch movie bombs on repeat or want to call some elephants. Making a box that plays down to 20hz without unloading is just wasting a bunch of output over the rest of the range for source material that doesn't exist in 99% of anything. Use at least a 4" aeroport to keep velocity down, although slot ported boxes are often stronger and easier to build. This style of design is the best non-vehicle-specific setup I've ever worked with, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to build a box, but doesn't want to spend a ton of money on measuring equipment they will never use again, or build 10 boxes to see what really works best in their application. If you can, build it like two separate smaller boxes instead of one big one.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2013 04:57

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

jonathan posted:

If you say 1 or 2 ohm, I'll go for that. Might try the used market first. I assume the class d amps run a bit cooler with 1 or 2 ohm loads ?

Not necessarily cooler, but that's where they usually put out the most power. If you get 1 ohm worth of voice coils, get a 1 ohm stable amp and run it at that, and so on.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2013 22:13

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

BANME.sh posted:

I have a 2006 mazda 3 (non Bose) and I started to notice a rattle in the passenger speaker at high volume. I took the door panel off to see if it was something loose, but everything seemed solid. So I blasted some music with the panel off and sure enough the rattle was still there. Very clearly coming from the speaker.

When I press in on the cone slightly it makes a scraping or grinding sound. Surely that can't be normal? Is this common for a blown speaker or is it something else? I've heard of water getting into the door and rusting the drivers, but I don't see any rust.

Yeah that's a blown speaker. Typically part of the voice coil comes unwound from the former and that's what's scraping around in there.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2013 05:15

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

Holdbrooks posted:

Talk me out of putting the 4 infinity 12's and the brahma 15 I have in the garage in to the Vic. I really should just drop in some coaxial 6x8 and a 8in subs in a console. Or just plug in the basslink I pulled from the STi.

Do one or the other. Mixing subs like that pretty much always sounds worse than just using all the same ones, and most amps don't like it either. Put the 15" or 4 12"s in the trunk, an 8" in the console for midbass, and the basslink in the garbage.

# ¿ Apr 28, 2013 02:52

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

Geirskogul posted:

There are amps that can take the stereo mix from a stock headunit and mux out bass for the sub for that, but it never works as well as it should (the feature is built into good headunits; why can't it be built into good amps?!).

I'm not sure what you're talking about here. Do you mean low pass filters, or maybe non-fading pre-outs? Mux probably isn't the word you were looking for.

Lowclock fucked around with this message at 06:10 on May 8, 2013

# ¿ May 8, 2013 06:08

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

Geirskogul posted:

Yeah, I meant high level inputs. My bad. And I haven't had any good experiences with amps in the last five or so years, but that's just me.

Yeah usually amps with high level inputs are kind of targeted towards people who don't want to spend the money for a deck with line level outputs, so the rest of the amp isn't that great either. The whole car audio industry has kind of gone to poo poo since the late 90's when every good or big company started getting bought out by the likes of Sound Around and DEI, and the ones that are left were forced into making cheap ultra-high-margin Chinese-sourced junk with identical products split across 3 or more different brands. With the advances in technology made in the last 20 years, we should have some relatively amazing and dirt cheap poo poo in every car, but instead they have found creative new ways to label a 200 watt amp as 2000 (CEA2006 is a loving joke), and the 4 channel I use that was made in like 2003 is still the most technologically advanced one out there. Sorry for the angry post that I'm sure I've made before, but it sucks to watch an industry I gave a poo poo about become so completely stagnant.

# ¿ May 8, 2013 06:45

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

teejayh posted:

Has anyone here ever done something like this, and if so, is this the right way to go about it?

Yeah as long as they work correctly, this is about as good as you can get. Go for it.

atomicthumbs posted:

Is there a place with lots of information on amplifiers? I've got another car, with no radio and eight speaker positions, and I'm planning to upgrade from 1.5" tweeters in the dashboard to bigger actual speakers. I have a feeling that a normal 20W 4-channel head unit isn't quite gonna cut it once I've got everything installed and upgraded.

1.5" is plenty big for tweeters. Not really any reason to go bigger. As for if it will be loud enough, well that's up to you, and a decent amp would be the way to go if you decide it's not.

atomicthumbs posted:

Also is it ever worth it using component speakers, or is that just a big pain in the rear end?

It's pretty much always worth it unless you don't care how it sounds. Being able to move and angle the tweeters in different ways helps you set up a sound stage without tons of processing, and they usually have way better crossovers and drivers than what you find in coaxials.

# ¿ May 11, 2013 04:22

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

Vigo327 posted:

So that S4 situation got me to wondering about the relative merit of bothering to figure out what is going on pre-amp instead of just doing line level converters from the factory amp output.

My line of thinking is i dont see a problem with using line level inputs as long as that signal is worth a crap, i.e. not noisy and not going into distortion/clipping. And THAT got me to wondering what kind of resistance a high-level input is? I.e., is the high level input on an amp such a high resistance that there is not much current coming out of the amp producing the signal, and it will never be working hard?

Because, i see the typical situation where you T off of the factory rear speaker circuit to a sub amp, to be different because there is still a speaker load on that circuit and you can still crank it up to where the factory amp sounds like poo poo, and that will affect the other amp. But if there is no speaker on that circuit and the high level input on the next amp is a high resistance, i would think that signal should stay relatively clean?

Thoughts on this?

Usually amps have high enough input impedance that they might as well not be there to whatever they're connected to. Nothing close to what you find on something like an opamp, but I think the lowest stated input impedance I remember seeing on a car amp is something like 15k ohms. The speaker being there shouldn't really make any audible difference in the end unless you've got the gains set wrong.

# ¿ May 11, 2013 04:30

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

atomicthumbs posted:

Two more questions:
[list][*]The car came wired for a subwoofer in the trunk, but it didn't come with the car. Is it safe to cut the heavy-gauge wire and crimp in a power cable to an amp? It would be running in parallel with anything I decide to install in the trunk later (inverter, ham radio transciever, powered subwoofer, etc). Could I do the same with the remote amp control wire?

Sure, just make sure it is an appropriate size for the amount of power you need, has a fuse holder as close to the battery as possible, and that it isn't damaged or run anywhere stupid like through a doorjamb, hood, or draped over a brake pedal or steering column. Same with the remote wire, although you don't really need a fuse holder for that (and it probably wouldn't do you any good anyways) Disconnect or otherwise remove power from them when you're making new connections or working on them and you should be good. You shouldn't really have to crimp anything for an amp since they pretty much all use screw terminals, but you might for the other stuff.

quote:

Would putting coaxial stuff in the rear deck degrade the total sound I'm getting with a component front speaker setup? If so, what's the best way to deal with the rear speaker setup? The doors will hold 5.25" drivers, and the deck will hold 6x9" drivers.

The back isn't usually that important, but it can be helpful to have something back there to add a little more volume and pull the sound stage up and back a little bit. 6x9 components are also pretty rare, so I'd say some coaxials back there would be a good idea.

# ¿ May 11, 2013 07:48

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

jonathan posted:

Since this uses the can bus, is it possible for me to dump the OEM head unit, amp etc, and just use a double DIN head unit ? I'd likely replace the OEM speakers. Do I need an amp for these or do the double din units put out enough wattage ? I find distortion begins to set in around 95 db. With the top off it sounds like poo poo.

I don't really have a budget. If you wanted to do a nice stereo that sounds good with no top on, what would you do ?

Do most people run tweeters on a discreet channel ? Also, is there anything out there that can EQ the system top on and top off ?

When I remove the top the factory system cuts out the low end to allow more headroom.

In my theater I use Audyssey XT32 calibration. It works really well getting the subs to sound flat. I know they did some car audio stuff for a bit.

My listening habits are pretty varied. 60% metal/rock, 20% hip hop, 20% electronic and jazz.

I'm going to build my own enclosure for the subwoofer. Mark from Mach 5 audio built me custom 18's for my theater which does 115db at 10hz in a 3000 ft^3 room. I think I'll go back to him for some long excursion 15's for the jeep.

In order of the question marks.

Yes, definitely. You might lose your door bonger thing unless you get a little harness to pipe it back in there (it's been a while since I've done a new Jeep, not sure about yours) but it should work fine.

You don't NEED an amp, but it would certainly help. More power, less distortion, and high pass filters are all wonderful things.

2 sets of components on a 4 channel amp, and a sub on a mono class D amp. I usually find that one bigger sub works better than 2 smaller ones.

No. Usually the mid and high run off the same channel with the audio split by a crossover. There are some advantages and disadvantages to doing it that way, but unless you want to spend a lot more money or already have a bunch of gear laying around, it's not really worth it most of the time IMO.

Yes, your deck. I really depends on what sounds good to you, so you might be able to get away with just tweaking the treble and bass on your deck, or you may have to get some crazy 30 channel EQ to get it to sound the way you like. It's hard to say.

I don't really know what to say about those subs, other than that I recognize just about every part as an off the shelf piece from something else, and I got a good chuckle about a company named after Speed Racer's car, with a sub named after dicks, carbon fiber, and "Kustom Koils".

# ¿ May 11, 2013 21:59

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

jonathan posted:

For the tweeters, I would assume they would use some sort of passive crossover ? Do they get wired in parallel with the woofer with a resistor inline to act as a high pass filter ? I guess this would be a "component" speaker...

Component sets usually include a pair of woofers, a pair of tweeters, and a pair of crossovers. You wire each channel from the amp into each of the crossovers, and then the woofer and tweeter both connect to each crossover. So you basically have 2 wires going into each crossover (+ and -) and then 4 wires coming out for each pair of drivers (+ and - for the tweeter, and + and - for the woofer). Coaxials just have the tweeter stuck right on top of the woofer with a lovely little tiny 1 tap crossover hidden in there (if you're lucky) so you only connect the + and - from the amp right up to the speaker.

# ¿ May 12, 2013 00:41

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

jonathan posted:

Let's say I cross the woofers and tweeters at 80hz and let everything under that go to the subs, is there high sensitivity components I should be looking for to get better detail and SPL ?

Not really. Sensitivity is not really a thing to consider when buying speakers because every company rates them differently and it doesn't have any direct correlation to how loud a speaker can get or how good it sounds.

# ¿ May 12, 2013 00:48

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

jonathan posted:

Last question for the day:

Components upfront, and matching coaxials in the rear overhead, or should I just do woofers in the rear overhead ?

Might as well just do coaxials in the rear. They'll probably be cheaper and easier to find than just woofers, and you won't have to worry about bandpassing them (e:still want to highpass them like you said earlier, just to be clear).

Lowclock fucked around with this message at 10:49 on May 12, 2013

# ¿ May 12, 2013 03:05

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

Kachunkachunk posted:

Do post about it, or at least PM me when you figure it out! And good idea on the under-deck option, that could also work. I'd like to this time have a decent-sized trunk.
I managed to make a fairly roomy 2008 Accord sedan's trunk as small as a Mini's, due to my sub box, and even then it's pretty much all squished into the back against the rear seat/bench. On the other hand, I have 1700-watts of amplified goodness going on.

I'm still not sure if I should consider dropping a sub (I have two previous-gen Alpine Type-R 10" subs) and going to a single Alpine Type-R latest-gen 12" sub, which is basically your previous-gen Type-X. I doubt it would quite be as loud, but it does double the power handling. Would it at least be more accurate? Perhaps, I'd think.

And have sub boxes pretty much all decidedly gone to a ported design? It seems that's the prevailing option, but I'm not really complaining. The two 10"s I have seem to sound... less accurate than I hope. Either it's my box, or the subs. Or both. It's rather lovely not being able to compare.

I would skip the Alpines. They're not even as good as the previous gen Type X's, which weren't very good to begin with, let alone good enough justify their insane price tag. Hiding under that huge frame and giant rubber magnet cover is still a little 117 oz motor and a 2 1/2" voice coil. 1 12" may or may not end up sounding better than 2 10"s, but it's mostly down to install over subs. I usually recommend going with 1 larger sub over 2 smaller ones.

Ported boxes are a better choice today mostly because motors and suspensions have improved a lot over the years making the advantages of a sealed box kind of unnecessary. Ported boxes are usually louder, more efficient, and have better power handling, while sealed boxes can be smaller and often have a flatter response, both of which are pretty irrelevant unless you only have a tiny bit of space or want to impress an RTA.

What kind of box do you have the 10"s in right now? (pictures would be helpful) There's a lot of really crappy prefab boxes out there that could make things sound a lot worse than they could.

# ¿ May 15, 2013 10:05

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

jonathan posted:

2x JBL GTO 10" vs 2x Kicker Comp VT 10" vs 1x Kicker solobaric square thing 12".

Ported 2.5cu ft box.

Amp is a 1000watt RMS @ 2 ohm mono block.

The jbls will end up being 4ohm because the amp isn't 1ohm stable so 600watt = 300 per driver

I'd go with the square Kicker as long as it's an L7, and not the old L3 or L5 which I don't think they even make anymore.

# ¿ May 15, 2013 22:42

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

some texas redneck posted:

1993 Mazda 929 Car Stereo Wiring Diagram

And just for future reference, the12volt.com has tons of wiring info for a ton of different cars, and sometimes is even more correct than the big pay sites.

# ¿ May 23, 2013 07:05

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

keykey posted:

I'm having an interesting issue. The radio fuse blew on me, so I replaced the fuse, it lasted a few days then that one blew as well. I went to replace it with another and the third instantly blew when it made contact with the fuse box. The car came with an aftermarket radio when I purchased it 3 years ago and no changes have been made by me, ever. Maybe the aftermarket head unit is on its way out or giving it fits?

Probably lovely wiring. Pull it out and see if it's a mess of electrical tape or burned wires or whatever. Just google the maker of your radio + removal tools and make something similar out of coat hangers or butter knives or whatever is appropriate. Do you have a multimeter?

# ¿ May 24, 2013 01:59

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

keykey posted:

I do have a multimeter and I just checked and all wires are taped, apparently an aftermarket harness to stereo cable was too nice. :/

Yeah that sucks. If they're not visibly touching but still blowing fuses, an easy way to check stuff is set your multimeter to resistance, poke the black lead into the black wire, and then the other end into your yellow or red power wires. If it reads anything but open then it shouldn't be too hard to find the problem from there.

# ¿ May 24, 2013 03:54

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

JackRabbitStorm posted:

I picked up an 03 Explorer today and put in my AVH-P4200DVD in it.

I wired it up correctly according to the directions that came with the wiring kit. It was a bit different then previous installs I've done as it comes with a factory amp/sub and rear DVD system.

Now when the radio turns on I have a loud POP from the back where the sub is.

Instinct tells me that I have a bad ground (it didn't do this with the stock radio) , but just checking if anyone else has any other ideas.

This is perfectly normal for tons of decks/amps that don't have "soft turn-on". You can make a little delay circuit to prevent it but it's not usually worth the trouble.

# ¿ May 26, 2013 06:28

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

ryan_woody posted:

My question is: If I swap out the stock GPS / display unit for another unit (either a different infotainment display or a "standard" deck) will I lose partial functionality (car information readouts)? If so, is it feasible to keep the standard head unit and still get good audio quality out of my speakers / subs? I don't know a whole lot about car audio, but would the standard unit still allow for high pass filter and good audio? If not, is there a way around this?

I don't know about car specific features, but the Mazda/MZR/whatever thread might. Using something like a line level convertor or an amp with high level inputs should sound just fine if it's installed properly, but they're usually kind of annoying to do so.

# ¿ May 26, 2013 06:31

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

Humbug posted:

I'm thinking about building a fibreglass sub box to fit inside my spare tire. My tires are only 185/65-r15, so the enclosure isn't going to be huge. I already got a good deal on a decent quality amp that is probably way more powerful than I need. I also got a good price on a decent 10" sub, but I am guessing that it would be too big? I guess my question is whether a undersized enclosure will ruin the sound quality even when playing on low volume? A big box in the boot isn't an option.

It's not really ideal, but you should be able to do a pretty nice sealed box in there no problem. Brace it up real well and cram a bunch of polyfill in there and you should be able to make something that sounds great.

# ¿ May 31, 2013 10:27

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

Humbug posted:

Thanks. A sealed box was always the plan. I guess a reflex box that small would only sound like a series of farts. There is some space between the top of the spare and the boot floor I could also expand into.

As a follow-up, the sub I'm looking at is a dual coil 2*4 ohm unit rated for 400w rms. The amp is rated at 480w rms at 4 ohms, but can apparently handle 2-8 ohms. I am guessing I should wire the coils in series giving 8 ohms rather than in parallel giving 2 ohms, since I don't care to much about absolute power, and the amp being slightly too powerful for the sub? Am I correct in thinking higher resistance gives less heat build-up in the amp?

Run it at 2 ohms. If it's too much, you can always turn the gain down.

# ¿ May 31, 2013 21:07

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

atomicthumbs posted:

Are these MBQuart component speakers likely to be any good?

They're pretty decent. You could certainly do much worse. MB Quart really loves their titanium tweeters and have been known to be really bright, but nothing that the -3 or -6 pads or a little treble adjustment can't fix.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2013 00:46

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

some texas redneck posted:

The Onyx line uses poly.

Yes, for the woofers. The tweeters are "titanium". Who cares, either way they're going to have a really strong high end.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2013 09:26

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

some texas redneck posted:

How'd I manage to poke a hole in the tweeters from my set then? It was very much some form of plastic.

It might just be titanium sputtered onto plastic or something since the manual calls them "titanium coated", but even if it is pure titanium they are thin enough that they are not invincible.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2013 06:49

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

jonathan posted:

In a sealed enclosure is it better to have each sub in it's individual compartment or can all 3 share the airspace ? They're be powered by a Alpine monoblock that does 1000w rms @ 2 ohms. I believe these are 8 ohm drivers, so 3 of them would make for a 3 ohm load correct ?

It kind of depends on the setup, but usually it's better to have separate enclosures if the boxes can be identical. If you're making some custom deal where each of the individual boxes would have to be a different shape, then you're probably better off just sharing the airspace between them instead.

If they're dual voice coil, 8/6=1.33. If they're single, 8/3=2.66. Either way, you'll want to parallel all the coils.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2013 22:11

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

Unclean posted:

My cousin borrowed it and tore the repair, what could be used to fix the damage?

This stuff should be available at most auto parts sections.

Get someone to build you this.

Lowclock fucked around with this message at 07:51 on Jun 11, 2013

# ¿ Jun 11, 2013 07:49

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

Unclean posted:

Edit: I vaguely recall awhile back that the Eclipse sounds awesome in an 8 cu. ft. or so box. The 1.75 will work fine then since its vented? Actually I think that large of a box was for a pair and they were sealed. Just curious!!!

8ft^3 is unreasonably enormous unless it's like a ported SPL-only box for 2 18"s. Non-pro Titaniums never really needed or benefited much from having huge boxes. DD has plans up there for a larger version but I don't really think it would be worth the extra space for that sub. Take your pick though, the design matters a lot more than the size, and if the larger one would fit nicer in your vehicle then go for it.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2013 22:56

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

Stop worrying about what modeling programs say. They're not even remotely close to accurate for cars. Build a sealed box as big as you can and try varying amounts of polyfill stuffing and knob twiddling until you like the way it sounds. Your ears are not an RTA.

# ¿ Jun 12, 2013 01:23

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

jonathan posted:

2 Questions unrelated:

Can someone help me with the ohms math again for these drivers ? Each driver is dual voicecoil, 8 ohms for each coil. There are 3. Amp is an Alpine V-power 1000 watt class D monoblock which is advertised at 1000wx1 rms @ 2ohms.

What are my options for impedance, and if I'm below 2 ohms but above 1 ohm, can I just turn the gain down some to relieve some stress on the amp ?

Question 2: These Parrot Asteroid Double-Din decks, are there any real world impressions of these ? Thinking of replacing my factory chrysler mygig deck with one of these, as the screen is kind of hosed on the oem deck. Is there a way to get sat radio onto this ?

Parallel makes it ohms/coils, so all of them wired in parallel would be 8/6 = 1.33ohms. Series is the opposite, ohms*coils, so if you put them all in series, 8*6 = 48ohms. You can also combine them. For instance you could wire the coils on each individual sub in series, so it would be like having 3 16 ohm coils, then parallel them together for a total of 5.33. These are just nominal DC resistance, though. When you're actually playing music with them in a box, their impedance is going to seem higher to the amp. You should have no problem running them all paralleled at 1.33ohm.

Unless they've changed, those Parrot decks run ancient gutted versions of Android with terrible hardware and limited functionality. Pretty lovely.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2013 04:29

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

Where did you get that picture from? The last Parallel/Series part is completely wrong.

E: VVVV Weird. The rest is close enough, but the bottom one should be 1.5, 3, 6, and 12, respectively.

Lowclock fucked around with this message at 05:25 on Jun 14, 2013

# ¿ Jun 14, 2013 05:05

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

Godsavethefritos posted:

do I need to get a 4 channel amp for the speakers and a mono amp for the sub?

You can run the 2-ways off your deck, but they'll get louder and sound better with more power from an external amp. Doesn't really matter how many channels the sub amp is, but usually mono amps are class D which is a lot more efficient and more powerful than similar class AB 2+ channel amps.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2013 07:31

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 00:08

Lowclock: Oct 26, 2005

numbs posted:

I'm looking to get a simple sub in my car. Maybe a tube.

The dogs in trunks thread was kind of funny, but now you're just wasting your time.

# ¿ Aug 10, 2013 19:56

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Ask Us About Car Audio, Part 4: Gasp Harder

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