Subwoofer add-in

[SHOMON]

Check out Sonic Electronix or Woofers Etc. They have some pretty good deals on sub woofers.

 

[Joshw0000]

Man, this is frustrating. The way these companies rate amps should be illegal.

Now I'm completely ignoring Peak/RMS ratings and I'm only looking at fuse sizes. If I want a true RMS of 750 watts then I need something with some big fuses. I keep trying to understand the fuse rating system but everyone seems to have their own calculations that they trust.

So let's say I went really high, something with 100-120 watts worth of fuses, in a amp with a marketing rating of 3-4000 peak watts (Planet Audio PL4000.1D). How do ohms come in to play when calculating fuse based RMS power? I don't think I want to push an RMS that is actually well above what my speaker can handle, right?

And and what rating do I need to start thinking about capacitors or extra batteries? I don't want the head lights to dim while I listen to the radio or, even worse, damage the battery or something else.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

[SHOinVa]

With every post to this thread my dream of adding a little bit of bass to my system, in a simple, inexpensive, an unobtrusive way dies a slow an painful death.
C/

 

[Joshw0000]

For anyone wondering about the Kicker Hideaway under the front seats, I believe it is possible but you'd have to cut this plastic vent. It measures 9 x 13 x 3 and that seems to be the only thing in the way. The seat should still have full clearance to move front and back. I wouldn't recommend anyone tall doing this as you wouldn't be able to fully lower your seat.

1st pic - however my wife had the seat, slid fully back

2nd pic - seat fully down and back. Seat or speaker would be damaged.

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[Joshw0000]

Haha yea. Good thing I just got this car and the wife hasn't totalled how much I've spent on aftermarket stuff yet. I still have boxes of parts to install (CAI, 3 bar MAP, 1 degree cooler thermostat, Livewire TS+ tune), oil separator, drilled/slotted rotors and new pads). And I want to have the windows tinted. The subs were an afterthought... Something cheap and quick to get my by. So much for that lol.

**** I still need to register this car in my name. That's part of the reason I haven't put anything more permanent in it yet. Long story about buying it from up north and having it shipped to me.

With every post to this thread my dream of adding a little bit of bass to my system, in a simple, inexpensive, an unobtrusive way dies a slow an painful death.
C/

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

[Juicybaka]

Man, this is frustrating. The way these companies rate amps should be illegal.

Now I'm completely ignoring Peak/RMS ratings and I'm only looking at fuse sizes. If I want a true RMS of 750 watts then I need something with some big fuses. I keep trying to understand the fuse rating system but everyone seems to have their own calculations that they trust.

So let's say I went really high, something with 100-120 watts worth of fuses, in a amp with a marketing rating of 3-4000 peak watts (Planet Audio PL4000.1D). How do ohms come in to play when calculating fuse based RMS power? I don't think I want to push an RMS that is actually well above what my speaker can handle, right?

And and what rating do I need to start thinking about capacitors or extra batteries? I don't want the head lights to dim while I listen to the radio or, even worse, damage the battery or something else.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Josh, you are heading towards the path of no return and I need to give you forewarning. Undoubtedly I appreciate I nice sounding system just like you. But like I mentioned (and others) this hole goes deep. I was an enthusiast back in the day so I decided to tackle my suburban a couple years ago myself. $5000.00+ in components, not including my time (months in the garage), driving around with car pulled apart half the time and fabrication for components.
$1000.00 worth of dynomat, 3/16” closed cell foam over door panels and mass loaded vinyl over that. Doors closed like a Bentley! I think prep has to do a lot with sound quality too. When I close the doors on the SHO, they sound like tin cans.
With what little knowledge I do have, I speak from experience. Dynomat and even vinyl the trunk area or your going to have a rattletrap. If bass in the face is what your after, your going to sacrifice space. Just like HP, “no replacement for displacement”. 2-12” subs in an apropiate size ported box will punish. Class D amp with RMS damn near, if not at the speakers max RMS. Hope you ran 0 gauge back there. You cannot go wrong with JL. Pay to play...
Now can anyone answer my question about those damn center speakers?
Thank you

 

[Joshw0000]

Lol I'm a life'r. My first car at 16 had 2 12's and every vehicle I've owned since has had 10's or 12's. I'm an enthusiast but not competition level by any means. I just need clear mids and lows (the factory speakers are ok for that) and a little bump in the trunk. I prefer the harder hit of 10's over the louder sound of 12's.

I've put Dynamat in a couple cars (trunk only) and started looking online today. It sounds like there are some cheaper/better options now. Anyone ever used Partsam? I'm in between on the 80 mil aluminum or 315 mil foam. Or maybe it's all junk and I should just get what I've used before?

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[Juicybaka]

Lol I'm a life'r. My first car at 16 had 2 12's and every vehicle I've owned since has had 10's or 12's. I'm an enthusiast but not competition level by any means. I just need clear mids and lows (the factory speakers are ok for that) and a little bump in the trunk. I prefer the harder hit of 10's over the louder sound of 12's.

I've put Dynamat in a couple cars (trunk only) and started looking online today. It sounds like there are some cheaper/better options now. Anyone ever used Partsam? I'm in between on the 80 mil aluminum or 315 mil foam. Or maybe it's all junk and I should just get what I've used before?

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Get the dynomat, your car will smell like asphalt on smoldering days with the cheaper stuff

 

[glockcoma]

Don’t feel bad about sending stuff back Josh, I just sent speakers ordered back and purchased infinity kappas as originally suggested for doors and 6x9 reference for the deck.
I also ordered 3.5” Infinty Kappa for the front and rear centers. Is this going to sound awful (is this signal processed by Sony unit)? Final piece will be the amped JL sub which will have to wait a few weeks. Play money spent quickly...

Center speaker is processed by the sony unit. I remember reading it’s a combined sum of L+R. not a true center only channel. The rear center gets the same signal wired in parallel hence the 8 ohm rating on the centers.
Here’s some pics I took a long while back.
Looking straight down from the windshield.

 

[glockcoma]

Center speaker is processed by the sony unit. I remember reading it’s a combined sum of L+R. not a true center only channel. The rear center gets the same signal wired in parallel hence the 8 ohm rating on the centers.
Here’s some pics I took a long while back.
Looking straight down from the windshield.

I have more picture but it’s not letting me upload them for some reason from Tapatalk

 

[tech10002]

I took some measurements and I think the box is going to be too big but I went ahead and ordered everything any way ($288 all in - whoo hoo). The sub manual has some good info about building a custom box and I messaged my old neighbor last night to see if he'd want to help me. He's retired and does wood working as a hobby. I've never built a custom box but it doesn't look that hard.

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It’s not really that hard if you take your time. I SUCK at wood work and upholstery and I managed to build a decent looking sub box that looks pretty integrated. There are some great calculators for box volume, series/parallel wiring, etc at https://www.the12volt.com/. Those will take all the guesswork and math out of it.

 

[glockcoma]

Factory center is the small shallow one
kicker 3.5” 2 way obvious win the sticker.
faitalpro 3fe25 4 ohm.
https://www.parts-express.com/faitalpro-3fe25-3-professional-full-range-woofer-4-ohm--294-1103
The last one is the one I’m using. The FR is extremely flat but it could us ALOT more on the bottom end.
I’m using it as a mid/high

 

[tech10002]

Don’t feel bad about sending stuff back Josh, I just sent speakers ordered back and purchased infinity kappas as originally suggested for doors and 6x9 reference for the deck.
I also ordered 3.5” Infinty Kappa for the front and rear centers. Is this going to sound awful (is this signal processed by Sony unit)? Final piece will be the amped JL sub which will have to wait a few weeks. Play money spent quickly...

If you’re installing amps, skip the center channel in the back and the front will need to be attenuated. I unhooked the rear center and built a 6 dB per octave 1st order narrow band pass crossover for the front that will block most of thr frequencies above and below the beeps from the touch panels in the car. With the center channel at full output, it will ruin your soundstage and imaging. You can unhook it completely, but the haptic beeps from the hvac/radio controls only come through the center channel, and I found myself having a hard time adjusting the controls without the beeps. They are around 700 Hz. I used a 2 millihenry ferrite core inductor with a 22 microfarad non polarized eletrctolytic capacitor in series with the speaker positive. This picture is actually in the wife’s Flex, but the center channel is set up identically in the Taurus. The speaker is a little different impedance so it shifts the crossover frequencies a little but it still attenuates most of the frequencies above and below the beep and allows the beep to be clearly heard.

 

[tech10002]

Man, this is frustrating. The way these companies rate amps should be illegal.

Now I'm completely ignoring Peak/RMS ratings and I'm only looking at fuse sizes. If I want a true RMS of 750 watts then I need something with some big fuses. I keep trying to understand the fuse rating system but everyone seems to have their own calculations that they trust.

So let's say I went really high, something with 100-120 watts worth of fuses, in a amp with a marketing rating of 3-4000 peak watts (Planet Audio PL4000.1D). How do ohms come in to play when calculating fuse based RMS power? I don't think I want to push an RMS that is actually well above what my speaker can handle, right?

And and what rating do I need to start thinking about capacitors or extra batteries? I don't want the head lights to dim while I listen to the radio or, even worse, damage the battery or something else.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Ignore peak ratings. They’re meaningless. Any reputable brand’s RMS power ratings are accurate, provided you pay attention to the voltage they quote at. Make sure you’re comparing ratings at the same voltage, like 14.4. The 14.4 rating is not very realistic by the way, alternators only charge that high at full output, and you have voltage drop over the power wire, etc. Good brands like Alpine actually output more than they advertise. For example, my Pdx-5 is rated at 75 x 4 and 300 x 1. It actually puts out closer to clean and clip free 100 x 4 and 375 x 1 at 14 volts, verified with my oscope measuring RMS voltage directly and current inductively with a clamp on probe.

Stick to reputable brands like Alpine, Rockford Fosgate, JBL, JL Audio, Audio Control, etc. All those 3rd tier brands tend to embellish their ratings or rate power with a bunch of clipping.

If you guys want a seriously powerful amp that won’t totally break the bank, I can’t recommend the Alpine PDX-V9 5 channel enough. It’s very efficient, only requiring 4 awg power wire and puts out an honest 550 plus watts rms to the sub and 120 plus per channel to the highs. They can be had for under 500. You get what you pay for guys. I have the predecessor to the V9, the pdx-5. It’s 8 years old and still going strong in it’s 3rd car.

 

[Juicybaka]

If you’re installing amps, skip the center channel in the back and the front will need to be attenuated. I unhooked the rear center and built a 6 dB per octave 1st order narrow band pass crossover for the front that will block most of thr frequencies above and below the beeps from the touch panels in the car. With the center channel at full output, it will ruin your soundstage and imaging. You can unhook it completely, but the haptic beeps from the hvac/radio controls only come through the center channel, and I found myself having a hard time adjusting the controls without the beeps. They are around 700 Hz. I used a 2 millihenry ferrite core inductor with a 22 microfarad non polarized eletrctolytic capacitor in series with the speaker positive.

That’s disheartening...I do plan to amplify. I was thinking the centers were separate channels? Could separate wire be run to center speakers and factory center wire relocated to hidden area?

 

[Juicybaka]

Ignore peak ratings. They’re meaningless. Any reputable brand’s RMS power ratings are accurate, provided you pay attention to the voltage they quote at. Make sure you’re comparing ratings at the same voltage, like 14.4. The 14.4 rating is not very realistic by the way, alternators only charge that high at full output, and you have voltage drop over the power wire, etc. Good brands like Alpine actually output more than they advertise. For example, my Pdx-5 is rated at 75 x 4 and 300 x 1. It actually puts out closer to clean and clip free 100 x 4 and 375 x 1 at 14 volts, verified with my oscope measuring RMS voltage directly and current inductively with a clamp on probe.

Stick to reputable brands like Alpine, Rockford Fosgate, JBL, JL Audio, Audio Control, etc. All those 3rd tier brands tend to embellish their ratings or rate power with a bunch of clipping.

If you guys want a seriously powerful amp that won’t totally break the bank, I can’t recommend the Alpine PDX-V9 5 channel enough. It’s very efficient, only requiring 4 awg power wire and puts out an honest 550 plus watts rms to the sub and 120 plus per channel to the highs. They can be had for under 500. You get what you pay for guys. I have the predecessor to the V9, the pdx-5. It’s 8 years old and still going strong in it’s 3rd car.

Alpine V all the way! The birth certicates can be, and usually are higher than what they are rated, as was mine.

 

[tech10002]

Lol I'm a life'r. My first car at 16 had 2 12's and every vehicle I've owned since has had 10's or 12's. I'm an enthusiast but not competition level by any means. I just need clear mids and lows (the factory speakers are ok for that) and a little bump in the trunk. I prefer the harder hit of 10's over the louder sound of 12's.

I've put Dynamat in a couple cars (trunk only) and started looking online today. It sounds like there are some cheaper/better options now. Anyone ever used Partsam? I'm in between on the 80 mil aluminum or 315 mil foam. Or maybe it's all junk and I should just get what I've used before?

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Check out stinger roadkill. It’s less than 100 bucks for a bulk pack on amazon. It is more pliable than dynamat and doesn’t make as big a mess of your scissors. It works just as well too.

 

[tech10002]

That’s disheartening...I do plan to amplify. I was thinking the centers were separate channels? Could separate wire be run to center speakers and factory center wire relocated to hidden area?

Just use the factory amp for the front center. No need to separately amp it or run new wires. The centers are just there to compensate for the crappy factory imaging anyway. They are not needed with properly tuned aftermarket components except for the touch panel haptic feedback.

 

[tech10002]

Alpine V all the way! The birth certicates can be, and usually are higher than what they are rated, as was mine.

Yeah. Mine said 102 watts a channel and 379 watts on the sub channel. Measured outputs were spot on, too. I love Alpine.

 

[Juicybaka]

Center speaker is processed by the sony unit. I remember reading it’s a combined sum of L+R. not a true center only channel. The rear center gets the same signal wired in parallel hence the 8 ohm rating on the centers.
Here’s some pics I took a long while back.
Looking straight down from the windshield.

Thank you