'Tuned' my stero today

[BigKriss]

I put it in about 1 month ago and was getting noise when the car was on. I talked about this in another thread, but it was lost when the server went down. Today I turned down the gains from 75% to about 30% for the front and rear. Problem solved, no noise what-so-ever. I couldn't belive it. Before I would get clipping at around 60% on the head deck. Now clipping is around 95%. The sub is a free air 12". For bass duties it's okay. My impressions are that the rear trunk muffles a lot of the bass, meaning with the trunk open the bass is a lot louder from outside the cabin. With the rear arm rest down bass spl is improved a bit (noticable), not dramatic at all. maybe its getting 100wrms and the sub is rated for 150wrms. It's easy to make the sub clip (which is bad). hmm. I'm not looking for crazy bass (car shaking), I don't get it. A lot better than stock, it's like a nightclub in here. All road noise is suppressed and the music is clear. I did all the work myself, total time maybe 80 to 100 hours. I hate the 4 picture limit per post.
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/3894/pict0025small3xy.jpg
http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/3262/pict0099small0uc.jpg
http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/970/pict0214small4dk.jpg
http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/5088/pict0018small8jj.jpg

[2fast]

Nice dude

[Randell]

looks good, but from what i've found that not the best place for a sub... maybe a free air sub is different, but when i had trouble hearing bass from the trunk i cut out the ski panel and mounted a 10" MTX in a sealed box right where you have yours... but it was pretty pathetic, the bass was almost non-existent..
so i moved it to the rear-right corner of the trunk, held still with velcro, and the bass became significantly stronger ... now a single 10" is enough to do the whole car!

[niall]

yeah, i also question these free air subs,
if i was you kriss, i would also try it in a fully
sealed box. i think you might be surprised

[BigKriss]

thanks for your reply Randell. What about a subwoofer where the spare wheel goes, i've got a 15" lying around. it's current box is a big big for the trunk. I would make a new panel for the boot and place the speaker in there.

[BigKriss]

i already have a 15" speaker lying around. I like like the boost space. maybe if remove the current sub and leave the hole there. have a box in the boot it maybe louder.

[Randell]

while you'll probably get better results with a sealed sub in the spare wheel area, it's probably gonna be pretty tight for a 15"... and you kinda need the spare wheel...

do you know someone with a sealed boxed sub that you can try? if the difference is significant (as it was for me), then it would be worthwhile building a box for your current sub that fits the car and is close enough to the manufacturer's enclosure size specs... i built the box for mine at the cost of about $40AUD ($25US).. not pretty but a lot cheaper than a premade one, and you can build it to specifications which helps more than i realised...

[BigKriss]

while you'll probably get better results with a sealed sub in the spare wheel area, it's probably gonna be pretty tight for a 15"... and you kinda need the spare wheel...


The are is approx 70L of volume. The subwoffer will fir it there. I don't need the spare wheel.



do you know someone with a sealed boxed sub that you can try? if the difference is significant (as it was for me), then it would be worthwhile building a box for your current sub that fits the car and is close enough to the manufacturer's enclosure size specs... i built the box for mine at the cost of about $40AUD ($25US).. not pretty but a lot cheaper than a premade one, and you can build it to specifications which helps more than i realised...

I'll try and get a sub on a box. play around with it.

[Randell]

the 15" sub might fit in the spare wheel area, but i think it would need a bigger enclosure to operate well.. from what i remember a 15" sub needs at least 250L, where a 10" needs less than 70L, depending on the model of sub

so while it may sound better than your current setup, the sub will be limited and will still sound better in a box

[grave77]

congradulations on ur work ... so u didnt need to put the grounds off the battery? if u use insulator transofrmers u can go to 75% I use gain around 80% for better bass ... also have no noise.

[BigKriss]

i'm under the impression that for a subwoofer you get it's thiele and small paramaters. You put these into a computer program like speaker pro

http://members.aol.com/speaker60E/speaker6.zip

and it tell you the frequnecy response of the sub according to it's enclosure and size and length of ports (if any are there). As for at least 250L for a 15" and less than 70L for a 10", I don't think this is correct at all. I've got a 105L ported box for the sub already, sounds great when going. I designed it about 6 years ago. Around 70L should be fine for 15".

[pmlmotorsports]

i'm under the impression that for a subwoofer you get it's thiele and small paramaters. You put these into a computer program like speaker pro

http://members.aol.com/speaker60E/speaker6.zip

and it tell you the frequnecy response of the sub according to it's enclosure and size and length of ports (if any are there). As for at least 250L for a 15" and less than 70L for a 10", I don't think this is correct at all. I've got a 105L ported box for the sub already, sounds great when going. I designed it about 6 years ago. Around 70L should be fine for 15".

Kriss, you will need at least 2.5 cu feet for a 15" sub. Furthermore, having done car audio for 15 yrs I can tell you that just because it fits, don't mean it will function properly. I would suggest the following. try disconnecting the front speakers, leaving just the sub and the rears. If you get more bass this way, it is because the the sub is out of "phase" with the front speakers. I have seen this many times and usually it requires a set of speakers to be wired 180 degrees out of phase (switch pos and neg on speaker terminals) Just try switching the polarity of the front speakers first, I think you will enjoy more bass and more defined vocals too. HTH