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getting close to having the wall done and wired up on 5 of the small amps( swaping to 5x 2500w rms amps in the near future , still need to seal it to the b pillars and other work but i got plenty of time before the next comp

progress is slow but i got the port cut and in today for testing and 3 out of the 5 sub amps installed its enough for some low power testing /checking making sure the enclosure doesnt have anything loose etc hopefully ill have enough time this weekend to get all 5 wired up and playing

closer , waiting ont he first 2 baffle layers to dry and then i can glue this one to those and install it for real

getting the inner shell done tonight

Who remembers when I use to post my "REALTIME" videos? Well they are coming back

getting older sure does suck

recoil has new amps coming amp ill be getting 3x of the 2500's to replace the 1200's , i also did start to deaden the doors got the driver side door outer skin done today , hoping to get one door done each day , i think im going to get some 150 mil stuff to do the inner panel with instead of using the 394mil stuff on that as well

I would definitely look into seat lift kits to fit a box of proper size for those subs, make that enclosure with 3/4" birch wood, dual layer for the baffle, proper bracing inside, specs are 4 cubic feet net 64 square inches of port area tuned to 32Hz, I believe the sub cutouts need to be 7.34". Depending on how much space you find to work with I could fine tune that spec to increase output and low end extension as possible.

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I have a VW Golf (2017). It has the basic entertainment system. I wanted to go with a high level to my DSP. I had nothing but problems going that route. The VW head unit is looking for a specific resistance at the speakers. I was constantly getting distortion coming in and out depending on the recording and song (It would happen multiple times through a song). This happened on multiple music platforms. It didn't matter how we set the headunit eq or volume at. If it was flat, below flat, frequencies turned down or up. It always came back to distorting at some point. I did get the work completed through a reputable shop and was thankful that all the diagnosis did not cost me anything. There is a unit that can be installed that integrates the VW head unit and has RCA outputs (I don't remember what it is) Ultimately I had went to the aftermarket headunit. Zero issues since.

I am installing a new stand alone audio system in my Lexus LS430. The Mark Levinson system will not be used anymore. All alterations are reversible. I am using the Kenwood XXV-01D 25th anniversary headunit. The control panel is installed in the ceiling area, the radio itself in the glove compartment. I have extended the flat cable to seperate the panel and the radio. I have drawn a new enclosure for the control panel which is located in the area where you normally store a pair of sunglasses. The glass break sensors and the button to switch these on or off are implemented in the housing.

Subs get stinky when they had enough power, but I wouldn't try that method on type rs, that is a method more adequate for SPL drivers. BTW make very sure you entered valid data to WinISD or you may be led to the wrong conclusions.

You just need to make sure your subs do not go over Xmax at the operating power, but since your amplifier exceeds by far the RMS of your subs you will have to be very careful not going too far, generally oversized enclosures and sub overpowering in a hazardous mix with a very likely outcome of subs mechanical damage so you need to set the gain of the amp not to the clipping point but rather lesser that the subs can can tolerate. You can find maximum power in a similar way as before, in WinISD up power until Xmax is reached in the enclosure size you chose and you can clamp the amp to roughly reach that power and set gains accordingly so you can't go over the limit on normal use.

for the smal info that i could find, its a us made sub, 800 w rms each, dont quote me on that lol so 2 12" with 1600 w rms is a nice sub to have for a daily....

Cool. None of my enclosures even have screws. Never had a "leak" or anything break apart. Odd. 80 amp, and not blowing the fuse. You are no where near, peak power. Not even half. Sooooo, your good. No breaking shit,.. from power anyway. Edit- maybe just a really poorly built enclosure. I've never, in my decades of audio, had the privilege of seeing anyone "blow" their box apart,, unless it was a pile of wood just hucked together, or a prefab. Even then, it wasnt from "power". But good luck to your goal mate.

Jesus my guy. Come play some warzone with me. Edit- my next buy is a 240 (plus) Hz oled. Maybe the Rog rig. Not sure. May wait a tick. Monitors are just getting sooooo good. But, i want a rad oled thats wicked fast. Just 2 g7 240hz (27 and 32 inch) here. I want a nice oled.

Done!

dueling gaming pc’s 😁 I networked the drives so I can use the “older” pc as a storage server also. Win! The one on the left is the previous PC but with an RTX 3090 in it. The 4090 was migrated over to the new tower.

Alright now for the fun stuff. For subs I'm going with 2 Sundown audio x-8v.4's. Why? because 8's are Rad, and I'm trying to keep my care as usable as possible. But also because it's different. The original plan was 3 but I was having difficulty making a box for three that would work within my size constraints and the SA 2500.1 D would struggle to run 3. Maybe down the line I'll go for broke and run 4 off of a beefy 4k for shits and giggles, but most likely I'll sell off the extra 8. The Box that the subs are sitting on is a CT Sounds dual 8 enclosure with 3/4 MDF, a kerf port tuned to 39hz, and abou .81cu ft per woofer. It's on the smaller side but it was cheap and I figured it would be good to compare against a future box with a full 1cu ft per woofer and 32hz tuning. But first, I needed to fix a few things. These Cup terminals. Known for being leaky, So lets fix that. This is some Second Skin Butyl Rope that I had leftover from my last build. This stuff rocks. It's especially good at silencing license plates. This worked for me before with a sealed enclosure, just gotta really work it into the cracks. Next I put some ferrules on the wires because ferrules are awesome And Last I used a little Tessa tape (Fabric Tape) just to make sure the wires don't rattle against the box. And that's pretty much where I have to stop, at least until I gut my other car, and start building an amp/battery Rack.

Wiring/batteries: Honestly, 1 run of 0ga +/- should be fine unless you're pushing absurd lengths. Can calculate voltage drop across wiring to get wherever ya need as far as Vdrop goes. Same goes for batteries. That's plenty for the power you're running. As always though, you can always adjust/upgrade if you find your electrical isn't performing how you want. I don't have any hands-on with those rigs, so I'll take your word on the ground loop shenanigans. --- Alternator: Again, prefacing this with I don't have any hands-on with these. So if you've already done the research on it, apologies. Just want to have a talking point on it. I'll also add that if you wanted to bypass ELM altogether, ask mechman for an external regulator. If you go that route, throw the wiring harness in the trash and wire the +/- on the regulator with 8ga tinned OFC. In my experience, the 14(?) gauge the kits come with creates a bit of a feedback loop of sorts and yields inconsistent voltage. the tl;dr is voltage drop across the sense wires causes the regulator to read low voltage, increasing power, increasing voltage drop, and so on until it sees an equilibrium. At which point, the regulator eases up, eliminating the voltage drop, then reading a higher voltage, and so on until that sees an equilibrium. Then the whole process repeats cyclically. See it more with larger battery banks or capacitors than with smaller stuff, ironically. Would this one work? https://www.mechman.com/alternators/acura/ilx/2-4l/2013-2015/240-amp-alternator-for-select-2-4l-honda-acura/ If so, honestly, you could probably ditch the rear battery and replace w/ capacitors to save some weight, or throw a smaller one in there. Idle output might be challenge though, IIRC these hondas have a smallish crank pulley. That's something you'll have to weigh the pros/cons of on your end. --- Trunk coating: Be careful with any sort of painted on material, especially in low spots like the trunk, and absolutely don't use it on exterior. It likes to trap water between the coating and base material and can cause some corrosion issues. Nice idea on the off-label use though. Always like to see those sorts of experiments. --- Rear speakers: depends how stiff they are. Rear stage usually isn't a huge consideration on builds like this. But there are 2 trains of thought on it: 1. Remove them altogether so you have a gaping hole to let pressure through to the cab. Test and check to see if your system performs better with them in or out. It's not always better because of resonances. That turns your box+trunk into a psuedo series-tuned-6th-order. 2. Install the rear speakers and leave the buckets in place to protect them. The pressure from the sub will shred the things otherwise. Depending on how it goes together and how stiff it is, you could use sound deadener to firm up the area and bolster your efforts to seal off those drivers.

You can wire the second battery in parallel to the existing battery. The main concern typically is the difference in battery technology (lead acid as OEM and AGM for aftermarket). In reality, there isnt anything special you need in between the stock battery and the new AGM. The only suggestion I would make is in a few years when the stock fails (due to age and use), to replace it with a like in kind battery to the AGM. Your battery wont get "too much charge". Alternators only output to what they are asked. If you arent blasting music, they will have a low output to supply the bare minimum the car is asking for (A/C, lights, radio, etc.) and when you crank the volume it will output more as it sees a larger "load" and output as much as it can up to 220a to do whatever it can to try to maintain good voltage.

First time posting here! Just wanted to say hello to everyone! Most of all, I want to give a shoutout to Steve Meade & his crew! They are a great group of people!

getting really close now

The subsonic (high pass) is generally 4th order not 2nd order filter in most amps so it will need to be set higher to better control excursion, also, WinISD doesn't account for cabin gain so your frequency response just show how the box will play outdoors. But you can still compare your plot with a 4.75 net box tuned to 29Hz (the prefab) to see how much are you expected to gain, that actually is useful information you might be interested in.

Sure you can do that for some moderate improvement, larger improvements involve greater cone area like for example doing 2 15s, if doing a larger than recommended box and tuning higher requires you setting up your subsonic filter higher to prevent sub bottoming out.

You are running 1300W of power in your audio, no need for any other electrical upgrades if just playing music, No need to be checking your voltage unless something in your car is not working properly, the amps will work just fine in the 12-14V range no problem. If you are just curious as to why the voltage is being regulated the way it does, just have your electrical checked and then ask your concerns, to me, if your car works fine and your audio works fine I would just leave it alone.

There is a thread, though it maybe buried now that has a bunch of radios that people tested with the dd-1 for max undistorted volume. you will probably have to search for it though. If the radio is not showing distortion direct through the rca's or while attached to an amp with the gain at 0 when you use a 0db tone for 40hz and 1000hz then it is safe to say the radio is distortion free at max volume through the rca preouts. In that case then set your amp(s) using your desired overlap -5, -10, etc db level at the maximum headunit volume. You could use a lower volume if you really wanted but it won't change much except the fact that the radios preout voltages (5 volts as you said in your case) typically wont be achieved unless the volume is all the way up. So if your volume goes to 40 and its clean at 40 you will get 5 volts preout voltage, but say if it goes to 40 but you set it to 20 to tune your amps then your rca preout voltage will only be 2.5volts or there abouts which will require you to increase the gain on the amp to compensate for that lower signal due to having lesser preout voltage. So you should just use the max cleanest volume.

i have a Alpine 9887 and a scope, the RCA outs dont clip at full volume. the internal amp clips at volume 21 out of 35

Not sure the chambers are of different sizes but even if they were with sealed there is no much difference in performance for normal to larger than normal internal volumes, say 1 cubic feet and 1.2 cubic feet will sound largely the same. If those subs are the lanzar st max12s those may play better in ported box rather than sealed. To answer your question it's better to cut a circle in the dividers rather than take them out to preserve the box strength.

I can't believe I remembered my old logins! I haven't done audio in YEARS! But I just grabbed me my first (fixer upper) SUV and was like, "Back in the day, I always said I'd do something crazy if I got me an SUV." This is the only audio forum I've ever been a part of so... Here I am, checking you guys out lol. Coincidentally, I asked this same question as I was typing the website in 😂. To answer your question though, I got away from audio and started building me some "fast" stuff. I got this SUV with a blown head gasket for the winter just to have a 4wd beater so I didn't have to drive my fun cars in the crappy weather. Once I did the gasket, that itch came back like crazy, VERY QUICKLY lol. So Im now actively installing some old stuff that I had in plastic from the last car I did audio in, God knows how long ago, just hoping it'll hold me over and not make me wanna spend some money 😂 But, Hi all! Good to see y'all AND the site are still kicking!

That is not normal. Your car is possessed most likely.

Those subs indeed need their space 4 to 6 cubic feet per driver is what they usually are given for ported use, if will use those in your room rather than a car tuning should be in the mid 20s not in the mid 30 which is what is given for car use. It all depends on the application, you will need to be more specific on your dimensions, music you play, or movies or whatever you are doing with them, how are you powering the subs, etc.

next step is paint

So bear with me as this may get a bit long. The first step is the box, you have a big rectangle port fully internal BUT then looking at the pic you have a fully external port that is clearly smaller that I imagine goes through the ski hole and that has a different (smaller) port area and port length that you don't specify. To match your box specs you should only have a fully internal port 56 square inches in area and 16 in length. That external extension lowers the overall tuning and also reduces the port area significantly.

I went with UL listed welding cable. There is a reason for Under writers laboratory certification. UL does a lot of testing on all aspects of the wire from the copper content to the jacket material. It is not cheap to get a product certified. It is also not cheap to keep the certification on that product. In this day and age of everything being fake and copied does anybody really believe that the wire is OFC just because it says it on the wire or the company claims it is. Do you really think the wire did not come from China and that the Chinese are honest and would never use sub par material for their products. A lot of fake Chinese products say UL approved on them. The issue is they never sent in the product to be tested. There will always be an approval number associated with the product. This number can be looked up in the UL online database. Take some time to read up on UL wire testing. It will open your eyes to see why and how it is done. The last time I checked I did not see any UL/ CE certification for Sky high or Knuconceptz wire. I am not saying car audio power wire it is bad wire. I know a lot of people use non UL listed wire without issues. Wire is expensive. I spent over $1k for power wire. I have assurances that the wire is 100% OFC copper, and that the Jacket material was made using the correct rubber for its application. Of course this is my opinion. Buy what you like and can afford.

time to put the box in…although it may come back out for more @Second Skinsound deadener soon!

No, I didn't miss word it. I was just wrong. Thank you for the clarification. I thought it measured both. I must admit, I only skimmed through the manual lol.

Wrong, I still cant understand how people think this or maybe you worded it wrong but the DD-1 will NEVER measure clipping. You will have distortion long before clipping is ever seen on an oscilloscope. Once the red light on the DD-1 lights up you hit 1% THD so by the time the wave is becoming deformed on an oscilloscope you are so far beyond that 1% THD that the DD-1 is looking for.

Yes, you can and should use the DD-1 on your DSP as well. Treat your DSP as a headunit, use the 0db tone and the appropriate tone for the appropriate channel outputs (IE, 1khz for front/rear dedicated dsp outputs, and 40hz for dedicated sub outputs on your dsp), this way you have the maximum clean a/c voltage output from your DSP. Also make sure all EQs on the DSP are flat when doing this as well! Now the one thing to be careful of is the a/c voltage output, you don't want to set it higher than your amps inputs can handle, so after tuning with the DD-1 you may want to check the rca a/c voltage output of the DSP because the DSP can and will take your 4v rca signal and turn it into 6-9+ volts output. So if your amps can only handle a 5volt input then you will want to back the voltage down some on the DSP, and then go and match voltage for each output. Then use the DD-1 on your amplifiers using the appropriate tones with your desired gain overlap setting (-5db, -10db, etc). I think my Audison Bitone DSP was putting out 11.7 volts clean when tuned with my DD-1 but I backed all the levels down to 4.5volts that I verified with my multimeter and then I have my amp gains up about 1/8, its very very little.

I'm still alive...... and still an asshole!

OK . . . when I got the call from Steve yesterday on the second T15kw, I gotta tell you that I was pretty excited - so excited that I walked over to engineering right away and shared the news with the T15kw build team, and of course Tony D'. You should of seen the look on their faces . . . everyone is very excited about this project - a single vehicle with two T15kws . . . the thought of that just stands the hair up on the back of my neck! We're even more excited that Northern Cal's mad scientiest is behind it! Who better to ensure that these amplifiers will perform to their fullest than Steve Meade? I read about the last five pages of the thread and all I'm going to say is that two T15kws will be more than enough power for any and all speakers Meade can cram into this vehicle. What you have to take into consideration is that the T15kw is not like any other amplifer on this planet. Although it is a class A/B amplifier, it does not behave like one in many respects. Furthermore, it does not sound like any Class A/B amplifier these ears have ever heard - and I've owned some nice ones! To NOT use Hybrid Technology power on the mids and highs - now that would be criminal! When you guys think of power in watts, you're bound by the amplifier technology of today - one has to think differently when talking about Hybrid Technology amplification. Certainly, a watt is a watt - but traditional amplifier behave quite differently from the T15kw when driven into clipping . . . I think it's about time for Tony D' to make a forum appearance at SMD so that he can elaborate on what I speak of. What do you guys think?