snafu

Steve - thanks for props. When you get back to AZ, look me up for sure.

To all forum members: Effective today, I am no longer employed at Rockford Fosgate. Now, this doesn't mean that I'll be bad-mouthin' my ex-employer . . . but what it does mean is that I'm lookin' for work! As many of you know, Rockford Fosgate is near and dear to me and probably always will be. In the six years I worked for Rockford, I had the pleasure of working with some of the best talent in the industry. In addition, I've met many (and I mean many) Rockford Fosgate fanatics. I was also given the opportunity to create a number of marketing programs that were successful beyond my wildest imagination - The Wall-O-Bass, Engineered to Rock, and The Power Challenge are just three of the many, but the ones that most forum members will relate to. At the end of the day, most people knew that if you bad-mouthed Rockford Fosgate, then you'd better be prepared to discuss it with me! I've enjoyed my time, and have enjoyed being a member of this board. Meade - you've got a great community here brother. I'll be sure and drop in from time to time no matter which road I follow.

Trust me, we got in the car and were like . . . did that just happen? Meade - thanks for hookin' me, the wife, Greg Cobbs, and son up for the show! Give my best to your boy Troy. We enjoyed it! Come back to AZ any time . . .

1. No matter what your CV rep told you, the motor on ANY woofer will become hot when you operate the sub at high power levels. 2. In order to get an accurate measure of how much DC voltage your amplifier allows to "leak" to the speaker, you need to have a load on the amp and increase the volume until the amp clips. Set your DMM to capture PEAK DC readings (MIN / MAX setting) and you'll know what you're dealing with. DC will cause the voice coil in a woofer to heat up rather quickly as will clipping. Heavy doses of both will spell the end of an otherwise good speaker. Good luck.

Ford Solenoids are not designed for continuous current duty, but work well for short high current passage - like say, starting a vehicle. We offer both a 80A and 200A solenoid designed for continuous duty in our Install Edge brand - these have been designed for this. (Part numbers are IECS80 and IECS200.) In regards to your return path question, I've always used the frame as the return path for the under hood battery, case of the alternator, auxiliary battery(s), and amplifiers. Pick one side of the frame, and reference all grounds to it. The frame of a typical truck has far lower resistance than any cable that you could run along side it. In the case of a uni-body vehicle, it doesn't hurt to connect the front and rear frame rails together electrically with a piece of 1/0 (or two) - only necessary on your chosen side. This will provide you with the lowest resistance return path possible. Equally as important are the integrity of the connections between the wire and ring terminals and between the ring terminals and frame rails. See the post Steve put in this section about soldering large AWG wires: Soldering Large AWG Wires When connecting to the frame, I like to use an existing hole. I'll tap it if necessary (taps are CHEAP), grind the paint, use a star washer to get a good long term bite, and use lithium grease to prevent it from rusting. Then, you need to check these connections once every six months or so to be sure they haven't worked their way even a little bit loose. Good luck!

Polecat hit it on the head. And . . . think bigger . . . like 572 . . .

My thought exactly. When your amp does shut down, if the Thermal indicator is not lit (1500-1bd that is . . . 1500bd does not have this), this is an indication that the amp does not have enough voltage to operate quickly. The fact that you say that your head unit also shuts off is a gimme - it is also shutting off from under voltage. Takes power to make power. Use this link to get your wiring in order: Clicky Good luck!

Nicely done Meade . . . nicely done! The West Coast's most serious ground pounder in over a decade is that much closer to completion! I'll bet the bottom end sounds effortless now that you've got the top end playing. Nismofreak - you were able to determine that from your PC speakers? You DO have golden ears then! Maybe you'll want to listen to the vehicle in person when it's completely done before passing judgement.

Merry Christmas Steve!

Sorry to hear that. At the end of the day, we do our best to be more in touch with the end user than the other guys do but we can't always get it right. Its been quite exciting to meet all the RF fanatics I've had the privy to meet over my 10 years of association with the brand.

Honestly, I look for guys like Steve all the time. Unfortunately, there are so few that walk the walk - even though most of them can talk the talk. Back when I was a consumer (around 1988), I sent a whole bunch of manufacturers a letter asking them for some kind of support in exchange for my promoting their brand. Not one reply . . . so, I know the feeling first hand.

Actually, we did get a few pics. Maybe Steve can upload them.

I was actually in the Sac area on Sunday so we dropped in on Steve to see him in person. First and foremost, Steve was very hospitable - wish we could have stayed longer! Getting to see the many projects in person was a real treat. Steve's attention to detail and workmanship is even better in person than the pictures could possibly show. From a manufacturer standpoint, it is a true pleasure to see our products being installed in "overkill" fashion! Steve has a better understanding of this than any weekend warrior that I've ever met . . . In fact, I'd say his abilities would easily qualify him as "installer of the year" material if he wasn't just a hobbyist! Chicken's Escalade - Chicken, all I can say is that you're gonna need the hook-up on some Depends . . . this thing CHUGS some air! So much air in fact, that my first response was simply to laugh. I've sat in a few vehicles in my time that were good at this, the Escalade would be near the top of that list. When Steve gets the top end done, it has the makin's to be the loudest street vehicle on the West Coast. The Honda - Man oh man . . . to see this thing have come back from the grave the way it did is simply amazing. The wall looks CLEAN. When Steve gets it totally finished, this might be all he needs to put anyone else he's likely to pull up next to on the street to shame! The 'Hoe - OK, Steve thought it best to give us a ride in this one so that we (me, my wife, and Chris Heimburg - our rep in NorCal) get the full experience. 30 seconds of this rig at full tilt was enough for me to feel relieved after he turned it down. This simply has to be experienced first hand to be appreciated. When Larry the Cable Guy said "Get R Done" he was talking about this vehicle! Steve - thanks again for making the time for us. We all enjoyed the visit very much! And again . . . from all of us at Rockford, we can't thank you enough for your efforts! We'll see you again soon.

Funny . . . I remember getting numerous calls from Steve over a year ago telling me he was going to put two T15kws in this vehicle. Keep in mind that this was a time that there existed ZERO extra T15kw amps, and I wasn't even sure we could get him one. Then, Chicken himself called to be sure that I wasn't just pullin' Steve's leg . . . Fast forward to today . . . and there it is. Steve is correct - Chicken be the only cat on this planet with two T15kws in a single vehicle!

snafu's math: T4k + 11k = T15k

btw . . . I just checked out all the mirror and 3Sixty pics - very nicely done Steve. So, this begs the question - how does Dr. Meade hope to top himself on this install I wonder? And . . . will this be the first post on page 100?

Cool! Meade - I thought I'd see the meters PEGGED in the vid though . . . you're coastin with 'em at half throttle like that . . .

That's an interesting question. Fuse values are determined by the amount of current that can be passed across the fuse for a given length of time. If your burp was less than one second, it is quite possible you could use a smaller fuse, but I'm not sure how much smaller. Keep in mind that the T4k1bd comes with a 500 Amp ANL fuse stock as it can easily consume that on sine waves at full output. I'd be interested to hear others' experience in regards to this. In addition, as others have stated, there is no power advantage to operating this amplifier below it's rated impedance. It will make highest power between 1 and 1.4 ohms . . . of which the impedance curve of your subwoofers will dictate.

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?

At this time, we really have no reason to eliminate any of the BIG Power models. We still sell our fair share of them and guys like Meade keep the T40001bd in peoples' faces . . .

Cool! I used to bring it out there all the time. Now that I got the Olds' ( One Sick Car thread ), it's hard to take both of them up there. When it cools down a little, keep on the look out. Even though the T20001bd and T8004 are still in our line, I've been considering swapping the amps to the brand new power series - a pair of T1500-1bd and a pair of T600-2. I certainly don't need any more power . . . just want to freshen it up a bit. Swap or keep AS IS?

Thanks. You know, I've often considered that. There's actually a company that sells shortened masts for the 'stangs for about $35 in a couple different colors. They look pretty cool. OR, I could do it OLD SCHOOL and bend a Diamond R in the middle of it . . . !

If you're referring to the version from "Hell Freezes Over" you're correct. This is and has been one of those demo tracks for many years now. It should sound punchy and snappy, but the bass shouldn't be overwhelming. This is an extremely hard track to reproduce as the recording engineers intended. If you like that one, try Fleetwood Mac "Tusk" from the album "Tusk" . . .

37, but don't tell . . . every time this question comes up at our forum, I always say 23 . . . I've been in the industry for almost 20 years now.

Things were definitely tight. The guys at RTTI were laughing at me when I first proposed this, but Jason was like, "heck yeah man, we can make it work." When I was an installer, I used to specialize in these types of installs in sedans. We used to do three 15s in the old late 80s Grand Ams and run Punch 150s mixed mono to them - two four ohm woofers in stereo, and bridged to an 8 ohm woofer - simultaneously. This was in about 1989 - other shops just told people it wasn't possible. A properly done IB is tough but there are just so many benefits - great lf extension, lots of usable trunk space left, etc. I got Jason involved because I wanted a certain look - and my fab talents aren't near what his are. Good ? on the rear window - let's just say it moves a bunch. People pull up next to me sometimes, expecting to see some 18 year old kid. Then, they look at me like, "what in the hell is wrong with you?" While it's certainly not as loud as Meade's or Assman's, these old ears can only take one track of Bass Mekanik at WOT before I'm turnin' it down for some relief!