audiofanaticz

Chances are high that you 3k amplifier is only a 600 watt amplifier too!

the 2 above replies are spam

Well if you compete and depending on the class that you compete in, some classes have a rule that the box must be under the window line otherwise it is considered a wall. The window line rule is based off the front door window line however which can sometimes be a different height than rear windows. Also some people just don't want a tall box sticking up so high that is in plan view for everyone to see, plus in all honesty it can be rather ugly in some cases. Some people with suv's also like to be able to put the cargo cover over the box to hide it if your vehicle has one of those.

The only times I've seen people having issues using a DD-1 or a CC-1 is when they can't read the manual and insist they know what they are doing as soon as they open the package for the first time. These people usually are quick to jump on the forums time and time again asking questions why this doesn't work, or how do you do that, etc and everything they are asking about is clearly written in the manual. Now I'm not saying thats the case with you, but I've never heard of anyone competent having issues using a usb, bluetooth, or an aux in for a source making the dd-1 not work. It's simply not possible because the DD-1 has no idea what source you're using and its completely irrelevant. You could be using a vintage 8-track player plugged in with a 3.5mm jack and as long as there is a 40hz and 1000hz test tone being played on the 8track the DD-1 won't know the difference. Now in the case of a cheap radio with a low preout voltage like 1volt the signal won't be strong enough to detect directly through the rca, however all you do in that situation is test it through the amp, with the amp gain all the way down and crossovers fully open and then you'll get a reading. Honestly this is the best way to test because its a lot quicker and you're not having to unplug and plug in cables, then connect the leads to the amp, etc. 1 hookup and a few different tracks and you're done! You cant set an amp using a multi meter, well you can but you're either short changing yourself or your possibly clipping it. Every amp is not made the same, there are tolerances in components and those tolerance can cause an amp to make more power or less power even though its the same brand and model amp as another. Some of the old Rockford Fosgate BD4000 amps would make 4200 watts rms while others would make 5100 watts rms. Now that I think about it the newer BDCP2500 series are the same way. The problem is say the manufacture says you need 60 volts AC to reach the "rated" output of the amp, but lets say your amp is one that does way more than its rated power and it can easily do up to 76 volts AC clean without distortion, but you have no way knowing that because the multimeter has no way to tell you when you reach 1% THD. The same can happen in the reverse order where said amp doesnt perform as well as the others and at 60 volts AC you are clipping the living snot out of it but once again that multimeter has no way to tell you that you passed the amps threshold. Those 800/8v2's make some serious power, more than what they are rated for, and I know this because besides that JL MM105 that was $750 I picked up the MM40 remote headunit, a 800/8v2, a XDM1000/1, and a few sets of M3 and M6 coaxles, along with a a M7-12 IB sub for this install I've been working on. It's kinda senseless to buy a tool only to not use it for its intended method and use the outdated multimeter method but you do you as long as you're happy with the performance.

Many headunits will not have distortion when using the rca preouts of the headunit. Usually the only radios that will distort on the rca preouts are the cheaper headunits that are like $150, or if you are using the internal amplifier of a headunit. So being that you have a $400+ marine headunit it's most likely distortion free on the preouts. I just installed a JL Audio MM105 with 12 rca preouts and that is clean all the way up as well.

well this is a fairly old topic that got bumped. Wonder how these build is going.....

In all honesty I would wire the amp up at 2.66 ohms. The Salt 8k will still do around 6000watts rms at that ohm load, and even then you are going to be stressing your electrical system with that amp being wired at 2.66 ohms, but its going to be a hell of a lot safer and way less risk of you popping the amp until you're able to upgrade your electrical system to match the amps needs. Besides those MTX 9500 subs are nothing crazy and only rated for 1,000 watts rms, and I'm more than certain that once you upgrade your electrical and wire that amp to .67 those subs will be blown in the first 10 minutes because for all that size and heft they have they can't really take power that great. Just wire two sets of 3 subs in parallel, then take the 2 sets and run them in series to give you 2.66 ohms.

The amp should handle that impedance just fine, however your electrical system is no where near up to par for it, and you will most likely blow the amp because it will be starved for juice. That amp can do just shy of 12,000watts rms @ 1ohm certified on the SMD Amp Dyno (AD-1) so your looking at 1200+ amps of current full tilt. When I was using my 6 XS Power D3100s in the back and 2 XS Power S3400s and 3 DC Power 390XP alternators under the hood of my Tahoe (before swapping to lithium batteries) with 9 runs of 1/0 positive and 9 runs of 1/0 negative wire from the front batteries to the back batteries I was having massive voltage drop into the low 11's when i cracked the volume up with just 2 Sundown SAZ-4500D amps wired at .35 each. That's less potential power than the Salt 8, with like 5 times more electrical than you have.

Can't say I've seen or heard of anyone using them, let alone anyone talk about Stetsom in general in I don't know how many years. I guess it sucks that it doesn't come with that controller though because those are usually handy to turn the subs up and down (at least on my 2 different DSP's it did). That being said though I'm sure its halfway decent and worth while, plus you will be able to toss that cheap LOC in the garbage since that DSP has high level inputs as well. If it's in your budget you I would say it is worth taking a gamble on just because it will give you a bit more control over your system than you currently have as well as hopefully solving one of your problems with the turn on pop.

Either way will work and give the same results as long as the amp gain is all the way down, and the crossovers are set open to allow all frequencies to pass through. 40hz for sub 1khz for full range 0db, when setting the amp itself you will want something like -5 though -10db. Also if you are using the headunits onboard amp to power any full range speakers inside the car you will also want to test the radios amp output as well. Chances are high that the onboard amp of the headunit will clip at a far lower volume than any rca output will, so your max volume will be a lot lower.

Unless your running bottom of the barrel Hertz speakers you're going to have a tough time finding much better, and even if they are the lowest end Hertz and you have that amp bridged to 2 channels you're only getting 250 watts per channel to run the 3way component systems. Considering you have 2 channels of amp essentially since the 5 channel amp is bridged that would mean you're using the passive crossover networks that came with them. So ditching the passive crossovers and running the speakers active would be a huge increase over control but you would need 6 channels of amplification and you would need an amp that allows you to bandpass the channels (or run a DSP) because that Arc amp doesn't support bandpass on the crossover filters. You can most likely give them more power as well. Another thing that can improve the sound even more is treating the door with sound deadener. Depending on the location of all the speakers possibly changing where the mid and tweet are located can improve the imaging as well as how loud it appears. Really hard to say though since you didn't give much info besides the amp and brand of speakers and the fact that they are 3-way and didn't include the model or where they are located. What I can say though is just buying another set of speakers and putting them in the same location using the same amp is just going to be throwing money out the window because you're not really going to gain any output/volume by doing that unless you use some cheaper speakers with a cheaper lower wattage handling and you over drive them which will lead to failure and they will most likely sound worse as well. Oh and also any Pro Audio speaker from any manufacture is not going to come any where near close to a good sounding component system. So unless you want no midbass and harsh tweeters stay away from said style of speakers such as the DS18 and DeafBonce and bullet tweeters like those mentioned above.

make sure there is power on the remote too?? if there is then one would think the meter went bad.

With a multimeter, or even a test light for that matter. Seems like that cheap accurate stinger volt meter like you said in the other post is working pretty well!

It's a particular user thats banned from the forums a long time ago, not worth the energy mentioning his brand and giving him any promotion of any sorts, og forum members from a few years ago will remember said tests and person.

Those look clean as sh!t!

Knukonceptz actually does have some UL listed wire, and can be verified on the UL site. Sadly it's just for in wall use speaker wire but it's more than most companies are doing. As for the China made wire argument, the vast majority of wire coming from there is legit and copper, with some brands being better than others. So as long as you stay with a solid brand name you should be fine and get quality wire without other fillers. There was a bunch of wire brands tested independently by a fellow bass head a few years ago that had access to one of those $20,000 XRF scanners that can tell you everything that is in the wire. From what I recall the Sundown XS Power Knu Kicker SHCA Kicker etc brands where all around the top of the list and pretty much on par with what wire should be. A couple US made welding cable was tested too. One company tested with a lot of silicon and the people selling this wire pretty much blackmailed the guy testing the wire, harassed his employment trying to get him fired, tried to get him kicked out of college, etc until he finally pulled down his information. Oddly enough if you look at the quality brands of welding cable they say silicone free but apparently the stuff they are selling is not.

Why not just get a salt 6, it be cheaper

I thought you where referring to the pics you posted as being the loudest build in cali, not saying its not possible because its a nice setup but I just knew of others that are also pretty loud as well. You have good luck with those AutoTech alts? I had a buddy looking in to them but neither of us heard much about them.

Sooo how loud is it that its the loudest? Nice build for sure but theres some serious Cali builds out there! Bobby Gately has been building some crazy brutal rigs lately, I think Ray M is doing something like a 166+db, lots of loud people out there!

The boot changes nothing in terms of quality, performance, usability, or anything else. Its purely there for cosmetics and to protect the magnet.

If you're are currently maxing out the cheap factory speakers with a factory radio that puts out almost no power at all, then by adding an amp to them you are just going to blow them, the only saving grace would be setting the high pass filter on said amp higher removing any lower frequencies from the speakers so you'll be driving around listening to basically tweeters with no midbass and that wont sound too good.. So if this is that shops method it sounds like a hack shop that just cares about getting customers in and out and getting paid all while not catering to the customers wants all while apparently charging more money for less gear and an easier install. I would avoid that shop 110%. You as a customer need to decide what you want, how much money you want to spend on said gear and install. This is your first step period. The second step is shop around, you went to 2 shops, maybe go for a drive to a close by city and see what other shops have to offer along with brands and prices. IMO $1,100 is a lot for some Pioneer products, you can go buy that at Wal-Mart and save a lot. The thing is a good salesman see's a sucker a mile away, not saying you are one but if you're clueless to audio and they know that you'll be taken for a ride and end up having buyers remorse down the road. As Nauc said, I wouldn't worry about the rear speakers at all and just leave them powered by the radio and the money you would have spent on the rear speakers put forth getting a better line/model front speakers. Instead of doing some cheap coaxle type speakers maybe get a mid tier set of components in the front that will sound even better yet, or some nicer coaxles than said Pioneers that the shop was trying to sell you on and get some sound treatment done inside the door. Besides it's not like your drive your car in the back seat so who cares about those speakers, it's always something that can be upgraded later on if you feel the need. Now for the sub, there are so many options out there and its going to come down to your budget, and this is going to tie in to the amp(s) and how many you need and what route you should possibly go. If the sub you go with doesn't need too much power and is around a 300-500 watt rms sub you can easily get by with only using decent 4 channel amp that is rated 100watts rms by 4 @ 4ohms and what you do is you run the upgrade front speakers off channels 1 & 2, and then you bridge channel 3 & 4 together for the sub. Basic Hi/Low converters are junk, full of distortion and many of the cheap ones typically go bad relatively soon. At the very least you need to use an AudioControl LC2i Pro for multiple reasons 1) It will give you a front L/R output for the front speakers, and it will also give you a Sub L/R output. 2) It comes with a remote bass knob to turn the sub up and down as desired. 3) It has a feature called Accubass which basically restores the bass that is lost by the factory radio that automatically turns down the bass to protect the speakers as you turn the volume up. 4) It can handle up to 40volts per channel of input signal from the factory radio which many other hi/low converters can't and one of the reasons many fail not long after. 5) It has a couple methods of remote turn on such as dc offset audio sense and the old fashioned remote turn on. This is key because in many newer vehicles with everything being turned on/off with data signals through Canbus, so finding ignition switched or remote wires to turn on amplifiers is almost impossible especially when you're using the factory radio (unless you tap off the fusebox but that usually gives you turn on/off pop through the speakers). So this unit is able to tell when you turn your radio on and then it will turn itself on along with any other amp(s) you add. 6) For everything you get and gain from this unit it's fairly priced for $140. No other Hi/Low converter is going to come near this in terms of features and adjustability, and at the price point it comes in at it should be the 1st if not the only option that not only shops but anyone should be using. Me personally I won't put a sub in a car using anything else, and will pass on the job and tell the customer I'm not interested in the job if they bring me a cheap Hi/Low or wont spend the money for this.. Period! So just for fun this would be a pretty decent setup using one 4 channel amp setup like I described above for $952 in fairly decent product that is not the cheapest you could go by any means but also not the most expensive, and shopping around on different sites could probably find a little bit better pricing but this is just for reference from one site. Hi/Low converter https://www.sonicelectronix.com/item-178427-Audio-Control-LC2i-PRO.html Front speakers https://www.sonicelectronix.com/item-93360-Rockford-Fosgate-T1650-S.html Sub https://www.sonicelectronix.com/item-165605-Kicker-VL7R122-45VL7R122.html Amp https://www.sonicelectronix.com/item-183143-NVX-XAD41.html It will give the front speakers 100 watts rms each at 4 ohm, and with channels 3/4 bridged @ 2ohms it will give the sub 600 watts rms, so everything will be matched with its needed RMS power. Granted this doesn't include a 4awg ofc wiring kit or install, but this should at least give you some what of an idea on how far your money can/could go if you're not being taken advantage of, and I can bet that neither setup from either of those 2 shops will sound anywhere as good or as loud as these 4 simple items.

I've never seen them just come apart, you had to have hit the speaker wire on the cutout hole of the the box somehow when putting the sub in the box. For what its worth I put my speaker wire through the holes from the backside for this same exact reason, then you're no longer fighting the wire when putting the sub in the box. I wouldn't buy any ol' terminals off the internet, I would contact sundown and get replacements sent to you. Otherwise the chances are very high that they wont fit properly or bolt right up without having to modify them or worse possibly having to resolder different ends on the tinsel leads that connect to the terminals which then may make the tinsels too short and now your stuck buying recones.

you should be able to reach the hex/allen bolts with a wrench and tighten them, you'll just have to feel around with your fingers since you wont be able to see the best.

alright, if it shipped and tracking info updated I wont bother checking on the order then, but I know the sales definitely put things behind due to the sheer volume.