Bboytaktix's 2011 Subaru STI Modest SQ build

[CaptainWhoosh]

I was running the same Pioneer and it ended up having trouble and dropping a channel. It was good before it broke, just a heads up.

[BboyTaktix]

I was running the same Pioneer and it ended up having trouble and dropping a channel. It was good before it broke, just a heads up.

yeah it isn't the amp causing the issues, I tested it already. But I've heard of this amp dropping channels from a few people now, really hoping it won't happen on mine, will be a pain to replace my 4-channel amp again after only 1-2 years when my previous amp lasted almost 5 years with no issues besides creating lots of heat!

[CaptainWhoosh]

I was running the same Pioneer and it ended up having trouble and dropping a channel. It was good before it broke, just a heads up.

yeah it isn't the amp causing the issues, I tested it already. But I've heard of this amp dropping channels from a few people now, really hoping it won't happen on mine, will be a pain to replace my 4-channel amp again after only 1-2 years when my previous amp lasted almost 5 years with no issues besides creating lots of heat!

You might be able to get Pioneer to fix it. I am contacting them to see if they will repair mine. Nice setup btw!

[BboyTaktix]

I was running the same Pioneer and it ended up having trouble and dropping a channel. It was good before it broke, just a heads up.

yeah it isn't the amp causing the issues, I tested it already. But I've heard of this amp dropping channels from a few people now, really hoping it won't happen on mine, will be a pain to replace my 4-channel amp again after only 1-2 years when my previous amp lasted almost 5 years with no issues besides creating lots of heat!

You might be able to get Pioneer to fix it. I am contacting them to see if they will repair mine. Nice setup btw!

Let me know how it goes. I really am liking the size of this amp and that it creates no heat whatsoever. Alsot he footpring is great. Pretty much exactly what I needed.

Thanks! always a work in progress, never seems to end! still need to get some sound dampening done for the few rattles I have then be done with it finally and just enjoy it, onto some other racecar mods

[BboyTaktix]

so I just went full retard.

My stupid JBL P660c components have been acting up. passenger side is out, sometimes it comes back but lately it's just been not working. Tested what I could, seems like maybe the crossover has gone bad.

Soooo I just ordered a fucking set of JBL C608GTI components off eBay. I always wanted a set of GTI components and the price was pretty decent. Also wanted to upgrade "a bit" and was thinking bout buying some Infinity Kappa perfect 6.1 but then they had some good and bad reviews, and every review on the GTI speakers was outstanding, I figured why the hell not. Hoping that pioneer amp is enough to get them sounding good 100wRMS at 4 ohm should do the trick I would think!

Decided I am going to place the crossovers under the driver seat. I feel like this will ensure their longevity, don't want to take any chances with these components. Also, I<ll have access to change the tweeter configuration if I need to once everything is installed. Plus I'll make it look pretty awesome (already know what I will be doing)

more updates when I get the speakers. Hopefully they will fit in the doors with my current spacers so I won't have to make new ones, but I know they are damn beeft mids!!! Tweeters are 1" so pretty sure I can just replace the p660c tweeters with these, fitment should be pretty much the same. Not sure how much more powerful these new tweeters are (if at all), only thing I know for sure is the c608GTI tweeters are titanium dome whereas the P660c tweeters are textile. Guess we shall see!

[BboyTaktix]

My friend and I put an order into second skin audio for some soundproofing rear parcel shelf rattling is killing me!

So we each got 20 sq.ft of damplifier ( enough to do about 30% coverage on all 4 doors, inner and outer sheetmetal, and the rest I'll use on rear parcel shelf sheetmetal and the plastic cover as well) and Overkill closed cell foam for all 4 doors (will do full coverage of course). That should help reduce road/ambient noise and also get rid of the rattling in the rear of the car. Also will help those new C608GTI's going in hopefully next weekend when they arrve.

[BboyTaktix]

alright got a SERIOUS decision to make! Hoping to get some feedback!

SO I have been thinking, the JBL c608C can take a LOT of power. My new pioneer amp puts out 100wRMS x4 at 4 ohms. I'm sure the GTI's would still sound good off of that but most say that with 150-200wRMS they really shine.

So I am debating wether I should run my rear speakers off the head unit (JBL p662) and then bridge the Pioneer to give the front GTI components more power (bridging would give me up to 300wRMS per side but I'd set gains to give them a healthy 175-200ish wRMS)

Opinions???

[BboyTaktix]

Ladies and gents, Shit's bout to get REAL:

Should get to installing them tomorrow. I decided I will be losing my rear speakers for now (well, unplugging) and bridging the pioneer amp with the front GTI's to give them enough power to be happy. I like rear fill but to make it wourk would cost me more money than I want to spend (would need to get better speakers for rear, a 2-ch amp for them and a signal processor IE JBL MS-

[BboyTaktix]

UPDATES: got the new speakers installed Saturday. I was real anal about doing things cleanly and the right way to ensure no problems ever developed. Got all the appropriate terminals and shrink-wrapped them on as well for maximum durability and easy unhooking if need be I didnt get quite as many pics as I want since my phone ended up dying during the install but here are a few mediocre ones. Still need to make a cover for my amp/crossover rack in the trunk.

I was very surprised at how small the JBL GTI tweeters were...here is a comparison of the P660c silk-dome tweeter (right) vs the JBL GTI titanium dome tweeter (left);

Another comparison shot: old P660c crossover (top) vs JBL GTI crossover (bottom), as you can tell, the GTI's incorporate quite a bit more electronics, which makes sense since they are 4th order crossovers;

Some of my anally-prepared spade connectors for the woofers;

And the bullet connectors for the tweeters (reversed positive and negative so that it is a no-brainer plugging each in - can't accidentally reverse polarity this way!);

Made a new spacer out of 3/4" MDF for these beefy new woofers since they were just a bit deeper than the old woofers. The window clears by about 1/4 inch perfect fit!!

New tweeters mounted in the sail panels and the clean plug-and-play connection;

Crossovers mounted in the trunk just in front of the amps on the wall. All connections to the crossovers used spade connectors with shrink-wrap. Super easy to plug, unplug and no potential for wire strands crossing anywhere

Well, that's all the pics I got for now

First impressions; WOW. just wow. I didn't even have enough time to tune the system since I was late to go pick up my girl when I got everything finished up :-/ I could tell an IMMEDIATE difference between the old components and the new ones. Detail in the music was UNREAL. The midbass is epic in songs that demand it. I notieced a bit less ear fatigue with these tweeters as well; I can raise the volume to very loud and they don't hurt my ears like the old ones could sometimes. The speakers seem to blend well with the sub, of course there is a little tuning to do like I mentioned but already I am extremely impressed with the upgrade. Right now the crossover tweeter setting is at 0db (I could go +2 or -2 as well). Thinking of setting them at -2dB and feeding the speakers a bit more power from the amp to see if they sound more dynamic, and if I like the sound

The speakers are bridged on the 4-channel pioneer, which means I have lost my rear door speakers, but honestly, my first impressions are that the setup is louder and clearer than it was with my previous setup (4-speakers). If I do eventually do rear fill speakers, I will be changing the ones that are there now for something more appropriate and adding a signal processor to the mix to get their timing right and really take advantage. But for now, more than happy with the way things sound.

Next step is sound treatment once UPS stops screwing around with my package and I find time to do the install

[BboyTaktix]

small, disappointing update.

My passenger side JBL C608GTI midwoofer blew last week. Heard it go out all the sudden, I don't even think my system was cranked. I checked the mid from the crossover in the trunk with my DMM and ohm reading is through the roof (should be close to 4 ohms but was overload while tweeter was around 3.4ish). I then removed door panel and pushed on it and it's evident that it is blown (scratching noise of cone against voice coil). Very disappointing, as these speakers are supposed to take tons of power. I believe that side had some kind of defect or maybe got bumped the wrong way when being shipped. I am running my amp bridged and giving them maybe 200ish RMS? I used my Distortion Detector to find max output of that amp when bridged, then scaled the gain down a bit since the speakers were too loud with the sub. That was at 36 volume on head unit (max undistorted volume I found) and I never played the system above 32 after installing those speakers. My only other guess is that I had set the high pass filter too low (under the 60Hz mark but hard to tell on the amp, aimed for 50-55Hz) and one song that really bumps that ffrequency might have damaged the midwoofer on that side when it was still cold.

Regardless, I don't need my HPF set that low with the 10'' GTI sub, so I set it to above 60Hz (around 65ish) to be safe.

There is a silver lining however. I found a set of the C508GTI's on eBay and turns out the seller is local to me. Now, the C508GTI component set uses the exact same tweeters and crossovers as my C608GTI. I messaged him and he said we could meet up and I wouldn't have to pay shipping that way. His sale was for $250USD but he agreed to $260CAD which is actually a steal for these speakers. I will be re-selling the brand new tweeters and crossovers, and my slightly used working side 608GTI midwoofer to recoup some of the money spent on this new set as well. So it is a bit of a pain but I'll get everything up and running again and hopefully these will last me for a long time.

here are the specs on the C508GTI's. Only real noticeable difference is the sensitivity of 88dB as compared to 89dB of the C608's (marginal difference) and the 508 mids won't go quite as low as the 6.5-inch C608GTI woofers. But that's what my GTI 10" sub is for anyways so I doubt I will be lacking in range.

I guess my main quesiton is, while I wait for these new speakers, would it be better to unplug the blown midwoofer when I listen to audio now in my car? There is not a lot of information on wether it is better for the amp to disconnect a blown woofer from the crossover or to leave it connected. IMO I don't think it will make too much of a difference either way, but maybe better to just disconnected since it is resulting in a very high overall resistance between the amp and crossover.