My small build , "New Focal component set" Pg 89

[oldsoundguy]

I just got up enough energy to get my ass off the couch and down to the garage. Stay tuned. lol

[oldsoundguy]

Alright here we go. I just got done with the pods. I think they turned out great for what they are. It will allow me to try them in different places. I could put them on the dash on axis, off axis, down in the kick aiming at the dome light with the 45 degree angle. I could even put them low on the dash on axis ect. Lots of possible placement options. Will be fun to play with them. Only thing that sucks is the speaker wire strung all over the place. Ok here are the pics of the process of building my home made plastic pods.

[oldsoundguy]

So I think I may be installing the 3" faital pros in my wifes car and ordering the 3" 8ohm version for my truck. I bought the 4" in 8 ohm just because they have better x max. The 3" 8ohm version also has better xmax  which from what I understand will help with any distortion. That way wired up to an amplifier that puts out 150 @ 4ohms will help the speakers live. I am really thinking hard about the arc audio 6 channel to run the focal 5.25, 4" and 3" faital pros then getting a separate mono amp for the sub. That should give me a ton of headroom and be able to run the whole system at 0 gain for max clean power to all speakers. I think the 3" would be ok on the dash and the 4" in the kick by the focals. The Focal and the 4" faital pros will be sharing the front channels on the deck with a Y splitter but will have separate band pass crossovers on the amplifier. The 3" Faital pros will be on the rear channel with its own filter. I should be able to full pass on the HU and just use the amp for the crossover settings. Still a deep thought process right now.

[jcarter1885]

Love those pods man

[oldsoundguy]

So I just loaded them with some poly fill and wired them up. I tried them in the kick with tweeter in the A pillar then with and without the tweeter. I went side to side with just the 3" faital pro vs the other side with tweet and faital pro. I can say that without the tweeter I am missing some highs for sure. I could hear a difference between sides. I tried them in the door pocket, and now they are on the dash with the tweeter next to them. What I think I need is a more sound coming from the door area down low. I am hoping the 4 inch faital pros can help take care of that. I think that will help balance out the sound coming from the dash without having to lower the DBs on the highs too much to match the output of the doors. I do have the gain on the highs all the way down and the gain on the doors up to the distortion level found at 1000k 0db hz test tone.

I am sure it also has to do with the fact that I have the tweeters and faital pros wired together @ a 2 ohm load. I need more channels to run each speaker on their own channel so they are getting the power that each speaker needs. I don't want to install the P300x2 again but that would help with the power load for each speaker. That would give me 6 channels and the sub channel. The only problem is that I would have to switch back to standard mode and the amplifiers I own don't have a band pass crossover. That limits what I can do. I need an amp that has multiple channels with the ability to band pass at least 4 channels. So I think the Arc Audio 1200.6 and a separate mono amp might be on the list of things I really want. 

Just need some more listening time and I need to do another auto time alignment and eq just to see what that sounds like compared what I have done manually.

 

[oldsoundguy]

Here is where they sit right now. I took a short drive to the store and they sound good. I did some playing with the settings and reversed the phase on the focals and they sound better than before. Not sure why but I know I have switched them before when tuning them by themselves with sub and tweeters off and didn't really notice a difference. For some reason with everything playing it made a difference in a good way.

So they are not on axis hitting me right in the face. More aimed just in front of the mirror area if I had to explain it.

[bcbrassard]

good stuff going on there. Keep up the good work.

[oldsoundguy]

Cant wait to get the 4" faital pros. I may modify the q-logic kicks to mount them into. I think to make it sound better I need to figure out a way to seal the back of the q-logic kick panel so its a sealed enclosure or find a better way to treat the truck side of the panel. I didn't hate the Q-logic kick panels just the way the speakers sounded in them. So now that they wont be mid bass more mid range it should be a better fit.  Also need to think about how I am going to power them. Best case is getting a new amplifier with 4 front channels for the faital 4" and the focal 5.25s then rear channels for the 3" and tweeters. Then a separate sub amp. I like the DC audio 1.2K to run the DC audio M3-8.

I think I have just about talked myself into it but still scared to pull the trigger. Its just money right? I can always make more. lol

I will get this truck sounding loud and clean. Not a sound quality competition vehicle but sounding better than most.

[oldsoundguy]

Fuck I have been reading too much about amplifiers that I am even more confused than ever. Reviews suck because there are so many pos and neg reviews for everything. So many threads on other forums. One says its awesome then one says it sucks. Who the fuck do you listen to?  I am now farther away from pulling the trigger on anything.

[oldsoundguy]

I have been emailing with Arc Audio and it looks like I will be buying that amplifier soon.

Canceled the order on the mono. Need to keep looking.