Philrab's Mazda3 daily driver/kid hauler

[philrab]

Thought I'd share what I just found.

Ever since my first sub, I've always been in the habit of gently pushing on the cones and feeling for rubbing or anything to indicate a problem whenever I'm in the trunk by the subs. Today, while packing the hatch for a crawfish boil, I pushed on the cone and heard a very distinct whistling sound. My sealed enclosure was very apparently NOT sealed.

I pulled the woofer out, pulled the enclosure, and noticed two holes in the fiberglass, directly behind a pair of screws I'd sunk into the MDF to hold the woofer. This dumbass right here apparently pushed the drill but in a little far and accidentally did some amateur port work on the enclosure.

Little bit of super glue over and in the holes in the fiberglass, packed her all back together, and the woofer now has resistance when you push the cone. Just thought I'd share my face palm moment.

And after spending some time whipping on my sub this Sunday, that bastard suddenly started bottoming out. Didn't sound blown (been there), just like the box developed a very sudden leak when I was pounding some low notes. Pull the enclosure back out, and the super glue I used to plug a small pin hole has SHOT OUT of the hole. Two part epoxy went on, and filled a few spots where the guy that fabbed the enclosure went really thin on the resin (could see daylight, maybe some small pin holes) and she's sealed back up. I'm playing her gently listening for damage, but I think I shut it down in time. Still, can't image that voice coil would have put up with basically free airing at high volume and low notes for very long before I ate that Image Dynamics subwoofer.

Hopefully in a couple of weekends I'll get a spare day to put in my four channel and tune this system finally. In the mean time, I'm working overtime so no time to work in the evenings. May be able to get a little done at a time over a couple of days, but the day I go to wire all the speakers it'll be game time till it's done.

[elflako17]

nice ride, nice to see another mazda in the game

[Mtnbikecrazy55]

Curious to how much that enclosure cost?

That's exactly where I plan to glass mine. If its cheap I would consider just buying one and reinforcing it.

[philrab]

nice ride, nice to see another mazda in the game

Thanks. I'm a serial Mazda owner. 94 Protege, 96 Miata, 04 3, and this 07, and my wife has an 08 3 sedan.

Curious to how much that enclosure cost?

That's exactly where I plan to glass mine. If its cheap I would consider just buying one and reinforcing it.

This particular enclosure has been out of production for several years. I've actually got a decent group of guys wrangled together that would purchase an enclosure like this, but am having issues finding anyone in my area to farm out the fab work to (I know precisely dick about fiberglass.) I bought this one used. Audio Integrations makes an enclosure for a 10" woofer, but they want like $325 or so + shipping for it. The enclosure I have was being sold for around $200 when new, and that's about the price point I want to keep if I can find someone able to produce.

[philrab]

Got my DD-1 in yesterday. Now, I have all the parts and I believe materials to get my four channel amp in and get this whole setup cooking. Probably won't have a chance till Memorial Day weekend since I'll be off that Monday (I'm a federal employee) and can spend Sunday and Monday ripping my car apart if it takes longer than I think.

In the mean time, I've been chasing my butt on an air conditioning problem, and that's kinda an issue in SE Louisiana at the beginning of the summer. Last night, at about 70 F ambient, my gauges were reading 15 psi low and 125 high. That sounds like low charge. So I tapped a full can of r134 I had lying around, and starting charging. Can iced over, Hell the can tap and hose fitting iced over, so I KNOW beyond any doubt I was dumping that freon into the system, but the low pressure side actually went down (no freaking idea why or how) and the high pressure took about half the can then popped up to 150 or so high side. I shut it all down, started questioning the accuracy of my gauges, and figured I'd stop by a shop this weekend and get a pro's opinion.

This morning, ambient temp is again about 70 degrees, I experimentally turned the AC full cold, and it's practically spitting ice cubes at me. This afternoon, after heat soaking in a parking lot all day, will be the test. If the AC can keep up with 85+ F ambient temps and cool down a hot car, then I think I can concentrate on the fun stuff and may dodge this bullet. If it acts up again, time to find a mechanic. I'm damned good with a car, but AC was always my weakest subject.

[philrab]

4 channel is going in Memorial Day weekend, and I'll tune the whole thing up with the DD1. At this point, I'm heavily considering building a box and buying a second woofer due to the power surplus I have and the want for more bass (yeah, I'm preaching to the choir about that shit being like crack for your ears). I could build a ported box really as big as I want to, keep the 8" stealth sub installed and just swap speaker wire and pull the big box out anytime I need to load the family up for a long trip, so instead of compromising my setup I have two distinct sub packages depending on whether or not I can give up the hatch space (90% of the time, it's just me in the car anyway.)

In the mean time, while I ponder that, I thought I'd throw up the details of my other two audio setups.

1994 Protege - First car, first system. I was a dumbass teenager, and blew several subs cause I was clipping the Hell out of them, but back then I knew no better.

Jensen cheap ass head unit (initially installed0

Kenwood Excelon HU (after I outgrew the Jensen) No clue what model number or anything, this was more than ten years ago.

Jensen 300W two channel amp

2 RF Punch P2 10's in sealed boxes that I ported at the house with port tubes and a holesaw (yes, I know, box too small, was stressing the shit out of the woofers, I knew no better)

Infinity Reference 5 1/4 coaxials in the doors, 6 1/2's in the back deck, all run off deck power.

In hindsight, I'm not shocked at all I blew both of the RF subs a couple of times. I was wanging on them all the time, had the amp gain set way too high, had them in ported enclosure way too small with way too short of a port tube, and was playing them WAY below their tuning frequency. Also destroyed the rear Infinities due to sunlight baking the plastic cones and clipping the shit out of them, finally shattered the cones (found pieces of them throughout the trunk). I was young, and knew no better. It was loud, and the only thing I can say is I learned some and did all the electricals myself. At least I didn't burn the car down....

1996 Mazda Miata

Kenwood Excelon HU - this HU had really good sound processing and built in crossovers. Probably helped the system more than anything else.

Alpine Type S 6 1/2's in the front doors

Clearwater (miata specific brand) headrest speakers - twin 3 1/2 speakers that fit into the stock locations in the headrests. As much as many people will imagine this was really harsh, there's almost no other good way to maintain good sound with the top down on the highway. The HU's time alignment allowed me to delay the headrest speakers enough to keep them in time with the fronts that were down in the doors, and fade forward to keep the sound stage in front.

I always flirted with the idea of a subwoofer in the front, and porting through the rear firewall or back deck into the cabin, but never went that way. No bass, but sounded really clean with the top down.

Those were my two previous attempts. The first one was probably like most people's first. It was plagued with teenage incompetence and a lack of information. I learned by school of hard knocks. My second system was HEAVILY compromised by the vehicle type, sounded great, but no practical way to add bass. This time around, I'm looking to have a good sounding system that can get loud when I want it to. The compromise is, this is the "family vehicle" for another year or two untill we wring all there is out of my wife's car and put her in a midsize (she has a 3 sedan, my 3 hatchback has much more cargo space for trips) so I have to keep the car usable. Hence, why I'm thinking two different sub packages is going to be the way to go. I get my bass when I want it, and none of the compromises of lost space in the hatch when I need to fill it with luggage or make that trip to Home Depot for sod and mulch.

[philrab]

Life happens, and I've gotten literally NO WORK done on my car in weeks. The weekend I had lined up fell apart, AC in the car died, and it had to get straightened out. This weekend I was thinking about digging in, then it rained literally the entire weekend from Thursday through this morning. Can't catch a freaking break.

The only productive thing I got done was order hard sided storage case for my DMM and DD-1. I'll probably be adding a CC-1 later this year, and I needed something to keep those tools from getting beat up in my garage. Hard to beat for $60 shipped to my door, and plenty big enough for several tools the size of a DD1 or multimeter. Interior dimensions L 9.4 x W 7.4 x H 5.5, and the DD1 and my multimeter are both right at 7" long/tall. Got in in Olive Drab since one of my tool chests is my old foot locker from the Army.

[philrab]

No progress in a while. Thank family illnesses and shitty weather for all that, and my garage not being big enough to do much work in (could park, but not a lot of room to move around the car.) Finally got tired of the cheap ass head unit I had installed, should have a Kenwood Excelon KDC X997 arriving tomorrow with all the goodies to install it and a PAC SWIRC for the steering wheel controls. Already sold my old head unit to someone for $200, so I'm not coming out of pocket much to make the swap. Looking forward to a much nicer sound courtesy of 4 V pre outs, 13 band eq, and all the other goodies you get in a top of the line Kenwood Excelon head unit.

Also, took some time yesterday and finally got my Infinity coaxials put in the rear doors. Everyone has an opinion about rear fill, personally I prefer how a car sounds with it. Only thing left on the agenda after this head unit swap is that four channel amp that may wait till cooler weather in the fall before it gets done, and finding and sealing the leak in my fiberglass enclosure. It isn't horrible, but it's there and it's frustrating the Hell out of me.

[philrab]

Head unit is in, and Holy Hell I didn't give enough credit for what a difference in sound it would make. Max volume per the DD-1 is 25/35 (speakers on deck power till my amp gets in) and gain on the subwoofer amp was set with sub level at +15, otherwise I didn't get any distortion with the gain maxed. EQ, and time alignment haven't been touched yet, just ran through the crossovers really quick though they need a little work.

Initial impression is Holy Shit. I wound up turning the sub level down a bit to keep from overdoing the woofer (way more amp than it can take) but it is banging much harder than before. Wife confirmed the sound is MUCH better and I have a lot of setup left to do.

[philrab]

Spent a little QT sorting through the new HU this weekend. Took a tape measure to the cabin and set the distances for the time alignment (only real difference is now the subwoofer doesn't sound a half second behind the mids), ran an RTA and sorted through the EQ. Had a nasty hole at 400-500 hz for some reason, another between 1500-2000 hz, and typical Infinity bright ass tweeters 16khz and above was screaming bright. Got everyone flattened out for now, tried to keep the boosting to a minimum but wanted to pick those two valleys up so increased those ranges 2-3 dbs. 16khz and above was dropped 3 db. Haven't done any playing with the Q factor yet or contouring the shape of the response curve, just trying to get a good baseline.

Also, am playing a bit with the subwoofer level. I set the amp gain with it maxed so I know even if I turn it to 11 it's clean power at the amp, but no way that

A. The sub can take all that power. 500 watts ain't a whole lot, but it's a shit load more than an ID8 rated for 150 rms is going to tolerate for very long.

and B. subwoofer is overpowering my mids and highs. Running off deck power, max clean volume per the DD1 was 25/35. Once I have my JL four channel amp in I'm sure I"ll turn the sub level up to balance it, but at some point I may end up with a sealed or ported box and a 12" or 15". I can keep the stealth sub for trips when I have to pack the family and a bunch of crap (yes, I'm an audio whore, can't drive for long without some sound) and put the big box and sub in for the 90% of the time I'm by myself in the car. Just have to do some soul searching about whether or not I want to drop the money on tools to build the box myself, or look for a local guy and pay him to build a box for me. Kinda comes down to will this be a regular thing for me?