DIY Mobile Audio - Blogs http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/blogs/ The premier site for high end mobile audio discussion and product reviews. en Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:54:41 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/images/styles/diymobile/misc/rss.jpg DIY Mobile Audio - Blogs http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/blogs/ My system and my future plans.... http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/blogs/tspence73/8-my-system-my-future-plans.html Tue, 21 Oct 2008 03:16:30 GMT 2007 NISSAN SENTRA EQUIPMENT:
HU: JVC KDHDR1
Front Comps: Infinity Reference 6.5" 6010cs 2-way Component Speakers (90-watts RMS, 270-watts peak)
Subs in the trunk: Two 12" RE-Audio SE DVC 4-ohm Subwoofers, each in a 1 cuft sealed dual enclosure & wired to pull 1-ohm (600-watt RMS each) wired up with 10awg speaker cable & bannana plugs from Blue Jeans Cable.
Multi-CH amp under driver's seat: Planet Audio Big Bang BB175.4b 4-channel amp (175x4 RMS, 350-watts peak @ 4-ohms) wired with 4awg power cable
Sub-amp under front passenger seat: Cadence A7HC Ultrashock series classic subwoofer amp (1200-watts RMS @ 1-ohm, set using DMM method set to 35-volts using a 50Hz 0db tone) wired with 4awg power cable
Projects Complete: Second Skin damping in the front doors and door panels.

Coming projects/upgrades:
*Done - Upgrade subwoofer section and purchase 2 RE SE 12" 4-ohm DVC subs and wire them to 1-ohm. :o
*Scheduled late Dec '08 - Front door mounting & modding of JL Audio ZR800-CW midbases and custom fiberglass kickpanels for Infinity Ref comps.
*Scheduled February '09 - Acoustic projects for most of the car.
*Scheduled for mid to late '09 - *JBL MS-8 sound processor ]]> tspence73 http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/blogs/tspence73/8-my-system-my-future-plans.html <![CDATA[Silly's Prius, Part 6]]> http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/blogs/sillyboy/7-sillys-prius-part-6.html Sun, 19 Oct 2008 05:43:29 GMT So, back in the 'good old days' (where by 'good old days' I mean... 'back when my ears were bleeding') I had 2 amps going... a 4 channel amp for front and rear door speakers, and a mono amp for the sub.

But then you crazy freaks convinced that rear door speakers are for la-hoo-zers. So I figure, I can just drop the mono amp and use 2 channels off the 4 channel amp... bridged for the sub.

I mean, hey... it's a prius, gotta save the juice right?

Then, cuz I am wicked crazy, I start reading about my Boston Pro 10.5LF sub... and everyone is like "nice sub, but requires alot of power". And like, I am so in love w/ my new ID front speakers that I decide to pick up a new ID sub :) IDQ10v3.

I actually wanted the v2, cuz it theoretically required less air space... and i wanted to reclaim some trunk space. but woofersetc ran out and cut me a good deal on the v3... so I picked that up. also grabbed a premade 0.50ft box... even though in theory that is a bit small. just stuff that bad boy, right?

Now... who knows?

My main complaint at this point is that tweeters seem "loud". For the life of me I can bear that out in frequency response graphs (see post in the forums)... but I can certainly here it.

My assumption is that its because a) the tweeters are closer to my ear... up on the a pillar (is that what you call that? area between door window and windshield?) and that b) being up high, they get a ton of reflections of windshields/windows/etc... compared to my woofers down by leg and carpet and such.

the woofer in the door (while clearly far far better than what I had before), still doesn't seem to have a ton of punch. I probably need to work on closing up some holes in the door, and maybe some phase issues.

don't love the new sub at this point, but I think I need to put it back in my larger box and see if I enjoy that (it was about 0.75 feet, instead of current 0.5). seems like I have to turn the gain on the amp pretty high, and it just doesn't seem as tight at the boston... and while this is more my lame skillz than the sub, doesn't seem to blend as well.

Maybe its time to man up, and use the 4 channel amp to drive just the front speakers... so I can control the tweeter volume separately...

if I am back to using the mono amp, I should have gotten a 2ohm sub instead of 4... :( ]]> Sillyboy http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/blogs/sillyboy/7-sillys-prius-part-6.html <![CDATA[Silly's Prius, Part 5]]> http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/blogs/sillyboy/6-sillys-prius-part-5.html Tue, 14 Oct 2008 06:00:53 GMT So, here is what sorta got me back in the saddle. I was searching reviews on Crutchfield for my front speakers... and at about the time I bought them, they were pretty good. Then they went to epic crap. Everybody was saying the same thing... no bass, harsh tweeters. So, at least I could hang... So, here is what sorta got me back in the saddle. I was searching reviews on Crutchfield for my front speakers... and at about the time I bought them, they were pretty good.

Then they went to epic crap. Everybody was saying the same thing... no bass, harsh tweeters. So, at least I could hang my hat on not being the only total lamer that bought those speakers :)

Seems a fair number of people on various forums like the Image Dynamics CTX65CS in my cheapo price range, so I order a pair up.

When they got here... I had to pick my jaw up off the floor, cuz dizzzzzzaaaaaamb boy. Those are some big ass magnets.

The speaker wasn't really interested in being mounted directly onto the door, nor onto whatever custom brackets i had from the last speakers. And, I didn't think I had a ton of room behind my door panel... so I had this crazy idea to build the baffle out of acrylic.

Still not sure it was a great idea, but it seems to work out. :)

My immediate impress was "oh, thank god". You can't imagine how much better these tweeter sound. Much warmer, much smoother, much less... causing bleeding. Bass was significantly better as well.

While (as admitted in my first post) I am not a serious audophile, I would have no problems recommending these component speakers to anyone wanting to drop under $200. they are great.

They seem to be more sensitive than my last speakers, so i was able to turn down the gain on the amp. This had the kick ass benefit of reducing the annoying high pitched whine.

Horrible pictures (iPhone) of my doors. Be happy you see some sound deadening... chalk that up int he win column. Fancy plastic baffles, too.

I am guessing all the big holes in the doors, especially right above the speaker... does NOT go in the win column?



(Kinda curious if anyone reads these, so post a comment :))

I fell so in love w/ Image Dynamics, I replaced my sub too... we can talk about that next time.
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]]> Sillyboy http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/blogs/sillyboy/6-sillys-prius-part-5.html <![CDATA[Silly's Prius, Part 4]]> http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/blogs/sillyboy/5-sillys-prius-part-4.html Sun, 12 Oct 2008 23:08:14 GMT Silly's System Impressions:

Short Answer: Ouch.
Long Answer: Ooooooouuuuuuuuucccccchhhhh.

Break down by component (in reverse order of trauma):

Head unit: Seems to mostly meet my needs, especially with respect to iPod integration. Being able to play music and podcasts directly from the head unit is uber (though, I wouldn't mind optionally controlling the ipod/iphone directly). Being able to move the center/width on the bass control is nice. Not exactly sure what "BBE" is, but I know I like the sound of my system better when its actually turned on :)

Sub: Pretty decent really. I built the box really close to the exact sized suggested by the docs, Sealed. While I was never overwhelmed by its uberness, at least it could fill out the lows and reasonably blended with the system.

Rear coaxials: beats me, I don't sit back there, probably just hosed any chance of having a front stage.

Front component, Woofers: meh. at best. they just don't produce much bass. But then, it would be really hard to compete with...

Front component, Tweeters: Please. Kill. Me. Really really harsh, combined with really, really loud == bad combo. I couldn't have hated them more. And being a complete n00b who just spent a decent amount of money and ALOT of hours of work... to have a system making his ears bleed... was a horrible into into car audio.

Lastly there was a super awesome whine that ignores the volume knob (meaning, as long as the music is turned up, I don't hear it). Super high pitched and annoying. I believe its Prius battery madness (converting the 200v dc to 12vdc or AC for the motor, whatever).

For the most part I just spent a year being sad. Often leaving the system off, or listening to podcasts where I didn't care so much about the horrible bass and piercing highs.

I did add a 6db lpad to the tweaters, the bleeding might have slowed to a trickle...

But, it was about time to get back in the saddle... next time. ]]> Sillyboy http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/blogs/sillyboy/5-sillys-prius-part-4.html <![CDATA[Silly's Prius, Part 3]]> http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/blogs/sillyboy/4-sillys-prius-part-3.html Sat, 11 Oct 2008 05:29:32 GMT When we last left off... our hero had just bought lots of random crap :)

Wait, did you say random crap? There is always more of that action! Careful readers will notice that bought a 4 channel amp and a sub amp... but didn't mention that many drivers...

So, rounding out the buying frenzy we have 2 more infinity speakers for the rear doors, and an old skool Boston Pro 10.5LF sub (oh snap! 1 decent piece of gear accidentally fell into the mix!)

So, poor poor Mr Prius gets torn apart. Speakers front and back, power back to the trunk, hook up the crazy cleansweep and amps, blah, blah.

Hadn't built a box for the sub at this point. So that was left out of the equation.

I will say this about the cleansweep... it certainly did... something :) Seemed to flatten things out and fill out the midrange... but also removed a bit more bass than I hoped and generated truly absurd amounts of noise/hiss :(

Now, a sane person would work to diagnose the hiss... and I am sure I gave it some level of effort. But it just seemed easier to buy a new head unit :) The prius head unit normally integrates all fancy w/ the big heads up display and is a double sized DIN.

So, some fancy after market fascade to hold the single height din was installed, some crazy resistor hooked up to the heads up display to make it keep workin'... and installed the Alpine CDA-9857.

And we pretty much get to Silly v1 at this point:
- Alpine CDA-9857
- 2 sets of Infinity speakers, driven by the Profile AP1040
- I get the boston pro 10.5LF into a box, driven by the Profile AP700m

I can discuss the good, the bad and the next steps... next time ]]> Sillyboy http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/blogs/sillyboy/4-sillys-prius-part-3.html <![CDATA[Silly's Prius, Part 2]]> http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/blogs/sillyboy/3-sillys-prius-part-2.html Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:22:15 GMT Okay, so I realize the stock head unit just isn't gonna fix this without some help.

So, we go with the JL Audio Cleansweep. Some magic voodoo (to me at least) that un-equalizes your head unit. You just jam a calibration CD in there, have the cleansweep listen to the signal; it tries to counter the madness.

Of course, at this point... I go into full n00b + addict mode. I figure as long as the cleansweep is gonna drop out low level outputs, I might as well add an amp to the setup.

Being a cheapo... errr... I mean... being somebody looking for good "bang for the buck" I get an inexpensive amp... the Profile AP1040.
80w x 4.

While waiting for the new amp to arrive, I get further impatient/bold/n00b-like and order a subwoofer amp. Again, profile... AP700m (350wx1 at 2 ohm).

Well, ... total n00b with no install/calibration skillz and a zillion cheap components ... ya, this is bound to be good... :rolleyes: ]]> Sillyboy http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/blogs/sillyboy/3-sillys-prius-part-2.html <![CDATA[Silly's Prius]]> http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/blogs/sillyboy/2-sillys-prius.html Thu, 09 Oct 2008 22:57:06 GMT First to admit... I am not an audiophile. Merely an addict. Not an audio addict mind you... just an addict in general. I could probably get addicted to collecting corn flakes. So, what seemed like a simple idea, turned into a long story... When I got my 2007 prius... I purposefully got the... First to admit... I am not an audiophile. Merely an addict. Not an audio addict mind you... just an addict in general. I could probably get addicted to collecting corn flakes. So, what seemed like a simple idea, turned into a long story...

When I got my 2007 prius... I purposefully got the low end package, thinking that the over $1k for upgraded audio clearly wasn't worth it, as I could likely spend less and have even better audio by doing a bit of DIY action.

Silly me. :)

Step 1 was to hang out on the Prius forums, reading about other peoples experiences. I saw quite a few pretty pictures of after market stereos, learned the the wacky prius with its tiny 12v battery could still drive a nice system, that after market stereo's were indeed possible... etc.

And somehow, through random chance and back luck... I picked up a pair of Infinity component speakers (Infinity Reference 6010cs).

I pulled the stock speakers, and they were very humorous. The magnets were roughly the size of 3 quarters glued together. Literally.

The new speakers were beefier, and firing up them up w/ the stock head unit... was interesting.

Plenty of high (ouch), plenty of lows (w00t!), zero mids. maybe less than zero.

Apparently... the stock head unit had some absurd equalization curve to counteract the uber-ghetto speakers?

Stay tuned for the (not quite) solution... ]]> Sillyboy http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/blogs/sillyboy/2-sillys-prius.html Testing out the vBlog http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/blogs/diyma/1-testing-out-vblog.html Thu, 09 Oct 2008 06:08:36 GMT just a little test just a little test ]]> DIYMA http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/blogs/diyma/1-testing-out-vblog.html