[balane]

(Scroll Down For Complete Audiofrog Driver & NVX, Alpine Amplifier Upgrade.)

I have about $1500 in gear here, most of it I've had a long time and the system has gone through changes over the years. This is how it sits today after having to replace a broken PowerBass 5 channel amp with a Pioneer and swapping out my old DEH-80PRS with a double-DIN maXpeedingrods Android unit which has 4v RCA outs and a decent built-in DSP. The vehicle has been deadened throughout. All 5 drivers are crossed over actively at the headunit, same with EQ and time delay. I've spent many hours over many weeks with adjustments and tuning. I think it sounds nice with decent staging from the driver's seat, haven't made any tweaks in a couple weeks so maybe I'm done for a while. I don't want to sink a ton of money into the car so the system is right where I want it to be. I built an MDF sub box to fit into the trunk's side recess, it has 1.2 cubic feet of sealed space after the sub in installed.

 

[saltyone]

Looks great, and I bet it sounds really nice. Are your tweeters mounted in the top of your doors? Looks like there’s something there. Or, are they in the dash?

 

[balane]

Thank you. The tweeters are in the upper door panels. At one point I was running the Precision Power P.65C3 3-Way set with the mids mounted in that location and tweeters in the sail panels. Even though the PPi was a nice set, due to the constraints of the passive crossover network I could never get the sound where I wanted it. So now, the midrange holes have Focal tweeters in them with fabric covered grills I made and the sail panels are empty.

 

[saltyone]

That just means you’re ready to go when you decide to go 3 way again. Looks really good!

 

[bbfoto]

@balane

x2 Looks good, man. It's nice to see a well thought out but relatively simple and inexpensive SQ setup that still retains a lot of your trunk space. Great attention to detail where it counts on the door sound deadening and midwoofer mounting baffles.

Good application of the K.I.S.S. principle... the right selection of gear properly installed....with the money & time spent where it counts.

That 2005 Sonata looks incredbly clean for its age as well. Nice flat, symmetrical dash, too.

Enjoy the system.

 

[balane]

@balane

x2 Looks good, man. It's nice to see a well thought out but relatively simple and inexpensive SQ setup that still retains a lot of your trunk space. Great attention to detail where it counts on the door sound deadening and midwoofer mounting baffles.

Good application of the K.I.S.S. principle... the right selection of gear properly installed....with the money & time spent where it counts.

That 2005 Sonata looks incredbly clean for its age as well. Nice flat, symmetrical dash, too.

Enjoy the system.

That was nice to hear, your thoughts are what I was hoping to accomplish. Thank you very much.

 

[balane]

I'm upgrading all of my drivers to the Audiofrog GB line. Sub & mids are here and as soon as the GB15's arrive, hopefully tomorrow, I'll begin the install and take some photos. After some tuning and listening I'll start thinking about amplifier options.

 

[lucas569]

how do you make these system collages ?

 

[balane]

Any old graphics app will do, these diagrams take only basic editing capabilities. For me, I use either Photoshop or an ancient copy of Paint Shop Pro when it's a quick, easy job like these. I'll search the web for usable images of the products and copy/paste them in, add some text and done.

 

[balane]

I installed the GB12 sub this morning, easy swap. Enclosure is 1.2 cu.ft. sealed as before. Since the Audiofrog only has a single set of posts I had to combine the cables but not a big deal. Other than that it was a straight swap. I didn't spend much time tuning as the front stage will be installed next week, GB15's are delayed in shipping until Monday due to weather in Texas. Output is about the same as the JBL GTO which makes sense with similar sensitivity but the lows have definitely taken a noticeable step up in clarity and definition. I believe the GB12 will benefit from more power than 600w so that will weigh in my amplifier considerations moving forward. I'm pleased with it so far but if I've learned one thing from the exchange so far it's that the JBL GTO was a tremendous sub for the money. At a sixth of the cost of the Audiofrog it honestly isn't that far behind.

 

[balane]

The set of GB15 tweeters arrived yesterday so I installed them today. My doors have a 2.75" hole in the upper panel from when it was running 3 way. I'm stuck with tweeters in this location unless I buy new panels but things work out OK with them here. However, swapping these drivers is always an adventure. In this case I cut front and rear rings to create a sandwich clamp. They're holding strong and I can't see a better method. GB60 mids are on my bench and will go in later today, update coming.

 

[balane]

GB60's are in. Direct swap and really easy, even the bolt holes lined up and I didn't need to use any of the kit pieces. I was worried that I'd have to remove the several pounds of clay around each baffle assembly.

The sound is really nice, a definite uptick in clarity over the Focal Flax drivers. It will take me many hours to get things dialed in so I still have a long way to go. But so far I'm pleased with the swap.

 

[lucas569]

looks nice cant wait to hear your thoughts after you get it tuned

 

[balane]

I haven't spent a lot of effort towards tuning because changes are still occurring.

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I've been putting aftermarket systems in my cars since the mid 1980's and I've never owned a ported enclosure. I've simply always favored sealed boxes based on what I've read and how that applied to my taste in lower frequency reoproduction and the music I listen to. I did some reading on the GB12 and it seems like a lot of people love this sub in a vented box so I wanted to give it a try. This enclosure is built to Audiofrog's specs for the driver which is 1.5 cu. ft. and 33Hz tuning. I'm tossing up a few photos showing the bolt down method and also some denim insulation I added simply because I had it laying around doing nothing.

Right now my thoughts are, WOW! Talk about output. I had to turn down this channel by a good 3db. It sounds terrific and I love the way it pressurizes the cab. You can really feel this thing, definitely sticking with ported for the life of this subwoofer.

With my Focal Flax/JBL sub setup the Pioneer amp felt right at home but I can't help feel this AF GB arrangement really wants some more overhead. I wanted to give NVX VAD amps a try anyway. I like many things about them including the size, output and definitely the cost. I ordered two amps, 150wx4 for the front stage and a 760w into 2 ohm for the sub. The President's Day sale at Sonic removed the last bit of resistance I had. This will give me nearly 30% more power to the sub and double the power to each front speaker. I hear some good things about NVX and I'm looking forward to trying them out.

I'll update when the amps are installed. Maybe then I'll be satisfied enough to spend some real time in the car with my laptop.

 

[balane]

NVX amps on the way. I love new diagram day!

 

[lucas569]

i may have missed it but what did you Xover your tweeters at?

 

[balane]

i may have missed it but what did you Xover your tweeters at?

I put the crossover points in the diagrams for each upgrade. Right now the mids are 80-1.6k and the GB15 run 2K and up. These settings may change when I get to a hardware stopping point when I want to spend time making more thorough adjustments.

 

[Austin_Jim]

Any way you can wrap the abs in a similar color vinyl to the door? Or paint them? They look awesome and perfectly symmetrical to the tweeter, but maybe you can hide the ring a little bit with a similar color to the door panel

The set of GB15 tweeters arrived yesterday so I installed them today. My doors have a 2.75" hole in the upper panel from when it was running 3 way. I'm stuck with tweeters in this location unless I buy new panels but things work out OK with them here. However, swapping these drivers is always an adventure. In this case I cut front and rear rings to create a sandwich clamp. They're holding strong and I can't see a better method. GB60 mids are on my bench and will go in later today, update coming.
View attachment 365752
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View attachment 365754

 

[balane]

Any way you can wrap the abs in a similar color vinyl to the door? Or paint them? They look awesome and perfectly symmetrical to the tweeter, but maybe you can hide the ring a little bit with a similar color to the door panel

I have some material that color matches very well and I have considered doing just that. Maybe I'll tackle it the next time my doors are off.

 

[balane]

For anyone curious what the DSP on this cheap head unit is like here are a few photos. It's simple but allows a listener to dial in the basics. I'm sure my system is leaving a lot on the table but I've been able to get pretty decent sound out of it to my expectations. Don't pay attention to the settings in these photos, things are changing all the time and now that my amps are installed I'll be able to make a more serious effort.

EDIT: I updated these images and the current settings are much closer to final. Things are sounding fairly decent to me. I'm still working to get Tom Petty sounding good, his voice is historically difficult for me to pin down but once I get there I'll know the mid frequencies are where I want them.