[JohnL2001]

ok guys , i have plenty of room for an enclosure in fact there is already one in my vehicle measuring 1.385ft cubed per woofer (2 woofers)ported but a faceplate change can create a large sealed enclosure of course and it can be cut down but no volume can really be added.-(under seat of my dodge caravan work van , i love this van its perfectly suited for an sq build imo l -with minimal work that is- then again its just an ugly old van but whatever). p.s. the change between woofers in doors and an enclosure is so awesome when it comes to rattling or having to deaden, as a test i just threw the box in , didnt mount it down yet, i have no rattles in fact the only rattle comes from the toasted midbass driver (get to that in a second), its a wonderful feeling after having these things in the doors and probably 3 boxes of deadener applied to the door, mdf rings with deadener and foam everywhere -with the mirrors still rattling after all that....real money saver in the long run im happy with it. but i was lucky to have high under seat measurements and a vehicle that had no factory center console.

The woofers i have in there now sound great but in some very small areas (frequencies) are a bit weak... besides one has developed a bit of a rattle most likely from over excursion and im guessing at the power level i was putting through it and given their power handling abilities even the tiniest bit over the excursion for a split second created the problem. oh well, i wanna try something new anyway.

Im going from 50hz to 250hz with the midbass- i dont mind a 70-80hz high pass to limit xmech xmax problems on them since cabin gain makes up for it , however i would just prefer something that will take the abuse without crying. These will get between 75-125 watts each just dependant upon resistance at the coil (s) of course. The mid bass in the van now only see maybe 50-60 since they are 8 ohm versions and they will still pound out drum tracks and even bass down to ~40 hz very well, depending upon the volume (power)level of course, when you have it good you want it great, its never enough so here i am.

The mid range will easily go to 250hz since it is a 5 1/4" with a good amount of excursion and i will be building sealed pods in this HUMONGOUS cavity in the dash and also have them on axis on top of the very large and roomy dash. It will just take a bit of wood/fiberglass work... so no problems with meeting up with a proper slope and a bit of eqing. I say "them" because im even considering doubling them up since i have four new still in the box from yet another project i scrapped....this is my SQL build i guess you could say. Thats just my taste, capable of very loud yet controlled and precise is the goal! but no i wont be listening to this at insane volumes for the most part.

as for a sub i have the stereo integrity ht-18v3 it will be ran IB , and a matching zapco 2000xm , which is way more than this sub needs but it will come in at around 50-80 hz dependant upon mid bass levels down low. amp will be gain matched to produce the proper power level.

so...

option (1) i get recommendations from you guys, buy and try! I have no problem spending a fair amount of money on these, but the type of guy i am honestly is built not bought so i usually prefer to try a cheapish yet appropriate for the job speaker and manipulate the environment, enclosure, etc and squeeze every drop of performance out of them and honestly in general , not to sound like a jerk, but they always sound better than some very expensive speakers in everyones average installs from the local sound shop who have lost their passion for custom work more or less. but moving on....

option (2) i can use some brand new 8" skar audio ix8 subwoofers i have sitting around that were going to be used for ANOTHER project that is no longer happening, but im not so sure they would perform the way i intend being a subwoofer however at the same time with the right enclosure tuning,bandpassing and eqing i think they MAY be able to do the job wonderfully....just not sure, im guessing there is something better out there.

specs for that sub
__

• • 8-inch Dual 2 Ohm Voice Coil Configuration
  • Peak Power: 300 Watts
  • RMS Power: 150 Watts
  • Pressed Paper Cone
  • Advanced Air Flow Cooling System
  • 2" BASV High Temperature Copper Voice Coil
  • Motor Weight: 30 oz
  • Frequency Response: 30 - 350 Hz
  • Sensitivity: 83.2 dB
  • Fs: 48.3 Hz
  • Re: Dual 2 Ω
  • Qms: 5.09
  • Qes: 0.76
  • Qts: 0.66
  • Rms: 4.2 Kg/s
  • Cms: 0.15 mm/N
  • Bl: 10.6 n/a
  • Vas: 8.7 L
  • Xmax: 7 mm

so...what says the court of DIY mobile audio? any input is greatly appreciated.

P.S. I LOVE drum cover tracks so midbass is extremely important to me.

P.S.S. i am using the fairly nice settings on my zapco st6x at the moment which has more options than most and i have posted a link for that, as well as my jvc kw-430bt which has some fairly nice settings to play with as well, i also posted a link for that.
Zapco ST-6X SQ 6 Ch. Sound Q Class AB Amplifier
https://www.crutchfield.com/S-bD7eBypaKT2/p_105KWV430B/JVC-KW-V430BT.html

In the very near future i will be swapping over to a dsp, but i have not chosen one yet and just want to do the best i can with what i have right now, like i said i like to squeeze every drop.

Thanks

 

[JohnL2001]

subject is beat to death, sorry guys i was just looking for the newest thing.

 

[zacjones99]

If you're OK with crossing at 70hz the Stevens MB8-2 might be a good fit, high efficiency -- your amp would give it 150w, and they're relatively inexpensive at $98 each. I would recommend the $50 Peerless SLS8, but the missing piece to make that driver shine is you'd need more power than the 50w your current amp would give it.

 

[SQ_Bronco]

The skars look like awful subs, but since you already have them they might not be that bad as midbass. They do need big boxes but I think 1.3 cf should be fine. They won’t go low, but should be fine at 70 hz. Le isn’t terrible high (.57 mH) so it should play to 300 hz and you might try to cross the 5” mid lower ~160 hz and cross the skars at about 125 with more gain, especially if they are under seats (did I read that correctly?)

Can you bridge 2 channels of your st-6x amp and find another small amp for the tweeters?

I’m curious- how are you going to run your 18” sub IB in a van?

 

[HandyLGCA]

Right on
i bought my metris with 4000 miles on it last July and before I did anything I already had this thought in my mind about every other van that rattles or you hear **** rolling around in it and I hated that. So I bought a bunch of sound treatment for it regardless of sound system. It’s so nice I can’t even describe it as far as road noise, tools, whatever. Mine has a partition though I don’t know about a caravan.

 

[JohnL2001]

The skars look like awful subs, but since you already have them they might not be that bad as midbass. They do need big boxes but I think 1.3 cf should be fine. They won’t go low, but should be fine at 70 hz. Le isn’t terrible high (.57 mH) so it should play to 300 hz and you might try to cross the 5” mid lower ~160 hz and cross the skars at about 125 with more gain, especially if they are under seats (did I read that correctly?)

Can you bridge 2 channels of your st-6x amp and find another small amp for the tweeters?

I’m curious- how are you going to run your 18” sub IB in a van?

yeah the skars have been shelfed, no longer going to bother with them as its too much work to rebuild my current enclosure to accept an 8" instead of 7"....im going to stick with the 7" i have with a huge caveat and possible replacement 7" who knows. (it turns out the 7" i have now was not in fact toasted, just a bit of tinsel lead slap that i have taken care of, not to say that i still wont replace them anway)
IB in a van? easy, the partition wall for my work van needs to be built anyway, it will be built extremely sturdy behind the seats as a somewhat normal partition only mine will be more sturdy and lined with sound absorbing materials to keep reflections from the mids and highs at a minimum ......this way i get 72 cubic ft of airspace from the rear section of the van for my 18s, actually, i get a q of .704 if i use 4 18s.....which i probably wont do because of the amount of energy that would need to be tamed. i may do 2 however ......more than enough air space to be considered infinite baffle with the chosen subs.

As with all things, this is ever evolving, i have changed things up to the st-6x sq powering a pair of tweeters/hivi dome midranges in the sail panels ( the power levels, the sensitivity, all seem to line up nicely in my opinion since the tweeter is 100 watts continuous at 4 ohm , the dome mid range is 75-80 continus at 5 ohm and the sensitivity for the tweeter is 90.2db and the dome sensitivity is 92db - given these numbers i think the sensitivity will even out nicely....for the caveat to the 7" mid bass-4 dayton audio nd140-8s dash mounted enclosure truly belt out some upper midbass from 80-300 easily although crossover points are yet to be concrete -this ties my midbass under the seat to my dash area very nicely , so...thats all the channels on the 6 channel so i brought in a small mono sub amp for my under seat 7" midbass that will only play 50-150ish hz (this will be fiddled with), dash mid bass will play easily to match and/or split the frequencies that each plays (50-150 for the under seat 7" mid bass, 150-1000hz for the dash mounted to meet the domes at 1000hz and from actual testing , the 7"ers in a ported enclosure and the 4(4) 5 1/4" mid bass in an enclosure on the dash gives enough mid bass between the 6 drivers to cause someone a heart attack (i felt a little queezy after a drum cover of rock songs lol)

No sub in the mix yet, no wall to increase the cabin gain yet which if my calculations are correct should come in around 112hz with a partition, i think im where i want to be with the mid bass, turn them down when not demoing, but turned up ill just let the person sit in there alone while i watch from outside. 😀 and for everyday listening, i guess it just depends on how im feeling that day!

 

[JohnL2001]

also, i have gained another toy, zapco dsp-z8 older dc series, but all i was really looking to do was keep the new dome midrange out of the 500hz and down area with this, but i have so much more i can do with this dsp even if its not the newest top of the line series im fine. plus it matches my amps and that SOMEWHAT matters to me im a bit nit picky. haha

at this point everthing besides the underseat enclosure for the 7"ers has been stripped out and i am starting over, last night i started building out the sail panels for the tweeters and midranges , what a task! but i am resilient and just keep at it between my work schedule and household duties....probably going to take a while.

p.s. i know the deal with dome midranges lol but ive test listened to them and find on axis in the sails the best possible position even if they have to be attenuated alittle bit....i honestly didnt mind their volume level with my head unit cranked to 24 which is where i have my amps gain set to.....lots of detail that i couldnt get out of my cone midranges!
LIKE i said, everything is ALWAYS up in the air until the very last piece of wire is soldered in my projects. I could literally be almost finished and if i need to chunk the whole thing and start over so be it!!!!! but i do try to plan to avoid this of course!

This is not a practicality build, this is a balls out, what can i do even if it looks a bit funny build although i am attempting to keep things as factory looking as possible with the curvatures of the enclosures and the matching vinyl etc . I see no point in trying to hide things all that much....may change my mind by the time im finished but this is part of the fun of building things!