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Supposed to have the box located where it gives you highest dB reading lol It prob won't be that noticeable, but worth a shot to test.. Dynamat your trunk too when u have the $$ / time. If you do the 6 channel you'd have to tie in to all 6 pairs of wires somehow, easiest would be to install it near factory head unit i would think. With the 6 chan i would think you could still fade front/back, left/right etc from factory unit
Supposed to have the box located where it gives you highest dB reading lol It prob won't be that noticeable, but worth a shot to test.. Dynamat your trunk too when u have the $$ / time. If you do the 6 channel you'd have to tie in to all 6 pairs of wires somehow, easiest would be to install it near factory head unit i would think. With the 6 chan i would think you could still fade front/back, left/right etc from factory unit
I'm thinking just cut my losses and spend the $ used for a more expensive LOC could be better used on deadener like you said. As I won't be able to afford both, I'm thinking just a cheap loc and deadener will be more cost effective
That dynomat can be expensive, maybe try some roof flashing from home depot/lowes that comes in rolls. you could probably even double up on that stuff and still be less than dynomat. I was just looking at prices and saw that as possible solution. I have never used it so I'd do some research first though...
That dynomat can be expensive, maybe try some roof flashing from home depot/lowes that comes in rolls. you could probably even double up on that stuff and still be less than dynomat
Dynamat is way overpriced imo there are many other cheaper options. SonicElectronix sells a trunk kit by NVX that goes for $54. Quite a bit cheaper than Dynamat, well rated, and actually a little thicker. Hopefully I can order more for my doors and still stay under $100. If I can deaden my doors and trunk for $100 I think that isn't too bad of a deal right? The roof stuff I will avoid because it is said to smell bad and prone to melting and doesn't necessarily work as good. Probably not good for your health lol
ha ya, after I posted i was reading some comments on you tube for a guy that did it. Chance of the smell i wouldn't do it.. Glad u found something cheaper. Personally i wouldn't take the door panels off unless I was running speakers or wire to the doors as well, dynomat well just because you are in there u know? Trunk should be easier . lets not talk about the roof or taking the seats and carpet out. :-D
ha ya, after I posted i was reading some comments on you tube for a guy that did it. Chance of the smell i wouldn't do it.. Glad u found something cheaper. Personally i wouldn't take the door panels off unless I was running speakers or wire to the doors as well, dynomat well just because you are in there u know? Trunk should be easier . lets not talk about the roof or taking the seats and carpet out. :-D
When I have the amp installed I may be able to cut a deal with the installers or something on the door deadening lol. Roof and carpet are not necessary for me. Besides it adds weight that I don't need haha
4 sure, well let us know if moving those subs in different positions helps, will be curious to know if those dB meter apps on the phone work just like a real meter.
changing box position in the trunk will certainly change its sound, sometimes you can find a sweet spot that helps resonate the sound from the trunk.
i had a mazda 626 i experimented with the box facing foward. the port was designed in the middle so it would direct the sound from the port directly into the cabin and ....it sounded HORRIBLE...lol.
the rear arm rest folded down but wasnt a pass through like on the Acura so i got creative and added a drain cover in the arm rest to allow the sound to pass through.
i ended up turning the box around and got twice the sound out of it. now if i would have had the speaker facing back and the port facing forward it may have had a different affect but once i turned it around it sounded great so i left it alone.
Ok, I'm going to try to move the box sometime soon. Currently, I'm at 80 DB with my HU at 1/2 volume with a 40 HZ tone. Ouch... Also, I was stuffing some stuff in my rear deck to deaden a couple weeks ago and noticed my LOC had two wires cut. Is that wrong? I taped it just in case. have a bad feeling I should've just left them be...
the one wire that runs with the rca cables is typically the remote turn on wire for the amp.
Should I keep the split wire taped or not? Also, is there anyway to tell if my sub and amp are wired for two or four ohms with out taking my sub out of the box? My amp can handle either and my sub has a switch on it for changing between the two
if the sub is set at 2ohms then the amp will automatically run at 2ohms.
i think the black wire coming off the LOC is a optional ground wire, if your getting any engine noise you can use that wire to ground the LOC to help eliminate it.
Last edited by cyberquest; 10-21-2016 at 09:52 AM.
if the sub is set at 2ohms then the amp will automatically run at 2ohms.
i just fear when the installer looked at the work the other guy did and saw the incorrect wiring job he may have flipped it over to 4 ohms thinking the guy meant to wire it at 4. This sub has a switch that changes between the two. Either that or something is wrong again. It just doesn't hit as hard as before I feel. At 4 ohms I'd be getting 350w RMS and at 2 I'd be getting 500 W RMS. I also checked out the output graphs from the sub's manual and this thing should be hitting 100 or 105 DB sealed at 2 ohms and 97-102 for 4 ohms sealed. Keep in mind my middle seat is folded down to further increase cabin gain...
you can take a multimeter and set it to ohms, then just hook it up to the leads coming out of the sub box and it should tell you what its running at.
Thanks alot! I was able to find one after digging in the tool boxes my dad has for a while lol. Actually is at 2 ohms, so I made sure to recheck all of my connections and make sure they're all tight. Even checked my AUX cord. Did another DB reading and it's back to hitting 100 DB or so in the 30-40hz range! This system never ceases to confuse me. Can't wait to deaden the trunk and increase that number a bit and remove rattles. It just isn't as tight as I'd like
i started a new job today so i see a sub getting added to mine sometime soon, not in a big rush but all i need is one sub and i will use the Punch 50.1 i have laying around. my buddy has a Skar VD 8" laying on a shelf in his shop so thats probably what i will go with.
i am also working on a box for my sons thunderbird that i should have finished up tonight and then i can paint it and maybe get it installed tomorrow.
i started a new job today so i see a sub getting added to mine sometime soon, not in a big rush but all i need is one sub and i will use the Punch 50.1 i have laying around. my buddy has a Skar VD 8" laying on a shelf in his shop so thats probably what i will go with.
i am also working on a box for my sons thunderbird that i should have finished up tonight and then i can paint it and maybe get it installed tomorrow.
Looks like a quality box! How long have you been building your own boxes? And is it hard to do your own?
been building them for a few years and no its not that hard if you use a box building program. you can find them free on the internet and they will show you how to build all kinds of different boxes. some are more complex then others like bandpass boxes and 1/4 wave boxes because air space is very crucial and miscalculations can really effect the sound.
the one i built above is pretty simple, i just put my overall measurement of the box in and then tweek everything to get the proper airspace and port size. that box has 1cf of space just like your box and that space is just the larger area in the front of the box, as soon as the port starts in the back thats no longer "useable" airspace and that space is used by the port. its called a L port box and its obvious to see why its called that. if you just make a straight port box its even easier. i like the L ports because you can tune them very low, this one is tuned at 34hz.
first test fit in the Thunderbird. fits like a glove....thank god....lol. it looks more at home then the temporary box we were using, and with this box actually aiming the port and the sub towards the rear of the car we should get a lot more sound out of it too.
this was the old temporary box that i built for something else and we just threw it in there so he had something to listen to.
we painted it with stuff called Make it Stone just to give it a different look, we didnt worry about smoothing the box out because its hidden in the trunk so the finished look to him wasnt that important. he just wants it done so he can listen to it. in the morning after this stuff has dried real good i will clear the whole box with the same clear i use to paint cars with so it will seal it up real nice. normally i would sand the box a lot and use some bodyfiller to make the seams disappear so it appears to be seamless, but again he didnt care he just wanted to paint it and get it installed.
Wow I'm surprised at how that spray paint turned out honestly! From afar it looks carpeted actually. Good color choice. Might want to go ported with this setup eventually, but a ported that gives good sound quality lol
all finished up and installed, now we just need to figure out where we are mounting the amp and get the wiring cleaned up. now keep in mind when you go ported the box will be much larger, this box is as big as we could make it in the space we had and its a rather large box for a single 8" sub.
Size isn't an issue lol I had two P1s ported. They were twelves and the box wasn't much longer or deeper than the box for your son tbh. Prefab sacrifice. Do you make sure to Velcro your boxes or do you use a different approach? I have found Velcro quite effective and wish I had done so with my 12s
we went with the 8" because of space, we wanted it to tuck up in that extra space in the trunk. anything larger would hand out over the spare tire and you can see the small bars that run across the top of the box which are the "springs" that hold the truink open. from the floor to those bars there is only 10" of room and the 8" is the only size that would work. we had to squeeze the box in under those bars and its pretty much wedged in there so no need for anything extra to stop if from moving around.
After seeing the video of that thing, I think an 8 is just fine . You planning on speakers? If you want to keep the box in, I've heard you could take some cheap black paint and put a bit on the corners under the box or floor and let it dry. Keeps box held in place If Velcro is an issue.
Decided to turn the gain up a little bit to see what the sub can do. Not leaving it at this setting, just to see if it is distorting. This is at like 5.5/10. It's playing "Don't Tread on Me" by Metallica off of the CD so maximum quality. You guys think it's distorting? https://youtu.be/lWe_YzFcZns
It's virtually impossible to tell based on that video. Have you considered taking it back to the stereo shop and having them tune it for you? As you probably already know gain adjustments are based on input voltage and sending distorted signal to your subwoofer will eventually destroy it.
It's virtually impossible to tell based on that video. Have you considered taking it back to the stereo shop and having them tune it for you? As you probably already know gain adjustments are based on input voltage and sending distorted signal to your subwoofer will eventually destroy it.
When the guy rewired it he said my settings looked fine to him after I asked. I was just playing with the gain for that video to see what I could turn it to before distortion as I don't have the tools or experience to really measure. I turned it down because it just didn't sound right and with Rap it had crazy excursion that didn't seem normal
Make sure you turn the bass boost all the way down when adjusting gains...
Never use bass boost. I also never have sub or bass on the HU at anything higher than 0. Just glad I found it's threshold so I can set it just right. Also set lpf a little lower since my speakers actually have pretty good mid bass. Just tested a Shinedown and Soundgarden song. Perfect bass
After seeing the video of that thing, I think an 8 is just fine . You planning on speakers? If you want to keep the box in, I've heard you could take some cheap black paint and put a bit on the corners under the box or floor and let it dry. Keeps box held in place If Velcro is an issue.
we put new 3.5" speakers in the dash with some 300hz bass blockers, and we have some 5x7 Cadance Audio speakers we will put in the rear i just need to pick up some adapters. the stock size are 6x9 but i have a brand new pair of 5x7s in a box sitting here so we are just gonna install $10 adapters and run them since we already have them. and this is more then enough stereo for a 16yr in their first car, he doesnt need it to be too distracting. now we work on the paint and other things to make it "cool" like some chrome engine parts, probably a nice dual exhaust so you can hear the V8 rumble a little...lol.
i dont ever mess with the bass boost on a amp most of the time either and i normally also have my bass on the HD unit set at zero or below. i do have it turned up a little in my wifes pathfinder on her Precision Power Black Ice amp because that amp just doesnt have much bite to it. it wasnt until i tweeked it that the amp came alive a little.
WDPinit: Watched the video, hard to tell distortion wise but It sounded fine to me. Maybe get it to the point where you start questioning whether it is or not, then back it off just a bit? or take it back to the shop see if they have tools to check flat top distortion.
Cyber: That's a cool new box. Your son will have a pretty nice setup for his first car. My first car(cutlass) was a cheap ass walmart amp(it was purple that's all i remember) with some pioneer 4x10's and one of those all in one bazooka subs lol. Can't wait to hear how that ole RF amp powers the skar 8 when u get that set up.
It sounded a bit distorted so yes I backed it off just a tad and now it sounds really good. This sub is pretty sensitive to settings which I think is a good thing as it shows it's a quality sub IMO. My P1s weren't too sensitive to changes with amp settings.
Cyberquest, your son's car will definitely be sounding good soon! You're also pretty lucky you have old RF amps to use as I have heard great things about them. 3x5s up front may be a little small for now, but you can always upgrade. Bass is all that really matters for him at that age anyway haha. And for a teenager there's nothing like pulling up to school with a nice system lol. I felt kinda bad ass pulling into the lot bumping, which was only a year ago haha. Has your son worked with you at all on building the system?
yes he cut all the wood for the box then we assembled it together , and he has helped me build a couple other boxes as well. the new box has a much deeper sound to it then the old one and i think it would sound even better if there wasnt a huge rust hole in the lower quarter panel on the drivers side. i think a lot of the sound is lost out that hole and not letting it resonate in the trunk like it should. i dont really want to fix the rust on his car since its his first car but i think i may repair that hole and possibly do some dynamat down the road sometime. a newer Cd player would probably make it all sound a little better too, all in time....lol. if 6 months from now the car is still in one piece then we will see about some upgrades.
the new box has a much deeper sound to it then the old one and i think it would sound even better if there wasnt a huge rust hole in the lower quarter panel on the drivers side.
I had an old Chevy Malibu(1981 if i remember correctly) that had the same problem, rusted through the bottom could see the ground from the trunk. Visible from the outside as well. I just took an entire can of that expanding spray foam and filled it all up. It expanded and dried, shaved it down to match the contour of the panel and primed it. Never fixed it the right way, but the rusty hole was gone :-D
yep we use spray foam all the time, not the best way to do things but when you just need t fixed its a easy was to go. i will probably put a small patch panel over the hole then fill in the area with foam and call it a day.
Well the amp has thrown itself into protection mode again.. Since my installer has checked everything he could, I'm buying an Alpine MRV M-500. Still, I want to ask. What amp malfunction or broken component in the amp could cause it to play for a while and then just randomly throw itself into protect? Ground wire was checked a couple months ago just as my fuse holder and fuse was replaced. My wiring to the sub was also redone
honestly its hard to tell. i have a 1600w Autotek amp i just piched the other day, it acted just like yours and would kick into protection mode for no given reason. even tried it in different cars and sometimes it would work and other times it wouldnt. finally got tired of messing with it and pitched it.
that Alpine doesnt look too bad and not a bad price.
honestly its hard to tell. i have a 1600w Autotek amp i just piched the other day, it acted just like yours and would kick into protection mode for no given reason. even tried it in different cars and sometimes it would work and other times it wouldnt. finally got tired of messing with it and pitched it.
that Alpine doesnt look too bad and not a bad price.
Yes, the reviews are great and it's said to be very clean. Not happy to spend the $ tho lol. Since I'm spending $ I think I'll throw in a kit of sound deadening too. Ive literally had everything checked with this amp and I'm done with fucking with it lol. Is switching out an amp pretty easy for a first timer?
Well the amp has thrown itself into protection mode again.. Since my installer has checked everything he could, I'm buying an Alpine MRV M-500. Still, I want to ask. What amp malfunction or broken component in the amp could cause it to play for a while and then just randomly throw itself into protect? Ground wire was checked a couple months ago just as my fuse holder and fuse was replaced. My wiring to the sub was also redone
Heat, bad ground, failing power supply, etc.... Alpine used to be a very reputable company in car audio but like many has fallen victim to overseas mass production. Have you considered old school (used or like new) equipment? There are many advantages that I think get overlooked that would be beneficial to most consumers.
10-19-2016, 11:29 PM
. You planning on speakers? If you want to keep the box in, I've heard you could take some cheap black paint and put a bit on the corners under the box or floor and let it dry. Keeps box held in place If Velcro is an issue.
