Hey guys...you're friendly poster of novel-size messages here . I wanted to get feedback/suggestions from anyone about the system I am currently building. But I do ask one thing...and jbrown will be my watchdog if he sees this: please only post technical things if you know what you're talking about no offense guys. Here we go:

In a Black/Black 02 Acura TLS....
-2 JL 12 w7's: Installation in ported reflex .5" fiberglass composite box firing through port in rear deck into cabin, plexiglass facing into trunk, blue neon lighting
-1 JL 653CS: Consisting of 2 6.5" woofers, 2 midranges, 2 tweeters, 2 crossovers. Each of the woofers mounted in factory door locations, mids and tweeters located in custom vinyl wrapped fiberglass kickpanels
-1 JL 650CX: Consisting of 2 6.5" coaxials, 2 crossovers. Each coaxial will be mounted in factory door locations.
-1 JL 400CX: Consisting of 2 4" coaxials, 2 crossovers. Only one coaxial will be used (preliminary) and will be mounted either in the sunglass holder or most probably in the factory center vent location (the immovable factory vent)

-2 Rockford Fosgate 800a2 Power amps (rated 1000W bridged into 1 channel at 4 ohms): The amps will be mounted in custom fiberglass/plexiglass walls along the sides of the trunk. The plexiglass faces will have custom vinyl wrapped fiberglass "covers" that will hide them from view when not competing. Each amp will be powering 1 JL 12 w7, rated at 750W RMS into 3 ohms. Each amp will be delivering 1000W at 75% capacity at 3 ohms, and will be vented by 120mm fans for cooling by forced induction.
-2 Rockford Fosgate 400a4 Power amps (rated 250W bridged into 2 channels at 4 ohms): The amps will be mounted along with the 800a2 Power amps within the sidewall enclosure. One amp will deliver 180W to each crossover for the 650CS's in the front, the other delivering 180W to each crossover for the 650CX's in the rear.
-1 Rockford Fosgate 120a2 Power amp (rated at 140W bridged into 1 channel at 4 ohms): The amp will be mounted in the sub enclosure between and separated from the two subs by a plexiglass wall and vented with hidden 120mm fans. The amp will deliver 80W to the center channel placed in the front of the vehicle.

-The box will consist of 4 separate compartments and will be divided like so, the dots denoting empty space (top view):
toward front of car
__________________
| . . . . .| . | . . . . .|
| . . . . .|__| . . . . .|
| . . . . .| . | . . . . .|
|______|__|______|

toward rear of car


Each of the outside compartments will house the subwoofers and will be ported upward into the rear deck of the car. The two smaller compartments will house the computer and the 120a2 Power amp (fromt and rear respectively). The computer will be cooled by forced induction which will be exhausted through the hole in the rear deck made by the removal of the factory Bose speaker.

That's it guys...what do you all think? Ideas, suggestions? Anything? It was utter hell getting that picture to look right...hope it came out right.

Austin519

 

Good choice of components...JL AUDIO components are very clean. As for the mounting of the tweet....DON'T put it in the sunglass holder. Between the kick panels and the door speakers, you will have trouble tuning the system right if you put them up in the sunglass holder because the waves are gonna "crash" each other. Put it in the center vent like you said you will probably do, much better there and you will get much better staging.

I definitely dig the ported enclosure through the rear deck.....you know that's gonna drop low as hell And the plexi....well, you must know how I feel about plexi

I only have ONE question.....why use rockford to power interior components? For subs, they will kick the crap out of those JLs. I haven't personally heard the JL Component, Rockford AMP combo, but I have heard rockford on a lot of other components.....power is there, clarity is just not quite up to what it COULD be, know what I mean. Don't get me wrong, the amp you want to use is be no means inferior to others, I'm more curious as to what made you choose it

 

Street:
"Good choice of components...JL AUDIO components are very clean."
Heh heh I know...been competing with those babies for years.

"As for the mounting of the tweet....DON'T put it in the sunglass holder. Between the kick panels and the door speakers, you will have trouble tuning the system right if you put them up in the sunglass holder because the waves are gonna "crash" each other. Put it in the center vent like you said you will probably do, much better there and you will get much better staging."
I assume by that you think my center channel is a tweeter? Actually it's a 4" coaxial...so full range. I'd have to agree that as far as sound imaging goes the sunglass holder is most likely NOT the best solution to take advantage of. I assume you've done 02 TLS installs Street...which I haven't had the privilege to work on an 02 TLS yet. So, since my dash space is a premium for my touchscreen...it's going to have to be a vent. In looking at the vent space for the TLS...there's no WAY I can fit 2 4" coaxials...so that solves one issue. The center vent is composed of two vents, the left and more square one is the movable one, and the right one and non movable one is the smaller triangular shaped one. I'd prefer to take advantage of the latter...as it's a general nuisance to me, doesn't serve any purpose, etc etc etc. However I am worried I won't have enough room for just that vent. Tell me Street...when you pop the dash off do the vented slits just come out like they do on Fords and GMCs? Or do you have to cut/saw or anything? Also...you think I could fit a 4" coaxial in there? (I haven't yet opened my dash up).

"I definitely dig the ported enclosure through the rear deck.....you know that's gonna drop low as hell And the plexi....well, you must know how I feel about plexi"
Yeah, I have two guys up at JL I know pretty well, and we were discussing their modelling of a bandpass reflex...basically the box would be 2.5 cu ft with a 11" port. So yeah bandpass reflex isn't a reality with these. They're running ported in all their demo vehicles, and I always do ported if I can. And yes after seeing your current install I can tell you like plexi. Getting it cheap anywhere? Any tools you suggest, other than the obvious ones, that I don't know about?

"I only have ONE question.....why use rockford to power interior components? For subs, they will kick the crap out of those JLs. I haven't personally heard the JL Component, Rockford AMP combo, but I have heard rockford on a lot of other components.....power is there, clarity is just not quite up to what it COULD be, know what I mean. Don't get me wrong, the amp you want to use is be no means inferior to others, I'm more curious as to what made you choose it"
Actually the choice was pretty easy. Way back when I was running w6's in my car, I was running them off of 800a2 Power amps, which I got for a very good deal (dealer cost brand new actually). I ended up buying two of them...and at a price that you'd get for your low end Circuit-City style amps, I got these. I've always hated RF subs and components, they're too boomy for me...but these amps have a THD of .05%, and in actuality I've tested them at about .03% at 85% load with a computer modeller, and they're even lower than that at 75% load. So that's more or less the reason behind it. If I were to go out and find 2000 watts (at 4 ohms) of power in any other amps, I'd be looking at quite a lot of cash. And contrary to how it sounds, I don't have a lot to spend.

So let me know what you think about that center channel Street...I may want to ask you a couple of Q's about fiberglassing. As I'm thinking about redoing my interior in carbon fiber (the real stuff...we get it donated to us at solar car team) then I may wrap the box in carbon fiber for the hell of it

Austin519

 

if your gonna run the rockford for your highs, i would invest in a good eq of some sort... the amp is more than enough power, but like street said ...its not clear. maybe get an audiocontrol eqx and use it for the crossover too.

 

here is a small trick i wll pass on .... my mb quart tweets are mounted in that area where the trunk pop is ... right next to the mid. cant get the tweet any closer to the mid that that. i use the trunk pop off my alarm anyways, so the button was of no uses.

you will love the box being ported through the rear deck lid, the bass is so clear and strong, yet the trunk doesn't rattle... good luck !!

 

TLTypeS:
Thanks for the advice man. I've got an EQ....my computer =) Check my sig.
"my mb quart tweets are mounted in that area where the trunk pop is "
Hmm...my problem is that that'd mean cutting into stuff probably...at least to fit these JL tweets...and the rule I have for this install is: must be able to return to factory...that means no cutting oem parts...especially expensive ones that I'd hate to replace. I use that button 24/7 Heh heh. I'm gonna custom fab some tiny kickpanels for my mids and tweets...so they're literally right next to each other...but suggestion noted may use it if some Austinites ask me to install for them

Austin519

 

i found a closer place to the mids in the factory location, it required some cutting that no one will ever notice, but the difference in sound is very noticeable. the tweet overlaps the mid a little too..!!! so phase isnt that much of a problem..pathlengths and staging are a different story...