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Thanks for the wealth of info! I actually popped the hood and took a look at the ground wire and fuse and all seemed well and no problems with protect mode after that. I recorded a video of when the amp was going in and out of protect and it was like a constant going back and forth with the light flashing from red to blue, too bad I can't post the video here. The ground wire should be grounded correctly because a few months ago I had a shop check everything inc. ground wire because I was having a similar issue, but the amp was going into protect for much longer periods of time. Turned out everything was fine, just the fuse was a little loose causing a shitty connection. To correct it, the guy provided me with new fuses that won't do that. Anyway, power wire is 4 guage and 18ft. The brand I used was Knuconceptz 4 guage amp kit, low price, but very good ratings on Amazon and even the guy at the audio shop said it was true 4 AWG. If anything, I'm not making the amp work as hard. Gain is set at like 4 or 5 out of 10 and the sub is actually like 350W RMS. Crutchfield said this will take 500W without trouble, though. My last setup was 2 ported 12" Rockford Fosgate P1 subs and that setup was 500w RMS. I had gain set at like 5 or 6. I play my music loud and my lights never dimmed. On another note, if my low pass filter is in fact set right and I am using a good sealed sub, is SQ based music supposed to have an almost transparent bass that just blends with the front stage? Thanks again for all of this info, it will definitely be of good help to me and anyone else who browses this thread!
not going to lie i had to research SQ music to even know what your talking about....lol. i am 42 and not very up to date on techno music so i am not sure how it would sound, although i do like dub step but thats only because i have a 16 year old son. we will be setting up a system in his car sometime today
the only other thing that i can think that may be causing your problem is where your amp is mounted, and i am very guilty of mounting the amp directly to the box also. it is a bad idea for two reasons though, one its absorbing all the vibrations from your sub and could be vibrating some of the electrical components and can cause the amp to "go bad", the second reason its bad is it makes it very easy for a thief to steal all your stuff in one easy grab....lol.
the gain is also misunderstood by a lot of people and it wasnt until i really started getting into bigger setups that i spent time researching it more. most people think the gain is somewhat like a volume control for the amp, but its true purpose is to match the amps voltage current to the head unit. i think i mentioned earlier in the thread how to set your amps gain with a multimeter but this will help explain it a little more.
Thanks for the wealth of info! I actually popped the hood and took a look at the ground wire and fuse and all seemed well and no problems with protect mode after that. I recorded a video of when the amp was going in and out of protect and it was like a constant going back and forth with the light flashing from red to blue, too bad I can't post the video here. The ground wire should be grounded correctly because a few months ago I had a shop check everything inc. ground wire because I was having a similar issue, but the amp was going into protect for much longer periods of time. Turned out everything was fine, just the fuse was a little loose causing a shitty connection. To correct it, the guy provided me with new fuses that won't do that. Anyway, power wire is 4 guage and 18ft. The brand I used was Knuconceptz 4 guage amp kit, low price, but very good ratings on Amazon and even the guy at the audio shop said it was true 4 AWG. If anything, I'm not making the amp work as hard. Gain is set at like 4 or 5 out of 10 and the sub is actually like 350W RMS. Crutchfield said this will take 500W without trouble, though. My last setup was 2 ported 12" Rockford Fosgate P1 subs and that setup was 500w RMS. I had gain set at like 5 or 6. I play my music loud and my lights never dimmed. On another note, if my low pass filter is in fact set right and I am using a good sealed sub, is SQ based music supposed to have an almost transparent bass that just blends with the front stage? Thanks again for all of this info, it will definitely be of good help to me and anyone else who browses this thread!
If you have a phase switch on the amp check it. So yeah when you lower your x-over point it will pull the bass "forward" a bit. This is normal (esp. with a 12db slope) and preferred by alot of SQ seekers. The concept is to NOT be able to locate the subwoofer position by listening but to be "engulfed" by the notes as it all blends together. It's all personal preference but if you ask me it sounds like your getting closer to achieving better sonic results. Have you thought about upgrading your amp or amping up your components? OEM stuff is very limited and flexibility to blend with aftermarket products.
Having the amp mounted on the box isn't the best idea, but it really is one of the only simple choices lol like if you look at pictures of other installs they're custom mounted. I'll have to try out the phase switch tomorrow. Should I set it closer to 90 or 180 degrees? My middle seat is folded down to let more bass in and so I can keep an eye on the amp. Only went into protect like twice today for a couple seconds. And cyber, when I say sq I don't mean techno necessary haha. I'm referring to any music meant to have a nice clean sound to it. This can Include anything from Sublime to Ed Sheeran haha. Bchester, my next purchases for the car is trunk deadener and maybe do the doors to for better sound. An amp isn't in mind anytime soon. The speakers I have sound pretty good and plenty loud but that's also because they're 2 ohm and played at like 25 haha. I play them loud and they still sound nice and clear so they satisfy my needs. My father actually has the same speakers in his car powered off of an Alpine power pack and while they are somewhat louder and maybe a tiny bit clearer, I think the factory amp gives them a warmer and more pleasing sound in my car. An amp may be a possibility if I get the $.
you know WD i would almost agree on a amp on the door speakers, on my previous daily driver (2002 Ford Escape) i had a kenwood touch screen dvd player with Cadence Audio door speakers and a MB Quart 1000w mono amp running two 12s at 1ohm. i never thought that the subs out blasted the door speakers with no amp on them and just the head unit running them. then i built a console box to sit between the front seats to hold the 8" Skar Audio sub and figured since i would need to add another amp for the extra sub that i would go with a MB Quart 1100w 5 channel amp. 4 channels ran the door speakers and the 5th channel ran the 8" sub.
i had the 4 channels bridged to two channels so i could run the front speakers together and the rears together so it would drop them down to 2ohms instead of 4ohms. so they were running 150w at 2ohms to the fronts and 150w to thre rear speakers. could i tell that they were louder....YES....was it a huge difference....NO. given the head unit is 50w per channel adding the amp only gave the door speakers 25w more power then the head unit was giving them. and even the addition of the extra 8" console box didnt really add much more bass then the two 12s were putting out. it add a lot more bass to the front of the car where you sat and all the bass didnt seem to come from the back but it really wasnt any louder per say.
for all the extra wiring i had to do which included running two extra sets of rca cables to the back then running all new wiring to the door speakers and the cost of the amp do i think it was all worth it....NOPE. in the end i took out the 5 channel amp and extra 8" sub because it just didnt make a big enough difference to really justify all the extra equipment needed to run it all. i even went from two 12s down to the single 12" box i have pictured here in the thread. and with the 1000w amp not splitting the power between two subs it made the one sub even louder since it was getting all 1000w instead of 500w. i honestly think with just one 12 running and no amp on the door speakers it was just as loud as it was with the extra amp running the doors speakers and 8" sub and the second 12" sub.
it was also nice to reclaim most of my hatch area back and be able to use it again....lol.
This is an interesting comparison as not all watts are measured the same.. Having extra clean power on tap gives you maximum headroom for dynamic passages in music. Amp power versus head unit power should never be compared as the latter produces distorted signals once you get in the upper half of the volume knob and typically do not hold any sonic integrity if played for any long duration of time. Just a fact based on sub-optimal design and schematics whereas a dedicated amplifier is designed to execute this exact thing utilizing better components and schematics. In my opinion, it's better to have the power provided by a capable amplifier and not use it (lower gains) than to max out a less than capable source such as head unit or otherwise.
Tunability is another HUGE feature when you're talking about amping every speaker in your vehicle because blending a 1000 watt subwoofer to a system that has 25 watt speakers is a challenge to say the least, one of which I have never seen executed successfully in my 25 years of doing installations.
yes you do have much more tuning capabilities with a external amp for running your door speakers but as you mentioned in one of your previous posts i believe it also has a lot to do with user preference. with having a wife and two kids its not often that i am by myself to be able to jam out, and having 90% of my hatch area taken up with stereo equipment made using my car for things like going to the store pretty useless.
after removing my amp for running the door speakers i found that the head unit provided more then enough power to run them for my personal tastes. i remember back in the day running a 40 watter "power booster" that were pushing two house speakers in the trunk before big car stereos were a thing. and all that was being played through a two prong cassette player, talk about bad sound quality...lol.
I think the reason why I'm for the most part satisfied with the sound comes down the factory system design. It really isn't bad for what it is. Speakers are powered off of an amp instead of the headunit, given they're probably only getting 25w lol. The system is also 2 ohm so it maximizes power. Added a 2 Ohm pair of components and tuned the crossover right and it really is a fairly decent sounding setup for just speakers added. If the volume levels are just fine to my 18 year old ears, then they probably sound even louder to you guys haha. I ran the stock speakers with treble at max and these are still louder with treble set at 0. I agree an amp is important for optimizing sound, but if your stock system already has a halfway decent one, you might as well utilize it unless you have the time and $ to put in a better amp. For me, I think the most cost effective option is to buy some sound deadener and do the doors. Less road noise and speaker vibration on metal, so better sound overall. Another member on here did that to the doors on his wife's Civic with stock speakers and saw great results.
my son and i just installed a system in his car last night in a 1981 Thunderbird, single 8" Skar Audio sub and a Rockford Fosgate 300w amp and it sounds much better then i thought it would. we used the old console box i built for my escape which is a L shaped box and the way it sits in the car the sub is facing the passenger side quarter panel and the port is facing the drivers side. for the speaker and port being in a odd location for being mounted in a trunk. we just used the box for now until i get a chance to build one specific for the car, i have two sheets of wood laying here so its just a matter of me having a free evening to build it.
the rockford amp is a older one that i have had for years and it still work and sounds great. this amp is a 2004 model so its 12 years old, my son is only 16 so its almost as old as he is. we also used a older sony cd player and it too is almost as old as him.
i am gonna get a video later today so you can see this little 8" sub getting down....lol.
Last edited by cyberquest; 10-07-2016 at 07:30 AM.
the trunk rattles but not too horrible, but the trunk isnt completely sealed because its got a big rust hole in the drivers quarter panel and you can see the road from inside the trunk...lol. and with the older stereo and older amp, and no passages in the trunk to get the sound into the cabin it sounds pretty good for a single 8". if you got in the car and heard it without seeing whats in the trunk you would guess it had at least a pair of 10s.
I haven't done an audio install in years. Does anyone still use capacitors? They used to help tremendously and I see a 2 fareds on amazon for like $30??? These used to be $100-150 for 1 fared like 15yrs ago... We used to run 4 gauge to the trunk standard, fuse @ battery. Few needed extra alternator.
funky L shaped box. keep in mind we just kinda quickly put this together last night and the box will be changed shortly so we havent got anything mounted yet everything is just laying there.
That is weird. but i guess running sealed, have to get the minimum airspace. I always preferred bandbass or vented. More bass for ur buck..
With the other pics i see it is ported, looks like it works well and a place to mount ur amps. Video has no sound. It was always fun making custom sub boxes... ahh back when I had time for these things...
^^ sorry the video is so crappy ^^ my digital camera stopped working and i had to use my wifes tablet and with the sun out i could barely see the screen to see what i was shooting. since they cut the sound some of what i am shooting doesnt make sense like point the tablet at the trunk, it was me trying to show the rattle that the trunk was making but without sound it just looks like i am a idiot....lol.
I can hear it with my eyes :-) Rearview didn't fall off but it's sure movin!
Is that the MA Series? looks like a nice sub for the $. Damn everything is sooo much cheaper than it used to be. $100 400 Watt RMS, that true RMS? I've never heard of skar.. But looks pretty heavy.. The heavier it is the better it sounds... Amps subs speakers etc.. Home and car audio... if it weighs alot, I'll take it!
atomlinks: yes thats the Skar MA series and is a true 400 rms, and i have spoken with one of the techs at Skar and asked if their SK-M5001D amp (rated at 500rms) would be ok to run the MA and he told me as long as i didnt get crazy with the gain it would be a great amp for that sub. its priced at around $150 i think.
like i mentioned the first time we heard one of their subs i was hooked right away, for the price you cant beat it. the first one we ordered was one of their VD series subs which are their shallow mount subs because they didnt require as much cubic feet of space from the box. that was for the one little box pictured on page one that uses the PVC port and that was a 0.5cf box with a 20" long 4" round port.
here is a picture of the VD series sitting next to the MA series. (VD on the left, MA on the right) and as you can see even their shallow mount sub is pretty stout and it too sounds amazing. you can get them in either dual 4 or dual 2 ohms and the ones we have as you can see are the dual 2 ohms.
WD: the cars interior is in pretty good shape minus the drivers seat having the one tear in it and with it being red interior its faded a little. the outside isnt as nice but believe it or not my 16yr old son loves the car and it kind of took me by surprise that he actually liked it. we paid $800 for it and it runs great (small block 302 V8) and drive and rides like a luxury car. we had plans to buy him a little nicer car around tax time when we had more cash but he said he wants to keep it and wants to spend money fixing it up.
here is what it looks like on the outside, we have plans to give it a paint job and some decent wheels and tires.
I'd take the one on the right 4 sure. I've never run anything less than 10's but these MA 8's look great and if I were to add something I would get this sub. Not sure about that amp. amazon says its 4 lbs? A little lighter than I would expect for a decent mono amp but technology may have changed a bit since I last looked @ this stuff. I guess I'm a little old school, if I have the choice between 2 pieces of audio equipment and its close, i'll always go for the one that weighs more, hasn't let me down yet :-) But for $250 for both the amp and sub cant go wrong!
When you said $800 that reminded me of my first car, i paid the exact same for my 1978 Cutlass, had a 305 V8. I look forward to the day I can help my kids fix up their car.
that Skar amp is one of there "mini" amps, a lot of companies are making them now and they still pack the same punch as the larger amp. i havent heard the Skar one in person but i have heard one of the American Bass mini amps and it sounded amazing.
i am old school too, as you can see by the Rockford Amp we installed in his Thunderbird. i even have one of the old Rockford Fosgate 50.1 "cheater" amps laying here. somewhere around 1997 i believe and they called them cheater amps because although they were rated at 50 watts you push upwards of 400-500 watts out of them....lol. they had 2 power wire inputs and 2 ground wire inputs.
Last edited by cyberquest; 10-08-2016 at 04:09 PM.
i have a few other older amps laying around that dont work anymore but cant bring myself to get rid of them, they may not work but its cool just seeing the older technology. i have always been a huge fan of Rockford Fosgate and anytime i run across any of their older stuff i cant help but snatch it up. i have a nice pair of older Punch HE 12's that are just begging to be installed in something. i would really like to do a complete system with "vintage" rockford stuff but to have a actual complete system i would need one of these...its not that i cant find one its that they are pricey as hell.
Last edited by cyberquest; 10-08-2016 at 07:05 PM.
It would be cool to see a "vintage" system lol.. I never had any Rockford head unit's. I was always interested in which ones had the best/most preouts. I'd rather run all preouts for everything. I'd leave stock wiring in there but if you're gonna spend $$ on good component speakers gotta run all new wiring and power. Most headunits could never push decent speakers to their full potential.
The last system I had was in an old 1990's jimmy(gmc blazer).. I only could find one picture of her.. Anyway.. I can't remember all of the specifics(this was back in 2001-2002). I do remember I had 6 10's(MA Audio I believe - not the best but the magnets were the size of the cone, heavy and I couldnt complain) 2 huge amps, HO alternator, yellowtop(complete crap IMHO) and i believe a 1.5 or 2fared cap. I wanna say the subs were 6ohm wired in parallel, 2boxes stacked with 3 subs each. Cargo Area completely filled, couldn't even see out the rear window... Anyway, It was broken into 2x, windows smashed etc. Headunit stolen along with amps, and damaged subs(couldnt get them out easily). Insurance paid thankfully, but after all of that I decided that I needed tone it down a bit. I wanted one or two subs so I had to sell the 6ohms, couldn't really do much with 1 or two of them... Ended up getting the Rockford power series subs and decent amp that was hidden easily for a few years until I sold the truck. Rockford definitely has/had some good stuff. I remember that power series being pretty good but I wanna say it was like $400 just for one of them :-(
yes there power series stuff has a hefty price tag, i have never been able to afford anything above their punch series and usually only end up with it as used equipment. thats why its nice to see new companies coming out like Skar Audio that are offering a decent product for reasonable prices. another company that offers some affordable stuff is Power Accoustik, we have two of there 10" Crypt series in my wifes Pathfinder being run by a Precision Power Black Ice 1300w amp in a pre-made Bassworx box. we call the Bassworx box the "magic box" because its one of the best sounded boxes i have ever heard.
these 10" can handle 720w rms and cost about $65 and the sound pretty good for a low buck sub.
the Precision Power amp costs around $100 and its maybe not the best sounding amp i have ever heard but not bad for the price.
sucks to hear about your stolen stuff, i too have had a couple setups go missing. no worse feeling then to get up for work and looking forward to jamming your stereo on the way to work on to see your rca cables hanging out of the trunk/hatch. now that i am a little older and a little wiser we have a general rule of thumb that we dont jam our stuff within a couple block of the house because typically its someone local to you that hears your system playing everyday, either that or so called "friends".
Power Accoustik - Ya that name sounds familiar now.. Those were the 2 big amps I had. for the $$ couldnt beat. I used to have an account at a place called "The Wholesale House" in Hicksville Ohio. That was one of the brands that they carried along with MA Audio. I remember getting the biggest amps that they had at the time. Of couse it was wholesale price, but I don't remember them being that inexpensive. I think they have different series of amps.
The break-ins happened in a couple of apartment complex's in Toledo... Certainly not in the best of neighborhoods. I almost had a 3rd break-in, but had the compustar remote start/alarm that went off and was able to chase them away :-) The thieves left a nice big Mag flashlight behind for me though :-)
want to know something funny since we both live in ohio, i get most of my stuff from the wholesale house also...lol. my friend owns a window tinting shop next to my house (literally about ten steps from my backyard) he does remote starts and car stereo installs and i get my stuff at his cost. thats where the Skar Audio subs came from, my MB Quart amps, the power accoustik subs,the precision power amp....pretty much any of the new stuff i have. he is also who i get most of the used stuff i buy because he tries to keep peoples old stuff when they upgrade, sometimes he buys it and sometimes people just give it to him.
the one thing i like is their warranty program, you have up to one year to return stuff as long as you have the box they came in and all the stuff that came with them. the first setup i did in my escape was a super low budget setup with 4 Boss 12's and two Boss 3000w amps, it was loud but i fired 3 out of the 4 subs and i just sent it all back and upgraded to the American Bass 12's and the Mb Quart amps. it did cost about $60 to send it all back but that sure beats a entire loss.
with ebay you can get stuff for about the same price as from The Wholesale House but if anything happens your screwed, so i always just get my stuff from them and it gets here overnight since i am in ohio.
[QUOTE=atomlinks;15868084]It would be cool to see a "vintage" system lol.. I never had any Rockford head unit's. I was always interested in which ones had the best/most preouts. I'd rather run all preouts for everything. I'd leave stock wiring in there but if you're gonna spend $$ on good component speakers gotta run all new wiring and power. Most headunits could never push decent speakers to their full potential.
Now we're talking!! Here you go for old school install in my TSX wagon. Xtant 5 channel amp and eq (pre Mitek), Boston Pro 6.5LF midranges, A/D/S tweeters and a Boston Pro 12.5LF sub. Even the power wires and speaker wires are old school and from that era. Only thing modern is the stock head unit And yes it sounds amazing and pure as shit. Although newer products are highly efficient and provide great value, NOBODY can argue the superior build quality of old school car audio. Rock on!!
want to know something funny since we both live in ohio, i get most of my stuff from the wholesale house also...lol. my friend owns a window tinting shop next to my house (literally about ten steps from my backyard) he does remote starts and car stereo installs and i get my stuff at his cost. thats where the Skar Audio subs came from, my MB Quart amps, the power accoustik subs,the precision power amp....pretty much any of the new stuff i have. he is also who i get most of the used stuff i buy because he tries to keep peoples old stuff when they upgrade, sometimes he buys it and sometimes people just give it to him.
the one thing i like is their warranty program, you have up to one year to return stuff as long as you have the box they came in and all the stuff that came with them. the first setup i did in my escape was a super low budget setup with 4 Boss 12's and two Boss 3000w amps, it was loud but i fired 3 out of the 4 subs and i just sent it all back and upgraded to the American Bass 12's and the Mb Quart amps. it did cost about $60 to send it all back but that sure beats a entire loss.
with ebay you can get stuff for about the same price as from The Wholesale House but if anything happens your screwed, so i always just get my stuff from them and it gets here overnight since i am in ohio.
Thats crazy man.. I wonder if my account is still active, lol. I started buying stuff from them back in 1994-95ish as a teenager. It was under an hour drive for us, never had anything shipped. They used to have a yellow/red cover catalog that was pretty thick. Couldn't buy from them unless you were a business. So I went and got a vendors license just to buy stuff for myself, but soon after that a buddy and me actually did turn it into a legit business out of the garage/onsite. We did installs, custom boxes, undercar lighting(those old neon tubes) tint, pretty much anything.
Back then u could mark up stuff like crazy(without ebay amazon etc) especially wiring. I laugh everytime I need to buy some wire from best buy now because I know they prob mark it up like 70%. I'm guessing it would be a little more tough to run these days unless you are just focused on charging for labor on installs. They were pretty good about returns on blown up stuff. We tried getting our own shop but financing fell through and it just fizzled after that. Ahh broken dreams of a teenager, haha...
It would be cool to see a "vintage" system lol.. I never had any Rockford head unit's. I was always interested in which ones had the best/most preouts. I'd rather run all preouts for everything. I'd leave stock wiring in there but if you're gonna spend $$ on good component speakers gotta run all new wiring and power. Most headunits could never push decent speakers to their full potential.
Now we're talking!! Here you go for old school install in my TSX wagon. Xtant 5 channel amp and eq (pre Mitek), Boston Pro 6.5LF midranges, A/D/S tweeters and a Boston Pro 12.5LF sub. Even the power wires and speaker wires are old school and from that era. Only thing modern is the stock head unit And yes it sounds amazing and pure as shit. Although newer products are highly efficient and provide great value, NOBODY can argue the superior build quality of old school car audio. Rock on!!
I hear ya man! Sounds like you have a nice clean system. I've always wondered if some people really don't know what distortion sounds like? Some just turn their shit up as loud as they can. Their subs drown out the mid and high distortion, but it really is there :-D I mean do they not hear the distortion @ all? that ruins speakers/subs. I like my stuff loud, just clean loud :-) I'm rather impressed by the stock 2009 TL/Tech I picked up. The sound system isn't loud by any stretch, but its clean at the levels i like to listen to stuff now :-D Mid life crisis may be coming up in a few years and I'll have to get back into this stuff, That's if I don't have hearing aids by then. haha..
BChester: nice setup in the wagon, and nice job on the custom fiberglass box very stealth looking. i would have rather not seen that Extant amp though, that was one of my favorite amps that got stolen, just makes me sad some douche bag has it now cause i would still have it because they sound amazing.
Atom: my buddy usually gives me a text when he is ordering from the wholesale house because he places big orders and they dont charge as much shipping when he places big orders.
and now you guys have me wanting to do a vintage system. my wife will not be happy....lol.
Wow you guys have some sick setups! Definitely put mine to shame haha! Once I get my degree and job I hope to get a sick setup done, preferably with Image Dynamics and Focal stuff . Update on the TL, took it into the shop thinking my amp was bad. Other guys didn't do the greatest job wiring the amp up to the box and what not lol. I didn't think this would have much of an effect on sound other than protect mode, but it all sounds noticeably cleaner.
I hear ya man! Sounds like you have a nice clean system. I've always wondered if some people really don't know what distortion sounds like? Some just turn their shit up as loud as they can. Their subs drown out the mid and high distortion, but it really is there :-D I mean do they not hear the distortion @ all? that ruins speakers/subs. I like my stuff loud, just clean loud :-) I'm rather impressed by the stock 2009 TL/Tech I picked up. The sound system isn't loud by any stretch, but its clean at the levels i like to listen to stuff now :-D Mid life crisis may be coming up in a few years and I'll have to get back into this stuff, That's if I don't have hearing aids by then. haha..
People want a ton of bass and you cant do anything to convince them otherwise. The customer is always right even if it's distorted garbage coming out.
Ok guys, I have a new question/idea. What would happen to the sound if I decided to point my subwoofer towards the cabin and put my phase at 180 degrees? Considering my middle seat has a ski pass (folds down) would this give me better quality sound? I heard cancellation can occur by pointing the sub towards the cabin but shouldn't flipping the phase switch balance that out? Also, I will take the tips on adding an amp to the speakers. I should get plenty of $ by the end of the year so an amp won't be a problem then. The 2 channel amp I'm looking at is only $89 so I'm thinking of investing some $ into a better LOC for my system (AudioControl LC7i)
Ok guys, I have a new question/idea. What would happen to the sound if I decided to point my subwoofer towards the cabin and put my phase at 180 degrees? Considering my middle seat has a ski pass (folds down) would this give me better quality sound? I heard cancellation can occur by pointing the sub towards the cabin but shouldn't flipping the phase switch balance that out? Also, I will take the tips on adding an amp to the speakers. I should get plenty of $ by the end of the year so an amp won't be a problem then. The 2 channel amp I'm looking at is only $89 so I'm thinking of investing some $ into a better LOC for my system (AudioControl LC7i)
I almost always had them facing the rear or sides never front facing if there was a rear seat between you and the trunk. But, it's all about the car, I mean you can have same exact setup/settings but put them in different cars and they can sound completely different. Really at the end of the day it's what sounds good to you with the type of music that you listen to etc.
Not sure how easy it is to replace your head unit, but I'd start there so you don't have to use any line out converters. I've never been a fan of them, but maybe tech has changed and they don't have the alternator whine issues that they used to have. For a quick sub install they are great, but if you are going to the trouble of putting in nice speakers and thick wire to them from an amp that is in the trunk or under the seat I'd like nice clean signal from the receiver to the amp's. Ohh and if you are taking the door panels off, throw some dynomat or similar in there before closing it back up.
I almost always had them facing the rear or sides never front facing if there was a rear seat between you and the trunk. But, it's all about the car, I mean you can have same exact setup/settings but put them in different cars and they can sound completely different. Really at the end of the day it's what sounds good to you with the type of music that you listen to etc.
Not sure how easy it is to replace your head unit, but I'd start there so you don't have to use any line out converters. I've never been a fan of them, but maybe tech has changed and they don't have the alternator whine issues that they used to have. For a quick sub install they are great, but if you are going to the trouble of putting in nice speakers and thick wire to them from an amp that is in the trunk or under the seat I'd like nice clean signal from the receiver to the amp's. Ohh and if you are taking the door panels off, throw some dynomat or similar in there before closing it back up.
Yeah, I was only asking because of how the middle seat folds down and it is about the size of my box and I heard a phase switch changes the direction of bass lol. Unfortunately, putting a head unit in the TL is quite tedious and expensive so it really isnt an option. I want a different head unit but LOC is really the only cost effective option here. Do you see a large difference in a cheap vs expensive LOC? If not, I'll just get a cheap one and take the $ I saved to deaden my doors and trunk.
I still think rear facing is your best bet, keeping that middle seat open would help too. Have you tried moving your box closer to the rear of the car, still rear facing? Might see a little gain there too, but sacrifice easy trunk storage :-) Maybe play around with a dB meter, I think there are even apps for your phone, not sure how good they are tho.
I hear ya on the head unit, same with my 09 TL, looks like there is no easy, cost effective solution other than using a converter. Is your current converter tied into the rear speakers? I guess you could get > 4 channel LOC and hook it up behind the dash, run your RCA's to the trunk or under seat to your amp. Then run all new 12 gauge to the doors/rear from the amp. In the future if you do upgrade the head unit, could toss the LOC and just plug it in to pre outs on the new head unit.
I haven't used these things in years though, couldn't tell you which ones are good other than looking @ reviews.
I still think rear facing is your best bet, keeping that middle seat open would help too. Have you tried moving your box closer to the rear of the car, still rear facing? Might see a little gain there too, but sacrifice easy trunk storage :-) Maybe play around with a dB meter, I think there are even apps for your phone, not sure how good they are tho.
I hear ya on the head unit, same with my 09 TL, looks like there is no easy, cost effective solution other than using a converter. Is your current converter tied into the rear speakers? I guess you could get > 4 channel LOC and hook it up behind the dash, run your RCA's to the trunk or under seat to your amp. Then run all new 12 gauge to the doors/rear from the amp. In the future if you do upgrade the head unit, could toss the LOC and just plug it in to pre outs on the new head unit.
I haven't used these things in years though, couldn't tell you which ones are good other than looking @ reviews.
Hmmm I'll have to try the db meter! It actually slid to towards the back last week because I had forgotten to secure it again after the guy st the shop rewired things lol. I don't remember the effect it had honestly. Generally speaking, are you supposed to have the box closer to the deck lid or not? Space isn't an issue. My LOC is tapped into the rear speakers which is nice because I can control bass and sub levels from the factory nav. I was looking at a 6 channel LOC and was wondering about what you brought up there, a good point lol. How will this affect sound? If I put in a new amp for speakers I can have one installed and the installers prob won't charge me any more to do so haha
10-04-2016, 09:55 PM
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. Update on the TL, took it into the shop thinking my amp was bad. Other guys didn't do the greatest job wiring the amp up to the box and what not lol. I didn't think this would have much of an effect on sound other than protect mode, but it all sounds noticeably cleaner.