hey guys, im bored out of my mind so i figured id update you all on what got accomplished today in day 1 of my stereo install. heres what i am running for those who do not know:
-eclipse deck
-adire audio components (due for release mid october, running BA 6.5 coax's now)
-adire audio Koda 6.5 inch midbass (on the way)
-2 adire audio brahma subs running at 2 ohms total
-prototype (yes, the original) ttop well box from subthump
-custom subthump amp rack (on the way)
-2 Orion XTR xtreme 500^2 amps both running 125X2rms@4ohms (on the way, for now using a PPI PC275)
-1 Orion XTR pro 2400 running 2400X1rms@2ohms
-lightning audio 200 amp solenoid
-optima yellow top in the rear (lol)
-whole lot of lightening audio accesories and some other stuff

Day 1
me and my buddy ripped apart what we needed to so we could run 3 sets of rcas and all the wiring from up front to the rear. ran all the wiring for the solenoid but it isnt hooked up yet. amps are wired but not grounded yet, as we need a deep socket (tomorrow) to remove the ttop holder. we also test fitted the top of the subthump box (box is super huge and reinforced for the subs). things went smooth but lemme tell ya one thing, cutting 0 guage wires SUCKS ***!! no problems except for when i touched the ratchet to the positive battery terminal trying to get the battery clamp off, melted a lil of the socket on it and made a lot of sparks, but other than that it went real smooth. what we have to do tomorrow is run to tweeter to pick up some misc. crap, complete the solenoid install, wire the subs and assemble the box, and basically hook it up, see if it works as planned and put the Z back together!! then we drink beer and watch the Pats!! i cant wait to get it all in! when the rest of the stuff comes in we are gonna make it nice and custom.....ill post back when we finish.
brian

 

day 2 is complete! we put together the box, did all the rest of the wiring, and just finished putting all the panels, except for some in the trunk that dont wanna fit anymore. it sounds incredible. we are picking up a lot of rattling/vibrating cuz the system hits so hard. cant tell if its the sub not sealed or somethign else, since it only happens when the trunk is open and not closed. who knows. we are going to tune it tomorrow to see what we can find. while we havent had it even close to full blast it is loud enough to set off my bros car alarm when the car was behind us. my ideal of 150 db's looks like it will be realized once deadening/break in are complete. now im just waiting for the rest of the stuff to come in so we can clean it up and finish the system.
brian
BTW, is there anyway to get 100% of the voices to not play through the subs? seems like there is always a faint hint of them on every cd on every song, even when the corssover is set low, like at 30hz. any ideas, please let me know.

 

Is the noise you're hearing coming form the sub? If you're hearing it with the trunk open it might be. What kind of noise is it? You're probably not hearing it when the trunk is closed because the bass is louder than the rattle. When it's open the sound isn't in such a closed space so you can hear things over the bass.

What size are you brahmas? 12s? For a 12 you will want to low pass your crossover at about 80Hz or so. You shouldn't hear any voices out of the subs unless you turn everything of but them, then you might hear faint voices. If you are hearing voices and your crossover is set that low then you most likely have your amp on High Pass.

 

hmmmm......well we are gonna tweak it a lil more tonight, ill keep ya posted. but i was saying the same thing when we were tuning, i didnt hear any voices on my old setup. i did stick my head next to the sub when the hatch was closed (brutally loud) and it wasnt as noticeable (tough to tell). if it is the subs and not some kind of rattle then im worried, since i wasnt even really pounding them........any more ideas guys? ill report back later tonight.
brian

 

If you want to check for air leaks around the subs, take a burning stick of incense and slowly move it around the rim of the sub. You should have a steady stream all going in the same direction. If it gets all funky at one point, air leak.

As far as distortion or pushing the sub beyond X-max, you should be good so long as you don't clip the signal anywhere. If you've got the large t-top box, you should just hit X-max at full power output. If you've got the small version, you probably won't quite hit X-max, but it will be close.

Here's the math:

large box: 2.8 cubes
driver displacement for 2 brahmas: .35 cubes
total left: 2.45 cubes

In 1 cube after displacement, it takes 1300watts to hit xmax per brahma. In 2 cubes it only takes 800 per brahma. That's a 500watt difference. So from those figures you can derive that for every .2cubes of airspace you add, it takes 100watts less to reach X-max. In your setup, of 1.225 cubes per sub, 1200watts each is perfect, so you shouldn't be over driving the sub even with a large box.

To stop rattles, take the trim on the under side of the hatch off and put some stuffing in there to keep the plasic pieces from hitting. Then go buy a roll of foam tape with only one sticky side. Put some on the inside rim of both rear trim panels where they meet the back seat panels. (where the two clips are) Also put some on the back side of your rear license plate around the border. After that, play music and every time you find a rattle put some tape there.

 

thanks for the input, i believe that steve built me a box with over 1.5 cubes per sub so that some displacement was covered. thanks for the tip on the incense! any idea why i cant get the voices out of the subs? seems weird to have them, and you can only hear them if you stick your head in the woofer pretty much, at volume today i couldnt hear them over the bass. is this normal???
brian