jbob

isn't their (knu) copper clad aluminum wire thicker then the same gauge copper wire? pretty sure thats what the site said... Slightly bigger, which makes it a pain in the ass to get into terminals designed for 0 ga. I'd never do the CCA again. All copper for me.

I'd like to know too. I have a pair sitting here I'm considering using in a set of 3 way semi-active towers.

I was talking about pricing on the kolossus. The cheap stuff from Knu is copper clad aluminum, it doesn't have quite the capacity of pure copper. Also I used the old KLM stuff and it was WAY too stiff to work with, apparently the new KLMX is better though.

X2 Last time I ordered wire Knu was actually a few cents more a foot over weldingsupply.com, but I needed distro blocks and stuff too and getting from two places vs one would have saved me less than $5.

I thought I saw it in the post already...

tru

Dude, you made your second post an hour later.

$20 says he has a new idea in a week.

only because you think S-Q-L is a real term. What is it supposed to stand for? Sound Quality Loud? That doesn't make much sense. maybe Loud Sound Quality is better. They've put a filter on here to change it to LSQ when you post so as to stop the spread of the term. I was thinking of expanding the filters more to help some spelling and other bad or misleading terms. Might need to start a topic to help collect them all. Like when someone says peak watts change it to I'm an idiot?

You would do best to start with one nightshade and one 1500d if you want to go that path. This is going to be your first car and you already have to make repairs. There's a good chance it will need more repairs or much more likely it will get wrecked. I've been driving 7 years and the only accident I've had was a little bumper scrape, but most new drivers end up wrecking their cars. So now you've already wasted money on an bigger alternator unless you plan on getting another contour (or similar vehicle) if/when you wreck this one. Sure you can always sell it, but that doesn't always work out well either. One 1500d will be much easier with weaker electrical - upgrade big 3 add a battery or 2.

I'd say wait with the DP idea and do like someone else said. Contours are small and mine was pretty loud with a Brahma MK IV with a crappy Hifonics amp. Doing something "right the first time" doesn't mean going balls to the wall right away. Start with excellent value equipment like a SAE sundown amp and a decent sub from a good company like a lower IA sub or an FI SSD or even a BL. An awesome "starter" setup would be the new sundown 1200 and a BL with an option or two and one extra battery (which with a 1200 watt amp this may barely even be necessary). The V6 contours have a bigass battery and 130 amp alt, don't know about the 4 bangers, so you could be sitting ok there. Side note on the V6 alternators: they're a huge PITA to change.

Probably has something to do with the fact it's a 1600 watt amp.

I used to have a 98 contour. About the only way you're getting a 21 in that thing properly is a full wall. About the biggest that would fit in the back seat opening area without mutilating the reardeck would be a 15. If you did mutilate the rear deck you'll end up using the entire trunk i'm sure and will compromise the strength of the car by mutilating the rear deck. I had a 15 in the trunk and it barely fit rear firing. You could sneak an 18 but it would have to be up-firing.

I need to get a cheap crossover fast so I can take out my damn 3sixty.2 which is having bluetooth issues and send it in AGAIN...anyway. How bad are the crossovers on this page: Parts Express Any other suggestions on something I can get cheap. Something with high level inputs would be ideal, but I can run a LOC too. Best case would be 2 way active plus sub, but I really could get by with out the sub and without the bandpass on the mid channel because I could use the amp crossover for that (my mains are on a pair of Sundown 100.2's).

Yup saw that, looked like it might be gone, but I asked the guy. So what car you looking at? Newer Beamer? Some cars you can bypass the amp easily. In my Magnum you can get a flat stereo signal from the deck if you disconnect the amp. I think the Mazda Bose system is similar.

Yes, I'm really wishing I would have done a pxe-h650, I'm only doing 2 way active as it sits, but there's the possibility of 3 way in the future.

Or maybe judges should be paid as much as teachers...wait wrong problem.

Bluetooth stops connecting. I bought it second hand, but new in box from somebody on DIYMA earlier this year. Played with it on my bench and after it worked for a short while it stopped connecting. Sent it in to RF and got a new one back about 2 months later because they just did a replace on it, but were out of stock for that time, but when I finally got it back I benched it it was fine. It sat until I finally got it installed which was probably about a month and a half ago and I had only connected about once or twice since I set it up. Tried last night and it wasn't happening. Laptop just plain doesn't see it, but it saw my phone. Told RF support and they didn't even tell me anything else to try, just send it in. It's really not uncommon, you see it alot on the RF forums especially. Ya I figured the Coustic would be a good bet if I can find one, maybe I'll check pawn shops tomorrow....ugh.

This seems intelligent...

Well I was on the right track, replace under funding with poor accounting and you still get the same result, one example being larger classes. Here in town they closed down the old middle school and pushed the kids into the high school which was already pretty full so they now have a temp building set up and I believe they took over administration office space as well (not sure on that) which is hardly ideal.

Hmm....12v battery with on board charger and a bunch of wires in a bag that may get dropped or jiggled around......pppprreeeettttyyyy sure that's a fire hazard. What do you say to the possibility of someone getting severely injured by one of these? We are a very litigious society and people sue for MUCH less.

well, i personally think we could use a bit more music at school. but thats just me. yes, let's turn school into a party. I'm sure that'll get the US higher on those worldwide education ratings........ Ok, let's make it more boring and prison like so more kids drop out. At least then the good ones will stay in and make the system look good. Doesn't bother me, I need someone to shine my shoes as well. Toughen up, if you can't hack school and don't want to work at it get ready to have to work menial jobs for your soon to be Chinese boss. The world won't wait for you and the average American is QUICKLY falling behind the rest of the world. And now our economy is following along. For all you young ones, now is the time to choose. Do you want to work for peanuts, live in a small apartment, never have more spending money than you do now or potentially get an education and a job that will allow you to do all sorts of things with your time. That motivation kept me going from about 2nd grade on. It's not always the fault of the people that "can't hack it", there are plenty that want to succeed but are hindered by the ever failing, increasingly underfunded system.

well, i personally think we could use a bit more music at school. but thats just me. yes, let's turn school into a party. I'm sure that'll get the US higher on those worldwide education ratings........ Ok, let's make it more boring and prison like so more kids drop out. At least then the good ones will stay in and make the system look good.

Ok, so it's not exactly a build log (and not sure if this is the right place) because I just don't get around to taking pictures when I'm working, but I thought I'd at least post a couple pictures and a list of what I have, as well as a brief review of the products I used. So what we have here is a 2005 Dodge Magnum R/T AWD. Yeah, it's got a Hemi. It's pretty loaded with nav and heated seats and some other goodies. With the navigation system comes a Boston 6 speaker system, which honestly is not too bad, decent midbass/midrange, bass isn't bad, highs are a little weak. I kept the factory head unit in place. The factory nav system is a 6 disc mp3 changer and actually a pretty nice setup. That feeds into an amp that has a volume dependant DSP for the 6 speakers. Tapping into the signal wires before the amp gives you a flat signal (and interestingly, when connected to the amp is fixed level, but when disconnected is variable, how convenient) which is fed into a RF 3sixty.2. I plan on also buying a Zune and making a custom dock for it to feed directly into the 3sixty's aux in. The one disadvantage of where I tapped is disconnecting the amp kills the nav voice guidance (which for me is a non issue since I never use the nav anyway). The 3sixty feeds a pair of Sundown 100.2's actively crossed over and Sundown 1500d. I went with a pair of 100.2 instead of a 100.4 because they were on sale at the time, the small power difference isn't a big deal for me (but it is nice ). The Sundowns feed a pair of Seas neo textiles mounted in the factory locations in the dash and a pair of Mach 5 MLI65 mids in the doors. The doors could use a little work but the car is pretty well built and will not require much deadening and treatment when I get to it. I plan on toying with different drivers in the future like maybe some 8's in the doors and some nice high playing 3.5"-4" midranges in the front. The substage is handled by a Fi Q 12 D2 with BP option in a little over 2 cubes at about 33hz. I only have some very minimal EQ work done by ear so far, but am pretty happy with it as it sits. I do need to do a little time alignment and level work on the fronts, but it is definately pretty nice as is. I have the gain set so I can turn the remote almost all the way done and it blends VERY nicely with the frontstage, but I can also crank it up and get pretty damn loud too. There's a local area competition this Saturday I plan on going to for the hell of it to see what I can hit. I've only had this stuff in for a couple weeks but I'll give my impressions so far. There really isn't much to say about the Sundowns that hasn't already been said, you just can't beat the value they offer. The same goes for the Q. I really need an oscope so I know how much power I'm really sending to this thing because as it is I can probably crank the gain even more. The tweets sound nice even bouncing off the windshield and the mids sound great. I'll get some pics under the false floor when I remember. One of the key points with the hatch area is I can very quickly get to the spare tire. The false floor easily lifts out and then the entire amp board is not actually mounted down, but with three amps on it it's not going anywhere. Electrical is still completely stock, included the crappy factory grounds. I have alternator whine and I did some trouble shooting and am hoping upgrading the grounds will help, I haven't tracked it anywhere in the signal chain. With the bass all the way up the voltage doesn't go too much below the 13s. I'll probably go to a Deka or Powermaster, a group 31 should fit. Well, that was alot of typing for so few pics, but oh well.

Or save his money, so he can buy a car Ideally yes, but it doesn't seem like that's something he's going to do.