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lithium

Buick Century - active 3way + sub w/ nexus 7

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Looks Awesome !!! Wish I could hear it !!! Noticed you added a Dash Pad. Any noticeable differences ???

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Those pods look dope man, cant wait to see what you do with the doors :woot:

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18 hours ago, Randal Johnson said:

Looks Awesome !!! Wish I could hear it !!! Noticed you added a Dash Pad. Any noticeable differences ???

I didn't really do a good A to B comparison when I installed it so I can't say I hear any difference. I'll try to do a comparison in the future and maybe take some measurements (I have access to professional equipment at work that I could borrow for day). Theoretically I think the foam backing is too thin to do a whole lot. I like the look though! 

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The backing is not going to do anything, it’s the carpet that stops the bouncing waves from the windshield and the vinyl dash. Removes the Echo so to speak. 

Awesome man, damn I wish I could sit in on the tune. The way this is fully on axis is very interesting for sure !!! 

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On 8/23/2019 at 8:31 PM, Randal Johnson said:

The backing is not going to do anything, it’s the carpet that stops the bouncing waves from the windshield and the vinyl dash. Removes the Echo so to speak. 

Awesome man, damn I wish I could sit in on the tune. The way this is fully on axis is very interesting for sure !!! 

The purpose of the dashmat is to absorb sound. The material properties, dimensions, and placement determine performance. It works exactly like throwing carpet on a wood floor to reduce echo. 

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Those are huge.  Bet they sound huge too

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Monster pods, they probably sound amazing.  Hope visibility is still good. ;) 

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12 hours ago, Aaron Clinton said:

Monster pods, they probably sound amazing.  Hope visibility is still good. ;) 

 

13 hours ago, ///M5 said:

Those are huge.  Bet they sound huge too

Thanks guys. The left pod would definitely be problematic in a sportier vehicle but not a Buick that drives <10 mins through some corn fields to work. 

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Started the door enclosures Saturday. I rolled the windows down and spaced out about 1/4 inch with some scrap materials prior to tapping. I also used some foil and petroleum jelly to get a easy release from the tape (not pictured). Also not pictured is an application of 1/8in closed cell foam (adhesive backed) applied to the door skin. Hopefully that will be enough to isolate the enclosure from the door. 

n5jCtxm.jpg

I did about 3 layers of fg before letting this cure overnight. I ran out of the good resin from USComposites and tried some cheap stuff from Ebay. Seems to be working ok but there are definitely some spots that need fixed before I start adding more layers (the horizontal portions under the arm rests were particularly difficult). Working on a vertical surface was tricky. I'll get the dremel out and fix some air pockets and hopefully it will come out fine.

 k6WrK7o.jpg

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Smells like headache.  Doing that in your apartment?

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Loving the build pix.

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22 hours ago, ///M5 said:

Smells like headache.  Doing that in your apartment?

ya. In the parking lot or on my balcony. Planning to rent a house next year if things go well at work. 

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Absolutely phenomenal work!!! Double points for doing it in an apartment. 

 Thanks for posting so many pics. The dash pods came out killer. I’m sure the pictures make them look more obtrusive than they are. Can only imagine how good they sound! Keep the pics coming!!

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I was meaning to update this post back at the end of fall. I finished the construction of the door enclosures and enjoyed them for last few months with some exceptions. Unfortunately the car is on its way out and I'm looking for a new vehicle. Below i'll post a few photos of the install as it (I actually removed everything today). 

Door Enclosures

The door was cut back to allow some additional volume for the enclosure. 

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I constructed the enclosure in a clam shell kind of shape. 

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I used foam to create in the internal volume an shape. I dont have pictures of the shaping process and I'm not sure if I would do it this way in the future. 

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Here is where I missed some photos. I used a piece of MDF to create a flat side to the outside of the enclosure and positioned the speaker baffle. The baffle was built with a replaceable ring so I could swap in other drivers (sls 8s are bit on the smaller side compared to other 8 inch drivers).  The 2 pieces of the clam shell design where glued together with panel adhesive (the good 3M stuff).  

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I dont have a photo but the enclosure are about 1/4" from the seat so I really maximized the volume. 

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I had a little noise when using an analog rca connection with the c-dsp. so I grabbed a fio dac with a digital output. Pretty happy with the result. 

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The crazy connector I have to use with my phone. I use an usb c extension so this whole thing doesn't hang from the phone. It retains phone charging. 

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Just prior to Xmas I had one of the polk 2 channels pop (made pop sound on the speaker that was connected went into protect). I wasn't playing the system at the time so it was pretty strange.

Found a hole in a voltage regulator. I replaced both of these chips and it booted up fine. Have not tried it on music yet. Hopefully I fixed it as these are great amps and put out a ton of power bridged. 

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For some reason I started finding frost and a lot of moisture in general on the amplifiers in the trunk. I'm not sure what's causing it. It was not a leak, perhaps it was not venting? 

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Anyways, apologies again for not posting more photos. Hopefully, I do a better job on the next car. I suspect I'll just install my set of SSA components, C-DSP, and PPI 4 channel initially and go crazy after buying a house with some garage space!  

Edited by lithium

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Bonus points for any suggestions on used cars under 20k.  So far I have test drove a 2016 accord v6 sedan and 2015 Q50. 

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