Technical Info & How To's

Have you ever completed an enclosure that was a touch too small? Your low end sounds cramped but you don't want to or can't build a brand new enclosure. You throw in some polyfill and are blown away by the improvements. Then you go online to talk about it and everything gets confusing. You don't know why it works or what it really did, but you know that it sounds better. Maybe it's time you learned more about it! Firstly, there are a few primary types of fill that are used. This includes polyester fiberfill, fiberglass insulation, and long-fiber wool. Of these three, polyester fiberfill is perhaps the best option, and also the origination of the term "polyfill". T…

Hey Guys, I am new to this forum and throught I would try to contribute. If anyone is looking for reapir manuals, owner manuals or service manuals for virtually any type of car, there is a FREE ebook at the address below. I asked him could I download and share it, but he said he prefers to have people come to the website. The site itself isn't the best, Sometimes there are annoying ads and surveys. The ebook is only a couple of pages, but it gives a list of places online where you can find almost any service and repair manuals, even for very old models and trucks. I would highly recommend to download it and keep it on your computer. Website - 1000’s of Free Car Van a…

well after about a month or so of driving with no rear view mirror i decided to get a new one. this is the second one i've had to buy since i already broke two. both times the mirror's arm has snapped from window flex/vibration. i have a nissan and they use the same mirror components basically in all their vehicles. one being the arm which is that same on every one. i don't know how familiar anybody is with the material used on these arms but to me it looks like a metal of some kind and plastic. feels strong but obviously snaps easily from all of the vibration. my theory is that since the mirror moves to a certain point and can't move any longer. the arm is the focus of a…

Not that newbie’s are dumb. But there have been a lot of posts on here lately that if they read the pinned thread about them. It would make the post end a lot sooner or not even start Some of those threads are what is my tuning frequency? I like reading book and proving if they are wrong or right. So one I like is a book by old colony sound labs called loud speaker cook book. It’s a good book on the general subject of box tuning. And hay you may learn a thing or two about alignments. More then what a box calculator will teach you. Another subject is what components should I buy? I do not know because it is better to listen to them yourself. I for one prefer a…

Hey, I've got 2 1ohm dvc subs and just wanted to make sure I wire them up correctly. seeing as this is my first "real" system I don't want to hurt it so soon. the saz3000d connectors are in parallel inside the amp. so if I were to run my system like so, would this show the amp 1 ohm? Thanks in advance.

Hello, I have a little problem and don't know for sure how to solve it. I have two FI 15 inch subs and am running two 5200 watt amps. They are wired seperatly but are drawing power from the two 850 amp batteries originally in the van and two additional Kinetik 3800 batteries wired parallel. The problem is that I burned up a brand spanking new 250 Amp alternator from Excessive amps. I am new to this and don't know if trying to draw the 10400 watts from the batteries overworked the amp or what... Any idea what I have wrong that I need to fix?? Many thanks I appreciate it.

I'm getting some measurments together to do a ported box for 4-SA-8's in a 4cu net ported enclosure. Using 2 of the 4" precision ports I would need each to be 11.90" to achieve my desired tuning of 35hz. I have no clue how to figure the displacement of the ports at their desired length. If someone could give me the formula or better yet just figure it out for me that would be outstanding . I have plenty of time since the subs won't be out till feb.

Stereo Interconnects (RCA's) RCA's were invented in 1972 by the famous audio engineer Richard Clark, as a stable replacement for previous connectors (hence RCA : an acronym for 'Richard Clark Audio', the company under which Richard Clark first released these connectors to the world). The point of the RCA interconnect was simple : to allow connections to be made simply and securely between amplifiers, CD players, tuners, speakers, power sockets, etc, without risk of electrical shorting or loose wires. RCA's quickly caught on, and are now the connector of choice for the pro audio industry, and hence the car audio industry as well. They are somewhat rarer in home audio circl…

This is an older article, and I know a few here have read it, but I thought I would repost it for others. Source: http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_9_4/feature-article-active-speakers-12-2002.html The Benefits of an Active Speaker Lifestyle December , 2002 Colin Miller Introduction This article compares passive loudspeaker systems which use a single power amplifier to drive an entire loudspeaker array through passive crossover components (capacitors, inductors, and resistors mostly) between the amplifier and actual drivers, and active loudspeaker systems, where the crossover components are placed between the preamplifier (processor) and power amplifiers, so …

I'm going to try to make this as simple as possible, there are only certain way woofers can be wired. You cannot wire them in anyway you choose to any ohm load you choose. There are rules to follow with Ohm's Law, which is why it's a Law and not a suggestion. I have seen it a few times in the last 2 days, where people say they will wire them in two different way with only one being possible, and it is very annoying, and no ones seems to want to point it out. So, I will try to make a simple list of basic woofer voice coil configurations and the only ohm loads you can wire them to. And for the noobs "Ω" is the symbol for Ohm Single Dual 4Ω woofer: Parallel 2Ω - Series 8Ω …

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I am looking at getting theHertz HSK 165.4 speakers for a daily street beater / comp car and would like to do all the wiring myself. Does anybody have any experience or knowledge with wiring a 2002 VW Passat without the monsoon system? Like where are the voids at? where can I run wiring? I have never done any of this stuff so any help is appreciated! Pretty much at this time the questions I can think of are the ones stated above and: How do I wire my speakers. do I go from the speaker to the crossover to the amp? or speaker to the crossover to the deck? then the amp? What kind of wiring should I be using? Should I use some normal speaker wire? or should i beef it up? I…

dispels some myths about speaker wire marketing hype. pretty interesting http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm#oxygenfree

I know a few people who ask me or ask others about this so I thought it would be worth posting up a link that lays them out in a simple fashion. Motor Designs Underhung and Overhung

I just ordered 3 knu fleks 4g power wires for the big 3 upgrade, one thing, it doesn't say how long the wire is which is kind of annoying but anyway: My battery is a superstart 550, don't know if that means 550 amps or not but i doubt it. Alt is just stock, i drive an 01 sonata gls, so im guessing its probably like 90 amp alt. Im running 1/0 knu klm for power and grounds to my fi bl 15 (09 version) off of 1 ohm, and i doubt im getting near even 1000w, and prolyl mad voltage drop too. My question is, about how many amps will my electrical be putting out after the big three upgrade? Will it be enough to get 1000w+ out of my shit? Thanks.

i have a router but dont know how to make the circle cutouts and do curves on wood. can i get some help? thanx

I've been meaning to write this up and post it here for sometime... thankfully Aaron pushed me a little. A couple of quick comments: I've tried to make this as straight forward and digestible as possible; I've explained these things to the best of my knowledge... bear in mind, I am no Electrical Engineer. What follows is the result of monthss of research and hours of playing / testing my own equipment. Lastly - I'll leave this locked until Denim gets a look at it. -Nick

Check it out.. we did a blog post on how to properly deaden the small cavity behind your dash speakers. http://www.floridacaraudio.com/dash-speake...closure-design/

i just got my pioneer back from repair, and on the RED wire for the power input there is a black barrel inside is a resistor... im guessing it it blow because i have power going into it.. but none coming out of it.... where can i get a replacement fast and what it is for? it is blue and it has color codes bans on it.... do you think radio shake has them!>

Ok here is what I was wondering if I get a 16v alternator an ran hc16v with the 12 an 16 volt terminal would I just connect the alt to the battery 16v side to charge. Then run my 12v electronics from the 12v post an the amp to the 16v. Just wondering if this is how it would work cause i'm considering this setup if it doesn't get to much more complicated. Thanks an sry if this all sounds to stupid or wrong.

I know how to get port area in square inches, but how do I find out the port length and tuned frequency? I need to know the math to aquire my goals. cant find anything on this specifically, only port area which i already know

So I ordered a new tool for the tool box, and received it in the mail today. And the tool of the day is: a Vellman HPS10SE O-scope Now how exactly do I go about using it? (altough it has an auto fucntion) I'm pretty much going to be using it to set gains at work and at home on my own projects. I have all the test tones one could need thanks to AutoSound 2000. Basically I need to know how I hook it up to the amp to measure the wave and what should I be using as a load? I've heard/seen of resistors (dummy loads) or reactive loads (speakers). I would assume that using the reactive loads would be better, but I have been known to be wrong before. There is a centre pin and wire…

So you designed and built a box and think you know what it is tuned to, but there are a lot of reasons to verify that you are right. Some of these are: 1) To make sure you understand the math behind designing the box 2) To check up on the person that did the design for you 3) To check on your building skills 4) To verify where you are so that when you redesign to deal with an acoustic difficulty that you found you are able to. Whatever the reason, there is a simple way to do this. You will need the following equipment: 1) Your system installed in your vehicle. 2) A CD with a variety of low frequency tones on it, I

I've moved my forum to http://www.subwoofertools.com/forum/ Calculator can be found here: http://www.subwoofertools.com/forum/ported-box.asp I'm working on a new improved calc. It currently only does response curves: http://www.subwoofertools.com/boxprogram.asp www.accelerator-pedal.com should be returning my custom 404 page directing you to subwoofertools. It's not. Stupid GoDaddy hosting. :mad:

Power compression is a topic that is rarely discussed, but always important. When you hear someone call various theile/small parameters a