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Well, sine Tirefryr asked, I guess I would post my toy. It is a 1986 Buick Grand National. It has a 3.8L V6, 30 over and stroked. Forged TRW 8.5:1 pistons and a forged Crower crank. Comp cams custom cut to optimize exhaust gas speed to increase spool up and reduce lag. The heads are cast, ported and polished with stainless valves, Chevy 350 lifters and comp cams 1.6:1 roller rockers. The intake manifold is match ported and polished to the heads, and fed through a Turbo-TA stretched intercooler with a Duttwieler neck conversion. I use a 3 inch cold air pipe and a 9 inch K&N. I use stock style headers (I found they have better bottom end then the high flow headers) a TA51 turbo, 2.5" downpipe, catalytic converter delete and Hooker Cat back system. I use a secondary in-line Bosch fuel pump and 120# injectors for fuel. An Art Carr built transmission with a 3500 stall converter. Suspension is pretty much stock, with poly bushings, boxed rear trailing arms, TRW Variable rate rear springs and new TRW front springs. I think that was all that matters under the hood. I put it on the Mustang and dialed in 495HP and 525Lb Ft of torque on 24#s of boost. My best 1/4 is 11.84@119. My 0-60MPH times are 4.2seconds. I inititally swapped out the 3.42 gears out for 3.73s. I figured when i opened up the exhaust my top end would improve and i could put 3.90s in it. So I put 3.90 gears in it but I found I lost too much top end down the quarter, dropping my quarter times and trap speeds. So I went back to 3.73s to get my 1/4 times and trap speeds back up but my 0-60 times fell a bit. In the trunk is a Ported Adire Brahma (1.9ft tuned to 24Hz), powered by a Cadence Z7000HC (1500X1 class AB). The front stage is a pair of Adire Koda 6.1s powered by a Cadence Q3000. The HU is a Pioneer Premier DEH-P740MP. I have an AC Delco Platinum AGM battery out back and a true isolator out front. Pics? OK

I am just not a fan of expecting such a small speaker to provide such a dynamic range. I guess it is more a personal preference, but I would never do it. Sure, tuning will be much easier, but the reality of the situation is that a 3 way will work better. As the small driver is pulling such a high workload from the lower register, reaching a fairly high excursion and realizing a rise in Qts where Bl is becoming markedly more parabolic, you are demanding the driver to perform such delicacies as the harmonics or decay from a cymbal crash... it is just not a recipe for good sound quality. I personally feel with all the work J is putting into it, he will be able to get it tuned right. It isn't like so many other active installs I see where people just toss drivers in and set their crossovers and call it active... he is working on manipulating the speakers through enclosure design and placement. I think he can get it done.

J-road, not sure how I missed this news or your thread. Bummer on the 10. You definitely made the right choice in getting a second one. Three main reasons. 1) Great drivers and will be worth WAY more used as a pair, 2) you haven't had your system long enough to really understand what you do and don't like in order to allow you to pick a different driver, 3) There really aren't many if any other 10's that can reach as high as the Aura. As for its death, I can assume that you are so used to distortion that you pushed these into their limits. Output from a clean driver has a tendency to not sound loud until you distort it...that is until you train your ear. This takes some time though. When you put the new one in, rely more on your sub (ie raise the low cross point of the Aura's) and then level match them with your 3's. You won't be maxed in the output realm setup this way, but you won't kill anything and you can drive around for a while getting used to it. I don't think that is the case at all. He may be output limited by the 3", but it will blend nicely with that 10". The Aura is an amazing sub in many ways, but the one that makes it great in this application is its upper response. A 4" mid and a tweet could give him more output, but personally I'd rather lose a little and have everything on axis like he does in particular considering this is a first attempt at running active. I realize you added the term thermal, but that isn't the problem. Power handling for that driver would go up in a sealed pod versus the door, but it isn't worth the effort. The driver is more than fine for an IB'ish install and sealing anything in a car is far from trivial in particular for a first timer. I will add though that the OP's capabilities to do the install, ask the right questions, and follow through is much beyond most first time active installers.

It is really simple. While the speaker has a rated impedance, the only time you really ever see this rated impedance is just sitting there.However, with power being sent to it the impedance changes all the time. This is dependent upon the enclosure and frequency. I know you have seen the SPL guys talk about box rise. Anyways. most enclosure programs will have a dynamic impedance graph on them. Dynamic impedance is important when designing for a tube amp system.

A sealed box won't retain that much heat, and a vented box does not aid in cooling. In fact, ported enclosures are more likely to thermal then sealed... Why? Sealed will increase mechanical powerhandling, but it doesn't really have any affect on thermal powerhandling. The fried coil is more a function of clipping then the door it was in, or the enclosure, and it won't be affected one way or the other by the box he is planning.

Hey Jake Couple small things I'd like to comment on, these are all in good spirit ! Test the pre-finals (sorry, can't find the english term for them) and if they heat up too much move them either on the heatsink with the rest of the transistors or add some small heatskins. 5 degrees difference between them and the amp will not work right, they are crucial. Test the thermal protection circuit. Move the NTC on a small aluminum board and warm it up gradually. Too many amps have problems with this, some come with badly calibrated sensors from the factory. It's a Class AB, it runs warm by default. Change the transistor insulators to mica instead of the silicone. The difference is huge and the more heat you can transfer to the heatsink, the better Again, this is all in good spirit, I'd love such a big power 4 channel

Lexus down Lambo up. Even makes a good winter beater..

Hmm, I dont know if that was directed at me or the OP either way I dont care (and the following isnt directed to anyone in particular, to all in general). I've ran plenty of amps from mainstream to non, actually know how they work (beyond the typical understanding), and what goes into making them and I know a good amp when I see one. Some up and coming companies make great high quality amps, others do not. Dont judge a book by its cover. If you actually take the time to look into some of these mainstream amps and the technology behind them you will see what I am talking about. Dont let flashy lights and a chrome plate on the amp fool you. The MTX 4kw is the size of a typical 2kw amp for one simple reason. They do not do "through-hole" component soldering. They imprint the circuitry on TOP of the board giving them the ability to condense things much better, and group certain components together. They also have probably the best cooling mechanism I've seen. They dont just slap 2 big noisy fans on the end of it. They actually direct airflow directly over the hottest components before it makes its way past almost every component. Take Rockford for example. Nobody knocks their 4kw, hell it has awesome impedance rise adjustment capabilities. But its a mainstream amp. Where do all these mainstream companies start? the same way sundown, RE, hifonics, SSA, FI, etc. etc. etc. get started. So do you expect them to get to a large size then just shut themselves down because they are mainstream? Mainstream companies do one of 2 things: Fall off the ball and make crap products and try to let their name coast them by as long as possible before they eventually shut down. Or they continue to produce and push the market into better technology. And ask yourself, which mainstream company that is still huge makes total crap product? Almost none because they wont last. Some may have changed their vision and turned to producing more higher quality or SQ subs but its still high quality. Just because something looks simple and "hardcore" does not mean it is. I have a notebook of amp clamping results that back that claim up. Cheers! :drink40:

They are out of stock at the moment, we don't have a back in stock date just yet.

One thing I could think of for the strapped set up is that sundown mixed the br in with the br out and vise-versa. This is a problem with some of the newer SAZ 1500s. I ran into this problem. To test, play a tone/music so that the bass is audible. Turn off radio, unplug the linking rca from the master, turn the radio back on and see if the volume of the bass is the same or quieter. If it is quieter, then you have them strapped right. If it is the same, then try to plug the linking rca into the "br in" on the master amp instead of the "br out." Also, plug the linking rca into the "br out" of the slave amp instead of the "br in." This will make a world of difference. Ha going from one amp to two amps makes a difference!!!

Nice mod on the hu install! Hydralics can be rough.