j-roadtatts

I am in the process of helping a friend choose equipment for his install. The car is a 2005 Chrysler 300M. This will be an active setup with 3.5" highs mounted flat in the dash, and 8" midbasses mounted in the doors. He already has a JVC KWV20BT hu installed. This hu is lacking a bandpass filter and time alignment. Also has limited EQ ability's. I have suggested a stand alone digital sound processor as the owner does not want to purchase a different deck. He is fine with this. What DSP's are currently available that will allow for a active 2-way, has T/A, has a decent EQ, AND the ability of tuning from the drivers seat? As I don't keep up with all the current offerings, I am looking for suggestions. Links to said suggestions wouldn't suck either.

Thanks for the complements on the log work guys. I will post more pics if I find them. As I like unique and challenging jobs, that one definitely fit the bill.

Found a few pics of the very last log structure I built! A tendon ready to install.

They just raised one of my cards limit 25%. They REALLY want my money. lol

Bingo. Look for carburetor supply shops, particularly dual carb Carter setups like old Z cars (where side drafts are eliminated in favor or top mounted carbs) or tri power Chrysler or Pontiac set ups. The linkages need to be timed, so these should be available there. Just use all thread or threaded rods for your adjustable links. I thought the same about the throttle links as I was on Summit, looking at those for the Stang, right after posting that pic.

Should be pimp!!

if you're building an enclosure, the Revs are the winner. Yummy, yummy! I would do the Revs in a heartbeat if I could mount them on axis. Would be a coin toss in a factory location. Those are 7's...Stock door location in the caddy. IB - U's. What variant of the D2904 do you have? I haven't played with any large format tweet's. I assume they have more flexability to achieve imaging and sound stage having the extended low end reach? Super stoked to hear your going to run the U's.

A good place to start if you REALLY wants to know what your looking at. http://www.zaphaudio.com/6.5test/ Otherwise could make a list of suggestions. The way the brain preserves and processes sound is a pretty cool subject. Found this for you too on that site. http://www.zaphaudio.com/nonlinear.html QUOTED from the link above. Quite to the point, most listening tests are not long enough. Listening fatigue can take a long time to set in, sometimes more than an hour. Once it does set in, your brain will have learned what listening fatigue sounds like for that particular speaker. Then with each subsequent listening session, the listening fatigue sets in faster as your memory of that speaker's sound returns. If it's bad enough, it will get to a point where you can't stand it and you avoid listening altogether.

It is my Sunday so guess being lazy is not a bad thing.

Need to get my head in the game today. Have lead in my arse.

I have replaced quite a few brake lines that corroded through. Last ones where on a 96 Caddy from back east. Every line in the car was spraying.

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speedway-Steel-3-16-Inch-LH-Female-Heim-Joint-Rod-Ends-with-Stud,10991.html

I have broken brake hard lines when 4-wheeling. A manual trans come in nice for getting off the hill after that one.

if you're building an enclosure, the Revs are the winner. Yummy, yummy! I would do the Revs in a heartbeat if I could mount them on axis. Would be a coin toss in a factory location.

You could build a link with heim joints. would be adjustable.

As what you described as the irritation is most likely from harmonic distortion introduced by the actual driver itself that's coloring the sound. Sean's post got me thinking too. The driver that is harder to tune may be the most sterile and have the least amount of coloring. Think of it like this, if your immediately impressed with the sound of a set of speakers, chances are there is something wrong with them. This sounds counter intuitive, but the speakers that impressed you are most likely coloring the sound by adding their own character to the sound. When a speaker adds something of its own, it masks the original material. It might sound good at first, but you will get listener fatigue quickly. (in like 15 min, lol) Which brings me to another thought in regards to tuning. Another suggestion is to only change settings right when you start each day, as you will get listener fatigue rather quickly. Jam those settings until the next time you get in the car, or the next day. Wash, rinse, repeat. You can change the frequency response of a driver after its installed, BUT you can't change the harmonic distortion.

I bought the Seas U18's a few months back for a very similar application. I have been busy on another project though so I haven't had time to install them yet. May be worth looking at. They should have a little better off axis response, and reach on the top end too. Great build quality also. I would hope others might make some suggestions too as collectively they have tried lots of drivers.

Last few suggestions before giving up on the current drivers. As mentioned before something in the path of the signal(hu,amp,etc) could be generating nonlinear distortion, that isn't present in the original signal. Would explain the weird extra tone. So would involve testing the speakers hooked to a different system and/or swap one piece of equipment at a time if is the cause. IIRC you had kick pods. Possibly try the mids in those and see if it helps the reflections and such. As it would suck to buy new equipment have the same problem, I'm trying to think of any other plausible faults.

If you have the alt grounded to the front battery, and a run of wire from the front battery negative to the rear battery negative then no body ground is necessary. Ground both amps to the rear battery. If you don't have a run of wire between the battery's on the negative side then use the body/chassis. You would still want to ground the amps to the rear battery. You shouldn't need a distribution block either if you can hook the power direct to the battery.

The destructive distortion/phase cancellation occurring with ONLY one driver playing would most likely be from reflective sounds reaching your ear out of phase from the original sound.

Sitting in the dentists chair ATM.

I only have one expectation when I am generous or help others. I expect it to make me feel better. Go's back to my motto of I help others because I am strong, not because they are weak. If the person helped you first, then just view it as gratitude.

Thanks for the build pics. After a lot of thought and advise from multiple people on this website and in person today, I decided to mount my (2) HDS3 12's in my trunk and stuff the cavities on both sides with wood and blankets. It was sealed up good enough to see whether or not the sound would come out how I wanted. As many have stated, I did not like the way it sounded. No depth to the bass at all. Yeah, it was punchy as hell, but I don't know how I would ever get those body vibrating lows like a rear firing setup gives me. There was a huge difference. I know for a fact that my car sounds great with the subs firing toward rear and I can also really hammer out lows. I will use the rest of my QMat to put on the lid to help reduce as much rattle as possible. If there is something else I can do to help eliminate trunk rattle, I'm all ears... These two Ethos are going to pound the crap out of it. At least all the work I've put in the last couple of days to seal off the trunk, did help out tremendously with the rattles on the inside of the car. Almost no panel rattles at all. We will see what happens when I install the Ethos. I have a feeling it might be a different story. Oh well, it is what it is... Maybe one day if I do a true "SQ" build, then and only then, will I face subs/port forward. Until then, I'm a rear firing guy... I will post pics when finished. I also installed a processor today. Kicker Front Row to help balance out everything and give me a little more control over my system. I'm ready for the subs to get here so I can call this build, COMPLETE! Thanks again for all the advise guys. You helped me save a ton of time and frustration with the forward firing setup... Most of the subs I have helped install the owner preferred the sub firing into the trunk for subjective reasons. Glad you did some testing first. As far as tips on deadening the trunk. Install everything and physically touch the panels making noise. Then you will know where to brace/dampen. Rattles are an easy one, just decouple whatever is rattling. As far as panels resonating, you are more trying to shift the panels resonate frequency. You won't stop the panels from resonating, but can make them resonate at a frequency that isnt as audible, or atleast resonate to less of a degree. This is a better logic than thinking you are going to make the trunk acoustically dead. Honestly the trunk panels having a little give, opposed to being super rigid, should help the sound.

Don't feel bad. One of my mids has a wrecked coil and buzzes from time to time. It wasn't DOH-zer approved either. YOURS will be easier to find replacement for atleast.