tejcurrent

I've had some equipment laying around for over 2 years, and my wife wants a little bit of bass. I figure I may as well make the most of what I have, which chances are will be more than she'll ever use anyway. Her car: Chevy Malibu Equipment: Alpine 9885 Alpine Type-X 12 D4 Hifonics 2006d Enclosure: ~1.5ft net tuned to 36hz with 24sqin of port. She wants a little bass, and plenty of room to put groceries. Also no wires or equipment hanging out like most drop in installs. This is really temporary until she gets a new car some time this year. The equipment: Of course I had to draw up some plans and it starts at the kitchen table: A MS Paint drawing of what I'm going for Her main concern other than space: Cost. She doesn't want me to spend a dime on wood, and I have this piece of mdf that's been leaning strange for over a month. I would much rather buy a new piece, but she wants to use this one... Anyway, before anyone says anything about amp ventilation its really not a concern. There will be holes at the back of the box, and she only drives 15minutes tops to work or school on any given day- not enough time to heat anything up the way she'll listen to it. The rediculously warped wood: I started cutting when my table saw died on me I put together what I had, and did the old switcheroo at lowes so I could keep working the next day. I put my air compressor on the big sheet to help warp it back flat overnight (it didn't really work).

Thanks a lot. More 'glass in the bottom. The dust makes it look weird, but it's pretty darn smooth. The 32hz port: Getting ready for vinyl Vinyling the port Putting the subs in: You can see the sub is pretty close to the port And before I get any flack for it here (because I've had several people say it's a terrible way to do it) there is no pole vent being blocked. Anyone has a better Idea PM me about it. All the subs in place. It's really hard to slide them in there with as little room as I have between the sub and roof. There's still a lot more work to do, and a lot I've done. I'll post up more pics as soon as I can take them. A vid with the 1 amp going. It's no where near where it will be, but running around 12v till I get the alternators in I feel pretty safe with it going, and I still have a fair bit of bass.

Sorry man, my dad died the 25th, so I haven't really been keeping up with things like I should. If you still needed any help with anything just email me at [email protected]. Since my last post I have vinyled the box and tried a different (32hz) port. Also I added another gallon and a half of resin and more mat. I'll upload the pics as soon as I get to my laptop. Also I've done work to the top board and plan on painting in the upcoming week. I don't have pics of the resin/bondo process, because of problems getting them off my cell phone, but I'm going to get some good ones of the final sanding and then the painting. Then I'm slapping those amps back in and building some beauty panels to help clean things up a bit- more to come with plenty of pics. I think I'm going to viny the amp rack to match the box, more work but I'm just not happy with how its matching after how well the vinyl worked out.

I've dropped the tuning on my 18" BTLs from 36hz to 32, and while it picked up just slightly on the low lows, it didn't give me the sound I wanted from music, and didn't sound as loud to the ear. I got slightly better hair tricks with the higher tune as well. This was just my vehicle, I'm sure it might be different in different vehicles and to others tastes.

Me too But when it comes to wasting money buying subs just to upgrade amps a few months later and have to lose money selling the old ones, it makes sense to me to ask yourself what your long term goals are, and if you will ever want 'more'.

my father passed january 18th....i def know how you and nick are feeling.....i wish you the best and i am sorry for you loss I'm sorry to hear you're in the same situation My dad died the 25th of Feb. They say it'll get better but I'm finally getting some time to actually think and imo it's getting worse. I don't want to junk up this thread- If I can help either of you guys just let me know.

There would be a cone area advantage with 2 12s over 1 15. The potential to add more power would be with the 15, and if you could find room you could always add a 2nd 15 and amp. I'd get the 15 just out of preference, but enclosure could really determine which would get louder. You should get the dual 2 ohm coils for the BTL (if that's what you go with), and wire it + to +, - to -, with a + and - for the amp. This would result in a 1 ohm final load.

Some cabinet shops and hardware stores can special order it, but it's extremely hard to find in my area. You could either double up 2 sheets of 1/2" MDF, or make it that much beefier by using 2 layers of 3/4". Good luck finding 1" though, if you can find a chain store that sells it please post here.

I would just ask yourself what your final goal is. If you plan on keeping less than 2000 per sub down the road, then the BLs will do the job wonderfully and save you some money. Only if you plan on adding more power and doing more electrical upgrades somewhere down the line would I say go for the BTLs. They will still get loud without fully powering them, but if you intend to upgrade you'll have the room to. To give my own analogy, remember when your mom would buy your shoes a size too big so you'd have room to grow? Either way I'm sure you'll be happy.

I was watching your build and just wanted to say it looks awesome! Great job, nice score, and nice vids!

I'm a little late, but I wanted to say I'm so sorry. I'm sure you're very busy, my dad died a few weeks ago and I'm still trying to take care of things and catch up from missed work. Often when these things happen theres so much to do there's no real time to grieve Again, I wish you and your family the best.

I was running 4 of them about 2 months ago. I was letting the voltage drop below 11v on heavy drops and suddenly one went up. I don't know if it was because of the drops or just a defect, but either way I'm running 4 BTLs off 1 amp right now. Heres a quick vid of it. I sent the damaged amp out Dec. 6th for repair, and got it back January 21st. Quite a bit of time, but they say they fixed the problem so hopefully it'll work good when I get it hooked up. I had a 200a alt and 3 yellowtops with 1 amp and it wasn't keeping 12v very steady. Right now I have 5 batteries on the one amp and it would do well with a 2nd alternator. I've been told countless times to give the amp 16v, but I really like them. The small footprint is definitely a plus.

I replied again on the SMD forum. You could shove a window a/c unit in the rear door lol (j/k). I've heard of people using window units to cool their equipment before

Looking good. Do you have an idea of when you'll be able to get it metered?

Clothes sound great I wouldn't freak out or anything, I sent a memphis 4k in to memphis dec. 7, it's now the 12th and they haven't started shipping it back yet. Christmas is busy, and while I was originally told 2 weeks tops, I understand the holidays complicate things.

Well cone area wise 1 18 is like 2.5 12s. So on paper you'd gain about 4.5dbs. If you're going from 2krms (rated) to 1krms rated you'd lose 3db, still gaining 1.5 in the end. The build itself would really determine if it's worth it or not- as well as your electrical and if you're giving the btl more power than rated. I'd buy the Q and keep them both if you could lol, but I prefer 18s.

BTLs With a good build theres no reason you couldn't see 150ish @ 30hz. I've listened to several setups lately and it just makes me like my btls that much more. Can't wait to see finished pics on this- I love the black denali.

Looks really good, nice work.

I like how you are going with this. I since the last post decided to go with 4 18's instead of the 8 15's. I want to see how I fair out with this particular box design. I know what works, but before I go all the way I wanna mess around with different boxes. I heard my family is going to myrtle beach for our reunion. I hope we can run into each other. Thanks a lot, any pos. reinforcement helps I don't think it would go that small- I think about 6" would be the smallest. I doubt that without checking. I hope to have the subs back in by Friday, and the amps by (hopefully) next week or so. If you are heading this way just shoot me a pm, or an email at [email protected]. Have you been to Myrtle Beach before? If not maybe the wife and I could help you out with a few places to go while you're here. Anyway, I'm getting ready to go pick up the vinyl and maybe get the box in today, I'll post pics if so

For a few 10s I'm not worried enough at the moment, but in the future I'll surely keep it in mind, thanks. The router jig worked excellent. It doesn't cut very small holes, but for the subs it's perfect (up to 40-some inches I think). very easy to use, and you can pop the base plate out of the jig and use it as a normal base if you're in a hurry. I have a lot of hole-saw bits so I really don't need anything smaller, so it works great for me. The plastic the base is made of isn't the most durable, (I could see cracking it easy) I'll have to rate it over all 8.5/10. A great tool regardless of how often you'd use it.

Thanks Adrian. I'm still considering it, but for right now I'm going to stick with 12v. I just don't want to have to worry about the seperate charging systems. Thanks again though!

I'm still waiting for Memphis to ship my amp back. They said they should have it finished and back out this week, so I'm hoping to have it by my birthday (the 11th). I bought the 5th battery today, and I think the last one. 1 red top for under the hood and 4 yellows in back: I redid all the wiring and added a run of 1/0 ground from the front to the back. I decided to solder all the connections while I was at it too. Cutting the amp rack for under the seat and drilling some holes to put in amps/fuses/line driver/EQ I hope to get (I really want a RF 360). Closest carpet color I could find to match, the camera makes it look far off from the vehicle, but it's actually pretty close. Back in the vehicle, still have some stuff to add on there, but I'll have it finished tomarrow. I built the 32hz port, I'll have pics of that tomarrow, and hopefully I'll have the box vinyled so I can put it back in. It'll be a few more days for me to get the trim panel covered in bondo, sanded, and painted, but I can have the subs in there without that for a few days. More pics tomarrow/tuesday depending on when i get time. I'm tring to see if I can work around 70 hours this week to pick up some extra cash so I can get those alternators in!

The BLs are great on the low end. Whoever said otherwise must've either had install problems, or heard a setup with install problems. All things equal the BLs should be a bit louder and save you some major electrical upgrades. Or you could give your BTL more power and do some overhauling on your charging system...

That's a serious jump in cone area! Can't wait to see it I might have to drive down to florida to see that!

I thought I replied already? Hm, anyway, no I didn't. I had over $1k in taxes I didn't expect suck up a lot of alternator money. I will get one by the end of the month, and hopefully the other 3 by feb. I had a memphis 4k go out on me this week (nothing I did that I can tell, but I guess I'll find out). So that'll take up alt money to get fixed too While removing the amp I decided to finish the box. I'm going to have the top painted and vinyl the box itself to match the vehicle. Add a few more coats of 'glass inside and drop the tuning from 36 (34 in car) to about 33 (31 in car). I'm hoping to get some better hair tricks out of dropping the tuning, even if I lose a bit on the meter.