shizzzon

well, my opinion is different than KU40s but i'd also side with the BTL. Why? Because if u wanted a 9500, u might as well get an AQ HDC3 for less than half the price of a 9500. BTL i'm sure has more potential in terms of getting louder than an HDC3 can.

if an 8 vs a pair of 18s can produce the same reading on a pressure meter.... that that goes to show u that install matters greatly. If i can compare a single 8 to a pair of 18s, imagine what it looks like when u compare 2 different subs of the same size...

if it was the reason for frying the amp then he must not have payed attention when adjusting the settings. I can see how one could cause damage to an amp but these things shouldnt be necessary. If you keep the gain control the same from one head unit to another then yes, his would sound "better" because his preouts are stronger, that doesnt mean better though. the gain controller is used to match that of your hu's preout, that's it. Easy, huh? The more you crank the gain up, the lower the voltage listing goes on the dial. so lets say your amp is adjustable from 0.1 to 9v. that means when the gain is turned all the way counter clockwise, that's 9v and all the way over is 0.1mv. You need 2v which "should" be somewhere around 70& clockwise but don't go by that to set the gains... IF the gain is set too high, you'll start clipping.

there's a user doin over a 150 with a single 8 then there's people with 2 18s and several thousand watts of power doin just over a 150 too so It's all in the INSTALL.

hey, what about those 1500ds, dont u have those already?

actually no! If the internals of that amp are screwed up, it doesn't require the amp to be on to read a short... Insert the power and ground wires in backwards and u can see this for yourself!(dont do that, just makin a point) For the amp to not pop it's onboard fuses when the inline fuse is taken out still points to the amp. Why? Because if there was a short somewhere down the line, the inline fuse, even if it were a 500A would eventually pop due to a short. If it didn't, the cable would burn up or battery would get damaged. The amp is immediately trying to pull infinite current due to some sort or internal malfunction. It can't do that when the inline fuse is removed. I'm willing to bet if u remove that amp and put another amp in it's place that it will work fine.

amp wont work if there are no fuses so no, amp wont come on. Well, get your dmm out and this is what u do- Unhook the power and ground cable from the amp. Set dmm to ohms. Measure the resistance of the power cable u just disconnected from the end u just disconnected all the way to the battery(assuming there's a battery in the back) IF you do not get a reading at all, the inline fuse on this cable is popped and you NEED to disconnect the entire power line from the battery before continuing. If you do get a reading which should be 0 ohms, it's a 99% chance the amp needs to be serviced. IF you didnt get a reading as stated before, after removing the entire line, inspect the cable carefully. IF you can't find the problem, remove the inline fuse holder so u can measure resistance in sections if you have to. A more brute force method but you would have no choice if u can't visually find the problem.

I was out in my car today doin some work to it and decided to measure resistance on connections. I measured somethin interesting and don't know what it means so am hoping somebody here might. I removed all wire going to positive battery terminal under the hood except for factory wiring. When testing factory wiring to ground, i get a reading of 1,320 - 1,780 ohms. What does that mean? Apparently, is does mean power is touching ground but in the most least resistance possible. How low of a resistance reading does a connection have to be to start causing battery damage?

that's unnecessary. I believe that if there were something wrong with the amp that it wouldnt pop the fuse until the amp was told to come on... So that means to pop the fuses before the amp is told to come on means it's pulling enough current to pop the fuses... Without coming on, that means a short. Obviously enough, should look to see if the wires are going into the right terminal or like you say, a short in the power line. Either way, measuring current is unnecessary because we already know it's shorting.

make sure you got the power and ground going into the right terminals.

i can sum it up- It doesn't require any particular meter in terms of accuracy. As long as the meter is rated to accurately measure pressure at the pressure level he creates when finding his car's peak will suffice. Why? Because the meter is the constant in the equation and the frequencies are changing so when the meter peaks, that should most definitely be the car's peak. Now, i also agree about using a TL as well. Just like what was said before, if serious about competing, get a TL. Most sanctions use these so why not use the meter that u will be metering on in practice?

I'd have to draw it out, but make port 3" wide, the port will drive all the way down the depth of the box and will turn and go down another wall by just a couple inches.

when i get home, i'll check the math

The FCBC Competition Meeting will be held on December 12th, 2009 at Ryan's Steakhouse. Location- 1034 Executive Dr, Elizabethtown, KY Meeting will be at 6pm EST. Room is already reserved, pay for your own food. This meeting will go over the guidelines\rules and finalize everything before the FCBC competition dates are set in stone. As of right now, there is no other tougher competition like this... They were right when they said, "We want to see smoke!" PAY EXTREME ATTENTION to your install when competing in such a division as damage will\may occur if care is not taken when competing in FCBC. Known rules- There will be 5 sensor placements! Guidelines are unknown at this time BUT there are different rules for each location. Locations include- Floor Window Seat Outside Port Wars (3" inside) Meter is placed on either driver or passenger side. How the competition will work- Each competitor MUST complete 3 rounds... Round 1 is 30seconds Round 2 is 45seconds Round 3 is 60seconds Ready for the Oh Shit! part? Each competitor has ONLY 60seconds of break time in between each round before the next round begins! Better know what your subs can and cannot handle! The 3 pressure levels a competitor averages will be summed and divided by 3 to determine the winner. Each round consists of a different sensor placement. Outside measurement is not understandable at this time until it has been discussed at the meeting. Entry fee for the first scheduled show will make you a full 1yr FCBC member for FREE. Do not forget that.

sounds like your computer is clipping. Turn the gain down by rolling the wheel mouse back a little and you should be good. Yea, the auto loading feature isn't working yet.

yep, i run a wall right now and when i tear it down next year, i will be lining my entire car with wood and steel bracing... and hoping for a 160.. non-walled. May or may not happen but based upon what i am seeing.. i need to no wall my car with the next design i do.

oh, thats bout 2hrs from me, hope u would be closer. well, how much space do u have in the back?

what city r u in?

Gots a couple pic n vid from the show- Guy with a van runnin 24 TruBass 8s- Then the almighty Paul Strouth, hehe. He's got 12x Sundown SA-12s runnin 4 Sundown 3500ds in a bandpass design My run.. i was down a few tenths from last show for good reason, helluva story to tell.. It took my just over 3hrs to drive there.. Guess what i found once i got there... I drove for just over 3hrs with NO ALTERNATOR!!! Ahh! The turn on fuse had popped when i started the car this morning and was runnin purely off my batts... Luckily, XS Powermaster batts and Mechman make some good products! My xs floats at 13.0v and after 3hrs and 20 min of driving, it was down 11.9v This was a D3100 and D5100 = 170aH. Not bad! I spent 3hrs on and off charging the batts back up with my mechman alt rated for 250A. I was able to get the batts from 11.9 to 12.7v by the time i started doin my runs. My burp score was down with only a 150.8. I did, however, compete in driveby this time for the first time. Driveby- meter vehicle 6ft away metering 30sec average on real music. I scored a 126.1 on my first time ever. If you don't know what's loud and what isn't, go check out meca's recrods for driveby for each class and so on. a 137.x i believe is the loudest to date outside the vehicle in MECA. Anyways, after the comp, my batts still at 12.7 so i went ahead and drove all the way home and by the tiem i got home...my batts are at 13.1 now and alt still workin fine and in the high 14s like it should be I won 1st in driveby and 2nd in burp. Next show 1-16-10 i believe.. gots some modeling to do for some new designs.

i have to ask this.. how do you know that you even need another battery in the car? Does she have a 50A alt or somethin? If you do not know, i'd just find somethin that would work IN CASE she needed it, otherwise don't buy it beforehand. Tryin to save both of u some money here. Or better yet, you could get the specs off her stock batt and replace it with a more powerful one only if she is having dimming problems which i doubt she would anyway. This will clear up more space in the back too.

i'm sure it wasn't. I tested approx 3lbs worth in a chamber directly behind the port one time in my wall. Backpressure will be at it's greatest here so that's why i only installed it there. I only measured it with a meter on the low end, not the high end. Box tuned in the low 30s, peaks at 50hz, the Acousta-stuff increased pressure right at or around tuning but was a very small increase, possibly due to the low amount of stuffing i had inside. I did also notice a decrease in the higher range 50hz+ so it's not just you. The response sounded more smooth rather than peaky as how i got mine setup.

u misunderstood my post. He was referencing the Hyperdynamics meter that is required to be used with a good dmm or oscilloscope. The word METER i used means dmm or oscope in my post, not referencing db meter. That is how their meter works. I have one and some other people around the internet do to, that's how they advertise it to work. I'm not in the electrical field but snoopdan knows quite a bit about stuff like this and he told me how the meter works as to why it requires a dmm or oscope to get the proper reading off the meter. The millivolt reading is converted using a formula they give you or you can use their software to do it for you to obtain the proper pressure measurement. "has anybody on here tried those meter you can hook up to a DMM and get a read out look it up on the lil chart thing and get a db read out" That is the Hyperdynamics meter made by makeitlouder and that is how you use it.

The educated people deal with facts, not speculation. Hanapi, your entire description is purely based upon speculation information and this is why you confuse yourself on how your electrical system is being ran. So, let me quit doin these box designs and stop workin on my comp car so i can break it down. www.bcae1.com and www.the12volt.com is where u learn the basics. SSA is where you NEED to be (Here) to use the information correctly. This is how it is- You have 2 amps capable of pulling up to 500A but realistically only pulling an average of about 200A. A 250A alternator should handle this fine.. in a sense. 20-60A of power is dedicated to running the vehicle the entire time. Also, you can only get maximum rated power out of the alternator once you reach the proper rpm which is usually 1,800-2,500rpm. Because you had the original pulley put back on, if it's a larger one, the ratio from engine to alternator has gotten smaller so that means the engine rpm will need to be even higher to reach max output of your alternator! So imagine 3,000rpm+ just to run your audio system on stock pulley? the reason you won't see any dimming is because when the alt isn't putting out enough current for the demand, you have a LARGE battery bank in the back that is keeping up with it. The problem lies here- How long do u keep it cranked? If you keep it cranked for long durations at a time, 10min minimum constantly... the alternator is probably trying to run the audio system ANd charge batts at the same time which is just too much current to do that. You need to get a DMM and measure your voltage at the rear battery bank at idle and at 2,000rpm while blasting it and see how low your voltage goes for a duration of a few seconds to a few minutes! This will confirm my theory if your voltage is dropping to 13.0v or lower, you have a problem... You can't test it now because your alt is damaged but likely scenario. Solution- if you blast it for prolonged periods.. these alts, all h.o. alts are nto designed for maximum current output for prolonged periods of time. This is why you should never try and charge a dead battery with one... Why you shouldnt try to pull more current than what it's designed for for long periods of time. Why you shouldnt use a large quantity of batteries and let them discharge just a little on a high powered system with just a single alternator without charging the bank up with a battery charger. Why you need to a voltmeter or safety cutoff switches for low voltage situations(this doesnt mean dimming, this means dipping into battery's reserve capacity). The #1 reason why alts fail or high output alts fail is because they burn up.. workin them too hard. A true high output alternator can't fit in our cars because they are too large. these high output alts that are manufactured are intended for short period high current demands so they can keep cool. A true high output case is about 8 times the size of your alt case. Also, you have 2 different battery technologies mixed together in your vehicle. IT's not wise to leave them like that over time when the vehicle isn't running as they can fight with each other and drain each other. What does this do? Makes them want a charge, a longer charge immediately... thsi could also contribute to the alt being maxed out trying to charge batts even with the stereo off. Too many maybes but lots of possibilities.

are you referring to the Hyperdynamics meter from makeitlouder? They read real close to a termlab. Mine was reading right along with a tlab until i reached 150 then then it started reading higher than a tlab. The accuracy fo the meter compared to another is irrelovant, it just needs to be able to meter the levels of pressure you will be using it for and yes, that meter can just fine. You will need a meter that can read millivolts to get an accurate reading.

it would be impossible for a universal calculation of all vehicles as the contour shapes of objects in the car and materials used to absorb and reject sound and sound vibrations will all effect cabin gain in any vehicle. It needs to be physically tested. Cabin gain will change upon how much air can escape out of the car as well. I got my cabin gain graphs made for my wall sealed and outlaw. It takes about 30 min per pass to get the info from 20hz-100hz. Once u have cabin gain... that's when u know where your car peaks at and start playing with that info to see how easy it is to get loud in certain areas and see where other areas in your car is hard as hell to get loud.