95Honda

I also think the only big drawback is getting them on axis. I built about 10 sets of speakers when Adire was first building WR/FR 4.5" drivers (now CSS) and on axis they were pretty good. In fact, of the 6 or sets of the 2-ways I built with the WR drivers, if you covered the tweeter it didn't make w hole big difference on axis, but off axis, whoa... But I think this is to be expected really... I haven't played with the Tangband FRs yet, but I have used a ton of the HIVI B3Ns, and those sounded pretty damn good also... You still may need a crossover to tame some of the reponse irregularities of these little drivers, even though you are running them wide open... Check out what Zaph does for the B3N... B3N

I have put razor blades inside of ports before. In the PVC, I cut slits and glues the razor blades in. There were large wingnuts at the bottom of the box holding it down, you just had to reach all the way through the port to reach it. And not just a couple of blades, like 10. Only sticking in about 1/4" - 1/2" And at a good angle where going in it would cut clean, but then when you panic and start jerking around, you are pulling against the corner of the blade.... I did this for a buddy who lived in a bad area. His car still got broken into, but there was were blood everywhere, and little pieces of skin shreads inside the port. They got pissed and smashed all his windows, but they didn't actually steal anything. Honestly, I kind of felt good about the whole thing, whoever did it lost a lot of blood and has probably stuck with some messed up hands... There was blood drops up the street and then gone I guess where they parker a car...

I used a bunch of 4/0 a few years ago, Supraflex welding cable. It wasn't over 1" in diameter and was super flexible. I gave my last 40ft of it away to Marshal Joyner... lol... I ended up using the heavy copper crimpable ends that are used for indsutrial apps, they worked bette in my opinion.... CCAW is straight up crap. Seriously, it is a joke to buy that stuff. You are paying for fancy looking aluminum garbage.... Of coarse it will work fine if you buy 1/0 to run a single amp that is a few thousand watts.... But it is a big ass waste of money. Seriously it is a joke played on stupid consumers...

No, it isn't a short, there is voltage drop across the device. But one single led connected to the output will be smoked in no time, you will almost cetainly exceed the voltage rating of the led. This is why you need to using a dropping resistor or multiple leds. Do yourself a favor, don't hook up anything to the amp terminals without at least a 1-2 ohm resistor is series with it. This way, no matter what you do or screw up, your amp will never see anything it can't handle.... If you completely understand what is gong on here, feel free to hook a bunch of leds up inseries directly to the output, it will work just fine....

leds work with both AC and DC, it doesn't matter. They are a diode, they light up when forward biased. They are forward biased about half the time with an AC input. And yes, you could put a bunch in series and add up the voltage drop. You use the dropping resistor if you don't have enough in series...

Your running into compression somewhere. Either the LOC or the headunit. Nothing wrong with this, just an inherent limitation of the equipment. This is the primary reason there are gain controls on an amp. Is the gain on the amp all the way up? If not, you need to turn it up more. If it is all the way up, something is wrong because it shouldn't take more than 1/4 volt or so on the input to bring most amps to clipping when set to thier most sensitive level....

They will work just fine on the output of the amp. A/C or D/C doesn't matter, they will forward bias/reverse bias faster than than your eyes will ever be able to detect. They will just light up with the bass (assuming you have a low pass filter, pretty sure you do with a class D.) You'll just need to use a resistor to drop voltage and keep things safe. The resistor value will depend on your led forward bias current rating. If you aren't sure, just start with something high like 10K or so and work your way down. If you are using very high output leds, the resistor will be much smaller. Try and use a 1/2 watt or higher at least for the resistor, a few watts will be better, depending on how many leds you will use. Also, you could just use a ton in series, that will be fine too, jst make sure you hook up the polarity right, if you put one in backwards, there will always be one reversed bias and no cuurent will flow. I use leds in my amps I build straight of of the mains input (50/60Hz) with a dropping resistor and you could never tell it was driven by AC. The leds will blow up before you hurt an amp with an output stage like that....

They won't match up...

M6/M4 might match up, I will check... If you want a few bags of 1/4-20 Nuts and socket head cap screws, I'll just order you some and mail them to you from here.... I don't think it would cost much at all really...

That's weird, I have used maybe 3 or 400 of these without glue and never had a failure...

I have been impressed with the Hurricane nuts. Especially with smaller drivers like 8" or smaller where they are mounted very close to the edge, they don't blow out the MDF. They are strong also, I use the 1/4-20 for all my big subs and torqure the shit out of them without issue....

I would look into the P/E reference line before the Goldwoods. The price is higher, but would be worth it. Also, look into all the Tympany buyouts P/E has been pushing. More than likely better than the Goldwoods. I have also used Goldwoods, in fact alot of them. They have always worked well for the price, but just keep in mind the prices... If you really want to look into some budget drivers, check out Zaph Audio. He has reviewed tons of drivers, many very cheap, and can give you honest reviews and measurements....

Considering mild clipping (which seems to be your concern) has basically no effect on the driver, it really isn't an issue. Honestly, I just say this because I read about this all the time, and I really doubt that anyone is really doing any sort of objective measuring/adjusting. I only say this because the signal chain in most sytems has way to many variables to try and calibrate one part (gain of the final amp) and think everything is OK. Additionally, the clipping issue is just plain retarded. There are maybe only a handfull of people on here that have done any real testing and can give actual test data/testimony. Almost everyone else is just spouting heresay and theories... It is almost stupid and seems to be used as the scapegoat every time someone blows a driver... But it is honestly a dead horse at this point... Buy a decent scope that will help you with your career path. Not to calibrate equipment for people who are clueless....

"Car audio" power wire is a joke...

The port area has nothing to do with box size. It has everything to do with input power. Compression of vent output is directly related to input power, so unless you know how much power you will use, you have no idea of how much vent area you need..

For most audio applications a scope won't be terribly expensive because you don't need a ton of bandwidth. Anything over a 100Mhz scope will be overkill for 99% of what you do... (and this is really only needed when T/S power supplies, etc....) You should be able to find a decent used 100MHz Techtronics for pretty cheap. If your sole reason for buying a scope now is for gain setting, then I would wait until you are further into your career and use it for something useful....

The actual impedance isn't probably as low as you think, that is why the amps are tolerating it. That, or they are very tolerant of low impedance loads.... Either way, I would still be wary running those type of loads....

To your ear, it does take about 10db to be percieved as twice as loud. I don't make this statement because of something I've read, I make it due to building and testing amplifiers for the last 20 years and constantly listening to test tones. I also have been a radio technician for the last 13 years in the military, and I can tell you, in agonizing truth, how intimate I am with a 1000Hz test tone, for hours on end, at all different levels.... lol....

150+ is damn loud. I built a system in a Dodge Durango a few years back with the original Adire Tempests. It did over 150, at the headrest, (none of that kick panel or windshield bs.... mic'd what your head felt) on music.... On a TL. I was retarded loud to drive around and listen to that crap..... I could stand it for about a minute or so... By the way, this crap is horrible for your hearing.. lol...

There is no such thing as "under powering". There is a problem running an amp below it's rated impedance. I mean stuff besides the obvious shutting down. Distortion gets much worse, efficiency goes in the pooper and a myriad of other things start to behave bad as well.

The amp itself is making the noise? If so, normally that is the power supply giving 100%, like if it is trying to power a shorted output stage.... Or the power supply is bad. But if you blew the sub, could have been the output syage going bad...

You would only need a line driver if you have to drive low impedance loads. LOCs will have enough juice to drive the input of any normal amp....

I really like the idea of the secondary coil. I played around with one of the Atlas subs when they first came out... I remember Dan showing me the prototypes, they were prettly slick.... I had built a set of mini-monitors in the early 90's with some of the original Focal 6 1/2" Kevlar DVC drivers. A guy in our audio club had explained to me using the second coil with a potentiometer hooked up to adjust the alignment, I used a 100W l-pad and it was pretty cool to play with.

Depends on the driver and power. If you have a single 10" or 12" driver and a few hundred watts, it would be just fine. To figure out the length just use any of the free web based programs, you shouldn't have any issues getting close...

There are a few pro-audio drivers with 6" coils and resonable inductance w/high power handling. High efficency too.... Also, you need to think about it as surface area, so a large diameter coil may have no more inductance and weight than a smaller diameter coil that is longer...