creyc

I have installed a new pair of Havoc 15" subwoofers in my truck, powered by two SAE-1000D amps bridged and notice a distinct lack of dynamic range, or ability to hit "peaks". It's almost as if it's built to play test tones, only. As soon as I play rock music at relatively high volumes, the fast bass notes and kicks clip and distort. It's not very loud, but I turn the gains down till it no longer clips, as any good car audio enthusiast would. Now it's quieter than quiet, and it just barely wants to clip if a loud enough drum comes along. Now if I play a bass mekanik CD I rattle store windows and do mini-hair-tricks at 20Hz. No clipping, sounds good. Switch to rap or rock and its crap. I don't want an SPL/burp setup, it has to sound good with music. Two 15's and 2000W of sundown power, surely that would be enough for some rock music and the occasional rap song? I'm almost ready to rip it all out and go back to two Kicker 10s on 1000W. What would cause this? Electrical isn't amazing right now, lead battery up front, 1/0 to amps, small stinger deep cycle by the amps.

Don't know any buddies with woodworking experience and a table saw?

For a 2cu ft box tuned to 34Hz: Slot port 30 sq inches port area (10x3" slot for ex.) 28-15/16" long (29") Round aero port 6" diameter port 28-9/16" long (29")

yes you can put a custom built box back there, i've seen it in tacomas before. I'll probably get flamed for this but with limited space and 6" drivers I would recommend using 3/8" MDF and then brace the corners or any large "flat" areas. You'll save precious space the more bulky 3/4" MDF would take up. I'm also fairly certain you can fit 8's back there. That would certainly give you a much more noticeable difference than the switch to a different brand of 6's. Take some pictures, and a few measurements. You could also consider sliding the passenger seat forward a notch or two. We fit two 12" pioneer subs behind my brothers regular cab silverado with the seats all the way back. (he's 6'4") I'm more familiar with the older Tacomas though.

Vehicle is a 1994 extended cab ford ranger. The subs are in an 18 x 18 x 36" box sitting right behind the driver and passenger seats. The subs point forward, and fire directly into the back of the seats. With a few easy modifications I can make the box face any direction but straight backwards. The position of the box is fixed for the most part, minus 3" of adjustment left to right. The cab is very very small, which I don't think is helping me any. If it was a surefire bet I could fix my sound with a cut-through in the bed, I wouldn't be against that.

Walking through Target the other day I saw an interesting Pioneer box out of the corner of my eye. Not expecting to see nice head decks or anything really pioneer at target, I checked it out and found they were selling CD-IB100II iPod adapters for $14 a piece! I can't find these for less than $50 online. They had at least one left, so if anyone here needs one cheap, $14 + shipping and I can probably send you one. I love finding deals like this!

A good guy, and local installer was explaining to me that it might be 100% due to the small size of my cabin. The only odd thing here is how strong 20-35Hz comes in, in a small cab wouldn't that be the first to go? If this is true, is there any way at all to get deep powerful bass that also hits hard in such a small truck cab? This reminds me of trying to deal with phase cancellation issues in the pro sound business, adding more and more power and speakers only makes things worse! I'm wondering if I should be approaching this from a different angle now. As for midbass, I have the 6-3/4" midrange drivers that come with the pioneer PRS components mounted in the doors. Still waiting for my buddy with the connection on damping material. This will certainly be done soon. Maybe some LARGE designated midbasses.

I understand why that will happen. But I've always crossed my subs over around 80Hz, not 50 or so that this setup seems to be. (not by choice!) I don't know where else I could have mess up. Each havoc is sitting in about 2.6cu ft sealed airspace. I really have no idea if thats enough in a practical situation, it's within the manufacturers specifications.

I'm not sure, a month ago I would have agreed with you wholeheartedly. The problem is most music doesn't go to 20 or even 30Hz. It seems like the higher frequency stuff is what really slams you, like stomping on a big kick drum. Good friend of mine has a fairly mild setup in his Explorer, but play a 50Hz sine wave over his ported 12s and its painful in his truck! Meanwhile mine is very soft in this range but kills his below 35Hz. I know I can't reach midbass at 100-250Hz, but I thought it would hit above 35Hz. I know I will need one hell of a midbass setup to keep up. I'm thinking pro audio speakers.

After doing a little more critical listening of my 2 Havoc 15s in a 5.4 cu ft sealed box, I'm not really sold on the sound. My goals were a LOUD hard hitting system that sounds good on anything from hip hop to rock. Transient response and chest-thumping bass are vital to me, so I went with a sealed box initially for the sake of simplicity and a starting point to improve on. I'm not overly impressed with the sound quality, however. It plays extremely LOW, 20Hz has my truck falling apart and my ears pressurized, but ask it to play music or a 50Hz bass line and it falls way down leaving much to be desired. Above 50Hz leaves you wondering what happened to those huge speakers sitting behind you, it's simply weak. As a result the system doesn't sound very musical at all, and the substage mixes in very poorly with the pioneer C720-PRS components making up the mids and highs. I wonder what's the cause, either the sealed box or impedance rise or something just the nature of my tiny extended cab ranger making deep powerful bass so hard to achieve. I noticed when settings gains that voltage dropped from 64v @ 25Hz to the low 50s at 50Hz and above, all else held constant, no bass boost/LPF/subsonic. Is it possible to build something that sounds somewhat like a rock concert inside an extended cab ranger? I've got 1800RMS and two 15's to work with...

I would recommend using (3) 6" ports for a 6cu ft box and two 12s. Some people determine port area based on driver surface area, some on box size. Most everyone will agree the more port area you have the better. I've read a few articles discussing measured distortion even using as much as 1/2 the speaker cone area in port area.

Yes. But your alt will eventually die. Replace with a H/O unit when it does and you'll be set! That alterstart place gave me a great price, give them a call.

Thats before gluing. Small but a crack nonetheless. I can't get a good picture of the dustcover de-lamination from the other sub. I'll try a better camera.

Can you please explain proper gain setup running two SAE-1000D's on a 2-ohm load? How many volts should I expect on the output terminals with my DMM? I know how to calculate this on a non-strapped amp, v=sqrt(watts*ohms) I read something about 36v in an earlier post, was that for an 1800W, 2-ohm load?

Often amplifiers run more efficiently at higher impedances. A particular amp may be 80% efficient at 4 ohms, but only 65% at 1 ohm. You can see how the strain on your electrical system goes up when you change from 4 to 1 ohm, not only due to lower efficiency but also increased power delivery as well. As far as how the sub responds, I read a good thread about this on ROE. Whether or not the effects of running lower impedance is audible or not seems to be an issue of debate.

I managed to repair the cracked sub with CA glue today. Unfortunately the little crack is now more apparent because of the white hazing around the glue, it seems to be a strong hold and isn't splitting further. In other news, I looked at my second (perfect) sub and noticed the dust cap is actually peeling OFF in some areas, as in the glue is de-laminating. I don't know whats up with that, but I'll see if it gets worse. Will post pics tomorrow

Well get goin!

Well, there are a few setbacks we would need to solve first, of course Jim!

I always hit my cars with big tuning forks to find their resonant frequency! I too, am curious.

It's funny, I always figured a record player would be the ultimate source unit in a car, since the noise floor of the car environment more closely matches that of a turntable. I personally am at odds with "car" and "sq or hi-fi" in the same sentence. Everything about the car environment, from road noise to bumps to big flat plates of glass and other resonant surfaces just screams out that I'm wasting my time trying to achieve truly amazing sound. Now I'm of the opinion "just get it close". Save some money, a lot of time and headache and focus on things which will truly make the most difference in a car, the install.

They're both sharing an SAE-1000D now, and 2-ohms at that so 500 to the pair! Obviously they want a lot more power. I picked up 13' of 1/0 welding cable today so I can install my second SAE-1000D tomorrow, then strap them. Then I'll have 1800W to throw at them, in a large sealed box. It's getting a bit tiring lately, I think I've spent more time in my (parked) truck than in my bed. And of course there's no real end in sight, now I have lots of tuning to do. I'm somewhat glad I didn't take on the project of the much larger ported box, sealed barely fits!

I have a 95A alt, regular lead battery, big 2.5 (heh, waiting on ring terminal) a small stinger batt near the amp and my SAE-1000D gets very little dimming. With that yellowtop you should be OK for a while, but watch the voltage. If you play non-stop for a while it will drain.

I hope you don't mind I hijacked your avatar jpang, well messed it up a bit too. Boredom. Yes I live in FL, tampa/clearwater area. As for beer, I have a small stash In other news, the subs SOUND fantastic however! I'll glue the cracked one before throwing on the new amp tomorrow.

More beer needed.

Post pics of the bracing in that box! I'm always curious how others do it in large boxes.