JimJ

Unless I wanted to have a natural wood finish on the box, I'd go MDF. Ply isn't worth it if you're covering it anyway.

Void-free ply usually has more layers...12 or 13 is pretty common. It's $50-80 a sheet depending on how picky you are about the grade of the finish.

If I could have afforded it, I would have gone with SecondSkin...Ant makes one hell of a product. But I wasn't disappointed with RAAMmat at all The Cascade products I've used (mostly to silence trim vibrations) have worked well, but everything they make is relatively pricey...

Have you tried EQing them?

Any reason why you picked that area in particular? My advice would just to be to stay away from the Vicks

You never cease to amaze me with your nonsensical babbling. 1131 Feet per sec/20 Feet = 1131/20 per sec or 56/sec or 56 hz Mathematically that portion is just fine. WTF are you talking about. I will save my issues with the rest of the article for later, but dopey you completely missed.

I'd be more worried about paying for noise violations than what the sub sounds like.

IIRC, they didn't have all the options they do now when I heard the 12". But that doesn't change the fact that a highly overmotored sub like the BTL is not and never will have as flat of a response as some of Fi's other offerings. Nor should it, that's not its design goal. Maybe you like a more peaky substage, and that's why it sounds better to you, I don't know. We all hear things differently. Maybe I should ask you what systems you've listened to that you'd consider a "reference" to how something is supposed to sound?

Comes down to how picky you are, and how much of a compromise you're willing to live with...using a BTL daily is a pretty heavy compromise to begin with.

birthday happy!

Man, if I'm using bubinga, I don't want it coming close to taking 2000 pounds of pressure anyway That'd be one serious turntable plinth or speaker baffle...

fudge 'em and chuck 'em.

I use Titebond for pretty much everything wood-related...they even have a "dark mixture" that makes it a little easier to stain over it and have everything match up to darker woods.

Never underestimate stupidity, anything's possible

Used to bother me, now I just chuckle...

I never got into it, something about the combination of bad music and epilepsy-causing background graphics that didn't jive with me...it's like what you'd get if a million of the world's worst web designers all got together. Facebook is much more usable.

QRZ.com has a subforum for people posting notices here: http://www.qrz.com/ib-bin/ikonboard.cgi?;act=SF;f=6, might be a place to start looking anyway. They're usually clustered around larger cities, once or twice a year.

I don't know where you live, but if there are any amateur radio swapmeets around you, those are usually good places to find a lot of used test equipment, and have the chance to try it out before you buy it. I went to one last spring in Raleigh and there were piles of o'scopes, signal generators, spectrum analyzers, and all sorts of surplus electronic stuff like that for sale.

teehee Yep...not having any load on the secondaries of the OPT's, combined with a very high output impedance and little to no negative feedback, results in a lot of voltage building up on the primary windings...even with the best transformers, that's going to arc over to the secondary and damage things. And since good transformers are most of the cost (and weight) of the amp, you really don't want that happening.

What's in the front stage?

I'm totally confused by that, but the best way to increase your SPL is to test, test, test, and test some more. That's the only way you're going to know what works in your vehicle and what doesn't. Making friends with someone who has a Termlab is pretty much required for this.

David Navone Engineering makes a good one...I'm not quite sure of the URL, just Google it. It connects in parallel with the speaker wiring, and then you'd hook up your RCA interconnects from it to whatever you're using as a crossover for the sub amp.

Yeah, at low frequencies standing waves aren't as much of a problem - in a bookshelf or tower speaker, sure...but it's a waste of money in a sub box.

Sub outs aren't required...I've never owned anything that has a sub out, and my Shiva doesn't care If that's your only gripe with your current one, don't bother with another, just get a good quality LOC and be done with it.

Hiquophon & Morels might be another place to look...little cheaper than the Scans, at least the ones linked.