nigel

love the progress, looks awesome man, always happy to see someone enjoying their projects. Liking the stained wood as well. Definitely different from the normal grey carpet. And as for using the pre-existing holes for the wiring, it's fine, you've kept them neat and tidy, and ziptied together. Nothing wrong with that.

any cooling for the amps hooked up? It's gonna get hot under there. Other than that it's looking clean so far. Oh, and I'm running the milwaukee 18v tools as well. Absolutely love them. Ergonomics are great, and the weight of them is spot on.

Had a sales guy fry two different kicker subs in a showroom in front of me years ago, and try to tell me that the burnt coil smell was just the sub "breaking in" and was "normal" as smoke was coming out of the ports. Sort of turned me off of kicker, as if that's who they allow to represent/sell them, where else are they cutting corners? Then they came out with the square subs, and said they had great sound quality.... Not saying they're a terrible company, their products do have their place and abilities, just turned me from them, and I worked at a shop who picked them up as a line, and sold and installed their products, still to this day I haven't had anything from them in any of my vehicles.

probably not the best or safest idea to be turned around taking a video while you're driving... Should probably be putting your attention on what's in front of you perhaps.

it's funny I've always been partial to buying new, but the last sub I had (OZ Audio Matrix Elite 12) I bought used off of the internet from a guy in another country, and used it with no issues for 7 years. I guess it's buyer beware, as you can get a good deal, but you can get screwed too. If the Orion looks in good condition and doesn't appear to be tampered with then might be a good deal for ya... That being said, I'm running a PPI Sedona series amp, and love it.

OZ Audio - love my matrix elite 12. Still have it, but am trying new stuff again just for fun... Alpine - still have my CDA-7998, probably my favorite deck that I've run (run different alpines, Pioneer, Sony, JVC...) JBL for amps - ran a pair of their amps for 7 years with no hiccups, and I wasn't nice to them either.

But what both those charts fail to mention is voltage drop due to differences in specific resistivity of the two different metals. And in our environment where a lot of people have issues already with voltage drop due to the strain they're putting on their electrical system (ie. stock batt, alt, and not upgraded power/ground under hood) using a subpar cable that is causing more voltage drop can cause problems. Our amplifiers are designed to be functional in a certain voltage range, when you start forcing it to try to operate outside that range, you are going to start causing damage. And in my experience, most people willing to cheap out on wire, are also cheaping out elsewhere, and are the most prone to issues down the road. My last set up I ran for 7 years (2 amps, sub and components) just sold both amps and still have sub and components in working order back in their boxes in the garage. But I've seen others lucky to get 1 year out of their equipment before running into problems...

this is why I started this thread. I find in car audio especially, there are a ton of myths and misrepresentations, and a lot of dishonesty. When people stop talking and learning, these myths/misrepresentations start getting passed around as truths, and people spend money on things that they shouldn't. I've lost count of the systems I've seen where a guys is running a 1200 watt mono block in a subcompact with a 90 amp alt, and thinks that the capacitor the guy at (insert box store/sleazy salesman name here) sold him has solved all of his issues... When I started buying car audio 13 years ago, I didn't see any CCA wire, everywhere had just copper or 99% pure OFC (what they advertised). Now I'm seeing CCA kits, rated to carry the same amperage as OFC for 2/3 the price with salesguys saying the standard "electrical current is carried on the outside of the wire, therefore the copper cladding is all you need, this wire is just as good for less of a cost...." Have I mentioned I don't like most sales guys I meet... I guess I'm just at a point where I like to see intelligent conversation started based on factual information so that those who may not necessarily have the technical know how can easily see the reasons behind the why and how of this hobby/profession/obsession. On that note, I personally am not currently in the market for wire, was just looking for some info to feed my addiction. And a big thanks to those that have answered, I love a good discussion. And a big thanks to 95Honda, have always found your posts to be very informative and helpful, I remember reading your posts on soundillusions.net when I first got into this. And another big thanks to djjdnap for the info from bcae1.com, have loved that site for years.

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_24979_Precision-Power-PPI-S2000.1D.html for 239.99 should be able to power one of those xcons for ya.

Quentin, care to explain why? As your answer is the opposite of the previous 4. I ask this question, as from all the kits/wires that I have seen, manufacturers are rating CCA and OFC for the same amount of current per size, and coming with the same size fusing. What I'm wondering is if CCA's conductivity is able to carry the same current with out a noticeable voltage drop (at the length being used in a car environment 17 feet or less per se), thus able to perform the same then why pay more? I realize that yes OFC is more conductive, but then I'm not trying to run 100 feet of wire at max capacity either. That being said, I already have mine wired, running 12 feet of 4 awg OFC for a 60 amp current draw. Just trying to sastisfy my curiosity and make people think is all.

So, I've noticed recently that just about every wire company has bot OFC and CCA wire available, with OFC being the higher end line. My question is, In a car audio environment, where my power wire run will be no greater than 17 ft, is the difference in conductivity enough to make a noticeable (to me as an average consumer) difference? If not overdrawing or improperly fused? As an example: 4 awg run 60 amp fuse less than 12" from battery to amplifier that has a max current draw of 60 amps with a total length of the run being 12 ft? Amp ground at 18" on 4awg as well? Or say doing big 3 upgrade with 1/0 wire running above mentioned equipment/main power run to the back?

Well, as an update, still loving this amp so far. Just have it hooked up at 2 ohms for 600 watts right now, and it really gets the sex 15 moving in a sealed enclosure. Have not had any hiccups. On a side note, I now need to come up with ideas on how to stop the rear hatch on my x-trail from sounding like I'm shaking a spray can, damn it's bad. I miss my s-10 that I had the panels deadened on...

idler pulley, if it goes, or belt comes off, well, then you're in a whole different world of trouble, had this happen to a vehicle in a minus 30 degree blizzard driving on a highway over an hour drive from any city... Great feeling...

the sub does exactly what I need it to do, and I have had it for a couple of years without ever hooking it up, so I'm not about to sell it for something else. I got it all hooked up today, and have to say I am thoroughly impressed overall with the ability of both together. Definitely pleased. Just had got a little nervous about the amp, when I did a little more looking past the few reviews that I could find to who owns Precision Power nowadays and realized it was Power Akoustik whose gear I have not been impressed with in a long time (used to work at a shop that carried their stuff and installed quite a bit of it). That is all. So far the amp seems to have plenty of power on tap, not the horribly overrated specs that I've seen on a lot of power akoustic amps.

this weekend was awesome, my wife rolled her ankle and tore a ligament slipping off of the curb of our driving while carrying our two year old... Took her to the hospital and had to pretty much chase the kids by myself for the weekend... Got absolutely nothing that needed to be done, done, other than mowed the back yard while the kids were outside playing, and now I'm on midnights the next two weeks, so, I'll be asleep during the day, and unable to get sh!t done. Life is just f#cking great.

should've drank the beer...

Going to use it to power an RE audio 15" SE-X subwoofer. wondering did I make a mistake with this amp? Or are people saying good things about them still? For now, the sub will be seeing 2 cubic feet sealed, as I am currently in a budget crunch and don't want to shell the cash to build a different enclosure (this is also the reason for the amp choice, was price point).

remember, if you go to two of them, not only are you going to double your surface area, but you will then run that amp at 2 ohms, thus upping your power, which could make the difference. The general rule as I always thought, was that, going to a properly built ported could gain you 3 db, or doubling you cone area will gain the 3 db, or dubling power can. These are in theory, in reality, doing any of these, in real world may not actually get you this gain due to environmental factors. I would think that even though you would go from one ported to 2 sealed, you would also be upping the power output, this could make a difference, may not.... And, if the Dcons aren't designed to be optimal in a sealed enclosure, then that could make a difference as well...

you didn't want to give another set of the z's a try? Seems to me that sundown is being really good in taking care of you, and offering a full refund, that generates a lot of respect for the company in my eyes. just saying.

from reading on S10forum, guys there are liking sub up passenger side, port side firing on driver's side.

were those subs right up against the back of your seat? If so, then that could be why you were so unhappy. With a box like that in a reg cab, you really need to make sure to leave room for your cones movement. Also, you say you didn't design/tune the enclosure, and were unhappy so you returned the subs. But, if you didn't design the box, are you certain it wasn't the box that was the issue? Proper design accounts for a lot. I think doing (2) 8" drivers in a proper ported enclosure, has a lot of potential. If done right.

good. That was one of my main conceerns, was how is the sound of these style enclosures, but so far, everyone who has one that's commented has said they enjoy the sound of these boxes as well. Looks like this is the style I'll be building, but my main concern is 43.5 sq. inches of port area enough so as to avoid port chaffing? I used to use an online calculator to show this, but for the life of me I cannot remember what website it was on. Had a calculator to show port velocity, by putting in size of driver, one way linear xmax, rms power, and port area would show velocity and what number to keep it under so as to avoid hearing it.

Okay, have done some reading around, and from what I'm seeing is that guys are getting good results in x-cab s-dimes with an up-firing sub/ side firing port design. So, I'm thinking I might give this a try. vehicle: 03 chev s-10 subwoofer: RE Audio SEx 15 (dual 4 ohm coils) Amplifier: JBL GTO 601 (600 watts @ 2 ohms) Looking at doing an enclosure out of .75" MDF Outside measurements: 15" height * 40" width * 16" depth Slot port: 14.5" wide * 3" high (port area of 43.5") * 23.5" long (tuning ~33.5 Hz) Net enclosure volume: 3.6 ft^3 Big question I have is, will 43.5" of port area be enough, or do I need more to prevent terrible port noise? Thanks for your opinions in advance.

ok, the sub is here, now to get some wood, and build a box.... I hate packaging peanuts (my 2 year old got them everywhere...)

for my buddy's integra when we did a floor, we just took the carpet out of the hatch (was a piece by itself) and traced it. If your carpet comes out like this, you can try this, just to save a step.