altoncustomtech

Welcome to The Forum!!!

I think it's looking good. For the future I'd recommend countersinking the screws when you put them in, it just helps the overall look and finish. Another note is it looks like there's a little more width between the opening of the port that is inside the enclosure than through the rest of the port. This could mess with the tuning a bit, however I wouldn't worry about it too much, besides it could just be the camera angle or something as well. Otherwise you're using lots of glue on the joints which is good, though you'll want to try to wipe up the excess to help with sealing the box with silicone later. These are all things we learn as we go, so far it really does look good and the box should be a great learning experience for you. Good job and keep up the good work.

^This^ Before I got my nailer I would use my two small clamps to get the fit I wanted, then pre-drill and countersink the wood. Then remove the clamps, apply the glue, then put it back together with the clamps to help hold it until the first few screws were in. Never had a problem doing it that way for many years.

Nice and clean looking install man. I've had my stuff jacked before too, it really sucks. Glad they worked it through with you though, that at least makes it a little better. Hopefully with the way its all installed now you won't have to worry so much about it getting jacked again.

Thanks, that's what I'm going for. Amp rack should be installed REAL soon. Thanks man. Felix appreciates the comment as well. Thanks! and yeah Iove those terminals too. They make it so easy and clean to make quick connections/disconnections. Soldering larger guage wire onto those terminals takes a bit of patience and experience, that's quite true. Patience more than anything though. On to a few quick updates, got the amps mounted to the board. As soon as the last of the wiring is completed in the van this should start going together. Hopefully I'll be testing and tuning by the middle of the week. Mmm, mmm, them amps look sexy.

Here's a few updates. First of all, a little messing around. What's that old saying?? Oh yeah, curiosity deafens the cat? Wiring and installing the first sub. Some pictures of the soldering of the Neutrik Speak-on terminals. Wiring and installation of the second sub. And everything to do with the subs and the box are DONE! I think the look of the subs and the enclosure turned out almost exactly as I had hoped. The motors on them Q's are just SEXY!

Got some more work done, next to wire the box and put the subs in it. Got the subs out last night and put the SERIES wire in place between the coils. You might be able to see it in the picture down by the magnet. It's both leads of 12AWG Knukonceptz Karma speaker wire. Applying the carpet to the beauty panel on the amp rack board. Here's the carpet finished. Amps will be mounted to the board tonight along with the wiring and installation of the subs in the enclosure. If all goes well getting the rest of the tiny details complete it will be done this weekend.

Why not try bypassing all that processing. Temporarily run directly into the sub amp with another source and see if you notice a difference. It sounds like you have so much going on before that amp there could easily be a setting or adjustment that isn't correct. I agree with M5 as well, use a battery and verify the polarity of the terminals on the sub. If one coil is out of phase from the other it won't work anything like it should. You could try hooking another sub up to the amp as well and see if you have another inherent problem with your sub as well.

I will be using the remote knob's in the van and the jimmy. While my Kenwood HU's are great units they do not offer the best or quickest adjustment for the subwoofer level output control. In the van with the old Pioneer unit we had it was a quick easy one or two button press to turn on/off the subs or adjust the level and it could be done from the remote just as easy. The Kenwood's just aren't as easy, which means the wife will need the knob(s) to make adjustments when the kids are riding along. From what I've read the Sundown amps remote knobs are GAIN control knobs that make adjustment within the adjustment of the local gain control, which is ideal for this purpose I think.

Yep, I've gotten the same message when I try to access my email account there. I have no idea what's up.

It can be done but it takes modification to the PSU's. There's tech forums out there with the information on how to do it. In all honesty it will take SEVERAL PSU's to get the power needed to run that amp with any efficiency and with a bank for the power (i.e. battery, capacitor bank, etc.) quick sudden bass lines, drums etc. will continue to drop the voltage quickly. Personally I wouldn't be doing it unless I had the equipment designed to supply that kind of power. I seen on a forum somewhere where a guy built a super heavy duty 12v power supply out of an old welder somehow. It was good to over 200A of current too.

The police here gave tickets for loud stereos for quite awhile until they gave one to the son of a prominent business man and city/county council member (or something like that). Anyway, that guy had so much pull the noise ordinance was all but trash by the time him and his lawyers got done. You can still get ticketed, but if you so much as ask if the officer had a dB meter when he heard you or any other details it gets tossed out of court in a heartbeat with no fines or anything. Pretty much gotten to the point that the cops have quit writing those tickets all together. Although what happens now is when they do pull you over for loud music they scrutenize everything looking for anything they can get a ticket that sticks on you for. I know a guy who had to pay a $25 ticket for one of his two license plate lights being out when he got pulled over right after he turned his music down.

THANX! I would love to have had some pictures of the process of creating the template, however I couldn't hold a camera and do it at the same time, my wife wasn't going to stand out there in the heat and humidity to do it, and I couldn't trust the kids to do it, so...

Here's a few little updates. Here I'm cleaning up the holes drilled into the board for all the wires. Dremmel FTW! Here's a shot of the channels routed into the back of the board. In this area the board will be right up against the panel in the van. To keep things flush the wires will run down the channel to the SAX-100.4 and be held in place by an 1/8" piece of fiber plate. (an old sign from work, thin but very strong) You can also see the beauty panel that will trim and fit the amp board to the panel in the van. Ready for carpet. Carpet applied to the front only for now until the adhesive sets, then I'll slowly work it around the edges.

Thanx, It's coming along. Got some carpet on the amp rack tonight. Wish the heat and humidity would die down for a bit so I could work without feeling like I'm on the 8th level of hell. Thanx man. The box hasn't turned out EXACTLY like I pictured it in my mind but I can't spend any more money on it at this point so it will have to do. A friend asked if I liked the seams showing. I don't particularly but by the time I had enough primer on to see that they weren't going to cover up even after several applications of body filler I wasn't about to sand it off to apply more. Like I said, spent too much money already. The plan on the amp rack is that it will be super clean. Seeing only enough wire at each connection point to make the connection from the board and even the leads going to the fuse for the SAZ-2000 will be completely hidden. By design the only wire's that will be fully seen are the wire's that will connect the sub enclosure to the amp board/amp, and that 's only because it really will look good. (or should anyway, by design)

Fantastic intro, Welcome to the Forum!!! Like the others, look forward to answering questions and helping however we can.

Thanx!! Dear God I hope so. I hope the routing wasn't too deep on mine too. AND Thanx! Thanx, I sure appreciate it. I'm trying to take my time and have it turn out the way I see it in my mind. Only time will tell. Thanx, the paint turned out okay. Everyone will see the problems it still has once it's in the sunlight, and yeah, he's only 9 and already posing questions about his first car and stereo. LOL, thanx man. I didn't have enough clamps so I figured some weight on top could do the same. It was either the rotors or a stripped down 350 block, lol.

Thanks for the kind words. I feel as though none of it is turning out like I had planned.

Thanks, I hope it holds up to the abuse. I'm hoping it doesn't give me problems like it did for Chuck.

Thanks, but I never did anything with the paint. Once my paint guru told me that the problem wasn't that it was soaking in, that it was actually "blushing" from the heat and humidity. So since there was nothing I could do with it I just said to hell with it and put the clear coat on.

Here's all the pictures I have up to now. Constructive criticism is welcome. If you have a snide comment or remark, well, I'm probably not going to respond to that. Here we go.

It feels great to finally be getting things done. So far this weekend #2, #4, #5 and #7 are complete. The box has seen all the paint and clear it's going to get. Speaker wire moving has been done. The Knukonceptz RCA's are in and they are REALLY nice. Triple shielding FTW! The amp rack is cut, built with the beauty panels, holes and channels for the wire is done.

anthony, I can tell you from experience that Hifonics amps ARE dirty power. bigjon is right, if you do use this amp on that sub you will have to set the gain carefully AND be responsible with the volume knob. Another problem is they're not very efficient amps either. As is mentioned many times before NO speaker out there is indestructible. Fi designs all the subs to take their share of abuse, but they have limits and if you exceed those limits they WILL fail as would anything else that was used outside it's specifications. Another good car analogy example is with a friend's recent destruction of a transmission. Not just any transmission this was a race ready 350 turbo with heavy duty plates, gearing, etc. Rated good for 1200HP by the company that built it. He blew the original transmission in a demolition derby car he was running and the car was still in plenty good enough shape to make a run in another derby. So he grabbed that race ready 350 turbo and threw it in there for this one last run with the car. Ended up splitting the side of the case open and spewing it's guts. Do you think the 350 small block in the car was making anywhere near 1200hp? No way, it was just being used outside it's limits. The constant forward and reverse of the derby was just way out the ability of the transmission to handle. Similarly with the BTL or any speaker for that matter. If you get anywhere near the power rating of the sub with a dirty and clipped signal you'll be on here asking why the sub blew, it's that simple. I would recommend looking into getting a better quality amplifier. Yes, I know it will cost more but you'll be better off. If you do get the Hifonics or similarly priced/quality amp you should REALLY REALLY be mindful of how everything is playing.