altoncustomtech

Why do you think you have to use a line driver? I mean, unless you're planning on running 8 or 10 amps from that HU 2V outputs should be good to run 5 or 6 amps without much of any issue. I think you're either over thinking things or you've drank the wrong Kool Aid.

I agree with everyone else on this. Add a few feet of wire to the tweeters from the component set and use some double sided tape, sticky tack, or anything of the like to stick them in different locations with different aiming until you find the location and angle you like the most. Then plan the permanent installation of the tweeters around that location. Another item to note is sound deadening. Just because it is generally thought of first for resonances, rattles, etc. that go along with bass response the general lowering of the noise floor, control of resonances for all frequencies and things of that nature can help with the high end response as well. On a few occasions I've helped people out with doing their sound deadening after they had everything installed and the majority of them were surprised by how it affected everything. We had to re-EQ the top end on a couple of them. I do agree wholeheartedly that if you're using some 6.5" coaxials now that your next logical step would be a decent set of passive components. Done right you'll think you've gone to audio heaven with the difference, lol.

Would they be loud? Maybe. Would they sound good? I can't imagine any way they could be made to do so. I highly doubt there's a 4x6 on the market that could keep up with the output of everything else anyway. Passive crossovers on such a setup will never cut it. A proper passive crossover will not be easy for someone without the right experience to design and build successfully. The best improvement to the midbasses will come with a proper baffle and separation of the back wave from the front. I was able to get midbass you could feel in your chest and back from the 6.5" mids from the Bravox components with standard 25% coverage of CLD, a good layering of CCF and the custom baffles I built for the doors. I still have more CCF and some MLV from SDS to install in the doors as well. I'm not sure about keeping up with the kind of substage you're considering but the FaitalPro 3" full ranges I bought and played with could get ear bleedingly loud with stunning clarity. They reminded me a lot of a set of horns. Their only issue would be that they would have to be aimed on axis to do you any good which would require building fiberglass pods. No matter what you decide to do in separate drivers running them active is going to require at least the processing power of an active capable head unit. The Clarion CZ702 does a pretty good job, especially for the average $150 price tag it carries at most places. I'm still thinking you should come down sometime and check out my Jimmy and some of the speakers and setup I've been playing with lately. It's kind of a long trip but I think it might help lend some better understanding to what we're trying to explain.

Have you looked at any dubstep such as Skrillex and Excision. There are speakers and stereo systems that have nightmares about Excision's "8-Bit Superhero" being played on them. I would call that song the ultimate break in song with the way it is constantly running up and down the bass frequency range at near extreme levels. I've gotten lots of "OH SHIT"s and OMG's when demoing this song in either the van or the Jimmy for people. Aside from that I have no idea unless you go looking for some old school Bass Mechanik, Bass Boy, and the like.

I'm going to be installing 8" Peerless SLS drivers in the front doors of my '01 Jimmy. I'm simply going to be building a new custom baffle to mount them to the door and cut a little larger hole in the door card. That being said I'll be running mine as dedicated midbass drivers and not higher than 300hz.

In a vehicle with that kind of factory speaker setup and your first set of new speakers I would suggest going with a single set of components and a two channel amplifier to start off with. You can install the woofer/mid of the component set in the factory location of the door and put the tweeter up in the dash where the factory tweeter/4x6 is. The Incriminator Audio 6.5" components seem to be a well regarded set by the folks who've used them. Now the IA set may be 6.5" but it's not hard to remove the factory plastic baffle the speaker mounts to and make some custom ones for the new speaker to fit the 6.5" size. Not only is it not that difficult but the work involved is well worth the effort because it is MUCH better for the speaker to be mounted to a solid surface than a flimsy plastic one. A flimsy baffle can cause unwanted resonances and rattles coloring the sound and a loss of output due to the loss of acoustic energy. With a solid baffle the speaker will have better bass response and cleaner midrange along with increased output. Most GM vehicles with speakers in the doors usually have a plate with a tweeter mounted in it up in the 4x6 locations in the dash board. If that is the case just remove the factory tweeters from those plates and install the aftermarket ones. If that's not the case it's not too horribly difficult to build and mount them in plates yourself. You'll have to run your own wires from the amp to the crossover for the component set, then a separate wire for the tweeter and the mid to each of their respective locations. Mounting the crossovers just under the dash or behind the kick panels will make it a little easier to get the speaker wires to those locations. There's a hundred different ways it can be done though and whichever you're most comfortable with is the way to go. Don't worry about replacing your 6x9's. Having speakers play music from behind you ruins the sound stage and confuses what you're ears are hearing. Generally recordings are made and designed so that it sounds like the listener is sitting in a seat in a room with the band playing in front of them. If that recording is of remotely decent quality settle nuances that give away instrument placement, singer location, etc. are all reproducible through the speaker system. All that recorded information gets messed up and muddied when the same frequencies are playing from different sources in different locations. You could do like most other people do and just buy whatever coaxial speaker you find cheapest that fits each of the factory locations and replace them all but if that was really the best way to go I wouldn't have gone through all the trouble to explain everything above.

Just saw that you're a fellow Hoosier too!

to the forum!! You've definitely came to the right place to learn the right way of doing things. Most everyone here can answer any question you have with great suggestions and detail. There's a few who will answer a little more brashly and with seemingly less helpful answers. In fact those are the guys whom you should listen to the most. They aren't the kind of guys who hold people's hands and walk them through it, they give you the information you need to go and find the solution for yourself learning far more in the process. Either way if you're open to listen there's more to learn here than you could ever imagine.

I think clipping is the answer. I need to do my research and learn how to setup my gains better. I do feel the sub get a really warm at time. I need to take it out and check the tinsel leads. And make sure its still OK.. also I've noticed my box leaks air around the speaker, might that have something to do with it? Yes, it can have detrimental effects on the sub, the way it performs and the power it can handle. Give us the exact dimensions of the enclosure and the length of the port that's being used and we can verify with better certainty that your enclosure is indeed 1.4cuft and that the port is tuned to 32hz. The XCON's are NOT easy subs to tear up and you're probably trying to get WAY more out of the sub than it can deliver. I have a 10" XCON on an SAZ-1500 and it never gets warm, never smells and should last a very long time. On that Rockford it should last an eternity with only 1kw feeding it so I would imagine it's a combination of things, air leaks, questionable enclosure specifications, and clipping that has lead to the demise of the sub, twice.

Re-replied, lol.

The one with the single slug is either the newer style and is the most likely culprit, or it's an IB3. The motor looks just a bit too big for the IB3 though which is why I'm siding with it being the newer style SSD. You should be able to look through the holes on the frame and see that information on both subs. The good news, and probably your next question, is that the old and new series subs are capable of being used together in the same enclosure. As long as they're both D2 coils you should be golden.

PM sent...

Yep, my brother had one that he never used. Definitely an old style SSD.

to the forum! Nice work for sure...

Anyone interested......

to the forum! I know all about coming from the middle of nowhere. My home town population barely breaks 500, lol.

Hard to say with absolute certainty. I would imagine that as long as it's not covering any vents on the top of the HU, and it's not over the top of the amplifier chip heatsink (typically on the rear of most HU's) then I can't imagine it would be an issue.

You're welcome. I'm really glad to hear all the connections are soldered too. That means they're good and secure and should never give you any problems in the future. Some vehicles just don't hardly leave any room for that kind of stuff. It can sure be a challenge!

No, it's fine on that wire. Again, it doesn't draw enough current to be any sort of issue. You're right the RED wire is the accessory wire and is switched on/off with the key. It's perfectly fine to have both on that circuit. In most vehicles that circuit is protected by a 10 amp fuse. As long as the current on the circuit doesn't exceed that and constantly blow fuses you should be just fine and that stuff just won't pull that much current.

I don't see any problem. None of that stuff, in addition to the HU, has enough draw to overload the circuit if that's what you're worried about. If it was then you'd have blown fuses. There's nothing wrong with cleaning up the wiring, as a matter of fact I'd encourage it. Go ahead and clean stuff up but there's no reason to run any new wires.

In there....

If anyone's interested...

Love those amps and love the HU. Mine's been awesome so far! It definitely makes adjustments a breeze and there's so many adjustments one can make it's almost mind numbing. I could only imagine having something like the miniDSP or the mDSP based units like the PPI DEQ.8, Soundstream Synthesis, or the Zapco DSP 8 to play with and adjust, it'd be nuts. Can't wait to see how it all comes out.

You heard right!! to the forum!

I've read all through the thread and can't see an explanation of WHY you had to have bluetooth for music. I have BT on the Clarion and in my company work truck (factory stereo with Sync) and for calls it's fine but music over the BT just doesn't cut the mustard for me. Seems to me any HU with a USB input would do you far better sound quality wise and with same controls as using the BT offers unless there's some other point I'm missing here. FWIW I'm glad you got yourself a better unit than the Dual. USB, BT, no matter just about anything would have been an improvement over that old HU, lol.