altoncustomtech

Happy Birthday!!

The JVC is pretty decent and has a fair amount of adjustability. However, it would really only be suited to somone who's using passive components, coax's, etc. The crossover controls do not have the ability to LPF or passband on the front and rear channels which makes it an unfriendly choice for an active setup. It also doesn't have a wide enough range of frequencies for the crossovers either, only up to 200hz, which would make it useless on a tweeter. You need to at least low pass the mid, preferably passband it, in to order to properly actively use the driver. The EQ doesn't appear to be a Parametric EQ either which means you can't go in and set what frequencies you're adjusting, or the Q or how wide the frequencies are affected from the center frequency. They make it all pretty user friendly for a novice which is great for a lot of people who are trying to learn some of the finer adjustements, but it's a bit too basic for a more advanced setup like you're wanting to go to using. The Clarion will do 1000 times the adjustment that's available in this JVC unit.

A suggestion for an active capable HU is the Clarion CZ702. With 3 way capable crossover controls, time alignment, and a powerful little parametric EQ it's quite the tuner & tinkerers little dream. I got mine for a steal but I've seen them on EBAY for a little over $150 shipped. Hell of a price for so much tweakability. Plus it has some other nice little features. Just tossing another choice out there for you.

I'm sure they're the same clamps, mine are Bessey as well. Handy little bastards, lol. I've not had a problem blowing out an edge when clamping with those clamps. They will only get so tight anyway. I usually stop tightening when I see the bar bending, lol. If I ever had that trouble I'd definitely be using some scrap pieces or something to distribute the force and I've done so on thinner MDF and plywood to make it easier to clamp. Using a flush trim bit for that purpose is a great idea, that's how I flushed the holes out on the baffles for my doors. I'll be sanding down any high spots and using body filler and block sanding for a perfectly smooth finish anyway, so it should turn out alright, but that flush bit would definitely make for a quick way to smooth the edge up fast if one planned ahead like that. I'll definitely be keeping that in mind, thanks.

If it's being used as it's intended for, why does the fact it's CCA matter? At least they're not trying to sell it for the same ratings and it's really the size they say it is instead of half the other companies that sell wire out there.

I know right!! I may even be able to finally attend SLAMOLOGY! Well, maybe, small steps, lol. Gotta get this thing done first. Thanks bro!

The bold/underlined were my thoughts exactly. Besides that I'm aware of only a handful of amps that have ever even existed for car audio use that were real Class A. While several years ago there was a measurable and regularly audible difference between Class A/B and Class D. Class D was new technology at the time and the many kinks that could cause audible problems with the output were not yet addressed. Today I would imagine that in a blind side by side blind comparison with everything level matched, both amps on the same set of speakers using the same source, all while using a speaker selector switch to make the switch direct and immediate with no time between listening to the results that even then it would be difficult to hear any difference at all. I'm of the opinion that if one the best, most well known, and once most popular amplifier manufacturers that I and many others have known in our car audio careers has gone to full Class D topology on all their amps that it really cannot be the lesser technology. I'm sure like anything else they've made calculated compromises where it was necessary, but if the Class D topology is good enough for ZED then it's good enough for me. That's just my .02 for the quarter of a cent it's worth.

LOL, thanks Chop! I appreciate the kind words toward my craftsmanship, I think I do okay but nowhere near the level I'd love to be at. Some of the builds on here are light years ahead of mine in quality, I just hope to do good enough that it doesn't look completely messed up.

Eight tens would definitely be some fun to play with. Still tuned in for whatever direction this takes. Keep up the good work!

WooHoo, I actually have a REAL update to post!! The box building is ON! Still have a LONG way to go before it's finished, but at least I can actually say it's coming together and mean it! Setting up the corner clamps, and getting ready to glue the first side panel on. Glued and clamped. One extra clamp (cheap POS, broke the first one, lol) and nailed. Second side going on and getting glued and clamped. Second side nailed. Getting the front glued, clamped and nailed as well. If everything goes according to plan the other side of the front will get attached tomorrow and I'll start getting the top and bottom attached. Hopefully if everything goes according to the current plan by the time the weekend comes around I'll be working on centering up and getting all the alignments done for the double baffles, flush mounts, etc. Damn thing is finally starting to move along, a light is starting to make a faint glow at the end of the tunnel.

Awesome updates Chop! Can't wait to see the doors done!

I agree with the Crescendo 3500 recommendation as well. When it comes to powering subs and daily systems I tend to recommend hovering somewhere around RMS rating as well but I'm of the opinion that there's no such thing as underpowering a sub either. I would imagine that even 1.5 or 2kw would even yield more than suitable results, at least for myself. Of course I wouldn't likely be able to resist giving that beast a 3500 either if I was to spend the money on one, lol. Your first post didn't include a great deal of information and quite frankly mimicked many of the newblet posts we see. It is kinda hard not to be a bit of a smart ass when someone who has no business using a sub like that and who probably wouldn't ever actually buy said sub anyway asks a question like that because as Jon said, it's a loaded one. Seeing as how you're no newblet and appear to have a working brain with a grasp on how to use it the best thing to have done would have been to start with some of what you posted in the #8 post along with your actual goals and what you were really asking and wanting to know. I am certain that aside from a little kiddin around you would have gotten the answers you had expected. You became a member on this forum for the same reason that pretty much all of us joined and love this forum for. Despite a few smart remarks don't get discouraged, these are a bunch of really good guys whose combined knowledge and experience is second to none. I hope you continue to enjoy the forum and take the smart assin' as a little bit of new member hazing, lol. Welcome to the forum John, you're about to buy and use some world class equipment.

Awesome to see another happy DCON user! I tell people all the time of how bad ass the DCON's are for their price and power handling rating. It's as though people don't think a sub will get loud without taking almost 1kw or more and immediately dismiss the DCON as an option. Jake I'm glad to hear you like them!

Never had anything worth metering at 18, nor was there any place to get anything metered. Almost no one around here knew anything about sanctioning bodies either. There was a select few people who did any competing at all and I sure as hell didn't have the funds to get into it. Though when I was about 21 I took the setup I had in my '88 Park Ave to a "Meter 'n Greet" that a local Risley's was having. Scored a 134 with a single 12" from Radio Shack powered by a Profile A200XL in a custom built ported enclosure. Kind of a laughable number but I didn't think it was too shabby for what it was. It got me an audio job quite a few times when I demoed it for people, but it's the only thing I've ever had metered. Wouldn't mind knowing what the van does just to know.

I think it's coming together nicely. You should be fine on that ground on the block, that's a plenty substantial piece of metal to ground to, lol.

anyone who's interested...... Boredom has set in.... lol

Thanks bro, I'm loving it.

It think it also has to do with the suspension being cold and less compliant as well.

Well, another quick update I just gotta share. I got a chance to play with the tuning on the unit some more today. I went in and played with the EQ for a bit, fine tuning it to trying to get things perfect. The only issue I had on some songs was that they sounded a little flat in the upper midrange, lower treble areas. I could get it close but never quite got rid of it without bringing that bad harshness back so I had an idea to play with the phasing on the components again like I did with the Kenwood. Having the time alignment on the Clarion seemed to change the interaction between the speakers. If I turned off the time alignment it went back to sounding like it did with the Kenwood, light and airy but low on height and narrower. So I decided to start from scratch and went and put all the speakers back in phase with each other and voila, perfect. The flat sound was gone and the light airy sound was back but with the stage and image back up on top of the dash and nice and wide open when I put the time alignment back where I had it. From there I made some more adjustments to the Q of a couple of bands and played with the gains/cuts for a bit until things were just right and the original harshness I had experienced was gone. I never imagined I could get these results with such a modest lineup of equipment and little money spent. The components are doing such a good job with the midbass it's just completely thrilling to play the songs that really lend themselves to it. Everything else is just as improved though and while listening to "Alabama Shakes - Hold On", "The Black Keys - Gold on the Ceiling", "Rhianna - Stay", and "Billy Joel - Piano Man" I got the attention of some teenagers out playing some basketball next to my buddies house. They were amazed that all I had playing was the components and that it sounded so good and clear. I really got them smiling when I had them take turns sitting in the drivers seat while we played a host of other songs including several tracks on a couple of Trans-Siberian Orchestra CD's. They left seemingly impressed and talking about what they were gonna do to their own cars. One in particular is gonna come by this weekend to have me look at what he's got and give some recommendations.

A connection doesn't necessarily have to be loose to have high resistance. A light film of oil, polish to make it shine, or anything like that which is put on the surface of the fuse itself, the ring terminal, etc. could cause high resistance which would cause heat. For years I've always taken some kind of sand paper, hardware cloth, scotch brite type pad/wheel, something to the surface of EVERY connection from the battery to the amp terminal to prevent problems like this. You'd be very surprised how often you find that something has a protective coating of some kind on it that would have caused a problem at some point in the future.

From the measurements I've seen they don't make a spectacular widebander. Great midrange, but not a great WB on the top end. Many people use them as WB though and are happy, so I guess it's all relative. WB aren't my forte, honestly.....I'm not as well read or experienced with their relative performance. Sean would probably be able to give suggestions much quicker than myself. I'd need to spend some time researching. I've read every time a thread comes up about using a fullrange/widebander about how those 3" (average size) full range speakers don't do super well on the top end or get real loud. I've used to have the Logitech Z-560 4.1 speaker set (still have all the speakers too, amp blew on it) and now I have the Z-5500's on my computer. Both sets use 3" full range speakers (look just like several of the TB speakers) for the highs and quite honestly except maybe for the very highest frequencies I don't notice an issue with the range. Same on the output, the damn things will get almost stupid loud. Now, I'm sure they're not doing anything super special with these things, not at their price point, so either my tastes for high frequency range and output are a fair bit off center in comparison to you guys and your experience, or I've simply and straight up never experienced what really great speakers sound like and the output big power subs can do. I'm sure the answer is a little bit of both, but in my experience with these sets it's hard for me to imagine needing any more output or having any real issues with the upper range response. I guess I just have a hard time understanding where the comments come from.

Dude, you're 33 and have four kids too? Where the hell you hiding at in this damn boat? Sounds like we're in the same one! LOL

That's because MAX power ratings are useless and more often than not full out marketing hype and lies. MAX power is useless because there's no set limit for subs and speakers. Depending on the application and installation that number could be considerably higher or barely higher than the RMS rating. Forget about MAX power ratings and concentrate on a quality installation.

i thought the subsonic filter is filtering the output section, am i wrong? ive seen fi subs hooked to wall sockets for 7 minutes before they smoked on youtube i didnt think brz had it in em 2 do that kind of output without blowing up this thread makes me wanna get a colossus 3200 watts bridged and try 2 burp a 10k watt square wave too bad the colossus is banned if he sends the sub in and fi says it was factory error.... glazed donut shipped 44123 please, thanks Not the filtering he was talking about. There is filtering on the output terminals of the amplifiers to remove noise and other unwanted signal impurities created in the amplifier during operation. Can not compare hooking up a sub to a wall socket either. It could only be getting a couple hundred watts from the wall socket. ^^ Exactly. I believe the filtering Nick was talking about is between the power supply section of the amp and the output section. Take my explanation with a grain of salt, I know just enough about this stuff to be REALLY dangerous, lol. From everything I've read on the issue and what I already know about amps, AC and DC circuits, and radio equipment this is a very basic, hopefully thorough enough to understand, and remotely accurate enough description of what really happens to a sub when the tinsels fry like that. The power supply has to convert your cars DC input into an AC signal to run it through the transformers to step the voltage up to a level that will be suitable to output whatever wattage the amp is being built for. The output from that transformer is supposed to be rectified and filtered back to DC for the output stage. Some of the cheaper amp manufacturers are getting by with less filtering which results in a noisy DC voltage. It's still technically DC but it's got high frequency (we're talking 20khz and up generally) noise riding on it. That noise makes it's way to the sub out of the amp and at those high frequencies coupled with thousands of watts of power and the fact the tinsels leads are such a short distance apart it becomes something like a very high power low frequency radio signal and as Nick said microwaves the immediate surroundings. I think I've even read where some amps have been found with basically no real rectification or filtering after the power supply and used the output section simply as a high speed gate with a design in that the inductance of the output coils in the amp would filter out the high frequencies. Couple all that with clipping and other issues and you get burnt tinsels, spiders and possibly even fire.

At this point, I'm not going to say one way or the other. With my job it's just too damn hard to predict what will be going on that far in advance because if something drastic enough happens it won't matter if I've setup to have the time off or not I'll have to be there to work. I really would love to make it this year though, especially with a finished build in the Jimmy. Here's to high hopes!!