altoncustomtech

I believe I have a legitimate question. I order a pair of 10" passive radiators with XCON dustcaps on Feb. 27th. Confirmed the order with Nicole through email on Mar. 5th. Since then I've sent a few emails regarding status with no replies. Any chance I could get an update here? I know you all are very busy, just looking for an update.

Happy Birthday Brother!!

They're worth every penny too. Like anything else, cheaper would be cool, but it's really hard to find a driver that gives the results the DCON does for it's price + shipping. When I changed my sister's amp I once again found myself not wanting to stop listening to her 12" DCON. Quite honestly I've even told myself I should have researched more and harder when I was looking for equipment to replace my old setup in the van. I believe I could have been more than pleased with DCON's and saved a considerable amount of money over the Q's and Sundown 2k that ended up in it. Don't get me wrong the Q's are AMAZING and will likely be the best money I'll ever spend on subs, but I think I could have gotten very close on output, had the same quality in sound and spent less than half as much on the entire setup with a pair of 12" DCON's.

I believe he's asking about the length of the flared ends connected together only without any of the tube in between, which I believe is about 6" or maybe a tad less.

Damn good job on it. I've dabbled around with it myself but looks nowhere near as good at that one.

If you're looking at sealed and if you have more than 300 watts on tap to run it with a GCON could be a better solution. I love the performance of the DCON's, but with the output difference that's inherent between sealed and ported enclosures, using something with a bit more power would likely be needed if you're looking to increase the output over the 10" DCON ported. If you're not that worried about having any more output then it should be just fine and I'm looking forward to hearing your impressions on the DCON in a sealed enclosure. Aaron beat me to the GCON recommendation....

Well, the schedules finally worked out. Got her amp installed Tuesday. She took off with my cordless drill, screwdriver and digital camera in the back of her truck so I'll have to post pictures up when she brings my trailer that she borrowed back and I get my stuff back from her. The Cadence is a great improvement over the Hifonics. The small amount of extra power and seemingly higher quality built unit worked out exactly as I had hoped it would. I spent a good 30 minutes listening to everything from country to metal before swapping the amps so I could make a fresh comparison. When listening to music the Hifonics amp would have issues across the board on the highs. It varied but the most noticeable issue was in the midbass region and lower. I think the bass boost circuit on the Hifonics amp was always giving a little bit of boost even when turned all the way down and with the onboard HPF on. Regardless the power limits of that amp could easily be reached. With the Cadence the speakers played with no audible distortion or stress up to and slightly above the levels that could be listened to with the Hifonics. As expected with almost double the rated power the DCON was easily able to keep up with everything that was thrown at it with no audible stress or distortion on the Cadence. From bass guitar plucks and drums in a host of Led Zeppelin songs, to the harder faster paced sound of Alice in Chains, to the dash rattling bass lines from Nappy Roots and Lil Wayne the DCON was flawless on the new amp. Even my wife was commenting on it which is always a surprise. Overall the improvements were exactly what we were hoping for. Everything is cleaner and sounds of stress from power limitations are gone. It is definitely $170 well spent.

I can't recall what the prices have been in the past, but they're definitely worth what is asked for them. My sister has a single 12" DCON in her Durango and it's totally amazing for it's price and power rating. SSA FTW!

Holy crap, you're only a little over a year older than me? It's always surprising how many people on the forum are about my age or even older. Then I compare that to the fact I'm the oldest person I know around here who's still playing with car audio and it just feels weird. No wonder I like calling the forum HOME. Enough of that madness: Happy Birthday!!!

Port area is completely driver and tuning dependent. The more stroke a driver has and/or the lower the tuning the more port area that is needed to keep from having port noise. IMHO I think with the xmax that is listed for that driver a single 4" port would be okay with a single driver, especially if it's in the trunk.

Happy Birthday!!!

OP, I gotta say you've got to be one of the most thorough posters I've seen in awhile. The amount of detail and information just isn't seen as often as it should be on here, you should be proud. I don't know what Sean's feelings are on the subject but it's been my experience that building small sealed enclosures for midbass speakers can really help the output in the midbass range. Car Audio & Electronics had an article (both in the magazine and on their website at one time) about it too. I tried it right after reading about it in the magazine years ago with fantastic results. Just mentioning it as another possible solution to try to help get the midbass you're looking for. Although everything in audio is about compromise, so you'll loose lower end response pretty quickly from the mid's and there's probably some other trade offs. Sean would know best, he's got a lot more knowledge about this hobby than I do. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts and opinions on the difference the sound deadening and ported enclosures make as well. With all the detail you tend to include it should definitely help us all understand what you're lacking and where in the sound you're looking for. BTW Sean = ///M5 just in case you were wondering.

Where are your gains, filters and bass boost settings on the amp set to? Verify something there hasn't happened. You could also pick up a 3.5mm headphone plug to RCA adapter cable and use an Ipod or MP3 player if you have one too. Something is definitely fishy tho for that to happen that fast on the volume. If you're worried about a bad ground check the voltage at the amp's power terminals while it's playing.

This I'm interested to hear. My thoughts exactly.

The one's I owned were only the MA series, an MA100XE and a pair of MA150XE's. They did fine on output, just weren't the least bit impressive on the quality of sound. Between a little mechanical noise and a lackluster response they just didn't impress me. As for the 3-3.5cuft per sub, well, it's in the range for the drivers as given by the manufacturers. The port area and tuning will have an affect as well as the vehicle environment. Believe me, I understand that it's frustrating that no one is giving real straight answers. You have to understand that absolutely NO ONE can predict exactly what the results are going to be from each product and tell you with certainty which one will suit you better. The recommendations given so far are from those peoples personal experiences and have to be weighed as such. I believe that either choice will give good results as both are proven performing drivers.

Are you saying 2 15in Xcons will hit 150db at 29hz? I find that hard to believe. Notice the bold/underlined word. I had to read it two or three times the first time too, lol. On another note, at least from the experience I've had with MA subs, he'll be leaps and bounds ahead of where he was just having a quality sub such as either of these. I've never owned either so I'll leave recommendations up to those who have.

Such as this: 15" SSA DCON D4 $140 MB Quart FX1.400 $80 KNU KCA 4AWG amp kit $27 Box building materials roughly $60 Total = $307 Given the enclosure is designed and built correctly it would be a fine first setup. He could save $15 going with a 12 instead of the 15 or $25 with the 10. All things being equal the 15 will be louder tho so that's why I listed it.

If you guys are willing to and can build the enclosure yourselves then an SSA DCON and a decent little amp to run it would fit the bill perfectly. I think you could get the sub, an amp, wiring and the materials needed to build the enclosure for about $250 to $300.

I honestly have to say that's one of the most thought out, best laid out, and complete first posts I've seen. Kudo's to that! I knocked out the main body of ur post to help with reading a few comments to your questions and concerns. I believe you're heading in the right direction for your rebuild. Though I do have to note that the sub you currently have does have the ability to do very good in the matter at hand. Perhaps playing with enclosure placement, a new enclosure, etc. for it would be worth a try before spending that much time and money rebuilding. Then if you still can't get the output and response you're looking for go ahead and spend the time and money on the upgrade. I believe I've heard those Type R's do come alive in a ported enclosure, and given you're only feeding it 300watts an efficient ported enclosure may fit the bill. Just a thought.

to the forum!! Glad you're loving all the info available here and along with the combined knowledge of the members it makes this THE best car audio forum on the interwebz IMHO.

That would be the RCA connections on the back that we're referring to. They use a pico fuse to protect that circuit and when something happens and it blows that little fuse the noise and other problems are the result. Did they say anything about being able to repair it? How old is it? I mean, if it's 5 yrs old and you only paid $100 for it in the first place (for example) it's probably not worth the time, trouble and money to send it off for repair.

yes you can...the pioneers have a PICO fues that blows if the head unit and RCA wires are not grounded well.. its a commen issue it will cause alternator wine,. in a HUGE way,.. IF the pico is your issue.. you will need to send the radio off for repair .. then be sure to run this mod.... http://www.ecoustics...dio/644177.html ^^ This exactly! That's the biggest fault with Pioneer's HUs is that damn pico fuse. Disconnecting and reconnecting the RCA's while the system is playing, not having the HU well grounded, connecting/disconnecting power and ground on an amp while the RCA's are connected are all the most common ways to pop that damn fuse. It causes problems exactly like the ones you're having. Jon's right, follow those steps and I'm sure the noise will go away and the subs will sound right again.

Thanx man, I'm working toward it, slow but sure. I never PLAN to get that sick again in my life, LOL.

I agree with Tirefryr 100%. Honda makes a fine car, but the reputation of that 3800 makes it the clear choice IMHO. I know people with around 400k miles on those engines who've not had to do any more major maintenance than changing a water pump, alternator, coil packs or ignition modules. Even with that many miles on them they're still barely using any oil and one I'm pretty sure is leaking it not burning it at all. I had an '88 Park Avenue that the trans died in at 357k miles and it was only using a half a quart of oil in between each oil change. Not to mention the fact that GM parts can be found anywhere, are generally always in stock, and are often cheaper than foreign manufacturer parts, it makes it hard to say the Honda is a better choice than the Impala. Opinions are like.... well.... the point is everyone has one, and this is my opinion. Right, wrong or indifferent.

Thanx man, it does feel good to finally get somewhere with it. Even if it's not BIG progress, at least it is moving forward.