altoncustomtech

Alright guys, I've had these Bravox 3 ways for a while now. My wife didn't want to tear into the van until the Atlas's had died and they're on the way out. The front passenger mid has been giving the "Death Rattle" from time to time and it's getting worse, so my wife is breaking down and wanting me to begin getting the design, supplies and such together to be ready to make a quick change and build for the new set. That being said, I have some idea's about how I am going to do it, but I wanted to run it by the great minds here and see if there's a better way to go about it. First of all, here's a picture of the inside of the van to give you an idea of what I have to work with. There's only about 3" of depth to work with in the kick panel on the passenger side and a little less on the driver's side with the e-brake pedal. That really kind of eliminates any possibility of building kick panels for it, at least from a practicality standpoint. I'm not great at fiberglass, there's not a lot of call to do it around here so my experience is limited, besides that I don't think I'll have the time to do it. So I'm left with working with the factory placement and door panel. My plan is to cut the factory grille out of the panel. I plan on building the baffles in the door up to get just shy of the factory panel. Then building a snap in grille that matches the curve and shape of the panel (so it looks factory) and use some 1/4" aluminum rods to protect the mid since the 3-way set does not include grilles for them. Then I was planning on placing the mid and tweet wherever they sound best. I will be moving them around and finding the best placement for them. I guess what I'm looking for is any better way to do it with the limitations I have on it. I wish I could visually show you guys whats in my head, but i'm no good with drawing, so we'll not try that. I think it's the best I can do with what I have, but I figured I'd see if I can tap into some of the great minds of some of the great guys I've met on here and get a little help or a better way to do it. Thanks for the help ahead of time guys.

I've got some more pictures taken of some of the engines we have on our pipeline. These are at a different location than the one I work at and while three of them are smaller in horsepower, two of them are much, much larger in size and power. All five engines there are turbo charged, 2-cycle, natural gas burning units. The first three pictures here of of some of the three 2,200Hp V12's they have at that location. This one is a 3,700Hp V12 unit and very very large in size. So large in fact that it barely sees any run time due to the sheer amount of gas it can flow. This shot is of the turbo charger and intercoolers on the unit. To give you an idea of how large it really is, in the pictures above of the turbocharger we changed out on our engine, they're actually almost the same physical size. It's hard to see the bigger parts of the turbo or really get a sense of it's size way up there but it's true. This one is the largest in physical size, but is only rated at 3,400Hp and is a V8. The compressor cylinder piston's on this unit are 18" in diameter. Much different than the others which are 12" and 10" respectively. Now for the money shots, so to speak. The third 2,200Hp unit was undergoing some compressor work when I was taking the pictures, so I was able to get some nice shots of the compressor cylinders, pistons & rods, valves, etc. and some of the inside of the engine showing the crank shaft and connecting rods for both the power cylinders and the compressor cylinders. Here's an overview type shot of the compressor cylinders, valves, pistons and rods out of the unit. Here's another shot of the compressor cylinder and the compressor valves. Here's a shot of the compressor pistons and rods. The rods pass through the back of the cylinder and thread into what's called a crosshead, which is in the next photo. The connecting rod off the crank moves the crosshead like a piston in an engine and allows the compressor rod to then be stroked straight forward and back. Here's the crosshead. Yes, it's a huge chunk of steel. The pin that connects the con-rod to the crosshead is 4" in diameter and is held in place by that big square plate you see in the center. You can see the hole on the front of the crosshead where the compressor piston rod threads in. And finally, here's a few shots of the inside of the crankcase on that engine. You can see the size of the con-rods, crank and visualize the size of the crank pins. Everything about these kinds of industrial engines are big, heavy and meant to last. You have to remember that all five of these engines, like the three at my location, were built and put into service in 1959. There ya go guys, hope you enjoyed that little tour.

Thanks man. I actually have the doors completely deadened now, I need to get the pics uploaded just haven't had time. I still have the PG's in the truck mounted to the factory plastic baffles on HU power, which sucks, but they've never sounded better. The midbass is so much louder, clearer and the midrange so much clearer and better defined that I have to regularly remind myself that I still have to get the MDF baffles built and installed with the Bravox comps on the 125.2 to really hear what the difference can make. It's definitely changed my opinion on the PG's though. I've always thought they weren't bad for the money, but after getting the install closer to PAR they've exceeded my expectations. An amp would really make them go, but they're getting shelved for a future project when the Bravox's go in. Thank you! Don't skimp on the work for the deadening, it's worth every penny and every drop of sweat and blood it takes to do it.

It's lookin' great so far! So how's the stage and imaging so far? I know you still have a lot of tuning and tweaking to do, just wondering if everything is coming along as you had hoped for in the SQ department.

Awesome. I see several of my hard earned dollars going to another good purchase and a good cause on the pink tee's! My wife and daughter would each love to have one.

There's no good reason to have the bass boost on, ever. As for it not being loud, you're comparing 4 completely different 10's to 6 completely different 8's. There's a ton of reasons why there could/should be a difference in output. I have to ask first of all, are you sure they're all wired the same? If you have even 1 or 2 out of phase it's going to drastically reduce the output. Try moving the box around too. You could be getting cancellation in the current location. Also, like the other's mentioned, it definitely needs more port area and if you do have it tuned to a true 30hz that's a little low for expecting a great deal of output. I'm pretty sure I've seen Sundown recommend a little higher tuning for the E and SA series 8's. Just my .02

I'm looking forward to seeing your build progress bro. Doing the build log on here is a great thing too. It won't be easy shoe horning that 18 into that trunk and I figure you're gonna need some help. What better place to get it? Well, bring on the pics, mach up box and all. This will be a great build if you take your time and do it right. Now,

NVM.... just checked the website... says 4.5 to 8 cuft.... which is news to me.... I'd wait for Nick or Scott to chime in here, but apparently 5cuft will work for the 18...

Don't skimp on it, it won't help you any at all. Last I checked 5cuft was less than Fi's lowest recommendation for the 18 so I think I'd go with the 15, or at least that's what I would do.

Have no idea, don't remember getting a choice. But, the choice you made on a sub is a great one. I think I can say with the utmost confidence that you'll truly enjoy your purchase.

Um.... wow.... that's nuts. Would love to do that to my Jimmy

I actually did a couple of very nice builds for a friend and myself with a pair of these in 10's for him and 12's for myself right after high school which was '97. They really do sound quite good and can even get fairly loud believe or not, and they'll take 200wrms all day long without a problem too. I never did get rid of them either. I'm lending them to a very good friend of mine who's been using them for awhile now and after 14yrs they still sound great and are holding up quite well. I paid $40 ea. back in '97 when they were on a special 50% off sale at our local RadioShack. The manager still has photos hanging in the store of the two builds.

Still bored to death in Cali.... lookin' forward to goin home Saturday.... BTW it's impossible to find any car audio stores around here!!!

I think the kerf turned out great! It looks fantastic. My only hitch is I don't see any glue under the kerf in this picture, of course I have a tendency to get a little excessive with the glue myself. I figure its cheaper and easier to wipe up any visible excess and waste a little than it is to repair a joint that doesn't bond. I'm not saying I that I don't think you glued it, I just prefer to see it squeezed out of the joints myself. Anyway, I think it looks great, keep up the great work!

I don't think you could every really notice the difference in power, 600 watts will be just fine for it.

Bored to death in Cali folks.... in the chat for some form of entertainment, even if it is just talking to myself...

I gotta say to all you guys who live in Cali, damn is it beautiful here!! Beautiful scenery, beautiful architecture and beautiful women. I'm sure that for most people it's been lost on you a long time ago, but for a new-coming visitor it's unreal. Pictures and video do it no justice what so ever. Visited Laguna Beach and drove South along the coastline today, plan on going back and heading North tomorrow. This is going to be a memorable trip for certain. I've noticed plenty of vehicles with systems, tho I've not found any place where anyone seems to hang out jammin' and showing off regularly, any suggestions?

I agree on CA&E, at least they actually focused on car audio... I'll have to check out voicecoil tho....

to the forum! You'll find all the information and answers to any questions you have here for sure!!

to the forum!!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with running less than rated power to any driver. Hell, there's nothing wrong with running more than rated power either. A person could destroy a 100watt speaker with 10 watts in the right scenario as well as put 5,000 watts to a speaker rated for 1,000. It's all in the design and responsibility of the person in control of the volume and gain knobs. You'll be fine running the sub with the SAZ-1500, with or without the cooling it's not going to bother a thing. As long as you're responsible with the volume and gain knob both will last you a very long time.

Happy Birthday dude!!!

A remix to what? The bass drum/line in that song is already enough to give anything without a subwoofer a heart attack and gives any subwoofer that's not up to the task a run for it's money.

I feel your pain bro... It's hard to deal with most shops in the first place, let alone some of the absolute idiot's that work in them or hang out there all the time. There's a lot of people who only deal with brands that are very well known for any reason you can think of from just not knowing any better or even that they don't feel comfortable taking a chance on something that they either have never heard of or cannot get any direct experience with. It's super common and there's not much we can do about it but continue to try and teach the masses.

That was absolutely AWESOME!!!!!! That's one CRAZY bastard!!