[B. Savage]

large format midbass, full size horns, 2 infinitely baffled 18"s. Here I go again

Ive owned this car for over 5 years now, and have been working on the audio since i got it.
Im finally nearing completion of my first real build, and felt ike Id go ahead and post what I have at this point.

First, the equipmet
2 elemental designs 190v.2 18" subs. These are currently in a wall, and I am reworking this part in order to run them IB under a false floor, properly vented to the outside.
midbass are undecided, but Im working on a floor mounted, externally vented idea for a couple of 10 or 12" drivers
top end (800 hz +) is currently a set of id full bodied cd1ev.2 horns.
processing is an eclpse 8443 along with 2 of the cadence 1/3 octave eqs (not useing the eqs as of now, waiting until Im done before I add them in.
Amplifiers are passable right now, but an upgrade is immenent, I have an ed 9.1 (no problems here) on subs, a 9.2 on horns (also fine now) and a hifonics nemesis (serious noise floor issues here) which I want to replace with either 2 9.2s or 9.2xs for some more power available on midbass
sound deadening is a huge conglomeration of edead, second skin, raamat, and hushmat. I still need to do the front floors, and possible roof.

so onto progress
here my charging system. It consists of two iraggi alternators, a 180 and a 220. I get close to 300 amps as idle, if its cool outside.
I have 2 runs of 1/0 going to the rear, not because I need it for my current power demands, but because Im tired of replacing wiring, I figured this way it will never be an issue again

The runs to the back are external, run along the frame rail, supported every 6 inches by plumbers strapping and is covered in techflex. Its been this way for months, with no issues so far, but Im keeping an eye on it. I have some solid conduit I can use if I start seeing signs of wear.
I never have voltage below 14 when running, no matter what Im playing, including 0db test tones at full tilt.

heres the horns Ive been working with. I bought them for a hell of a deal, but the catch was they had been sitting in a shop unprotected for years, so I completely disassembled and cleaned them before using them.

Here are the horns, being test fit.
They arent quite to the outside, but without losing my e brake its the best I can manage yet

that stage height and width was awesome, even without processing, but I had some harshness. I have not had the horns in for over a month, as I ave been working on making a baffle in order to completely couple them with the dash, and making a bottom cover, so my floor mounted midbass wont be trapped by the horn bodies and the bottom of the dash.
Ive got the front baffle built, but it still needs some fine tuning, hopeflly next month Ill get that done up.

Thats most of it for now, but Ill show some of the plans I have

 

[B. Savage]

here is where the subs are now, and where the spare tire is is where the subs will be mounted IB. They will be directly vented to the outside, with some gortex or some other air permeable, but waterproof material to block water and condensation.
The amps will also be back here, covered by a false floor. At most Ill have to elevate the false floor by two inches, possibly none at all.

Heres my custom made rcas and speaker cables. I will have 6 channels of the hand made ones I made, and 6 channels of speaker cable. Im going to oleave the 3 rca sets in place that I have been using, just in case I decie to add more processing or amps. I figure this way, unless I go optical or balanced I wont have to remove my inerior after Im done, I can just swap equipment.

rcas and speaker cables
these are nueritk ends (nys something or other, with gepco 61801ez cable)
the heat shrink is color coded, red for highs, yellow on mids, and blue for subs
white is passenger side, black is driver, and the red and black at the ends of the speaker cables is for polarity

thats the extent of what Ive done so far, next will probably be reinstalling the horns, then IB subs, then new midbass.

 

[B. Savage]

okay, so I made some progress today while my kid was sleeping. Basically I ran my custom rcas and cleaned up my existing wiring

The power and ground wires are still a mess. I will clean them up once I permanently mount the amps under the floor

 

[B. Savage]

so I had around ten hours today. My kids at my parents, my wife was at work, and Im on vacation. So what do I do? Bust my ass all day.

Heres a section of the venting I cut... Think I have enough deadener here?

I used my 4" holesaw to drill a "pilot hole" of sorts, then enlarged it with my sawzall.

Heres the basic mounting system I used. I later "filled in the blanks" with some scrap and then covered it with a layer of 3/4" MDF

Heres a view from underneath, the pvc was later trimmed down and painted black to blend in better

This is the result of killing a sheet of cardboard and burning up my jigsaw blade.
Fits like a glove now

I tried to use spray paint from underneath to shadow where the holes were, I was really proud of this insight, until i cur the hole and they were too big. I used some more expanding foam and shaved it down. Its water tight, but ugly.

I bought these grills at Lowes, thinking I was pretty smart. They had a big red label that said "22.5" I start working with them and realize something isnt quite right. Theyre really only about 17" across, I guess the 22.5" was the size grill they fit. Back to the drawing board on this I guess

Heres the manifold for the subs, its a very tight fit.

Heres the bottom of the amp rack, I will be putting the equipment on there tommorrow, I have an hour and a half drive to pick up my kid, so tunes are needed

 

[B. Savage]

The subs were a very tight fit on the manifold. They actually over hang the edges. I flushmounted them, and will be sourcing a grill soon hopefully.

Im going to build a beauty panel that covers the back. I have about .8" between the tailgate and sub enclosure. Almost like I planned it or something.

Heres the basic idea of how Im going to lay the amp rack out. I stll need to build plexi covers for the ID cd1ev.2 crossovers and the cadence eqs.

And heres a pic of the car

So tommorrow Im going to mount the subs and waterproof the manifold/enclosure with some latex paint, mount the subs with some t nuts, and get the amp rack back in and running. The amp rack cover and grills may not be ready tommorrow, but hopefully Ill have music for the trip. Any suggestions are welcome, this is a "by the seat of the pants" type of install, probably why it took all day and I didnt finish

 

[B. Savage]

the first part pf this has taken me about three weeks. Ive been posting my build log on diymoibleaudio.com and figured some folks might like to see it over here. I will hopefully be finidhing the build part of it tommorrow, just be lacking the big grill and carpet.

 

[WaTTsLOk187]

I'm waiting on the floor mounted Midbass install. Get to it!

 

[B. Savage]

Ive got to get the horns done up first, Im not sure how well theyre gonna fit with the big horn baffle blocking more of the dash. Im going to cut some 10" circles this week and mock up some placement ideas

 

[bondovw]

What was the purpose of venting them outside?

 

[B. Savage]

theyre infinitely baffled, the idea is to completely seperate the front wave from the rear. If you have an enclosure 10x the vas of the sub it does the same thing, but this saves space. Ill get more low end response, but will lose output. But with the sub firing up the back glass and being in the rear I shouldnt have a problem.

Basically Im doing one of the "free air" installs, just without the trunk

 

[RhinoSS]

This is getting interesting, Keep up the good work.

 

[stills]

you're a mad man savage!

 

[B. Savage]

well the equipment rack and sub went in today. I had to seal the second sub cutout, but it was easy as I hadnt dumped off my scrap yet.

Heres where I ended up makin my own ground distribution block

I ended up spending about an hour chasing leaks, when I secured the mounting baffle to the sides apparently my measuring was off, and I ended up pulling about a 1/4" gap in the side of the baffle without a sub mounted. Nothing some "great stuff" couldnt take care of. Now Im off to lowes to see about returning the two small grills I bought and getting one thats slightly larger.

I only used one sub because I found out (after cuting the mounting baffle) that I would need at least 2 10" vents to do this properly with the displacement of these subs, but I figured the space is worth it. Plus I can use the other sub as a home theater sub whenever I get to that.
I havent done any tuning besides gain setting for the new two ohm load, but I didnt lose much, if any output, and have a much better low end now.

Hopefully tommorrow Ill get the covers done and be able to carpet it all soon

 

[B. Savage]

This is getting interesting, Keep up the good work.

Thanks man, Its pretty ugle at present, but my Dads atrim capreneter and Ive got some tricks for covering up my "oh ****e" moments.

you're a mad man savage!

nah, just have a bunch of old equipment that takes up was too much space in my car

 

[B. Savage]

So heres some more progress.

I have the covers and grill for the sub finished, just waiting for the damn in laws to clear my shop out (they parked their belongings in there during a move) so I can do the trim panels and get it carpeted

the grill is a shelf that I cut in half and mounted a supporting piece of aluminum down the middle. Its ugly, but itll be covered soon

and the view from the front. My spare tire fits on top of this and is just below the seat line. Its bizarre being able to see out the back glass again.

heres everything uncovered, I have the flase floor cut into two sections, and hinged, so it slides up and rests on the sides of the amp rack for easy equipment access.

and heres my remote gain and voltage meter reinsalled in the glove box area.

 

[customcaprice]

So heres some more progress.

I have the covers and grill for the sub finished, just waiting for the damn in laws to clear my shop out (they parked their belongings in there during a move) so I can do the trim panels and get it carpeted

the grill is a shelf that I cut in half and mounted a supporting piece of aluminum down the middle. Its ugly, but itll be covered soon

and the view from the front. My spare tire fits on top of this and is just below the seat line. Its bizarre being able to see out the back glass again.

heres everything uncovered, I have the flase floor cut into two sections, and hinged, so it slides up and rests on the sides of the amp rack for easy equipment access.

and heres my remote gain and voltage meter reinsalled in the glove box area.

work lookin good keep it up

 

[stills]

you ever think about doing an aperiodic membrane on those EDs?

 

[B. Savage]

yup, still working on the basics. I have a bunch more power available for the sub, so this is a definate thought Ive got. Im going to do that whenever I do the carpeting

 

[thebigbadWOLF]

everything looks bad ass, i do not like the gain and volt placement, i think that looks tacy, and could of been placed next to the head unit in the box area....nice build

 

[B. Savage]

everything looks bad ass, i do not like the gain and volt placement, i think that looks tacy, and could of been placed next to the head unit in the box area....nice build

lol, I agree actually.
I put them there because it was easy, but Im not too happy with it. Its functional for now, but I plan on relocating it when I do a center console and replacing the glove box cover