'98 C5 build

Picked this up after getting rear ended in my last car. The factory speakers were blown so it was time for an upgrade. Didn't want to add a ton of weight so I tried to keep it fairly simple.

The car,
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...bea7db92e6.jpg

Front speakers are B&C 8cxn51's, didn't do much deadening other than sealing the holes in the door.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...31caadb92c.jpg

Built a box for the amps out of 1/4" plywood with a JL TwK88, Focal FPD 6.900 and a Kenwood XR600-1 inside. The Kenwood may be replaced at some point in favor of the matching Focal mono amp and when that happens I'll clean up the wiring.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...6b78135722.jpg

Then made an enclosure for a JL 12tw3

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...036bee31b4.jpg

I may at some point rebuild the sub enclosure out of plywood instead of mdf to save a few more pounds and swap subs in favor of something with a little more output but otherwise I'm pretty happy with it as it is.


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I like that you copied the angles from the speaker onto the mounting plate. Nice.

So, I know most would be happy to get this kind of output from their front stage let alone a pair of coax's but let me tell you why this pisses me off, after all of the work and money spent on my el camino there's less than 1db difference between that and the much simpler setup in this car.

Too apple and oranges type comparison , for me.

Sound pressure level is measured in decibels , but does not address tonality , imaging , spacing , heigth and width .

This car is not that car , I fail to see how a comparison can be made, prolly just me

For me, output is high on the priority list as it's the one thing tuning can't really fix. I don't care how well tuned a set of conventional drivers is they just can't compare to high efficiency drivers as far as output is concerned and to me if a system can't reach realistic output levels then I don't care how well it does everything else. I've run the horns in several of my cars and the coax's in my last couple cars so I have a bit of experience with both. As far as imaging it's kind of a toss up, the horns can do pretty well but there's something to be said for the simplicity of a pair of point source drivers. Tonality wise out of the box the horns are unlistenable while with nothing more than T/A and level matching these are pretty decent. Overall I can't really think of anything that the horns do better that would make me choose them over these.

Volume , maybe , for horns . Tridiot has clear -n- loud mind's ( 4 of em ).!

I could easily believe it is door seals , fiberglass seems more suspect when thinking flexing ! My ears cannot disceern a 1 decibel difference.

:clap::cool:Jim aka BigRed posted a pic years ago of him listenin to 143 dB's at CES in a clear walled box , like a telephone booth !

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Originally Posted by Hic

Volume , maybe , for horns . Tridiot has clear -n- loud mind's ( 4 of em ).!

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The midrange in my other car is definitely the weak point, the horns themselves are capable of 130db+ but as it is now, both cars are louder than I can stand to listen to for more than a few seconds at a time.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hic

I could easily believe it is door seals , fiberglass seems more suspect when thinking flexing ! My ears cannot disceern a 1 decibel difference.

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I'm getting some pretty bad resonance with certain songs. I'm still trying to find a good way to fix it without doubling the weight of my doors.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hic

:clap::cool:Jim aka BigRed posted a pic years ago of him listenin to 143 dB's at CES in a clear walled box , like a telephone booth !

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One of the local stereo shops used to have a room not much bigger than a phone booth with all of the walls covered in RF subs and amps, it was pretty impressive.

Are those doors insanely deep or are those coaxes insanely shallow?

They're about 4" deep give or take a little. There's more room behind the door panel too so I could fit something up to about 5"deep with another spacer.

Nice clean build

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Originally Posted by ca90ss

They're about 4" deep give or take a little. There's more room behind the door panel too so I could fit something up to about 5"deep with another spacer.

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Now I have the desire to pull the door card off of my truck.

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Originally Posted by chad

Are those doors insanely deep or are those coaxes insanely shallow?

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http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r...ette20Door.jpg

lots of room behind door card too

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r...tuff/004-1.jpg

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Originally Posted by chad

Now I have the desire to pull the door card off of my truck.

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I just came across these and may do a pillar install in my next car.
http://www.bcspeakers.com/products/c...4-0/8/4CXN36-8

is that a B&C you have in there now?

Yes, B&C 8cxn51.

Stole one of the subs from the el camino, had to add a spacer because the JL has a larger than normal cutout and had to swap the amp for something with a little more power and 1 ohm stable. Will clean up the wiring later and it looks like I'll need ho alternator in the near future.

I saw that someone was finally making a DD dash kit that wasn't $500 so I went to my friends shop and had him order one for me figuring I'd have it on hand when I could afford the hu to go with it. Went to pick it up today and he wouldn't let me leave without a hu to go with it and said I could pay for it later so this followed me home too. It's been 14 years since my last Pioneer due to the pico fuse issue so I've got my fingers crossed I won't have the same problem with this one. Hopefully I'll have time to install it tomorrow after work.

Attachment 6214

Love that focal amp. So clean and simple.

Attachment 6216

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ca90ss

I just came across these and may do a pillar install in my next car.
http://www.bcspeakers.com/products/c...4-0/8/4CXN36-8

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With such a large delta in efficiency between the woofer and tweeter of those drivers, how would a guy balance the output?
Simply throw a lot more power at the woofer (or less at the tweet)?
Those actually look like they would be a great candidate for pillar/dash mounting.

I generally do it with either the gains, the DSP or a combination of the two. It mostly depends on which way results in the lowest noise floor.

Got the urge to upgrade so I went to a friends shop and got a good deal on a pair of Focal 25kx subs and their dsp with remote. Also got a Raven 12xl to replace my computer sub for a deal too good to pass up.

Nice score! Curious to read you opinion on that Raven subwoofer.

Focal subs are A+ !

I'm looking forward to trying the Raven. It will replace a B&W asw610 which for the $30 I paid for it at a thrift store sounds pretty good already. Going to do the car enclosure first so it may be a bit before I get around to it.

Pulled the mag and threw a temporary enclosure in while I rework the enclosure, night and day difference how much better the JBL sounds compared to the mag even with half the power going to it.

Got the subs in. Going to rebuild the enclosure at some point to get rid of the ugly adapter plate but it works for now.

Great !

If you can`t localize the Focal ?

Turn to eleven !

That is awesome!