Mazda CX-5 AudioFrog GB series build evolves

This build is an evolution from last years build where I went from some SB Acoustics derived drivers by NVX to an AudioFrog GB15, GB60, and a single ported GB12 for about the best two way system I have ever had. This year I picked up some GB25 and GB10 drivers with the intent of going from 2 way to 3 way after I did this with my truck and was impressed with the result. I’m still running the same amplifiers but will have to add another one to power the extra set of drivers later on. They are currently the Pioneer PRS4200F class D 4 channel and an Infinity K1000 monoblock amplifier which I’ve found to be decent for the money. I’m thinking to bridge the Pioneer to the GB60 and use my nice sounding DLS cci44 for the mids and tweeters.

To start this off I also couldn’t resist when I saw a GB12 D2 go up for sale by David Ram and picked that up as well so I could add it to my current GB12 D2 wired for 2 ohms to match the Infinity’s rated 1000 watts perfectly. My current single ported GB12 sounds amazing to me so I figured what the hell life is short I want two in a bigger ported box. So I had some time last weekend and as soon as I cut the pieces and used my router to cut out the circles my son decided to join me and he decided he wanted to use those wood circles to make a wooden car which side tracked my box build for another week. :daniel: No big deal, kids are only young once and nothing beats qaulity time with the kids. Today I found some time amongst all the interruptions to make some progress so here are some pictures of my rough but solid as hell dual ported box for two GB12 D2 with two Precision Port flared ports with a total volume of about roughly 3.55 cubes and an estimated fb of ~ 30 Hz. I’m building this box to be easily removable so I can use a smaller box or no box for when I need the trunk space.

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Here are a few more pictures and some pictures of the wood car I helped my 9 year old son make. He designed it conceptually and I helped him make it come together. It even has a steerable front axle that he steers with that lever. I have to weld that lever solid and cut off the bolts but it’s kind of cool that this thing didn’t exist a week ago and it’s made out of all leftover materials from my garage and those circle cutouts for the GB12, lol. It also rolls extremely well too.

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Your son did a good job but I think it could have been better. He should have put the wheels on the sub enclosure. He’d be the envy of the neighborhood with a long enough extension cord. :)

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Originally Posted by dgage

Your son did a good job but I think it could have been better. He should have put the wheels on the sub enclosure. He’d be the envy of the neighborhood with a long enough extension cord. :)

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Lol, I don’t want to give him any ideas like that or he might run with it. Trying to find him a seat to secure to that cart tomorrow.

Your gonna poke an eye out kid. Those two GB's ported are gonna be loud. I would love to hear that.

Nice work, John! Your bracing inspires me... ;)

The Hubble beginnings started with a flush trim router being used for what’s it is not designed for and a home made circle jig that was supposed to be a one time use throw away jig from the last build. I forgot to take the nice circle jig and router home with me from work so I improvised in the interest of making progress with what little free time I have for this. No expensive fancy tools in this garage.



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Making some progress. Finished up the box and put some paint on it just so I can cover it with carpet.
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Originally Posted by JCsAudio

Making some progress. Finished up the box and put some paint on it just so I can cover it with carpet.

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Looks great! I have started painting my boxes black before carpeting, too. My thinking is that the wood is a little sealed from moisture, AND if there are areas where the carpet gets stretched thin, the wood won't show through...

Cool projects! Looks like a lot of fun! Soon you'll be rollin' that bass bin out to your whip like a boss! It's gonna be epic!

...you know, as it seems like that box might fit nicely on your son's car ...that is, if the seat isn't already in place.

My son is only 9 so he isn’t driving yet.

Carpet is on, ports are glued in, terminal cup is in and wired for two GB12 subs coming next. Might get this mounted and running today but headed to the boat show now.

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That smaller box is the 10” Alpine ported sub used in my wife’s van that is about 1.1 cube tuned to 31.5 Hz. With cabin gain that tiny little cheap subwoofer gets loud and sounds real good doing it too. I put it in the picture for perspective against that 3.55 cube dual ported box below it. It’s unfinished on purpose because it gets thrown around and banged up living in the back of a minivan so keeping it in this rough but functional state keeps me sane when treatment is rough.

Great job on the carpet, I can't see any seams! That box and a pair of GB12s should put a big smile on your face...

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Originally Posted by JCsAudio

My son is only 9 so he isn’t driving yet.

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LOL I was referring to your son's homemade car that is shown in the pictures, which in my imagination seemed well suited to rolling your new sub box out to your car. I tried (and failed) to communicate that image in an amusing way.

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Originally Posted by Grinder

LOL I was referring to your son's homemade car that is shown in the pictures, which in my imagination seemed well suited to rolling your new sub box out to your car. I tried (and failed) to communicate that image in an amusing way.

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O-yeah, now I get it, sorry Grinder. Got to get that done too.

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Originally Posted by DavidRam

Great job on the carpet, I can't see any seams! That box and a pair of GB12s should put a big smile on your face...

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Thanks David, it’s ok for someone who isn’t an expert at this. I should be able to hit 120 db with these subs although I’ll probably never push them that hard.

Pulled out the old ported box to compare it to the new box. The new one is quite a bit larger than the old one.

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Test fit the box and it just barely fits which was exactly what I was aiming for.

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I noticed some echo within the box when shouting into the port so I added some polyfill to help deaden the sound. A quick non scientific shout after confirmed it works well.

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The GB12 fit real snug into their holes which is what I was aiming for.

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Box installed and all wired up. I could barely lift this beast in by myself

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I did a quick test and verified it definitely gets louder than before and sounds great doing it too. It’s not a huge difference but I do feel more bass than I did before and it moves the hair on my head a little bit too, lol. My sunglasses were moving around on top of my dash and my rear view mirror was rendered useless during spirited play. The sunglasses didn’t really move beforehand. I verified the tune and ended up with an fb of 27.5 Hz when I was aiming for 29.9 Hz (predict fb) but that’s not too far off from predicted.

Very nice! :thumbup:

FWIW, I usually end up ~2 Hz lower Fb (based on least cone movement) than modeled/predicted. I've heard of similar results from others.

That’s been my experience to Grinder with all the boxes I’ve built and modeled over the years. I take back what I said about output. This thing has way too much output for my front stage. I went for a drive to the gym the long way to get some good listening time. I’m definitely going to need to tame this beast with the DSP. It will be interesting to see what all that headroom allows for in dynamics once I do message it with the DSP. Just doing this for fun so I don’t see myself keeping this alignment long term. I see a more custom installed sealed alignment with two GB12 down the road maybe. We’ll see!

Great fit and finish. It probably doesn't take up much more real estate. Most of that added space is in height.

Thanks, the footprint at the bottom is I think 1-2 inches more and yes most of the gain in volume is in the height. I drove my truck into work this morning with the single ported 10 and it seems anemic now that I’ve experienced this beast in the CX5.

Update:


I picked up a JL VX800/8i last week and have had some AF GB25 and GB10 on the shelf for a while now. My goal is the take this car from a 2-way to a 3-way, which currently runs the GB15 crossed to the GB60. I’ve been impressed with the three way in my daily driver pickup truck so naturally I want the same in my CX5. Ideally I’d like to have this ready for the upcoming great get together meet but there probably isn’t enough time considering my busy schedule and oppressive heat we’ve had.


What I’ll do is maybe compromise for now and mount the GB10 flush in the A-pillars off axis because it’s easy and mount the GB25 where the GB15 is now. It may not sound as good but hopefully with a good tune it can top the current 2-way combo. Eventually I think I want to mount the GB10 in the corner trim on axis that sits above the front door panel behind the A pillar. I’ve contemplated making A-pillar pods with fiberglass but honestly I’m not a fan and my A-pillars are flimsy to begin with. I prefer more of an OEM stealth look if possible. The other thing about this car is there really isn’t many options to mount a tweeter. Everywhere I think I can mount a tweeter presents challenges with something crammed behind it. Mazda used every square inch of this vehicle to hid something tight behind a finished piece.

Below GB25 next to GB15 going into that dash location.
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This is where I will flush mount the GB10 for now for the meet and I know isn’t ideal.
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This is where I think I will eventually mount the GB10 inspired by Apicella Auto Sound great work from their CX5 build.
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I like the way these Have an OEM look and with this option they will be on axis. Problem will be getting the wiring through the factory molex connector, which will probably necessitate partial removal of the door to gain access.
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Well, I didn’t make as much progress as I had hoped. My wife decided to host a birthday party for her niece because the mother didn’t want to host it due to her fear of the virus or so she says. So I ended up paying for the cake and presents and her mother was nowhere to be found. :daniel: Then I got nominated to install an antenna on the father-in-law’s house on his roof and had to run it all the way into the house and hook everything up,:banghead:. And the final straw was one of the terminals on the pre-owned GB10 tweeters I bought has a stripped terminal screw so now I have to figure a way to fix that. :doh: As I tried to back it out it just kept turning in the hole. I hope it works and that’s the only thing wrong with it. :(


But at least I made some progress. Got the GB25 drivers mounted in the dash and the GB10 mounted in the A-pillars which will be a temporary solution unless I determine that they sound really good there.


Temporary location for GB10 in A pillar
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Temporary location for GB10 in A pillar back side. This is why the AF speakers are awesome. Everything you need for a custom installation is included.
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I was going to use ABS sheet to make mounting baffles for these but I couldn’t find some local so I used leftover 3/16 heavy vinyl flooring which was so easy to cut to shape. It won’t be seen so aesthetic‘s are not as important for my own car anyway. Function is far more important.
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All ready to go.
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Mounted in the dash.
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What are you going to do about the hole you put in the a-pillar for the "temporary" GB10 mounting location?? Are you going to replace the a-pillar covers?

I'm with you on not wanting big a-pillar pods though. I just can't have those in my car - just ain't gonna happen. :-)

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Originally Posted by jtrosky

What are you going to do about the hole you put in the a-pillar for the "temporary" GB10 mounting location?? Are you going to replace the a-pillar covers?

I'm with you on not wanting big a-pillar pods though. I just can't have those in my car - just ain't gonna happen. :-)

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I purchased new A-pillar trim from Tasca Auto last year with the intent of installing tweeters semi custom into them and never followed through with it because I’m just turned off by anything fiberglass, lol. Since I have new A-pillars on hand I wasn’t afraid to drill the old ones and TBH they look pretty good. I was in my truck today and those are also installed in the A-pillars in a similar fashion and I’m satisfied with the way that system sounds so we’ll see. I was satisfied with the GB15 GB60 combo for a long time so any improvement on that will be very good.

A week ago I was busy making a rather nice ported subwoofer box for someone else that will house a GB12. This box is tuned to 32 Hz and is constructed from high qaulity birch plywood. It has glued dado construction and is braced internally to the max and houses a flared round port. Everything is sealed or has gasket tape and it has 10 gauge wiring soldered with heat shrink wrap connections inside. I also filled it with some acoustic stuffing (just a little) and ResoNix squares and wrapped it seamlessly in a high qaulity carpet. I was testing it today in my CX5 and it sounds damn good. The guy getting this will be happy for sure. I made this one from scratch and designed it using BassBox Pro.

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Some pre carpet pictures too. I painted it to add some weather resistance and then sanded it a little to smooth it out before contact glue and carpet.

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Very nice box, John!!

Thanks David, the design is simple but the construction is solid.

I really like your attention to the construction of the enclosure. I also had to chuckle a little when i read you use BBPro to model your enclosures. I am a huge fan of that app but notice most people on the forum prefer other apps for enclosure modeling.

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Originally Posted by Cutaway

I really like your attention to the construction of the enclosure. I also had to chuckle a little when i read you use BBPro to model your enclosures. I am a huge fan of that app but notice most people on the forum prefer other apps for enclosure modeling.

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Thanks Cutaway. I didn’t know they make an App? I have the PC program version and love how it works. It also creates cut sheets for you which is something most programs can’t do and as you know it can model most any shape too with surprising accuracy.

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Originally Posted by JCsAudio

Thanks Cutaway. I didn’t know they make an App? I have the PC program version and love how it works. It also creates cut sheets for you which is something most programs can’t do and as you know it can model most any shape too with surprising accuracy.

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No you're right... I was being lazy referring to it as an 'application' vs a 'program'

Made some progress today. Got the VX800/8i installed and the interior mostly put back together.

Old 4 channel Pioneer PRS 2-way setup under passenger seat.
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New JL 8 channel 3-way which is much cleaner looking under passenger seat mounted to new wood base painted black.
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Old JL twk88 DSP under drivers seat.
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No more anything now under drivers seat. I got rig of a ton of wiring using this new JL Vxi amp.
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Old JL 4 channel vs new JL 8 channel on bench. Hard to believe this 8 channel is more powerful and has a DSP built in.
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Old shitty hack job that I didn’t care at the time so long as it worked and was safe. I did this back in 2016 so that was then.
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Made a custom aluminum bracket to secure new fuses and drilled and taped some m6 screws into the aluminum and pained it black.
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This isn’t exactly how I wanted it to turn out with those ugly sharp bends as it looks like shit but I ran short on wire and I’m under a time constraint here and I broke the 4 gauge fuse holder so I had to use a different non matching fuse holder. Parts are on order and I’ll fix this up later. I used KnuKonceptz ultimate batter terminal and accessories so I could mount the stock terminal and fuses to the same location. Worked out ok I guess but still looks like shit only worse than before. :banghead:
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This is how I beat the heat in my garage this weekend or I would have never got this far. It was 95 out today and humid.
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Had to make like difficult a few days before the meet [emoji23]

I got everything mostly back together and when I get back from vacation I should be able to get a tune on it so long as everything works correctly. If not then I’m in trouble.

Your going to love that amp. I had it for almost a year. Its very versatile and powerful. I loved the fact that 2 channels can be bridged for the midbass. I sold it to Nick to offset the cost of my Helix V8 MK2. There is some give and take between the two amps. The Helix can not be bridged but has a more powerful DSP. I was a big fan of TUN software. It was very easy and intuitive. Now I'm used to the Helix software and actually prefer it to TUN. I was able to master the TUN software but feel I've only scratched the surface of the Helix. For the enthusiast like myself TUN is perfect.

Thanks Stycker, I’m very familiar with the TuN software and agree it’s very user friendly for enthusiasts. I had a Helix DSP for a short while and agree it’s very powerful with more features than I could use. I feel as though the Tun software offers me all that I need though and that anything more is nice but not needed. I purchased this amp for its power in a small package and the fact that it eliminates a lot if required wiring needed for a traditional separate amp and DSP. I also really like the fact that it has Bluetooth so I can tune using my iPad vs my laptop. I can also use my phone for quick simple adjustments. My familiarity with the JL software and it’s small size swayed me towards the Vx800/8i.

Got everything back together and put some tuning time into it although there are a few issues with the tune that I just don’t have time to address. I think they are more a function of the non-ideal driver locations and maybe the back wave from the midrange making its way from under the dash and interfering with the tune. Those issues will have to be addressed with some CLD carefully placed behind those midrange. It still sounds pretty good though so I’m satisfied for now. My previous 2-way GB15/GB60 combo had smoother vocals but the three way has a higher more focused front stage. Detail is also improved slightly. I initially tuned with a single GB12 which obviously blended better but I got the frankenwoofer dialed in pretty good. Just going from a single GB12 to two GB12 added 7.5 db to the sub stage without doing anything. Also have some rattles now with anything over 50% volume.

No more frankenwoofer for me. I decided to try a single GB12 sealed (forget the volume but it’s ~ 1) and I have to say I’m impressed. Got it dialed in and it’s very good. This subwoofer just continues to impress me. Now I think I want to try two GB12 sealed. Two ported was just way too much for me. I may actually compare the single ported to the single sealed and see if I can tell a difference after adjusting for volume differences. I should actually do this for the next meet and see if anyone prefers one over the other without them knowing which one they are listening too.