2003 Chevy S-10 Pro Audio Blowthrough

[Strakele]

As you may have seen on DIYMA and/or my Ralliart build thread, I recently bought Mike Guthrie's old S-10 with the pro audio blowthrough install. In the near future, this will be more of a tune log than build log since the install is done. I do plan to make a few things for it and there may be one or two components that get swapped out some time down the road, but that won't be for a while.

For now, I just figured I'd post a couple pics for those who don't frequent the land of Ants and oatmeal.


The vehicle: White 2003 Chevy S-10 single cab with grey interior, 2.2L motor, 5 speed standard transmission, ZQ8 wheels and suspension.








Custom intake and dual battery mod, 205a alternator, big 3 upgrade




The system:

Alpine IVA-W200
Alpine PXA-H701
ID Fullsize horn lenses with B&C DE500 compression drivers
JBL 2118H 8" midranges
JBL 2206 12" midbass, ported
JBL W15GTi 15" subwoofers, quasi-6th order BP enclosure
Pioneer GM-D8604 bridged to the 2206
Pioneer GM-D8604 to the horns and 2118
Pioneer GM-D9601 to the subwoofers
Streetwires CBR-44 distribution block

[Strakele]

With the large format high efficiency drivers, the truck is very concert-like in presentation. The concussive impact it's capable of creating is amazing.

Soon after I got the truck I put my own tune on it to learn the system and the HU/DSP combo. After listening to my first tune for a week or two a few things started to stand out that I wanted to fix. Focus was pretty good but could be better. Depth at low volume was pretty good but seemed to decrease at higher volume. I crushed too much of the dynamic abilities of the horns with EQ.

So last night I went out and tried to fix that stuff. Re-RTA'd and tried to use a bit less EQ, re-did time alignment, reset levels, played with phase, etc. Got it pretty good, I thought. Went to listen tonight and did some more tweaking of t/a, phase, and crossover slopes.

These graphs are from last night and don't reflect the latest changes but should be pretty close. They were taken at 1/24 octave and smoothed to 1/3 octave since that's what the 701 has EQ-wise.

Mids and tweets: Left, right, and the combined response is obviously the louder one above the other 2.



Midbass:



Sub, midbass, mids separate:



Whole system:



Playing with levels, phase, and t/a tonight probably changed that one the most. I'll check when I have time next.

Couple things:

The horns have very similar response shapes, especially above 3K which is nice. The mids do too. I can't do anything more about the bump at 300 and 115 - EQ is maxed out there on the mids and midbass, respectively. Too bad you can't use the graphic and parametric at the same time with the 701.

Anyway, got it pretty good tonight, I think. Could probably still use a couple tweaks to get everything phase aligned as well as possible, but it's pretty close. Got some more snap back in the top end, better focus, better height, still good impact. This sub/box combo is really impressive. I believe it's designed for gain between 25 and 65 or so, but I ran them up to like 200 as I was testing everything and man can they hit hard. All while seemingly barely moving.

[Hillbilly SQ]

Lord have mercy that's my kind of install! Didn't realize you could get 8's in an s-10 door. That's amazing! Can't wait to hear it. Considering a black tie tune can suck the dynamics out, how bout a mullet tune? Then a full blown party tune

[BigAl205]

Awesome setup!

[pocket5s]

I'm really curious about the midbass. Rear midbass (especially large) is something that was done quite a bit in the 90's but you don't see anymore. Does it pull back much? Does it affect depth?

[Strakele]

I'm running them decently high (220Hz or so) and they can pull back a little bit. I think it's mostly due to a peak at 115 that I don't have enough EQ to touch, and the fact that I probably haven't gotten them phase/time aligned with the mids as well as they possibly could be. If I wanted a real SQ kinda tune I'd probably drop their level a couple dB and drop the crossover to like 125Hz. But how they are is pretty good. With some more processing, I'm confident it could be better too.

With my last tune, depth seemed to increase at lower volumes and decrease at higher volumes. I haven't listened to the newest tune enough yet, but it is higher and a little deeper than the last.

One other effect is increased width on certain things, like drums that pan across the stage. Sometimes they seem to be coming from the middle of the side window, rather than stopping around the a-pillar / sail panel area.

[chad]

He and I have exchanged countless emails about that build.

Congrats on the buy! It should be pretty damn effortless.

[Hic]

Looks Great !

[Bigred]

Awesome!!. That sub box looks familiar

[Strakele]

Chad I'd be interested in any thoughts/tips/tricks/tidbits of info you think may be helpful