j-roadtatts

Awesome job Matt! I can only imagine how much better you feel. Keep up the good work brother.

I did a system on a gold wing once. I replaced the arm rests on the rear seat with some pioneer prebuilt 3-ways. The ones that are in a fully enclosed plastic case, that are about the size and shape of the armrest. I think I aimed them outward, but it was a long time ago so I don't honestly remember. I just used the deck power for those and the fronts.

Planned obsolescence

I would even say the tweet is barely playing an octave and a half, as most music doesn't have a whole lot going on after 12-15k.

You're on the right track, just know the final X over points will be based more on what sounds good and blends best once installed. Getting the vocals to sound good is usually a big part of the equation, as it's like getting four people to all talk coherently all at once. One more reason not to have rears, as then it's six people all talking at once. If everything isn't dialed to blend just right (or close lol) you will get distractive distortion/ cancellation at the crossover point. The explanation in the post above was just to give you a bearing on speaker selection. Not a guideline on setting points. With that said, 1500 is pretty low for a tweeter, and you will get waaaay more output from the 6.5" mid in that range. I think my mids are at 2500, and tweets at 3200. The mids would play way higher (and still sound good) but they have a breakup node at 4K. Without individual eq for each speaker it's a no go for me. I'm not positive, but think your hu may have eq for each individual channel. Put it this way, the mid is the workhorse. The tweets are just there to give a little sparkle on top. (The top couple octaves) Same with the sub, it's just there to fill the very bottom octave. Think how many octaves that leaves the mid playing.

I talked to the wife/accountant and she said funds are a go. sending a PM now to get things rolling. Thanks again Matt.

I installed the last door yesterday!! Still have a bunch of trim and window sills to build/install, but its coming along. The old doors...made me feel like I was living in a rental. Much better!! One of them finished with casing. I made the base trim and plinth blocks, and bought the door trim. Thats the new carpet also, is 65lb Stainmaster with 1/2" pillow pad. Feels like walking on the clouds. I bought a cool 1890's Victorian wall vent also, to replace that white one on the left of the door. Should look stellar. And a shot of the beefy foam carpet pad...well worth the extra cheeda' not to feel the clumpiness of that recycled looking shit.

Hell yeah! I appreciate the discount, again. Will most likely be a couple months, as I just dropped a boatload of money on the carpet and doors for my house. And booked a trip to Disneyland next month for my anniversary. On the plus, I got a nice discount on the carpet paying cash! Hehe

I will tell you from personal experience, the gain was not worth the cost and effort. One more thing to give you perspective. If there is a noise that shouldn't be there after the R&D does all their nips and tucks, and the car is produced. Someone like M5 is who they call, to locate the noise and/or give a cost effective remedy/band-aid to resolve the problem. Nothing is an absolute, everything is a compromise. One thing they don't do is call a dampener company, and buy one of everything.

The just opened an MF here, ant it's one of the brands they sell. Guess I should've asked if you even still work there.

All right first, don't let the octave thing confuse you. One octave up or down is simply a double or half the frequency. So an octave below 100Hz would be 50Hz and one above would be 200Hz... then 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, 12,800. The number doesnt actually matter, it's simply half or double. 1/3 octave is the point the human ear will pick up a change in pitch/tone. For our purposes today we will use the scale that will appear on your crossover and your Eq. I believe that head unit lets you select 1/3 octaves. Starting at the bottom 25, 31.5, 40, 50, 63, 80, 100, 125, 160, 200, 250, 500..... 1250, 1600, 2000, 2500, 3150, 4000, 5000, 6300, 8000, 10,000, 12,500..... you'll see the span between numbers gets larger the higher you go, but there is no more "information" in that large span then in the small span. There are basically three notes in each octave. So on to how this pertains to speaker selection. The tweeter being the most finicky so will start there. A tweeter with an FS of 1250Hz, Will not like to be crossed lower than 2500Hz. One with an FS of 1500Hz, won't like being crossed lower than 3.15K. One with an Fs of 1000Hz, Will dig low and play comfortably at 2000Hz. Now a true mid range speaker will have no problem playing up to either of those points, (and beyond) and still sound good . A speaker that is considered more of a midbass will also play up to those points, but will sound poopy. So if you were looking at a speaker that is more of a true midbass, you all want a tweeter that can dig low. Same with a subwoofer, it may be play up to 500Hz, but will some poopy anywhere after 80Hz. Now on the personal preferences and what I think you would like. Let's start at the subwoofer, I will assume Jay has his crossed at 80Hz, and five has his crossed and 50Hz. And I know I have mine crossed and 63Hz. The reason Jay has his crossed high is he is mating to mid range speaker, and wants the most "weight" he can from the subwoofer. There is less detail in chopped and screwed and rap music. The reason five would cross his at 50Hz is he is after more clarity and smoothness than weight, as jazz is very smooth and detailed. Next I will assume Jay has his mids crossed it 100Hz, and five has his crossed at 63Hz. Jays mid range speaker will be more head cracking, if it's not trying to play low notes that are covered by the subwoofer. We will Assume five has a mid that is considered both a midbass and mid range. One that plays smooth across the whole frequency band, and is not peaky in the mid range. Fives midbass/midrange will sound smoother than than subwoofer, and not play head cracking in the mid range. On to the tweeter. I will assume Jay has his crossed that 3.15K, and fives are crossed at 2K. Jay already has his mid range covered, and is more after ear blistering highs. Jay most likely cares less about soundstage and more about loudness. Again five probably cares more about clarity, detail and soundstage. Just like between the subwoofer and mid, fives tweeter will play more detailed and clear then the mid at the same frequencys. Also the tweeter is the part of the equation that can be moved around the car, to achieve a better soundstage. I would personally think you are probably leaning more towards Jay's camp. Five has ridiculously discerning ears, listens at a more moderate level than most and he hates rap. I fall in the middle because I listen to just about everything, from too short and easy-e, reba McEntire to Randy Travis, Otis redding to Elton John and slayer to lamb of god. One other Added note, a speaker will handle double power each octave higher it is crossed. Jays speakers will play lower, but handle more power to get loud crossed higher. Hope that helps. Let use know what you think.

Hey Matt, what's your thoughts on the Hampton And Rhode mattresses? I'm getting ready to buy the daughter a new mattress, and was looking at cheaper alternatives to the Beautyrest. The Trinadad 10.5 hybrid in particular. I seen they had the individually wrapped coils and memory foam on top, which are the two key features I was after. So how do they stack up against the Beautyrest and what have your customers thought? Thanks in advance.

Funky! I listened to it with my guinea pig....dude I hope he doesn't get pregnant.

Ah, up in sacktown. I would stick to the game plan of just the doors with LLP. I mostly pointed all that out so that you would understand your car is reasonably quiet compared to alot of cars out there. As far as the rods in body, they are called crash bars. I guarantee you will find one running horizontally inside of the door. Pack the buytl rope behind that. If the roof supports are not glued to the exterior panel I would also put some there. Basically places like that, as it is cheap sound deadener. The spray in foam is also very cheap sound deadener. It serves two functions, first it applies pressure to the panels so they cannot move and vibrate, secondly it will stop any noise that is traveling through the body cavities. I will point out the car above was done to that extreme to keep the bass in, not to keep sound out. I had 12 inch mid basses in the door any 15 inch BTL sub. I wanted it knock my head around and be violent. Which it was!!

I guess a good question to ask at this point is what music do you predominately listen to? Reason I ask is you are going to get different suggestions as Jay listens to a lot of chopped and screwed and five listens to a lot of jazz an instrumental. So yeah Tell us what you listen to and speakers you have heard that you thought sounded loud/ good.

On the low-end of a driver/tweeter you are looking for an Fs that is one octave below where you plan to cross them. The Fs is the resonant frequency of the driver in free air, basically were the structural sound/ vibration of the speaker will start being audible. And become hard on the speaker parts. So basically if you plan on crossing the mid at 80 Hz, you would want one with an FS of around 40 Hz. Since the mid is mounted to a solid surface and not free air, there is a some wiggle room there. In real time Fs can be a little bit higher. On a tweet I would stick to the one octave higher rule. As far as the top end of the mids go, you want to look for any major spikes in the frequency response graph. Again ideally you would want the peak to be at least one octave above where you plan to cross then. The top end of the tweeter really depends on where you plan on mounting them, weather they're on axis or not. (pointed straight at you, or playing at an angle to the listener position) if you can mount them straight are you that is usually preferred imo. If they must be mounted on angle from the listen position, then a tweeter with a slope up in the frequency response would be preferred. After that I would say a lot is preference of cone material, as each one will have its own acoustical signature. The better processing you have the less some of these things are concerns such as the peaks in the frequency response. I personally prefer to pick drivers that don't need much electronic processing, but that is just for ease of tuning.

My door treatment kit on my current ride. And pics from the only car I did the floor on. Guess I did the seat area different than I remembered. ideally you would want to glue the seams to create an actual barrier. The tape I used is so sticky it will not come back off, so I was happy with that. I was trying to find pics of Aaron's SQ wagon. He and Don did a stellar job, that would be worth reproducing in your ride. Maybe you could ask him nicely for pics.

Dude, I just seen your build thread and realized you have your car already completely disassembled.... and that it is a wagon. So there are three other control points I wanted to give you insight on. First, as you noted there is already a factory sound deadener. All automotive manufacturers do this to some varying degree. But it is a compromise of cost, weight, performance. Look at it this way, if you're buying a Lexus instead of a Toyota, or a Cadillac instead of a Chevy. One of the added costs is more sound deadener, and the research on where to put it. By no means will they ever stop all sounds. But from low-end to high-end there is good, better and best. I'm not super familiar with Mercedes line up, but I would assume yours falls in the middle. Which brings me to my second Control point. One simple way to lower road noise from the factory is use "mass loaded vinyl backed" carpet. All carpets have a plastic backing, but this would be an extra layer that is still part of the carpet. If your car has that, I would consider not lining the floor as the product is already there. Which brings me to the third control. Being a wagon is inherently going to bring more road noise in from the rear tires . That would definitely be a place I would personally Focus on. Here are a few pointers on controlling panel resonation. Pack butyl rope between the body and support rods anywhere there is a support bar inside of the structural body of the car. Second is tap each body panel with your hand or a small tool, to find the areas that have the highest resonation. Install the CDL tiles there first, then wash, rinse, repeat. This way you can get the tiles were they are most needed. As far as heat, that is a tough one. Unfortunately what you are battling is probably more a product of humidity than actual temperature. Where I live is dryer than a motherfucker, you would come here and think 100° feels like 70°. Not to say that the heat barrier is not possibly good idea, but it will definitely be a lot less effective where you live. I say it's worth a little more research, as I am no thermodynamics expert. No need to thank me as I enjoy helping others, so pass the favor along. I just hate seeing people do more work then they need to. One way I gauge intelligence is the ability to use ones resources and energy wisely.

I personally use black RTV gasket maker, and wax paper to shape until it dries. Have done it without wax paper with good results also, just make sure it's not too thick. Be sure to glue it from the back side also.

You pretty much just answered your own question. The smaller one will be closer to the .4 drop and the bigger one closer to the .7. If that don't bother you, there is no other reason not to get the bigger guy.

It's the AVH-X4700BS. If the monster fonts bother you, how busy the screen is on the pioneer would drive you crazy. The only reason I bought a DD was so I could watch movies on my breaks at work. LoL My last Alpine have the media expander, that cleaned up digitally compressed sources very well. Including the satellite radio. The pioneer just plays it as it sees it .

What style of isolator are you looking at? Some styles have voltage loss, which will be greater the larger they are.

Is that an attempt to miss lead people to buy things they don't need? Gaslight others much?

I'm sadly not very happy with my pioneer. I do not play off a hard drive, but the fluctuation in sound quality from different sources is ridiculous. Ridiculous compared to my last Alpine that is.

It is rough. I hope it does not influence the youth to commit suicide more than they already are.