cobra93

I have looked at the chart you have posted many times and in the end I guess it leaves me confused. I understand that using one battery for the vehicle will have less reserve for the stereo system as opposed to multiple batteries. My understanding is that the battery is there as a, "buffer", for lack of a better term. It is my understanding that the battery will deliver amps "quicker" than the alternator can react, which is why more batteries can stabilize voltage with a heavy amp draw. I understand that the chart posted is very general in terms of what battery can support "XXX" amount of wattage. What I'd like to know before making a decision on which battery I may need by looking at the chart, would be what are the parameters your using to make the chart? Are you looking at maintaining a certain voltage at a specific amp draw? If so what voltage are you considering to be acceptable? I know that if your alternator can only produce 100 amps and the system can demand more than the alt. is capable of producing you will not "solve" the problem of decreased voltage output and an eventually have a dead alt. I realize you are only providing a larger reserve to draw amps from until the battery(s)/alternator is overwhelmed. At the moment I have a 2000 ford ranger. I have 4 runs of 1/0 (2 pos., 2 neg.) devoted to the stereo system. I have a 200 amp alternator and have upgraded the alt. to battery cable to 1/0 as well. I have no grounds using the frame of the vehicle, all connections are to and from the battery terminals. At the moment I am powering 1> jl 300/2, 1> sax125.2 @ 2ohms and 1> saz 2000d @ 1 ohm. I haven't measured my actual voltage drop yet, but the factory voltage gauge can drop pretty low with sustained bass output. I know that music is dynamic and that the possible amp draw is more than the alt is able to produce if I were driving around playing tones, but I don't. The current battery is a cheap 550 cca battery and is the only battery in the truck at the moment. I am undecided as to add another battery or build a new tray for the largest battery I can fit under the hood. I look forward to your response so I can make my own informed decision, not just to keep adding batteries until the problem is overcome. Thanks for your time.

Ha Ha. You give me way too much credit man. No way in hell did I make those covers. Amazon.com baby! hey were easy as fawk to put on. I used to chew Copenhagen, but got tired of driving all over town trying to find a can with a good date on it. Been rolling with the Grizz for a few years now. I wasn't assuming you made the covers, but that you installed them. I have seem enough shows where new vinyl/leather was installed on seats to make me think it was not worth the effort, not enough patients on my part, great job!

Purring like a cat with an armored tail in a room full of rocking chairs!! I'm a ford guy at heart, but that is one hell of a nice engine!! Awesome work so far brothers!! Keep it up!

The truck looks awesome!!! Those seats look like they were a PITA to wrap, props to you for doing them. I've considered recovering seats in the past, but I don't think I've got the patients. O.T.> Grizzly FTMFW!!!! It's my brand of choice as well.

I run my Shiva-X infinite baffle. Those Eclipse subs are good subs. I had a quartet of 88120DVC's about a decade ago. They are TC Sounds TC7 based subwoofers. The Shiva-X2 has more Xmax, lower inductance, higher rated power handling, and more than likely a more linear motor. It also has a slightly higher Qts and it's Fs is a little more than a half octave lower than the 88120DVC, which means the Shiva-X will have much better low frequency extension/low frequency output than the 88120's in sealed enclosures, and it's higher Xmax means it has the potential for more overall output. On the flip side, the Shiva's Vas is larger and is going to need a larger volume sealed enclosure to reach a given Qtc than the Eclipse. The Eclipse would really be more at home in a ported enclosure. In ported enclosures of similar size the Shiva would have probably have better low frequency extension although if placed in an Eclipse-sized ported enclosure the response would potentially be a little more peaky and it's transient response probably a little worse than the Eclipse. And, again, the Shiva would need a larger sized enclosure to reach equivalent alignments. Thanks very much for your thoughts/insight. I very much appreciate your response. I feel as though I'm jacking your thread, sorry about that. You are a very respected member on this site and have helped me in the past on crossover settings with a DMM, I'll use the knowledge you have given me in all my future installs. I hope you're happy with the bravox components you have now. I'm waiting to hear you overall impressions once you get everything adjusted to your liking.

Ha Ha, Thanks John. Good news, I have bass. Lots of Bass. I will wash her up and take some pics for you guys. I'm sure you do!! Would you mind pointing that thing the other way next time you fire it up. Heh Heh, I have more lights too. I am the mother ship. That was you in the energizer bunny commercial, wasn't it! All your base are belong to us. The build turned out awesome, I wish I could hear it!!!!! :woot: If you do more pics or video, get the whole truck, kind of a summary of the build. Could you reverse the phase on your subs for me, it's canceling out my bass!!

Ha Ha, Thanks John. Good news, I have bass. Lots of Bass. I will wash her up and take some pics for you guys. I'm sure you do!! Would you mind pointing that thing the other way next time you fire it up. Heh Heh, I have more lights too. I am the mother ship. That was you in the energizer bunny commercial, wasn't it!

Ha Ha, Thanks John. Good news, I have bass. Lots of Bass. I will wash her up and take some pics for you guys. I'm sure you do!! Would you mind pointing that thing the other way next time you fire it up.

Thanks for the rundown on your system. I've heard allot of good things about the shiva subs, with regards to them being quick/clean. What alignment is it being used in? I've always been happy with my eclipse subs, 88120 dvc aluminum/ 88120 ti dvc, sealed or ported. They seem to get loud and stay quick/ clean, but due to space limitations I may be looking to go with some 10"s. To bad diy cable doesn't have any 10"s. Do you have any opinions on these two subs and how they might compare if placed in similar enclosures? Thanks.

Your kick panels look great!!! What's the rest of your system consist of? I don't see a sig. listing your other equipment. Is this a cutlass supreme?

Glad you/they got it figured it out.

I understand what you're getting at Frosted, piece of mind, right or wrong one less thing to worry about. $50.00 would be worth it too me as well. If nothing else I'd like to see what it could show me on my amps.

I have the crossovers built into the HU so I can change the settings while listening. I have had the xover point as high as 1000hz, and as low as 200hz. The higher I have the crossover point, the lower the sound stage gets, And the 12s start becoming over bearing. The lower I go with the crossover point the more the 12s blend. Below 200hz the 3s get strained. Remember this is my first active so I am testing over and over to learn. I have had the crossover point at 250hz for a few months now, 6db slope on the top of the 12s (shallow slope blended better) and 12db on the bottom of the 3s (any less slope they strain). Little by little I get closer to perfection, so I am sure things will change. As far as crossing the low end of the midbass, the lower the better. I keep hesitating to overlap the sub, but after testing realized the midbasses sounded best crossed LoooooooW. I brought the sub back in and it blends better than ever. I have the 12s playing down to 20hz and the sub set at 30-50hz. The other big reason why I have the 12s crossed so low on the bottom is for cooling. The drivers are designed as subs and need excursion for cooling, as I learned this the hard way. To anwser your question about T/A and phasing. Even once you have achieved perfect timing of the different sources waves with the t/a, the waves can still be 180 of each other. One sources wave can be in a compression cycle, while the other sources wave is in a rarefraction cycle, the waves will be 180 apart and attemp to cancel each other out. The next thing to understand is wavelenghts change with frequency, so back to how this applys to the mids and fullrangers. The only frequency that applys to phasing between the mids and full rangers is at the xover point because thats where multible sources are playing the same frequency. I shouldn't say this is the only phasing that applys, because you also want each pair of drivers is phase with each other also. ie: the 3s is phase with each other and the 8s in phase with each other, and then phase between mids and fullrangers. Phasing between each pair of drivers is more across the whole range they are playing, not just the xover point. Usaully notible to me from either severe comb filtering or on driver barking over the other, sounding out of place. I am sure I will get flamed or corrected if any of the techs read this but its a good general summary of whats going on, with my limited knowledge. I'm right there with ya. This is my first active setup and I'm really enjoying the "DIY" drivers. I lowered the high pass x-over point on the sls's to around 35 or 40 hz. and have not had the sub on for a couple of days. With the rack in the truck now the sub box isn't working at all, the head unit isn't helping matters either. I built (2) 1.1 c.f. sealed boxes yesterday and today. I'm going to try them and see if I can make it work. They're 14" x14" x ~ 18", truncated, so I should be able to aim them pretty much where I want and let them go as low as I want, we'll see what happens. I'll yank the sub out Wed. and see what changing the phase does for me. Thanks for getting back to me.

Looking pretty awesome Sir-Lancelot!!!!! You're so close, I bet if you put your ear to the glass you'll hear the subs wangin. Keep up the great work, we're watching you know. I hope you don't blow the hatch open when you fire that bad boy up. :woot: :woot: :woot:

Very nice job of turning a mess into a clean purpose built harness, it looks great. It has to drive you nuts making sure the right size ring terminals and other connectors are in the correct place. I assume you must have allot of different size connectors on hand. Strain reliefs are cheap and work well. From my sa-8 build. I put the big end on the inside so it wouldn't get damaged.

I understand that but they only have boxes for a single sub. Im trying to make it for 2 12" Q's. not just one. I thought it would be as easy as doubling the numbers but its not so thats what im asking for the dimensions of the box cut outs for what i need to make. he didn't mean the cutout sheets. he meant the recommendations. Fi Q Recommendations Link Take your max dimensions of your trunk and I'm sure someone would be glad to design you a box ported or sealed. Also, tell what you want it tuned to as it will help the other person when designing a ported box. At least you understood what I meant Hzd. First of all there is no need to act like a condescending a$$hole. SORRY i dont know this stuff like you guys. Im just a housewife who is trying to get my brother in law to make this box for my husband who is returning from Iraq very soon and i want it ready for him. So sorry if im asking questions that might seem so dumb to you. Geez there is no need to belittle people who are trying to find help. Im sure u knew it all when u started out huh??? Ayway thanks HZD skizzy ill look there and get the dimensions of his trunk so we can see what we are working with I just saw this ^^^^^ I had NO intention of being condescending or an a**. I come hear for help as well. I've learned you have to be specific when asking your questions because the members on hear, including me, are assuming what you want/know. I was only stating that you didn't understand my first post and Hzd did, simple as that. I'm glad you are receiving help with your question. If you would have stated your level of knowledge/skill my answer would have been very different. I hope the enclosure/subs work out well for you/your husband. Take Hzd's advice of a mock up seriously, it sucks to have completed a project that you can't get in the trunk. Never mind you stated it's a magnum. One more thing, Stop listening to your brother-in-law. Nobody on here cares if your a girl/guy, members on here will help you according to your level of skill/knowledge if you give enough information on your goals.

I understand that but they only have boxes for a single sub. Im trying to make it for 2 12" Q's. not just one. I thought it would be as easy as doubling the numbers but its not so thats what im asking for the dimensions of the box cut outs for what i need to make. he didn't mean the cutout sheets. he meant the recommendations. Fi Q Recommendations Link Take your max dimensions of your trunk and I'm sure someone would be glad to design you a box ported or sealed. Also, tell what you want it tuned to as it will help the other person when designing a ported box. At least you understood what I meant Hzd.

That's one hell of a nice enclosure!! Waiting in vids.

They shouldn't read 2.2 DCR if the coils are 2 ohm coils. Maybe the DMM you used is off, by allot. I would think 2 ohm coils should read between 1.5 - 1.8 DCR. 4 ohm coils around 3.0 - 3.3 DCR. what did you have the DMM set for? At least they all measure the same.

Watch out for the Onkyo's. Some of them, the cheaper ones, Will allow you to use time alignment, but when you turn the unit off your settings are erased. I learned that one the hard way.

Look in the FI tech. forum, they have box recommendations and more.

Looking good Impious! You've got allot going on in the kicks. That had to require allot of patience to aim all 6 speakers.

I saw this after I wrote the above post. From Eclipse tech support. Thank you for contacting Eclipse; Joe, Unfortunately the owners manual was a miss print the unit goes in to pro mode when you use the PEQ and Time Allignment there was no activation button on this unit. Tech support. Well thanks for the reply, but not what I was hoping to hear.

The 12s have been treating me well after conquering the door resonations. Theres still a frequency or two that makes the door glass resonate quite loudly but nothing I can do about that. The lower I cross the midbasses the better and better it gets. I couldn't locate the sub in the car if I tryed once everything was phased, level matched and T/A'd. I ended up wiring the driver midbass out of phase. What did you end up with? I haven't had a chance to mess with the phase yet, I hope I can this weekend or early next week. I have run into a very irritating problem with the eclipse head unit. I stated before it's more like a surround sound you'd have in your house than a stereo in your car. This is the issue. I can set my crossovers for my 88's and sls's where I want (high/low pass), but when I turn on the sub the hu has it's own idea and changes the high pass on the sls's. It must have a standard ~80 hertz crossover like most HT systems, similar to a low frequency channel. I emailed cust. support at eclipse, haven't heard back yet and doubt I ever will. The manual states the "front/rear/non-fader can be configured as a high/mid/low when in pro mode", but it doesn't tell you anything more on how to do this. I can't wait to get this out of my car!! I think I'll pull the sub out for a while so I can adjust the phase and crossovers. If you look back at my setup, I've got to remove a seat, pull the sub and pull the board out to get at the amp speaker outs. It's great for security, but sucks for tuning. I'm glad to hear your happy with your setup!! I know what a couple of 8's can do in the front, but 2- 12's has got to make your sphincter pucker!!! I don't know if you'd get me out of your car if I was ever able to hear it. Do you have any idea where your crossing your wide-banders and the 12's at? I'm curious, if you have time alignment will a phase switch still matter or just change the amount of time alignment needed? Hmm, I guess I'll have to try it and find out.

That sucks!!!