Fi Car Audio

Thanks for the kind comments. I appreciate the word of mouth as well. Thanks, Scott

appleyard- When Fi started it wasnt quite in a garage... well sort of, lol. I did have a warehouse (same one I have now) but I also have a solid machine shop and assembly line setup at my house as well. At first, before I had any employees and was doing prototyping and lots of consulting work, I didnt need to head into the shop everyday and I could do a good deal of design work (cad, fea, machining, driver testing) all from home. Much more convenient than driving in to the warehouse to do the same thing, and having AC is much nicer in a Vegas summer than our sweatshop RE wasnt started in a garage either... by the point of RE (origianlly called Resonant Engineering), I had been in a warehouse for close to 3 years. The OEM side of things (called FRC Soundworks) was started in a garage before I moved to the first warehouse. It was rough working full time, going to school full time, and starting a business at that point, and saving as much $$$ as I could for parts meant that I didnt want to waste any on a warehouse for a few months. Parts make money... the warehouse didnt. But when I picked up a couple more OEM accounts I had no choice but to get a warehouse (especially one of the home companies we assembled and bult for... we were doing 500+ of these little full range speakers for them a week and it took up LOTS of space). Fi is about as humble of beginnings as FRC Soundworks was. I intend to keep it that way too. I dont need a 10,000 sqft warehouse this time around and the way things are set up is very flexible. In all, keeping overhead down as low as possible and just having to flex the setup some definitely helps keep costs down... and keeps prices stable even though materials cost rise constantly. Now for a tour inside Fi? Dont know about that... maybe a glimpse or two, but Id rather keep the smoke and mirrors going for now At least with the above pic you cant tell how grey I am nor would you know that Pol is a ninja

Yes we can recone it to an 18... but Im not sure of what the specs or how entirely useful of a sub it would be. Are your motors the newer style with a little heavier bump in the back or the older flatter ones?

No worries... please keep us posted when you get it up and running... and no one will believe you without pics too Thanks, Scott

Sad to say no desert or rocks this weekend. Next weekend Im sure and then UT a couple weekends after that Yes, we have you taken care of on the leads. Subs will go out on Tues. Please let me know if I can help with anything else. Scott

Congrats... just a matter of practice to get spot on with the delay/go as weell as knowing how to roll back or kick it up a notch and when to hit the magic .9 mark. Do you have access to a meter to practice with? Talk to Shawn or tprj about all the little things you need to do for bassrace. They definitely know their stuff. Thanks... Scott

Looks really nice. Keep us posted on how it sounds when things get broken in some. Thanks, Scott

AA has moved to a new warehouse in Las Vegas. We will be making all of the subs on the same assembly line as Fi... but each company is a distinct entity with no major parts sharing except for 1 magnet size, the standard basket/gasket combo, and terminals (oh and glue if you are really picky ) There is a decent line distinction between the two companies, and the business models couldnt be much more different either... dont think there will be too many toes stepped on between the companies. Thanks, Scott

Absolutely agree with JimJ on that one. L7s have the ability to get REALLY loud... so you will have to have a solid setup.

Should be going out on Friday. Ill be sending them via USPS Priority Thanks, Scott

Your sub is scheduled for delivery on Monday. You were sent an email from UPS (Quantum view) with the tracking number on the 14th to the email you provided. I have resent the tracking number to that email (wont post the tracker or the email here for privacy reasons). Please let me know if I can help with anything else. Thanks, Scott

I like the (2)SSD12s sealed...

What a coincidence as I just finished machining and assembling a pair of loaded BL motors for some 18s

Nothing to do with the XBl tech.. .simply adding an extra wind to leave open, short, or run with a resistor or pot to vary the qts. Doesnt change BL.. but adjust Qms mechanically braking things through a shorted turn on the coil. You can do this with any dual coil driver, but be advised that the BL and all other specs based off of it change. The Atlas was designed to have correct specs with the main coil and then to adjust with the other...

Tremor is on... no BTL with the XL. BDawson72... noted and Ill call them now to see if it can be changed for yours.

Whew... I thought I really screwed up there somehow

No, it does nothing for the motor strength. Solely for mechanical and thermal power handling. For any of the motors we have, we have no simple add on to make them more powerful (outside of a 3rd magnet for a BTL and the increase is minimal). Infinity did design one of their sub lines with the removeable steel pole inserts to change the saturation in the back. No plug, high saturation, lower BL and increased Qts, and the small plug and it helps BL a little and lowers Qts, full plug even more... great idea, but in reality no one really messes with things like that. Case in point was the Ascendant Audio Atlas series. The second coil was there to adjust the drivers Qts... a very cool feature (not too mention the ability to wire it with other Atlas coils for some interesting schemes and increased Bl). People simply ignored it and just dropped the driver in as is. Enough rambling... back to email

Sorry... no booth for us. I have to be VERY selective about where I go and when. A weeks vacation has killed me recently... orders were fine and only a couple days delay for things that couldnt be machined but by me... be emails have been h*ll to get back on top of. I think the only other show we will make an official Fi event will be dB drag in Orlando. Im sure Ill make it to a couple of shows in CA, especially after Chris' H2 is finished. Not like I have anything to hammer on at a show

I hope thats not 2 months for a shipping quote from me?!?!? I am backed up on emails for being gone for over a week... but should be cleared up by tonight (then I get to ride the waves of responses out for another week before we get back to normal)... 3000 looks like a solid sub. Much prettier than mine

Thanks for the review and pics. Im glad you like them. Not sure which box he is sending you as I design a few everyday for people, but just looking at a generic yours vs 4.5 @33, youll gain 7 dB or so around tuning and itll taper down to be similar in output at around 75Hz. Decent gain... but twice the space. Thanks and keep us all posted, Scott

Id recommend a little smaller enclosure. I normally like to run the Q12s in about 1 cuft after driver displacement. Gives you a qtc of .72 and good sq. 1.5 is on the larger side of things with a lower qtc than most like. Thanks, Scott

Yep. Please make sure you add your name, address, phone, and email. When it is received Ill contact you. Thanks, Scott

With the current setup you are having your enclosure peak out around 45 Hz... which probably sits around where you car naturally wants to peak... and is rather pronounced in that region vs the bottom end. With the same space, you can swap the port to a 3.5 X 16.5 that is about 28" long... this will tune you to 30Hz and open up the box to be about 5 cuft net. This will push the box peak down into the mid 30s and extend bottom end performance. VERY tight fit as it is... Thanks, Scott

7 cuft wont be too bad and it will keep a little more of an airspring on the subs (for mechanical power handling). You definitely can go larger and gain around tuning... it will get peakier and be louder... How much power do you have for them?

Looking good! Yep, Im pretty sure they will be there on Thursday. Not too far of a trip for them... Should be a bottom end monster. Keep the pics coming when its done... Thanks