jcardin

On my wife's 2001 (job2) we've replaced the "elbow" that is on the front of the PVC tube that is a known and very common issue. http://www.mysporttrac.com/shared/msgboard9e.asp?BOARDNAME=MSG&VIEW=1167893&REPLYCOUNT=3&sitename=mysporttrac We also replaced (separately) the DPFE sensor. This is another common problem.

Curious on where you're gonna put the box. My wife drives one of these and short of taking out a seat, I can't find a good way to get a decent size sub and box in there.

All you have to do is add 1 of every part in the store to your cart and then just refresh your cart every 15 seconds. Viola!

This is just like when the Beatles came to iTunes.

It sounds like you might be limited to one of the prefabbed boxes and 2 10's sealed. You could go fiberglass like this guy and then maybe do some sort of riser on the seat for a little more airspace for maybe 12's. http://www.fiberglassforums.com/subwoofer-boxes/13988-dodge-ram-underseat-sub.html I guess the thing would be to push as much power as you can do them. Where are you thinking about mounting the amp(s). Is is a split rear seat? Perhaps you could remove half of it and then have you baby and your bass? I would imagine that an upholster could probably fix whatever fabric damage is done.

Parts Express has a 12" sealed box for $40. It used to be cheaper. http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=260-644 Drop a Grill on it $10 http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=260-443 drop a 450 Watt amp on it $99 http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=269-189 - Free shipping for your whole order Drop a cheaper efficient 12" woofer in it $79.99 Shpped http://www.woofersetc.com/p-8144-ref-tm122-12-tidal-audio-subwoofer-dual-2-ohm-oem-by-image-dynamics.aspx And you are out for less than $230.

I've recently acquired a 96 LS400. After reading about how the wiring of this particular model I feel like I could easily tap into the Factory Headunit signals and run the wiring needed to power and signal to my trusty Sax.100.4. The plan so far is to keep the factory headunit, upgrade the subwoofer, eventually upgrade the front components, use the 4 channel to power the sub and front speakers and use the factory amp to power the rear door speakers that can be faded off if necessary. I'm not sure what to do about the sub section. This model has a 8" sub mounted in the rear deck, powered by a 30ish watt amplifier. I would like more bass than this factory setup can provide. I'm used to and mostly happy with what I've had in the past which has been an ID10V3 in a ported box at 32HZ and a Tidal Audio 12 in a sealed box. They were both about equal in terms of output with the 12 being a little more robust. Both were powered by the rear channels of the 100.4. I still have both subs. My thoughts were to conserve trunk space and to install the amp and possibly rig up either the 10 or the 12 in place (probably a mount from below) of the factory 8. I understand that neither sub is appropriate for an IB setup but I was wondering what y'all would think of this setup. The amp would could push 300 watts or so to the sub. I really want to stay away from having a box taking up the space as I typically carry car seats and stuff in the trunk. Also I'm not sure how to mount this amp. It's a little to big to mount to the sides of the trunk and it would seem like it would fit on the "back wall" of the trunk. The only problem is that there is a gas tank mounted behind the factory panel and I don't know how to mount a board that I could attach the amp too. Does anyone have any ideas on how this is normally done? Pics maybe? Any help would be appreciated. John Similar mounting like this (not mine install but like my car)

How much $$ do you have to spend? It sounds funny to say that you want 'not too big' and pick then pick an 18" BTL and want to push it with 2500 watts

Let's see what the back of it looks like. I went to archive.org and looked at some of thier older webpages but couldn't see the front's on all of the subs on the cached pages. it seems like MA put more unique-ness into the magnet so that might help you identify it easier then the front.

I bought a sax1004 a couple years ago from DB-r and not a lick of issues. Been thru 2 accidents and hasn't stopped working. I would have no issue buying again from them/him.

How about a pair of Tidal Audio 12? Should work with the power that you use and runs 160 for the pair shipped. I'd also be temped by the 187 15"

Company: Sundown Audio Product Name: SAX 100.4 Rev C Rating 4 out of 5 Power: 100 x4 or 320 x2 Pros: Flexible cross-over network. Enough power for entire system (if you are not greedy). Takes a beating thermally and physically. Not a flashy looking amp Cons: Very large compared to comparable 4x100 amps which makes it difficult to mount. Not a flashy looking amp. Ownership: 2+ years I purchased this amp from DB-r as a refurb almost 2 years ago to install in a Miata to power the entire system. I only got around to running a 10" ported sub off of the rear channels which in that car was enough to make it (to me) a good thumping system. Nothing to break glass but enough to make me happy. (I'm in my 30's so I'm not trying to lose any more hearing). With the amp neing so large it was difficult to find a spot to mount. I'm not the best installer so I was able to get it to fit but it wasn't easy in such a small trunk. The car was rear ended by an Ford Expedition and the box that was in the trunk was forcefully shoved into the amp. Nothing was crushed but the amp did take some of the force of the impact. The amp was a little scuffed but still worked. I installed the amp in the next car as just a sub amp again (lexus is300) and again due to the size I had to get creative in mounting. I needed to retain the passthru of the car's back seats so I decided to mount the amplifier upside-down under the rear deck. Before you start blasting me for this know that for almost 2 years the amp was like that I had absolutly 0 issues with this. NO OVERHEATING, NO flaky behaviour, nothing! Just kept on working. The amp did/does get hot but no hotter than when it was in the miata trunk. I understand that this is not optimal but the heatsinks were open to the air . With this amp In this car I went thru 3 subs (an 8"Ported , a 10" sealed and ported and a 12" sealed) and never thought that the amp was the weakest link in getting good sound out of these subs. This past spring, this car was involved in an accident which send another enclosure into the corner of the amp (oops forgot to secure that enclosure too) which did some damage to the wood of the box, but again the amp kept working. When I had the amp out after the wreck, I looked at the board and didn't see any signs of damange or anything. No weird caps or anything else obviously out of the ordinary. I installed the amp in the next car with the intention to use all the channels. Its again, mounted upside down, under the deck powering a Tidal Audio 12" Sealed and a set of Hertz ESK-163L 3-ways in my E36 M3. The amp has enough power to make this system sound smooth and gets loud enough for me. Powers the fronts with ease and allows the 12 to fill in the lower end and can thump when I want it to. Sure it's only 300+ watts but it sure sounds good. The amp does get hot but no hotter than I've felt before. Frankly at this point, If it did die of heat, I'd do the same thing over again. I've gotten my $$'s worth out of it. Overall, the performance of this amp has really made me happy. I've been able to use this amp in different ways and it has never disapointed me. It's hard now days to find something that doesn't let you down in way or fashion but this amp just keeps going. It may not be the easiest to install and may not be very popular name (like RF, alpine or such) and may not be flashy with LED's and such but for honest to goodness performace at a great price, I don't think you can find anything better. 4 out of 5. -1 star for just simply being big. Pics in a few minutes

I'll start off by saying I had a shop do this for me. I usually don't shy away from installs but my wife works when I don't and I watch my 14 month old when she works so that gives me almost no time to do this. The car is a 1998 m3 with the stock HK system and factory amp. The midranges had been replaced by the PO with some 3.5" infinity’s. After listening to a set of HSK 3 ways and looking at the price I decided to go with the cheaper ESK 3 ways. The 163L comes with a higher excursion 6.5" (Higher than their normal ESK line), a 4" mid range and 3/4" tweeter. Linky to Hertz, which would replace the factory 5.25 in the kick, 3" infinity and factory 1" in the door. The whole album is here Install only took a day and they charged me a little over $400 for the speakers and install. Some people might cringe at the price, but to walk in, hand over the keys, and then leave with a nice sounding and loud system was worth it. Mid Comparison tweeter comparison Old Mid mount New mid mounting rings Old Mount for 5.25 New larger hole Speaker Mounted Random Shots So the mini review. I choose these because I was looking for a 3 way system to replace the factory 3 ways and there are not many options. The shop around the corner happened to carry hertz and I was confident with their ability to do the installation. I had the shop use the factory wiring. I've heard that the BMW wiring is decently beefy and read on forums that this is generally ok to do. The crossovers are also mounted under the back deck next to the amp. I run my crappy headunit with minimal eq. Treble is bumped up 1 from 0 (can go to +-8) and bass is at 1 also. The crossovers do have a -+2 attenuation on the mid and tweeter. Both are set to 0. These are powered off the front 2 channels of a sax100.4 crossed over at 50 hz. There is no rear fill. I find that these speakers sound good. I don't have years of experience in the industry or hours and hours of listening to different sets so I can't to talk about the tonal quality or other stuff like that. I know that I can turn it up as loud as I want and they play clear. I can turn them up louder then I want and they get a little harsh on the tweeter , but that is also a lot louder then I really want to listen to anyway so I don't care. I have the 6.5's crossed over pretty high so they aren’t getting the workout that they probably can handle but the set does present a high stage and my sub helps fill in the bottom that the woofers aren't getting to. I'm not missing the rear fill at all. I was worried about using a brand that has very little exposure at least here in the US. And I did have a tweeter *blow* which was quickly replaced under warranty. I think this must have been a factory defect as it happened real soon after I got the set installed. I believe these come with a 3 year so I should be covered going forward too. I do want to say that the shop did me right with this installation and that they deserve credit for doing a good job here. (I'm a satisfied customer) The shop is All Star Audio in Cumming GA. All Star Audio. They are a local carrier of Sundown too. John

There's not much of a question here other than"Help me". Do you need someone to build a box for you? Design a box for you? Build a custom fit 'stealth" box for you? There are several online apps that will design a box for you. There are several vendors here on the forum that will design and build a box for you. Take a peak around the forums and check them out. . I beleive you are reading the box spec's incorrectly. The 25hz that they call for on a sq oriented box build is for the subsonic filter not the tuning frequency. Thier box calls for a 30hz tuning based on a 3 cube box with a 4" port that's 9.75 inches long. You could easily build a box then throw a 4" aero port in there for a first time easy build. That would make it easier to design and build.

I went by the shop and they quoted $60. I'm gonna go by later this week and talk to their box Guy and see what he thinks.

Just curious on how much a shop should charge for a box if i supplied them with cut sheet and just had them supply and cut the wood? I enjoy the box building process but don't have the time,skill or equipment to do nice straight cuts. I should be able to design assemble and finish. What do you think? Around $100? Ill talk to my local shop this week but wanted to get yalls opinion.

You know looking at the site they claim to be bbb accredited but the bbb says they are not. I would be worried with scam fraud with caraudiogiants.com. Keywords SCAM and Fraud associated with caraudiogiants.com

Kinda late to be asking advice I would imagine that with the appropriate power and careful use you'll get years of service from them. Its typically abuse (clipping and overexcursion) that'll kill woofers. You'll find more people on this site that will tell you to cancel and order something else than to stick with kenwoods If you keep them have fun building a box.

Hopefully we didn't scare him away. Of those choices id go with the typer. But for the money id look at db-r.com. they do amp refurb work and have a few decent amps there for sale. They are refurbed, but he kn ows what he's doing and there is a year warranty. They have a sax100.2 for 160 that'll push 400 real watts to 4 ohms. They also show a saz1000 for 260 that'll do 600/1000 to a 4/2 ohm load. Pair either with one of of the sa-12 s and you would have a good sub/amp combo for 350 or 450. You'd just need to build a box and get your wiring straight and you'd have a good/dependable setup.

Something else to think about. What about building a 4th order bandpass box. You could get some additional output in the higher bass area and perhaps get a little more cone control in the range that would have otherwise been below tuning frequency in a ported box. Plus the cone would be protected from debris in her trunk.

Just 2 cents here. I've tried using cheap 8's. Had a memphis 8 which should be better then this 8 and in. A ported box 40 hz on 300 watts I was disapponted. Its hard to pass up a 30 dollar woofer but if you don't want her to say "that's it??" you may want to step to something like a 10. Especially with the limited power you want to use. Check out the tidal audio 10 at woofers etc. Very simular to image dynamics id10. I know you wan t to use this but nothings worse then hyping up your gf about something and then having her get let down. 8inches may work in the bedroom but in the trunk you need to go bigger Good luck anyway you go.

Well shoot, I didn't even think about getting hd or lowes to do it. That'd be dirt cheap. Ill stop by the one near the office and see how they do it. Thanks all

I was hoping to revist this question and see if FI had any input on using the ssd15 in a sealed enclosure. Thanks in advance, John Sorry, I found my answer at https://ssl.perfora.net/www.ficaraudio.com/sess/utn;jsessionid=154b1fdaf583909/shopdata/0070_Tech/0070_Speakers/0040_Tech.SSD/product_overview.shopscript "SSD 15 – We recommend using the copper coil option on the SSD15 for sealed applications. They work well in the 2-3 cuft enclosure sizes. Ported box we recommend using 3-4 cubic feet @ 33Hz (this is optimal in our eyes and to our ears, you can tune 31-35hz fine if you so please) 
 "

A 2" port is going to be too small of a size for the air this thing is going to move. I've had single crappy 8's over work a 2" precision port. Doubleing the number of ports basically doubles the length that the ports need to be. ie, (1) 2" port is 4 inches, 2 2" ports are 10 inches each. A single 3" precision port may do the trick, that has more cross section than a 2 2"s and the length is the same as what 2 2"'s would need to be. Without knowing the final specs, it's going to be hard to figure out what cross section of a port is going to be enough.

38.5*18.5*19 minus 1.5 for wall thinkness = 110007.5 Divide by 1728 = 6.37 cubic foot internal gross So you got the space to work with. Fooling around quick and dirty with WinISD I see a 4.00 foot tuned to 32 gets a 6" aero port 14 inches long. If you are worried about size then a round port will help you save the dimensions and weight of a slot port. Assuming a cylinder volume of 395 cubic inches and a speaker volume of 311 cubic inches and keeping the L and W the same and then goalseeking it in excel would seem that you could bring the external height to 13.75 inches. That should give you a net internal volume of 6912 cubic inches. You'll want to do some bracing so you gotta figure that into the internal volume. Have fun!