altoncustomtech

Bazooka did that years ago, had amps and subs that had a pump and coolant that ran through the motors and the amps. Never got a chance to play with any of it first hand, I don't think it ever really caught on at all, but I think it was the first time anything like it was produced and sold in mass. Ever since then I've wondered if anyone else would ever try it especially with the NEO motor thermal problems. Might be cool to see, but I don't think it's all that practical for everyday use. Scott, Nick, you guys should post a vid or two of the testing on this driver. I'm thoroughly interested in the results, enough so that I may get one just to play SPL games with.

Holy bullshit batman. One reason I'm not fond of Ford's in general, they make some of the simplest tasks so difficult. Not that others don't do it as well, it just seems so damn common with Ford. If it's truly that much hassle, have a shop do it, no question. Nothing wrong with wanting to gain a little mechanical experience, but that's complete bull. I mean, there's no damn room worth anything in my van either, but all I had to do was take a very long pair of needle nose pliers, get the factory clamp loosened on the boot (no easy task itself). Then just put the tool over the tie rod, jack it loose and put the new one back on in the reverse order. The new boot came with a simple hose clamp which was easier to put on than the factory clamp was to take off. Autozone, O'reilly's and Advance Auto do rent the tool out, but it's not worth that much bull just to save the money unless you know an experienced mechanic that would be willing to help you change it and knows the trick it takes to do it without removing everything else.

I usually stick with 2 12's, reasons being mostly on the side of basic implementation and of ouput. A box for 2 12's is usually small enough to fit in most vehicles making them easier to implement into most vehicles than a pair of 15's or larger, and it's been my experience that a pair of 12's is plenty of output for my tastes. Sure from time to time it might be nice to get a pinch louder, but for my tastes and everyday listening it's generally more than enough. For SPL purposes 2 12's has the potential to get louder than a single 15 due to the difference in cone area, however the enclosure for a single 15 is generally a little smaller than for 2 12's. It really all just comes down to the results a person is really seeking. I don't think there's enough of a difference in sound from an 8 to an 18 in the optimum settings to argue anything about sound quality for different sizes, just sheer output IMO.

On the Ohm's question, they're not any different, just the difference in impedence. These questions really get old, but wutang is right, go with the BL you won't regret it. Generally speaking, chances are that in comparison to other subs you've listened to any one of the Fi subs will have better SQ. Now that's a REALLY broad statement, and I DO NOT mean in comparison to any or every sub out there in every case. I'm saying that I'm taking a guess that your listening experience is limited to the run of the mill mainstream brands, and again generally speaking given real world optimal performance the chances are good that the Fi subs will have better overall SQ. This is all a really general statement that I really shouldn't even be making and I'll deservingly get flamed for it, but you just don't normally hear of anyone replacing their Type R's, CVR's or what have you with Fi products in the optimal enclosure, tuning, etc. and complain that the sound is worse. I know it's wrong to generalize this way, but I get tired of the questions, there's a new one of the same thing practically everyday. Q's are generally for people looking for great overall sound that can still get loud, BL's are for people who want to get loud without having to worry about loosing any SQ, basically. Throw stones if you must, but I'm sure you're all thinking the same thing. And sorry Rocko, didn't really mean to rant at you, but a simple search would have netted you the same information on many many threads.

I think the used Sundown would be a good way to go, very reliable and solid products. I like the Cadence ZRS series as well, very good amps and the MB Quart DSC series have lots of good reviews also as mentioned. After owning some Hifonics products I can say they do make decent power, but I think you'd be doing the XCON a disfavor with them. While the Audiopipe Phatboi mentioned does easily fit in your budget, and they seem to be decent amps since lots of people are using them, I PERSONALLY just have a problem trusting a product that costs less than the afformentioned Hifonics and expecting it to perform to standard for the XCON. I think you'd be best off looking into used Sundown, MTX, Rockford or another very solid company first. If you can't find any of those or none fit your budget then look into the others. I've spent good money before on products that I regretted purchasing, hate to see you do the same.

I think if you have the tools you should go ahead and do it. I just got done doing almost the exact same thing on my 1998 Chevy Ventrue van. Replaced the struts, rear shocks, drivers side wheel bearing and inner and outer tie rods. The inner tie rod on that van is a REAL bitch to get to, but wasn't bad to change once I managed to get the tools in there. Are you sure it's the inner tie rods? I only ask as it could be the ball joints making noise possibly. If you jack up the wheel and grab the tire at the 9 and 3 o'clock positions and twist side to side there shouldn't be hardly any play, and if there is then it's possible the inner tie rods need changed too. However, if the wheels feel tight when you do that then it's possible the ball joints, strut bearing plate, or something else along those lines could be worn as well. When you replaced the struts did you replace them and the spring seperately or do they make a quick-strut for those? I got quick-struts for the van as they come with the bearing plate, spring and strut fully assembled, just unbolt the old ones, bolt in the new ones and go get it aligned.

Generally that depends on whether or not the sub has a vented pole piece. If it's not got a vented pole piece then all you need is enough space to keep it from bumping or rattling against the back of the enclosure should things flex a little. If it has a vented pole then you'll want about the same amount of space as the diameter of the vent. If the pole has a vent that is 1" in diameter you should have about an inch of clearence so that the vent will breath.

Welcome to the forum! I'm about 2.5 hrs south of Indy myself.

X2 on Quality over Quantity. Also, it's summer time. Everyone is out doing stuff like bumpin' their systems, working on their systems, vacations, spending time with family, working on their houses, etc., etc., etc. Hell, I just got done applying a coat of paint to my box, getting things prepped to change an element in my water heater, and I got the kids helping me pick up the yard so I can mow. It's busy time.

Statements like this are why people are reluctant to help. The reason why is because this statement shows us that you do not fully understand the way everything works and interacts. You are damn lucky those HX2's lasted any time at all. I don't know any specifics about that particular equipment, but I'd say it was dumb luck the combination of amp, subs and enclosure allowed you to do that to those subs. I agree with everyone else that your current sub is showing problems due to incorrect gain settings and operation and if you don't heed our warnings and follow our advice on setting the gains and such then you'll end up with a blown BL and blaming Fi for an inferior product when it had nothing to do with their product. Fi does build their subs to take some abuse, more so than some and less than others like about any other company. At any rate, I'd recommend at the LEAST a fully loaded BL and for your seeming taste in listening volume a BTL may be more up your alley. A BTL will be louder than a BL in the same given application on the same amount of power. You could upgrade your amp and electrical later down the road with a BTL to possibly get a little bit louder. Either way I'd recommend getting more familiar with the setup and implimentation of your equipment before you make some very costly mistakes. It's obvious you're asking too much from the single sub setup you're running right now, if space is your restriction then I'd recommend going with multiple smaller subs to get the output you're wanting.

LMAO.... Yeah, I know. I'm sure it's the same everywhere, but I've seen some really dumb things done. Case in point, just a couple of weeks ago a kid brought his car to me cuz his amp was overheating. He has a 1200watt Planet Audio mono amp mounted to a box housing a pair of 12" Kicker CVR's. Upon investigation, he didn't have enough 4awg wire for the power and ground wires to make it to the amp on the box. So he took a piece of 16awg speaker wire, wrapped it around the power and ground and ran them to the amp. I can only imagine the voltage drop it saw, its probably amazing it still works. The worst part was he said it didn't sound as loud once I moved the amp so the wires would reach it. He said it wasn't as loud.... without the distortion. Dumbass

That's good if you KNOW what each wire is. Not everyone knows, and most people have no business even trying. In today's vehicles there's several wires going into the factory radio that have nothing directly to do with it's operation such as illumination, ODBII, etc. If all you're doing is grabbing the memory and accessory wires that's no biggie, but without a wiring diagram it's impossible to know exactly what each other wire is without a lot of trouble or some searching on the net. I agree 100%, if you have the ability to get it wired without using a harness adapter you'll have much better connections, and a dedicated ground is a must these days it seems. I wouldn't recommend anyone who doesn't have the experience to wire up anything without the harness adapter.

Did you guys cut the harness? I've seen problems like this many times when people are too cheap to go ahead and buy the harness adapter. Not sayin anything bad about u guys here, just wondering how you connected it cuz it shouldn't have an effect on the dome light.

That's a fantastic review. I have a Rev D as well waiting to go in. Big? Yeah they're big. It's about a three quarters of an inch shorter than my SAZ-2000D.

That much air leaking is killing the score, and the sound. IB's only work when the back wave is COMPLETELY sealed off from the front wave, which in a car is nothing short of nearly impossible. I have great confidence though, that once you seal those holes and apply sound deadener to the rear deck you'll notice a tremendous difference in the sound and score. It may not be a bad idea to go around the back there where the subs are mounted and test for more possible leaks. The better you seal that from the cabin, the better off you'll be.

What kind of HU is it? If it's a Pioneer there's a possibility that you blew the PICO fuse when disconnecting the maxxlink, especially possible if you did it with the radio on. You have the dreaded engine whine. There's plenty of steps you can take to track it down though. NVM, reading > me. forgot you mentioned the HU was an Alpine. The thing I'd try is putting the maxxlink back in. Or, did you say you hooked all the amps up with RCA's?? If you're strapping the amps, don't the RCA's just go to one amp, then from the BR out to the input of the other amp??? I've not strapped any Sundown amps yet, but perhaps that is your problem?

The rear deck looks like it has a couple of gaping holes in it to me. Also the tweeter cups will leak some air as well.

That thing is just huge. One of the biggest 4 channels I've ever seen, if not the biggest. I'm with gcs8, can you give some more specs, power, terminal sizes, real length x width measurements. I still haven't completed my other two setups, but I have a '78 El Camino that's begging to be completed and I planned on going a little crazy with the stereo in it. This would help it =crazy in a heartbeat.

I like the white. It definitely adds to the overall look of the install. The only thing I wonder is if the paint causes any detriment to heat dissipation? It looks good though, real good. Would have been kewl if you could have painted the model #'s black to match the logo.

Do you have a dedicated ground for the HU? I've found that almost all factory grounds in the wiring harness are worthless. Therefore I usually use a 12AWG wire and run a ground from the chassis down to a real good point to make sure the HU is well grounded due to past noise issues like this. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if you already did this, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask.

Wow, very informative. Thank you Jacob! I thought I understood all that before, I really do now. and without feeling after reading it.

Sorry to hear you're having noise troubles, they always seem to be a pain to track down. I know I hate doing it. Thought I'd jump into the IHOP and say hi to everyone. I'm still working on finishing the van so that I can start on the Jimmy. We've run into some mechanical trouble with it which is why it's still not complete. Having to spend all my time and money getting the mechanical troubles fixed first so we can drive it. I did get the Hifonics gear removed and sold, so that's a plus. See you guys around.

It's really not that big of a deal though. As the information grows the best thing to do is simply not post it publicly. Keep it to emails to the members only and as long as everyone is honest it will never become an issue.

I'm glad it's working now. Just as bassahaulic asked, what did the issue end up being?

Thank you for the explanation on how they work. I figured it was something along those lines but wasn't completely sure. I must say the only time I've ever noticed them begining to light is when the volume is just shy of the shuttle launching setpoint. The strangest part is that in my van there WAS a Hifonics ZXi6006 running the components with a rated 150 watts per channel, but in a friend's car with the exact same bulbs on a Powerbass 700.5 which is only 50 watts per channel, in both vehicles the lights would only begin to light at the very top of the volume level. This has led me to believe for quite some time that they responded to distortion more than the total power running through the circuit. It could have more to do with the frequencies the passive crossover's crossed at since he does have PG RSD's where I have the Hifonics Atlas components. At any rate, I'm glad someone has the knowledge of what these really are doing in the circuit. I can't help you any with those particular tweeters, never played with them, sorry. However, on the light bulbs, it doesn't matter where they are in the wire. They could be next to the crossover, next to the tweeter, or anywhere in between. Just whatever point is easiest to install them in. I installed them so that they would be hidden up under the dash where if they did flash it wouldn't be very noticeable. The only time's I've ever blown them has been after I got my KDC-X991 HU, the volume on it has a tendency to increase or decrease at an extremely fast rate when you hold the button on the remote control. Each time the bulbs have blown was when it went from the teens to 35 in the blink of an eye.