altoncustomtech

Just thought I'd chime in here for anyone reading; He's looking for the optimal orientation of the sub and ports for this particular vehicle. We've come up with a ported enclosure design: 2.4cuft net, 2.85cuft after subwoofer, port and bracing displacements, 14"H x 17"W x 27" long with two 3" ports 12 1/4" long tuning to 32hz, design given using 3/4" MDF with a single baffle. If anyone with experience with these trucks has an idea as to the optimum orientation of the sub and ports, or a more optimal design for the enclosure for this vehicle, it will get him going on his rebuild.

You generally want at least 1 diameter of vent distance between the vent and any object. So using 3" ports you'll need about 3" between them and any seat or wall in the cab. I would actually recommend starting another thread, you'll get more attention to the inquiry that way.

Now that bit of info there you'll need from someone with experience with those trucks. I see a lot of guys doing sub up-port up but exactly what's best could be answered the best by some of the guys who's familiar with them.

The enclosure design I gave you in post #11 is the OPTIMAL enclosure size for the 10" SSD's, it's the exact same size I was going to use in my Jimmy before I changed my mind and ordered Sundown SA-8's instead of Fi's 10" SSD's. They should sound just about their best in that alignment.

Simply by the difference in enclosures you'll notice a difference. I personally like the sound of ported enclosures over sealed. A properly designed and built ported enclosure can sound just as tight as a sealed (<--this is arguable by MANY people, I tend to agree with this statement myself) yet offer lower bass extension and is overall more efficient than a sealed enclosure above the tuning frequency. So, a properly designed and built ported enclosure can get deeper and louder than a sealed, generally speaking. There are ALWAYS variables that can change that, ALWAYS. In general, however, that's the difference in the most basic terms.

I ran a few numbers, for an optimal sized ported box tuned to 32hz you'll eat up most all the room you have. I pulled up a 14"H x 17"W x 27" L, 2.4cuft net enclosure, 2.85cuft gross with driver, port and bracing displacement. Two 3" ports 12 1/4" long will tune it to 32hz and those dimension are building it with 3/4" MDF and a single baffle.

It's not working because one coil is out of phase from the other, I'm pretty sure of it. Try swapping the terminals on one side when you hook it up in series. Even if they're out of phase it will still read 2ohms, it's just that they'll cancel eachother out and not make any sound.

I didn't use an isolator in the van. As long as all the batteries are the same type and you're starting it, driving and charging the vehicle on a regular basis most people don't have problems simply running the batteries in parallel. So if it's your daily driver then you shouldn't have any issues. Perhaps some of these guys with more experience running miltiple batteries can elaborate some more though, as my experience thus far is limited in this area.

I see this type of reply from ALOT of new people on this forum. I think M5 simply tells people how it is with no fluff and it's usually not what they want to hear and they think he's being an ass about it. Plus I'm sure he gets tired of the newbs who post the ridiculous "Think this will go boom like so?" posts and questions that could be answered with a simple search too and I can see where he can get a little edgey about it sometimes. Besides where did he ever refer to you as a douche? Not in this thread anyway, so why dump in the OP's thread about it? Now, to the OP, If you already own Fi then I wouldn't think about changing anything if I was you. However, if you've bought the amp and are looking for subs to go along with it, purchase the ones that meet the goals the best for the sound you're looking for and the budget you have to spend on them. DC makes some fantastic subwoofers, there's countless threads on both brands about the build quality, sound, and SPL from their subs. You really can't go wrong with either as long as you're buying it to fit the purpose and goal.

Send an email to the address on the webpage with your zip code. If they have a dealer close to you they'll send you the information to get in contact with them. If not, they may consider selling directly to you.

I'd just go with my gut if I was you. If you're already leaning toward one then go for that one.

My first was in my 1970 Chevy long bed truck. Had a pair of 12" Thump subwoofers in a 5cuft ported enclosure in the bed of the truck because the gas tank is behind the seat in those trucks. They were powered by two Profile A200XL's bridged on each sub. They were powered by an US Amps A50HC competition amp that a gave me for repairing his HU, but I couldn't use it because it ran the battery down while driving . So I traded a guy for the two Profiles and once I learned what that amp really was I could've kicked myself hard. Had a Pioneer cassette deck running it with Audiovox 6x9's in the wedge boxes under the front of the seats because it was the only place to put them, and some cheap tweeters from the walmart mounted on the dash.

It's a fairly decent general rule to run 100Ah for each 1000watts of power. There's a few simple calculations that can be done to get a good read on exactly what you need to run a given number of watts of power and that rule usually gets right in the ball park. For example, the SAZ series amps are all around 86% efficient at 4 ohms, something like 72% at 1 ohm I think I read on here somewhere. That means it takes about 4,860 watts of INPUT power to run the amp to its full potential at 1 ohm. (equation is Watts/efficiency or 3500/.72=4861) The reason the input wattage is higher than the output wattage is because the amp has given losses that result in most of the heat the amp gives off. Now if you use ohms law it shows that at an average 13.5v (allowing a little voltage drop) it will take a total of 360 amps of current to supply the amp with the power it needs to produce 3500 watts at 13.5v at 1 ohm nominal load. This is all with general and given numbers, everything changes with fluctuating voltages and impedence rise and other variables. Sorry, forgot to add that a 100Ah battery adds about 1,245 watts of available power to the electrical system. So 3 equals 3,735 watts plus the output of a HO alt would be just about enough to run the amp correctly at full tilt. One should also remember that with music, the load is dynamic or always changing with the peaks and lulls so it will very seldom require the full amount of power at all times. Also, sorry to the OP for the thread jack but I figured it was good to explain the effects of loads on electrical requirements - back to the thread.

First of all the battery and alternator testers at the auto parts stores aren't always accurate. It sounds like you may be having issues with your grounds though. That's a very common issue with a bad ground. I would also recommend upgrading that power wire to a 1/0 in the near future. Generally you really don't want to run any more than 1000wrms on 4 guage wire and if you have fairly inefficient amps (which I've heard both of those are on the inefficient side, but not seen any clamp tests to prove it). Another thing to do would be to disconnect your battery some night, test the voltage when you disconnect it and then test it again in the morning. It shouldn't fall to less than 12.x volts, somewhere in the 12v range. If it falls down below the 12v mark then the battery is going bad on you. It's a decent way to test the battery's condition. I hope that maybe these suggestions may help you out, and I'm sure there will be many more suggestions from others as well. Good Luck and let us know what you find to be the culprit(s).

Well the exact sound is completely install dependent. The vehicle, enclosure, placement, crossover and eq settings all play a part in the overall sound of the system. Like I said before, IF it is PROPERLY installed then those subs will sound very good and get plenty loud on that amp. Although, if you're really trying to ask how loud the setup will be there's other subs available to run on that power that are designed more for SPL than the XCON's and could possibly save you some money. On the same note, if you're really concerned about the SQ of them, there's nothing to worry about from what I've read the XCON's are some of the best overall sounding subwoofers available by many counts. Also, as far as the Sundown 3500, I doubt there's any way that it would give you any problems with either the SPL or SQ of that setup.

Well, that's top notch equipment. If it's PROPERLY built and installed then it would be VERY hard to beat. Thing is, you'll have to add a lot more than just the amp and subs to run that equipment PROPERLY. For that amp you'll need a very stiff electrical system, BIG 3, HO alternator, at least three 100Ah batteries, all 1/0 AWG wire to start. You should also consider the components and amps it will take to keep up with the substage. Last but not least is a properly built and braced enclosure AND sound deadening. That's what you really need to use that system to it's full potential, at the very least the electrical to keep from sending the amp, subs or both to an early grave.

Thanks watts, I will as soon as the temps get better, body filler and figerglass resin don't do well in freezing temperatures from what I understand. I wasn't worried Denim just hoped the guys at work didn't do anything unusual with it. More pictures will be up when the 100.4 gets here and the other goodies (1500D and SA-8's when they ship ) and of course the build log when the weather gets good enough.

Thanks fan, I'm glad to finally have something worth the purchase! Small Town, I don't know what you think of your Hifonics or what you have had to compare them to but I was never impressed with mine. I've had a BXi2006D and a ZXi6006 for a few years now and when I first bought them I liked them alot. Then I went to some car shows, listened to amps from Zapco, Audison, Arc Audio, Image Dynamics, and many other good brands. The guys were cool enough to let me hear their cars on music I was VERY familiar with and it about took my breath away. Now, there's many many diffrences between mine and their systems including the speakers themselves, the installations and everything so it wasn't an apples to apples comparison. However, after getting home I could hear a difference I can only describe as grainy. I took my O-scope and started playing with the system and sure enough, the distortion starts climbing on the Hifonics amps long before they're maxed out. I then referrenced my system with a friend's all Boston Acoustics setup, swapping out amps between the vehicles and everything. It was then I realized exactly what the difference in quality really is. I was actually hearing the small amount of distortion at moderate volume levels and when compared to the quiet, controlled sound of the Boston amp the Hifonics amps sounded like crap. I was hell bent on getting new ones after that and now I'm almost there.

Thanks guys! I can't wait for the weather to improve so I can get my amp rack rebuilt and listen to what the Q's sound like on it. The Hifonics amps have such a dirty sound to them, I'm looking forward to listening to some quality amplification both for the subs and the components.

Exactly, that's for running a second alternator to separate the car's electrical from the audio electrical. The relay is used to disconnect the trigger lead on the alternator so it doesn't run the battery down. Since you're just wanting to parallel the alts, it doesn't apply to your particular agenda. You'll be just fine hooking the alts up in parallel. I've seen quite a few service vehicles (ambulance's, fire trucks, etc.) that use dual alts paralleled with nothing special on them as well.

If you notice, they have several alternators all wired to each other parallel before it goes to the big buss bar on the side.

Here's some pics under the hood of that truck. Alma Gate's Bronco

That article is still talking about AC generators, NOT DC output alternators. Yes an alternator creates AC voltage internally but the final product IS DC and does not have a PHASE to it. If you want proof that it's okay to hook them directly up in parallel go look at some of the under-hood photos available at some of the competition organization and such websites. I remember specifically in a Car Audio & Electronics magazine article a '86 Ford Bronco that competed in the 170+ class with two dozen alternators under the hood on a specially built plate. All the wires went directly from the alts to the buss bars on the ump-teen-hundred batteries in the thing. It was hands down the craziest electrical I've ever seen and I'm sure it took all that 460BB (or 490, or whatever monster big block ford had back in the day can't remember what the article said was in it now) had just to turn the alts under load. Here's an introduction link to the article on the website. Alma Gates - 20th Anniversary 1986 Ford Bronco

It is a good sub, and it's a VERY good brand. BUT you have to purchase subwoofers for the intended application, not try to force it to do something it's not designed to do.

If it's going into a truck you've purchased the wrong subwoofer. Did you buy it new or used? If you bought it new, email Nick or Scott at Fi IMMEDIATELY before you put any more play time on it. See if they might be willing to work out a trade of some kind on here. If not, then see if there's someone on here looking for an IB with something to trade that could be useful to you. There's just no easy way to say this, you bought the wrong subwoofer for the wrong application.