altoncustomtech

Alright, a few more updates. Got to start working on my idea to mount the 4x6's to the door panel at an angle. I'm not sure how well it's going to work, or fit for that matter, just yet but again I just made this stuff out of scrap so if it doesn't work out I'm not out anything but a little time. I built a small box just large enough to rear mount the 4x6's from the back side and split it into two pieces at an angle to create the mounting angle for the Aura's. As long as everything works and fits they should work out great. I also began to remove some of the factory grill so that it doesn't affect the sound so badly. Once those are done I'll be wrapping them in matching (or close enough to matching) gray speaker grille cloth for a nice finish. Onto some pics. Here's the factory grill. It's a delicate operation drilling out each of those parts of the grill to leave the honeycomb looking reinforcement part of the grille to back the grill cloth. More as it happens.

The OP is misusing the terms plain and simple when he says "key importance is sound quality, clarity, and accuracy". What you're really looking for is a setup that sounds good with as little distortion as possible. SQ, clarity and accuracy are great goals but the fact that you separate out the terms clarity and accuracy from SQ tells us that you don't fully understand the terminology to begin with. SQ encompasses all the adjectives you can think of to describe quality. I'm not trying to be an ass, or be insulting but having a stereo that has low distortion and keeps it's composure at higher volume levels has little to do with real SQ. It's also much easier and cheaper to accomplish. I agree with Sean that you should ditch the idea of dropping in all four 6.5" speakers. Not only will it hurt the overall sound but it's money you can put to much better use in other aspects of the build. Number one on the list of things to worry about is the locations you can put the speakers in the front of the car. If you have good fabrication skills and experience then this is a much easier part than it would otherwise be. If not and you're limited to factory locations then it's important to know that to help you optimize the installation for those locations as much as possible. The next thing to worry about is sound deadening. Properly deadening the vehicle will make a much bigger difference than you can imagine and coupled with a good install can easily whip systems that cost much more that were just thrown into the vehicle even when using less expensive products. At this point I would assume that all you've ever used were the coaxial speakers that fit the factory locations in the vehicle and an amp and subs. Starting out with a decent passive component set, coupled with a great installation will serve you much better than just grabbing whatever speakers fit all the holes and filling them.

What do you want us to tell you? You placed an order for an item, they took payment and are in the process of building the item you ordered. It takes 10-15 BUSINESS days when things are moving and clicking along in good order. If they're behind because of being swamped with orders (which happens a lot at tax time), short on some part, or some other problem prevents them from getting it built as fast as possible then it can take longer. Some people have waited as long as 30 business days but fortunately that's not real common. Take a deep breath, work on the enclosure design or something and have some patience.

JL manufactures and sells some great amps, I'd never argue that but that XD800/8 sure as hell isn't nearly as budget friendly as the Zapco.

I sure hope it works out to make it this year!

Believe me brother, I know EXACTLY how that goes.

Multiple 2 channels would definitely be more versatile, hell even multiple 4 channels as Sean had mentioned. When I run across this my thoughts were simply that it would simplify the setup for such a system with only one power and ground to mess with, only having to find room for one amp, things like that. My thoughts when I posted it was solely for the 2 way + sub type setup. I definitely agree it wouldn't be enough power for a 3 way + sub.

The dimensions are 2.25" H x 10.75" W x 24.5" L according to the manual. So yeah, it's not real small but essentially not much larger than two of the P900.4's end to end.

Yes it will, everything like that affects the tuning but it this particular thing won't have a huge affect. If the design said you were tuned to 38hz with E12's then you might be up as high as 40hz but I doubt it. Even the 38hz is way above where I would want it though.

Yes, you're correct in how it's wired for the final 1 ohm load which is why I mentioned the occasional mix up during manufacturing. If one set of terminals was accidentally swapped it would look like it was wired right but it would in fact be out of phase. When you set the sub cone down and look straight down at the motor the + and - terminals on each side should be opposite each other (on left side + on top - on bottom, right side - on top + on the bottom). If it's not like that then one side was built swapped. Again, it's super rare but it has happened.

Double check the wiring on the coils of the sub and make certain you don't have them wired out of phase. On rare occasions the black and red terminals can be on the wrong sides. It doesn't happen often but it has happened.

Happy Birthday!

Worked =) I owe you BIG time. Awesome brother!! I'm glad to hear all the goodies are unlocked for you now! So is it just like the settings in the book for the CZ? I think it's really crappy they don't have any of the details about the crossover, DTA, and other audio settings in that book for the NX. I can see how it would be really easy for a person to miss that part of the initial setup and not get the good controls unlocked. On top of that with no details on how any of that works how would they know what settings they could use? Clarion really dropped the ball on the manual for your unit for sure but if the settings really are the same as they are in the CZ then that manual combined with the one for the NX should guide you through it all pretty well.

As the title states, I've got one of these HU's coming. It's BNIB, never used, never opened. It wasn't really a planned purchase, the seller posted it up on EBAY and when I threw in my max bid it was at $32. After a few other bids went on it It came to $104.50 and that's what I won it at! Pretty damn decent deal IMHO. That brings me to the point of my thread. Anyone have any experience with the EQ settings on this unit? It has a plethora of crossover, DTA, and EQ settings, but it's only a 5 band parametric EQ. The question I'm trying to answer is, what frequencies can you select for each of the bands? The book only says 20hz - 20khz. Most list the frequencies such as: Band 1 40/50/60/80/100/120, for example, this one doesn't. I was planning on, and still may be planning on, getting a Kenwood KDC-X996 for the Jimmy. It'll be plug and play with MUCH better features than the X492 that's in it now. If I don't use the Clarion in my Jimmy it will be going into the Blazer project.

Hey man, let me know how it turns out there Senchez..... I'm interested after talking to you in chat about it whether or not it has all the exact same controls as the CZ as it was reported to have had to me.

Thanks, and neither can I! It's not going to be anywhere near perfect. Cheap speakers, cheap HU, no DTA, etc. but that was never the goal anyway. It should be worlds better than it was and with any luck it will actually sound pretty decent.

Congratulations!

Why plywood? Get a bunch of cardboard from wally world or some place like it. Much easier to mock the external dimensions of the box up with the cardboard than it is plywood, not to mention it's cheaper too. I do highly agree though that if the fit is that questionable that you should definitely mock it up first and be sure it's going to fit!

You'd probably be very surprised. I currently have the HU running an active setup with 3" full range drivers on the dash, 6.5" dedicated midbass in the doors and the sub in the rear. Band 1 is set to 40hz and is down -6dB and Band 2 is set to 125hz and is down -2dB and the rest of the bands are flat. I have it set that way to keep the bass/midbass from the 6.5's super clean.

Thanks man.

If the design from that place doesn't work out there's a vendor or two on this site that does great work and they're familiar with the subs too. They can probably get you hooked up without a problem. I have a pair of 12" Fi Q's in my wife's van that have been the absolute best purchase in audio I've made in a long time. That install has been running strong for three and a half years now and the subs sound every bit as strong and detailed as they did from the beginning. I had never before had anything perform so well and take the abuse my wife has given these last so good. I fully expect the XCON in my Jimmy to give the same long service as well. The BL will be a great sub for you and I know how frustrating tight fits can be, lol.

They're a very small company. There's only a handful of people who work there and even fewer of them who actually answer the emails. Sometimes it takes them awhile to get back with answers to questions, especially with the volume of emails they get on a daily basis. Not that they don't think every customer is important but in the realm of things an email of that nature might not register high on the scale of importance to get back to quickly. Sometimes even with an issue or very important question it can take time and several emails to get a response mainly due to just how busy they are. People complain a lot about it but the way they're setup to do business is how they can offer such awesome drivers for such fantastic prices. Keep in mind they also OEM drivers for quite a few companies and do some industrial related stuff as well so they have a lot more on their plate than just the Fi brand stuff to keep up with. Don't get discouraged, the slow email response in no way reflects on the quality of the products!!

to the forum! You should love that BL!

I don't want to come across disrespectful, and will say up front I know absolutely nothing about C2 Audio. It's just my opinion but they look like a Sundown clone to me or basically another company that ordered a load of subs from a Chinese build house. On top of that a 4" coil with a 1500wrms rating seems like a waste. I personally wouldn't buy them but again this is just my opinion. So yeah, they look cool but I've seen several just like them.

More updates! I was able to get the power wire ran and the passenger side put back together, the rear deck deadened, then covered in CCF, the top baffles made and installed, the amp rack/bottom baffle made and installed, the Dayton's installed and the back half of the car all put back together here before the end of the day. It's not the prettiest job in the world but it should serve it's purpose quite well. Onto the pictures. Here's the rear deck as it was when I found it without the crappy Hifonics Zeus components in it anymore. Since the factory deadener was still well attached I went ahead with covering it at the mounting holes with some old RaamMat BXT I still have a roll of. I covered that with some IUO peal n stick CCF that's just as old as the roll of BXT that I had lying around as well. It's not the greatest stuff in the world but for this project it's just fine. I cut the baffles out from scrap left over from building the box for the XCON in the Jimmy. In the interest of getting this job done quick I just shot the holes out with a jigsaw and I glued and nailed them together real quick but I think they turned out pretty darn good. I test fit everything then screwed the top baffles to the rear deck from the bottom, then screwed the bottom baffle/amp rack onto the bottom of the deck. Then I went ahead and mounted the Dayton's. Just in case you're wondering about the CCF over the baffles, I did that to reduce the chance of having any rattles from the deck cover slapping the baffles. I hope one layer is enough. Finally, here's what it looks like with the back of the car all put back together again. Can't even tell all that crap is hiding under there. That's it until I get another chance to tear into it. I'll be mounting the amp, installing the HU and fabricating some way to mount the 4x6's to the door panels.