altoncustomtech

Thanks guys. There's still so many things that need to happen I feel like I did when the engine first died. Ben (baglan2014) a member local to me stops by work from time to time to chat about audio and stuff. I've helped him setup his ICON and BK1300 along with setting him up with a better HU. He stopped by today and I gave him a little demo of the Jimmy, his first ever of it. Of course I haven't gotten hardly any of the settings put back on the HU yet, haven't done anything to set the gains on the sub, and I'm not even sure I have the PR's tuned exactly where I want them to be yet but he seemed to be fairly impressed with the performance of the XCON. I think he also liked the robust midbass performance the Bravox's were giving as well. I can't wait until I get this thing completely road worthy again. I have the Focal Solid 2 amp to install to run the components active so as to try to improve their lackluster midrange and treble response. Then if that doesn't do it I've picked up a pair of Dayton RS180-4's, a pair of Aura NS3-193-8A1 3" full rangers (half price sale at Madisound I couldn't pass them up), some old Logitech Z-560 highs that are very similar to the Tang Band W3-926SDF, and I also have some Dayton DC28FT tweeters already on hand, all to try and play with and see what kind of luck I might have running them active to see if I can get closer to the ideal response I'm looking for. I think my end goal will be with some larger midbass drivers, 8" at least possibly 10", and a full range setup of some kind since there's NO room for kick panel enclosures to get better aiming from mids down low and I can build whatever I want to fit up high. I dunno though, I gotta get the damn thing road worthy first.

Alright, I couldn't help it. I had some free time at the end of the day today and just couldn't stop myself. I threw my battery charger on the Jimmy, hooked up the sub to the amp and the remote wire so it would turn on and went to tuning the PR's. It took me a little bit to get the hang of it as the process was a first for me but damn does that XCON kick some ass. I'm going to take a small scale to work tomorrow and verify the weight is equal between the two PR's but so far they're tuned down to around 31hz. The sub has amazing impact for a single 10" sub and I've not EVEN begun to get serious about setting the gains and crossover settings yet, only some quick preliminary settings and setup to get it playing. I played some music on it and it belts out lows with great authority off some Jay-Z, has great speed for the fast drums on Disturbed's version of Land of Confusion and can blend well and be subtle and accurate for Journey's Faithfully. Now I really hate the fact the transmission decided to give me a fit cause I could spend a LOT of time playing with and listening to this sub! I've gotta get this thing on the road and trustworthy again!!!!!! For fun here's a quick pic I grabbed of the sub hooked up and some weights on the PR's. Nevermind the mess, I've been working out of the truck doing repairs for quite awhile now.

LMAO!! Those were the hot ticket!! Hell yeah, instantly added another 100hp! LMAO... It really fit the personality of the truck though and my wife loved it because when she drove bare foot she could wrap her toes over the top of it to help hold her foot up there, lol.

I'm not sure how I missed this thread when it popped up over the years. Here goes: 1. How old are you? -------- 34 2. When did you get into car audio? -------- Before I was 16. Had several older friends who were well versed in audio and competition. 3. How did you first get into car audio? -------- ^^ The aforementioned friends who introduced me to audio got me hooked. 4. Whats your favorite color? -------- I tell everyone, CLEAR. 5. Male or female? -------- Male, but with a name like mine I can understand some confusion on the part of people who've never met me. 6. Your first Car? -------- A nicely modified 1970 Chevy C10 Heavy-half 2WD with 388 stroker, 350 turbo trans, 4.23:1 gear ratio, front/rear roll pans, dual working hood scoops, '72 front clip, custom grill, custom tail lights, Western Wheels rims with 255-55-R15 front and 315-55-R15 tires rear, custom interior, seats out of a 72 Lincoln Continental and one of those foot shaped gas pedals. 8. How did you find out about this site? -------- What seems like a long time ago I was seeking accurate information on some products, found this forum to be indispensable and never left. 9. What was your first system? -------- Oh dear Lord, that's a scary question. In that '70 Chevy it was a Pioneer cassette deck, Audiovox tweeters on the dash, Audiovox 6x9's, US Amps A50HC amp, pair of 12" Thump subwoofers in custom built and weather sealed box in the bed of the truck because the gas tank was behind the seats. 11. Were do you live? -------- Monroe City, Indiana 12. Whats you favorite car audio brand? -------- No specific one. SSA, Fi Car Audio, Sundown, Bravox, Kenwood, Alpine, JBL are among the top of my list though. 15. Who is our hero in the car audio industry? -------- Um, if I had to narrow it down to one person I'd say Alma Gates. Simply because she was living proof that age doesn't matter. 16. Whats your dream system? -------- One that has perfect response with perfect stage and imaging that can still rattle a window or two. 17. Whats your dream car? -------- One that I can buy for under $100 that gets over 100 MPG and goes 0-60MPH in under 3 seconds. What? You said dream car. 18. Whats the fastest car you have driven/ridden in? -------- That would have to be my buddies 1968 Camaro setup for drag racing. Covers 1/8th mile in 5 seconds flat at 138+ MPH. 19. Were do you buy most of your car audio products? ------- Internet. 20. What is your job? -------- Pipeline Operator 21. Whats your favorite saying? -------- Mnah, what's up doc? LOL 24. Whats your favorite brand of cars? -------- GM/Chevy 25. What do you like better, cars, vans, trucks, or suv's? -------- Whichever one fits what I need it to do. 29. Whats is the most recent thing you have purchased? -------- Supper last night. Oh wait, you mean car audio related right? A pair of Dayton RS180-4 woofers. 31. Who do you think is the most knowledgeable person on SSA? -------- Me? LMAO, I have to say that collectively as a group we all bring something special to the table. 32. What is your personal best on the TL? and with what equipment? -------- What's a TL? Ok, Ok, I've never been metered on a TL. 33. SQ or SPL? why? -------- SQ of course. Sure it's fun to show off and get loud but the music is what's important to me and being able to listen to it with all the quality that was intended with every nuance and detail as if I was there when it was being recorded is what my goal in audio is. Yeah I noticed that things didn't seem to quite add up right, lol.

Sure didn't. I didn't get time to do it Thursday and Friday, well, it led to the fact that the Jimmy is now down again. Drove it home Thursday and aside from the quirky stuff with the overdrive on the trans goofin up (which it did before the engine ever got ruined) it seemed just fine. I drove it into work Friday morning and never noticed an issue and because I went in early and it was very dark outside I didn't notice the problem I had until I was getting ready to leave Friday afternoon. After I got the sub enclosure loaded in the back of the truck with the stuff to take it home and tune it I went to the drivers door to get in and drive home when I noticed an odd puddle just under the truck below the rocker panel. I knelt down to look and saw a nice big red puddle all over the underside of the truck from the rear axle to just underneath the transfer case. ATF was covering the entire underside of the truck of the same area and when I went and checked the level in the trans I found it didn't even register on the dipstick. At some point during the drive to work Friday morning a seal or something of the sort failed somewhere and it blew all the ATF out of the transmission. Considering the amount of mess that was still hanging on the bottom of the truck and how low the trans is on fluid I would imagine it happened very close to work or it wouldn't have made it that far. I have a spare transmission that was freshly rebuilt before the engine spun a bearing in a '98 Blazer that I bought for $500 awhile back. I had originally planned on rebuilding the engine and using it simply as another vehicle/play vehicle and possibly putting a low budget wall into it and other fun stuff like that. However that plan got shattered when a drunk prick decided it would be fun to use his thirty/ought/six to blast holes in the truck. He shot right through the worst possible places he could. The windshield got broken but the worst part is the parts where it should seal have been torn up by bullets so replacing it is useless without doing extensive repairs to the body where the windshield should go and seal. Bullets went through the dash destroying the instrument cluster, the steering column, the climate controls and through the heater core. That all happened at some unknown point in time and when I finally found the damage on it where I have it stored at my dad's property where no one was living at the time the entire interior is also ruined due to the weather getting in and animals. So, the only thing it's good for now is parts from the areas of the truck that weren't damaged by bullets. So now it looks like I need to pull the trans out of that truck and get it put into the Jimmy before I can do any more driving with it. I'm contemplating going ahead and getting the PR's tuned while I'm working on that so everything regarding the substage is done and complete. Then I can turn the PR's back around like they're supposed to be and have it ready to go when the truck is. I'm also looking for a mechanic that can do the trans swap for me for a reasonable price because I really don't have the time or patience to get that deep into this thing again.

Just for quick reference I quickly modeled ten of the 10" Aura NS model drivers, like the ones Jared (jroadtatts) used on the first build in his Honda. Ten of them in a ported enclosure running their rated power of 4,000 watts (400w x 10 drivers) would only yield about 132dB of output. Ten is the maximum number WinISD allows me to model. Playing with the tuning can get 2-3dB more at 100hz but still nothing to compete with 160dB. That sure seems to throw infeasibility on top of the pile quickly, at least from what I'm seeing.

Well, technically the DCON and XCON. Though the DCON isn't mine, it's my sister's and my XCON hasn't even seen power yet, lol.

I'm tuned into this one, like I am most of these kinds of topics. It's nice to see the suggestions and trains of thought that go into driver selection for a given application. I'll be doing something similar myself eventually as well since the current components in the Jimmy aren't cutting it and per the thread I made on that subject I'll be pulling the passive crossovers and running them active to see if I can get the benefits I am looking for from that move. If not I have been contemplating a small full ranger plus midbass setup to replace the components with and since I won't need to keep up with near as much output it might work for me good enough. Either way I'm tuned in to learn.

It has to be the DCON or GCON because the ICON and XCON have a second gen, and clearly it isn't a ZCON or an EVIL. At least that is my take on it I think new dcons. My thoughts exactly.

Do they have to be directly on top of each other or can they be directly side by side? Or Maybe with 4 of them in a 2x2 grid patern? Directly. Side by side would be the worst Interesting. Thank you for answering that.

Do they have to be directly on top of each other or can they be directly side by side? Or Maybe with 4 of them in a 2x2 grid patern?

That's awesome. Where in the lineup are you guys intending it to be placed, or is it replacing a model? Also, if you want a fair independent review, I'm your man! LOL

I like the creme colored background myself. It looks great to me and if it helps pass the savings on then it's a win win in my opinion. Otherwise it seems like things are moving along on the site.

WOW!! Dude I've not heard from you in what seems like forever! I hope everything is going well in your neck of the woods. Thank you on the compliments with the enclosure. It's kind of a painstaking ordeal doing that kind of work with nothing but some simple hand tools, a hope and a prayer but it worked out pretty well I think. The proof will be in the pudding this afternoon when I hook it up, get it tuned and put some power on it. Yes the motor swap was definitely a MFer from hell. I'm so glad to have that headache out of the way.

Here's the enclosure, PR's and sub with the supplies needed to put it in and get it tuned. I have a box of washers to go with the bolts. I can't wait to get this thing tuned and running!

Thanks guys! It's not 100% just yet. There's some issue with the starter that on occasion causes a screech/tapping sound. It doesn't do it all the time and it goes away after a short period of time. I found it didn't do it as often when I didn't torque the bolts for the starter as much as they should be. I'm thinking it needs shims to get the clearance right between it and the flywheel and if so will be the first starter on any vehicle I've owned that had to have them. If that's not what it is then I'm at a complete and total loss as to what's making the noise. That little issue along with some little issues it had with the torque converter locking up before the old engine died that's still present and while it's back on the road things aren't perfect. On the audio side, I went ahead and started to prepare the PR's for tuning!

Awesome. Once you get all the products on the site it will quite a place to shop.

Okay, a great update!! Monday I ended up not having to drop the pan to fix the gasket. When I unbolted the front axle it only fell about 1/2" with the steering bar still in place. That extra 1/2" afforded me enough room to get the pan down far enough to reach around from the passenger side and get it back in the groove. Once I was satisfied the gasket was in there good I cleaned up the front of the pan/block/timing cover and siliconed it. I then put the pan back up in place, torqued it down, and left it sit so the silicone could set up. Yesterday I went out and put the remote oil adapter back on the block and the starter back in. I put just enough back together to be able to start the truck and check it for leaks. I started it up and let it warm all the way up to operating temperature, then did some small engine revs and let it sit and idle again for a few more minutes before shutting it back off. I'M BACK IN BUSINESS!! There wasn't even one drop from the front or the back of the pan!! Today I'm going to go out there and get all the little stuff attached back to the pan and get the front axle mounted back up. Then all I have to do is get the hood and the front skid plate back on it and I'm good to go!

Oh yeah, this is awesome! Be sure to give us all the detail you can Jon. I've had my eyes on these since Quinten was first talking about them, but I don't have the money to spare or a project going on to use them in. I know when I do I'll be grabbing some up though. I can't wait to hear more from you about their performance!

I agree with the others, there will be a lot of modification needed to do it right. The only thing those foam ones are good for is protecting a speaker from the elements and they do that at a small cost to accurate response from my limited experience with them. I'm slowly making plans to do about the same thing in the future with the Jimmy. My plan is to build ported enclosures for a pair of 8" mid bass speakers utilizing the current hole in the door panel for the tweeter as the location for the port. I'll have to cut away some of the door to make room for the enclosure to slide into the door cavity and the enclosure will bolt to the door. I planned on sealing them with resin and bed liner to protect them from the elements as well. My plan was to make the enclosure with a step out where the port and mid bass would be flushed up to the door card. The enclosure would be nearly as tall as the door cavity and as wide as can fit between the front of the door cavity and the window track (approximately 9.5") and the back will curve with the outer door panel to get as much volume as possible. My point is that if you're willing to take the time to plan it out well and put in the effort on the custom work I don't see why it couldn't be done. At the same time I know it would be much easier to sell them and buy a driver that better fits the goals AND the application. Either way I look forward to the build and am very interested in how it turns out if you do go through the trouble of stuffing enclosures into the doors.

Well, I wasn't thinking of the ski pass as having anything to do with resonance, at least directly. My thought only went to that of a 6th order bandpass as mentioned, though the helmholtz effect would make more sense and could definitely be at the root of the cancellation issues. The same way it does in the design of mufflers in a car. I was only trying to refer to the resonances of the materials of whatever reflective surfaces should the OP open the rear speaker holes in the rear deck. Like I said, sub bass frequencies wouldn't be anywhere near the resonant frequency of the glass and probably not that of the sheet metal either. My original statement still stands though. Everything in the environment has some affect on the response, especially anything in between what's making the sound and where the listener is hearing it. Even in an open room the surfaces of the walls, flooring, and even the furniture can affect the response the ear picks up.

Everything has some affect. Coming through the ski hole kind of makes it like a 6th order band pass since there is some length for the waves to travel through the opening, it's like a port. Close that off and unblock the rear speaker holes and it will affect it completely differently. There's little to no length involved in getting through the holes, but they're still holes plus the waves will be reflecting off of whatever is above the rear deck. Be it the glass or the roof both surfaces have their own effect on the sound waves and then there's the angle of the reflection and what it bounces toward from there. While these reflections can have a much larger effect on higher frequencies due to the shorter wavelength and higher resonant frequencies of the surfaces involved it does still have an effect on low frequencies too. The holes the bass is traveling through probably affect the end result that your ears perceive more than the reflections would. I'm not an acoustic engineer at all, but the little I've been able to learn and seemingly understand leads me to that conclusion. I'm absolutely certain that if I'm wrong on that theory Sean, Brad or someone who really actually does know will correct me on that.

Adjustable? As in still passive but with the ability to adjust the crossover point? If so, not without a great degree of difficulty and even then I don't think there would be much range at all. I'm trying to imagine the circuit design for it at the moment. I know attenuating circuits are easy and it seems like I've seen plans somewhere that used some very uncommon parts to make an adjustable passive crossover, but that could just be my memory getting it crossed up with another circuit design. I have seen some passive's that have a switch that physically switches the electrical path through different components to change the crossover point, however I don't look at that as "adjustable" just changeable. To me "adjustable" would indicate being infinitely adjustable, like a potentiometer. Going active would be much easier in the control department, though cost more to complete.

to the forum!! I don't think you'll find a more well rounded bunch of guys with a more well rounded collection of information on any other forum. On top of that we all take a lot of pride in trying our hardest to ensure that information is as accurate as possible so that no one gets misled along their path of learning.