SQ_MGB's 2002 Chevy Reg cab build

[j-roadtatts 1,129]

I will be posting pic's today, as it's my day off. I ALSO made ALL my beauty panel's in my trunk form fit, with no screw's. I am a LOW VOLTAGE NUT and LOVE to SOLDER, and yes the soldering and heatsrink turn's 1/2 hour job into a week project. That's ok, the wiring is MY favorite part of installation.

As soon as I get the sub set up I will Damplifer and LLP my door's!!!!! I can't wait the hear the difference in midbass and lowing outside noise!!!!

I set up MY H100 in the trunk this time, So it will be easier to hook a laptop to and do MY RTA.

I took out my rear's also SO imaging is already better, AND WAY EASIER to tune. Just got the front's working yesterday and got a gOOd ear fuckin'!!!!! sub hopefully tomarrow? Who know's though when your as anal as me about detail's.lol.

[6APPEAL 7]

Thank you sir.....I've only been trying to figure out how I'm going to build this thing for "a long time now" and I'll leave it at that.....I'm sure 6Appeal can attest to how long I've been thinking about it. Let's just say it's been over a year in the planning stages, but I only got serious about it in the last couple of months. I'm just glad that all the effort is starting to pay off.

As someone said to me once....."I just hope it sounds as good as it looks!"

"a long time now", "a year", that's an understatement. There's been several incomplete systems in that truck since you bought it. Too many start, get almost finished and hate the look or sound or get a new idea, then rip it all out and start over. HA, HA, HA. At times, it seems that you are still trying to "stray from the path" with this system. Too many ideas floating around in your head, with most being insane and totally off the wall. It doesn't help that you have too many choices (like I don't have that problem also). It's taken a village (well, 3 of us) to get you to slow down and think on 1 plan enough to do a K.I.S.S. system. At least you are making progress. I have a pile of pieces waiting to be worked on. Can't wait to hear it later this month.

[sq_mgb 21]

6Appeal,

Planets aligning and Lord willing, I'll have it playing by Saturday afternoon.....I just wish I had time to work on it during the week....I might try to hook up the amps one night and at least get it playing. Then it's just a matter of playing with the angles on the tweets and the 6's to get the image right. Sunday I'm going to try and make some angled baffles for the 6's in the doors so I can move those around as well. I've seen how some people cut up the door cards to get the speakers some room to move and I may have to do that when I put the new baffles on.

At this point, I'm not worried if I have to cut anything which you know is a MAJOR thing for me since I've been able to put a system in every vehicle I've ever had and return it to stock without anyone ever knowing a system was in it. At least I've made it to the last lap, so it won't be long now.

[Kanaworm$ 292]

Great attention to detail!

[sq_mgb 21]

Great attention to detail!

Thank you sir!

[Duran 387]

I like making wire look purdy too

[Randal Johnson 544]

Your back wall is sick dude!!!

[sq_mgb 21]

Thank you sir! Kim told me that it looks good in the pictures, and they do not do it justice. She said it looks even better when you can actually see it up close. She may be biased though!

[sq_mgb 21]

Got the front playing yesterday....no pics yet....don't want to take any of the back wall with the amps until they are mounted permanently. Right now they are on just the bare wood because the actual amps that are going in the truck are getting the heatsinks refinished. I have a 2.2HV on the fronts now and it blows my Q50 away. There is no comparison. The dynamics are better, volume is much easier to come by, and it just generally sounds less "strained" at higher volumes. I hope to have the sub installed by THIS weekend, unfortunately I have other pressing things until then so I have to go without the sub for just a little while longer.

I also have to figure out how to patch a hole I made for speaker wire. (it's only a 1/8" hole) I was going to use 5 way binding posts and after I drilled the first hole I didn't like where they would be and decided that just straight wire would make a better connection instead of amp to post, post to speaker. I'm thinking right now to put duct tape over the hole and fill it with glue and sawdust, compressing it with a the end of a drill bit so it is as dense as the rest of the wood around it. Then silicone over it after it dries. I guess I could always fill it with fiberglass and resin as another option.

Once I have everything in the truck looking like it should look, I'll take more pics and post them here. Then the fun part begins! Tuning! At present, I have everything in phase + to +, - to - from amp to speakers. There is a side bias on both sides of the truck that I hope to be able to correct somewhat with different aiming of the tweeters and mids. It's a real pain to turn the baffle, put the door back on, listen, remove door panel, turn the baffle, put the door back on, etc.... so I'm not sure how I want to tackle that part. I have LOTS of experimenting to do!

I'll try to post here a log of what I did and what the results were for the phase changes in case anyone else wants to see what changes occured in my truck. For those of you with a regular cab silverado, I'm open to suggestions!

At present, this is the setup. Regular cab Silverado. Eclipse CD5441 to LP PA-II preamp. All eq bands set flat. From Preamp to LP XO-3 crossover. High passed at 40Hz, 12 dB / octave. 6.5's run from there up until they naturally roll off. No idea what frequency that is. Tweets are crossed passively at 3,000Hz, 12 dB / octave. Power from LP 2.2HV. Tweets are firing directly at each other, slightly angled up towards the rear view mirror. Soundstage is on the dash, but voices seem to eminate from both sides, it's not focused in the center as it should be. I'm going to play with the angles of the tweeters a bit and see what happens. Fortunately, male and female voices seem to come from the same height, so I hope it won't be too much work to correct. Stage is wide, out to the a-pillars, maybe slightly beyond.

That's all for now! More updates soon!

[///M5 2,833]

Listen to your tweeters alone, pick an aiming, then change your phase and adjust again and see if it gets better. Get ready to A/B yourself to death for the next week

And that dash is a bitch. Don't expect it to do anything nice. Get a huge dashpad and even then, not so sure that the pillars are the best in the Silverado. Everything is a compromise though, so you can pick yours

[sq_mgb 21]

Listen to your tweeters alone, pick an aiming, then change your phase and adjust again and see if it gets better. Get ready to A/B yourself to death for the next week

And that dash is a bitch. Don't expect it to do anything nice. Get a huge dashpad and even then, not so sure that the pillars are the best in the Silverado. Everything is a compromise though, so you can pick yours

Just for giggles I put my coat up on top of the dash and it actually made it sound a little better. (or maybe psychoacoustics?) I'll try the tweeters alone this weekend when I play with the angles on the mids in the doors. Right now they are fired straight across at each other behind the factory panel. I'm going to take off the panel and try aiming them forward towards the windshield, up and forward, and also up and back to see if it makes much difference. Fortunately the tweeters aren't mounted permanently yet so I can just use tape to hold them where I want them to aim. Once I'm satisfied with the aiming, I'll post my results here for anyone who's interested. I'll get my new 6.5's when I go down for the show so everything I do now may be for naught, but at least I'll be close. What amazes me is the difference in midbass from changing amps. I had decent midbass before, but once I put my new amp on them, they really came alive. I do have to be careful with the volume knob. With as low as I have them crossed, if I play anything bass heavy they will pop, which I assume is something hitting the backplate.

I see you have your tweets in the doors with the mids.....do you find that it images better from there?

[6APPEAL 7]

Told you about using the 2.2 rather than the Q50.

[///M5 2,833]

Listen to your tweeters alone, pick an aiming, then change your phase and adjust again and see if it gets better. Get ready to A/B yourself to death for the next week

And that dash is a bitch. Don't expect it to do anything nice. Get a huge dashpad and even then, not so sure that the pillars are the best in the Silverado. Everything is a compromise though, so you can pick yours

Just for giggles I put my coat up on top of the dash and it actually made it sound a little better. (or maybe psychoacoustics?) I'll try the tweeters alone this weekend when I play with the angles on the mids in the doors. Right now they are fired straight across at each other behind the factory panel. I'm going to take off the panel and try aiming them forward towards the windshield, up and forward, and also up and back to see if it makes much difference. Fortunately the tweeters aren't mounted permanently yet so I can just use tape to hold them where I want them to aim. Once I'm satisfied with the aiming, I'll post my results here for anyone who's interested. I'll get my new 6.5's when I go down for the show so everything I do now may be for naught, but at least I'll be close. What amazes me is the difference in midbass from changing amps. I had decent midbass before, but once I put my new amp on them, they really came alive. I do have to be careful with the volume knob. With as low as I have them crossed, if I play anything bass heavy they will pop, which I assume is something hitting the backplate.

I see you have your tweets in the doors with the mids.....do you find that it images better from there?

That wasn't pyschoacoustics as knocking down reflections will clean things up...of course it will change the optimal aiming likely as well. I seriously doubt that aiming at each other will be what you pick, but as stated that dash is a bitch. On to your mids, best thing you can do for angling your them is get a tweeter that can play lower. 3k is too high for killer imaging with that much distance separating. Sure you can electronically do things to improve it, but it is far from ideal. You can always try what you have active and see what they will take.

If an amp (*with the same power*) changed your midbass that is MUCH more a pyschoacoutic reaction than the dash pad. WAY more. Of course, I assume you re-tuned everything before coming to that conclusion. Either that or your previous amp was seriously falling on its face when playing anything with dynamics.

A decent mid should be able to boogie in the right install. Hitting the backplate would make me look for a different mid. Mine are HP (should say were as I yanked everything out a week ago) at 40Hz (had been for well more than a year) and even if I ran them full range it took some serious notes to make them sweat. Midbass was awesome for a 6.5/7 as well.

As for posting your aiming it would probably be interesting to someone with your exact truck and your exact tweeters, for anyone else it won't help at all. Pictures of course make everyone on here happy.

Good luck, let us know how it goes and definitely throw up questions if they come in the process

[///M5 2,833]

Crap, realized I forgot to answer about the tweeters in the doors. I played with mine briefly near the pillars and didn't like anything. Being the truck was something I bought to only use when towing the boat, hauling garbage or whatever I didn't really care to spend so much time or effort building anything. The compromise I made was in stage height and just put them near the mid. I also did EVERYTHING on a serious budget. Deadening, amplifiers, headunit, and drivers all came in at $1k originally and eventually swelled to $1500. I still consider that a real budget build.

[sq_mgb 21]

If an amp (*with the same power*) changed your midbass that is MUCH more a pyschoacoutic reaction than the dash pad. WAY more. Of course, I assume you re-tuned everything before coming to that conclusion. Either that or your previous amp was seriously falling on its face when playing anything with dynamics.

A decent mid should be able to boogie in the right install. Hitting the backplate would make me look for a different mid. Mine are HP (should say were as I yanked everything out a week ago) at 40Hz (had been for well more than a year) and even if I ran them full range it took some serious notes to make them sweat. Midbass was awesome for a 6.5/7 as well.

As for posting your aiming it would probably be interesting to someone with your exact truck and your exact tweeters, for anyone else it won't help at all. Pictures of course make everyone on here happy.

Good luck, let us know how it goes and definitely throw up questions if they come in the process

The Q50 is rated at 50 x 4, mine is making around 60-70 x 4 give or take a little, the 2.2HV is making around 125-150 x 2. Running passive, Ithe tweeters seem brighter than before, but I attribute that to not being able to knock the level down with the xo-3. The 2.2 seemed to make a difference in the midbass at higher listening levels. Upon further reflection, it made a difference in everything, not just midbass. I can achieve a much higher overall volume level without "compression" I guess is the correct word? Basically, I can play it louder and it still stays clear. The Q50 just seemed to be running out of steam at higher volumes. The one thing I really liked about the active setup was the control over all the drivers. If the tweets were too loud, I could turn them down at the crossover (xo-3). To get the same sound I had before, I have to turn the sub bass and mid bass up on the PA-II and that's when the 6.5's pop, but it's only when I'm listening to bass heavy music. (magic mike, ying yang twins, bass cd's) With music that is recorded less bass heavy, it's not a problem.

I have another pair of tweeters that I may try to mount in the door and see what happens. All I would have to do to test is run a speaker wire to a temp. mounted tweeter and listen. If I like what I hear, I'll run a wire in the door and mount the crossover behind the door panel if I can find a cubby hole somewhere. Otherwise I'll leave them where they are and run a wire from that location. This weekend is going to be really busy with testing different phases, locations, etc.....once I get them finalized, I'll be sure to get pics up showing what I did. I figure there may be a few people on here with trucks like ours who would like to see what others are doing. Thanks for all the tips to try!

You said you yanked out your system? You re-doing it or get a different vehicle? I'm sure there are LOTS of people who would like to see a build if you wouldn't mind posting one!

Oh yeah, where did you find all that stuff in your sig for $1500???? Wanna share?

[///M5 2,833]

Getting rid of both of my rides. Currently all my stuff is in the basement. A build will come, but it will be a while. My next build will be in a 70's Pantera and it will get a full custom dash to really nail down what it is supposed to do. I need some time to save up some money though so it will be a year or two. In the interim, I am going to focus on home audio.

I only drive 5-10k miles a year now. (used to drive 70k) Considering it is almost always back and forth to the airport a "system" isn't something I need atm. Instead I really just need good phone integration as managing sales people I spend all my driving time on the phone anyways.

As for the $1500, it really wasn't that hard. Nothing in my install was very expensive to begin with and everything was used except the h/u which was $300 of it and included ALL the required processing. You asked earlier about my tweeter locations. I would NEVER have run them there without independent L/R eq. Completely necessary. Hell IMO it is pretty necessary even with optimal mounting as there is no such thing as equal PLD and equal reflections in a vehicle.

[///M5 2,833]

PLEASE NOTE, by no means am I implying that electronics can make up for an install. An install will always trump electronics, but it was a compromise I made. Partially to be lazy and get it done in a weekend and partly because I didn't expect to ever hardly drive the truck.

[Randal Johnson 544]

yo dude !!! you gonna make it down here?? ready for battle?? lol ...

[///M5 2,833]

Lol, just listed my truck for sale which means my audio is laying on the floor in the basement. You are going to "hate" my next install.

[Randal Johnson 544]

you better keep us posted on it.

[Sir-Lancelot 216]

Pics of the Pantera pulling a boat.

[///M5 2,833]

Pics of the Pantera pulling a boat.

Ha, lol. The wives Volvo XC90 will do that.

[sq_mgb 21]

Bet the Pantera would get there quicker!

[sq_mgb 21]

Ok Cablguy....here are the pics of what you have to "battle" with!

Sorry for the poor picture quality.....I couldn't get the sunlight to co-operate.....

I still have to get all the angles right on the speakers, but per M5's recommendation of playing just the tweets and going from there, I have gotten the stage up on the dash, past the pillars on both sides, most voices are centered, but some still wander around a bit. The sub sounds like its on the freaking hood when playing normal music, but when the knob gets cranked for playing around with a little DJ Magic Mike, you can tell where it is. I still have a LOT of work to do to get everything right, but at least the install part is done for the most part. I want to change the baffle for the 6.5's a little and add some more clay to help cut down on the vibrations in the doors a bit more, and maybe angle them up just a little to see if that helps. The a-pillars still need to be wrapped and I'll post pics of that when I do them, and I still have to mold a piece for the dash bezel, but that's just cosmetic work.

See ya this weekend Cablguy! Hope you're ready!

[Randal Johnson 544]

... lol truck looks awesome man...