THought Id post up my current system

[caraudiodave]

Originally Posted by bricooper78

Nice rack man!!! (get it Guise???!!??? bewbz joke!)
But for real, that's a pretty dang nice setup you've got going on there! I'm jelly of the skills
I wish I had any sort of ability to make anything from wood. It's deceptive in my opinion, sure looksl like it's easy to measure the same thing twice and they line up after being cut.. too bad I lack some ability in there somewhere

Haha thanks.

I also lack in skills when it comes to woodwork. Actually, it might just be my lack of the proper tools. I did all of is with only a jigsaw as I don't have the space for a table saw. I am buying a router this week, all routing has been done so far with my Dremel (poor thing, it gets way overused).

Here's a couple more updates from tonight, progress will be at a standstill for a few days, I have to run to Vegas for work.

So Phoenix gold suggests soldering the tips of the power wire to avoid frayed strands from shorting the amp. Good idea.



Here are the amps now with power wire connected (I know, nothing special)


And now with the cover on again. I got all RCAs made and connected (notice the line driver has all 4 channels used).


What's left:
-connect power and ground main wires (ground is connected already)
-connect power, ground, and remote to all components
-trim and final for the top cover
-tune the processor and all gains

It's probably about 2 or 3 hours worth of work, but it's tough with a sick baby and a wife that doesn't have patience for this stuff.

[Smithkid21]

You do some nice work man. I like it! I plan on doing a build for my sound system this spring, but it won't look nearly as nice as your's!

[caraudiodave]

Thanks. I'm not doing anything special, I just needed to have a functional trunk again. I'm not gonna lie, it's coming out better than expected but it's less to do with fabrication skills and more to do with luck as this car has a good size spare well that is shaped perfectly for this.

[Metallman56]

Beautiful man

[caraudiodave]

More updates...
So I swapped my old school Phoenix gold sub for an image dynamics IDQ12. It's more efficient Ina small box and it's brand new. Also I opened up that side panel to let more sound through. I'm working on a grill for it but that will be last of my thugs to do.

So I wired up all of my stuff and got it running again. I also updated the software on the ms-8.





Tonight. I plan to get the main beauty board done. I still would need to get the inner two beauty boards covered and cut. This is a serious process going on here... I'm finally in the home stretch.

[caraudiodave]

Another trunk picture...



Also, not stereo. Related but I have paddle shifters. Problem is the paddles are small and it always forget I have them so I got paddle extenders. They make them in carbon fiber and other colors but I chose a style that matched factory style...







And lastly, I got another amp. This one is going into e collection when Im done restoring it. I got it for $40.

[bricooper78]

paddle shifters are so fun to play with, but I see how you'd forget about them, they looked little.

what the hell did they do to that poor thing? mount it under the car?????

[caraudiodave]

No that's how I bought the amp. The zx475ti was prone to rust because of the lack of finish on it but the ti475 (the next generation) had a finish and didn't rust.

Here's more install shots of progress.

[bricooper78]

Oh, I thought someone half sanded it and never repainted it

[caraudiodave]

Nope. I'm getting it powder coated. I am debating on either a copper look and renaming it ZX475cu (obviously cu is the atomic symbol for copper, and that would replace the it which is for titanium) or the other idea is to do black chrome. I'm still a ways away from any of it as I need to restore it to working status first. It needs new capacitors and maybe more. Before I even touch it I have another amp to finish that is going into my install.

[caraudiodave]

I've been making very slow progress on this as of late. I am working on the subwoofer grill but I have not yet decided on how to finish it. So far I cut the piece of 1/2" mdf out, routered out 1/4" from the back leaving a lip where it will fill the opening, and I left a groove at the bottom for a tongue and groove fit to hold it partially in. I then buried two magnets in the top and I will secure matching magnets behind the panel to hold the grill in place.

I then used my plunge router and the jasper jig to make a hold. Now, I can secure grill material inside the hole and cover it all in grill cloth for a stealth look, or I can cover the wood part in black material and make the metal grill material visible and allow the sub cone to be seen through it all.

Either way..here's a few pictures...





Oh, and not really install related as this isn't going into the install but I just got my old school active crossover. I plan to make a display for the garage using some of this outdated equipment. I'm in search of a black Phoenix gold eq (15 or 30 band) to add to this.

[MAC the KNIFE]

Originally Posted by caraudiodave

Oh, and not really install related as this isn't going into the install but I just got my old school active crossover. I plan to make a display for the garage using some of this outdated equipment. I'm in search of a black Phoenix gold eq (15 or 30 band) to add to this.

i was asking about crossovers some time ago, what does this thing do, and please explain a little about how it does it. i had no idea that the "passive" crossover that come with component/tweeters were just a +/- 3 db. i thought they kept the dangerous low frequencies from getting into the tweeter and killing it. maybe that's what an active does...

[caraudiodave]

Ok, so a passive crossover takes whatever frequency range is being sent to it and it splits the frequencies up to go to the right speaker. This type of crossover comes AFTER your amp, so it's between the amp and your speakers. It does protect your speakers. Some have a +/- 3 dB for each speaker, all that does it add or attenuate that speaker (think of dB as volume, so you get some individual control over that drivers volume relative to the other speaker being run off that crossover). What you don't get control of is what frequencies it crosses over at.

This crossover that I just got is called an active crossover. It goes BEFORE the amp. It takes a full frequency range (usually) and splits them up however you choose. You can select the crossover points. You can not control the +/- 3db because this is before power. From this crossover you run RCA cables to your amps, and then to the speakers. You now can control the volume of the individual speaker by increasing the gain on that channel of the amp.

The benefits of the first type is you can use less channels to power all speakers. In my car for example, I have 3 way components up front (6 total speakers) plus a subwoofer. If I wanted to run "active" I would need to have 7 separate channels of amplification. By using a passive crossover, I can connect my 3 way components to them and it looks as if I have 1 speaker per side, so I only need a total of 3 channels of amplification.

I was weighing out the option of running 50 watts x 4 plus 100 watts x 2 plus 500 watts x 1 in an active system versus my current setup which is 350 watts x 2 plus 800 watts x 1. What gets confusing is how the passive crossover splits up the power. I recently learned that they actually send close to full power to each speaker, but only in the specified frequency range, so I have almost 350 watts available for my tweeters, mids, and mid woofers. Now it's get confusing because my tweeters and mids are 8 ohms so they get 1/2 the power, but the Midbass is 4 ohms so it gets 350.

I hope I didn't loose you.

So if I used this active crossover I would need 4 more channels of amplification. If I used all amps like I have now I'd need 2 more of these amps. It's doable, but is it worth it just to have the ability to change the crossover point and have co trol over how much power goes to each of my speakers? Right now I say no.

I just bought the crossover as a collectors piece. They are rare, especially in black, and with DSPs getting big, these wil become museum pieces. Same goes for the big EQs, which is why I'm in search of one to display in my garage.

[caraudiodave]

Oh, and here's an update of my install. Almost done...

[03GT SilverGun]

I hate how good everything looks! I've been lurking on this thread for a while and everything looks great. If I ever get to do an audio system build I can only hope that it can be as good of quality as this one.

[MAC the KNIFE]

Originally Posted by caraudiodave

Ok, so a passive crossover....
I hope I didn't loose you...

Thank You! pretty good explaination.
i was in the pawn shop yesterday looking for amps

[bricooper78]

Originally Posted by caraudiodave

HEY!

Thats GRATE!



Please forgive me, I really felt compelled there



Okay man, another bang up job, now lets see it lit up at night!!!

[caraudiodave]

Originally Posted by 03GT SilverGun

I hate how good everything looks! I've been lurking on this thread for a while and everything looks great. If I ever get to do an audio system build I can only hope that it can be as good of quality as this one.

Thanks. As you can see sometimes it's a process.

Originally Posted by MAC the KNIFE

Thank You! pretty good explaination.
i was in the pawn shop yesterday looking for amps

I wish I had time to stop I to pawn shops. I hear people find some great finds in pawn shops.

Originally Posted by bricooper78

HEY!

Thats GRATE!



Please forgive me, I really felt compelled there



Okay man, another bang up job, now lets see it lit up at night!!!

Haha. I like that.

I used the same type of grill that is found on the caddy CTS-v. Not sure if it's noticeable in the pics.

[AleroB888]

Originally Posted by caraudiodave

Thanks. As you can see sometimes it's a process.

I wish I had time to stop I to pawn shops. I hear people find some great finds in pawn shops.

Haha. I like that.

I used the same type of grill that is found on the caddy CTS-v. Not sure if it's noticeable in the pics.

I like all the stuff, especially some of the old-school items. I have to admit I'm a little confused on the signal path -- crossover, amp, speakers. If you get time, could you sketch out a block diagram and put it in the next pics? Couldn't find one in the thread. On the class D amps, I have listened to one high-end unit in a home system. Really excellent sound, actually. Very pricey, though.

[caraudiodave]

No problem. I'm not using a class d amp, not a fan of them. My amps are class a/b.

I'll make a diagram when I have time but I will lay it out here real fast too.

Factory head unit----->JBL ms-8 (sound processor)----->line driver----->amplifiers----->speakers
The components are using their passive crossovers that they came with.

I'm NOT using that big crossover that I showed a picture of. I should have put that pic in the old school thread rather than this one.

I'll try to do a diagram but it might be hard to find icons on my old school stuff.