zenilder

Well, I had some time to kill while my head unit was out for repair (face plate started acting up) so I decided to modify my box.

The package I bought included two CV 104's and a sealed box. (I went with this because of money, or, in this case, the lack of.) The docs that came with the speakers said they needed to be in a ported box to prolong the life of the speaker. I didn't like the idea of pumping the bass high and damaging the speakers so from the time I bought the system/installed it to just recently when the head unit went for repair, I've kept the bass down a bit.

It may look ugly and may have a few inherent problems, but this was a learning process more than anything. I plan to build a custom box to the recommended specs listed in the speaker documentation when I have the time and money.

One thing I believe may be a problem is that the ports are directly infront of the speakers, and the speakers fire through the ports. Doesn't the sound need to reverbirate off the walls of the box to increase the bass that is felt? I'm not sure, and I recently saw a Subie with two 8"s in the armrest area of the rear seats, and they weren't even in a box of any kind, the trunk was open, and they were putting out some good bass. *shrug*

We'll see once I get a call from the stereo place letting me know my head unit is back. Then, I plug things back in and see how it sounds.

All comments welcome.

Here's the mod.

MisterT

Looks really cool, but does it work? I know you won't know how good it sounds until it gets here. Keep us posted. How long until the head unit gets back from repair?

MisterT

zenilder

Well, it's been a week and a half so far. They said three weeks max. I'm going to call them this coming Monday and see what's up.

The shop isn't that great. I'm figuring they haven't even sent the head unit to Pioneer yet.

I believed that might be the case with the ports. We'll see once I hook it up again.

As for the poly fill, I remember having an old set of Pioneer towers that had 12's in them. When I took them out to put in a box I built for my Escort, I remember them being filled with poly. The box was ported, but it was above the speaker and facing the same direction as the sub. I was going on past observation. I'll definitely keep it in mind however. When I build my second box to specs for the speakers when I have the money, I'll only put it on the sides and compare. Then again, I may just take out some from the box and gauge the sound change. I'm hoping it will turn out ok.

This is all a learning experience for me so that I can build a better/good box when the time comes around.

Thanks for the input guys. I'll post a message when I get the box in and the head unit back from the stereo shop.

zenilder

Holy frigga-frack!

I hooked up the box to my home stereo, and I was amazed!
It's a major improvement. I didn't even turn the stereo up that loud (stupid beast upstairs would have started stomping if I turned it up too loud ). I turned it to like 13 when the max is around 45 or 55, and the box was really hitting pretty good. (I was playing the Marcy Playground Shapeshifter album.) I then turned up the bass on the stereo, and it sounded even better. The speakers were playing all the sounds, as there was no crossover or anything. Considering that, it was playing pretty good.

I think the speakers respond well to freqs a bit above 120, which is where my head unit cuts of the freqs sent to the sub. The only way to send higher freqs to the sub is to configure the head unit to use the rear signal for the sub. If I do -that- then I would have to take off the high pass filter in the head unit, and that would send the lows to fronts and rears. I tried turning off the HPF before, and it made the fronts and rears vibrate horribly when I turned up the volume high (the front and rears are 175 watt speakers). If the sub doesn't sound as good with the LPF sub output, I might look into buying two crossovers for the front and rear speakers so I can take off the HPF and send higher freqs to the sub. The amp I have for the sub has a HPF and a LPF builtin, so I can filter out the freqs I don't want going to the sub.

I'd rather not do that since the head unit has a lot of functionality built into it, and I would like to take advantage of it.

If I do that, how would I setup the front and rear speakers (the head unit I have has 50watt mosfet amps built in for the front and rear)? Would I have to simply use the low-level outputs to crossovers and then seperate amps? For some reason, I'm thinking that a crossover wouldn't like the 50 watts being sent to it.

Any ideas or suggestions are most welcome.

Oh. As for the head unit... I went to the place yesterday, and the guy said he was going to receive a shipment from Pioneer today and that I should call him around 3pm. We'll see if he was just trying to get me out the store real quick, or if he's actually going to get it in today.

Thanks.

-Bryan

MisterT

I don't recommend you doing that ever again. Maybe it's a good thing your neighbor was stomping on the floor or you may be stomping on yourself some how for ruining your subs. You can damage your sub running them at a full frequency range without the highs cut out. That could have fried your voice coils and you are out two subs just in time for your head unit to get back from repair. You don't won't that to happen.

It sounds to me like you had the crossovers settings wrong. You said the front and rear speakers "rattled", are you sure it wasn't set improperly (they may have been getting the sub frequencies instead of the mid and high ones). The same with the subs (they may have been getting the highs which it isn't designed to handle.

I like having a separate crossover because I can adjust the subs' output without affecting the midbass and mids of the rest of the speakers. I don't know what features your head unit has as far as boosting sub frequencies, not just a treble and bass adjustment, but if it does have a sub frequency boost, then you may not even need a seperate crossover. You can control it from up front via the head unit (which I don't know why every unit is not done that way so we can eliminate another component to install).

Otherwise, there is no need to get seperate crossovers for front and rear speakers if you do get an external crossover. Hope I didn't totally confuse you.

MisterT

zenilder

nah. you didn't confuse me.

I'm sure that I didn't have the head improperly configured. The front and rear were receiving all the freqs, not just the lows. The sub was only getting freqs below 120 and nothing else.

Well, I didn't turn it up till just a few hours ago when I was home and the people upstairs were gone. I turned it up a bit more, but then stopped when it started to really hit with the bass. I didn't want ALL six other apartments complaining.

We'll see how it sounds once I put it in the car and hook it up to the head unit.
If the voice coils are damaged, it won't be too bad as the wife won't even know the diff, as she was the one who paid for them. :\

I think (hope) they'll be okay.

I checked the stereo place and they said they didn't get anything in from Pioneer. *shrug* I'm getting a bit annoyed. Then he said he could call and find out when they'll be getting a shipment from them and then call me back. GEH.

MisterT

So it sounds as though your head unit only has a sub crossover and that is it? If that is the case you can get an inexpensive 2 way crossover to adjust the highs the way you want it (so that they are not rattling) and be able to tweak your bass. I like the fact that I can control the output. Some CDs like Dire Straits, you need to turn the bass output up because of the recording. Others may be too bass heavy and can be adjusted to balance things out. The crossover however will only work if you are using an amp for your front and rear speakers. Otherwise, the only option would be passive crossovers like bass blockers and such.

MisterT

zenilder

It has a LPF for the sub and it has a HPF for the rest of the speakers (front and rear). You can adjust both. However, you can only set it to 120 on both as the highest setting, i.e. the HPF will go between 120, 80, and 60 and everything under it is cutoff; the LPF will is similar in that will only go as high as 120, and step down to 80, then 60 and everything above it is cut off.

I usually have the HPF on 80, as it adds a little more bass to the four main speakers, and 120 on the LPF.

Personally I would like it if I could set the LPF to 250.

I couldn't remember which unit I had when I wrote the post, but I looked at the manual yesterday. It's a Pioneer Premier DEH-550MP. Go here to check out the unit.

zenilder

Well, finally got the head unit -replaced-.
I went to the stereo shop and asked if they had received the head unit back from Pioneer. (As I walked in, I quickly spied if they had received additional stock from Pioneer, and I saw one box for a 550.)
So he went to the back to see if the got it in. He comes back and says something about it not being back there. He then proceeds to the shelfs where the boxes for most head units are and seemingly looks for a 550 replacement. The second guy comes back from what he was doing, and the guy helping me yells out to the second guy "Hey, it's not back there." "Yeah something something..." I thought the second guy already knew it wasn't back there so I'm like whatever. The guy helping me is already pulling the stereo out of the box and starts to say to the other guy "why don't we just give him a replacement, ya?"

Anyways, they replace the head, and as I'm walking out of the place, my wife starts to say that the second guy said "it hadn't been sent out yet."
I'm like =o_O=
Okay. I don't think I'm going to be doing any more business with them. :P

Well, I put it in the car, hooked up the sub, and tested it out. Sounds pretty good, a great deal better than it used to. I can feel and hear the difference. This speakers rock in a ported box. Now I wonder what they sound like in a box that is to spec.
Now I also have to figure a way of holding the box down to keep it from sliding all over the place. If I drive normally, the box stays in place, but sometimes when I take off it will slide around.

Thanks for all the input guys.

Later on.

ducom7

Is your trunk able to be velcroed?

I took some velcro and put it on my box (accually took the velcro off my tool kit that i got for christmas LOL) and my box doesn't slide at all....hope this helps

MisterT

wow, those bastards never sent the unit out? What a bunch of **** heads! So the new unit is better than the old? If that is the case then I wouldn't complain (not that you are). The same thing happened to me with a home receiver, and I had waited patiently for a month and a half. I go by there and the guy says,
"Oh yeah, your receiver is in our showroom. We didn't send if off because we couldn't duplicate the problem." I was pissed, but said nothing, because it was my old boss from where I used to work, and he is a cool guy. I was just taken by him not informing me of this! Otherwise, some hell would have been raised. I used to go back there for my audio needs, but they don't give me discounts or that decent of deals any more. Every one there is new except one guy who works in home audio. So I had gotten every thing online or other places. Don't care for the owner, a real *****! So why support him by buying at the same price as any where else!

MisterT

zenilder

Nah. It was the same model for the head unit. (If I were to be so lucky... )
The speakers sound better now though.

That's an idea. I guess I could bolt down the velcro to under the seats or something like that and then run the straps into the trunk.

I think I'll run up to homedepot/base and see what I can find.
Prolly be a hella easier to do than rigging some harness or bracket.

bigchrissays

Yeah thats a very true point. I had a Kicker CompVr in a slot ported box and that thing put out waves that you would understand come from just one 10. Build a slot ported box for ur speakers. I bet they would pound.