i know a lot of the greats from the years, i think the JL guy you are referring too is Manville Smith. The guy is 100% percent all about car audio. He is the prime example of a die hard audio guy( so is his wife too). I started doing SPL before SPL got big...i was pulling 140's bak when that was actually a considerable feat.....Hmmmm mix a 1994 Ford Tempo (2 door) and add a wall with 4 12"s......that and i had B.A.S.S. shaved in the back of my head........this was around 1990-91 ish......looking back on it....im an idiot

 

I know of Manville Smith, but I think this was one of the guys that went to work for Manville. Wasn't Manville one of the founders of JL back when it was a small operation in FL? Manville drove a BMW e36 m3 that they tried to put 2 15's in the trunk of, and ended up swapping them out for 3 8's and the thing still slammed. Wait 94 ford Tempo? Was your name on irc ever Freud? I remember the guy was taking about painting it white and purple on IRC on # caraudio.

Car audio for the most part has gone the way of the dodo bird unfortunately. Partly due to better sounding systems from the factory, and partly due to making it increasingly harder to go aftermarket due to integrated systems. Shops can't live on the few guys that want crazy systems. Their bread and butter was head unit and speaker swaps. Throw in Best Buy and their "roadshop" that butchers cars, and well... All of the fun is slowly going away.

I remember the first time I heard a car in the 140's I was like this dude is nuts LOL...

I had an Olds Cutlass Calais 2dr back in the day. 2 12's in a ported box facing fwd, and 2 10's in a bandpass box facing rearward behind it, with a fold down seat. 3.5 boston coaxes in the dash (yes I said 3.5") And boston rally 6x9s in the rear deck. Sony Single CD in dash, with a sony 1/2 din EQ. And 3 power acoustik amps on the back of the fold down seat. Every time the bass hit you could feel your clothes move, and if you had a hat on it would shake.. Car sounded like the trunk was going to fall off from the outside, the rear view mirror vibrated so much it was useless for driving, and me and my friends were in heaven! LOL. You're not the only idiot.

Those days were fun though LOL!

George

 

We have the amp in and a basic setup, not too refined yet.
Using a Iphone audio tone generator into my deck, the factory alpine speakers seam to really drop off below 40hz. they are going lower than I expected.

It is suggested that a pair of 6.5" focals in the back deck will give me what I want to round out the bottom - have to wonder slightly if the factory subs might actually be ok, had the amp been better, but they are out now, and I am not really interested in re-instaling them from the top.

Pete

 

Oh... In your email I assumed that you thought the alpines weren't going low enough. I'd high pass them at 60hz and crank them up. If I were to do 6.5's in the rear deck, I'd go JL audio..

Get the passive crossovers in the trunk, and hook up the tweeters. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

George

 

Thanks George, I am happy to be 'off the ground' with something right now.
As I cannot buy any speakers today, I may get longer screws and fasten the factory 'subs' in to the deck bottom up - quick and easy - and see what happens when they are driven with the better amp. Not expecting much but relatively easy to do.
One question for you - I can't run the two (2ohm) subs in parallel with the 5th channel out as the impedance would be too low - any suggestions, or can I do short term for sake of a test?
Pete

 

Peter - if they are both 2 ohm, wire them in series to show the amp a 4 ohm load. The amp will still make more than enough power, and you won't risk damaging it.

basically like this:

amp + ----> Speaker 1 + Speaker 1 - ------> Speaker 2 + Speaker 2 - --->to amp -

That should be fine Permanently. Let me know how that turns out.

George

 

George
I grabbed a couple of Ford JBL subs from my stash to try, and the jag subs.

The jag factory subs, passed almost no sound at high gain and the band pass low, it had to be highest pass freq before did much of anything. So I feel better they are out, and will be pitching them. I have no idea why if Jag/Alpine wanted to cut corners these are present - I cannot see any benefit to the factory system from these. The Door speakers driven with my new amp are more responsive than I expected and miles ahead of the original amp including using the 'subs' in the deck.

The Ford JBL enclosure which I had previously modified to install a JL 8" when the 6.5 had broke its foam performed reasonably well. It did add lower freq's than I was getting from the door speakers as has been setup. The 8" was better than the stock 6.5" JBL woofer, and for the time being the 8" enclosure is wedged into place pointing through the open ski bag opening.

Pete

 

Peter - if the factory subs are out, and the holes are in the deck, turn that sub around so the driver faces into the trunk. I guarantee you it will sound better that way. Cross the 8" at about 85-90hz lowpass. Cross the Alpine 6.5's at about 60hz highpass.

Now we need to get you a set of passive crossovers for the front, I guarantee you your image is messed up, because the only tweeters that are playing are the ones in the rear doors right now. Tell me it doesn't sound a bit as if the music is coming from behind you.

Slowly but surely, you'll get to where you want to be. I really have NO time to do my stereo. Things keep popping up. I got rear ended in the X-type yesterday afternoon.. It never ends I swear. Maybe in May when I'm slated for a week off of work.

George

 

awsome

 

I have one of the pioneer 12" shallow subs that I ran in my corvette. It sounds okay, but a 8" kicker l7 square in a ported box totally blew it away in almost a similar sized box. They're okay(shallow subs), but they have nothing on the similar sized standard subs from my experience.