[bimmer01]

Well, I finally got my system installed and some pictures taken. It consists of two 10" Apline Type R's with dual 4 ohm voicecoils, an alpine PDX 1.600 amp, and a zenclosures box. I had everything professionally installed using the PAC trunk LOC and a 4-gauge wiring kit for the amp. I had purchased that little adapter that snaps into the battery from Tischer, but it really isn't big enough to handle the 4-gauge wire, just FYI. And best of all, PICS!!!

[Terrance28]

Very nice.

[VP Electricity]

Did all that damping material do anything for the trunk lid?

Glad you like it... when did adding a sub become a "system"

Buy your wire insert off of you...

[ToadHollow]

Any rattling outside of the car? Some of these cars I see but, can't hear the music over the vibrating trunk .....

[lonestar22]

ok pictures are cool but how does it sound???
inside and out

[bimmer01]

Originally Posted by VP Electricity

Did all that damping material do anything for the trunk lid?

Glad you like it... when did adding a sub become a "system"

Buy your wire insert off of you...

1. Absolutely nothing, lol!

2. OK, system=subs, sorry

3. Yea, PM me

[bimmer01]

Originally Posted by lonestar22

ok pictures are cool but how does it sound???
inside and out

This type of set-up looks good, and sounds great when the trunk is open, but you can't go too loud with the volume or gain with the trunk closed or it can get kinda rattly (is that a word?). Don't get me wrong, there is a ton more bass than the factory system puts out, but as has been stated in some of the threads I've read the trunks in these cars are very well insulated so in order to get the sound into the cabin, you have to pump up the volume a little and then you get some rattles from the parcel shelf, trunk, etc. I'm still working on getting everything "tweaked" as far as the settings, but I'm very happy with the set-up. The only other options I can think of would be a sub facing the other direction that would fire through the ski pass, but they say that actually sounds worse??? And then there is the SWS-8 upgrade which is probably the best sounding, but you can't see it. Just my .02 cents so far.

[bimmer01]

I know that might sound weird, but I'm kinda going for that "complete package" so that when I do the local cruise in's and stuff when you pop the trunk you have something to "show". That might make me a sell out, but even though the SWS's sound great I hate not being able to have anything to "show for it", lol.

[kaigoss69]

Originally Posted by bimmer01

This type of set-up looks good, and sounds great when the trunk is open, but you can't go too loud with the volume or gain with the trunk closed or it can get kinda rattly (is that a word?). Don't get me wrong, there is a ton more bass than the factory system puts out, but as has been stated in some of the threads I've read the trunks in these cars are very well insulated so in order to get the sound into the cabin, you have to pump up the volume a little and then you get some rattles from the parcel shelf, trunk, etc. I'm still working on getting everything "tweaked" as far as the settings, but I'm very happy with the set-up. The only other options I can think of would be a sub facing the other direction that would fire through the ski pass, but they say that actually sounds worse??? And then there is the SWS-8 upgrade which is probably the best sounding, but you can't see it. Just my .02 cents so far.

You are correct, it looks very nice and clean, but this type of set-up has a tendency of trapping most of the sound waves in the trunk and creating excessive panel vibrations. So most of the energy never leaves the trunk.

To cut down on vibrations, have you tried engaging the amp's high pass filter? I would try 40Hz and see if that improves anything.

Also, are you powering the OEM underseat subs at all?

[i own an e90]

looks very niceeeee and very clean man ..... did that dynamat work for you ..... ?? it didnt' work for me..still rattles..and the gas lid isthe worse one..sometimes my gas lid open when i bump my system..hehehe .... is that box made by hand or u bought it like that from a catalog .... ??

[bimmer01]

Originally Posted by kaigoss69

You are correct, it looks very nice and clean, but this type of set-up has a tendency of trapping most of the sound waves in the trunk and creating excessive panel vibrations. So most of the energy never leaves the trunk.

To cut down on vibrations, have you tried engaging the amp's high pass filter? I would try 40Hz and see if that improves anything.

Also, are you powering the OEM underseat subs at all?

I think you are exactly right. I will try to lower the filter to around 40 Hz, right now I think I'm at around 60. As far as the factory underseat subs, I didn't do anything to them. The amp I am using to run the 2 subs is a mono sub amp.

[bimmer01]

Originally Posted by i own an e90

looks very niceeeee and very clean man ..... did that dynamat work for you ..... ?? it didnt' work for me..still rattles..and the gas lid isthe worse one..sometimes my gas lid open when i bump my system..hehehe .... is that box made by hand or u bought it like that from a catalog .... ??

The Dynamat didn't do much, I'd say it improved the rattles maybe 10%. As far as the box, it was made by Mike at Zenclosures. It is "handmade" out of 3/4 MDF and then covered in carpet. They do a prototype and then load the demensions into a CNC wood lathe and then every box they cut is exactly the same. Although, they did adjust the inside demensions to specifically accomodate the alpine Type R's. The box is excellent, extremely well made! On a side note, a buddy of mine use to really be into car stereo's, and I was telling him/showing him my system and he said all cars with a trunk are difficult to make work. He said that's why in competition, you only see hatchbacks in terms of cars, never a sedan. Makes sense!

[kaigoss69]

Originally Posted by bimmer01

I think you are exactly right. I will try to lower the filter to around 40 Hz, right now I think I'm at around 60. As far as the factory underseat subs, I didn't do anything to them. The amp I am using to run the 2 subs is a mono sub amp.

What I meant is for you to try to use the high-pass filter, meaning you are sending all frequencies above 40 Hz to your sub. I say this because most vibrations will probably be caused by the lower frequencies. So if you can live without the earthshaking sub-bass, this may be worth a try. The disadvantage is that your subs will then have to play up to the high side of the frequency spectrum coming from the L7 amp's outputs, which I think is up to around 150Hz. These frequencies are not ideal for subs but should not hurt them.

Just an idea you may want to check out to see if it helps you any.

BTW, if you have the low-pass filter set at 60Hz right now that is too low IMO. With the underseat speakers disabled, you will have a hole between the 4" door mids and the subs, roughly in the range of 150 Hz down to 60Hz....

[ontopofm]

did you dynamat this area? that would minimize the rattling

[cassey]

Will this prevent the gas door latch from breaking all the time?

[bimmer01]

I did not dynamat this area, because the other areas are "covered" and no one would ever know I dynamated the trunk other than the weight of the trunk lid. I thought seriously about doing this area, but I thought it could be a real eye sore in the trunk, and my understanding is that dynamat is pretty permanent.

[bimmer01]

Originally Posted by kaigoss69

What I meant is for you to try to use the high-pass filter, meaning you are sending all frequencies above 40 Hz to your sub. I say this because most vibrations will probably be caused by the lower frequencies. So if you can live without the earthshaking sub-bass, this may be worth a try. The disadvantage is that your subs will then have to play up to the high side of the frequency spectrum coming from the L7 amp's outputs, which I think is up to around 150Hz. These frequencies are not ideal for subs but should not hurt them.

Just an idea you may want to check out to see if it helps you any.

BTW, if you have the low-pass filter set at 60Hz right now that is too low IMO. With the underseat speakers disabled, you will have a hole between the 4" door mids and the subs, roughly in the range of 150 Hz down to 60Hz....

My understanding, and I could be totally wrong is as follows: There is a sub-sonic filter on my amp that has 3 settings. Off, 15 hz, and 30 hz. This determines how low of a frequency the subs will play and can keep the amp from heating up by trying to play such low frequencies (i.e. 15 hz) that the subs could never hit. I have this set at 30 hz, because with my particular subs and the sealed box, I don't think they could hit much below 30 anyhow. Also, there is a high pass filter that is adjustable. My understanding is that this determines the highest frequencies that the sub will try to play. This seems to do well at about 50-60hz for me. Also, the gain can basically go from 0 to 6. I have it set around 2, and that provides nice bass with little to no rattles. If I want to blast it, the highest I've gone is around 4 and that is the "bone shaker", lol. Lastly, the underseat subs are still connected.

[kaigoss69]

Originally Posted by bimmer01

My understanding, and I could be totally wrong is as follows: There is a sub-sonic filter on my amp that has 3 settings. Off, 15 hz, and 30 hz. This determines how low of a frequency the subs will play and can keep the amp from heating up by trying to play such low frequencies (i.e. 15 hz) that the subs could never hit. I have this set at 30 hz, because with my particular subs and the sealed box, I don't think they could hit much below 30 anyhow. Also, there is a high pass filter that is adjustable. My understanding is that this determines the highest frequencies that the sub will try to play. This seems to do well at about 50-60hz for me. Also, the gain can basically go from 0 to 6. I have it set around 2, and that provides nice bass with little to no rattles. If I want to blast it, the highest I've gone is around 4 and that is the "bone shaker", lol. Lastly, the underseat subs are still connected.

Actually, just the opposite - the high pass filter "cuts off" all frequencies below the setting. So if you have it set at 60Hz, then your subs are only playing the frequencies above 60Hz and frequencies below 60Hz are attenuated in accordance with the crossover's slope.

[ontopofm]

Originally Posted by bimmer01

I did not dynamat this area, because the other areas are "covered" and no one would ever know I dynamated the trunk other than the weight of the trunk lid. I thought seriously about doing this area, but I thought it could be a real eye sore in the trunk, and my understanding is that dynamat is pretty permanent.

i dynamated that area of my trunk and there is lil rattling, you cant tell if it is dynamated if not looking up from below, my front left fender rattles more of which i dont know if i can do anything about it.

[ontopofm]

Originally Posted by cassey

Will this prevent the gas door latch from breaking all the time?

i checked it up before but didnt know what to do about it

[VP Electricity]

Originally Posted by bimmer01

My understanding, and I could be totally wrong is as follows: There is a sub-sonic filter on my amp that has 3 settings. Off, 15 hz, and 30 hz. This determines how low of a frequency the subs will play and can keep the amp from heating up by trying to play such low frequencies (i.e. 15 hz) that the subs could never hit. I have this set at 30 hz, because with my particular subs and the sealed box, I don't think they could hit much below 30 anyhow.

The amp heating part is not really a deal. I would listen to it with 30 hz on and off. That filter is really for vented/ported boxes, if you have a sealed box, it's probably not helping, but easy to test. And no, you won't hit below 30 regardless.

Originally Posted by bimmer01

Also, there is a high pass filter that is adjustable. My understanding is that this determines the highest frequencies that the sub will try to play.

I think you meant low-pass filter. Regardless, woofers should be fed by a low-pass filter, not a high-pass filter

Specifically, a low-pass filter dictates the highest signal that the amplification section will be sent at full volume. Above that note, the signal is attenuated at 12dB for each octave. Below that note, no attenuation. So if it's set to 60, the sound is 12dB lower at 120 Hz (one octave up). Remember, whether the xover filter slope is 12, 18, or 24dB, one octave up, the signal is still fairly loud, and can be heard. It's not a magic filter that eliminates any sound above that frequency.

So let's assume that the signal is so attenuated. If your sub box is too small, or the woofer isn't very good and requires a large box. remember, a "sealed box" is a high-pass filter. If the box is too big, it's no longer a high-pass filter, and it's not a "sealed box", it's an infinite baffle installation.

So if the sealed box is too small, two things happen. The woofer won't play as low, and there is a peak in the response above that. This is why many subs in too-small enclosures sound boomy and don't play low bass.

So your xover setting of 50 or 60 may sound best there for a few reasons... but one common one is that your enclosure is too small, and setting the xover filter that low helps you tame the peak in the response.

If your amp is set to HPF, ignore all that and fix it

[Gavin@MMW]

any idea what this weighs?

wondering what it adds to the car