# 2019 Pacifica subwoofer install



## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

The plan: twin Dayton Ultimax 10s tuned to 30hz with a 3db ripple at 40, probably just below the transfer frequency of the vehicle. Running 700 watts rms to start because I have an amp that will do that already, but I may step it up if I feel the spls calling. 
———
Anyway, I sprung for a new van. I’m a van guy and not ashamed to admit it! Came away with a sweet deal on a Pacifica Touring S, black on black on black 20s. Looks amazing. The stereo is adequate and the interface is so intractably integrated into everything that the deck and display have to stay. I may go with a processor in the future but for now, I’m starting with some bass!

59 miles on the car and panels are coming off! These cars don’t come with a spare so I’m going to hack up the cavity where a spare would reside and build/glass/innovate in there. I’m unwilling to give up any interior space (as usual) especially not the stow-and-go functionality though there’s loads of room to work with if I didn’t care about all that. 

Removed the left rear panel and took measurements of the cavity. I probably won’t glass it. Looking around I found that a 55 gallon drum would make a perfect insert as a base if I reinforce it appropriately. I’ll need to cut and pound some pinch weld if I want enough volume to port the two tens I have laying around from my last project. 

I’m tempted to run them sealed as I wouldn’t have to “modify” anything but what’s the fun in that? I’ve always been disappointed in my sealed builds and want to do this right. 

Wish me luck!


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## dgage (Oct 1, 2013)

Nice van and creative use of a barrel, I’m not sure if I would have thought of that. Don’t forget to reinforce/brace the bottom or it will act like a drum. I look forward to seeing what you come up with. I’m planning to put a sealed 12 in that exact same location on my wife’s Toyota Sienna.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Thanks, and good looking out. Yeah, I'm going to build the base flat with fiber-reinforced resin and secure a sheet of 1/2-3/4" mdf to that. That should make for 3/8"+ of glass/plastic plus the mdf. I'll run a 3/4" divider between the two cavities as well that will be fixed to and through the center of the bottom. That and the glass might be enough to negate the "drum effect". Should be plenty sturdy when I'm done - or so I hope.

Here's my ghetto MS paint of the enclosure. The ports will bend and encroach on the other cavity space so each port exit is adjacent to the opposite woofer (if that makes sense?) but it will all be symmetrical.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

That's extremely cool. Also a sonotube of the same diameter would be a cool way to work it out.


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## customtronic (Jul 7, 2007)

Following. If done right this should be pretty cool when finished!


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## DavidRam (Nov 2, 2014)

This is going to be awesome! Personally, I would have chosen a beer keg, though. 

Beautiful van. I am not a van guy, but those Pacificas are gorgeous.


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## dgage (Oct 1, 2013)

DavidRam said:


> This is going to be awesome! Personally, I would have chosen a beer keg, though.
> 
> Beautiful van. I am not a van guy, but those Pacificas are gorgeous.


If only they had a Pacifica Hellcat for you.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

dgage said:


> If only they had a Pacifica Hellcat for you.


I'd finance my soul for that. Believe it or not, Dodge built one using the Cherokee running gear in 2017 and they talked about producing it. If only...


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Here's the enclosure model. Showing 120 db at 35hz on 700 watts. Cones explode around 20 so I'm running a subsonic filter but can keep it low - like 16hz. Should get 135-140db in the van, which is WAY more than I'll ever push it to. Definitely not flat but considering I'm working with about 2 ft^3, I can't touch that low frequency extension otherwise. I chose these woofers ages ago for just this reason and never got around to installing them. Build cost will be materials for the enclosure and that's it!


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

What's the Qtc? Too high and you may find it too "ringy" for daily use. The peak you're showing in these pics sorta points to that. I don't see any other issues though.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Not sure about the qtc of a vented enclosure. It’s double the volume per driver of a .707 qtc sealed enclosure but that doesn’t mean it won’t be high. 
———
And it looks like I have to go sealed. I opened it up again today and found that even if I beat the pinch welds back, realistically I won’t have the volume if the rear and baffle are sturdy enough. 

Now I’m thinking a quasi-IB 18”!? Or just be sensible and run the pair sealed. 

Attached is a little picture of the cabin pressure vent, 8x5”. I could enlarge that and get to about 33% the sd of the Ultimax 18. It’s adjacent to a crash sensor though so I’d have to do an awesome job of sealing the cavity up to the vent.


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## Coppertone (Oct 4, 2011)

That sir is a nicely laid out minivan and I would be proud to rock it even though most of our kids are out of our home. The last one here is 17 and driving so she’s too good to ride with us lol..


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## BlueAc (May 19, 2007)

dgage said:


> If only they had a Pacifica Hellcat for you.


https://highhorseperformance.com/mopar-6-2l-hellcat-hellcrate-crate-engine-68303089aa/

Problem solved...


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

Ahh for some reason I thought it was sealed. I guess now it possibly will be. IB is a great idea, if you can manage it. Nothing wrong with sealed, as you already know your cabin gain is going to be pretty strong.





Heterosapian said:


> Not sure about the qtc of a vented enclosure. It’s double the volume per driver of a .707 qtc sealed enclosure but that doesn’t mean it won’t be high.
> ———
> And it looks like I have to go sealed. I opened it up again today and found that even if I beat the pinch welds back, realistically I won’t have the volume if the rear and baffle are sturdy enough.
> 
> ...


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## mpm17 (Jun 2, 2019)

dgage said:


> If only they had a Pacifica Hellcat for you.


Almost did a few years ago. When Chrysler use to hang out with Mercedes, they had a Mercedes R55 AMG. 400HP AWD Minivan.


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## dgage (Oct 1, 2013)

BlueAc said:


> https://highhorseperformance.com/mopar-6-2l-hellcat-hellcrate-crate-engine-68303089aa/
> 
> Problem solved...


Does that come with an instruction manual?  And I think a Hybrid emblem would need to be installed to keep a low profile.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Probably going with a pair sealed :-(

That having been said, one of these ported would hang another 3db at 40hz and 5db at 30hz. Decisions, decisions. What do you all think?

I have the subs already and if the past is any indication, I’ll run the gain super low anyway. Assuming just 12db/octave cabin gain, starting low around 50hz, these should be dead flat sealed. SPL won’t quite be there but let’s be honest, those days are over. It will be way more powerful than the stock system can keep up with and should still do nicely if I run a processor and a few external amps down the road. 
———
Hacked up the drum yesterday afternoon. Should end up with just over seven inches of depth, minus the 1.5” baffle, that makes for over 1.25 ft^3 gross which is about perfect. Stuff em a little and should be right around a .7 qtc or lower (assuming a sealed pair). A port would probably be small enough to compress and chuff at party levels, which is certainly another consideration.

Picking up some mdf and hoping to get time enough to do the baffles and divider this afternoon.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

I don't think a pair sealed in a minivan is anything to sneeze at. Just focus on getting those subs to meet your house curve of choice and there's nothing wrong with your setup. Like I said, cabin gain will be really strong. You can verify that right now with an existing enclosure (like another random box you might have, or one of your subs in a simple small box), measure the results. Take your subwoofer outside and measure near-field, then subtract the differences to get your vehicle's transfer function / gain. I bet its a big-ass bell curve from 38-45 or so.


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## FattyBoomBoom (Sep 22, 2019)

I have a 2015 Sienna, already bought 2 w6 10’s sealed, HD1200/1, frog GB 3ways, helix DSP.3/director... it’s gonna be a sleeper!


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

FattyBoomBoom said:


> I have a 2015 Sienna, already bought 2 w6 10’s sealed, HD1200/1, frog GB 3ways, helix DSP.3/director... it’s gonna be a sleeper!


Nice. I think we're headed in similar directions.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Decided on a single ported configuration. It’ll stay turned down most of the time anyway. I’d rather it whisper frequencies my midbasses can’t reach. And I’m lazy. This will be a much simpler build, believe it or not. Cramming two 10s into a 23” circle was going to be a lot of work to get braced properly. 

Cut the baffles old-school with a jig saw. Made a circle jig out of a 1x4 to draw a circle and just free-handed it. Turned out really nice. Not perfect so I’m routing and sanding tomorrow. 

Cut the rear mdf piece as well, cleaned the barrel and have that setting up with two tubes of heavy-duty liquid nails tonight. Found a use for those bumper plates I never use.


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## Evl5150 (Jun 20, 2018)

I was going to use a single Ultimax 10 for my build as well... I may still do so in the future. I had a very nice member on another forum model and design an enclosure specific to the Ultimax 10. I'd like to share that with you though I know you are doing a round suspended enclosure.

Dayton UM 10-22: 1.5cu.Ft. Port tuned to 33hz.

These are based on the TM specs for this specific subwoofer.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Thanks man. Yeah, that’s about perfect for nice flat extension - 1.5 ft^3 in the low 30s. 

I might stuff the enclosure and adjust the port length on the fly to mimic those parameters. I can get close if stuffing will net me 20% or so of phony volume. 
———
Big day today! Routed the baffles for the woofer and port. Broke out the big daddy 3/4” round-over bit for the port and it turned out great. Unfortunately, my circle jig was off a hair and the port elbow doesn’t hold on its own. Took three laps of electric tape to hold it there. I may glass it in so I’m not relying entirely on liquid-nails to keep it in place. Usually it fits so snug it barely needs adhesive but I missed the mark today, and don’t feel like starting over. 

All that’s left for the baffle is to round-over the top panel about 1/4” and glue them together. I left some room to glue/staple some vinyl in there in the future.


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## dcfis (Sep 9, 2016)

Looking real good


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

dcfis said:


> Looking real good


Thanks!

Pretty proud of this jig I made on the fly to cut my braces square. Used a tubing cutter and cut some 2” pvc to 6”, the length I need. Slide it over the 2” dowel, mark 6”, slide it down to the mark and hold as I saw to make nice flush cuts of a uniform length. 

Hoping to install the braces today and get the baffle sanded down so it will drop snug but easily into the basin.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Played with the models a bit. This is where we stand. The green line is an Ultimax 18” in a 6ft^3 sealed enclosure at the same power. Red is my enclosure with the single ten. This is with 12db/octave cabin gain. With 60hz low-pass and a 16hz subsonic filters, they should be neck and neck! Punching well above its weight class!


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Nice! I was hoping to see 2 tens tho'. You could have made a thicker baffle for bracing.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

BP1Fanatic said:


> Nice! I was hoping to see 2 tens tho'. You could have made a thicker baffle for bracing.


If I'm not satisfied with it, I'll be pulling everything and glassing something in the spring - that would be a pair, ported. I'd pull out all the stops to make that happen but it's getting a little cold and I use the van too frequently to glass it at the moment... and I'm impatient. The current baffle is 1.5" thick which should be plenty for a pair but they'd run so close to edge of the current enclosure that there'd be nothing but adhesive securing the baffle directly adjacent to the woofers.

One should do... for a while at least.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Productive afternoon. Shaved the baffle down to where I can just force it into the basin. Affixed the legs and port and did some test fitting in the van. Rear seats move up and down unobstructed. Port length is around 18” and I’m leaving the end unglued so I can lengthen or shorten as needed. Probably do that testing before it gets permanently mounted. 

Plan to corner-load the port. I don’t know if that will do anything for me in a car but figured it was worth a shot.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Finished with some CLD treatment of the panel behind the enclosure as it will be a PITA to get to in the future. Layers of foam, MLV and the enclosure brace should keep that panel from getting lively on me.

Obligatory shot of the Xterra and Pacifica at dusk.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Rainy day. Not much progress. Wrapped the port in batting and epoxied it in its final position. Port length looks closer to 20” which may actually be lower than I want it if the batting lowers the fb substantially. That having been said, a 25hz tune might be fine by me. Probably flatten it out a lot in the cabin and sound a bit closer to the sealed pair. I need about 4-5 rain free hours and it should be assembled and mounted. Then we’re on to testing. 
———
Located a diagram of the “premium” Alpine 13 speaker amplifier. That should allow me to disable the active noise canceling and run my “processor”. I’m just going to use an AudioControl DQ-61. That will allow me to expand to another pair of amps and keep my factory volume knob. 

If someone has an alternative LOC/DSP they like that’s under $400, I’m all ears. For now, $200 buys me my line out converter with a bass knob and 1/3 octave eq from 31-125Hz. Should hold me over for a good while as I collect the rest of my gear and work on making the enclosure pretty. 

Should be a nice day tomorrow. More to follow.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

I give you the world’s ugliest subwoofer enclosure! Need to trim it, bondo and route the corners. Then build a trim panel for it, fiberglass that to the enclosure and wrap it in vinyl. So much work. Probably fifteen hours in the thing by now, working in the evenings. 

Finished the mount in the van today. Finished the bracing, glued and screwed it in place, ran a metric ton of cld around the basin, stuffed it with a little over a pound of polyfill. Calculated volume at 1.2 cuft net presently. Hoping to lower the fb with stuffing to resemble a 1.4-1.5 cuft enclosure. 

Mounting and testing tomorrow with a little 25 watt plate amp I have. It’ll be some time before I can wire it up properly, though I may get lucky and get some time for that Saturday. AudioControl DQ61 comes in tomorrow. Probably wire everything up for the four channel at once so I can just plug and play when I chose drivers for the front stage.

So tired.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Subwoofer:
Dayton Ultimax UM10-22 10" DVC, wired in series to 4 ohms

Amp:
Alpine PDX 600.1, 600+ watts RMS @ 4 ohms

Processor:
AudioControl DQ-61 LOC with 7-band 31-125hz subwoofer eq

Enclosure:
-1/8" plastic basin cut from a 55 gallon drum
-1.5" front baffle - 2 laminated 3/4" mdf sheets, screwed and glued
-3/4" mdf rear baffle mounted outside the basin, screwed and liquid-nailed
-5x 2" dowells as braces between the front and rear baffles/basin
-20x 3" #10 deck screws and glue securing the braces
-8X 3" #10 deck screws and copious liquid-nails securing the basin to the front baffle
-5 lbs CLD wrapped outside the basin
-1.x lbs of poly fill
-20x3" pvc port epoxied through the bottom front-baffle layer, routed top baffle layer
-8x t-nuts and hex hardware to secure the woofer

Brace:
-1x12" hardwood shelf with four 3/8" t-nuts to secure the enclosure
-bolted through 1x12 spacers (to allow the enclosure to recess a bit more) with 4x 3/8x3" bolts, 1.5" washers, lock washers, nuts and loctite to secure to the body, behicnd the pinch welds

Wiring:
4 gauge from battery to amplifier
10 gauge, 99% copper wire from amp to sub and between voice coils


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Ghetto enclosure diagram:

Sub and enclosure modeled at 600 watts:


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## DavidRam (Nov 2, 2014)

Really cool and nice clean work!


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## flgfish (Jan 17, 2019)

Love the van and the work so far. Pretty cool.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

DavidRam said:


> Really cool and nice clean work!





flgfish said:


> Love the van and the work so far. Pretty cool.


Thank you both! You’re very kind. Today was a trying day so it’s nice to have some encouragement. 

Got my measurements wrong by 1/8” in a few spots on the mount and had to drag the circular saw into the van to extract it and start over. Now I’m facing the same situation. 3 of 4 bolts are cooperating. The last one, not so much. 

Hoping to have it mounted and test tomorrow. Ordered the vinyl, tweeters and mids for the front stage today as well. Need to decide on a crossover frequency as they’ll be passive. Trying to distract myself after today’s debacle and the lateness of my processor. Should be here in time for Saturday but I had hoped to mess with it a bit and take my mind off the damn physical woofer install for a few minutes. Oh well. First world problems.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Boom! Literally. This thing quakes. Need to cut 50 pretty good. Looks like about 15-20 db of gain at 50!? I didn’t take any measurements outside the car but I’ll hook my LIMP jig up soon and see where the tuning landed. This was just the sub running off a little 25 watt plate amp up to 150hz. Pink noise. Mic on the console between the front seats, facing up. Rattles all the things at a maybe a watt. 

Not sure how much wattage it was getting as I can’t find my meter. Pleased that it’s finally mounted, to say the least. Wiring up the amp and processor this weekend (hopefully).


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Whew. Exhausted. Working in the dash with bity lengths of factory wire (why they so stingy!?). Tapped the factory amplifier leads for the front door and dash speakers and routed them to the glovebox, where the DQ-61 will live. Played with locations for about an hour and just settled for the glovebox. It’s accessible and isolated. Small anyway, and I don’t keep much more than paperwork in there anyway. I love that DQ-61 btw. So old school. Love me some dials! 

Anyway, if you find yourself working on a Pacifica, I posted the diagram earlier in the thread. The connector you want for the fronts is C5, the middle one on the amplifier module located behind the passengers kick panel. You’ll have to remove the glovebox, glovebox rear cover thing with the light, and the kick panel cover to access it. I’ve never done it before and it took me five minutes. If anyone wants instructions, I’ll do a more detailed write-up. I disconnected the active noise cancelling microphones while I was there as well (they’re on connector C4).
———
Chrysler gave me a nice big port on the firewall to pass the 4 gauge cables for the sub and four channel amps and some 14 gauge for the processor - wiring that straight to the battery as well. Got that plumbed. 

Waiting on rcas from amazon. Cleaning up. Tired. It’s going to rain tomorrow otherwise I’d probably finish it up this weekend. Don’t have it in me to finish today and my kid has a thing this afternoon anyway.


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## JCsAudio (Jun 16, 2014)

Evl5150 said:


> I was going to use a single Ultimax 10 for my build as well... I may still do so in the future. I had a very nice member on another forum model and design an enclosure specific to the Ultimax 10. I'd like to share that with you though I know you are doing a round suspended enclosure.
> 
> Dayton UM 10-22: 1.5cu.Ft. Port tuned to 33hz.
> 
> These are based on the TM specs for this specific subwoofer.


Looks like the work of Shredder, AKA Gregg M.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

The good news is, I’ll have everything in place for the front stage when I’m done with the sub. No plans to tackle that soon but I just need to pick up some CDT CL69s for the doors and I’m set. Everything else arrives this afternoon. Dayton reference 4” full rangers as mids, 1 1/8” silk domes for tweeters. May go with AudioControl’s 6 channel 24db/octave crossover network as well but that will require me buying and wiring a new amp for the midbasses. May just punk out go passive on the front but I need to band pass my midbasses somehow - passive crossovers to accomplish all of that will probably cost as much as the active crossover network. Decisions, decisions. 

Pictures of the DQ-61 and my bullet connector job for tapping the amp leads - too tight to solder and didn’t want to go with vampire taps (yuck). This will allow me to disconnect easily in the future.


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## JCsAudio (Jun 16, 2014)

You’ll like that DQ-61, I started out with one of those and it worked well.


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## dgage (Oct 1, 2013)

Looks like you have enough wire to just retire the van correctly. Lol! Making great progress and looking good. Take care.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Found these great loom guides. Didn’t have to disassemble them either to run the 4 gauge under the seats. Looking for a good ground. I’d like to use a seat bolt and tie both amps and the processor grounds together, but the bolts are big as hell. Need to source some mondo ring terminals, I guess!


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Ground game on fire! Found these old 4g BMW delivery cables. Hole perfectly accepts the seat bolt and that soldered ring terminal makes me smile. 

Glove box is a mess. I have a ton of loom that I’ll use to clean it up but I’m leaving it until the four channel is situated. Lots of extra ground cable in case I need to run a common for both amps and the processor.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

This is where the amps will end up. Poking out ? 

They won’t fit completely under the seats, if I want the seats to move, and there’s no other place for them in the van without interfering with cargo space. If I had some really nice amps I might try mounting them to the roof but that’s gonzo for a brand new car and probably not ideal if I got into an accident!


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Insomnia. Woke up at 2am. Just went out to the van and finished up the wiring. Ran the sexy 10 gauge copper through the harness guide to the sub, hooked up the amp and wired the fuse to the battery. Waiting in the Home Depot parking lot for them to open so I can pick up a blade fuse and fire it up!!!

Just checked the first post. 12 days to plan, build, wire and fire up the sub, amps and processor. Not too shabby, all things considered. Now hopefully I didn’t just jinx myself and everything works properly.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Great Success! It didn't fire up initially. Amp was kicking on, processor kicking on, etc. Had my gains switched up. Switched the gain sensitivity back and BOOM! **** is loud and drony though. Sounds like a narrow bandpass. 
Fortunately, I have some eq available. I'll tune it this afternoon and hopefully it mellows out. Shakes the rafters though, fo sho.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Detailed, Pacifica specific stuff. Accessing and tapping the front speaker leads; disabling ANC:

Passenger kickpanel trim has to come off. Remove the trim piece just above the kick panel/door sill trim piece by pulling towards you. The B-pillar trim piece needs to be pulled up slightly where it overlaps on the front door sill. Pull up. there are two tabs that will take some force to dislodge the first time. Don't worry, they won't break. Once that's done, the kick panel just pulls off. Pull it out at the kick panel area, laterally, then up along the door sill and back, away from the dash to remove it.

Including the glove box - which doesn't need to come out - everything took about five minutes and I'd never had it apart before or knew exactly what to do. Once that's out, you can look up in the kickpanel area and see the amplifier/ANC module. Tapping the lines for the front speakers was not a trivial affair, mostly because there's so little wire to work with. Depinning the ANC mics (I just pulled the negative terminals) wasn't bad at all though.

You'll need to tap the middle connector, C5 in the diagram, for the front speakers - doors and dash. The white connector, C4 in the diagram, has the ANC mic leads in it.

It took me several hours to cut, splice and reconnect the leads for the speakers but only a few minutes to depin the ANC. I used bullet connectors for the speaker leads.

To depin the ANC, unplug the white connector, pry the lock portion out a few mm and insert something (I used a flattened T50 staple) into the hole just above the female receptacle for the pin and pull the wire out.

ANC negative pins (white connector, C4):
19: Brown/violet
20: Brown/grey
21: Orange/green
22: Orange/blue

Front speakers (middle connector, C5):
LF dash (+) : pin 2, grey/orange
LF dash (-) : pin 7, grey/yellow
RF dash (+) : pin 3, grey/green
RF dash (-) : pin 8, grey/turquoise (the lighter of the two "greens")
LF door (+) : pin 4, grey/violet
LF door (-) : pin 9, grey/yellow
RF door (+) : pin 5, green/violet
RF door (-) : pin 10, green/yellow


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Before and after some adjustment. I have to keep the level on the sub way low or it overpowers everything. I know now that my plan to hold off on the front stage is going to fail. Need some reinforcement up front asap. Pretty happy with the sub eq on the DQ-61. It was able to flatten that nasty peak out nicely and in no time at all.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Installed the Dayton RS 100-4s in the dash. Definitely less sensitive than the stockers. Need to unplug the center channel now. It’s distracting as hell. 

Ordered some cheap tweeters to play with positioning. Played with the big guys today but they’d be a pretty permanent install, wherever they land. Thinking about some smaller faced Morels to make install a tad cleaner/easier.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Disconnected the center channel and installed the cheap tweeters today with a cap only and no low-pass on the main drivers. Sounds awful but I got an idea of placement for the future. Imaging isn’t happening with no crossover and some hot-junk tweeters but I’m getting some good width from the top corner of those little quarter windows. 

Played with the full-range speakers as well. They sound much better and definitely louder when taken out of the dash and placed on top, on axis with t-shirts wrapped around their backs. May be building mid and tweeter pods. Though they shouldn’t beam until 4500 or so, hiding behind trim and bouncing off the windshield is doing them no favors. 

Now to find an appropriate tweeter. I have very little eq up top which concerns me. I might shell out for something nice, hoping that keeps it flat, since I won’t be able to adjust them.

Edit: Played with the factory bass, mid, treble settings. With some wacky adjustments I was able to get +/- 5db from about 180-15k hz. Not too shabby. Falls off up top and the sub kicks it up a notch below. Doesn’t sound half bad! Now, with some eq and time alignment!!!

(Shown with 1/6 smoothing and no eq, other than the b/m/t adjustments in the headunit)


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Ordered a 24 db/octave variable crossover network tonight. Splits the front stage into three distinct ranges. 

Working in stages:
Stage 1: amplify the existing cheap tweeters and mids; tune, time align - no extra money, just time and the new crossover network. 
Stage 2: amplify the existing door speakers (necessitates buying and hiding a third amp), time align to the sub. 
Stage 3: replace the door speakers if necessary. Otherwise begin the tweeter pods for some much nicer Morels in the a-pillars. 
Stage 4: finish whatever I haven’t yet - replacing either the door speakers or tweeters, glassing the a-pillars and covering the sub (thinking spring and warmer weather).
———
This sub install snowballed quickly into a full build. Probably near flat with 1/6 smoothing once the front is amplified and eq’d. Existing tweeters are way bright on-axis but, if they’ll hold up, they should serve their purpose and help me rough out a spot for the a-pillar build. Anyway, it’s under $200/month until next year. Should have <$1000 in the build in the end, and sound damn good.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Bought my Morel CAT tweeters, a compact amplifier, wiring kit, rcas and some nice copper 12 and 14 gauge speaker wire. Ready to rock this three-day weekend!

So far:

Drivaz:
Morel CAT 408 tweeters (2400+ Hz @ 24 db/oct)
Dayton RS100-4 mids (250-2400 Hz @ 24 db/oct)
OEM Alpine 6x9 door speakers for now (70-250 Hz @ 24 db/oct hp, 12 db/oct lp)
***CDT CL69 subwoofer/midbass in the future, if they'll fit/TBD***
Dayton UM10 10" subwoofer in 1.4 net cuft enclosure tuned to 30 Hz (15-70 Hz @ 24 db/oct)

Amplifiyaz:
Alpine PDX 1.600 for subwoofer, 600 watts RMS mono
Pioneer 4 channel, 125 watts RMS/channel for dash speakers (mids/tweeters)
Kenwood 2 channel for door speakers/midbass drivers 150 watts RMS/channel

Processaz:
AudioControl DQ61 LOC/EQ
AudioControl 6XS 24 db/octave crossover network

About $1000 out of pocket plus the value of the equipment that I've reused. But, I'm calling it a grand.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

That escalated quickly! Returning the AudioControl gear and going active with a Dayton DSP. Hard to beat that thing for features and price. I was going to have to rig the AudioControl stuff to get it to work the way I wanted and I'd never be really happy with it. I was already missing the relatively limited functionality of my 80PRS that I've run in everything for years. Happy to have it back... hopefully.


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## Viggen (May 2, 2011)

Looks good.... I am minivan shopping at this moment... need a vehicle for work and will do a small system in there. Probably end up with a used grand caravan... they (caravan, Pacifica etc) are just so versatile. I will not need the 3rd row seats, been wondering if a sub enclosure would fit where the 3rd row seats are stored.


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## dgage (Oct 1, 2013)

Viggen said:


> Looks good.... I am minivan shopping at this moment... need a vehicle for work and will do a small system in there. Probably end up with a used grand caravan... they (caravan, Pacifica etc) are just so versatile. I will not need the 3rd row seats, been wondering if a sub enclosure would fit where the 3rd row seats are stored.


We have a Toyota Sienna and a Honda Odyssey before that. If you don’t need the third row seats, you will have an awful lot of room for subs but their output may be compromised if you put some boxes or other dense object over them. Just like the Pacifica in this thread my vans also have 1.5 cu.ft. or so for a sub on the side near the very back.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

You’ll have an obscene amount of room if you remove the back seats! I used to have a town and country and the hole those seats store into is cavernous. You’d have enough airspace for two sealed 18s. Or be sensible... but I vote 18s.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Waiting on the weekend and for more gear to appear so I ran to Home Depot today and scooped the fixins for my tweeter pods. They turned out nicely. Need to epoxy the mounting surface and that seam in the middle, let that cure, then sand and bed-line them. I’ve built much smaller versions just using 1.5” PVC end caps. These should be sick. 

The tweeter will fit in the 1.5” pipe. That inserts through a 2”-1.5” coupling, flush cut at the end with a cap on the back and a piece of 2” to fill the gap. Simple build that will probably cost me 90 minutes and $20 when I’m finished. Tomorrow, I need to grab bed liner spray and some threaded pipe (stuff for building lamps, also Home Depot). Already found an easily removed piece of trim to mount them to as well. 

The ghettoness is strong with this project but it should turn out great in the end. And maybe even sound decent! The pods should almost disappear behind the tweeters themselves, in that window recess there. That mock up has them pushed about an inch further out than they’ll eventually mount.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Oh! My little amp arrived for the midbasses in the front doors! Thing is tiny! We’ll see if it sounds anywhere near decent, but at 150w RMS per channel, it’ll probably have some headroom in the gain anyway. As long as it doesn’t sound legit bad, it’ll serve its purpose running from 80-250 Hz. Hides nicely behind some trim under the dash.


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## dgage (Oct 1, 2013)

Looking nice! Are your midranges up near the windshield or are you running a 2-way setup with midbasses?

Oh. Definitely 18s. Too bad my wife would neuter me if I took her rear seat cubby for an 18. But oh the glorious sound!


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

dgage said:


> Looking nice! Are your midranges up near the windshield


Yeah, I’m leaving some smaller 4” drivers from Dayton in the factory location unless that doesn’t work out. If it’s not evident by now, I’m always willing to rig something up! Thinking about some pods on axis with the same drivers. They’re buried beneath a panel so the only sound you get are the reflections from the windshield and that likely won’t do for long.


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## dgage (Oct 1, 2013)

ErinH has a thread for his 2019 Honda Civic and he has a link to a paper that mentions Th e best angle for bouncing off a windshield. When I tested out our Toyota Sienna, it was at a sub-optimal angle. You may want to look for that link (I’m on my phone or I would) and then measure the angle. But even that I’d take with a grain of salt as there is no such thing as perfect and many types of installs can be made to work well. I’d probably wait until you get the full system installed, especially the DSP and then see how it sounds after tuning before making any changes.

Got back home and found the link in Erin’s thread. 
http://www.jjracoustics.com/128-AES_2010.pdf


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## Viggen (May 2, 2011)

dgage said:


> We have a Toyota Sienna and a Honda Odyssey before that. If you don’t need the third row seats, you will have an awful lot of room for subs but their output may be compromised if you put some boxes or other dense object over them. Just like the Pacifica in this thread my vans also have 1.5 cu.ft. or so for a sub on the side near the very back.


I don’t really need the third row, however I also can’t have boxes sitting in the back. I own a funeral home and need the vehicle for hauling people.... also need to be able to haul my parents around so only need the 2nd row to be useable.

Dodge/Chrysler vans just work the best for my needs and the stow n go storage seems perfect for sub enclosure...


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## FattyBoomBoom (Sep 22, 2019)

Viggen said:


> dgage said:
> 
> 
> > We have a Toyota Sienna and a Honda Odyssey before that. If you don’t need the third row seats, you will have an awful lot of room for subs but their output may be compromised if you put some boxes or other dense object over them. Just like the Pacifica in this thread my vans also have 1.5 cu.ft. or so for a sub on the side near the very back.
> ...


Hauling alive people? Cause if not, I think the “other” type of people wouldn’t mind some bass...


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## dgage (Oct 1, 2013)

Viggen said:


> I don’t really need the third row, however I also can’t have boxes sitting in the back. I own a funeral home and need the vehicle for hauling people.... also need to be able to haul my parents around so only need the 2nd row to be useable.
> 
> Dodge/Chrysler vans just work the best for my needs and the stow n go storage seems perfect for sub enclosure...


My reference to boxes was you transporting them, since I didn’t know how you were using your van, could block the bass. A casket might block some of the bass. But the subs themselves would go in the rear well where the third row seats tuck into and when you put subs there, you just build the sub (amp?) enclosure flat with the floor. This assumes you completely remove the third row seats as mentioned.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Played with the mid-pod idea again. I can easily install some pods that put the mid on-axis with the opposite seat and only a few degrees off axis to the nearest seat. Not that they need to be on axis, I just don’t want them buried in the dash as they are now.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

dgage said:


> ErinH has a thread for his 2019 Honda Civic and he has a link to a paper that mentions Th e best angle for bouncing off a windshield. When I tested out our Toyota Sienna, it was at a sub-optimal angle. You may want to look for that link (I’m on my phone or I would) and then measure the angle. But even that I’d take with a grain of salt as there is no such thing as perfect and many types of installs can be made to work well. I’d probably wait until you get the full system installed, especially the DSP and then see how it sounds after tuning before making any changes.
> 
> Got back home and found the link in Erin’s thread.
> http://www.jjracoustics.com/128-AES_2010.pdf


Thank you for that. My concern is that the drivers are buried far enough under the panel to effectively negate most all direct sound. I don't think comb-filtering will be as much of an issue as interference of the panel with even reflected vlaues. I measured and the drivers mounted on the dash ran 6-10db higher than when buried inside it. The mids are my lowest sensitivity and power handling drivers so for them to keep up, they may have to come out. 

BUT, as you mentioned, I may install them in place as they are now, evaluate and then remove them if I need to. I prefer the look of a factory install as much as possible so I'm willing to compromise a little to avoid pods - though those Daytons do looks really nice and probably deserve to be seen


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Got impatient and didn’t seal up the seam in the tweeter pods before I painted them. Got the itch. Tweeters should be in tomorrow and I want to mount them already! So, I sprayed the tweeter pods with some bedliner to give them some texture and gave them a dusting of satin black. 

Also finished the bodies of the mid pods. Just a 3” PVC coupling and a piece of 3” cut off inside, sanded flush at the face. Need to route the rears. They’ll be “aperiodic” in that I don’t want too much sound escaping from behind but I can’t justify sealing them tight in something so small. Probably not a problem at 250+ Hz though. Routing some 5/16” cutting board to fill the rear. Spray those and wrap them. Cut the vinyl today. The two textures won’t match but it should look fine. 

Also routed power and remote lines for the four channel under the passenger seat today. Need RCAs and a ground and that’s going in. All my cabling arrived today so I’m set to tackle the install this weekend. Processor and such should be here tomorrow so I’ll have everything in hand. Just hoping that I get the time to finish it all. Then begins the never ending process of tuning.


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## Viggen (May 2, 2011)

FattyBoomBoom said:


> Hauling alive people? Cause if not, I think the “other” type of people wouldn’t mind some bass...


Both... parents are still kicking... however other passengers not so much. Yes, sometimes a casket, cot etc back there. 


I really like seeing this nice build in a minivan! Nice work


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Routed and epoxied the caps for the rear of the mid pods this afternoon. Used the trusty old IKEA cutting boards. My wife questioned why we needed twenty cutting boards the last time we went there and I think I have like 6 left - just enough for the midbass baffles ?

Drilled and ran threaded pipe for the tweeter pods as well. Painted those black to match. The right tweeter pod will mount to its respective mid pod; the other will be fixed to the dash and a pillar with dabs of black hot glue or something similarly ghetto. Sounds terrible but it’s that or Velcro. Either solution will allow me to aim the left side appropriately. The right side will be on axis. 

The pipe nipples in the rear of the tweeter pods were basically just installed for looks. Cables will route through them.

Ran rcas for the four channel as well. Picture attached of test-fitting the mid and tweeter pods on the right/passenger side, staring at it from my seated position in the drivers seat.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Happy Veterans Day to all the veterans on here and out there!

All the wiring today. Ran speaker cables to the doors; panels off, speakers out, hacked the oem connector. Measured clearance for the midbass drivers in the future. I think the big ass CDTs will just fit with a 1/4” baffle. 

Chrysler was kind enough to have a hollow spot in their mollex connector on the doors that easily accommodated some 10 gauge. Ran a dedicated switched 12v from the cigarette lighter to the DQ61. Ground and switched 12v for the midbass amp. 14 and 12 gauge for the tweeters and mids on the dash, respectively. Spent the tiny bit extra and went all copper. Probably $300 in wire on the car, all said and done. Ground for the four channel went in too, so that’s ready to go. 

Tired. Still plan to sand and cover the mid pods but I’m running out of energy and daylight to route the last bits for those - I decided last night to add a cover to conceal where the vinyl will wrap around back. 

Thanks to anyone that’s read any of my posts. Reading back through, I have a tendency to run-on. I hope it’s helped someone. Pacifica owners: I’ll throw a diy for the front door panels on here tomorrow. They’re really pretty easy though those clips are no joke. You’ll need a proper metal panel tool to get them started and a T30 for the door speakers. Otherwise it’s two 10mm bolts, two connectors and two cables. 

No good pics today, just a mess of wires. Almost 700 miles on the odometer now. Everyone but y’all thinks I’m crazy.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Mustered a bit of energy last night and got the mid pods wrapped. Took a bit of dremel action to get the drivers to sit flush. Then Super 77 spray adhesive, Marshall-stack vinyl, exacto knife and lots of super glue. They’re not yet finished so you can see some folds/seams in the picture with the drivers. Edges are turning out nicely with lots of cutting and folding and gluing. Should be pretty smooth when I’m done.


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## dgage (Oct 1, 2013)

Looking really nice. Exceptional attention to detail. Thanks for continuing to share.


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## Iamsecond (Jan 3, 2017)

Knowing you own a funeral home reminds me of a comp car years ago that was a hearse that had several 15s in a casket in the back. Great install.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Iamsecond said:


> Knowing you own a funeral home reminds me of a comp car years ago that was a hearse that had several 15s in a casket in the back. Great install.


Well, I don't own one. Viggen does though. That hearse sounds like a wicked candidate for an spl rig.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Tweeters showed up today, finally! Just got a delivery alert! Can't wait to get home and mount those suckers! Need to exercise some restraint and wire the four channel for the dash and find a new spot for the dsp - the glovebox is too small. I think the colsole/kickpanel area opposite that little kenwood might work nicely. We'll see. The dsp actually grows pretty large when you stick a bunch of RCAs on it. Looks nice though. Kind of sad that I didn't build a rack on the console to mount the DQ-61 and the dsp.


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## FattyBoomBoom (Sep 22, 2019)

Heterosapian said:


> Everyone but y’all thinks I’m crazy.


I get it man.. I’m a van guy too..


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

FattyBoomBoom said:


> Heterosapian said:
> 
> 
> > Everyone but y’all thinks I’m crazy.
> ...


Tearing apart any new car doesn’t make sense to anyone else. But I’m super pleased!

Had to dremel out the tweeter pods pretty good to get the tweeters to fit, but man they fit perfectly now! All dry-fitted and shiiii.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Boom! They look better than I expected, honestly, given my limited fabrication skills. Hoping to fire it up Saturday. Four channel tomorrow. DSP and initial settings Saturday morning.


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## Viggen (May 2, 2011)

Iamsecond said:


> Knowing you own a funeral home reminds me of a comp car years ago that was a hearse that had several 15s in a casket in the back. Great install.


I have debated on doing that.... I have a 93 caddy Fleetwood hearse that needs a bunch of TLC, I do not use it for funerals anymore thus minivan shopping. Presently use the hearse only for transport to the crematory or from coroner/hospitals. 

Thus thinking the hearse isn’t worth anything and it would be fun to do something loud and stupid... and funny


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

It’s alive! Got everything up and running yesterday; gains and initial levels set. It’s way loud. Like, ears bleeding at 50% loud. Dropped the level on the pods and it sounds pretty damn good with some rough time alignment. The door speakers can’t keep up so those will have to go soon. Lots of tuning in my future.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Spent some time in the cab tuning by ear. Waiting on a new calibrated mic to come Tuesday. Turned the midbasses way down to bring the low-sensitivity mids back up, which breaks my heart. Sub is way low. Bass is either lively or in front. I’d love to get the same impact as that sucker on full blast in front of me. Midbass upgrade in the near future so I can drop the crossover and get a decent house-curve going out in front. Pretty flat in all passbands with isolated pink noise and a little db meter though.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

The van turned 900 miles yesterday. That's a record for me - doing a complete install within 800 miles and a month of ownership. 

Fun with tuning. Added a little extra delay, dropped the midbass crossover to 60Hz and the sub blends much more nicely. It only sounds like it's coming from the rear now when there's sustained sub-60Hz content, like rap or pitbull or something that I don't spend much time listening to. Bass guitar and kick drum are centered on the dash. It's surreal. I had a buddy ask me how much power the center channel was getting... of course, there is no center channel; he's just not used to stereoooooooo!

Anyway, my new microphone and the bluetooth dongle/iphone app for my dsp arrive tonight, which should make tuning much easier. Trying to get the center image worked out. I got it pretty sharp but it was off to the right a few inches and trying to pull it left with time alignment broke the image up. Did some level tweaks and got it better but I'm hoping a proper level adjustment with the microphone and pink noise will get it solid and centered. I think the TA is about right on the mids/tweeters and midbass-to-sub but male and lower female vocals tend to pull to the corners, making me think there's some TA needed on the L-to-R midbass adjustment.

I still can't believe that this so quickly snowballed from a ghetto-custom subwoofer install into something that classes me out at any SQ competition I might otherwise enter. 4" mids and tweeters in non-oem dash locations, a ported 10", 1400 watts RMS and a DSP... Now, I'd love to find an event locally not to compete in but get some better trained ears on the system and some input. Anyone know of anything in the Northern Virginia/DMV area?


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

isnt it fun, when people start to look where is the damn center speaker hiden, lol

I demoed my system to a home audio guy.... he started to move left/right, he moved his head toward the ventilation ducts in the middle of the dash, and a little later he asked me where is the center channel driver installed since he could not find any, ahahaha


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

Started in earnest last night. Mids are very shrill. If I bring the midbass up to compensate, it muddies up the low-midrange but sounds more “balanced” though it’s clearly heavy on the low end when I run RTA. This was my base tune I managed yesterday, before bringing up the midbass. Small house curve. Sounded kind of lifeless and the mids were really screaming.

EDIT: WOW! Switched the slope on the midrange low-pass from 24 to 12 db/oct and the hotness in the mids calmed down BIG TIME! Looking forward to RTAing it tonight and seeing what happened but I imagine the phase disconnect is now sucking some of that 1500-3000 out. I had run out of eq to cut the midrange anomalies much more. More cohesive now too. Loving it. I was happy with the image but greatly dissatisfied with the performance of the mids before making that change.


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## Heterosapian (Dec 31, 2011)

LBaudio said:


> isnt it fun, when people start to look where is the damn center speaker hiden, lol


Few things make me happier than this phenomenon!


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Nice response!


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