# Peugeot partner from the UK



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So I have a new van, 3 amps and a load of kit to put in it ?

The van itself is a 2013 31k mile 1.6 hdi with 90bhp, now to my surprise it has a 180a alternator fitted so that was a bonus!

So the first thing I did was lower it and put some Peugeot 307 alloy wheels on it ??


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So I’ve ordered butyl rope for behind the crash bars and I will give it a liberal glueing with Pu sealant as the gap is huge and the factory ‘glue’ is soft and only covers 10% of its length 

So my amps are three audison srx models, i have an srx2, an srx2s and an srx1d, so 2x60wrms, 2x180rms and 1x1kwrms

Subwoofers I have an alpine type r 1242 dual 4, and a B2 audio riot 10” dual 2

Speakers so far I have b2 audio IS 6” sql components

My workshop at work has an array of speaker and power cables, main power will be knucoceptz 1/0 which is approx 70mm^2

I’ve also ordered three 4m RCA’s from knuconceptz also

I’ve yet to decide where to put the amps as yet, but I’m kinda hoping 4m will be enough...


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So far I have attacked a door...

Cut a lot of inner skin away, hoping to make a set of sealed enclosures (maybe ported if I find enough room)... although I am open to suggestions for eights to go in the doors and 3” and tweeter if anyone has suggestions for a maybe 15-17litre sealed enclosure??

The glass is quite shallow, so far I’ve moved the fixing for the forward window runner base, a few spot welds and it’s now going forward and not downwards

Apologies the pics are taken from funny angles


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So I have only had this afternoon on the doors, and there’s a few parts that can’t move (the irritating window runner up the middle, but fore and aft of this is fair game!)


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

The plan is to use the inside of the door card which is massive and will allow a good protrusion of the enclosure forward of the outer skin, I will make a birch ply and fibre glass rear to sit just in front of the glass and it will effectively form the back of the enclosure, then build sides and a front out and then fit the hollowed out door cars over it and then make a front panel over the enclosure and door cars to be fitted from the outside after the card has been fitted back...

Hopefully you will see what I’m thinking from the pics of the cavernous door card which I reckon is 3-4” deep all over, I have 6.5” from the factory grill to the glass at its narrowest point, glass is further away as you get further up by an inch or so, I’m hoping to get 15-20 litres which should be big enough to support an eight I reckon... hence my newly purchased sixes looking less appealing, although ported 6.5” would work also I reckon?? So that’s where I am today


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So my current plan is to make a perforated 1mm metal mesh back shape that sits in away from the glass and moving bits, then make sides in the same, and then fibreglass the lot with damping material strips between the two or three layers of fibreglass, should make it nice and rigid, then bolt it in with rivnuts and then Pu seal it to make the seal again for the inner door, I can weld so I’ll take it together and then glass it after, far easier and space effective than wood and won’t rust once I’ve hammerite’d the back of it also (it’s a direct to metal paint for gates etc just incase you don’t have it in the states?)

It’s far easier to work with thin metal that shaping 12mm birch ply

I’m also going to do a centre console down firing front sub for when I go fishing and take the sub box proper out of the van I think, maybe a 4ohm eight off 600wrms which will switch off when the rear sub is plugged in for weekend fun... I’m contemplating a 6th order with dual 2 cu ft sides, tuned to 25 and 50 for bags of fun output when required ? although if I can for the front sub and 8” in the front doors I’ll try to swap it for a riot 15 for good measure and more volume obviously with a bigger enclosure


----------



## Bowtie (Nov 30, 2008)

With 90hp on tap you need to be careful you don't get run over!

Nice progress on a cool looking van.


----------



## RRWWS (Dec 26, 2017)

Sounds like a fun build. That is a wild looking van.


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

A bit of quick rough measuring and being conservative I will have at least 13 litres for my new purchases... probably more like 15 litres, that’s allowing for a 10mm thickness of enclosure as well... I might use wood yet for the enclosure and glass the rear... still playing and the metal mesh I’m currently modelling it with is maybe a concern for ringing... but I reckon it won’t be an issue with a layer of damping mat on the rear and 10mm of birch ply or glass on the inside... not sure yet... bit of bracing, some resin around the inside and job should be ok...

In other news I’ve acquired an ex demo mosconi 6to8 from the U.K. distro ? it’s good having friends from days of my old spl life! And ordered the list of drivers in the pic below...



So the door has had one side of its metal frame made and inadvertently I made the other side ? the first metal shape appeared with all the bends the wrong way for the other door ?


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

RRWWS said:


> Sounds like a fun build. That is a wild looking van.


That’s my other one, 4 yrs older and a bit higher mileage... it had just been cleaned hence it’s shinyness! That’s standard ride height and stock steel rims! I was a mechanic at a independent Peugeot specialist for 10yrs so I know them well!


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

RRWWS said:


> Sounds like a fun build. That is a wild looking van.


Hopefully it will sound good when it’s done, I like all sorts of music from dance and trance to clannad (Irish folk stuff) to rock like rammstein and I love linkin park! But all sorts of everything! The eighties was the best decade for music if I had to pick one!

I’ve only ever done 8/5/tweeter in one car when I was just starting out with car audio installs in my first job as a pro installer, ended up mainly doing alarms and phone kits for the most part as a career


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

My old Peugeot 406 coupe with full fusion install, I love cream and burgundy as colour schemes go! Seven amps, four battery’s in the wheel well, then amps Fitted into the rack above and forward firing sub box fully sealed from the boot


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

And my old shape partner van complete with 3.0 V6 petrol done to look like a proper street sleeper! 210bhp and 1200kg made it very nippy and ran 14.1 second quarters down the quarter


----------



## DavidRam (Nov 2, 2014)

Cool van, I'm in!


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

I’ve just perused the internet for long enough and ordered a pioneer sph-da230dab, I was trying to work out the last time I played a cd... it has Apple play for my iPhone 7, and I also have an iPod classic 120gb I can run audio and video from also... video is always a bit of a novelty though I find!

I’ve also got an 8x4 of 12mm birch ply to properly attack the front doors with 

Drivers should be here in the next week or so as four of the six needed to be ordered in, will see if I can find a friend with a 3D printer for some baffles perhaps or even a cnc


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

But my first job for the weekend is to clean the weekend car and hopefully get it sold tomorrow... Renault Clio RS200 CUP, 197bhp of the fastest little go kart around corners I’ve ever driven! Awesome little car! Sad to see it go, but the silver van came up and I then owned four vehicles!


----------



## super josh (Aug 3, 2016)

dumdum said:


> And my old shape partner van complete with 3.0 V6 petrol done to look like a proper street sleeper! 210bhp and 1200kg made it very nippy and ran 14.1 second quarters down the quarter


Nice, the Peugeot/Renault V6 is a cracking motor 

Bet that shifts and sounds good too?

Josh


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

super josh said:


> Nice, the Peugeot/Renault V6 is a cracking motor
> 
> Bet that shifts and sounds good too?
> 
> Josh


It had no cats and a full stainless from the downpipe back, it was very subtle at lights, a very gentle purr, if you opened it up it had a nice growl ?

The 406 coupe 210 was a 150mph armchair... wearing 215/55R16 tyres, it did nearly 70 in second... the van wore 205/45R16’s and would do 59mph in second and 142 on the limiter in fifth, but 3rd and 4th were awesome! ? I miss that van, I had to leave the HDI badges on the wings (I bought it as a blown 2.0 hdi with a cracked piston, cost me under 2k all done)

I sold it to a kid from Scotland for 2.6k, he caught the train down, didn’t even want to test drive it, just drove him back from the train station and gave me the cash, I insisted he drive it... he sold it a guy in London who emailed me about a few bits a year or so later, but not heard or seen owt since


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So the door enclosures have started being built... well the one side anyway, and I have a pile of 12mm birch ply that’s ready to be screwed together when I start it’s reverse identical twin ?

The story so far... with a bit of improvisation on the work bench ?


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Well I needed one more set of channels... god bless eBay... I now have a spare set...  4 channel audison srx4 to go with the rest of my family


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Well as it sits now with a 12mm front inside the edges I have 13.5 litres, plus a little extra in the front where the baffle cutout will sit less a bit for driver displacement I reckon it will play quite nicely, the drivers in an enclosure of 16l have a qtc of 0.707 so a touch under isn’t too bad as it will give a little extra hump in low midbass and higher sub bass which is ideal for a front door setup, I can always cut with the eq if needed, but I am a happy bunny


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Both sides done, teething troubles sorted, I’m going to hammertoe all the cut metal edges to prevent rust, then deaden the doors with some butyl deadener and then some closed cell foam, I’ve removed a lot of metal from the doors so I’m going to effectively bolt the builds in so they backed part of the structure and put a little stiffness back in

Once I’ve deadened and run cables in, I will seal the back of the enclosures... although birch is pretty good at handling moisture, far better than mdf, but a few coats of yacht varnish should see them well I reckon, then use some mesh bent to right angles to fill big gaps properly and deaden over to seal the door cavity back up to prevent water Ingres to the cabin

I’ll cut the top and front plates in the week as my table is made up of the rest of my 12mm birch currently, I have a piece of 18mm mdf I can bring in and use so I can cut it up, I reckon I’ll have used just under half a sheet of birch making the enclosures ? hopefully it should keep vibrations at bay and keep the door nice and quiet... time will tell I guess ??


----------



## optimaprime (Aug 16, 2007)

dumdum said:


> Hopefully it will sound good when it’s done, I like all sorts of music from dance and trance to clannad (Irish folk stuff) to rock like rammstein and I love linkin park! But all sorts of everything! The eighties was the best decade for music if I had to pick one!
> 
> 
> 
> I’ve only ever done 8/5/tweeter in one car when I was just starting out with car audio installs in my first job as a pro installer, ended up mainly doing alarms and phone kits for the most part as a career




The 80s is best damn music!! And most of it is recorded very very well! 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## optimaprime (Aug 16, 2007)

This fun build can’t wait for pics 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

optimaprime said:


> The 80s is best damn music!! And most of it is recorded very very well!
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


If I ever got stranded on a desert island and had to pick one decade of music to take with me it would be the eighties! My earliest musical influences were all 80’s from when I can remember first loving music 

As for the build, there will be lots of pics along the way ??


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So an impromptu day off and I went to work to set about finishing the door cabinets ? I’m happy, roughly symmetrical to 2mm and fit perfectly under both sides, I could get maybe another litreout of them with some extra airspace at the top front corner I reckon, but tbh 13.5-14.5 litres won’t make a massive difference, I will gain a little from my baffle cutout also depending on what size I make it, the plan is graft a baffle into the door card so the speaker bolts through the baffle and fastens the door card on also, not sure on fixings as yet, but I want to open the rear of the drivers out with a chamfer if possible, but we shall see when it gets there I guess...

I have also added some deadener to the outer skin and also around the cut edges that I gave a lick of paint last night, doors shut like a Bentley now especially with the added weight of 3/8 sheet of birch that’s screwed inside each door also, I added more fixing points to the inner skin and also measured/fixed the fronts on in situ as I figure if there’s a slight twist with the rear half that may now be negated by me completing the final structure ? they are solid little cabs! Glad I did them in birch! Two or three thin coats of yacht varnish (or even fibreglass resin) and line them with a good coat of resin should seal them up inside and out I reckon, although I don’t think there will be any leaks with the glue that’s been floating about being honest... firstvtime building something like this and I am happy, took the best part of three days I reckon start to finish to get them where they are now ?


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Made myself a little circle jig, will cut down to 3cm with ease (2.8cm is very close to ally/cutter interaction with a 6.7mm cutter but doable) and upto 69.5cm if I invert the aluminium slide, just need a wingnut now to make adjustment tool-less ?


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So in other news the amplifier I had bid on on eBay turned up, all my amplifiers I’ve bought are here and assembled, I have at my disposal the srx1d, srx2s, srx4 and an srx 4 now  tbh I might sell the srx 2 as I’ll have enough channels with the 4, 2s and 1d now ?

And tomorrow night I am off to pick up the dsp from the U.K. distributor...

On a worse note I have sold my current runabout (an 09 Reg 1.6 HDI white Peugeot partner!) so I may need to swap the insurance to the silver van and tax it ? although I might put some new tyres on the Clio and use that for a bit until the silver van is making noise... decisions decisions


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Old partner went after nipping an oil seal on insertion and doing the cambelt twice in effect ? it left on Saturday afternoon ??

New partner is now taxed and insured and in use ?? Although I did have to improvise some small Dolby 5.1 surround speakers I have spare as a bit of light entertainment for the time being... see pic below for a laugh! They are not exactly bass central! But it stops me going stir crazy singing to myself!

In the meantime fibreglass resin has arrived, as has a variety of other bits and bobs, a usb and 3.5mm extension lead is now fitted in the centre console alongside a double usb charging point for phones/tablets etc

The pioneer has been fitted also, although the steering remote interface is acting up, one function won’t work when managing the oe dash displays settings, which is very annoying! But I’ll sort that some day soon, deadening is going to be underway this week, alongside some 12mm thick foam carpet underlay for lining the rear of the vans panels over the cld mat, I have closed cell foam 3mm sheet but will save this for when I redo the rear load area floor as it’s waterproof and I often chuck wet fishing gear in the back so it makes sense to use it where wet may be an issue, I will also put some over the cld in the front doors to quieten them a little also ??


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Oh and I forget I have a usb umik-1 coming, and some xt-30 and xt-60 connectors coming also for the midbass enclosures and mid/tweeter pods ??


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So I have threaded cables into the doors through the factory tubing/grommet, went through far easier than I’d anticipated, stripped the enclosures out and given the enclosures a few coats of yacht varnish should see the door enclosures stay in one piece very nicely

In other news I used the new circle jig I made to cut some baffles for a mid and tweeter, closer together than should be possible, but I will use the router to cut the faceplate of the tweeter so they fit in a far more compact little bundle, I think I’ll start with the mid and tweeter in the slightly closer spot with them aimed at the top of the opposite b pillar, being a van it will put the mid very on axis with the opposite persons ears, I don’t mind building a few pods to try stuff along the way

The pics contain the mid and also the very technical plastic lid represents the clearance for the rear of the tweeter  I used the cap as I don’t want to cut the faceplate just yet incase a change of plans becomes apparent later ??


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Got a bit more done! Copied the shape of the lines in the plastic of the door by masking it up then using a sharp blade to cut round it, then transferring that shape to 18mm mdf, then working out all the radii and carefully cutting the shape using a straight edge and a 1/4” router bit, as well as my new circle cutter ?


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Cut a couple of rings, then copied them into 2.5mm plastic also as I needed 20mm ish, it worked out bang on, just the right spacing for both doors and now the pacer rings are fixed to the passenger enclosure and the speaker aperture is cut also... it’s amazing how much you remember from school about how to find the centre of a circle with a compass and a pencil ??


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So I got all impatient and figured I’d fix a speaker in situ... no clue why the pics post upside down! Will fix tomorrow but you get the idea ?


----------



## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

nice work


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

LBaudio said:


> nice work


Means a lot coming from you ? thanks! Made some rookie mistakes but nowt a bit of filler won’t sort, got my light grey vinyl and light grey grill cloth to trim it and sort some form of grills for em ??

So tonight I made huge steps... the pioneer headunit has a facility for direct sub drive... for those that don’t know you can switch the rear channels of the headunits amplifier to being a low passed single or as I learned a pair of outputs... 2ohm for a single channel or I ran left and right in stereo to the midbass in the doors...

Took the surround sound speakers from the centre console and improvised... a double layer of double sided foam tape to allow for the curve of the screen and fixed them on each side of the screen, ran a couple of wires back to the headunit through the tweeter dash holes and put them through the dash to the headunit

Got my new req wizard on the case, level matched left and right from the HU... tweaked the TA, played with the crossovers (ended up 125hz high pass 24db/octave and 250hz 12db/octave lowpass, set the eq a little, wound 80hz down by 12dB, cut whatever I could by no more than 2-4db, boosted the top end and got a little sparkle back... awesome centre image, bloc party’s album has the first track where the sound bounces all over the sound stage... it’s as wide as the dash and sounds like it’s a foot or two behind the furthest point of the windscreen

I’ve done some big builds in the past... set a few cars up with eights, but never... never have I had so much impact from a front end... all from a headunit! Can’t wait to put some proper power and get the mids and tweters on the dash instead

Who needs amps huh! It really does need to be heard to be believed!

The rta pic shows the front end with no midbass and both sides playing after a bit of level matching, I added the doors back in and carried on tweaking the eq, I have a huge peak at 80hz from the doors (will try some hollow fibre fill to see if I can’t take the 80hz peak out to a degree, but I can also level match vs mids and sub to square it up a fair bit more...) it’s all sortable with levels and crossovers I reckon ??


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So I’ve redesigned the top front of the mdf front section to incorporate a third grill attachment, looks alright I think now I’ve thrown some light grey vinyl and foam at it...

Hopefully they come out the right way up ??


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So the tweeter is the xt19-004 and a ne85w mid, I needed to make them a bit more compact... so out came the router... a small jig later and two faceplates cut down to suit 

Should stand a better chance of fitting where I want them now


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Thinking this shape and size in 10mm acrylic or 12mm birch ply, but unsure how the thin sides would hold up in birch ply? Would be roughly 4.5mm rebate with a 3mm wall thickness roughly? Anyone done similar? Thinking acrylic would be more stable


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

In the diy spirit I ordered a cheapo laser pen with the intention of fitting it in a hole in some mdf or ply to use for aiming speakers... this is all good of the laser aims parallel to the sides of the tube it’s fitted in...

So I had to improvise, I have basically glued a 20mm bit of plastic electrical conduit into a circle of wood and then drilled and tapped a set of three holes top and bottom for M3 screws, and also one for the on off button

I have then trimmed it up using the three screws as trimmers to adjust its aim

If I put it in square and rest the flat base on a table the circle it drew approx 20ft above on a roof was 2ft round, so aiming would depend on its orientation to see which way it was out, now I’ve trimmed it up using a flat table and a point on the roof, spinning it I reckon the dot moves approx 10mm, which is a damn sight straighter than it was, so mission accomplished, I will now make a set of dues for different sized rings and mark the roof of the van symmetrically for aiming purposes... to answer the question I did it because I can  I guess my ocd didn’t let me aim the speakers and potentially have them different


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

I can also make the face plate more compact but the magnet is 60mm in itself so 75mm is doable I reckon...


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So I’ve caved and ordered some ne19vts tweeters which are a much more manageable size and will now be built into some a pillars with the mid firing 30 degrees from across and angled up also, the tweeters will be further round the pillar to the outside on axis with between the headrests

In the meantime I’ve salvaged some scrap 5mm aluminium and made myself a router table plate, and cut it into some scrap worktop I found in the skip, it gives it plenty enough weight to allow safe use of the table and gives a lovely flat slippery surface to use also

The trigger is cable tied and I have a 240v extension next to the table and plug the router in and unplug it to stop it, it works a treat... if it was a proper table I’d have a power button and socket mounted on a leg or under the table


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So once I’d made the plate I decided it would be rude not to try it...

That grill template I’d made previously came out and I made both side grills from 12mm birch ply and added some 1/4 aluminium tubing across in three places equally spaced, I cut the slots with a 6mm cutter to approx 6.7mm deep and then tapped the ally into the slots... fitted snug, but I added some CA glue to fill the ends as a belt and braces effort also

I also added a 45 degree chamfer around the edge of the grill so once trimmed in black grill cloth they will follow the shape of the door section

It’s far easier to use a router table for edge work! Works awesomely well! Love it! Will be getting a lot more use in the future

I will also make myself a router shield from an old police riot shield... well it’s bullet proof and has two handles fitted also... perfect! And free as I work for the police and they get thrown once at the end of there shelf life 

Pics say a thousand words


----------



## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

looking good, just keep it up!


----------



## Nickb91 (Jan 23, 2019)

LBaudio said:


> looking good, just keep it up!


Will second that, would love a listen when it's done but Midlands is a bit far from Glasgow lol 

Sent from my EML-L09 using Tapatalk


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Can’t wait to get amplifiers fitted... will probably do the amp rack and sort the trim out in the rear first, going to be a bit awkward as I use it for fishing gear so a degree of waterproofing and resilience to wear will be required, thinking more 12mm birch and some kitchen floor hardwearing vinyl as I have in my campervan, not sure about the raised sides as yet... maybe a nice radius and run it up the sides a little...


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So I got bored and decided to run some power cable down the van... the hardest part was finding a nice way in... arch liner removed and a way was found ?

Also did the big 2 of three, not done the alternator cable yet... but the new stuff is only a little bigger!! ?


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Can’t find a distribution block to suit... make one! A bit of scrap Perspex, some copper bar from many years ago, a bit of initiative and I’m on it! I’d bought the fuses already with the intention of making this ? the mega fuse is for the second battery!

I’ve added a spare output incase I go all mental and need 2x150amp midi fuses for a more bass power! ? plan is on to the 1kw srx1D bass amp, the srx2s for the midbass, an srx4 for the mids and tweeters, then a low amp output for the headunit/processors/voltmeters etc, plus the spare! I can always reassign the low amp output to a 150a, use the spare as a 150a and get some 1.5kw amps in for a good chunk more output with a dedicated competition/car show enclosure


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So in a slight change of tack... I have decided to mount the mids as wide as I can on the a pillars on axis with a point just above centre and between the headrests set as high as they can go

I will then mount the tweeters on axis using the current tweeter grills as mounts, these will then be sprayed to match the colour of the van as trimming won’t be doable with the tight fit of the tweeter grills, should make for an interesting setup

It will put the tweeters as far back as I can get them and the mids more or less as wide as I can get them and still trim them in vinyl to match the door pods for the 8”, I can then paint the centre top section above the stereo to match body colour and a few other parts also, I may also do a dash mat to reduce reflections and make it fit around the base of the tweeter pods to reduce reflections from the hard plastic dash top, and Ive also considered blanking the front quarter window with similar pad style efforts to reduce the reflections somewhat also


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So I’ve found a new friend who I’ve narrowly missed meeting a few times in the last few years (ok... 25 years...) he owns a little car audio workshop, no shopfront, a few cabinets, a wood room, and workshop space, not a lot to look at, but he loves his hybrid audio/audison/high end stuff, although he does build with any anything

So he’s had a full on boy racer show car type build on, subs facing front and rear, pa mids and tweeters in the doors, needed to be done for this weekend, had another car in, a seat with hybrid L3se and L1 in a pillars, can’t be sure but it’s got illusion midbass I think, only sixes in stock locations and a pair of old school genesis sq 12” subs, now it came in to get new amps, it contained genny profile series amps, a profile sub, a profile 2 and a profile 4

Not bad so far... but the owner wanted a bit more...

So Ive taken the profiles out and replaced them, I used the base board below the current amps and reworked the carbon fibre vinyl trimmed under layer to match up to the carpeted section above it...

Result being a few tweaks on the helix dsp.2, a proper eq/xover/time alignment setup... well it needed doing and I love stuff like this!

Ended up looking very slick with the redone panel

I also added some Dutch sound deadening to the roof (loudboy Mat was imported by my mate as it was excellent for dB drag when I was in street max gunning for a world record!)

Fitted him a dab bee sting aerial and a new fold out pioneer cd/dab headunit with Apple auto etc

Sounds pretty damn crash hot, the rew is on 1db increments after I’d took some nice peaks out and hit some level matching! Sounds as good as some lots more expensive setups I’ve heard... first round of Emma is approaching... let’s see what they think I guess, I like it but I’m far from an sq competitor or judge!

Can’t wait to get my mosconi in and the amps too! ?


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Helix software is nice to play with, I have properly got the hang of it now ??


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

In other news as well as a spot of installing and tuning I’ve made a bit of a start on my van, the amp rack has begun taking shape, so I have the srx1d, srx4 and srx2s in a favourable place and also the mosconi mounted also, hopefully I will do a formed shaped cover and get some Perspex bent also for the cover... or maybe glass as I much prefer using thin laminated glass for ease of cleaning/scratch resistance ??

I was trying to achieve maybe a floating amp rack type design but in the end it just wasn’t physically possible with the size available, so a slanted line with processor in the middle was the best I could manage ?


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So more sanding/filling and general dustiness has happened... the a pillars for the mids are ready for trim and wrapping 

I’ve also knocked up some ply rings for the tweeters and have made some funky, but very simple pods on the factory tweeter grills, on axis and aimed about six inches past the centre of the van towards the opposite side, mainly because with such a high roof I figured this way would be about right, I can also add a notch and bring them on axis more if needs be by a set amount, for now I’ve painted them black, but will be done in grey trim paint I reckon as they won’t be vinyl trimmable I don’t think due to shape etc... or maybe aluminium silver to match the body colour...

I have milkshaked the insides of the a pillars also but no pics, but will take some when I nip to the workshop tomorrow ??

Anyway this is all worthless without pics...


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So I trimmed one of the pillars in vinyl and it wasn’t perfect so it got ragged off 

Ended up getting all the glue off, spraying the pillars in some grey alloy wheel paint in a proper ghetto manner... and for this weekend (first big show of the year!) I will run some cables round the van to get it working, then it’s a case of power distribution and get some amps wired ??

Currently the pillars and frog eyes don’t look offensive! I’ve seen lots worse!

Just revelling in the baby mids wired active off the headunit at 1.25k up, midbass at 1.25k down and it sounds pretty damn good, I’ve not even played with the 13 band eq and I could live with it now I’ve knocked themids down about 6db each side, quick play with tune alignment and got a stage again

The ne85 peerless mids don’t do bad 1.25khz and up


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So I’ve modified the amp rack as my 5.5m RCA’s were only just long enough to reach the top of the amp rack 

I’ve ran the RCA’s down the back of the centre console, then up the side of the centre console, then across under the passenger seat and up the pass b pillar, then across the top of the sliding side door and onto the mosconi which is at the top of the amp rack now ??

The b pillars as standard don’t have trims with it being a van, however the 5 seater car variant has trims so I found a breaker and bought the trims, see pics below... it also covers all the rca leads too ?

I’ve run all the speaker cables bar the sub now and will knock up a three way fuse block for the system now I’m nearly there in a similar style to my copper one in pics earlier

Ps all my RCA’s are sky high triple shielded efforts. I have 4x0.9m and two 5.5m items ? seem ok and decent quality so far, another product from my mate who does mosconi in the U.K. and also the b2 audio riot 10” sub I have ?


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So the plot regarding the van has taken a twist! I am now going to be using ground zero gear (with a helix dsp pro 2 for good measure) and entering Emma into master class sq (been a pro installer in the past and still keep my grubby mitts busy, and have been a db drag judge (inc at world finals in the states in 2005) and am sponsored to a degree now also as part of team ground zero Europe) 

So far I have the following coming

Helix DSP pro with controller and usb card for good measure

Ground zero uranium sq 4.150 and 2.250

Two uranium ten inch subs for under the front seats ?

Uranium three way front end potentially to be used two way tweeterless

A set of eight inch midbass/mid drivers which will be tried in my doors as they are now upto wherever the uranium full ranges can play to, I will also try the 6.5” midbass upto it, and both combos with tweeters also ??

And a Samsung s9 android phone to take over from my iphone 7 as I wasn’t willing to pay the extortionate amount of moneys that Apple want for decent storage 

At some point I would like to try a full on dash build with the 6” midbass playing in a two way, with tweeter in the a pillar also


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Well the Samsung S9 got returned... what a pile of crap for what I wanted, Android auto is not good with tidal ?

One brighter news the helix dsp pro is in and working... plus something new, a director! Not used to one of these, found a nice spot for it beneath the heater controls, a bit of trimming of plastic and it was a painless fit ?


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So having got the dsp in and a vague tune laid on it with the mic and ta done by tape measure...

I am not sure whether it’s due to speaker position (have played with tweeters a bit) but I seem to get quite a bit of input in my left ear from the right side, have to set right at approx 5.5-6db down from the left, and also delay the right by a few inches more than the measure (suspect that’s due to the left tweeter/mid being several inches away from the centre of my head vs my ear over the right which is closer to being accurate due to being perpendicular to my ear/centre of head line by about the right amount)

I also went through some sine waves at 1/3 octave bands and managed to find a weighty resonance in my right door which was pulling 80hz to the right massively, cured that with some deadener and a bit of foam, 80hz is centre of dash...

I also went through the tones and checked they were all central, adjusted ta/level on right tweeter a touch (also used the Emma cd which has a variety of instruments (read frequency’s) on all played bang centrally) and that squared the triangles centre away also

Then I went through the tones and essentially went by what my ears were telling me, a few were harsh/sharp/louder quite a lot, so in some cases I’d adjust one side down, one side up, some I’d adjust both sides down, some I’d adjust one side down to get it bang centre or a combination of the afore mentioned in varying degrees

I also dropped the crossover on the sub a little and despite the rta looking right with staggered crossovers on upper midbass it wasn’t to ear, so they got unstaggered 

The result is somewhat rather lovely, the midbass and sub is now sat on the dash And blended very nicely, stage could still be higher, I think it’s mids at the bottom of the pillar and tweeters being 5-6” above combined with a high seating position in the van means I need to put the mids higher up the pillars with the tweeters also...

I’m also going to look into putting 6” mids in the ‘sail panel’ area if I can because I have a quarter window, it depends how the rules apply to the little quarter windows as if it’s height and width is less than 50% of the main window it’s not subject to the 4cm or less rule (4cm or more encroachment past the smallest dots on the windscreen or the outer of side windows from the rubber, I fancy the ground zero uranium 6” on axis to a degree on the dash top as an experiment


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So further developments...

6” won’t fit up top... so I’m looking into front of seat (not under!) 8” midbass, kind of angled up at the screen...ish...

Then I’ve ordered the bigger nuclear 3.5” mod as I love the scan 10f up there, then I’m going to try some a pillars with the mid further up than previously... more up near where my tweeter is fitted currently, and the tweeter below and outside it

I also have a second 4.150 on its way, I will run half a 4.150 bridged into the midbass and the other two channels into the mid and tweeter and have a play with the adjustable bias also, but leave it fully towards class ab initially

The amp rack will be a floating edge lit Perspex effort to make a real nice job of it for sound off displays, thinking red, white and blue as a colour theme ? I want to make it jump out and grab the eyes and have a plan to make it do just that, mainly with led’s, a bit of vinyl and a good chunk of black 3 way stretch carpet as it’s a van first and foremost ??


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So I’ve done a bit more sound deadening of the floor and made a 12mm birch ply battery tray, bolted through the floor with m6 bolts in three places with big ass repair washers under the floor

Then made an aluminium angle brack to prevent movement, again bolted down with m6 fasteners and t-nuts, then a further piece of angle and some m8 threaded bar as a clamp to make sure the battery never ever moves ever!

To meet competition rules I will be putting a Perspex/copper custom home made fused distribution inside the side door of the van and it will therefore be within 6-8” of the battery terminal ?? ?


----------



## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

Nice work....
BTW did you try to take advantage from windshield reflection to get a bit higher stage....it worked in my case quite well....worth to try, just re-aim mid/tweet and if possible install tweet above midrange which will automatically elevate your stage higher, and you will avoid some nasty reflections of the sound off the dash and instrument cluster.


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

LBaudio said:


> Nice work....
> BTW did you try to take advantage from windshield reflection to get a bit higher stage....it worked in my case quite well....worth to try, just re-aim mid/tweet and if possible install tweet above midrange which will automatically elevate your stage higher, and you will avoid some nasty reflections of the sound off the dash and instrument cluster.


I did try the tweeter in a few places, further round and up, but I got a reflection which dragged 4K ish away from centre with tones, the tweeters visual reflection if I looked at the screen was approx 11” away from the tweeter itself and basically I worked out that was approx 4K... if I moved the tweeter further around the pillar and kept the height the same, but 13.5” away from the screen in terms of reflection it now centred the 4K test tone and moved the reflection below it’s freq range...

It was a play around with my scrap pillars... I am also fairly lucky in that my clocks/top of dash are only 2” different where the binnacle is so it is effected a fair bit less than most cars with 4-6” difference and mines relatively symmetrical ??

In further developments, I’ve started assembling the amp rack which will be a floating look affair... I’ve also had a really stupid idea... that would look way cool! I’ve seen wireless inverted subs before where the tinsel’s had been routed via the dustcap... but I fancy routing the power, speaker and rca leads into the amp internally so you don’t see any cables and it appears the amp has no wires or connections to it but it works and plays... all cabling would be routed down the support struts into the bass of the amp rack where 3 channels (you should see them in pics below of the new, more accurately cut better quality birch ply floor afte much stapling and cutting of cardboard to the original Far Eastern ply floor) have been cut to route power signal and speakers all seperately, and the left and right amplifiers will be left and right respectively run as three channels as per previous post

Basically it’s two ends and three intermediate supports for the three amps in a line at 1080mm wide (the little parallelogram type stub that’s in the hollow not in the end panels) will have ply, then Perspex mounted on it for amplifier mounting... it’s like a big jigsaw currently ??

I am also thinking a chamfered edge lit red Perspex support for the amplifiers

And some other unique features which will make it truly unique hopefully ?


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Signal cables will all be routed on the drivers side, to the Helix dsp pro 2which will be inside the rear drivers side, side door on view, and power distribution (custom made) will all be down the passenger side just over the battery and in view very nicely and both dsp and distribution will be edge lit Perspex and very pretty ?


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

30 rean rca plugs have turned up, once the cable turns up I’ll sort the stereo to dsp ends and get them ready for the tech flex when it arrives... from China of all places... didn’t notice on eBay when I ordered it... did seem cheap though hehe... on a brighter note I have found a load of blue heat shrink of just about the correct size for the ends ?

Also have ordered three pieces of Perspex, one for the amp rack and then two to make edge lit panels for the sides of the van

Also got a load of blue and black 4 gauge (eBay) coming and blue 10 (subs), 12 (midbass) and 14awg (mids and tweeters) speaker cable coming from knuconceptz

The amp rack now has a ply piece for across the top and it’s fixing points bolted with nylocs and m4 bolts as well, and threaded inserts into the ply for the rack, it’s coming along nicely!


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Front to processor RCA’s made, 4m runs, four total, sub left and right (it’s designation on the headunit but it’s mono) and front left and right (again as it’s designation at the headunit) all shields are attached only at the headunit end and the internals of a single plug is in pics, I’ve also marked the cables headunit or dsp on the labels which are to satisfy EMMA rules 

All braided in black braid and then blue heatshrink ends (distance to plugs will be adjusted to suit once installed) after the first one I decided helix end should be further to allow a degree of flexibility, could’ve braided individual ends, but I like the van Damme cable ?


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Amp porn!! 2x uranium 4.150 and piggy in the middle 2.250 for the subs


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Shape will be copied into 6mm Perspex, chamfered and then the hole in the centre cut out as per pic to allow it to be led edge lit as well with those red leds I mentioned previously, trying some lower profile red glowing rope as well to see if it lights more consistently to avoid the dots you often get on edge lit Perspex with led strip

You will steadily see the amp rack come together over the next few days, the idea is to get at least the amps playing by Sunday and see if the class A bias adjustment improves the sq ?


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Perspex arrived today, cut it out for cable slots and then added a chamfer, I think the 45 degree cutter has seen better days, ended up having to sand it up, then various parts looked slightly different, so I gave up and cut it back 5mm so the rack will have square edges now, also got some brushed aluminium for the ‘tub’ which will be cut and added in the next day or so  it’s coming together, drilled the Perspex and cut it out for it’s final home then attached the birch ply back bone to give it it’s strength, bolted the amps on and working out cable routing and fixing method... worked out nicely with my slots in the rack, will cable it, do the tub and attempt to get it making sound


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So you’ve never seen anyone as nervous as me when cutting up a full sheet of engraving laminate by hand so I could break it on purpose, one slip and it wouldn’t bend straight and it might not fit in the tub hole...

Suffice to say it went well and now I have a tub, with ends too... I couldn’t help drop the amps into the tub to see how it looked ?

I’ll start the top panel up tomorrow in 6mm mdf and then see how the trim panel works out and fits, then it’s dsp mounting and also the fuse box on the passenger side


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Oddly all of those pics are portrait in my phone... the host seems to spin it wherever it feels like ?


----------



## optimaprime (Aug 16, 2007)

Dude those amps look so sexy !! Install is awesome!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

optimaprime said:


> Dude those amps look so sexy !! Install is awesome!
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Why thankyou, nice to know someone reads my little thread ? they do look rather nice In person! Can’t wait to get it done and lit up


----------



## DavidRam (Nov 2, 2014)

Great work so far! Look forward to more...


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Well a dsp grew a homebase! T nutted and bolted down to comply with EMMA competition rules ??


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

And the ends of the RCA’s have been colour coded... inputs from the front are blue for left, red for right... then red shrink tube for subwoofer, white tube for front outputs and clear shrink tube at the headunit end to symbolise the shield connected end


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Then from dsp the colour codes and amp allocation is as follows



> Van audio map
> 
> Tweeter left - left 4.150 channel 1
> Tweeter right - right 4.150 channel 1
> ...


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So I’ve generally been tidying up wiring, braiding everything in sight, neatening up a few bits... first but was rip out the old bulky 27 (felt like it!) plug headunit loom and steering remote interface... and neaten everything up

Soldered (with an L boys!) all the connections and hardwired from the headunit plug to the fused distribution in the rear (well it will be once I’ve fitted it!), also ran a spare smaller gauge twin and a single up there too, then braided it all... I have no finger prints left!

Also ran the braided RCA’s down the same route in the centre console...

Then I’ve done the three right hand speakers with colour coded heatshrink and red tech flex and soldered the amass connectors on, will colour code and tech flex the amp racks speaker leads also for the short run they are going to take, I can also lose a bit extra in the rack for the right as the run is shorter but I’m being all anal and keeping the runs the same 4m length ?? Pics once I’m home ?

Also contemplating making some kind of Perspex mount for the front of the battery to accommodate a maxi fuse using the battery m8 thread to hold one side of the fuse ??

Sorry pics are all left and right... I’ll take some pics for the build book for competition tomorrow to illustrate cable paths down the van also, I’m actually enjoying the technical side of doing the cables even if it is taking ages ?


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Random pics of cabling done in techflex and colour coded ends at the dash, plus various cable runs down the van ?


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So having fitted my ground zero 8” neo midbass and also the nuclear 80 mid range I decided to do a bit of a fresh tune, basically I felt I’d lost the body of the music and was missing some balance...

So I set symmetrical crossovers at 70, 500, 4K and also flattened the eq, I left the time alignment as per tape measure... and then did something most strange... I used my ears! Had a listen to some music, played around a little with levels for driver pairs using a voice track from the Emma disc until they sounded roughly similar

Then I’d add in tweeters to mids, and also compare mids to midbass and get the levels to some sort of semblance of matched

So then I went through 20hz - 20khz 1/3 octave individual frequency tones and had an overview of spectral balance, I then adjusted crossovers and levels to match them with zero eq

Then I went through the tones and concentrated on the centre position as a tone played equally in both channels should appear to be centred, most tones were off to the right so I added a gnats **** to the time delay for the right to adjust the centre to the left by 4-5”, then repeated the previous listening to check the centring

I have made a few technical tracks with left channel information then swapping sides, it makes it easier for me to pick out differences between sides, and also various instruments from the Emma cd played in both sides, left first and then right so it would be immediately obvious if there are differences between left and right channels

I will also do the tones so they play 0.5secs left, 0.5secs right, repeated ten times, so it then become obvious of imbalances left to right and then I can adjust the eq for left and right channels to get the balance and therefore the centre correct

At all points through the listening I am conscious of listening to a variety of tracks and making sure I don’t lose the natural body of the sound with too much eq

I have one spot where I have -10db of eq and that a nasty peak I have at 100hz

Other than that I have no bands with more than +/-2db on them ??

Very happy with how it turned out, I will sort my left right tones this week and see what they say and adjust as required also


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

First show entered... install will be miles off, but want feedback on sound ?


----------



## cycleguy (Feb 10, 2018)

Good luck let us know how you get on


----------



## optimaprime (Aug 16, 2007)

Nice!! That would be blast ! Don’t forget to have some fun!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So the van did ok... first time out and it scored 375 points and third out of six entry’s, first was 390, second was 388 I believe 

I lost 2 points for an improvised fuse placement (basically you step down cable size it must be fused appropriately... so when I tagged a small 2 way fuse box on some cable and just bunged it on the split charge 250a fuse it’s not appropriate 

I lost two marks due to my box not being fixed down solid... bungee cords don’t count apparently!

No trim was another two marks... 

Sound has lots to come...

New a pillars with better breathing for the mids and keeping tweeters away from the screen as much as I can should see better width scores, depth should then go through the screen hopefully also

I will move the amp rack back a few inches to allow a more reclined seat position and lower the ears with reference to the speaker height ??

I am also going to make an 8” deep bass trap at the rear of the van and also treat above the listening position and the sides in the rear also to see if I can make it a nicer environment... so far I have seven panels planned but I will do the big hitter in the rear and see if it has the desired effect! I will try various distances from the rear to target 45hz nodes and also a 90hz node I have...

Saying all that I believe the van is a credible threat to the guy leading the charge in my class currently, it’s a bmw e92 I believe with a helix p-6dsp and under seat subs and mids in the doors, I can potentially move my door pulls and fit mids in there, but for now they are going to reside in my modified sealed enclosures I’m going to make for the dash ??

I’m also considering an underseat IB sub of some description or other... maybe a twelve inch version of the tens I have currently as I would like upfront bass ideally for the 30hz and 40hz bass track in competition ?

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed it and now properly have the bit in my teeth! The van has benefits and issues all of its own that are there to be solved!


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So yesterday I spent a day making dash sealed enclosures, the drivers require 0.44l for a 0.707 Q, I believe I have a little larger than that... they are also butt ugly! But as test enclosures go they are functional... I don’t see the point in rounding/shaping a test enclosure that may or may not stay...

Good news the slightly off axis response is now matched, both sides now play to around 10k if required... but I have a dip on the one side around 7k and it would take a fair bit of eq to get the response smooth below that on the same side, so I crossed them at 4K and kept it sweet and with zero eq it actually sounds pretty decent... the tweeters in there new location are sweet, the roll add at 10k plus sucks still

I will probably make another set of dash pods with the mid and tweeter aligned...caveat being the left tweeter smears across the screen to some degree so I will have to effect some degree of a shield or wave guide for want of a better description above and to the right of the left tweeter as per the last pic

The odd shape of the side of the tweeter mount in these would get smoothed to a degree, but I have a 40mm rule for windows, the pod can’t encroach further than that past the smallest dots and also the edges of any side windows hence the convoluted shape currently ?? If the tweeter was 10mm lower the pods would break the rule...

So the stage is wider I feel, it’s also eye level for the most of the width... it seems to drop less than with the previous a pillars

Whichever pod works will be then blended into a cut down a pillar trim, but not attached, I have a vision of refitting a cut down a masked up pillar trim and then basically filling right up to it and making a smooth transition to be trimmed and look lovely... ideally in really nice grey faux suede I have bought ?


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

And today was rather a massive experiment... it’s a van... so resonance is a definite thing...

I took a leaf out of the home audio buffs book, absorptive panel above the drivers seat

It’s has reduced the rt60 by upto 25% at certain freqs... (from memory 500-800hz and 1k, and a little less at 2.5khz, although I’m sure some of that is relative to the non eq’d setup currently... basically my aim is play and mess for a few weeks, get it as flat as I can with no eq, then lay a tune on it and work from there...

So... pics....

A 2” mdf frame with 2” of rock wool in it, with blue cotton sheet stretched over it, the big panel in the rear will be red... then more in the sides and rear... speaking of the rear...


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Let me introduce my new rabbit hutch...

For those that don’t know it’s a helmholtz resonator... any advantage right...

So it’s just over 4.5cuft a side, and as I have a van I really don’t care 

I loosely laid 4” of rockwool in the bottom as an absorber plus a couple of offcuts for good measure which approx 1/3 filled it, then stapled carpet over the top so it’ didn’t spew fibres all over as it got vibrated

The result was 46hz after I’d tuned it a bit at a time! (Started as a 21hz resonator with a single 32mm hole by 36mm deep! Ended up looking like a rabbit had chewed a hole approx 170x40mm by 36mm deep twice in each side, it’s damn effective

Not sure if I am 100% of robbing the vehicle of all it’s free bass as it now sounds very flat... but as an experiment it kinda worked, perhaps more full to make it a lower q and not as narrow may work to some degree, I think I’m gonna basically rout the now glued on top off and make a new lid with posher adjustable bolt in sections for playing with tuning and also damping material volumes etc...

First three pics of it works are the box, mineral wool and the testing mic in situ (you basically tune it by no more than thumping the enclosure and observing the massive bass peak you just made where it resonates at, managed 105db at 45hz with a good thump!  )

Fourth pic should be midbasses which was very similar but it did square a few bits up...

Fifth pic is no hh vs it in and the ‘ports’ upwards, dropped 45hz by 6db ish and made a big sympathetic peak at 90ish

Next one shows up vs forward ports, this makes it nicer and if you had the will it plays relatively flat now with some eq upto 200hz (if a little dead!) might swap it for a uranium sqx 12 or more likely a radioactive 12d2 as the 25hz fs is more what I favour in a sub, I am also going to be trying a set of different 8” midbasses which are at 0.707 in 0.45 cu ft (my doors are 0.5...) and the f3 is 100hz, right where I get a massive rise up in levels as you can see around 120 down to 60-80 from the third pic, hopefully they will tailor the curve without eq a little better ??


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

I’m actually wondering if it’s worth splitting one side into two and doing a smaller one with a 90hz tune also and see if that can help further up, reduce the cut at 45hz and generally have a play I reckon to get the bottom end as flat as can be without excessive eq... hmmm ?

Oh and there’s the rt60 curve I mentioned earlier... basically it’s the time it takes for the sound to reach 60db (so peaky bits may be longer in general as they have further to go... but relative to previous no panel measurement most bits have gone down so potentially the sound rise and decay may be a little quicker...

Whether that’s good or bad I’m not sure yet, I might ab listen to it with and without and see which I prefer, I also got a before and after freq response but not a spatial one so perhaps I will do that if I ab test it ??

May have to try a 4” thick panel and see if it reduces 100hz any as it seems to reduce in effect below 200hz...

I love technical **** and I’m proper going for this now... all in ?


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So filling and sanding and more filling and sanding happened, then a little bit of as trim faux suede called Milano which is far more stretchy than Alcantara

I cut the a pillars above the pods structure and masked it off, then moulded it all together with fibreglass filler and then a quick spritz with a small amount of fine body filler, then trimmed the upper pillar section also


----------



## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

looking good..... how is first impression?


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

LBaudio said:


> looking good..... how is first impression?


Stage is wider, but only on drivers side I feel, it skewed the centre to the right as the reflection was now the focus of the right sound, but only on some freqs, it also changed the centre with the additional shaping and trim, moved it right further

Next set of pods will be tweeter above the mid, I will also try tweeter above the mid on the drivers and the outside position for the other side, and then mid up high and tweeter underneath the mid also, I feel stage width will suffer a little but will reduce reflections above and outside, so many ways to put things but to do well at the euros it has to be tried ??

I also have some slightly different midbass to try from seas also, my old ones were L22rn4x/p 4ohm, the second dustcap variants are 8ohm but slightly more efficient so that’s tomorrow’s job after Ive delivered the old audison amps up the road 

So today’s job was strip all the vinyl off the doors and add suede back into the mix


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

This weekends job was to attempt to control my 100hz peak and 200hz null...

I have also carpeted the rear of the vans interior around the rear doors and applied egg crate open cell foam over the rear window glass which is also painted black internally, the egg crate does very little to control energy below treble, but it looks prettier than black paint

So my method for seeing if I can correct the 100hz peak was a pair of 22x44x4” frames to be filled with rockwool and then upholstered, basically acoustic panels similar to the panels they use in studios and other critical listening environments

The panels went in and I tested several distances from the rear doors, starting approx 500mm from the rear of the load floor edge, this created a 5db dip at 100hz but made the null at 200 approx 0.5-1db worse... hmmm...

Moving it rearward by 10cm it then started to pick up 200hz and kept the 5db dip out of what was otherwise a smooth eq’d response, moving it further I ended up with it all the way rearward it can go until the top was more or less sat on the interior van back door frame if you will, this boosted the null by 2db and also kept the 100hz dip also, which by my reckoning is a win win!

In case anyone is wondering why the 100hz issue is so bad, it’s basically a function of the van being 10ft long, 5ft wide and approx 4.5ft tall... all multiples of 5ft give or take an inch, which reinforces 100hz a treat! 45hz is also boosted fairly well due to the length

I have big nodes at 45hz, 100hz, 110hz and 115hz looking at a waterfall plot, the 100hz nodes all add up to a massive amount of resonance at these frequencys (handy if I ever decide to do emma spl as the tracks are all around 40-50hz generally... right where I have to cut sub bass a good amount 

The average car isn’t this long so the boost is generally a little higher, and also they aren’t as tall as they are wide so the various room modes are spread apart a little more


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Update 2... the new midbass are in, and sound a bit less sharp, a little less snappy, but after dialling them in

After a little eq tweaking they sound very nice as I expected from seas 

The new mid pods are a massive improvement over the old pillars! Loving them, if anything I am going to make a second set with more angle on the mids and the tweeters above them ??


----------



## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

with tweet above midrange I think you will get a bit better focus, everything will be sharper more focused and narrower. But Im interested how much of a difference it will bring into your system.
I would also elevate midrange a bit above the dash. When I tested positions in mine there were quite big differences in stage width, images width, stage height, and a bit more on axis brought a bit more body to the instruments and voices


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So due to the angle of the screen I think the mids and tweeters being low to the dash simply doesn’t work, the left side was approx 15” wide depending on frequency, this adversely effected the centre placement

So tonight I have tried a temporary small enclosure with the mid firing upwards above the dash... and the tweeter above the mid approx 15 degrees off axis with my left ear, the right side is same as above pics...

This showed how bad the left side was, although the left level is lower it now requires approx 6-8” taking off the left time alignment I reckon, that’s how much I had to correct for the awful smearing on the left

The right due to being in front of me had reflections above it so that side was correct although it was also a bit wider than it should’ve been due to the reflections on the side window (maybe 6-8” wide depending on frequency)

Again the above kinda took away from the staging negatively ?

The rake of the screen is approx 4” up and 5” back, so a little bit below 45 degrees but steeper than say a fiesta or corsa or most cars which are designed to be way more aerodynamic

So the test enclosure was v.temporary as was the tweeter stuck up with some bitumen deadener sticky stuff...

So I eq’d the drivers with no crossovers (mid) and a 2k hp on the tweeter

Got the following...

The mid is approx 8-12cm from its own reflection which I suspect is causing the 2-3khz dip and that’s the half wavelength of 2-3khz...


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

So next up I picked a level that was suitable for both mid and tweeter as the levels were fairly similar, then used rew eq generator to take both curves down to 51db

Then added in a 3024hz crossover as well


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Then in rew I summed the two crossed over curves and got a prediction of what it should look like... and then actually measured it... not bad for four hrs work, and more importantly left is now far more accurate and in the correct place not smeared left, right and centre


----------



## RichTea (Jun 20, 2009)

Looks decent to my untrained eyes, especially with no EQ. So, are you going to keep the mids firing upwards?


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

RichTea said:


> Looks decent to my untrained eyes, especially with no EQ. So, are you going to keep the mids firing upwards?


The no eq pic wasn’t too good... however I do use fairly fine steps... generally 2db or less when getting to fine fine tuning...

But what is better is the new mk.52 pods (kidding, I think it’s the sixth arrangement...)

Mids are firing across tucked as far into the screen corners as possible... it has a bump around 600hz... but the rest is fairly nice... a bit of eq and a new house curve I have hybridised from hanatsu’s, audio frog and a bit of intuition and I can say it sounds the best it ever has!

Stage is eye level for the full width, deeper and relatively wide...

New pods will now get finished properly as I didn’t see the point in filling and sanding test pods perfectly in case they were crap ? turns out they will be getting some more filler tomorrow and some texture coat after that I reckon ??


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

The new tweeter locations are somewhat out, the left tweeter now interacts with the drivers side glass and smears across the screen somewhat, so I need to take it off axis and maybe even aim it the same as the drivers side, I will swap ta settings and have a listen from the passenger seat and see how it fairs before changing, I may make both sides match and adjust so it’s symmetrical, I foresee both aiming at the respective sides headrest and eqing the levels to match


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Oh how a year or two changes my understanding of what was occurring, the corsa simply shows how much the base vehicle matters when picking a vehicle for sq competition, the van put bluntly was god awful for reflective issues and standing waves, the corsa cost way less so I didn’t mind doing a number on it! Currently running a single ten inch and 15cm ceramic sb acoustics woofers and a set of bliesma beryllium tweeters, the difference is staggering!


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

The corsa has a single clarus 10” under the passenger seat for now 😎 the drivers side hole has a blank over it 👍🏼


----------

