Let’s see some subwoofer setups!

I built this a long time ago...
Baltic Birch, fiberglassed the inside... Stained Ebony... No screws just glued.

 

And I trust those certificates like I trust the government. Truth

 

I hear ya man. I’m not worried about it enough to want to test it. In my opinion it either sounds good and does what I need, or it doesn’t.

I’m not gonna be in a conversation and tell someone “my system is 612 watts”. I’d just tell them it’s 600 or if it ever got asked. Lol

 

As long as I'm satisfied with it, I could give a fuck less what other people think. I'm daily driving it.

 

Yeah. I feel the same.

 

The interesting thing about power is that it’s super dynamic right? A good analogy is bicycle power meters. They have become so affordable that we now have tons of data and the tour even shows that in real time. You can talk about a CP30 like you might an amp’s RMS but that doesn’t mean that the guy with the biggest number is going to win, just like you can’t predict SPL without measuring it.

And of course so many of us care far more about sq than spl. Then there’s the whole matter of source signal and mids, etc. Just a ton of data to potentially nerd out on.

I think the idea with the amp and subs is generally to know how close you are to the edges of what each manufacturer certifies. As in don’t dump 1000w into a 300w sub and don’t present 1ohm to an amp which is certified to 2. Or if you do that, be prepared for the potential trouble, just like overclocking a cpu (cooling, input current, etc)

And of course all components may degrade over time. Ideally you’d want amp and sub broadcasting power delivered / received and temps to the canbus for integration with the head unit. Maybe that’s something we might see down the road.

 

I would love to see audio control do something like this with their DSPs. Adding some data cables that take the signal digitally to the amps aswell as relaying real time info from the amp to the DSP so it can make adjustments as needed.

 

that’s a classy lookin box

 

Thanks.

 

How did that staining process go? Did you have to apply multiple layers? Sorry to go a bit off topic, I'm not much of a woodworker, but I wanted to stain a Birch Marv box I have coming to me soon, so any advice is appreciated.

 

You’re gonna be blown away at the workmanship of his box man. I got mine a few weeks ago and was. I ended up just carpeting mine though. I wanted it to blend in better with the black of the trim behind the seats and figured carpet was the simplest way to go.

 

This is what I used.

Wasn't terribly hard. Took a few days to get multiple coats on and dried.

 

You guys are killing me with the Marv boxes. I paid up a long time ago but I have been trying to not pester him because I’m not driving enough to need it done anytime soon. I also figure I’d prefer to pick it up in person to meet him but haven’t managed to schedule time for the drive.

very nice to see them though. Just makes me want mine even more.

 

I’d give him a call if I were you. He was always super helpful when I ordered mine. We chatted on the phone a few times about various things and never seemed annoyed or anything.

 

We talk. I love the guy. Trying to let all of you guys get yours first and not sweat him. I can wait. But seeing photos makes me all excited like a little kid.

 

Ahhhh. I gotcha. He’s a super cool guy and knows his shit.

I still haven’t gotten my setup complete. I have JBL and ordered the DSR1. It’s suppose to work with the 2021 but doesn’t. IDataLink is being super helpful though. They’re shipping some equipment from Canada to one of the managers here in Texas. She’s gonna come by once it comes in and run some diagnostics. Hopefully they get it figured out. I’ve been without a working radio for like 3 weeks now and I’m itching to get my new system up and running.

 

Yeah I still need to do more prep too. I have nearly all of the parts for the amp power but need to finish executing the plan. It’s a 225 amp mrbf fuse to 55 (compressor) and 100 (audio) amp blue sea circuit breakers in the 2nd battery spot on a GTFO bracket with marine ABs then the 100 will feed a JL fuse distribution in the cab for 4 channel and sub amps under the seat. I have signal and speaker wire all set but I’ve been lagging on preparing the high current. So I blame myself for the lack of progress . Fun to have good stuff to look forward to.


^^ Iteration 1. I’ve since changed to black and redone the aux posts to a pass through to hide wires.

 

Definitely. I’m always looking for projects. Question on your breaker. Are you using a breaker instead of a fuse for the amplifiers? Any pros/cons to that? I thought about getting an aux fuse box setup as well, so that would help things look a little cleaner.

 

I'm over-thinking / over-building it but here's how I have it justified in my head:

• MRBF 225amp bus fuse to protect the 1/0 cable to the aux location. That's a one-and-done connection which I don't intend to mess with ever. The fuse only protects the wire from a short to ground in the event of a fire.
• Compressor circuit breaker seemed preferable to a fuse. Because if you need air for some reason and you pop it due to overzealous momentary current draw, better to have a reset than hope you have a spare fuse. Also because at 55 amps fuses aren't super cheap and particularly for the waterproofness. But the one additional planned benefit is you gain an off switch for futzing with the wire without disconnecting the battery. That is a big bonus since I don't yet own a compressor and it's reasonably likely I'll be futzing with stuff.
• So, given that I figured might as well do a combined 100 amp breaker for the audio system. Because anything more than that is beyond what I consider reasonable for this vehicle. Maybe if I upgrade the alternator and go totally nuts I'll open the door for more power. For now that 100 amp breaker is mostly just an off switch (like the above) so I can completely disable the amps for troubleshooting, maintenance, replacement, etc.
• The fuse distribution block will take 4 gauge in and feed 4 gauge out to each amp (short runs). Which is kind of silly, 8 gauge would be perfectly fine for a short run, but I like the look of 4 gague. It's one way to avoid feeding two 4 gauge cables from the engine bay into the cab. Because that's the biggest pain of the whole thing, deciding if I'm drilling the firewall or re-using an existing boot. Upside is the passenger side location has more room to work with. I'm also looking at the various gaskets on the underside of the cab but wary of using one for fear of water intrusion.

So, each amp actually has 3 layers of protection, the 225 amp bus fuse at the battery, a 100 amp breaker, and then the 50 or 40 amp maxi fuse in the distribution block.

I think my ideal setup might be 3 breakers on that GTFO mount, one for each amp and one for the compressor, but if I do that option I have to run 2x 4 gauge into the cab and that's the real PIA part. I might still consider that. Also, there isn't a ton of space for 3 breakers on the bracket face. The way I managed to do it, I can still slap a compressor on top if I want to, though my plan for the compressor is to stash it in the bedside cubby.

From past experience I only ever had one fuse trip on me and I believe it rattled loose rather than burning out. I was quite surprised by that. A circuit breaker is really nice if you're out on the road and changing a fuse is harder, but I pre-bought 5 of each maxi fuse in 40 and 50 amp ratings. Though I'd be totally fine with a 50 amp fuse for the 400w 4 channel amp.

The biggest dilemma is placement of the ground block and power distribution / fuse block. Ideally they would be semi accessible but out of the way. With the under-seat locations already pretty busy with seat heater connectors and amps, I haven't located a great spot for those blocks. Doing everything on the rear wall would simplify things but I think I'd rather have that space 100% dedicated to the sub box because it's already a bit of a squeeze.

I'm sure the above qualifies as ridiculous and unnecessary to any rational human

 

Haha! Nah. I completely understand. It it’s safe and it makes sense, it’s up to the user. Better to have too much protection than not enough; that’s for sure!

Thanks for the explanation of what you have going on!