MGMDesertTaco's audio build

Exactly. I know we have different year vehicles but I tried to get my factory head unit to work and it ended up being the achilles’ heel of the system. I ended up with a Pioneer nex unit with time alignment and auto eq, it works pretty well. In a perfect world I would have a dedicated dsp as well and bi amp the front speakers but im not there just yet.

Im not a fan of hacking up the interior that’s why I built a little box that I did. I may have to do something a little bit bigger and put it on the passenger side of the truck for a little more boom. Considering my V9 has 528 Watts x1 it’s certainly an option.

 

Fuck for that price it oughta come with a more elegant bracket setup rather than a couple of bright chrome bolts that stick out like a sore thumb. I've never been a fan of the JL boxes... too much money, bottom of the line sub (usually), basic features... I mean shit a few black bolts instead of chromes would have added another $1 to their costs at most.

Back in the day I used to tell customers I would build them a basic box that would work with the sub of their choice for usually about 60% of the Stealthbox costs (entire unit - cost of a W1 woofer, or whatever it came with), and the only trade-off they would be signing up for is that it's gonna be a square-ish box with less rounded corners. Sold them on it every time too.

 

I always like JL Audio subs.

Is there any port holes on the enclosure? I'm so used to bandpass enclosure with a slotted port design.

With it being in a cubby, Will it interfere with sound?

 

Any suggestions for high and lo pass settings on the 500.1 and the JL Stealthbox? Kicker Key owners manual says to set it one octave below the boxes tuning frequency (i.e. if it's 40hz set it at 20hz). I don't know those specs without contacting JL, but the 10-TW3-D4 says it's range is 24-200hz.

Crutchfield recommend 80 on Lo and 30 on High pass depending on what frequencies I wanted the sub to play.
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_13610TW3/JL-Audio-10TW3-D4.html


Here's where I've set it for now. DC offset on, high level input, bass boost/gain will be adjusted during initial tune.





@Venom it's a sealed fiberglass box. I actually prefer ported sub boxes and really like the smaller JL 8" subs in a ported box, but we'll see how this one sounds before making further changes/upgrades.


@TurboGT Sharpie for the bolts? I haven't ruled out a proper 5 channel amp and a dmh-wc6600nex just yet, but I want to see what this setup does.

 

Can't wait until it's done, To get your opinion on the sound.

Found the perfect sub for you.

 

80 and below for sub

80 and up for the highs

or 100/100. Whatever sounds better to you

 

is there even space for a ported box?!?

yeah, 80/80 or 100/100 and 30hz hp sounds like a good start.

 

I mean just run down to your local Ace Hardware and pick up a few black hex cap bolts... they look better than regular socket bolts anyhow.

Depends on how creative you wanna get

 

I think I've seen that before... isn't that the new thrust engine from the supersonic jet they used in the new Top Gun movie?

 

Close, It's from SpaceX engine.

 

Ironically, 2 were 10mm and 2 were 7/8 I think?

 

Holy Sheet!!! These RSE-165 tweeters are BRIGHT!!! Did I mention they were bright? Yeah, a bit much.

After the initial key 200.4 tune I set the gains, but ended up turning them down quite a bit to try a remove some of the harshness of the tweeters and I still can't get rid of the slight hiss that's noticeable until music is turned on. Destin Meeks mentioned the kicker keys were noisy amps. Think of a guitar plugged into a Marshall tube full stack, turned on and waiting to be played. Definitely noisy hiss gains.

Also, I wouldn't run these speakers without an amp. The rears sounded good even on factory power, but the factory head unit's rms rating is pathetic as we all know and can't run the RSE-165's without some help.

The head unit is set completely flat on the treble and the mids and bass are turned up to about 3 I think, which definitely helps blend in the highs. The JL Stealthbox is no slouch with the Kicker 500.1 key. It thumps! (Still playing with 500.1 settings) However, it's no custom box and I can't help but wonder if Mr. Marv could work out something custom with a ported setup. That'll have to wait for now though.

If you like rock music these are your speakers. The CDT's had more bass (although they needed more than the key could give) and the unity's were very clear without getting fatigued. These focal tweeters definitely lift the vocals above everything else whereas the CDT's blended them in much more.

Overall though, everything is blended very nicely with this current setup. The highs, mids and lows all have there place with the key's dsp and when you crank it up it's still very clean sounding with a very nice thump from the Stealthbox.

Here we reach the point of diminishing marginal utility. An aftermarket head unit and proper dsp amp would be my next step along with swapping the front door speakers for the PS165FXE's to gain a little more bass up front. Of course that's easily another $3,000 for what I'm looking at. Pioneer/ JL VXi. After having the DSP I wouldn't be happy without it.

I think in time I will upgrade further, but for now I'm going to rock this setup for a bit. At least until the summer weather is done so I'm not working in swamp ass and fighting heat stroke.

 

I still need to deaden the back wall, but just doing the inner doors had made such a huge difference and when the doors are closed it's amazing how much sound is kept in the cab. I ended up using industrial velcro on the bottoms of the amps and with the AC running they stay plenty cool running the focals and stealthbox. With the AC off, they still cook an egg though. I'm going to work on adding some more pictures and video with sound clips.

 

https://youtu.be/VweisrfTpcM

 

HD Radio sound

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc_Vy5i7f2g

 

front seat sound

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipliv-Ffpts

 

Back seat sound

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6Y2BBrN4bs&feature=youtu.be

 

Bass roll off and on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM2Lc1djtw8&feature=youtu.be

 

Need to deaden behind the plastic bin as it's rattling a bit...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtIaP5VyDN8

 

I wonder how much more I could tame the tweeters with an aftermarket stereo?