The Audiophile's BS Thread

I forgot about this thread. Built two sets of towers recently. A little shorty tower with some Usher mids and another version of my Clarity 2.5 tower from solid walnut.

 

Those are beauts!

 

The shorter ones are filled with concrete in the base....the guy has cats and a puppy lol

 

Very nice looking speakers, Steven! I'll bet they sound great. I still haven't managed to sell the line arrays I built, so I haven't had funds to start a new pair.

I did, however, sell my in car sub woofers, which I was never really happy with (JL 1026v2). I didn't have much of a choice but to replace them with the 10w6v3 which JL FINALLY released after almost a year of pushing back the release date. I'm much happier with them.

 

What updates were made to the V3?

 

More durable rubber surround (THANK GOD), longer linear excursion, smaller cone area (kinda makes the longer linear excursion pointless, right?), sexier look, larger motor assembly (I think).

I'm surprised on how much different they sound, based on such seemingly minor changes, though!

 

The older surrounds were foam right? I didn't know they had durability issues. Sucks about the cone area though.

 

what did you do about the potential for "echo" with concrete in the base? Is there just another layer of that beautiful wood over top of it? Sort of like container in container?

 

I don't think that concrete will differ from wood with regards to "echo". I'm assuming you're referring to standing waves formed by the internal geometry of the enclosure? The enclosure includes a soft dampening made from recycled blue jeans that's a personal favorite of mine. I have an internal brace/deflector sitting behind the midbass that's at an angle and covered with dampening. This lets the backwave disburse instead of bouncing right back into the cone and causing distortion. The bottom of the enclosure and one wall are also lined with dampening.

 

Yeah, they were foam. I managed to tear 6 of them in one year through normal use. JL denied that this was a known problem when I asked them to work a deal on the new models. They weren't even willing to extend the warranty. Not to mention, I've heard of at least 2 other people who have experienced the same issue with the older model.

 

Wow. That's pretty nuts!

 

Need some advice from you guys with a little more experience than me. My 4 CH amp is taking a shit on me. Its a JL Audio 300/4 Slash V2 series amp. Its about 5-6 years old now and I think all the off-roading has damaged it. Channel 3 (rear driver) is WAY louder than the rest and if I hit the amp it goes down level with the rest. Almost as if the gain is just opening up full on that channel only. If I keep hitting the amp. It will fluctuate back and forth and also channel 4 will occasionally get too low as if gain is closed.

So now I must decide to try and repair, or use this as an opportunity for upgrade. I've been wanting to eliminate my crossovers and separately amp my mids and tweeters. So I either need a 4ch and 2 channel, or a good 6ch. I found that JL makes a XD 600/6 and that would work great, however, its one of their lower lineups which concerns me. I'm a major JL fan, but am open to other ideas. Also need to keep a fairly reasonable budget here.

I am powering Focal Polyglass 6.5 components up front and coaxial 6x9 in rear. So I'm not sure the XD amp will cut it at only 75w per channel RMS @ 4 ohms. I have also been wanting to add a processor, either an Audison Bit One or a Rockford Fosgate (three sixty iirc ). With the processor I won't need any other device such as something from Audio Control to split my 4 channels into 6, it should all be handled from the processor I believe. Anyways, that stuff isn't important quite yet.

My main concern right now is what to do with this amp situation.
-Get another 4 channel and call it good?
-Get a 4 and 2 channel? (Not a good budget friendly idea, nor do I have space for 3 amps total)
-Get the JL XD 600/6 (or similar... suggestions please) and a processor and go all out pretty much.

Additional info, I am also running a JL stealthbox with two 10w1v2's off a JL 500/1 Slash V2 amp. Head unit is a Pioneer AVH-P8400BH with 4v pre outs.

 

You will not be able to eliminate your crossovers and bi-amplify your front stage with the JL XD600/6 on its own. The crossover options on that amplifier do not allow you to set the high pass filter high enough to be safe for your tweeters, so you will still need some type of passive crossover, or an audio processor. If your receiver is capable of setting the desired crossover points, you could use the pre-outs for the rear channels to play your front tweeter channels, but that would probably require eliminating your rear speakers altogether. I'm not too familiar with most Pioneer receivers, so I don't know exactly what is possible with them.

Either way, I wouldn't recommend the JL XD600/6 without using an audio processor of some sort. One amp that I know of that will allow bi-amplification of a component speaker set without assistance from any other device is the Hertz HDP4, but it is only a 4 channel. If the internal amplifier on your Pioneer can keep up with the maximum undistorted output of the pre-outs, then you could play your rear speakers from deck power and not worry about adding a third amplifier. Chances are, you won't miss any decrease in rear speaker volume from using this suggested configuration.

 

Good info. I didn't even think about the HPF settings. The in-dash does not have enough options to single out the HPF on certain channels only so that won't work. But I was considering a processor. As I mentioned, either an Audison or a Fosgate (I like the Alpine unit but I heard bad things). So with a processor, I should be able to filter the signal for the tweeter before they even get to the amp correct? I have tons of experience in this field and am even MECP certified but I've never personally used a processor before so this will be a first for me. But from my research and what I've been told from the 'pros' a processor and a bi-amp setup will but my standard component system to shame. Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

Yes, the right audio processor will take care of the DSP of any and all channels on the pre-amp side of things. If an audio processor is within your budget, I would absolutely recommend one. I haven't had any experience with the Rockford 360, but from what I've heard, it doesn't hold a candle to the flame of an Audison Bit One.

 

Sounds good. Time to start shopping around then. I can get all the products at dealer cost, so its just a matter of picking them out now. The only thing I don't like about the idea of a processor is that right now I can tune and adjust just about any head unit and/or amp you give me, but a processor has soooo many fine tune options I wouldn't know where to begin. I'd think one would need a real time analyzer to properly tune a system with a processor. So that means I must rely on the shop to tune everything once I install it. Not too thrilled about that since I typically re adjust my eq all the time. But I'm sure I'll figure it out

 

What's happening on the world of mobile audio? I've got all my stuff for my truck except the amp. I was going to use my tax refund to buy it but some lowlife stole it out of my truck while I was in the store looking at the amp I wanted. Its only money at the end of the day, however, it always sucks to be burgerlized. A friend has been nice enough to let me use is his JL HD750/1 to run my Alpine and while showing it off I cracked my slider window. The thin Type-R's will slam just like his big brother. Do you think it would be worth buying a $60 2-channel kicker amp at ~35rms vs my HU's ~20rms until I'm able to get the 5-channel? Would doing such make much difference in volume?

 

Hold up....someone stole your tax return? Holy shit dude.

And no I wouldn't spend money on an amp that wimpy. Just use your headunit for now.

 

This past weekend we finished up some nice stage speakers....these are gonna be nuts!

 

Hole-E shit. I bet those are loud