Leroy's 2004 Tacoma stereo build log

I guess that since this is battery related, I can put this here. Got this new custom battery hold down from the forums.

 

Annnnnnnnd..... I'm finally back with an update. Life has taken up a ton of time.

I finally got a good plunge router and router table. (Bosch) Also got a Jasper circle jig which will come in handy.

Anywho, I've got the amprack cover complete with the exception of the final vinyl covering. The grill covers that I found look friggin sweet. Grill covers and panel are all mounted using neodymium magnets. Nowhere in town has the right color vinyl though...

 

Upholstery Center has vinyl and professional glue so now amp rack is fully 100% complete!

I'm really happy with how this thing turned out. I decided to do some raised embossing under the vinyl with both the JL audio and Focal logos and I think it looks pretty boss.

 

Side panel baffle/inserts done. Could've been a bit better and done some fancier stuff but I'm pretty new to fabricating. They look okay and at least look like they're there on purpose.

 

So I've spent a good part of the day just mulling over the subwoofer box / bench / storage and doing some rough calculations.

I think I will be able to do a ported box tuned to around 33hz. I'm going to have to do a fiberglass bottom. I want them to be enclosed so that you can just throw tools etc back there but also have a viewing port to be able to see them.

Basically the plan is to build a mockup of the top and sides with cardboard so that I can estimate the volume using styrofoam peanuts that I then transfer to a square box.

The hard bit is how to secure the darn thing. Speaker boxes become death missiles in a rollover or crash if not secured. I can use the holes that the original bench used and possibly the bits on the back wall the the fold down seats used. Not sure how I'd access them though...

 

I've always had sealed boxes and never had a ported box. You get louder low bass which is good for rap and dance in a ported, but tighter bass from a sealed enclosure.

Here's my thoughts.
1. Bass in a trunk of a car has a longer travel distance and more time to "develop". So a sealed box in a trunk often sounds absolutely fantastic. In the cab of a truck, it's just right there.
2. The focal sun is a very accurate sub. So I think that may be able to remedy the muddiness that often accompanies a pirated enclosure for rock/pop/country where you really want good accuracy.
The focal mids that I have go all the way down to 60hz (seriously amazing mid drivers). Those really cover my low mid bass very well so my ported enclosure would be tuned to 30-33 hz and handle 20-60hz.
3. Space is an issue and after it's all said and done, I may have to go with a sealed box anyways.
4. I don't ever want to worry about just throwing stuff in the back. So I want them fully enclosed. I could put them in a down firing style. I could also make them up firing but then I'd have to have something above them that people could sit on.

Thoughts?

 

What are the box specs, volume, port length etc...for those two tens?

Not sure how you'll wedge them in and have room for much else back there.

 

@33hz ported requires .88 cubic ft. Per sub. They have .05 cubic ft displacement per driver.

Its 52" a cross, 13 to 15" deep, and I was going to go 10" high

 

You need better enclosures . I'm using a ported SA10 in a SQ setup and it sounds very nice - even playing over 100 Hz. But the enclosure is big. It takes up most of the rear of the x-cab. The port is close to half the enclosure. Securing it wasn't easy either - wound up replacing the whole rear wall and giving up my small storage hatch to do it.



It's a very well-rounded rig. It does everything nicely with the exception of a few scattered tracks (I've found maybe a half dozen) where the sub lingers a little. But I'm convinced that's subsonic information in the tracks that my equipment wasn't capable of reproducing before.

IMHO, given our space and power limitations, ported is the way to go if you desire low end extension. Or passive radiator. I'm using a passive radiator setup at home and LOVE it.

McLovin the updates!

 

So, a single 8?

 

I'm just going off what the focal apex sheet says. .88 for the smallest recommended ported box

 

Manufacturers generally recommend enclosures on the small side. WinISD wants to model that driver in 1.6 cubes tuned to 27 Hz. Not that you have the space, but that would be pretty awesome. The small ported enclosure still models better than sealed and the box isn't that much bigger



Blue is sealed in .7 cubes
Green is vented in the small box that Focal recommends - .88 cubes tuned to 33 Hz
Red is modeled using the default ISD Chebyshev target - 1.6 cubes tuned to 27 Hz

 

Man it has been years since I've done this. That's some awesome stuff my man. I knew I'd need to get things modeled in WinISD. My problem now is that my daughter is going to college in a couple of weeks and she's got the family computer, so I need to build another one of those so I have somewhere to install winisd.

I can't get the computer parts ordered until I get our roof replaced from the huge hail storm we had. Freaking life you know?

So in the meantime I'm going to take out the temporary box and do some mockups so I know how much airspace I actually have to play with.

Your graphs look exactly how my real world measurements were. So most of my amo power is going to pushing that up on that low end.

 

I hear ya, hail is a bitch. Unfortunately I seem to live in the hail capital of the something. Last Summer one mangled my '03 taco body. It was almost perfect before the storm. Ok, not as bad as the Rangers parked in the same area , but it even split the paint in a couple places. Fiberglass shell didn't seem to take any damage though.

Lemme know if you want something else modeled.

Since you mentioned in-situ measurements, Audiofrog has a nice little set of graphs on their page that contrast the difference between in car and out of car response.

For the GB10

Sealed Enclosure Volume: 17 liters (0.6 ft³):



Vented Enclosure Volume and Tuning: 28.3 liters (1 ft³), 33 Hz:



Cabin gain is one of the few things in life we get for free

 

I think you should go with you original idea of a single down fire !

And you need to update your build sir .

 

Annnnnnnnnndddd, I'm back!

Had quite a bit of time off from this build. We had our basement flood and I had to do all the remediation and whatnot. Also started training on bike riding and did a 100 mile ride. Now that all that is done, it's back to finishing this build. I'm obviously in no hurry as it started almost 3 years ago.

I really struggled with doing a ported or a sealed. I learned so damn much about audio that its disgusting. Looking at the ported, tuning it, group delay, transients, distortion, etc etc. With the Focal subs, .88 is the smallest ported enclosure and the largest sealed. After doing some basic work and mockups, I found I can hit that .88 exactly.

 

So I've decided to go with the sealed. It's a 47hz tuning as opposed to the 33hz ported.
Here's my reasoning:
1. I want sound quality, not SPL
2. Easier to build correctly. This is a tough shape to get modeled.
3. 33hz would then have a 24dB/octave rolloff . The 47hz sealed would have a 12bD/octave, so I should be able to use my DSP to put a 12dB boost there and get the same low end extension.

Build pics in next post.

 

Original temporary box.

 

Framing some stuff out






My wife told me about this amazing invention that tilers use to trace around pipes and trim. What a godsend that was.

 

I fabricated these to be mounting points on the sides. I'll also use the center mounting bolt location in the back by the seatbelt clips.






Testing spacing. Can I get both 10s? I was going to cut it down to one, but that would not cut output in half, but way worse. It would be 1 10"sub at 150 watts instead of 2 at 300 watts. Running them at 2 ohms instead of one at 4 ohms.