The Audiophile's BS Thread

Steve do you have any reading I may do on those tower speakers? I'm moving to my own apartment soon so I want to build a set and hook the up to TV amd play my music with them.

 

Unless you promptly want to be evicted, might I suggest something smaller? I'm going to be offering a "kit" soon as a way to help DIY guys get their fix. Smaller like the little two way towers I posted on the previous page.

This tall set are extremely efficient. We had them on 1 watt of power in the garage and it was already too loud for me.

 

I'm sure you guys know way more about this stuff than I do, but here's my brothers system in his single cab. This is just copied out of my build thread for it, "Audison voce amps powering the speakers. 2 UNO, 1 Quattro. 2 Memphis mojo 12's. Audison voce 3 way components in custom door panels. Factory bench was removed and replaced with OEM buckets to allow the construction of the center console. A mechman 270 H.O. Alternator replaced the factory one. 3 large stinger batteries to supply the amps."

Here is the custom center console/ported box he built



Here is the door panel that was modified for everything to fit


And he put his iPad in the dash

 

Man all that Audison gear is sweet. I just put in HAT Unity's in the front Imagine's in the rear and I am running an ID10, but the ID10 isn't cutting it so I have a Morel Ultimo SC on order. Very excite!

 

Lol yea scaled back a little but I want to do something like that for my room.

Nice. Looks awesome.

 

After some research and planning, I've designed a tower speaker that I think would be ideal for home theater applications. The mid-bass enclosures will be thoroughly dampened, ported, and cylindrical in shape. This would prove to be very tough to build, but could potentially yield an extremely efficient and flat response! I'm thinking the best finish would be a nice vinyl around the cylindrical parts, and a nicely finished wood baffle for the mid-bass speakers. The brushed aluminium baffle for the tweeters is just for fun right now, but if I could pull it off in the build process, I think it would look pretty good! The tweeter location is offset from the mid-bass baffle to keep the acoustical center of every driver on the same plane.



The drivers I've selected are;
Tweeters: http://www.madisoundspeakerstore.co.../sb-acoustics-sb26stcn-c000-4-tweeter-4-ohms/
Mid-Bass: http://www.madisoundspeakerstore.co.../silver-flute-w17rc38-04-ohm-6-1/2-wool-cone/

I would hand build the crossovers set to probably somewhere in the lower 1k range with a -1db attenuation circuit for the tweeters.

So I think they should be about 97.5db efficient with a nice flat response from about 70-20,000hz.

Ideally, each tower will have its own sub woofer as well.

Thoughts? (Steve? )

 

Could anyone recommend some good speakers that are 5" or 5-1/4"?

Looking for a good sound across the board. Lows mids highs... I'm thinking a 2-way or 3 way speaker might be my best bet.

 

What's your budget for speakers? Are you planning on amplifying them?

 

Disregard my last post... No longer care about doing anything with those anymore.


I am now interested in putting 2x8" subs in my taco. (I'm thinking Memphis M-class 8's LOVE the way they look. or SA-8's from Sundown, or something comparable)

I have a 2x500W @4ohm amp. Right now I have it bridged onto an old school Memphis 12 and it's really plenty loud enough.



I want to do a ported box. I have an Ext cab and I plan on removing one of the jump seats and some brackets and what not on one side. This gives me enough room for a box that is 21" wide 13" tall and 12" deep. This is roughly 1.89 cu ft, yes? A good size for two ported 8's from what I can tell.

Has anyone had any good experience with 8's? How are they compared to larger speakers?

I like heavy thumping bass when I want it but I listen to a lot of country and rock so it's important to me that they sound nice and tight.

 

Don't want to start a thread for this but what is a good budget 6.5 inch speaker? I have an alpine head unit, 2 kicker cvr's, a sony xplode 1000w (i know... i got it in a package deal), and a rockford fostgate 400w 4 channel amp. Thanks in advance.

 

Since you already have a 4 CH amp, I'd recommend saving a little and getting some components. Day/night difference and worth every penny.

If you just want something really basic that can handle the power from the amp, get something like Infinity, Rockford Fosgate, Alpine, Polk... I'd stay away from Kenwood, Pioneer, Kicker, Sony (for speakers) just never been a fan. You'll spend about $70-120 if you get something that will keep up with the amp.

If you wanna save and do it right, components will in you $150-250 for a basic set but you can try Alpine Type R, or maybe even budget an entry level set of Focal. I run Focal as well as many others. You won't hear anything bad. They are a superb speaker, even their entry level lineup. You can probably find some 6.5 Focal components for around $170ish +/- I'll see if I can find a link.

But as always, I recommend wait a few extra weeks and do it right. Your already half way there by having a half decent amp, no need to skimp now. You won't regret it.

 

I definitely understand what you are saying. I have never personally heard components but have heard that they are the way to go. Unfortunately I work for $8 an hour right now and don't want to drop more than $100-$120 on 2 pairs. I only gave $180 for my 2 10" kicker cvr's, the rockford 4 ch, and a cheap 1000w 2 ch sony explode amp...

I have run infinity in the past paired with some cheap tweeters and liked those.

 

Boom! $60 components! not the greatest by any means, but I'd be willing to bet these still sound better than coaxial (non-components)

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_61010_Rockford-Fosgate-PRIME-R165-S.html

These will sound 1000x better than the ones above and as are only $100 a pair. Just do one set at a time.

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_34373_Alpine-SPS-610C.html

The Alpines (second set) will sound pretty darn good (for a budget system) with the amp if its all tuned right. The first set (Rockford fosgate) may not be able to handle the amp as they are rated 80w peak per side and 40rms. The amp will still work but ur gonna have to turn it down if you go the first option.

 

Oh and BTW, only the front takes 6.5 components. The rear is fine with 6.5 coaxial. Much cheaper for the rear. So you can get those alpine type s front components for $100 then a set of 6.5 coaxial alpine type s for the rears to match for only $60

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_27133_Alpine-SPE-6000.html

 

If you just really dont wanna deal with components, then at the minimum get a set of 2-ways for front and rear such at:

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_9111_Polk-Audio-db651.html

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_29827_Kicker-DS65-11DS65.html

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_27133_Alpine-SPE-6000.html

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_43143_Rockford-Fosgate-P165.html

Of all those the Polks (first one) will probably sound the best. Or Alpine. Fosgate is ok and kickers are alright.

 

Thanks man. I'm really interested in those alpine components. What makes components so much better? Is it that the tweeter is separate from the midrange cone? And I have been looking at the kickers and polks you posted too. I've run these in previous vehicles with success too:

http://www.amazon.com/Infinity-Refe...ar&ie=UTF8&qid=1371170599&sr=1-2&keywords=6.5

 

Those are actually pretty good drivers. I can't tell how large those ports are but you'd likely be ok going with 2 4" ports per cabinet. Hell, you may even be good with dual 3" ports as long as you're not throwing a million watts at it.

1khz on the tweeters sounds a little too low for those. Yes the graph looks good down to that spot but power handling (and distortion) won't be great at that point. I'd suggest around 2k. It's a great tweeter and the SB stuff has been great lately.

Are you making the enclosures cylindrical for looks? It's going to be a hard build.

 

Thanks, Steven!

I plan on making the enclosures cylindrical for both looks and for response purposes. From what I've learned from a few books so far, it seems that cylindrical enclosures offer the lowest variation in response peaks next to spherical.

These are pretty much on the back burner right now. I will likely not build them until I have a serious buyer already lined up due to the amount of time, funds, and effort these will take to complete.

 

Wow I'm jealous looks great. I just stumbled into this thread. My simple mind can't compute half of the stuff lol. When you guys speak about what freqs and slopes you run on speaker setups do you control that they the crossover that comes with the component set, the amp You use or the head unit? Sorry I'm a audiovirgin all I've done was get a pioneer 2500 double din head unit. I'm looking to either do sub/subs next our a component setup for the front (had a pair of alpine type s found n threw in the rear doors). I was looking at jl, hertz or alpine components (probably mid range hertz can't afford the high end) What do you guys think about the low to mI'd level focals. Best I've heard was my uncle's diamond audio setup a few years back but he said he paid 500 for a used set of components (in 2008).

Sorry for rambling and help or advice or point in the right direction would be appreciated.

 

Well, I guess I'll chime in since im new to TW.lol. Glad to see that the Tacoma is a good platform for audio design. I'm actually the MECA Arizona SQ head judge and have worked with many audio manufacturers.
I just bought a '13 TRD OR DBSC and have my plans in place for it. Hertz 3 way components in the front, Audison Bit.1 for processor, a pair of Hybrid Imagine 8''s for subs, Arc Audio power and Stinger accessories.