2003 X-Cab 4x4 Budget Audio Build

So it has been a while since I've done anything to the truck. Work has been insane, but we've hit out slow season and now I have time to do stuff like work on projects I started in the past.

I thought it was about time to work on the rest of the deadening & finally got around to ordering some more CLD tiles. I also got to thinking I really wanted to have a go at sealing the doors.

The original idea was to use some cutting boards to fill the 2 larger holes in the doors but as I started looking at the door skin more closely I realized that the openings were not flat and would require some sort of 3-dimensional thing to fill the hole. Sheet metal might be possible, but would require some tricky cutting and bending to get it right and would probably cut me to ribbons in the process.

Since I wound up buying 40 tiles, more than I think I need to finish up, they were really the only thing that really made sense. I've seen people do with much thinner materials before and as I'm overlapping a good bit I'm thinking it'll work out just fine. It's pretty stiff once installed.

I wound up using 6 tiles in each door to do this and had a whole tile's worth of scrap left when finished...so really 5.5 tiles each door. I had already treated the door with tiles previously - this was just the sealing. As I bought the tiles at a discount when they were out of stock, I spent roughly 12 bucks plus some shipping so 15 bucks per door to do this. I also used a couple zipties and the loop side of velcro to decouple surfaces. All in it took about 4 hours.

Sorry about the grainy photos - my camera was set at 1600 ISO for some reason.





I only got to listen for an hour or so but WOW what a difference! I can't believe I waited this long to do this! I was pretty happy with things before, but was lacking in the midbass department. This seems to have solved my problem in a big way. Drums are authoritative now. The low end is far punchier - just smacks you in the chest. The Flutes feel a lot more controlled. Played full-range without the sub they make enough bass to shake the rear view mirror. It kinda seems like the Flutes would like more power now too.

Seat of pants tells me I don't even need to re-tune. This just brought in a whole lot of what was missing and seriously enhanced what was already going on. Best use of ~$30 evar!

 

So reflecting on this since it started, and really since I started playing around with this stuff at all, this is one of those profound moments. Yeah, people go on and on about sealing doors, but people go on about everything. Not that I doubted anyone...I just didn't realize how much of a difference this would make. It should have been obvious as I've played countless speakers free-air, but it just never made the priorities list. This won't happen again.

After getting to spend some quality time with the truck and make some changes, it's pretty easy to say that this is the single largest improvement as physical changes go and right up there with gaining the tuning abilities of the PRS80. And I needed them. After sealing the doors I immediately needed to cut my sub 2 notches, but that wasn't enough. I cut 80 and 200 by 2 dB and 125 by 4 dB! After that I kicked the sub back up one notch, but just sealing made that much difference. That was all by ear mind you and may migrate.

I did listen to Steve Winwood's My Love's Leavin' right after I finished...listened to this whole album actually but that was before I made adjustments. This particular song happened to be a happy accident, but set out to destroy the door panels with midbass. It wasn't until other tunes that I realized it was now really bass heavy and needed some adjustment as the Flutes became much more efficient between 80 and 500 Hz.

Imaging has been improved - especially with drums and bass guitar & stuff in that range. A good deal of it was missing and now it's right up above the dash where it should be. Placement is better-defined as well. I want to mention the drums one more time. It's hard to define how much drums have come to life and carry far more impact than before and cleanly. Bass too, but drums are just so real now. Vocals have always been strong and well-placed but this did something for them as well. Seriously people. Seal those doors!

I am genuinely curious about the difference in a technique like this and one which uses sheet metal or some other more rigid material. Considering that it's impossible to really seal a car door and keep it functional, I'm hedging my bets on the idea that the difference would be nominal with a 5.5 inch woofer sporting 3.5 mm of xmax on up to 75W.

Thinking toward the future though I really would like to try a TM65, and would give it the power it deserves. That might set me up for a re-do, but if the day comes, I half-ass promise to do my very best to quantify the difference.

Plans got changed today and work is still slow so I think I'll rip out the back or at least the quarters. I don't have enough MLV to do the rear panel, but should have enough for the quarters and I certainly have enough CLD tiles. I also wanna survey the rear speaker holes today in addition to deadening. I want to see if I have enough room in the rear for a couple smaller subs - maybe a pair of 8s that I can feed 300W each. That would hide everything but the tweeters & might even provide more bass than the SD - although that's a long shot. I have reservations about small subwoofers, but with enough power and the right enclosure I can pull it off...if the room is there.

 

I got a in another session the other day. I had a few things I wanted to get done and although I couldn't do everything I wanted to do I could at least put in some CLD tiles and survey the rear area for future maybe projects.

This had gotten to be a priority as the bump in bass & midbass from sealing the doors made some existing rattles even worse. The rear quarter on the driver's side was making a lot of noise.

For all I know this is the only existing picture of the rear quarter cavity in a 1st gen x-cab.



This was one of my goals - to explore the size of this cavity. It has the airspace for a stout 6.5" sub easily...maybe a port too, but sealing it would be quite the chore. And I'd also need to build a baffle and cut some plastic. I'm also pretty sure that hole down to the bottom left is a vent as there are none on the rear wall. That's why I didn't seal it.

You could put an amp back here too. And one on the other side. Or a DSP. Hey, I found a spot for a Helix DSP!

As you can see I put a bunch of CLD tiles on the wall at maybe 70% coverage. It may be overkill, but these panels seemed like they needed it. There was some factory stuff in there that was peeling off. I got most of it out, but wound up going over a couple small spots with tiles where it wouldn't come off. It may have resembled butyl at some point, but most of it was hard and brittle. I needed to pull the factory speaker baffle to get all of it out. About 1/3 of the cavity is stuffed with open-cell foam from the factory. While some was a little dirty, there was no mold!



As the plastic card has these plastic waffle thingies inside, I wanted to make sure they stopped making noise. They were the source of a lot of it. I fed pieces of garage door foam and mousepad between the plastics to decouple them. This was a real pain in the ass and took a good bit of patience and a flathead screwdriver. Good results though and pretty much free.



The seatbelt slider thingy is another monster and doesn't seem like much can be done for it. I stuck some CLD on it - maybe that will help. You can see more foam stuffed between plastics in the above photo. Also note the black almost horizontal stripe at the top of the seatbelt slidey thing. That's where one of the factory butyl 'dampers fell down...the other side fell off too. They cover holes near the roof.



Another popular source of rattles is these clips. One way to stop this is take a little bit of butyl from either a rope or from a scrap piece of damper. A ball the size of a pea is probably about right to do 2 of them. Seriously - takes just a smidge. Stretch it out so it's about as thin as you can get it without it breaking and wrap it around the inside of the mating surface of the clip 2 or 3 times. Then stick it back in the door. It's also less likely to pop out when you're re-attaching the panel.

More changes are on the horizon as well. I just bought a new JL XD 600/6v2 which should be here in a few days. This will mean 200W for each of the mids and 75W for the tweeters. I'm going to see how the Flutes like the boost although this is a lot more power than their 60W RMS rating. Also likely going in soon is a pair of Scanspeak Discos, but again I want to see how the Flutes handle the extra power before swapping drivers.

 

Got in a little more quality time today. Our slow work season is still dragging out and I have lots of free time on my hands. The next 2 are maintenance days, but today I dedicated to the stereo.

Last time I only had time to get the driver's side rear quarter done, but today I finished damping the passenger side and the rear wall. Still don't have MLV back there, but wanted to see what I was getting myself into first. It is on the list, but when I finish the MLV, it's gonna be a job...like I need to tear out the whole interior to get it right and I'm not sure when that's gonna be practical. And I need materials. I need filler foam, decoupling foam, MLV, and I'm going to rewire when I do that too so again - a project.

The damper in the passenger side was mostly intact - unlike the driver's side which was all over the place. You can see it's a pretty big chunk & sort of 'perforated' in a checkerboard pattern. Some had separated from the door skin and was just hanging on to the rest. Some fell into the abyss below. It's pretty hard at this point and could have been making noise in the cavity. I knocked on the cavity before and after removing it & didn't really notice much of a difference. This cavity has a good ring to it when you tap on the panel untreated.



Most of it came off pretty easily by hand, but there was some stubborn stuff remaining. I tried a screwdriver, but it would only remove a little section at a time and could scratch the paint.



One of the panel poppers in my cheap HF kit to the rescue. It worked pretty well, but chewed the tool nicely.



Finally all removed. It was a PITA, but that panel puller seems like the right tool for the job.



Anybody want some free 'damper'?



The top holes were still clinging to their butyl/plastic sheet combo on this side. Recall they had fallen from the driver's side and were just hanging there.



The rear was on its way to falling and the adhesive from it has done some melting. This boys and girls is why TS2F goes on about heat tolerance so much.



I meant to take some pictures during re-assembly, but sometimes that just doesn't happen. Looks mostly like the other side though. That and I did about 70% coverage CLD tiles on the back wall. Didn't take any pictures of that, but did make a mental note in the process. CLD tiles are difficult to get to conform to the ribbed and contoured surface of a rear truck wall. Next time I do this, I'll use CLD sheets or something similar that is more malleable. I spent a considerable amount of effort getting the back wall as good as I think I could have gotten it. It isn't pretty, but it should get the job done. I'll try to remember to take pics of that at the MLV install...which could be a while. Don't hold your breath.

As I was working in the back today I managed to semi-destroy one of my tweeter's caps with my big-ass boot. Turns out that I ordered 3 when I was planning everything out and today it came in handy!

Looks like my new amp should be here Friday. There's plenty of likelihood that it will wind up in the truck shortly after it gets here. That should keep me busy for a little while. I still need to re-tune too since sealing the doors. I'm not quite nailing it by ear - need to get a mic back in there. Might as well wait 'till I get the new amp in.

I haven't driven the truck since finishing the damping, so have no idea how that's gonna feel. When the weather's nice, and it usually is, I try to run errands & such on my pushbikes. Looks like we're back to work Friday so I'll have some driving to do then. I'm pretty sure also that the seat belt slidey thingie is the source of some persistent vibration and will have to be dealt with. Looks like it will need to just be in a static position. I'm not pulling these panels again until I can do more work though. They're manageable enough, but require plenty of patience and the removal of lots of stuff. This is a job for a jockey. I feel sorry for large installers

 

Seriously - Class D has to be one of the best things that has ever happened to car audio. The new guy showed up for his first day on the job and I can't get over how little this fella is



Not only that, but well organized and quite flexible. Man I love these XD amps. 6 channels, capable of 3,4,and 5 and 100 worms out of each one. The size of a textbook. And cheaper



It's almost 2 inches longer, gasp, but I'm going to be able to slide this one right in where the 400/4 is sitting. Score. Depth is the same. Height is the same.

I guess once i do this I officially join the kilowatt club. Between the 2 amps it's 585+550 for 1135 worms in the can. Fun as it sounds it may present some issues. A battery and big 3 upgrade are going to be needed soon. But, I'm trying to figure out how to work a different alignment with a much larger vented enclosure and a different driver. I may not need as much power on the sub in that case.

I have maybe a quarter tank of gas on the new treatments now and so far the difference is notable. More than notable actually - really approaching significant. I used to have some funky noises coming from back there - just didn't know they were coming from there. I don't know if they originated in or were transferred to that space, but the dampers alone changed the character of the ride. The truck feels more solid - far less noisy and less like a truck although I notice the wind more now. Overall suspension/road,etc noise seems to have been reduced notably. This was a nice upgrade just finishing up the damping on the vertical stuff.

I also decided to start looking for some 5x7 drivers for the doors. That'll let me maximize cone area. And if I wind up using the ID X57, or something very similar I'm hoping the phase plug will help with the off-axis response a bit. They should also let me use all that power productively.

But first to see how the Flutes respond to an overdose

 

I got the 600/6 in today. No pics of any of that as things got tricky, but I did manage to clean up the wiring a little more and put one more layer of protection on. Among a million other things, sometimes I wind up rebuilding A/V racks at work and get to keep all the stuff that gets pulled out if I wanna - like open-ended tech flex big enough to bundle everything but the RCAs. I have a decent stash of it by now and am installing it in the permanent locations as I go.

On things getting tricky, for some reason my laptop's output on the right side is fuxored and led me first to think I had a bad RCA, then a bad output on the PRS before tracing it back to the laptop. So that consumed an hour or 2, but since I was in there I went ahead and installed the other USB extension I had here so I can have 2 sticks in the PRS at any time. I keep debating whether I want to install outlets in the dash and get these out of the glovebox. Then again, since I can use them both now, I hardly ever need to access them unless I'm reloading.

I think I have all the gains set where they're gonna be. It still needs some EQ work, but gains and some mild EQ settings was good for today - wanted to go ride my bike too. Err, I piddled with crossover points too, but got hungry and abandoned ship. Tomorrow I will probably get to spend some more quality time.

So far I'm digging the 600/6v2 with the exception of one detail. I once again have a noise floor. The XD 400/4 was dead silent, but this one, the NEWER version, has a slight hiss. I only notice it the motor is off and windows are up and I'm paying attention, but needless to say I'm pretty disappointed by this in the newer version. It may not bug me enough to swap yet again, but we'll see. It's one of the reasons I removed the Lisa...certainly not the main reason but one of them. Oh, and after a few hours close to the new amp with it running all the time, it stayed cool to the touch, so this isn't all a sad story.

Power is certainly higher. I set the gains to take advantage of every bit of it on the Flutes - which should mean about 200W each. I almost tripled the amount of power available to them with this amp swap. So far they seem to like it just fine. Right at home actually. I had heard that the 6.5 was a good bit underrated so took a chance with the 5.5 and so far no issues. Time will tell of course, but I like it to this point. It still doesn't seem like I'm drawing that much current. Maybe these amps I'm using are just that efficient? At 1150 available watts, my electrical system just doesn't seem to care. I can listen at moderate volumes and my little motorcycle battery tender can keep up. This is no complaint - just an observation...a nice one.

I don't know that I'm going to get in a big hurry to swap drivers just yet. The Flutes just needed more power I think. And seriously, after comparing t/s parameters on literally every decent woofer than PE and Madisound sell, I'm not convinced that I can make a significant improvement by swapping these drivers with some other 5.5" option. So I think it's EQ time tomorrow to see what I can do with the new horsies.

 

Upped my gain-setting game a bit today

 

Upgrayedd!

Oh, and a new set of SI TM65 is on the way too.

 

So the Fedex man came to see me today



Working on a house for it. Gonna be next week before I can finish it up though - waiting on the circle jig for the router to show up. It'll be about 2 cubes all told...about 1.5 for the driver, .22 for port and the rest for wood thickness. Tuned to 35 Hz with an F3 of 29 Hz. I really can't wait to hear this thing. I only have 600W to give it, but I don't expect that to be a problem. According to the paperwork, Sundown has downgraded the RMS power rating on these to 600W anyway. Yeah, right .



I guess while I'm at it I might as well be working on my initial settings. The hardware will be here Tuesday



Still no word on the TM65s though, but they should be getting here any time now. That's unfortunate because I've damaged the coils on the driver's side Flute...so I'm on borrowed time. But - blowing cheap speakers is mo betterer than blowing the kerspensive ones

 

Summer Santa dropped by on his orange, white and blue sleigh

 

I needed to cut a couple more pieces & decided to get some router work done while I was at it. I wound up going with a 1-1/4" roundover bit to make a nice parabola on the end piece and clean rounded edge on the others.







As far as I could get today



I got the baffle cut too so when the jig gets here I can do a little trimming, recess the mounting hole, cut it then roundover the front. Hopefully will get it all glued up & sealed this weekend.

 

I gave myself a couple weeks of playing with

$40 Rux-knob Remote Bass Level Control Knob for PDX-M12 and PDX-M6

Rux-knob locations & easily settled on the pocket below the radio. It's more accessible than any of the unused switch popouts & it's unused space. It's at a perfect reach just below the volume knob and is totally out of the way. Flush inside the pocket was too far away. I'm debating blacking the whole thing out, but we'll see.



A little CLD tile on both the big sides of the pocket while I'm in here. I thought this double-sided tape was clear when I put it on & only really noticed I'd be able to see the white through the screw holes after I'd reinstalled the dash. I'll fix it if it bugs me. It was going to be pretty tricky to get screws & bolts on this thing without them standing out so I decided to try some of the good tape Crestron gives us to mount their really expensive shit. So far so good & it's a tight fit anyway. I probably could get away with no tape it's so tight. But like this there's no movement no matter how I approach the knob.



My remote lives in here too & there's still plenty of room for it



It blends in well enough from the driver's perspective & keeps with the idea of modifying the truck as little as possible.



I've also been thinking a bit more about the enclosure and considered extending the vent on the enclosure a few inches - while reducing the interior volume to 1.3 cubic feet (from 1.4). Here's how it modeled.



I think I might just stick with it the way it is.

I pulled a door apart to see how the TM65s might be looking. This is going to take some work. At very least I get to cut into the plastic in the door card a bit. A baffle is going to be some work too - probably some sort of work with the new router to replace the whole factory bit. Maybe I'll try & tackle it over the 4-day weekend coming up. I'll probably need it

 

I also considered bracing the shit out of the box to make it smaller - as Sundown recommends. Trying both ends of the recommended sizes - 1.0 to 1.25 cubes. Yellow is still the one I'm ready to assemble. None of these are modeling any better, so I think I'm ready to assemble finally. After I make some corner braces to take me to ~1.4 cubes.

 

So I got in a bit of rush to judgement with this enclosure. My first clue that something wasn't quite right was the lower tuning frequency - which didn't jibe with the other calculators. Then I noticed this



Going back over all my inputs I realized that my port area conversion got botched and I wound up with an erroneous figure. That led me at first to believe that I was going to have an issue with port area, but when I got the dimensions fixed things started looking a little more realistic.

Closer than I'd like to be, but since I'm taking care to round everything in the vent area & flare at the top that I might squeak by. Even if not, any issues should only be present when ragging out the amp.



SPL with these corrections



And another comparison with the smaller enclosures as well as the one with the longer vent [in pink]



All that said I still don't intend to change too much about the enclosure. Tuning frequency is just higher than I thought it would be. No drop off a cliff with this model though - which is a relief.

 

Damn, you're getting very technical!

 

Heh, I finally got a version of WinISD stable on my laptop. Good thing too because technical is all I have time for anymore - always working & no install time. Gonna try to get a few things done over the long weekend though. I at least wanna get this enclosure finished. If modeling and cabin gain estimates are close, this SA should be capable of ~130 dB cleanly. That should give me the headroom down low that I'm seeking. Oh, and I think I am gonna extend the port and go with that pink plot. It flattens the curve a bit & lowers the tuning frequency at the expense of a little output. I'll gladly sacrifice output for extension here.

Need to get the neoprene in the doors too. Really need to get the TM65s in the doors, but still haven't figured out how that's gonna go down.

 

This big roll of foam has been sitting here for a few days & I haven't really had too much time to spend with it until today. This is a care package from Foam by Mail containing 2 big sheets each of 1/16" and 1/8" neoprene plus a big wad of polyfil to round off the order for free shipping.



The thin stuff has a really pleasant leathery texture to it. Furthermore I'm not convinced this isn't a little thicker than 1/16, but more on that later



You'll need to write off the edges of the thin stuff



The trick to getting this on evenly is preparation. That and applying the foam evenly with a back and forth motion - rolling slowly forward but not so slowly because Super 77 is impatient. . Laying this out before I spray the MLV makes life much easier.



I already had velcro installed on the MLV so needed to cover it before spraying on the adhesive.



MLV door Panel with both sides treated with 1/16" high-density neoprene. It all feels super-solid, but barely fits. 1/8" would be impossible to use on both sides like this - not in these doors.



One door complete.



A cross-section of the inner part of the door: CLD tiles, neoprene, MLV, neoprene, CLD tiles (in door card)



At this point I started to tackle another issue - the TM65 issue

This is going to be a tight squeeze



And is going to require a little cutting







I think these 2 cuts should do it though







I'm pretty sure I can get away with new cutting-board baffles but getting that exactly right is going to take some time and it started getting really hot out. Back at it tomorrow morning to at least treat the other door and perhaps get started mounting these TM65s.

I'm making a cover for the bass knob too - gonna try to use some of the leathery side of the neoprene for the surface. It'll still be recessed in the pocket, but only the knob will be visible behind an inset panel. As soon as I run across the parts I can get that going.

 

I scored another cutting board this morning & set out to cut some baffles for the new woofers - using the stock speakers



Not the best news for the TM65s. I was hoping to mount them like I have the flutes mounted but the flange on the driver covers the holes I need to screw the baffle into the door.



I'm going to have to make custom pieces of wood now. That isn't going to happen for quite a while. Looks like I need some different drivers for now that I can slip in. I have a few in mind, but it ain't gonna be cheap. At the moment the Dayton Esoteric 5.5 is looking like the winner but who knows? I have been piddling with the idea a bit, but now it's time to make a decision.

I did finish deadening the driver's side this morning though

Laying out the MLV for adhesive



Making sure I have a bit of overlap room on each side



Just before spraying - all lined up so that I can roll the foam on quickly.



This all comes together nicely after a couple tries & you start to develop a technique. I still managed to rip up a good bit of the sheet by sitting on it while doing one side so again leave some margin for error when calculating how much you will need.

Oh, and for fellow Tacoma owners, this goes better if you leave a quarter inch or so around the opening for the door handle (assuming you trimmed your MLV to match the door handle opening). I found that cutting with a razor then scooping the foam out after gluing was the easiest way to do this. If you don't, you may have difficulty operating the door handle.

I guess I need to be rethinking these speakers now and can turn my attention back to the enclosure...whenever that happens. I'm dying to hear it, but apparently that's not enough motivation right now

 

Just wanted to let you know: I am slowly working my way through an SQ build myself and have found this build thread very helpful.

 

Good to hear & thanks for the kind words mako. Looking forward to your build thread.