Lets see if these will fit - 6x9 in the doors.

[lylefk]

This is one of the most complicated speaker installs I've ever seen.

[slow e30]

Thanks for the compliment.
Its got a good start, but it'll be a real challenge for me as this will be my first fiberglassing attempt.

Gonna render the glove box completely useless.

i kicked my glovebox out one night looking for my insurance paperwork for a cop that pulled me over. he sure liked it, i hated it, but it also gives more leg room for my passangers.

[Serious Sam]

I have see more complicated.
That may be the problem. I saw theirs, and thought, I could do something like that. Ah oh. We'll see. I just hope it sounds good. Lots of work for crap sound - not good.

I struggle with wanting to look for silk tweeter, but the funds are so ridiculously low. I just cant. The only monies I hope to spend on this is to get a nice EQ. Anyway, no crying here.

I hope to make the glove box functional, and I have an idea about how to make it work, but it'll be difficult for sure.

Got very little done tonite. Something always seems to come up, doesn't it.

Well, some pics below on the tweeter baffle. Couldn't have made it that small without strengthening it with those birch wraps. Would have broken, nor held in the vise while using the hole saw.

I wanted to put the tweet above the mid, but its just too tight there so below it goes. I should take some time and play with various locations, but I feel like I am running out of time at the moment as it wont be around but on the weekends come next week. So I'm shooting to get as much done this week as possible. I've heard from multiple sources that these tweets need to be play off-axis, so thats the plan. If I had a silk tweet, then it would be facing me like the mid is designed.

Enough talking...show me the pics.

[AndrewBird]

Why would you EVER want to put tweeters down by your feet, far away from your head?

[Mtriple]

Why would you EVER want to put tweeters down by your feet, far away from your head?

to try and equalize the pathlength.

[paulkeith]

i'm....going to reserve final judgment until there's some kind of finished product.

but if you want opinions now, and i'll assume you do.... since you did post it on the internet... I'd say do a little less cutting and gluing and a little more thinking. So far you've cut giant holes in your door panels that you can't use, built 14" diameter baffles for 6" speakers, and also rendered your glovebox useless.

There are much more painless ways to do this, not sure what you're really after here.

For starters, I'd consider mounting the tweeters to the sail panels or above the dash, buying new door panels so you don't need one foot diameter baffles, and mounting the mids flush with the kick so that you can actually use your glovebox.

Just my 0.02. Good luck...
Paul

[Serious Sam]

Another reason to put these tweeters down low is to keep those harsh aluminum tweeters as far away from my ears as possible. The sails are a natural fit; but I think if you bring them that high, then up on the dash (like lukes install) or in the pillars is much better than the sails. The sails are just too close for me on the drivers side. In the pillars...now that's not the glassing I want to try right now - as they are high, easily seen, and need to be wrapped in vinyl - I have no vinyl and dont wnat to spend the money on it. If I had Silks - I would likely want them higher but I would want to bring the mids up too.

I agree with much of your criticism. There is alot to be said for "keeping it simple". There is definitely a less painful way. But in this case its just not pain for me. I am enjoying the hell out of it actually. It's my escape to work on the car as a way to get away from work. A little time for myself from the family. To be creative in my mind and with my hands and to see if it can be done and actually works. Some can argue with that but to each his own.

The baffles have a definite purpose. The hole in the door is not THAT big. Cant be more than 6" across. The size of the baffles, as stated previously, is an attempt to provide some mass and to attach the speaker to the metal of the door and not just the door card. Its true some size could have been taken away if i had not opened up the door card to that size (trying to get 6x9's in the door - which is still in the plan to compare against the 6's). But not THAT much. maybe a reduction from 10.5" down to 9". Its very important to me to utilize mass and solidity to enhance the performance of a speaker that's trying to reproduce music down to 80 Hz - upper sub performance.

BTW, I'd rather be installing 8's in the door - talk about big baffles!

I NEVER use my glovebox. Although that is not enough of an excuse to totally disregard it, I do plan in the end to make it functional. Let's wait and see.

I have had a couple systems in the past. One that shot the mids straight out at the feet and one that faced me - similar to Luke's midbass locations. Much preferred the one that faced me. I have read too many times how good the imaging is using custom kickpanels, and I also wanted to try my hand at some glassing.

There is also a measure of trying to do something I haven't seen in an e30. I'm sure someone has done it all, but I haven't seen it like I am trying to do.

I hope that gives some idea where this is going.

BTW, I see your sig says A, Ga. Dont know if that means Atlanta, but after this is done, I would like for a few locals to Atlanta to listen to the system so see if it IS any good. If it isn't and I agree with the criticism, then I'll try something different if funds, equipment and time allow. I WANT this to sound as good as I am able to create.

[paulkeith]

eh, fair enough. I'm just all about good SQ in a package that doesn't really impact the practicality of the car. Things like giving up a glovebox, etc just to squeeze a few more % points of satisfaction out of the sound isn't worth it to me. I'll leave that to the SEMA cars and actually be able to use mine.

yes, atlanta.

good luck!
Paul

[franco90]

bump
looks good

[Serious Sam]

Thanks.
Alot ofthis stuff I am trying forthr first time. I'm sure after it's over I'll reflect and realize somethings could havebeen done better.

Havingto take a couple nights off but will getsome more work done to this weekend.

[StereoInstaller1]

Sam, 90% of the harshness associated with those old Quart tweeters is NOT the diaphragm material, it is the shitty electrolytic capacitors in the crossovers.

If you only use a .01mfd Mylar or polypropolene (sp?) as a bypass on the main tweeter cap, you will be shocked at the difference in smoothness. Better still is to replace them with something better!

The shitty tweeter protection sounds like ass, too. Replace that tweeter shunt with a chunk of wire and they will stop hurting your earballs, but will then be so damn fragile you will need to watch the volume all the time.

I don't know which crossover set you have, but the MusicComp is the only Quart crossover that is not absolutely miserable. All the others need help!

Luke

[cobraken]

Nice thread! Cant wait to see it complete.

[Serious Sam]

I look forward to the complete system, too. But I'm also having a great time trying to put it together as well.

Luke, I will be using a Audio Control 4xs (in 4 way mode). Set at 80HZ - 400 Midbass, 400 - 4000 Mid, tweet above, and sub below 90. I am currently looking for an EQL to compliment the system, and if I can find one second hand, a four.1 as icing on the cake! I figure that setup will give me some versatility to suit my ears. Do you think that will solve much of the harshness, and still protect the tweets?

Also, I mentioned previously that the tweet would be under the mid, but after some reevaluation (after completing the small tweet baffle, it looks like I can fit it just above the mid at 2 o'clock right at the bottom of the glovebox/knee thingy as it curves to go under. I think this is a better location. Again, I should take the time and try a few locations for the tweets, but its likely not going to happen that way.

Amps, at the time of writing, are RF 301x (40x4) on the tweets/mids, and a 551x (70x2, 275 x 1) on the midbass and bridged for the sub.

[StereoInstaller1]

OK, so you are using no passive crossovers at all?

Good.

IIRC the 4XS is 24db/oct. If that is the case, 4Khz might be a tiny bit low, you might wanna go more like 4500 or even 5Khz. If it were 18db or less, you wanna go 5.5Khz or higher, those are fragile tweeters!

Also, when setting up your 4XS, beware the "PFM Filter" as it is a basic high pass filter. I think the stock chip is 30Hz@24db/oct or some shit like that...whatever it is, it makes a HUGE difference if you drop that crossover point to like 18Hz or whatever your sub really can handle.

BTW, did you know you can make your own chips? Headers from RadioShack and some 5% resistors are all you need.

Now go get it DONE!

Luke

[Serious Sam]

I'm gettin-r-done! Steady as she goes.

Thats right. all "active" in a sense. I really like Audio Control stuff.

good idea on those tweet xover points if they are that fragile.
I'll get some more of these at 5K. I like the idea of a higher cutoff for the tweet.






During my first official build on my friends 2003 Sentra, we used a 4xs, and he made some modules. Not hard, jsut make sure to test them to make sure all resistance is the same on each one.

Interestingly, Audio Control sent me some modules they made for this same set of speakers I am installing . They recommended 400Hz and 4k. They sent 40Hz and 4k! that would not have gone well for my 4" mid!!

Audio Controls on the right, somebody else in the middle, and ours on the left.



Right now the PFM is fine, as my subs are ok. I have some ideas that I would like to toss around a little with you Luke, but in due course. I wanna get your recommendations on box, etc.
I need to get these components done and installed before I really start focusing on the sub solution.

Her are the components in a test fit. Works good for me. That baffle is SOLID - bolted to the inner metal frame of the door. I really think its going to make for some excellent midbass.

Here's some pics, they are all ready for resin and fiberglass which will start tomorrow. If all goes well, I think paint will be next by weekends end.