Time to Upgrade my Sound System!

[dpartinvr4]

loves me some focal

there's lots of little things you can do to make things look clean/invisible also.

 

[TommyXrunner]

thats a nice clean setup you got there man and some sick focals! i got tempted this week to buy a set of alpine type x components amped with install and dynomat for $1000. even though that was an awesome deal the price still scared me away. i went with a set of JLs. 50 watts rms and covered the door panels with as much dynomat as i could. they sound similar to the stockers but better clarity at high volumes. my deck is only giving them 18 watts rms so what kind of gains would i expect to amp them at 50 watts rms? or would i benefit more from a top notch single din like the new pioneer with 5v preouts and a 16 band graphic eq?

 

[dpartinvr4]

I'm running a 3 channel Arc amp that is putting 120watts to my comps and 400 to my sub, and it's a very well balanced sound. your sub sound is largely based "no pun intended" on your box, I've experimented a lot, and down firing gives you the best volume and sound.

The little box on the left is my amp, the big one is a 50 farad digital cap.

 

[TommyXrunner]

I'm running a 3 channel Arc amp that is putting 120watts to my comps and 400 to my sub, and it's a very well balanced sound. your sub sound is largely based "no pun intended" on your box, I've experimented a lot, and down firing gives you the best volume and sound.

The little box on the left is my amp, the big one is a 50 farad digital cap.

wow that amp powers a lot on its own! i'll have to build a downfiring box soon. my new ported box sounds amazing but its huge and ways a ton! i talked to some installers in town and they told me that building my box sealed to alpines specs is terrible. which it is cause i've tryed it. they said that the tune there boxes and get much more volume and deeper bass. are they just building them bigger than the recommended specs? also i can upgrade my double din from 2 sets of 2v preouts to 3 sets of 4v preouts and also gives me much more tuning capabilites. its $150. good idea or not? will this help?

 

[dpartinvr4]

let me talk to brett tomorrow, and I'll see what we can do for you, tuning just kind of moves the volume around, so they may tune the box to a certain freq and demo the box to you with a track that focuses on that freq, but a speaker is designed to hit best at freq X, so it does help.

 

[TommyXrunner]

let me talk to brett tomorrow, and I'll see what we can do for you, tuning just kind of moves the volume around, so they may tune the box to a certain freq and demo the box to you with a track that focuses on that freq, but a speaker is designed to hit best at freq X, so it does help.

i'm getting lots of highs and zero distortion at volumes as loud as i can bare but i want my snares (mids) to hit harder. i know i could adjust that on my old pioneer single din and i believe the alpine imprint audio processor for my double din allows me to tune that as well

my old deck allowed me to adjust the level of highs mids and los but right now with my new deck it only allows me to adjust the level of the sub

 

[TommyXrunner]

so i took the truck out for a drive today and man does that dynomat ever make a difference! got rid of some annoying rattling coming from the doors and with the doors closed inside the cab the components sound great! much better clarity than before and the mids really come to life. so far i'm very pleased with the sound. just gotta decide on the next step, weather it be amping the components or upgrading the deck. both options will be virtually identical in cost. really tempted to hear the difference amping the components makes. i've never amped anything but subs in all my rides

 

[justin13703]

Amp them. I've never amped door speakers before my current setup and never really thought it could make that big of a difference but I promise you it does. Especially with components. You want a small, relatively cheap amp that's easy to install and needs NO additional wiring, and is right around the power you need, take a look at these guys:
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-l7U7uF8oaj4/p_500KTP445/Alpine-KTP-445-Power-Pack.html

I have one in my jeep Cherokee, cause I got it for free, and it actually fits right on top of the radio behind the dash. They sound really good and like I said you don't have to run wire from the battery, rcas, etc. It says they're for alpines but they will work with any radio.

 

[TommyXrunner]

Amp them. I've never amped door speakers before my current setup and never really thought it could make that big of a difference but I promise you it does. Especially with components. You want a small, relatively cheap amp that's easy to install and needs NO additional wiring, and is right around the power you need, take a look at these guys:
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-l7U7uF8oaj4/p_500KTP445/Alpine-KTP-445-Power-Pack.html

I have one in my jeep Cherokee, cause I got it for free, and it actually fits right on top of the radio behind the dash. They sound really good and like I said you don't have to run wire from the battery, rcas, etc. It says they're for alpines but they will work with any radio.

wow how does that work? where does the power come from?

just watched the video on that power pack.....thats insanely simple to do and cheap! i've seen them at the local car audio shops before but never realized that you didn't have to run rca's or power off the battery. haha where the heck is all that power coming from!?

 

[dramad1]

I second that as far as amp-ing them components. Big difference in sound. Louder, cleaner, better lol. I'm pushing over 400 rms in my doors alone. I could take the sub out and it'll still sound sick. Get a 4ch amp and throw some coax in the rears. No need for components back there but you could throw some in if wanted. Few extra tweeters if you do.

 

[TommyXrunner]

I second that as far as amp-ing them components. Big difference in sound. Louder, cleaner, better lol. I'm pushing over 400 rms in my doors alone. I could take the sub out and it'll still sound sick. Get a 4ch amp and throw some coax in the rears. No need for components back there but you could throw some in if wanted. Few extra tweeters if you do.

400 watts rms into your components :biggrin: thats gotta be unbelievable!

 

[TommyXrunner]

ok so according to the owners manual for my sub its supposed to have 2 jumpers plugged into the sub. one on the left, one on the right, and none in the middle slot. i currently have no jumpers plugged in. am i doing damage to my sub without those jumpers plugged in? i'm gonna go plug them in tomorrow morning. just curious if it really matters cause my sub still works the way it is now

 

[justin13703]

Hey man sorry I never answered your question from a couple months ago lol. But if it still matters, that thing gets all its power through the vehicle wiring that's already there.

I know it's probably in this thread somewhere but what sub do you have and how many voice coils? The "jumpers" are usually used for connecting voice coils in a way that will give you a desired load on the amp. If you have none connected, you may be only using one voice coil, it may be running as high as 8 ohms, it can do all kinds of weird stuff.

 

[TommyXrunner]

Hey man sorry I never answered your question from a couple months ago lol. But if it still matters, that thing gets all its power through the vehicle wiring that's already there.

I know it's probably in this thread somewhere but what sub do you have and how many voice coils? The "jumpers" are usually used for connecting voice coils in a way that will give you a desired load on the amp. If you have none connected, you may be only using one voice coil, it may be running as high as 8 ohms, it can do all kinds of weird stuff.

ya i have dual 4 ohm voice coils. its the second gen alpine type x 10". i have it wired up to an alpine m12 amp. i pulled the sub out this morning and plugged the 2 jumper clips in where they were supposed to go (1 on the left, 1 on the right, none in the middle) according to the picture in the owners manual labeled for 1 amp to 1 sub for 2 ohm. the only other 1 amp to 1 sub configuration in the owners manual had 1 jumper clip plugged into the middle slot and it said 8 ohm

haha so i'm just a little confused. i'm still not 100% sure if its done correct now. when i put the 2 jumper clips in the way they showed in the picture i noticed right aways i had to turn the gain down on my amp. overall it didn't sound any different though

 

[justin13703]

Can you post a picture of it by chance? There should be four terminals on the sub, two positives and two negatives. If it got louder when you plugged in the jumpers a certain way then you probably dropped the impedance of the sub.

 

[TommyXrunner]

heres the owners manual. i have it wired exactly like example 2

http://support.alpine-usa.com/products/documents/OM_SWX-1043D.PDF

 

[dramad1]

I don't have a type x but the way they are wiring it in example two looks weird to me. What is that arrow pointing down for? Shouldn't you have the two positives connected, then the two negatives connected, then a sep wire from pos/neg going to amp? Bridging it? Hmmm? I'm no tech or expert, just a way I have seen them wires up for 2ohms before.

 

[TommyXrunner]

I don't have a type x but the way they are wiring it in example two looks weird to me. What is that arrow pointing down for? Shouldn't you have the two positives connected, then the two negatives connected, then a sep wire from pos/neg going to amp? Bridging it? Hmmm? I'm no tech or expert, just a way I have seen them wires up for 2ohms before.

the arrows pointing down are indicating that the jumpers are in that spot. why would i need 2 positives and 2 negatives? i think the jumpers do the bridging :dontknow: i really don't know a whole lot about it. i'm just going off the picture

 

[dramad1]

the arrows pointing down are indicating that the jumpers are in that spot. why would i need 2 positives and 2 negatives? i think the jumpers do the bridging :dontknow: i really don't know a whole lot about it. i'm just going off the picture

I meant bridging the two positives on the sub and the two negatives on the sub then running a single positive/neg wire to amp. Maybe your right and the jumpers do the bridging for you. Don't know. I got the new type r. Gl man. Was just trying to chime in with a thought.

 

[justin13703]

I'm not exactly sure how those jumpers work, but if you have it wired up exactly like example 2, then you are good to go. A 2 ohm load is what you want.