@@CarAudioFabrication in all the cars that I've owned. I've been able to put subs in them but I've now got myself a Volvo and I really don't want to modify the unit up front is there anything on the market that you know of ? Trying to change it makes you lose other functions within the car head unit 👍🏿
Bro, big big tip. Pre drill your mount holes, the drill only pops off because the screw isn't catching correctly. If you pre drill, and start the screw by hand, you don't need to push to get the initial bite, cuts out the whole motion that causes that drill to slip.
I had just came back from deployment and bought two kicker L7 12's the guy at audio sound (Jacksonville, fl) said I'd only be able to use 1 kicker because of the speaker box space needed. Then he up sold me on some new tweeters, door speakers, and rear panel speakers. I had a brand new Infiniti G35 and it had its own amp... but somehow he got me sold on another amp and new speakers for the entire car... but when I asked for my factory speakers back and my factory amp he said they were in such bad shape he discarded them. This was 2008, the car was a 2006. Next my speaker kept going out. The voice coil kept coming apart and he said I had to contact kicker. Kicker being awesome sent a replacement without question. 3 months later same thing happened again. A 4200 system that sounded amazing when it worked was now dead... the dealer who installed it long gone. Kicker finally sent me to a place called shades of tent (RIP Richard Bass) right away he knew the guy messed up the specs on my box and rather than admit to his own mistake he took off with my perfectly good tweeters, 6.5's and 2x 6x9's with my stock amp. Richard also put dynomat in every place he could (roof, floor, side panels, all in the trunk, trunk lid, even behind my license plate) plus he did it at a fraction of the cost the original guy did... took me 3 years and lots of court dates but I finally got my money back but all the crappy sound place did was change their name to "Rolling Sound" so anyone in the Jacksonville, FL area looking for a good car audio place please make sure to stay away from Rolling Sound. They will steal your perfectly good stock equipment, then blame the manufacturer when in reality they just hire terrible installers.
@@acuralee this is why we research and inform ourselves as much as we can, so we're not taken advantage of by shady business practices that don't have our best interest in mind.
Dude... what are the chances that I find this. I live in Jacksonville and was planning on getting a quote for a sound deadening job from this exact shop. Small world.
Poor choices when selectring the equipment ive seen it multiple times people blowing all of their money on really good quality speakers and subwoofers eg. JL and Focal and powering them with fleamarket garbage amplifiers
The problem I have is I grabbed a factory subwoofer from a fully loaded chevy hhr ss model and I don't want too get a amplifier that'll over power the sub. I also have JL door speakers and I want too tie them together with the sub instead of running them separate from the sub. I'm a newbie too subwoofer setups and my dad hasn't done a setup in quit a while.
Yeah that sucks especially when you have a sleeved screw holder and probably looked at it and said, I don't need it I got this, 45 seconds later.🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬 😫😖🥺☹😟😬
I missed 12s. I got 4 of 10” JL with 1,000 watts amp JL fixed nicely in my dodge mega cab truck 2500 HD. I’m great with it than 12s. 👍🏻 Btw 4 of 12 won’t fix in my truck, said it’s too big. Each speaker of 10 worth $150.00
@@nicowallace6409 sheeesh I kinda fucked up recently by tryna add a second battery I’m missing a fuse or 2 but for the budget it’s nice. I have a 3500W ds18 amp in the backseat and a hifonics d class 1500W amp in the trunk 4 12inch kickers 2 COMPr 2 COMPvr. I got 2 6x9 baby kickers for the doors and 2 infinity speakers for the rear. My boombuggy is a 2001 mustang drop 🤤😎
Yeah - I was seriously gonna say the same thing ... Need to Dump all those pathetic grounds for some REALISTIC Cables, ZERO gauge is preferable, 2g or even 4g is OK. Consider the Big 3 Upgrade and go get yourself a better Battery (you can also add on an Auxiliary) NO POWER - NO PUNCH
I learned that the hard way! Back in 92 I was getting a system installed, but didn't have enough 8guage left over to make a ground, after a couple of days went by and I didn't hear from the guy who was doing the install, I decided to run a 16 Guage wire from my deck ground to the amp, wire is on the passenger side floor up the seat the on my back seat, nevertheless 20min in the whole car filled up with smoke and everywhere the wire was left a burnt indentation on the floor, front seat and across the whole back seat. That learned me. To this day I never skimp on Wire, stinger is the only thing I advertise on my vehicle
I have seen a 500w rms sub wired with 18 awg wire. It was a buddy of mine who was complaining about not having enough bass. He asked me if I could adjust his amp and I saw the thin wire. After replacing it with 14awg I had on hand and adjusted the amp,he was happy.
Make sure you have a good Chasis Ground with a short cable from the bass amp to the chasis this will help the amp run with greater efficiency and stay cooler by lowering the resistance, and Run signal “RCA”wire away from communication or power wires as much as possible this prevents EMI from pulsing in the bass signal
The first thing I learned when I got my 1st system was if it's in a trunk use an enclosed box, if it's in an open back like suv or hatchback than ported box is needed
You are by far the best car audio channel here on youtube. Your knowledge, skill and honesty makes you one of the best. I find myself coming back to your channel over and over again for all of my car audio needs. Thanks for all that you do for all of us.
Not necessarily bass output, but sound quality, not using sound deadening. I just pulled apart the plastic panels around my sub box and deadened everywhere I could reach on the sheet metal and the panels to kill rattle and resonance. Now, the bass sounds like bass.
You don’t always have to use sound deadening because if your vehicle is sound deaden from the factory an you add more your bass will sound like shit or want barley hear it
@@CarAudioFabricationI have a Lexus, with around 1k in it, punch 500 for interior speakers 4 6x9 & 2 10in mid bass and a kicker 500 watt mono block on 2 p2 dvc, and the factory sound dampening is so good that you can only feel me coming, but not hear me. I had a 92 park Ave with two 15 and 4 6x9 rear and 2 6.5 up front with a Kenwood 921 on the interior's, but with only a 100 watts PC on 6 speakers you could hear me with the windows up. All factory sound dampening is not the same
Old school here lol been building car/truck systems since 1988. My first real amp was a Kenwood 1020 with 2 cooling fans, it would get so hot it would fry an egg. But anyhow, we built our systems according to sound, we dialed everything in by ear. No need for this new fangled way. You build your systems according to what you like to listen to. Me and most of my friends liked metal, so when we decided to build we all had an idea of what it was to sound like. And most guys who listened to metal wanted their car stereo to sound like a home stereo. Lows, mids and highs amp to subs and a passive eq to mids and highs. Its all the dial in equipment you need!!
Ported or sealed(acoustic) suspension) should be respected by manufacturer recommendation. Neglecting this will not only cause havoc to the drivers..movement..air displacement..but will also alter impedance. Great content as always!
@SC_2QUICK if you were to connect an oscilloscope to your signal output, you would see a nice alternating current sinewave. A clipped signal is when the nice round peaks of that sinewave are clipped off and it starts looking more like a square wave. Really bad for inductive loads like the voice coil in the subs.
@@nox6185false, This is the key difference between clipping and harmonic distortion-while clipping indiscriminately hacks away at anything that exceeds an amplitude level, harmonic distortion adds frequency content in a way that's musically meaningful.
I realized that in my car immediately, because as soon as I turned the system up on a fresh install I got a horrible noise thru the speakers due to the ANC system.
The biggest mistake people make is pumping more audio to a sub woofer than to midrange and tweeters. This in my opinion completely illuminates the upper and mid tonal range
@@SimRacingVeterannope, it was a part of a philips 2.1 soundsystem that my grandma had, which she gave to a friend but forgot to include the subwoofer
Also, besides the SIZE/TYPE of box, just using a really cheap quality or flimsy box, and/or having one with air leaks will definitely destroy your bass performance also!
I have 4 of 10” JL with 1,000 watts amp JL in my Dodge Ram truck mega cab 2500 for 4 years. Not a problem, great bounces for some bass and great sounds. I recommend JL 👍🏻
I have twin kicker 15s …my worst mistake was believing what ppl said..if you’re a basshead like me then ppl’s opinion doesn’t matter to you..if you want good quality cuz your car has blown up shiddie paper cone speakers then listen to the crowd..if you’re a basshead like me don’t spend 700 dollars on voices only cuz that’s gonna leave you with no tremble..my first car was like that, brand new jbl 250watt mid ranges no plant with a pioneer radio, sounded awesome but i was missing the most important part..a bass..i just had good song quality , invest first in the subs you want and don’t install them, wait till you have your whole setup to install and buy them not by price but by quality, buy what you want and don’t settle for stores, import them if you have to, my speakers were good when i got my car but i still imported my mid ranges from brazil, cuz I didn’t wanna settle for 4 little shiddie 300 watt mid ranges😂now i have the best setup in my town…
I love your channel a lot I love all of your information I learn how to run wire through a car but I'm still learning as I go to complete my own sound system someday
1. Too high of tuning 2. Not enough power 3. Port noise 4. Not having a correct LPF 5. Certain speakers or subwoofers act differently depending on the environment they are in! So make sure you know where your frequency response is best in the trunk or in the room
Thats only competition subs honestly, and you should free air hertz sweep at 60% for an hour or so to break them in. However Walmart kickers, pioneers and any other garbage sub, shouldn't need to be broken in, they won't last through a proper break in.
@@dbongoloid9541😮Are kicker bunk?? I always thought it was pretty good mid range gear...( haven't got kicker installed, but was considering..) so a no yeah ?...?.. Slate Audio in the UK do some beautiful , solid slate woofer boxes & speakers . Man ...the tightness & clarity is probably the richest I've ever heard,👌💯 though I'm no expert 🤷... Looking forward to you're reply pls 👍
Having them face the wrong way is one of the most common mistakes that I have seen. I have schooled a few people on this. If you have your speakers facing you, wrong. Unless you're in competitions and are pushing 10,000+ watts turn that shit around, you can thank me later. Holler at your boy if you didn't know this and tried it. Tell me what you think and how much difference it made.
So true about the windows. Never see that mentioned much. Box placement is such a huge aspect. I've got a downfire box for two shallow Skar 10s in my crewcab. Those little bastards hit so dang hard. But when I slid the box about an inch and a half forward and to the passenger side, it's like it almost doubled in volume. Found it out by mistake when my box just slid. But once I looked at it and saw what happened, it gave more space for the sound to travel backwards and off the rear cab , plus to the driver side of my truck , it obviously gave more avenues for sound to reach my ears. That's my take on it anyways
So true about the windows. Never see that mentioned much. Box placement is such a huge aspect. I've got a downfire box for two shallow Skar 10s in my crewcab. Those little bastards hit so dang hard. But when I slid the box about an inch and a half forward and to the passenger side, it's like it almost doubled in volume. Found it out by mistake when my box just slid. But once I looked at it and saw what happened, it gave more space for the sound to travel backwards and off the rear cab , plus to the driver side of my truck , it obviously gave more avenues for sound to reach my ears. That's my take on it anyways
Depends on witch way you point your box in the trunk, for different box.my air tight box sounds better facing towards the back trunk instead towards seats.
Always point the subs to the rear of the car went in the trunk.. It takes basewaves like 15' to develop and putting the speaker's facing backwards helps add Space to develop the base waves
It's been a long time since I've done a custom sound system. I speak very highly of my little Digital Designs 8 Inch Sub with its enclosure that I used to have. Absolute beast in a family sized car.
This was about 25 years ago. A Polk Audio dB12 in a 1 cubic foot sealed box "ejected" or "blew" the voice coil and part of the spider and cone out of the box. Polly fill was on fire and blew out with the voice coil and half the speak and melted the carpet on the back of the back seat of the hatch back. The fill in the box was smoulder and releasing lots of gas. I guess I had stuffed way to much polly fill and it melted and gassed and created enough pressure to destroy the speaker.
Wire Gauge. Had a buddy running 2 15" subs on 20 gauge wire for like door speakers that was 6ft long. I installed 12 gauge that was only 2.5 feet long, just enough to get from amp to subs. Watts went up and so did the boom. He won the next Bass meet he went to by 20dBs just from the wire.
Always put a board over the sub surface when screwing the sub to the box so you don't slip and put a hole in the sub. I learned the hard way. Also put a rag on the backside connection when soldering the wires so it don't drip and put a hole into the foam.
Seeing and hearing my friends mom's Klipsch home speakers with a passive radiator and decided to make a custom box for the rear of mustang GT. Knocked the magnet off an old sub I had and went to work. Everything was ok, box fit good looked ok but was totally unaware of the weight added to a passive radiator needed to make it work properly. Needless to say I had a lot of distortion although it pumped pretty well
Done every one of these things...block vents ✓ add weight to cone ✓ add rubber silicone to surround ✓ paint cone ✓✓✓ A heavy painted sub is better than a busted f'd up one any day.
i was, and still am, a very budget person, and using bad materials is a big issue for performance, especially too little thickness of wood or soft wood types, since some very soft types of wood will ruin the bass completely,
I don't have a Subwoofer in my car but I do ride an electric cross country mountainboard which has one with a ported enclosure. Not sealing the woofer to the enclosure properly was my mistake.
Not true. As long as the box has the proper cubic inches of space to run the woofer. A sealed box is prime for sound quality. If what you say is true, then why would JL Audio make a sealed enclosure for the W7? I’m thinking you’ve had a custom made box for a woofer that shouldn’t have been installed in that box. I’m gonna say there’s user error in your case.
Is it possible to go too big on a sealed box? I mean, we always pay a lot of attention to the minimum volume required, but what about the maximum volume possible? Any thoughts on that? I want a sealed box for a vw bug, but I want to get the best out of the sub as humanly possible. I know that a bigger sealed box will let a subwoofer get better low end (like sub 30hz), but I'm not sure how much is too much.
You want the correct size box. If you want to get super low you need a subwoofer with better low end response not a bigger sealed box. The idea of a sealed box is to minimize peaks in the response not to artificially create one.
My own personal error was using 2 subwoofers of differing max wattage(1000W and 500W), and differing RMS ratings(250WRMS and 175WRMS). The speakers were competing for power and never hit the way I was hoping. Am ditching the 500W speaker. It is still good, but there's no place for it in my new setup. Will be running 2, 1000W max, 250WRMS, 12" subwoofers at 4ohms, a 3.5Farad capacitor, and a 1500W amplifier. I'm currently awaiting the 2nd subwoofer to ship to me, along with an I/0 gauge "Big 3" upgrade kit from Skar Audio. Should take care of many of my previous issues, especially after I get the head unit wired up the way it should have been(idiot previous owners had no idea what they were doing when they butchered the audio harness the way they did, x4 butt connectors for each wire they cut into, as opposed to just buying the stock-to-aftermarket adapter harness...).
Tip to everyone that works on speakers if you’re worried about the drill, slipping and smashing into the cone or the woofer just get a piece of metal or a metal bucket and put it over that way if you slip all you’re gonna do is hit the “cover” and not the speaker
Overpowering and crushing the coil when you can hear the snap back. Also melting the coil from overheating doesn't help either. I like this comment thread, it's fun.😊
Have you ever seen anyone do a custom enclosure build for a Massive BOA before? I can't really find any videos or references for making an enclosure for my 151
The wiring invert polarity doesn't means that always it isn't incorrect. Sometimes it's needed to avoid being out of polarity and being on polarity, specially with the bass that is more sensitive to this phenomenom :)
I always thought this too but. Years ago I had 2 -12in fosgate free airs in a sealed 2 cubic feet per driver independent chamber box with a old school punch 100 in a 84 monte carlo. I had maybe 250 in everything and it impressed many people when they seen what was in the trunk.
People putting two different subwoofers in the same box lmao I see this shit all the time on Craigslist, somebody selling 2x 12” subs in a box and ones like a kicker comp and the others some flea market Chinese sub. Oh and they’re both in some cheap prefab box that’s probably got holes and shit
Not having the rj11 volume knob option, AND also not putting an in line volume control on the RCA cords. Gots to have the volume control. It makes all the difference.
