Churnd

Well I finally finished my new stereo. I also installed another guys stereo for him, so it was a long weekend. After a lot of fine tuning and getting everything exactly how I like it, all I can say is... WOW! I never knew how good components would sound powered through an amp. I'm so glad I did it and don't regret it one bit. Here's what I got:

1. Pioneer Premier DEH-P740MP MP3/CD receiver - I chose Premier over the regular Pioneer because Premier had the 4 volt pre-outs for the amplifier... which I knew would be worth the extra 30 bucks. I love every little thing about this receiver, especially the MP3 feature. My advice to anyone shopping for a receiver... get one that plays MP3's!! It's just so nice not having to change out the CD every 12 songs.

2. Infinity Reference 605cs 6.5" component speakers - I got these on sale from Crutchfield for $130. I also used foam baffles behind the woofers when I installed them to keep the dust out and improve the bass response. I have nothing but praise for these speakers.

3. Rockford Fosgate 300X - This is a 4 channel amp, which powers the 2 sets of component speakers and the sub. The first 2 channels feed 37.5W RMS to the component speakers and the last 2 are bridged for the sub, giving it 150W RMS. But if any of you know anything about RF Amps, they're usually under-rated. That seems to be the case here, because that sub hits.

4. JL Audio 10W0 subwoofer - great sub... very responsive and doesn't sound muddy like other lower end subs can. I matched it up with a box from a local car audio store. The dimensions of the box were a little too big for what the sub was recommended for, but I stuffed it with poly fill to take care of that. I might need to put a little more in there but right now it's at the recommended amount.

Here's a pic of the receiver:



I especially like the way the green matches up with the dash lights. It looks like it belongs there.

I took a lot of other pics that can be viewed in my webshots account by clicking here.. Let me know what you guys think or if anybody has any suggestions, I'm all ears.


P.S. If anybody can tell me how to host a small video online, then I'll post a short video I took of my favorite screensaver on the receiver.

Bumpin' Yota

something that may help the low end of the components is to fiberglass those XTC foam baffles. while Ive never done it, everyone Ive talked to about it on www.termpro.com says that's the way to go with the baffles.

Glad you like how your system sounds!

Steve

Churnd

I have absolutely no fiberglass skills whatsoever so I probably won't be doing that.

The only thing I'm concerned about is the box the sub is mounted in. It makes the sub sound really deep and boomy, so I'm wondering if I add more poly-fill in the box if it'll take care of that problem? I have a pound in there already and I calculated that my box's volume is a little over 1 cubic foot after the sub is installed. From what I read, it's recommended to use a pound to a pound and a half poly fill per cubic inch volume. I'm looking for tighter, more accurate bass response so I'm wondering if adding more poly fill will take care of that?

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Chris, that looks very nice.
How big is the vid you took?

Bumpin' Yota

Actually, I think poly will do the opposite. You generally put the stuff in boxes that are too small so that the sub "thinks" it's box is larger. It has something to do with the fibers of the polyfill vibrating sympathetically and slowing down the sound waves inside of the box.... Generally with sealed, the larger the box, the more boomy and deeper the sub will get with reduced power handling. If you make the box smaller it will increase the power handling (mechanically speaking,) reduce the boomyness, and increase the linearity/control farther up the bandwidth it plays.

Try glueing in some pieces of 2x4s or 4x4s to reduce space. This will make the sub capable of playing slightly higher so it remains linear higher up in the frequency range. (A sub's tightness is merely dictated by how well it can reproduce the lower end mid bass. 80-130hz)

Also, poly fill can be found at walmart in the linens section. Like 5lbs for 2 bux. The crap crutchfield and stereo places sells is the exact same stuff with a 10x markup.

Fiberglassing is SO easy it's not funny, it's just messy - and will get you stupid high if you dont have ventilation. (I hate the fumes, but the smell of the fumes tells me when to stop adding MEKP....)

One thing you DEFINATELY need to do if you want to keep this box, is to glass the inside of it. All you need to do is mix the resin with the MEKP in the proportions instructed on the can, then spread out the mixture on the inside of the box - you can use a paint brush or some of the 'glass spreaders - they look like plastic smooth trowels. The more glass, the better. If you mix in too much MEKP with the resin it will just start curing a lot sooner. I've had it gel up in 90 seconds on me before, but I purposely mixed it hot like that....

Bob_98SR5

Chris,

That sounds like one helluva system. I bet your ears are very happy right now.

How big is the vid? I maybe able to host it for a few weeks provided it isn't too big.

Bob

Churnd

Thanks for the feedback, guys!

The vid is 1.8MB and it's just a 10 second clip of one of the screensavers in action. I can email it to whoever's willing to host it so we can post it on this thread.

Steve -

I took the poly fil out and it made a big difference. The bass is tighter and more responsive... just how I like it. The recommended volume for my sub is .7 cubic feet and my box is actually 1.38 cubic feet, and I was told by the guy that I bought the box from that the JL Audio 10W0 will work fine with any box between the range of .5 - 1.5 cubic feet. I might try to stick a couple of 4x4's in there to see how much of a difference it would make later on. Thanks for the help, though! I might even give the fiberglassing a shot further on down the road once I've read up on it.