dual4" kicks, progress...

[Poseur]

Mack> I've got a CDT upstage kit, which is just about exactly that... a 19mm set of tweeters to fire across the dash that have an attenuation control to them. And the CDT crossovers already have an "image tweeter" output that I believe may be attenuated a bit as well, so I'm sitting pretty... *L* one of the silliest things you can do, throw more speakers at it, makes no sense according to my standard train of thought, but hey, it'll be fun anyways... WHen I'm done with this setup, I'll have 5 speakers per side up front *heH*

Chuyler> yea I think I might actually scrap my precious triangle setup and try disconnecting the tweets. something gives me the idea that if I fire the tweets a little more across and up than the mids that it should help raise and broaden my soundstage a bit. ANd as far se keeping deadpedal *L* yea I heard the difference and couldn't deny it.. stupid bucking magnets on the backs of these things... ohwell...

 

[Poseur]

WOW!

okay, so I'm kind of settling on my final positioning for these guys, so I figured I'd just hookeup some more of my setup... (well kindof) and see how it sounds... Previously I'd had my eclipse deck in dummy mode, and was just fading between front and rear outputs to switch between my door speakers and my kicks. Now I switched it over to pro (3-way) mode.

So here's the setup, eventually I'll have some midbass drivers in my doors, but for now I've just got infinity kappas, but they're only playing midbass rightnow anyways. I've got my deck's crossover set;
front (kicks) HP: 200hz@6db/o
mid (doors) LP: 200hz@16db/o
mid (doors) HP: 63hz@12db/o
sub (out back) LP: 63hz@12db/o (but my sub has yet to be hooked up mostly because I'm waiting for my amp to return to me)

At anyrate, these are just sorta my baseline settings, but DAYEM this sounds GOOD... I'd initially thought I was gonna run out to my car to run pinknoise and the spectrum analyzer and see what it gaveme, but then I started listening toa demo CD, and all of the sudden I find myself on a 2hour-long drive waiting for the sun to rise. This sounds amazing... I'm really sold on the 3-way setup now. The accuracy and imaging of smaller speakers in kicks is a must, and I've been appreciating that about having my kicks set how they are, but I've really been missing the upfront-punch that having well deadened doors to serve as enclosures provides. I've now got the best of both worlds, now it's just a matter of cleaning things up and making them look pretty. but, umm. did I mention my car sounds REALLY damn good?

Sofar I haven't played any digital signal trickery apart form Xover settings, I'm waiting to get my kicks completed before I really start wasting alot of time soundshaping, but I would honestly be happy without it.

 

[Poseur]

oh, and before anyone mentions it, yes, indeed eventually I do intend to go get much spiffier with active processing, but that damn audiocontrol stuff is just sooo damn expensive...

For now I'm pretty damn amazed that this deck has thismuch control readily available.

 

[haaswyk]

i like the way those are turning out ... one question .. do you think there will be a problem with your foot hitting the speaker? ...

im thinking about doing some custom pod ... i was thinking off the door ...but now im thinking in the area you have yours..

 

[macklum]

I have had kick panel speaker mounts before .It wont take long for you to be used to them there . It took me about a week ,after that I never hit them at all .

 

[Poseur]

I'll definately be putting some form of grille on it, but I've had it blocked off for a week before U even had the speakers in just to get myself used to it, and it's really not that bad. you DO use the deadpedal alot, but ther'es other ways to position yourself that are just as natural... Make sure that you've got some form of grille,though especially on the passenger side.

 

[sndsgood]

I remember first time i tried out kicks, was about 7 or so years ago, just cut out some scrap wood to hold my 6.5 not thinking mounting them there would make a diffrence, and hooked it up and WOW next thing u know i'm making another one quickly and slapping some carpet on it cause i had a competiton the next day. they were all lose and i told the judge not to pull them hard or they'd come out lol dont think i got any points on the instal cause they were all lose, but ended up taking first in my class lol. i'm almost to the same point u are, if i get a good weekend this coming weekend i may get to audition my 3-way set, i'm itching to get them hooked up. one thing i suggest and it does sound like youve been auditioning them for a bit, but give yourself a few days to listen to them and try then in a few more angles. the first time u listened you heard a big diffrence going from doors to that location, now let your ears adjust to that and work on pinpointing things perfect.

 

[Poseur]

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. I've been trying to hold off, but the more I hear it, the more I just wanna wrap it up and call it good *L* I'll keep playing for a bit, but I also may be getting a new job soon here, which menas less time for screwing with things likethis..

 

[Poseur]

Got the backs trimmed to fit under my moulding, and anchored my speakers inplace (cheap strapmetal and hotglue) I'd had a strapmetal backpiece sorta "springing" it earleir that helped change positions yet still hkind of partway hold things in place, but this is a step towards more permanent.

For anyone who's looking into making some kicks take note that the footrest and pass side floorboard are not at the same angle, and also, the computer behind the pass side takes up a good bit of room, so the spacing is kind of different. I'm not being too anal about it all, or else I'd do something drastic like relocate the computer (it has been done, not sure on Proteges but some guys are nuts)

These things are freakin HEAVY... I'm sure those extra buckingmagnets aren't helping matters, but dayem. Hopefully the hotglue'll hold 'em sufficiently for a couple days while I make sure they sound good to me where they're at...

 

[sndsgood]

what are you cutting the fiberglass with, your teeth? lol best thing ive found so far is a dremel with a cut off wheel.

 

[chuyler1]

A jig saw with a all-purpose wood blade usually works for me.

 

[Poseur]

Dremel with a cutoff wheel actually, but i'll likely use airtools when I trim 'em up more. I've only really trimmed the arcs where they mate up with the rubber trim, Those actually slide underneath the trim, so I was pretty pleased to get thatpart to work. the jaggedspots are still just untrimmed fiberglass as it was layedup.

 

[Poseur]

WEll after aiming and getting ready to glass, then having one get knocked loose taking an onramp fiesty, and winding up somehow with this amazing imaging (speakers prettymuch pointing directly up) And then finding I had some cancellation that I'd jsut rather not deal with it at that spot, I went back to roughly where I'd initially intended. It's not perfect, but it's as close as I'm going to be able to get thigns, and it sounds pretty damn good. (just a little low) We're talking about HU height. However I've got a CDT IEK attenuated imaging tweeter setup that I intend to add as soon as I get this all sorted out, so I'm hoping it'll help raise my stage a bit.

At anyrate. I've come up with a method for Having a raised lip surrounding my speaker plate which a grill should be able to flush-mount into. I guess we'll see how well it works out, but the theory is this. Stretch some grillecloth behind the plate, then wrap it with 1-1/4" balsawood. THis is accomplished by soaking the radiused areas in water (frying pan in the picture) THe balsa is stapled intoplace for now and I intend to coat it in resin to give it some structure (atleast enough to hold the cloth being stretched around the backside of my mold) I found that the corners are indeed kind of tricky, and I actualyl pulled staples and re-stapled a couplefew times before I settled on the method of "bunching up" the fabric in my fist to hold it taught around the sides soasto avoid wrinkles. As always, a couple extra hands would've made this easy, but I managed without.

 

[Poseur]

Oh, and By the way, the silver's just kind of a trial thing. I'm definately thinking some form of lighter color.. EItherway, there's alot of lovely MDF texture showing through as-is. I'll be primering and sanding a bit and making it look a bit better. Also I intend to finish the "outside" part of it with spray-can rhyno-lining seeing as my friends aren't exactly gentle (not do I expect them to be) and the way the driver's side one sits, I'll have the side of my foot up against it alot of the time it seems.

 

[sndsgood]

looking good. i'm in that same area, trying to make the trim piece so the speakers are recessed, i'm using a thinly trimmed piece of birch, paint to get it as thin as i want it and shaped right, think the bals reinforced with fiberglass might be a easier route.

 

[Poseur]

I sat there in home depot bending woods (hehe I said bending wood) for a couple hours, and even broke a few pieces (I gladly paid for them) before the guy took me to the scrap section and said have at it... I settled on the balsa. Then got the thickest that I could without being too brittle. I think I'm on the right track here. I can't even remember the thickness anymore, but I'll be buying some more tonight seeingas I didn't get one of my pieces wet enough before attempting to bend it, and Snap... funny how the stuff works. SUPER clean break, though. I'll likely see how much resin I can soak into the stuff tonight, I'll post up how it goes. I'll prolly be mixing it up light on the mecp to let it soak in as good as possible.

 

[sndsgood]

it shouldn't have any problems soaking into balsa, that stuff should just suck the resin in. i just worry that it won't be strong enough even with the resin. may need to add some cloth on it to bond the two to the kick and strenthen it up. it's hard to cut a damn 1/4" thick shape and have it come out straight.

 

[chuyler1]

An art supply store (A.C.Moore, Michaels, etc...) usually has balsa wood in the size and thickness you need.

 

[Poseur]

snds> you talking about running a strip of fabric or something around the inside of the new "lip" I've created? I was actually thinking I coudl jsut use a fat strip, and fold it over bring it around outside, or whatnot, but I'm thinking just the doped balsa should suffice. I'm not really going to need to pull a huge amount of tension against it, I suppose we'll findout, as soon as I can find more grillecloth and get the otherside ready thatis. I still need to trim these damn things as well.... hmm. buddy should be at his shop rightnow. I need to get off my ass and go get this done, my car sounds HORRIBLE now that i got used to having these beauties inthere.

oh, and the balsa I used was 1"x3/32nd I believe. Knowing now how bendy it'll getif you soak it long enough. I could've prolly went for thicker, but hey this seems like it'll work alright... I actualy picked up some more at the local family-hardware-store.

Hmm... new thought. perhaps I could wrap some yarn around the outside of my wood wall, that should soak in some resin and add some structure... Possibly give me a softer edge that won't be as pointed as well. Actually now that i think about it, there's some round-cornered balsa down at the hobbyshop. Hmm... Alright I'm off to go seek inspiration.

 

[chuyler1]

Balsa is so soft that you could just take a piece of sand paper, curl it over the edge and sand the corners down nice and smooth.