Old School Sound System Build - Lots of Pics - 56k warning.

[plant.one]

So i'm sure most of you saw my other thread about my Cerwin Vega XL i picked up a lil bit ago, well i got ambitious and scraped out my change jar and went and got some building supplies to start puttin my sound system togther.

This is a very hard to find speaker and requires a fairly unique build to make it work to its best performance, so i figured i'd take some photo's along the way. In the spirit of doing an old school theme'd install like this i decided to go all the way and really dress up my trunk space with this project while still leaving access to get my spare tire out and keep the back seat folded up.

Please note - this is not my box design. The box for this speaker was designed and spec'ed by Cerwin Vega back in the early 90's. Used in competition with this model speaker, the 6600 cubic inch box design i'm using and a measly 165w of power the Vega team was able to acheive 142 dB - with a SINGLE 12" subwoofer. (Side note - i do beleive the song used was 'Flash Dance' heheheh).

The equipment list i'm using is as follows.

1 - Cerwin Vega XL-12D Dual Voice Coil 250w RMS (125w rms per voice coil)
1 - Hifonics Hercules VIII 200w RMS Mosfet Mono Amp (subwoofer)
1 - HiFonics Jupiter VIII 140w RMS MosFet 4 Channel Amp (seperates)
1 - Audiocontroll 24XS Crossover Network
1 - AudioControll EQL Series II Dual Band Equalizer
2 - Phoenix Gold Power Distrobution Blocks
4 - 13¼" x 3" Scd 40 PVC ports
1 - 3/4" MDF sheet (box)
½ - 1/4" MDF sheet (facia)
1 - can of 3m '90' Heavy Duty Spray Adhesive
2 yards of carpeting
way too much wire to measure... lets just say its a lot :P
piles of assorted screws
some elmers wood glue and a little silicon throw in for good measure :D

now.. i know you're all saying right about now....
:fcad0cab:
well here they are

Cerwin Vega XL-12d Subwoofer
http://www.greaterdetroitaquariumsociety.com/truck/vega%20xl-12d.jpg


Speaker box glued togther - face only attached with screws
http://www.greaterdetroitaquariumsociety.com/truck/vega%20xl%20box.jpg

Front face of the box with the 3" x 13¼" ports attached and screwed into place
http://www.greaterdetroitaquariumsociety.com/truck/speaker%20box%20ports.jpg

Speaker box with the front face sealed and the speaker set in place
http://www.greaterdetroitaquariumsociety.com/truck/speaker%20box%20face%20sealed.jpg

Box with the inital mounting of the amps & Power distrobution blocks set
http://www.greaterdetroitaquariumsociety.com/truck/speaker%20box%20amps%20attached.jpg


Ok folks.. thats all the pictures i've taken soo far. Tonight i put in about 3 hours of finish fabrication for the amp rack, facia boards, mounts for the crossover & eq and prepped to carpet tommorrow.

More pics to follow!

[Hammer Head]

Lookin good!

[Mikz86TA]

Those ol amp IMO were ugly, but they had some of the best power and were underrated. IMO nothing now comes close to the old HiFonics,Orion,RFand PG amps in terms of power in size. Nice

[plant.one]

Those ol amp IMO were ugly, but they had some of the best power and were underrated. IMO nothing now comes close to the old HiFonics,Orion,RFand PG amps in terms of power in size. Nice

Yea... they're not the cutest amps in the world.. but odly enough they fit my color scheme very nicely. White truck and red/white CV logo so.. no biggie there :D

thats where the amp rack is coming in.. all i have to look at is the face of the heatsink :P

[droopy89]

im liking it, just keep us updated

[Mikz86TA]

keep updates for us =)

[plant.one]

well.. got the fit/finish done tonight, but Hercules is giving me some grief and not sending any power to the sub. i'm sure its something stupid - will have it sorted out tommorrow... we just gave up at 4am. Jupiter is powering the seperates, and the crossover/eq are running fine and making my stock seperates sound like pure audio gold compared to where they use to.

More pictures to follow, looks *REALLY* good so far.. now just wish it went b00m b00m like its supposed to :P

[87wildside]

I miss when speakers looked like speakers and not part of a ricers body kit, cool setup you have.

Hey Mikz, were the old ppi amps as good as many people think? just curious, no system for me I'm old and hate loudnes now....hehe

[Mikz86TA]

Yup, the ART series is still some of the most sought after units. A guy on E-bay by the name of JUSTONEMOREAMP always has like new and even new old school amps. His are very pricey but if you are looking for an old school amp thats just like going and paying the same for a new one, I recommend him. The black colored Art Series PPI ams are very rare. I was going to get one but gave up after I was outbid at the last minute every time. I picked up the HCCA225 'pop top' Orion instead. I have an XTR250 'pop top' I need to get repaired. I still have the box and manual and its cherry. You just cant beat the old amps IMO!!

[87wildside]

Those old amps were all hand built and tested by craftsman not like now. An old friend of mine had 2 1200 watt Black Art series PPIs in the mid '90's and he would always tell people the are the black ones untill they were stolen.

[Mikz86TA]

Yeah...stereo theft back then was high. The old RF amps like the DSM/Trans-Ana era (punch40,40,100,etc) were a hot commodity. RF used the endcaps with a allen screw to deter the ease of theft. I used to get peeps all the time come in with those HOT!! You could tell because the asshole theif never had the right tool and theyd just rip it out and cut the wires. The friggin wood screws that the owner had attached it with would be dangling still on and the wires cut with siccors. I used to accept the install, copy down the serial# and persons info, call them and tell them it was a bad amp and forward the info to the authorities. I actually had this dumbass a couple years back come in for a deck fix. We were unable to do it at that time and I set him up an appointment for the following day. When he was leaving he jacked an amp and subs from a vehicle we were going to work on that day out in the lot...broad day light. He actually showed up for his appointment the next day with the stolen equipment in his trunk. Since there had been a Police report the day B4 and I just knew he had stolen it (gut feeling) the cops were there waiting on him. Arrested on the spot. Shouldve saw the look on his face when the cop came in. He tried to split but was unsuccessful. I was LMAO!!!!!!

[plant.one]

well i'm happy to report that theres a LOT of boom now :D and let me tell you.. i mean.. i KNEW (intelectually anyway) how loud this box/speaker was gonna be... but W0W.

it would appear that the built in crossover in the Hercules is blown, no biggie since i have a seperate crossover network.. just had to hit the different set of RCA inputs on the amp and all the sudden things started to bump!

with a little tuning this morning on the eq i'm catching strong freq's from about 30hz all the way up to around 200hZ with the sub. 90 and 120 still need some mild tweaking (only because they're underpowered still) but we'll have it nice and flatlined with more time to play with - ran out.. damn work interferring wiht my fun :)

more pics to follow once i get home tonight

[Mikz86TA]

What is that enclosure tuned to?

[plant.one]

if memory serves correct the box is tuned to 30 or 32 hz.

In playing with it today, i've only found a couple trax soo far that make it clip, and i can live with that (dj Magic Mike - Burbans and Laics is one of them) as i only have to bump the bass down on the tuner to like -3 to stop the clipping. Most of the time i'm flatlining at 0/0 for Treb/Bass on the head unit so i've got some wiggle room.

my biggest problem right now is my 6x9's in the back are clipping on a lot of the really bassy music. *sigh* now to go find some stock replacements.

Thinking Boston Acoustic (Rally series) *OR* Infinity Kappa's. Gonna see if i can find someplace that has both on display so i can listen to them and see who l like better.

[plant.one]

just a few more pics

my trunk space before the install

http://www.greaterdetroitaquariumsociety.com/truck/trunk%20before%202.jpg

after box install

http://www.greaterdetroitaquariumsociety.com/truck/box%20final%20rear%20viewable.jpg


still have to build/carpet the new floor panels to finish off the back area, but i've got pleanty of wood/carpet left to really clean her up with.

will get pics from inside the truck looking into the back with the seat up.. you can barely see the box there. Now its off to tint-ville to get the windows blacked out :D

[Mikz86TA]

Ohhh....so thats what all that space back there is for on a SUV?! Hehehe The old Bass Mechanik had a sine sweep along with induvidual tones feom 20Hz up. Good for figuring out where a clip or a vibration or resonance occurs in a system. But keep it reasonable volume level to not damage the v.coil until you get things set. You need to get a crossover or filter on the 6x9s. With the rest of the system properly crossed over and tuned, then you can play with the sub settings.....always set mids and highs 1st. Keep up on the progress.

[plant.one]

Yup! Stuffing a 6600 ci box in is one of the best things i can think of for doing with a trunk besides haulin stuff around :P I will admit my next move will be quite a bit more complicated because of this box :D

the eq/crossover tuning is where i step aside. My cousin chuck is the mad scientist with that stuff. :D I just dont have the ear (or oscilliscope) for it !

In a perfect world i'll be getting the crossover on Hercules fixed so i can properly install some in-line filters and really use my eq/crossover network the right way - controlling everything but the subwoofer. For the mean time i will be grabbing a set of sub-sonic filters and putting that inline on the main feed and cutting off the low low low bottom :D

i d0 have a copy of Bass Mekenik's Audio Toolbox to play with so i'll bring it with me next time i head over there.

as far as cleaning up the clip on the orogional stock speakers.. i'm not THAT pressed about it. They're on the TBR (to be replaced heh!) list for my truck. For now i'm looking at Boston Acoustic Rally series or if i feel like taxing my wallet, Infinity Kappa's. I might get silly and see if i can get a set of seperates and really do it right. Time will tell :D

on a side note - i stopped into the localy Mickey Sh00000000r on the way home tonight because a friend told me they had a DB meter and would probably throw me a check for free or little $. Sadly they didnt, but i offered the owner a seat in the truck with me for a moment and he was very impressed.

Tommorrow starts the to-call list to find a shop that has one layin around heheh

[Mikz86TA]

We used to have a shop here a long time ago with an AudioControl RTA....the old big badass one. It was like $50/hr for a 'dyno run' session. A buddy of mine had a nice handheld one. I forget the make. He found it on e-bay...one of those sweet deals. He has a JBL Crown amp (used to have an old USAmps) running 3 JBL o/school 15s in his Astro. Get this, he has all 3 subs, plus the behemoth Crown amp and 2 other amps behind the 3rd row seat of the 01 ext astro van. Tight fit/fibergalss enclosure and sealed. But I tell you what, if youre in the drivers seat and youre droppin it like its hot, you can pass a friggin hamburger through the space created at the top back of the side sliding door. Lil too much for me but it looks cool Hehehe

[plant.one]

ya... i've heard meijer's has a basic dB meter for like $30... but it tops out at 130dB - which i'm pretty sure i'm above. Might pick one up on payday and see if i can max it out :P

[plant.one]

well i stopped into visit with my cousin the other day to check on a model # of another speaker he had that has a blown voice coil to see if i could find a repair kit... low and behold he's got a set of 75w rms 6x9's waiting for me :D Aparently one of his employee's had a couple sets he picked up for dirt cheap and didnt feel like draging them to another house when he moved, so he let them go for a song (pun intended! :D )

i hope to have a couple minutes to spare on sunday to strap them in and see how they sound. Hopefully they wont clip like the stock one is right now.

on a side note, whilst riding around with my cousin... we actually got the speaker to go subsonic! w00t, never thought i'd be able to feel 10Hz on a 12, but she does it - without clipping no less!

[87wildside]

on a side note, whilst riding around with my cousin... we actually got the speaker to go subsonic! w00t, never thought i'd be able to feel 10Hz on a 12, but she does it - without clipping no less! Thats F***ing awsome!

[Mikz86TA]

Yeah, a long time ago I helped a bud build a slick system in the back of a Mustang GT. On the test and tune runs at the RTA, we got the 2 ImageDynamics 12s to play the subsonics. I believe he had a Soundstream Refrence 500s ...the old school blue one...new back then...and in a ported enclosure. Funny seeing the slow cycles of the frequencies in the movement of the cone and feelin the pressure in your ears but not actually hearing it. Hehehe...Cool!

[plant.one]

you know.. the hard part about working on a system like this...
once you start, you really gotta finish her off all around.

my 6x9's were clipping hard, so i swapped them with aftermarket coax, and now of course the 4x6's up front are starting.

infinity kappa's in a couple weeks for the 4x6 plates and then my 6½'s into the door for midbass and i'm set for my speakers

Then time to find a head unit.

Sounding great soo far, cant wait to finish her off :D