[fourthmeal]

This thread will document the latest evolution of my system, a necessary thing because one of my subwoofers broke.

Here's the carnage:

This happened at some point when a system pop occured due to a dead battery cell, I suspect. At first I thought it was just a point at which I may have played too low a note at too loud a volume, but I do recall a had a loud system "thump" when my battery killed off itself a month or so ago. I haven't noticed any extra noise or distortion from the trunk, though. I found this when doing a routine inspection of my equipment.

The replacement sub will be one of my old but extremely good leftovers from a previous build, an Eclipse SW8000. This sub will take a lot more room than the pair of DIYMA R12's I have here, as it is designed completely different. The SW8000 is mounted in a make-shift box in my trunk now, as a matter of fact, so I do have bass. Even with it in an non-optimized basic box, it sounds amazing. I actually forgot how good this sub is. It has a maximum excursion from peak to peak (without clipping distortion) of 3"!! Hold your fingers 3" apart, and that is how much this sub moves back and forth. For a 10", that is ridiculous.

For this build, I have a special plan in mind. I'm going to use the "M" logo shape found on Mazdas to make a subwoofer grille. So when you pop the trunk, there will be the "M" showing but nothing else on the box. This will protect the sub and make things look finished off, which is something I neglected to do with the DIYMA R12 build.

Look for more pics soon!

 

[rehctelf]

Wow, I've never had that much damage on a sub, but then I've never had more than a thousand watts in a sound system. I try to keep things to a dull roar. :angel:
I can't imagine 3" of travel on a 10" sub that's crazy. :rockon:
Looking forward to new pics, I'd love to do some upgrades like your "install#2".

 

[fourthmeal]

Wow, I've never had that much damage on a sub, but then I've never had more than a thousand watts in a sound system. I try to keep things to a dull roar. :angel:
I can't imagine 3" of travel on a 10" sub that's crazy. :rockon:
Looking forward to new pics, I'd love to do some upgrades like your "install#2".

Yeah, this is one of the first pieces of equipment I've killed. I have to think it was a "pop" from a dead battery start attempt, which freaked the amps out I bet.

I'll be working on the new design this weekend, and I'll take copious pics of it as I go.

Install #2 could easily be done today with better equipment, now that there is a better supply of shallow subwoofers and cool running amps. If you ever want to go that route I have an equipment list that will nail it pretty well.

 

[04txtribute]

Good luck with the eclipse. Those diyma's are very veragile compared to other subs. I just picked up an idqv3 to use instead of my r12 until a good recone is avalible.

 

[04txtribute]

What are you doing with your broken r12?

 

[fourthmeal]

What are you doing with your broken r12?

Nothing for now, but in the future I might go with a recone on the pair.

 

[fourthmeal]

OK this weekend I built a box.

I'll get some pics of the project but for now just know it is made of two types of wood and heavily reinforced. In fact, the front baffle is two layers thick! I used Baltic Birch plywood for most of it, but made the sides out of 3/4" MDF, and a top second baffle out of the same. The reason why I went so overboard? The Eclipse SW8000 is a monster sub with roughly 3" of linear travel and a very heavy frame and magnet. The last thing I wanted was a sub that ripped itself off its own baffle, which this sub has done once before in an install I made years ago.

This box turned out pretty darn good, but I'm not done yet. I still need to come up with a decent grille and I want to use the "M" logo as the grille design. To do that I'm still working out the details on how I'm going to blow up a standard Mazda logo picture because I'm horrible at free-hand drawing.

I got my bass back, though!

 

[narvarr]

Any Pics of the new sub setup? I am about to start my system upgrade soon and was wondering if I should go with the SW8000 or the XTANT X2.1204. Both require about the same size enclosure so it's not going to be a very stealthy install.

 

[fourthmeal]

Any Pics of the new sub setup? I am about to start my system upgrade soon and was wondering if I should go with the SW8000 or the XTANT X2.1204. Both require about the same size enclosure so it's not going to be a very stealthy install.

All I have done is build the box, and install it in the trunk RAW. When time allows after Halloween, I'm going to fab up my finishing boards and make it look decent.

It doesn't help that lately the Chevy Equinox has been catching my attention as a replacement for the Tribute.

I have learned that the SW8000 prefers to go in a large box, heavily reinforced of course. At least 1 cube, closer to 1.5 would be ideal. I put Ensolite in my box (lining the inside) instead of polyfill, and the results are nice. No standing waves.

 

[kkreit01]

It doesn't help that lately the Chevy Equinox has been catching my attention as a replacement for the Tribute.

That there's fighten words. (just kidding). It does look nice, and the MPG in the 4 are quite appealing. Recent tests of the 6 seems it's weaker than the output (HP) suggests.

 

[fourthmeal]

It doesn't help that lately the Chevy Equinox has been catching my attention as a replacement for the Tribute.

That there's fighten words. (just kidding). It does look nice, and the MPG in the 4 are quite appealing. Recent tests of the 6 seems it's weaker than the output (HP) suggests.

this or the CX-7 maybe.

Or the Flex (yeah I know its bigger...more room for audio!)