odus

iTrader: (6)

wow in for futher pissing match great read

Bullitt5339

I thought the pissing match was over, and we're actually conversing like adults and putting valuable and correct information out in this thread from here on out?

Z1NONLY

iTrader: (2)

I had to explain that to my daughter. I re-coned 2 different 12" subs and she just assumed she was getting the Boston Acoustics beast. Instead, I gave her the early 90's Rockford with the samller magnet and voice coil. I told her that the 4ch Alpine I was putting in her car was only rated at 100 watts bridged. With that amount of power, the "whimpy" Rockford was going to play louder than the "beefy" Boston. (Still wish I could find specs on the Boston - Old pro series I think)

She's pretty happy with what we now refer to as the "Rockford-Vega". (I used a CV kit on both subs and just used the supplied center cap with "CV" on it.)

My LT Won

the sa series subs are awesome for being there "entry level" i had 2 sa8's in the z and use to blow peoples mind. they took my rockford t1500bd at 1ohm just fine.

Bullitt5339

I'm going to be using a pair of SA-8's in my Roadster in custom ported boxes, powered by a SAX-1200D or SAZ-1500D.

My LT Won

great subs. they work well in small boxes which is a big plus for most and they can deffinately take more then rated rms.

good luck with that build.

i will also post up my upcoming build as well even though it's not 350z related.

Bullitt5339

Yeah, the 8's will perform great in .4 with about 6-8 inches of port area, tuned to around 34hz, it seems. They'll be a bit peaky from 32-35hz in car, but that's perfectly fine with me, since most nice "bass" music peaks around there as well. It should show off these little subwoofers to their fullest, and show people who have cars with no room such as the Roadster that the 8's are a great sounding subwoofer than actually have good low end extension when put in the correct enclosure.

I'm not real fond of firing the subwoofers into the back of the seats like I have to do, but firing them downwards in the glovebox/factory sub location doesn't seem like a great option either, although it would help the low end extension even further, but possibly cut down on output a little. I've just never heard a setup in the 350Z with downfiring subwoofers. It's still a possiblity, and I may try both setups with a single subwoofer on around 400watts to decide which I like the sound of better before going all out on the enclosure build.

Z1NONLY

iTrader: (2)

What about a DC level 3?

It doesn't extend quite as low as the SA, but it's just as sensitive as the W3 and *looks like it can handle 500rms without a problem.

Also, I have never ran high power through "woven-in" leads. How much power before the leads get hot enough to burn the spider they are running through?

Bullitt5339

I'm not that familiar with the DC speakers, although I believe by looking at them that I know who actually makes them (there's only really a few build houses, and they all have their little tricks) and DC puts their names on them. I will tell you that Sundown's customer service is probably the best in the business, hands down, and that has been enough to keep me on the payroll since their first year of business. I haven't always been really active, since it's not my full time job, but the people at the top of the company are awesome. If you call Sundown Audio, you get one of 2 people, Jacob or Brandon and that's it. I absolutely love dealing with companies like that.

Woven tinsels are no problem at all, I've put 4,000+ watts through a woven tensile before. It's really not the spider that will burn first anyways. The connection from the tensile to the voice coil should fail long before it gets hot enough to burn up a spider.

My LT Won

Z1NONLY

iTrader: (2)

What's your problem now?

My LT Won

look into some ssa dcons or icons.

also tc sounds subs.

or if you can find some stereo integrity stuff. that sound awesome.

Bullitt5339

Good luck finding Stereo Integrity stuff nowadays. Nick hasn't made any subwoofers lately and the last batch of SI Mags were XBL2 shallow mounts that performed in sealed boxes only and were geared towards SQ predominantly. Now, if you can find an older SI Magnum with the standard looking basket, ****** it up. I had a pair of 15's that I held onto for a long time, because they were my favorite subwoofers of all time. I still wish I had them, because IMHO, there was no better sounding subwoofer on music than the old SI Magnums with 1000-1500 watts per sub.

Old Mags:




Newer Mags: These sounded great when I tested the prototype a few years back, but didn't really fit my style of music. More of a pure SQ sub.

My LT Won

sweet. i have only heard one pair of si mags and they sounded awesome.

nick and jacob created obsidian right? those are probly also a good lower budget woofer as well. comparable to the sundown sa line. decent amount cheaper as well.

Bullitt5339

Yeah, I haven't messed with them at all yet. I'm just returning to duty and haven't even been to the offices in about a year.... lol

From what I understand, the Obsidian stuff goes through the same torture testing and design specifications as the rest of their lines, but is built by cheaper manufacturers than their current high-end subwoofer parts suppliers, which brings down the cost to the consumers. So you get an above average product at a great price, which was the goal of their venture.

Z1NONLY

iTrader: (2)

I decided to reallocate my existing equipment. While the some of the equipment was out, I compared the 10w3v2 to one of the 12w3v3's and it looks like the v2 has a larger voice coil.



12w3v3


10w3v2


Moved the 10w3v2 into the Z...


The zx460 wouldn't fit where the MTX was, so I installed it behind the driver's seat. (There's room to mount the 500/1 in there too, once I run some more power cable.)


Picked up a couple db. Should hold me over until I install the 500/1 and whatever sub I end up with. (The ZX460 will then just power the highs)

Z1NONLY

iTrader: (2)

Well I'm done with the stereo for a while. I have been breaking/fixing stuff over the past month or so.

First, I showed the the box (with the 10W3v2) to a few guys at the track and one of them offered to " give" me a JL sub he had "sitting in his garage for years."

It turned out to be a rotted-out 10w6v2.



Thought I could just do a re-foam, but then I saw this...


Because of the proprietary-sized VC's that JL uses, they are the only ones that repair them...and they wanted $155 flat rate to fix. So I just sat the W6 to the side and enjoyed my W3v2 for about a week. Then I popped it like a fuse whilst showing off for my 16yo daughter and letting her jam some dubstep tracks. Might have been coincidence, but the track it died on had some nasty clipping recorded right into sections of the track. (distortion at any volume) JL no longer fixed the w3v2's (also proprietary) so off to JL went the W6...

While the Z was sub-less, I went ahead and installed the JL slash amps I bought off a friend a few months back...
(Didn't get too fancy since the cover will go right back on the opening)

However I wasn't done breaking stuff just yet. In my haste to stack the amps, I remembered to make all the connections on the bottom amp but forgot to set the gain. I'm still running stock highs, so I wanted to tune the JL 300/2v2 for a meager 80W/ side (40W/speaker) so as to preserve the stock highs.

Rather than properly unstacking the amps and disconnecting the speakers, I decided to just set the gains with the speakers connected. As it turns out, the stock speakers blow right at 40 watts. (with a 1kHz test tone anyway) After removing the speaker for the first time I found "40 watts max" written in plain English, right there on the magnet. (they weren't bluffing)
The passenger door speaker died, but the others narrowly avoided death.

Not wanting to buy a set of proper separates until I have had the chance to listen to a few different examples, I just dug out some Kicker coaxials I had gathering dust for a few years and proceeded to "make it fit"...

I'm sure others have done this, but I have never seen it explained...

I used a 9v battery to figure out which lead was + on the old speaker. Sneaky-Smurf Nissan uses blue for positive. The negative is....red!

First, I used an exact-o knife to cut the cone out of the basket. Using a rotary cutting tool, I cut the plastic basket away from the trim ring. Then I fabricated a gasket from some window gasket tape. Drilling through the plastic ring to mount the 5.25 was easy. (The plastic was soft enough that it didn't crack, even with some of the wholes close to the edge) Once mounted in the factory trim ring, I just soldered a little jumper from the new speaker to the stock tinsel lead connection points...

Burned VC on stock unit. (Smelled very burnt)










All in all, cannibalizing the stock speakers yielded some good spacers with a perfect seal to the door.

Today the W6v2 came back. They basically kept the basket/magnet and replaced everything else.

The 500/1 sub amp is tuned to right at 500 watts and the W6 is surprisingly accurate. I expected it to be louder than the W3v2 (which it is) because it's getting more than twice the power, but the SQ is impressive.
(Still have a little fine tuning to do)