Paul350Z

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I finally figured out why www.12VoltWholesale.net needs me to call them. I finally figured out why that the Infinity 10.1dVQ was so big and hard to fit into the carefully measured depth of that hole ....

THEY SENT ME A INFINITY 10 VQ RATHER THAN A 10.1dVQ! I really didn't even look at the box too hard when I got it - I just saw 10 dVQ, opened the box and saw a 10" Infinity subwoofer with dual voice coils and went to work! I've been *****ing at 12VoltWholesale.net to produce the second woofer and got a "call me today" email.

I do believe that the US Postal code hasn't changed the fact that if you receive the wrong item in the mail ... it's yours and that contract law still holds that they owe me the two Infinity 10.1dVQ's as the contract between us states.



It wasn't until I really looked at the cones and noticed that printing under the Infinty logo (on the sideways one) that I figured out it was the 10dVQ vice the 10.1dVQ.

Dang. What to do? I guess I order a second 10 VQ and pay the $200 difference like a good boy huh?

Paul350Z

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The completed job with the Bose speaker grill over the amplifier rack. I went with the bling-bling cold cathode lamp connected to the door circuits.



That little fan even at 20 dBA can still be heard between tracks of the music.

I have some alternator whine ... wonder where to find 60 amp filters?

Blew the fuse on the woofer amplifier already with some loud music. The amps ship with two 30 amp fuses but I only put a 40 amp fuse in the distribution block thinking there was no way I would draw more than that ...

Paul350Z

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Darn. Checked my invoice and it's for 10 VQ's they still owe me one.

12 Volt Wholesale.net

Paul350Z

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Finally after eight weeks www.12voltwholesale.com delivered on the second and final Infinity 10 VQ woofer.





I've got to chase down the rattles that these two dynamos are setting off. Tons and tons of bass and the speakers aren't broken in yet. The things get louder than I want to listen to them.

PS: 62 pounds between the box and the two subwoofers.

dannichols

How did you end up alleviating the alternator noise?

Paul350Z

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I'm still working that issue. I'll hit that tomorrow.

Hopefully it's coming from the headend but I don't think so. Even with the volume all the way down I still get the whine. I've got a 10 amp noise filter that I can install on the headend. I had wired the battery supply fuse with the ability to get to it without pulling the car apart again so I'll just pull the fuse and jack the filter in place to test it.

I think the noise is coming from the amplifiers so first I'll lower the gain to better match the headend. As it is with the volume at 35 (out of 65) the volume is loud enough to hurt. Lowering the gain on the amplifiers will allow the headend's volume a bit more room before pain starts. The lower gain means that the alternator noise - which ought to be a constant level if it's not coming from the head end - will be lowered.

I have yet to find an alternator noise filter bigger than 35 amps - I need one of 60 amps. I could take the two and wire them in parallel but that's not an ideal solution to me.

I've also got to go in and pull that fan as even at 20 dBi it bothers me. I might find one with a thermal sensor that turns the fan on only when needed.

Paul350Z

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A good explaination on car stereo noise:

Crutchfield Advisor

Paul350Z

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The required box picture

soccertoad

iTrader: (3)

Paul, what material did you use for the amp shelf? Was it regular plywood? It looks different than that. I liked your idea of alum or copper. Did you change your mind?

Paul350Z

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The copper plates would be more than $75 each, aluminum about half of that. Copper has a much better heat transfer than aluminum. http://www.onlinemetals.com/ is a nice place for hobby metal and pipe. A 1/4" thick copper plate would be $350.

At this point I'm taking the noise issues on. I ran a nice braided coax shield from the back of the headend to the main dash board/firewall grounding point. I'm thinking that my amplifier ground on the passenger's wheel wheel isn't dead nutz ground. I might run a dedicated wire back from that point to the engine/battery ground point.

The wood is sold at Home Depot as "hobby board" and is sort of like very fine MDF with a nice finish top and bottom. I wanted something that I could use but later take apart for use as a template.

The car is a hobby for me so it's likely that I'll pull the amplifier stack apart and do the plates with metal when the weather gets a bit cooler.

doree610

Paul, i know the infinity logo is read vertical because the mounting depth on your subs (10d VQ) are deep (6.5"). in terms of airspace for your sub box, are the perfect 10.1d, with the mounting depth .5" less just as good??

Paul350Z

iTrader: (1)

The 10.1's will give a Qtc of 0.75 - a VERY honest speaker for this box. That's the speaker that I ordered and paid for but got delivered a pair of 10 VQ's which cost nearly twice as much. Their Qtc with the medium plug is 0.97 as they want a slightly bigger box. If I went with the high Q plug I'd get a more honest 0.741 which I might try after the woofer competes it's break-in period. These things thump big time.

I don't listen to rap but these things will set the car to vibrating with a good bass guitar or bass pedal.

The bass was a bit too much for my initial settings so I tweaked the gains on both the main and the subwoofer amplifers to use more of the volume control dial.

I'm trying to convince my boss that we need a new audio spectrum analyzer so I don't have to tear mine out of my home stereo system for testing the new auditorium pro-logic system (and my car).

Paul350Z

iTrader: (1)

Dang.

I grounded the head end with a nice RF strap to the dashes main ground and that didn't help.

I double checked the ground on the amplifiers and the three screws holding the grounding block are very firm. The 4 gauge cable is a bit long at 30" but it makes up for that distance with size. Both amplifiers have individual 8 gauge ground wires from a ground distribution block.

I adjusted the gains and that didn't make much difference in the noise.

I pulled the RCA cables from the amplifiers and the noise went away so either the head end is sending the noise down the lines or the cables themselves are picking the noise up. They're pretty good quality Monster Cable brand cables and are run down under the console away from other cables.

The Pioneer head end comes with a small filter brick but I'll try addind a second one come tomorrow morning. When I'm in the dash I'll double check the cables but they were heat-shrinked onto the head end's stubby cables so they can't come loose.

The brains under the passenger's seat is screwed into the floor pan with four screws so it's grounded pretty good on top of it's normal ground cable to the head end.

I hunted for the battery fuse that I lead down the center dash but couldn't find it. I can't remember which side I put it on but which ever side it's out of finger reach now.

At least I'm not going to have to find a 60A alternator filter for the amplifiers. I've got a couple of new 10A ones and an old one to test out. If that doesn't do it I'll have to attack the noise at its source with an under hood filter.

Another issue that I discovered is that the AM radio now has a howl in it that it didn't have when I wasn't using the RCA line level outputs. The howl changes depending on which way the car is facing and it doesn't sound like anything I've ever heard before. Putting my hand on the antenna lowers the noise down a bunch. I'm thinking that the antenna might have lost its ground somehow ... double dang.

If I was still installing car stereos for a living I'd fire myself.

dannichols

Wow sounds like your're having a wonderful time troubleshooting. I feel for ya. Earlier this year my system out of the blue started amplifying the alternator whine I'm sure you're familiar with. I tried many of the things you mentioned, nothing worked. I was able to tame it by using twisted pair RCA cables instead of the coax shielded ones I had?? Don't know why. Since then I've replaced the head unit and amp.. I wish I knew the real reason of the noise back then..still a mystery.

Paul350Z

iTrader: (1)

Sucess - well at least 75%.

I found the battery wire that runs to the headend. I had run the fuse wire on the driver's side and had left about eight inches worth of pull so that I could get to the fuse if I ever popped one. I spliced into the wire and soldiered a noise filter in and dropped the alternator whine down a whole lot.

There's a third wire off the filter which is can be optionally grounded but I haven't grounded it yet. I'm much happier now.

skip2daZ

iTrader: (2)

paul, where did u get those metal brakets that protect your subs?

Paul350Z

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Parts-Express

$6.75 each.

soccertoad

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You may have posted it, but can you show us your wiring diagram for the sound , only, system? I am interested in how you ran power,speaker, turn on and RCA and which sides you used.

I really liked your amp rack and am going to use your idea to fabricate mine. I wonder if I should purchase the door with the sub opening since my Z doesn't have it - it would allow for better cooling.

Paul350Z

iTrader: (1)

I used a Crutchfield supplied wireing adapter to match the Pioneer's jack to the stock system's plug. For the power cap and amplifier I ran a 4 gauge cable up along the passenger's side. For the turn-on wire I used the one supplied by Pioneer that is used to drive the power antenna. The Monster RCA cables have a built-in wire for amplifier turn-on purposes. The speed wire is a white wire on terminal #20 on the white AC control/multipurpose meter box just at the bottom of the console. I ran the RCA cables in a bundle down the center of the car.



The brain is under the passenger's seat so the wires for the speed sensor, dash mounted GPS antenna, rearview camera, parking brake, and reverse sensor come from there.

Reverse light/backing signal:





A cubby hole for the driver's side is a bit more than $300 and wouldn't be big enough for my two amplifiers. I would have had to use both driver's and passenger's side cubbys for the amplifiers. I debated that but then there's still a cooling issue with a 400-500 watt amplifier in a small box. The open area behind the stock woofer is large enough that I'm not as worried about the heat load dumped into it. The stock woofer's grill allows for a bit of free air movement.

skip2daZ

iTrader: (2)

hay, do u still remember which wire it was, that you connected your noise filter to? also would a 10amp filter do?

thanks