Since the factory deck went out in my truck - I've been doing a lot with it's bose sound system. I replaced the deck with a Kenwood 4x 50 watt plus 100 watt sub woofer output and added a 7 band equalizer. It still didn't sound the way I wanted it to - so I started replacing door speakers.
Sounding better but still not what I wanted. So I built two wedge shaped ported sub woofer boxes out of MDF to sit under the rear seat of my pickup. I top loaded them with high power pioneer 10" sub woofers. That was the first major improvement I noticed in sound quality.
But I believe now after much experimenting. Ported boxes make the bass sound muddy and the notes sound slurry to me. My personal music preference is rock and roll and jazz. I went to the home improvements store and bought a length of 3" od internal pipe thread schedule 40 pvc and a plug just because I was curious what a sealed vers / ported boxes would sound like. Much to my surprise the sealed box sounds so much better (tight bass and no slurring notes any more).
A few weeks ago I also installed 2600 watt 6 channel class A/B amplifer under the rear seat and on top of the hump. At the same time I also installed 8" paper cone middle bass woofers and 4" tweeters in both of my back doors. I built 2 two way crossovers for each pair of 8" mid bass woofer and tweeter. When I finally got done and tuned the amp it sounds amazingly clear and is so loud anything over 1/2 way up will run you out of the truck. I can adjust the low bass deep and loud enough that while sitting in drivers seat it will make breathing difficult. It rumbles the back seat and whole cab like crazy and to the point of being stupid. I can sit a beer can on the roof and watch it jump 2" or higher off the roof.
Getting to this point I have aquired a lot of info on how to build you own passive crossovers, speak boxes and how to port tune your boxes. I'm going put 8 more speaker in cab but doing it a little at a time... It's kind of fun designing and building your own car audio system.
When I get everything the way I want it - I'll replace the MDF sub boxes for tone wood curly hard maple.
Not knowing at the time. I went way over board on the 2600 watt 6 channel amp. It's a amplifer designed for a large boat but I put it in the cab of my pickup. I can't get it any higher that 1/2 way up without my ears starting to hurt and my sight becoming blurry. Not to mention mirror s are useless from all the vibration... It's so loud that it's really a health hazard. I need to be very carful or I could go deaf pretty easy if I'm not careful.
Amplifer technology has grown by leaps in few short years. If you look around old school class A/B amps are stilling being made Class A/B is designed for music clarity, newer class D is for power at the sacrifice of clarity. I guess if your into bumpy rap, a Class D and port tuned sub woofer boxes would be better than a class A/B with sealed sub woofer boxes.
It was fun applying my electronics engineering degree that I earned back in the 80' to good use again.
Sounding better but still not what I wanted. So I built two wedge shaped ported sub woofer boxes out of MDF to sit under the rear seat of my pickup. I top loaded them with high power pioneer 10" sub woofers. That was the first major improvement I noticed in sound quality.
But I believe now after much experimenting. Ported boxes make the bass sound muddy and the notes sound slurry to me. My personal music preference is rock and roll and jazz. I went to the home improvements store and bought a length of 3" od internal pipe thread schedule 40 pvc and a plug just because I was curious what a sealed vers / ported boxes would sound like. Much to my surprise the sealed box sounds so much better (tight bass and no slurring notes any more).
A few weeks ago I also installed 2600 watt 6 channel class A/B amplifer under the rear seat and on top of the hump. At the same time I also installed 8" paper cone middle bass woofers and 4" tweeters in both of my back doors. I built 2 two way crossovers for each pair of 8" mid bass woofer and tweeter. When I finally got done and tuned the amp it sounds amazingly clear and is so loud anything over 1/2 way up will run you out of the truck. I can adjust the low bass deep and loud enough that while sitting in drivers seat it will make breathing difficult. It rumbles the back seat and whole cab like crazy and to the point of being stupid. I can sit a beer can on the roof and watch it jump 2" or higher off the roof.
Getting to this point I have aquired a lot of info on how to build you own passive crossovers, speak boxes and how to port tune your boxes. I'm going put 8 more speaker in cab but doing it a little at a time... It's kind of fun designing and building your own car audio system.
When I get everything the way I want it - I'll replace the MDF sub boxes for tone wood curly hard maple.
Not knowing at the time. I went way over board on the 2600 watt 6 channel amp. It's a amplifer designed for a large boat but I put it in the cab of my pickup. I can't get it any higher that 1/2 way up without my ears starting to hurt and my sight becoming blurry. Not to mention mirror s are useless from all the vibration... It's so loud that it's really a health hazard. I need to be very carful or I could go deaf pretty easy if I'm not careful.
Amplifer technology has grown by leaps in few short years. If you look around old school class A/B amps are stilling being made Class A/B is designed for music clarity, newer class D is for power at the sacrifice of clarity. I guess if your into bumpy rap, a Class D and port tuned sub woofer boxes would be better than a class A/B with sealed sub woofer boxes.
It was fun applying my electronics engineering degree that I earned back in the 80' to good use again.
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