Hiya, New member. Been lurking around enough with google results coming here, and decided what better than to simply post my direct questions.
The chevy spark was horribly designed in the audio world. Worst stock system I ever encountered. Very nasty EQ, and well.. 4" speakers.. what more can I say. I've been building my setup according to quality of sound, not loudness. I was HIGHLY against installing a kit for after-market stereo. Since the only one ( metra ) to me, I installed in my friends car, and it looks like **** to me. Their ugly flat-black looking plastic, I got nothing good to say about it. Doesnt even snap in near as nicely. They added a cheesy sounding door dinger, its just .. horid to me. So, I decided to venture out and try out JL Audios new line of processors. Fix-82. Which, quiet honestly, to my ears, the quality I get out of it, sounds better than my friend's multi-hundred dollar pioneer aftermarket radio. Basically, you just plug the OEM headunit into it. 75% volume. Play a calibration track, and the processor calibrates to it, fixing the EQ/delays, and spits out full-range analog + fiber-digital output.
So. Setup. Chevy spark. Hatchback.
DSP:
JL Audio FiX-82 - Processors
Amplifier:
XD400/4v2 - Car Audio - Amplifiers - XD - JL Audio
Sub:
ACS110LG-TW1 - Car Audio - Subwoofer Systems - PowerWedge+
Fronts:
JBL GTO429 4" GTO Coaxial Car Speakers - Sonic Electronix
Rears:
JBL GTO6429 4" x 6" GTO Coaxial Car Speakers - Sonic Electronix
Main question. 4" is the largest that goes into the front. Obviously I have a subwoofer, and dont need to fill much of the bass tones. But, In the spark. The dash is a thin plastic material. Below, is just a big open cavity of air / wires / etc. Would it be benificial, to add a baffle of some sort, or is it better to just mount the speakers, with a massive open cavity behind them? I've considered 3D printing a plastic 'cup' with a hold in the bottom, and perhaps lining it with 1/16" sound dampening foam. But, if this wont make any useful sound performance, then I'll just skip it and let things be. Right now i need to at least add foam under them, since the speakers can shake the dash ( no sounds from that ) but im sure it can hinder speaker performance.
I had thoughts of adding 5.25 in the back, and making an adapter plate to 4x6. But, theres a sub back there. The rear gets washed out, anyways. Just trying to think of any possible improvements i can make, to get the absolute best out of what I'm given. JL gear i know is costly. But my entire view of this project was "The F do I care what things cost."
Pretty happy with things so far. I just dont want the 'it can be better i feel' thoughts. I dont want to redo anything, down the road, if I dont have to. Currently, I'm able to play the 4" speakers pretty loud without any distortion. The subwoofer I'm hardly even pushing it anything near its max, and in a small hatchback car like this, its faaaaaar enough for me. Makes the rear-view mirror completely useless, full-body vibrations, and can make your vision blur a little. So, not something I'd drive with at that loudness, as things a few hundred feet are kinda hard to focus on. Its always fun because people that have yet to see my setup, assume i run a dual 12" setup..1000+ watts. When its just 400W of a single 10 inch. Like said, Yet to even really push that amp. Runs cold to the touch after an hour of playing. Mostly because its a hatchback, im not having to pump bass through a trunk, into the car.
Insurance told me, in order to cover my entire audio system in full. So if its stolen / crashed, its 100% full coverage and replacement, I MUST have it secured/mounted. So.. What better than to mount everything to 1/4" aluminum plate, and 1" solid bar aluminum? Wrench on it as hard as I want, jump on it, Nothing moves. And yes, Every single metal-on-metal and wood contact has sound dampening adhesive foam between. Not a single but of it, is contacting. Got a friend who works at a factory that makes the stuff for studios, so i got a handful of 1/2" for free, and bass hitting hard, dead silent back there in terms of no rattling.
Assembly in my room:
http://i.imgur.com/HZy4M6V.jpg
Assembly in the car, test fitting:
http://i.imgur.com/V5nYnot.jpg
Glove box:
http://i.imgur.com/iLhx2M4.jpg
Yes. I do have a cap on the setup. But It exists for a number of reasons, outside of just audio use. My headlights use to dim on bass kicks. I did reserach to find the stock battery was 300CA and had VERY high internal resistance. So high amp draw, caused a lot of voltage drop. My fix to the dimming headlights ( was pretty bad ) WASNT a capacitor. I simply replaced the battery, with a kinetik battery. Rated for 1200W systems / 1250CA, 9mOhm internal resistance. Just this battery replacement, fixed the dimming headlights. Even with the current setup ( I was 6" sub at the time ) nothing dims, with this battery and no capcitor. And the battery has been staying at a healthy charge level, monitored that for 3 months solid to make sure. I also run lugs back in my car, since I do a lot of RC flying and use 40A off the battery, and rather not have to pop my hood many times a day.
http://i.imgur.com/MN5T6oI.jpg Most wiring is ran in the trim. Protected. 8awg power cable on the left side of the car. Speaker wires + remote wires, on the right side. full-range audio feed from processor -> Amplifier in the rear, runs down the center of the car.
I do get noise in my setup. I suspect its because i grounded my amp ( via mounting screws ) to the metal framing, thats grounded to the car. Making a ground loop. Most of the noise is in my front-left speaker. I stupidly ran JUST the front-left speaker, riiiiiight along the top of my 2 8-awg power lines for a good 6ft, saying "This will probably cause noise" ... Yup.. Its not alternator wine. Its a constant noise, constant frequency, doesnt change with the engine, in fact, it exists while the car is just powered up ( not running ) so possible fuel-pump / simple ground loops.
So ya. Any suggestions on the front speakers in terms of improvement ( baffles or no? ) Likely useless to touch the rears due to my sub. Very happy with the quality im getting out of all this. I got friends who are all for super-loud booming cars. But stage quality / depth of sound, Their systems sound like complete trash in comparison. Feel like im in a fricken Imax with how deep, crisp, and pure the sub in my car sounds.. VS my friends that run things like 2000W dual kickers and such. Those boom loud..sure..but the quality of the boom.. Nasty.
