Need Advice: New Audio System

[djtech2k 10+ year member]

Should I have the woofers facing forward or firing back into the wall? Any suggestions for grills?

 

[DaytonLax14 10+ year member]

I would just face them forward. Use the grills if your son is gonna be mashing the back of the seat onto the box

 

[DaytonLax14 10+ year member]

Should I have the woofers facing forward or firing back into the wall? Any suggestions for grills?

Any updates on the build? Let's see some pics!!

 

[djtech2k 10+ year member]

Well, I don't have anything to post yet, but its moving along.

I have all the interior removed from the truck, but found that the rear windows has been leaking so I spent all day removing the rear window and all the trim. I am off to a junk yard in the morning to hopefully get the trip and seals I need to fix it.

I have built the boxes but just need to cut the amp rack yet. The boxes look great but I am REALLY having trouble vinyl wrapping them. I intended to use carpet but my local shops didn't have it and I didn't want to pay for more rushed shipping, so I went to my local Joann Fabrics and bought vinyl. After a couple failed attempts, I finally got vinyl that matches the interior. I looked a a couple videos on vinyl wrapping, made some cuts and tried to attach it. Massive failure....

I only need to cover 4 of the sides, but I can't get more than 1 side covered without massive "folds" of vinyl that I don't know how to deal with. I really want to cover it with vinyl without folds or seams. Does anyone have any good advice or videos on this? I saw a couple but they weren't helpful or they use the method of cutting a notch in the wood and making that a seam. I'd rather not do that, but just want this build done.

I am planning to run all the cables, complete the amp rack, and hopefully get the boxes vinyl wrapped. If I have any luck, I would love to be 100% done tomorrow. I have to fix the window first, but the vinyl wrapping is the big unknown for now.

I will post some pics once the box/amps are installed.

 

[DaytonLax14 10+ year member]

Stinks about the window but mine does he exact same thing

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

Well, I don't have anything to post yet, but its moving along.
I have all the interior removed from the truck, but found that the rear windows has been leaking so I spent all day removing the rear window and all the trim. I am off to a junk yard in the morning to hopefully get the trip and seals I need to fix it.

I have built the boxes but just need to cut the amp rack yet. The boxes look great but I am REALLY having trouble vinyl wrapping them. I intended to use carpet but my local shops didn't have it and I didn't want to pay for more rushed shipping, so I went to my local Joann Fabrics and bought vinyl. After a couple failed attempts, I finally got vinyl that matches the interior. I looked a a couple videos on vinyl wrapping, made some cuts and tried to attach it. Massive failure....

I only need to cover 4 of the sides, but I can't get more than 1 side covered without massive "folds" of vinyl that I don't know how to deal with. I really want to cover it with vinyl without folds or seams. Does anyone have any good advice or videos on this? I saw a couple but they weren't helpful or they use the method of cutting a notch in the wood and making that a seam. I'd rather not do that, but just want this build done.

I am planning to run all the cables, complete the amp rack, and hopefully get the boxes vinyl wrapped. If I have any luck, I would love to be 100% done tomorrow. I have to fix the window first, but the vinyl wrapping is the big unknown for now.

I will post some pics once the box/amps are installed.

You might take the box and the material to a car Head Liner or a vehicle Interior shop and get them to wrap the box custom for about $40-50 bucks??Paying just for labor

 

[djtech2k 10+ year member]

I wanted to have it finished by tomorrow, but its not gonna happen. I am going to ask an upholstery shop about doing the vinyl on Monday. I may hook it all up without the vinyl and see how it sounds tomorrow.

I have a question...

On the amp rack, I want the cables to cleanly go thru the wood. With that panel vinyl, the holes will not look great so I think I need something like a hard "grommet" that will line the hole for the cables to go thru. Where can I get those? I need something that's like a tiny "port" so my cables can go thru and will make the vinyl look nice with the holes for the cables.

 

[djtech2k 10+ year member]

Nevermind. I found a company called Darvex that I ordered them from.

Thanks anyway.

I am hoping the upholstery shop will be a decent price and can use the vinyl I bought and cut. Now I just need to decide if I am going to install everything on just wood, and then pull it all apart to get it vinyl covered. Hoping to have everything done tomorrow.

 

[DaytonLax14 10+ year member]

We need pictures!! I love single cab builds

 

[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

Should be able to find rubber grommets pretty easily on amazon and maybe at hardware stores like home depot but good luck, online is probably easier

Look at videos on YouTube for wrapping vinyl

 

[djtech2k 10+ year member]

So I didn't get finished today. More to do....

I have a couple questions though.

I have the Soundqubed 1200.2 and 90.4. Both come with a remote control that is a knob and connects with a phone wire. Is this a volume control or what does it control? I only ran one for the sub amp. How do these differ from a standard signal gain and do I need them for each amp?

On the side of each amp there are a couple selections that a different than what I am used to. First, there is a gain with markings of like 5v - .15v. Where should this be on my 2 amps? This is different than gains that I used to deal with years ago.

Also there is a crossover setting. There is a LPF and HPF setting. I assume the sub amp will be LPF and highs will be HPF. On the 90.4, there is a dial for each 2 channels for LPF and HPF also. Since I am using the channels for all highs, I assume the switch is to HPF but not sure where to adjust the dial for HPF. And do I need to change the LPF dial if I am using it for highs only? There is also a bass boost dial, I assume I leave it all the way off/down since this is for highs?

On the 1200.2, I have the same gain dial, LPF dial, bass boost dial, and have a subsonic dial. Same questions apply here, plus the subsonic dial.

These settings are just bit different than what I remember. The ranges are different and there are more than I have seen, plus the "remotes".

For reference, the head unit is a Kenwood Excelon KDC-X799 and I have the 2 - 8" Sundown SD-2's in small sealed boxes. Headed to the upholstery shop tomorrow for a quote.

WHen mounting the subs, I noticed there isn't any kind of weather-stripping or anything to create a seal behind the subs. Shouldn't I use some kind of weather-stripping or silicone around the woofers or just screw the sub into the wood/vinyl?

For F150 guys, I am also looking for a place to mount the tweeters and crossovers. The driver and passenger door panels are very different, so I am really not sure where to put the tweeters. The crossovers are large so I'm not sure where to mount them either. I was thinking about putting the crossovers inside the door, but there's no way to mount them that I can see. I bought thee generic 6x8 to 6.5" adapters, but they don't with with the polk speakers so I need to figure out how to mount them as well. Running speaker wires into the driver door thru the grommet was VERY hard. The inside of the truck on that side is very hard to get to. I only ran 1 set of wires so I hope I won't need another set of wires from door to inside on the driver side.

Thanks again for the help. And yes, I will post some pics once I get it more "together".

 

[DaytonLax14 10+ year member]

When you set the gain on your sub amp, have the remote turned all the way up and leave bass boost at 0 on both the amp and the headunit.

I've seen people mount tweeters near the door handle like this:

 

[djtech2k 10+ year member]

I'm trying to figure out where to mount the tweeter and crossover. The door looks nice, but I don't see a good place for the crossover. We only ran 1 set of cables into the door, so I am hoping to not have to run another. The driver side was terrible to do.

On the polk DB tweeters, do you guys know if they can be mounted and angled? I am asking for mounting purposes, like maybe kick panel or something.

 

[DaytonLax14 10+ year member]

You want your tweeters to be as level with your ear as possible.

 

[djtech2k 10+ year member]

I am trying to. I just don't want to spend a lot more time trying to find a place to mount the crossovers and tweeters. This build is taking forever....

So any ideas on tweeter and crossover mounts are very welcomed. Can the Polk DB's be angled?

On a side note, I bought all accessories that will take in the 1/0 and 4 AWG cable and screw down with a hex wrench. I did this to avoid crimping large cables. Well the side affect seems to be getting the fat cables into the connectors. When I strip the plastic from the outside, the cables seem to go wild so when I try to put it in the connector, the copper goes every direction, which looks terrible. I am trying to have neat connections and such. As of now, the couple I did have stray copper strands pointing around and the connectors look loose, even though I tightened them. I am talking about like my fuse block and amp connectors.

Are there any tools to help that kind of thing or am I on my own to try and manage all the stray copper strands? I cannot think of anything that will help so figured I'd ask.

With all the new stuff, whats the best way to tune the gains on my high's amp? SQ suggests using the remote with the clipping indicator to tune the sub amp. So whats the best way to tune the gains on the high's amp?