Your opinions appreciated

[Handyman40+]

My name is Nathan, I’m from Los Gatos ca, it’s in the South Bay Area. I’m a trim carpenter pretty much. Im addicted to buying and using trick woodworking tools and have the knowledge to back that up. In July I got rid of my second Dodge Ram and bought a 2019 Mercedes’ metris long wheelbase van. It’s black. My tool systainers fit well in it. I had a kenwood dmx957xr installed shortly after buying the van, knowing it was pretty good at the time. Since then I’ve returned to the system. I bought A bunch of sound deadening material in bulk when I got the van too, to do the rear and now I use it anywhere I can. Ordered a focal kx2 set and built some two piece offset adaptors for the doors, treated anywhere I could on the doors with the sound material. They are running passive. Ordered focal es100s because in the center dash of the van there is two spaces for that size speaker, with minor modifications. passive also. The es100 tweeters are in the factory locations in the outer corners of the dash. The kx2 tweeters are above the woofer a few inches and mounted on The door panels with some little rings I made. I installed the 4 crossovers right near the xd700 amp knowing I’d only like to do the runs to all the speakers once, and that I could easily rewire anything from that location. Then I built a center console for a jl8w7 which I just installed about a week ago per volume specs from JL.
it sounds good. I set the Gains a few times with a dmm and by ear and it’s good but I know I can do more. I’m thinking 2nd battery is my next move. These vans are made for two and there’s a spot for #2 but I didn’t get that option. its super fun to work on and i hear results almost daily. My question is what do I do next? Battery? Dsp? upgrade to a vxi amp with dsp? I have some money to take it further.
I bring up battery because I have a perfect, old, 13w7 sitting in my storage and with my carpentry abilities I bet I can make a super nice box that can go right in the sliding door, there’s a cute 15 x 6 inch slot from the cargo area to the cab under the partition.

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[Handyman40+]

Here’s what I’m doing

 

[Handyman40+]

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[Bobbytwonames 5,000+ posts]

What do you want? More bass? Better SPL? It's hard to answer a question without knowing what you want.

 

[SlugButter]

I would add a DSP and run active crossovers. You have a nice little SQ system going. That would be my next step.

 

[Handyman40+]

@bobby, I think I want to make it sound as clean as I can. Obviously with the 13w7 running I would have more bass And I would be able to remove the box, which would be nice too.
@slug, the thing that’s a bummer with the dsp is, I really don’t want to buy a laptop to adjust it. I’ve been using an iPad for all my computer type needs for years and if I bought a laptop that would be the only thing I used it for. I think audio control tuning uses windows? I don’t know? Any ideas on a dsp model? I have all 6 rcas going to my current amp so I guess it would need 6 inputs minimum.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Professional carpenter
Van
No wall build?

You had 1 job, OP.

 

[1aespinoza 10+ year member]

Professional carpenter
Van
No wall build?

You had 1 job, OP.

I mean, a big wall with just one sub smack in the middle would look silly.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

I mean, a big wall with just one sub smack in the middle would look silly.

Unless it was one of those big honking 32" ones. I'm thinking more along the lines of 800-1000 square inches cone area for a cargo van.

 

[1aespinoza 10+ year member]

Unless it was one of those big honking 32" ones. I'm thinking more along the lines of 800-1000 square inches cone area for a cargo van.

I see, basically easy publicity. Booming Wood Sevices.

 

[Handyman40+]

Well for being over pickup trucks and getting from job to job, and keeping my festool stuff dry without being too tall to fit in a garage, it’s the nicest work vehicle I could think of. Here is a picture of the van in case you guys haven’t seen one. It’s called a metris.

 

[LsGuy]

@bobby, I think I want to make it sound as clean as I can. Obviously with the 13w7 running I would have more bass And I would be able to remove the box, which would be nice too.
@slug, the thing that’s a bummer with the dsp is, I really don’t want to buy a laptop to adjust it. I’ve been using an iPad for all my computer type needs for years and if I bought a laptop that would be the only thing I used it for. I think audio control tuning uses windows? I don’t know? Any ideas on a dsp model? I have all 6 rcas going to my current amp so I guess it would need 6 inputs minimum.

DSR1 is a phone app control dsp, I believe you can use it on universal applications with a cable. I run this in my jeep, and it works well.

Kenwood XR600-6DSP is a 6 channel dsp amp that works on phone app as well. I just picked one up for my Subaru build.

Dayton DSP408 has a Bluetooth dongle you can pick up, I believe it works with phone but have no personal experience with this dsp, however it is highly recommended here.

 

[Handyman40+]

 

[Handyman40+]

This thing looks like it’s a breeze, anybody use one?
I looked up the kenwood dsp/amp it looks like it’s a 6 channel, so right now I have a total of 9 speakers
4 tweeters
2 4 inch mids
2 6.5 inch mids/mid bass
and the woofer
running on 5 channels
so I don’t think that the amp part would help me out being if I do that might as well get an 8 channel.
This is another reason I started asking questions in this forum
the Dayton has 4 inputs, I have 6, does that matter? Would I not hook up the sub Input from the head unit to this?