Back into car audio for the Square....

[Catbox]

My kid just got me back into car stereo stuff.
I used to have a 1982 GMC S-15 as a kid.
I managed to get a hold of a pair of PPI Art Series amplifiers.
One was a A100 that was 50w X 2 and the other was the A300 which is 150w X 2.
I coupled the A300 two a set of new at the time Kicker Solobaric 8's behind the seat in custom boxes that my older brother designed.
The door speakers were a set of 5-1/4" separates from Soundstream.

It was enough to make my eyes blur when the bass hit.
I do listen to a lot of speed metal with the double kick drums.
I still have all that gear hidden away waiting for its time to see the light of day again, that may be soon.

Here is that little guy back when I first got it back in '92 before my junior year started.

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For the current Squarebody that I have...
The truck already has a new set of 6.75in Kicker Separates in the doors for handling the mid range and tweeter duties.
You can just see the tweeter hiding behind the window crank.
These are currently powered by an old Sony 50 x 2 amp that @Maxwellvis pulled out of my stash.

They sound pretty good, they are just missing the low bass notes that make music fun.
@Maxwellvis has them running straight from his phone and that does not work for me as I don't have any music stored in my phone plus there is not ability to adjust the sounds.

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I did just watched a review of this super cheap Blaupunkt Fresno head unit.
The bluetooth hooks right up and it played well and did all that it said it would for a massive outlay of $19.26 shipped to my house, so I pulled the trigger on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XQBP9TZ/

When it is installed, we will see if this super budget item is worth the packaging it was shipped in.

Now, we need some low notes.
I will be picking up new subs for the Squarebody and as it is not my daily, I have been looking at a oddly small speaker by Savard speakers.
These little 6.5 subwoofers have me intrigued, for its mounting depth lends itself to my need to have the seat all the way back in the truck.

Their little Hi-Q 6.5 has a mounting depth of 5 inches and is rated at 350w RMS with an recommended power range of 200w to 500w.
https://www.savardspeakersystems.com/copy-of-hi-q-8

Their little Rap series 6.5 has a mounting depth of 4.125 inches and is rated at 250w RMS with an recommended power range of 125w to 325w.
https://www.savardspeakersystems.com/rap-6-5-d2v2

I just need to do some measuring to see what all I can fit behind the seat...

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[SquareRoot]

Welcome back to the other "addiction." Like you, I had quite the collection of yesteryears high end audio equipment stored away just waiting to be given a second life.

I FINALLY have my system compete in my square. I learned some valuable lessons along the way. These are my experiences and thoughts and may not apply in your case but I'll throw them out there for "general purpose."

1. What I remember from high school or many years ago is not what it is now. I'm convinced I had thunderous ground shaking bass but that same equipment just don't sound right anymore.

2. That expensive, high fidelity equipment? See #1 above. Not to mention, it's noisier, bigger, less efficient and looks "ancient."

3. All that stuff ( 3 amps, EQ, Capacitor, subwoofer, etc.) easily fit inside my 67 Chevelle. A single cab pickup? Hah, not so fast.

4. Old equipment (it ran when I parked it) still decays sitting on a shelf. All my speakers foam rolls were dry rotted, cracked and the adhesive no longer did adhesive things. Start pounding on them and the spiders and surrounds soon disintegrated.

Designing and installing the system in a square takes a LOT of thought, time, effort and money assuming your building a "high-end" system. Staging and imaging is, shall we say, a pain in the ass! There are only certain places in the doors one can install speakers, same with dash. My system sounded great acoustically, but I hated all the sound coming from my feet.

In the end, which the pics in this thread don't reflect, I ended up with I set out for. Equipment wise, I have a 750W mono amp running a 12" pro series 750rms sub. The enclosure was a work of art to get it tuned to spec (33hz). That took me 3 iterations to get it right.

I have a 4 channel 500 watt amp pushing a pair of woofers (6.5"), 5.25" midrange and a pair or 3" co-axials in the dash. Sound starts with a DIN unit (cd player) thru a Audio Control processor. The amps have built in active crossovers, something the old stuff never did.

Which brings me to my last point. Every time I thought my system was close to sounding awesome I'd go down to my former stereo shop where I used to work and chat with the owner. And every time I was there I'd listen to his demo setups and leave disappointed. There was just no way that my old, cherished "high end) equipment could compare to the new stuff. Class D amps acoustically destroy the old A, AB class amps. Digitally remastered music-not even close! New flax/carbon fiber speakers? Ha!

I knew what I had to do. I ended up replacing EVERY component in my system. And to keep myself from going down that delusional path again....I went to the garage and literally took all for boxes of "high-end" equipment I had and drove across town and threw it all in a dumpster.

End of story. Rock on!

 

[Catbox]

I read your whole thread on your 12" install, nice work.

I know the old stuff is just that, old.
I have sourced a rebuilder named Steve Mantz from Zed Audio Corp.
One of the early adapters of fancy audio into cars that started way back in the early '70's.
I am thinking that I will send in the precious PPI Art Series amps to be rebuilt by them.
Then they can be pressed back into service again for the fun of it.

Packaging all this crap into a single cab truck has never been fun, that is for sure.
I was looking at the little subs as a simple way to make a some of the time driver sound good.

The much fancier new audio stuff will go into whatever I press into service as a daily when I am told I have to report back to the office for work.
Now, I just shuffle around the house in my slippers while working from the kitchen table.

 

[78C10BigTen]

Nice s15 @Catbox ! I was slightly into audio in my yougerish (im only 34 so...) years. I started out with 2- 10" mtx thunder 4500's and a beat up sony explode on the back seat of my 94 burban. I sold them back to the original owner of them and bought 3- 12" audiobahn alum 12s with.... i cant remember what amp. Man did they spank!!! Burban died, i bought my square with the factory am/fm tuner and no more bass bangers lol. Soon after i got the s10 i had to have bass again! Bein im 6ft tall i didnt wanta hassle with the whole sub, box, amp, cap and all that jazz so i bought a walmart brand all in one jobber for behind the seat. For a little $80 walmart unit it sure shakes the rear view mirror!

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[Camar068]

yeh my sub is a left over from the early '90's. Need to upgrade. But I'm not gonna break the bank over it.

With that being said, my JBL L112 home speakers have what look to be 4" mids. Why have anything larger if not smaller for a vehicle? Yes I understand that it's a vehicle with smaller space as compared to a larger "box" for a home speaker.

This day and age you'd think that for mids, they would be smaller, more efficient, and not cost a butt load.

 

[Doppleganger]

At one time I hit my head really really hard and got the idea of gutting the older equipment and replacing the innards with new. That'd be fun if you're showing the museum pieces with the car, but with real estate being such a premium in a square's cab, the new 400w amps are a fraction of the size of the old 60w amps. I have a small Kicker 250w mono amp and a single 8" sub in the far back wall of our Forester and it utterly rocks. Tighter cleaner bass than my old 10-12's could have done.

So I'm all in on the new stuff. Just wish it was still made in the US or Japan.

 

[Camar068]

reminded me of this post. I'd like to have mids/highs come from above over below, with bass from behind or below.

https://www.gmsquarebody.com/threads/looking-for-speaker-recommendations.18082/

 

[Catbox]

It has been a very busy couple of months at work leaving me little time to do much at all.

I have decided that the stereo in the truck will be a low budget build at first to simply figure out what we want and how much is good enough.

On that note, I have found that there is an amplifier repair place up from me in Ellensburg Washington that I am going to send a few amps that are "dead" for repair.
Ellensburg Amplifier Repair & Service

ELLENSBURG AMPLIFIER REPAIR & SERVICE |

I have been watching his YouTube videos and have also been in contact with him.
He is sure he can bring these amps back to life.

The amps I will be sending in have cost me a total of $5 so far for buy in, I figure at that low price I can roll the dice and put together a simple good sounding system.

For a starting platform for the subs, I picked up the cheapest subs I could find.
These are to simply start me off and prove that my concept works and if they actually sound decent enough I will run them for a while before I purchase a high end set to replace them.

They are from Pyle, a decent name from the 90's that is now a cheap chineseium stuffs.
The subs I picked up are a set of 6's, 8's and a single 10. The single 10 got me to free shipping, I needed that extra $15 to get me over the $100 mark. So it was really $7 more than I was already going to spend.

Home

Pyle PLPW6D Power 6-1/2" 600 Watt DVC SubwooferThe PLPW6D 6" booming 600 watt subwoofer's design attracts those who love bass. This subwoofer will make your music growl in your vehicle or at home, in any type of enclosure: sealed, vented, or open-air. The black reinforced polymer basket and...

www.parts-express.com

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Nowhere are they the greatest, but they do work and play decent enough according to the YouTube videos I have watched on them. There are boneheads out there that are buying them and expecting superior results or putting way to much power to them. Then the speaker blows and they call it garbage because it was cheap and could not handle the 3500 watts they just put to it.

 

[78C10BigTen]

It has been a very busy couple of months at work leaving me little time to do much at all.

I have decided that the stereo in the truck will be a low budget build at first to simply figure out what we want and how much is good enough.

On that note, I have found that there is an amplifier repair place up from me in Ellensburg Washington that I am going to send a few amps that are "dead" for repair.
Ellensburg Amplifier Repair & Service

ELLENSBURG AMPLIFIER REPAIR & SERVICE |

I have been watching his YouTube videos and have also been in contact with him.
He is sure he can bring these amps back to life.

The amps I will be sending in have cost me a total of $5 so far for buy in, I figure at that low price I can roll the dice and put together a simple good sounding system.

For a starting platform for the subs, I picked up the cheapest subs I could find.
These are to simply start me off and prove that my concept works and if they actually sound decent enough I will run them for a while before I purchase a high end set to replace them.

They are from Pyle, a decent name from the 90's that is now a cheap chineseium stuffs.
The subs I picked up are a set of 6's, 8's and a single 10. The single 10 got me to free shipping, I needed that extra $15 to get me over the $100 mark. So it was really $7 more than I was already going to spend.

Home

Pyle PLPW6D Power 6-1/2" 600 Watt DVC SubwooferThe PLPW6D 6" booming 600 watt subwoofer's design attracts those who love bass. This subwoofer will make your music growl in your vehicle or at home, in any type of enclosure: sealed, vented, or open-air. The black reinforced polymer basket and...

www.parts-express.com

You must be registered for see images attach

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Nowhere are they the greatest, but they do work and play decent enough according to the YouTube videos I have watched on them. There are boneheads out there that are buying them and expecting superior results or putting way to much power to them. Then the speaker blows and they call it garbage because it was cheap and could not handle the 3500 watts they just put to it.

I had pyle dash speakers in my 90 gmt400 pickup, got them outta the junk yard cheap. They worked great for me!!

 

[Catbox]

To continue the cheap theme, all the power wiring has been sourced from the junkyard.
I pulled 2 long lengths of 2/0 gauge cable from newer luxury cars and those will serve as the power and ground wires from battery to amps. These cars were Benz cars and mounted the batteries in the trunk so there was plenty of length.

I sourced a mega fuse block from a mini van fire wall that will serve as the main fuse once I put the correct rated fuse in there.

From another luxury car I sourced 4 long lengths of 10 and 8 gauge wire that will connect the amps to the main power line. But before those are connected, from a VW I have picked a power distribution block that takes a battery cable and puts it out through several sizes of fused terminals. Perfect for amps.

To make all these new length cables work, I picked up a Harbor Freight Hydraulic Lug Crimp Tool.
So they will all be cut to length and new ends will be installed for a perfect fit and finish.

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For the speaker wires, I will deviate from the cheap theme as I plan only doing the wiring the one time.
I have plenty of KnuKonceptz 12 gauge Kord Utra Flex Speaker wire as I am also redoing the Suburbans stereo soon.

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[Catbox]

For the sub boxes, we will be building the first ones out of the recently retired entertainment center that we just removed from the house. It was just fine as a TV unit, but nobody wanted it, so we will be repurposing it into sub boxes.

The majority is 1/2" pressboard and should be just fine for the level of power we will be pushing with the cheapo subs.
When we have our final design figured out, the real boxes will be made from 3/4" MDF.

We have 3 sizes of subs to choose from, so there will be 3 different boxes built, eventually...
They will all be fancy with the cool wood grain they have on them.

For sound dampening I have found the Frost King Peel & Seal that many others have used.
It seems to work better than nothing and for the cost of just over $18 a roll, we will give it a go.

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That is where we are with it currently.
Waiting on me having some free time to get to working on one of these things.
Between work and the honey doo list, I may get to it before Christmas....

 

[Catbox]

Back at it.
We went to an estate sale the other day and found some goodies there for the picking.

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Enter a pair of El Cheapo Optimus 10 inch loaded speaker boxes from the Tandy Corporation aka Radio Shack.
There are a pair of them and only one has a sub woofer still in it.
These boxes were picked up for the massive sum of $25 total out the door.
Done deal.

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Excited to see if the one that is still loaded worked, we threw it into Max's VW with its stereo system. We unhooked his 12 and hooked the wires to the new 10 incher.

Now, the thing sheepishly states "Pro Series 450 Watts Max Power"
I did not see the "per pair" at this point.
Max's little car has a mono sub amp that puts out a healthy 500 watts at 4 ohms to its one channel.

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We fired the car up and started down the path of bass songs and the little sub box played admirably for being a cheap little speaker that I have basically purchased for the box as they will fit well behind my seat.

For as hard as we had just pushed it, the speaker played all the notes we had just asked it too. When looking at the sub playing along, it does not have the massive throw that new speakers have but it did well.

Enter today when I took these photos as it has been sunny today.
I noticed the "per pair" on the sub dust cap.
Oh shee-it. Well it took it and kept on going, so no harm no foul.

But upon further inspection, the information tag on the back of the box revealed a bit more information for me.

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Yup.
That says 150 Watts RMS per pair.
Or more specifically 75 Watts per sub.

These boxes are ported as well, so I need to do some research and figure out what these are tuned too with the ports. As well there is also a tweater in the top of the box too. I need to see if there is a filter cap on the power line inside the box to find out how it works.

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[Catbox]

Now I have to redirect and figure out what 10 inch subs I want to put into these boxes.
Or do I want to resize them with some rings to down size the opening as I already have some other cheapo subs to go into the truck.

Another thing I will be installing into the truck will be a "Bass Restoration Processor".
I have seen the high end Audio Control unit, but that will not fit in my budget theme.
I will use the Epicenter for a true daily driver vehicle that will be used far more than the truck. That is why we are doing the budget build and where these inexpensive units come into play.

Enter Amazon and its simple compile all the items shopping ability.
I simply typed "bass restoration processor" into the search bar and got a huge pile of results.

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Now if you don't know, these little jobbies rework the missing bass information that has been engineered out of the compressed files we all listen too as MP3's.

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

From the video description:
"It's unfortunate, but many times when music hits the studio for final processing the bass information is removed. This is done to make the music sound better on headphones and normal sound systems, but our systems are built to handle bass! How can we get that bass back? The AudioControl Epicenter Bass Restoration Processor!"

 

[78C10BigTen]

Now I have to redirect and figure out what 10 inch subs I want to put into these boxes.
Or do I want to resize them with some rings to down size the opening as I already have some other cheapo subs to go into the truck.

Another thing I will be installing into the truck will be a "Bass Restoration Processor".
I have seen the high end Audio Control unit, but that will not fit in my budget theme.
I will use the Epicenter for a true daily driver vehicle that will be used far more than the truck. That is why we are doing the budget build and where these inexpensive units come into play.

Enter Amazon and its simple compile all the items shopping ability.
I simply typed "bass restoration processor" into the search bar and got a huge pile of results.

You must be registered for see images attach

Now if you don't know, these little jobbies rework the missing bass information that has been engineered out of the compressed files we all listen too as MP3's.

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

From the video description:
"It's unfortunate, but many times when music hits the studio for final processing the bass information is removed. This is done to make the music sound better on headphones and normal sound systems, but our systems are built to handle bass! How can we get that bass back? The AudioControl Epicenter Bass Restoration Processor!"

I never knew of such a thing! Ill be looking into this!

 

[akchevrolet]

For the sub boxes, we will be building the first ones out of the recently retired entertainment center that we just removed from the house. It was just fine as a TV unit, but nobody wanted it, so we will be repurposing it into sub boxes.

The majority is 1/2" pressboard and should be just fine for the level of power we will be pushing with the cheapo subs.
When we have our final design figured out, the real boxes will be made from 3/4" MDF.

We have 3 sizes of subs to choose from, so there will be 3 different boxes built, eventually...
They will all be fancy with the cool wood grain they have on them.

For sound dampening I have found the Frost King Peel & Seal that many others have used.
It seems to work better than nothing and for the cost of just over $18 a roll, we will give it a go.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

That is where we are with it currently.
Waiting on me having some free time to get to working on one of these things.
Between work and the honey doo list, I may get to it before Christmas....

Does it work pretty good. i got some cheaper sound deadening insulation off fleabay or amazon or both i dont remember.