Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Audio How to build a system?

Where do you guys come up with these brands? I never heard of any of these brands. Is it just that installers dont carry this stuff so people can't buy it?

Just wondering.

OK. I've got some more info for you to go with. The depth of the driver is 5.1 inches (The Stryke driver mentioned earlier). When you get a chance, measure the depth of the spare tire well and let me know how far 6.75 inches would stick up above the trunk floor. I would do this myself but my car was totalled about a month ago.

If you are going to mount it in the spare tire well, with a the minimum depth allowed by the driver, you will end up with a 1.35 cubic foot enclosure. I forgot to mention that I would recommend using sonotube for the enclosure. If you are not familiar with Sonotube, it is a cardboard material that cement workers use to poor large columns. There is no issue with the strength of the sonotube, it will have less resonances than all but the heaviest, most well braced boxes. Basically, you will cap both end of the tube with some 3/4 MDF. In between these two caps (top and bottom) I would use some 1" dowel rod that will attach the two caps and screw them together. This will eliminate any flexing in the MDF. The 24" version of the sonotube is what you will want.

This enclosure will probably stick out from the trunk floor, which can actually be a good thing, because it will allow you to build a false floor a couple inches above the current floor level. This makes some things very easy, first, you can flush mount your amp/amps in the floor. Second, you can run all your wiring under the floor very easily. The biggest advantage is that you don't notive ANY floor space being lost and it can be made to look completely stock.

E-mail me if you have any questions about how to build the false floor. It is much easier than my description probably makes it sound. davidnewman@excite.com

Aaron and I come from similar backgrounds when it comes to Audio. His brother started him in the DIY Audio thing. An older friend of mine started me. I've read just about every speaker building magazine/book to be published in the last 5-10 years. It has been a hobby for about 13 years. Once you start getting into the hobby, a couple of things become immediately apparent, there is very little difference between car audio and home audio speakers. Yes, they sometimes use different materials that last longer, and the resistance is normally different (4 ohm for car audio, 6-8 ohm for home audio), but the problem is, Car Audio manufacturers are offering in a lot of cases, the same speakers (with a fancier cone with cool colorful graphics) that the DIY companies are offering for much less money.

If you do a search for DIY Audio, there are a number of sites, both personal and professional that deal with DIY audio. The brands we have mentioned have attained almost cult following among the Audio purists for a number of reasons. The value the offer, the flexibility to be run in any number of alignments (sealed, ported, bandpass, etc), and most importantly SQ and output.

The NHT 1259 was one of the first subs to really stir the DIY market. There are a number of others that are in the same class as the Dayton and Adire drivers.

NHT1259
Dayton Titanic 1200 (clone of the 1259)
ACI 12
HSU research 1220 (i think that is the model number)
TC Sounds 12"

They each have their own sonic characteristics and strong points.

Oh and to answer the second part of your post. Some dealers are starting to offer Adire's products. It's one of those things that if they haven't heard of your company they don't want to carry your products. The Shiva has had an amazing amount of success in IASCA events in the last couple of years and people are slowly starting to take notice. Adire will be offering more mobile audio oriented products in the near future.

The dayton drivers are a in house brand of www.partsexpress.com. Typcially, they seem to clone, for lack of a better word, other companies drivers.

Dave, thanks for covering me. I was in a long meeting .

I've only just started my own knowledge base on DIY. If you're not interested, there is a lot of information that can be overload. My brother has, however been DIY audio for about the same amount of time as Dave, 15 years or so. He's about a half generation (12 years) older than me so it's not like we comunicated much when I was younger. Anyway, the Internet has been great for DIY research. As Dave said, a few of the mentioned drivers have some serious cult-like followings. To put it into perspecive, imagine the activity CEG gets as a whole, but dedicated to DIY audio. Actually, it's more active, but I digress...

Dave's summed it up a lot better than I could have. it'll be hard to fill his shoes when he's on his honeymoon.

Aaron

Thanks Aaron!

I'm bringing the laptop on the 'moon! j/k the wife would kill me! haha

It's getting close...9 days away!

Big no-no. Besides, you're not supposed to have time to even think about the Internet.

To be honest, i'm going to be thinking (and acting) about only one thing...and since this is a PG site, I won't go any further...:-)

Alright, you the man! PG site, maybe just the audio forums, but everything is left for the imagination. I'm sure you will have fun. Besides the obligatory sex stuff, my wife and I had a great time on our honeymoon just relaxing and taking it slow. It was a huge relief after the busy wedding business and other daily grinds.

That's what i'm looking forward to... but don't forget the bumps.