The older the discs the better the quality of recording to a certain extent. Mid to late 80's through the early 90's seem to have some of the best recording, with good transients and low distortion. Modern music is very condensed thanks to the ipod and similar products, and usually has a fair amount of distortion, and very little transient between the "quiet" portions of the song and the "loud" portions of the song. Often it is hard to pick out instruments because the playback is almost entirely at the same "level".

I am sure it is easier/cheaper to produce music in this way, and sounds better when condensed to various portable formats, and far easier to still get "loud" in the 3mm drivers in most of the headphones these days.

It is a case of technology actually makings things worse in a way.

Sounds like you have things pretty well dialed in bro, enjoy the fruits of your labor

Fej

 

well i've encountered my original problem again but only at higher volumes (115-120 dB with the top down/window off) The distortion is only coming from the passenger side woofer. I'm certain this is NOT a tuning problem. I'm going to tear into the door this week and make sure the structure and electrical connections are solid.

 

120db with the top off & the windows down? You know you are going to suffer from hearing loss right? Can you imagine what that would be with the interior sealed.....

You are definitely not going for SQ, that's strictly SPL....

That noise from the passenger side is probably the 6.5"drivers swan song...

Congrats on the build brother man, it sounds like a monster, but I'd start saving for some hearing aids soon!


Keith

 

Now that's good info!

 

I think my EPIC 150 may be a little off with the windows down.

Windows up and with the volume at level 12-15, i get no distortion and clean powerful sound. Drop the top and crank the radio 18-20 and every once in a while I get a rattle/distortion from the passenger door woofer.

 

I think you are using the gains too much bro. I would reload your gain settings and utilize a higher percentage of max from the HU (the signal). With Alpine you should be able to use at least 27 out of 35 (guessing here, but pretty typical for them) without sending a clipped signal to your amps.

I would start with say a 24 setting for max interior listening and use 27/28 for top down cruising and reset your gains from there. I would bet you will be able to crank down to either minimal gain settings, or maybe 10% for some channels.

You always want to maximize your CLEAN signal strength before asking for amplification. Based on your 12-15 comments, your gains must be set relatively high.

To give you an idea, I run about 65 out of 80 on my Eclipse 8053 for loud, and it will play clean and unclipped to 78 out of 80. My gains are front to back, minimum, minimum, 5% midbass, 10% sub.

G'luck
Fej

 

Good Call. I"ll try that first.

 

It's not the Gains. I'm almost certain it's a bad seal on the woofer. The noise sounds like a plastic rattle and it's only on the passenger side reguardless of gains and even at low volumes.

get ready to laugh.....

the enclosue i built was a plastic salad bowl hot glued to the backside of the speaker plate. I believe the hot glue seal has failed. Tomorrow it gets fiberglassed the right way.

 

Cool man, good luck with that fix. I do still think that a revisit of the overall system gain/volume set up will yield some positive results. It will also leave you much further away from your amps clipping than your current setup stands. Signal is your friend, well along with fiberglass

Fej

 

Any fix on the speaker yet?

btw-

(Just My 2 Cents!)
I noticed this with my new components and amps installed.
Some of my 60's Frank Sinatra stuff sounds crisper and clearer than anything made recently. Frank was VERY Picky (if you hadn't heard!)

Also, My Jimi (from around '68-70) sounded so clear with my new system, I can hear his breath now! It's pretty freaky! I can hear every pop and ALL the hiss from his Stack!
For the best sounding 70's stuff, I found Super Tramp greatest hits and Pink Floyd's "Shine on You crazy diamond" both in 24K Gold Remastered CD's from the early 90's! (Pure Heaven! Ultimate Clean!)

The stuff from the 80's is mostly pretty clean- Van H (w/David Lee Roth) Hot for Teacher sounds great! Then again my wife was DEEPLY into "Hair Bands" and has all of the Poison, Ratt, Winger, Pantera, etc... And there is a Major difference in sound quality! It really depends on how they recorded it!

Nora Jones had a wonderful first album, recorded properly, and sounds great on the new system! But I still believe they have lost a lot of "Sound" while switching from analog studios to digital. Listen to Zeppelin's first album- On Dazed and confused there are some parts where you hear his high-hat hardware squeaking with every step! (....But for recording in a house, with the drummer in the hallway- with only 1 mic it sounds amazing!♥) I'd miss that squeak if it wasn't there!

My favorite Album has to be American Beauty by Grateful Dead. This is when they changed their sound from "Weird/Acid Rock" to "Clean" -They say the record company execs were jumping up and down when they first heard it! (And they expected to HATE IT because of their previous album experiences with the Dead! )

Keep Rocking! Good Luck with your tuning! and Keep us updated!

 

Unfortionatly, mother nature has decided to make it cold and rainy....not good fiberglassing weather, but it will give me time to work on some of my other projects. It's upposed to stop raining by next week.

 

It stopped raining and i was finally able to get the car out and rip the door off. The good news is I found the source of the distortion and it's not the enclosure (which was actually mounted to the midrange)

The bad news is that the distortion was caused by a failure of the woofer surround glue that holds the ribber to the metal frame (see picture). The surround itself is okay. I disconnected all other drivers and by applying minimal pressure with my fingers to the damaged area, I got MUCH improved midbass.



Question: what type of adhesive is best suited for repairing this?

I have the following available:
- Krazy glue
- Hot glue (low melt)
- Silicone sealant
- Weatherstripping adhesive (I think this has the most potential since weather stripping is similar to the material on the surround)

 

No expert, but I'd use that over any of the others.

 

I bit the bullet and tried the weather strip adhesive. The drivers side woofer had the same problem but only half as bad as the passenger side. I'm going to let the glue sit overnight before attempting to play with it again. (fingers crossed)

 

Well it appears that at least one of the woofers is damaged internally. the cone has excessive movement and when i gently push on the cone itself, it makes a noise like sandpaper. The other woofer appears to have faired okay.

Thankfully i have an SPX 177 woofer i'm going to use in place of the damaged SPX 17MB. Alpine indicates that they have nearly identical construction. I'm building aperiodic enclosures for the woofers and raising the HPC to around 100hz in an attempt to get more control over the bass.

in the meantime, I'll be looking for a more perminant replacement for my midbass drivers. Suggestions for a 6.5" midbass?

 

Peerless SLS is probably the baddest midbass on the block right now.

 

Really now? their 6.5" is only $45 each....or am i reading about the wrong one?

http://www.madisound.com/catalog/pro...oducts_id=8234

 

thats the right one. The slightly bigger sls are a lot better though. but i know you dont have the extra space.

 

I wish i had the space, but fitting the 6.5" with the 5.25" was a challange. Ideally, i would have just re-built the entire door panel, but I don't have the experience or the $$ for a project of that magnitude.

What are the power requirements of the SLS? I assume it would play best without an enclosure?

 

it doesn't require a ton of power... all the specs are there on madisound.