0RAAMaudio

I am looking into having a custom line of very small but very high end amps, neo magnet speakers and subs made that will specifically fit into stock Vette locations as much as possible(not the subs of course).

All would be of very high quality thus not low priced but as a system, the more purchased the better the deal.

I would probably end up providing A pillars for the tweeters unless I can get the sound stage up where it should be with the stock locations.

I would also work on low weight sub enclosures and integration with stock HU (I am almost positive would have to have some sort of EQ provided but it would be custom properly tuned as delivered)

This would be a very costly endeavor so I need to know if you guys are interested in it, especially putting that much into something of this nature in these trying economic times.

I know I can do it, I know I can do it really well, I know you would love it, I just do not know if I should

Sincerely
Rick

Knob Jockey

I'm sure you would have great success in marketing a 'matched' system of electronics and speakers. Especially if it was 'pre-tweaked' for optimum performance with maybe a few presets for different music types.

I don't think any C6 owner who is familiar with audio systems expects to get great subwoofer performance out of a speaker mounted in the door. I personally would love to hear a well executed, tri-amped, 3-way system that works in the door. Co-ax mid/tweeter mounted in the stock location, or even, as you mentioned, an A-pillar tweeter solution.

Again, if you could offer a system with all the timing, slopes, EQ tweaks, amps, etc. combined with mounting fixtures and drivers, I think you'd have a winner.

I don't know if it's practical for a car audio system, but controlling the amplifier based on driver performance (reading back EMF/monitoring VC temps/etc.) and altering freq. response and level preventing failure and/or simply optimizing overall performance seems possible with an integrated amp/speaker approach.

Subwoofer solutions seem the most daunting in my opinion. There's no substitute for cubic feet and the C6 is a small car. Innovative magnet architecture can yeild some impressive results from an otherwise 'normal' driver. There is/was? a company named Aura that manufactured a remarkable, professional subwoofer driver that had a very distinct motor.

The Coupe and the Vert pose two different challenges and decent subwoofer systems for the Coupe already exist but could certainly be refined. The most innovative install I've seen in a Vert involved a custom sub enclosure/tonneau-compatment partition housing dual 10's. Definitely beyond the fabrication abilities of a typical DIY'er.

Add a package of pre-cut insulation/noise controll panels and a complete wiring harness (power, signal, speaker) along with comprehensive instructions and I might be your first customer.

It's a lofty ambition you are undertaking, I wish you nothing but the greatest of successes, and if you find you can only address a portion of this seemingly overwhelming endeavor, I'm sure you'll improve on the present state-of-the-art.

Best of Luck- Fred

rcmigpilot

To reinterate what I said when we spoke on the phone the other evening, I would love a professionally designed and tuned system that was engineered specifically for a Vette. Not just a conglomeration of off the shelf components that will work in a Vette, but a system specifically designed for one. Judging by all the complaints about the stock system I think there are a lot of others that would also be interested. It would need to be something plug and play that could either be self installed or installed by a mildly competent audio shop and still get repeatable results. It might also be benificial to have sytems in two or three price points or offer the system in stages for those with fewer greenbacks to burn. Remeber this, the one thing that has always been true about bad economic times is they always get better. Do the work now and it will pay off big when things get better and people start to spend money again.

TOOGECKO

Custom A-Pillars with matched tweeters would be a big hit. No one offers anything like that right now...

0RAAMaudio

Thanks, I very much appreciate your inputs

I have been talking with Image Dynamics about the speakers and subs, I am authorized to sell their line and have all the drivers they make we could use. I am first going to test their neo magnet XS series and have some 6x9 and 6.5's here to test. They do not have a 5.25 in that series but do have the same overall design with a conventional magnet so I have a set of those coming as well.

The cost to have a high end set of speakers, two sizes and subs, is substantial to say the least and would take some time to develop, I am still looking at this very seriously but with the economy of our times, just not sure it would be a wise thing to do.

Thus I asked them to look into making me a neo 5.25 out of the existing driver for the rear speakers. I may get a set of the 5x7 neos to test with in the mean time just so I can proceed further while sorting out this whole situation though the regular mag version is probably sonically quite similar.

NOTE: I will be testing the rears without the tweeters as well as with. I am not a proponent of rear speakers, I have always felt it best to invest into the front system and a good sub setup as well as have more than enough experience in hearing, building, etc competition audio systems. Rears are seldom used and if so normally just mids, narrow bandwidth and just for a bit of fill in most vehicles just not needed. But, some will insist on them or we may need them, I have to do the work to find out

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A neo Sub would be pretty costly to produce for what I need it to do, for now the IDQ10V3 is my sub of choice, not terribly heavy, great output, matches up with the fronts, etc....I have some ID8's on hand to test as well for those wanting the simplest setup we can make work out.

Another NOTE I put quite a bit of effort into a subless system. I am going to work with that a bit more once I get the car down off the lift but I can get some really good bass but not a great deal of true sub bass though it does sound good. The real issue is door panel resonance, I have done a great deal of work on that and still it is a serious issue, probably to much for most to want to deal with so the subless system just may not work out.

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Once I get healed up from my pending knee surgeries I will be able to hammer all this out rather quickly. Right now it is pretty tough but I am going to buy some really tall jack stands to put the car on and see if I can work on it without to much difficulty.

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Source Units, processors, etc....
I am not very happy with the current crop of aftermarket HU's with NAV, etc....there are some single din CD players that are quite fine at least but for those wanting more, not so great.
I do have a Z110 here, I picked it for the 7 band EQ to hopefully be able to make it sound decent but not really that hopeful. I am going to take a look to see what kind of read head/DAC setup it has, if I can find an SPDIF, etc, output I could tap that and to to a good outboard processor in digital format, then back into the HU past the DAC for control of the system. That is not to likely to work out, the last few times I tried they had some multiple output read heads going into a DAC that controlled far to much stuff to be able to do anything with it.
Other options are not what I call all that great, DAC output from the HU, ADC to the processor, back to a DAC, to the output stage, then to the amps, way to much lost in the shuffle but in the end may be the only viable option right now. Probably no better signal with either the aftermarket or stock HU's by the time all this is done.

For those wanting the simplest setup, stock HU, I will probably have to add in at least a 7 band EQ but of course going to do all I can to avoid it.

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Tweeter placement:

The ID line has a very adjustable crossover designed to help deal with stock locations so I will be testing that very well of course for those that prefer such locations. Maybe I will get lucky and hope so

In my current system I have 9" Morels and full size Seas 1" aluminum domes in stock locations, my first subless test, bi amped, no EQ as running the stock 6-disk HU, it actually sounds very good but not able to get much in the way of a good image which is critical for anything approaching audiphile level enjoyment. I needs and EQ, probably Time Alignment(always the dead last thing to ever try and barely any if ever used) and variable crossover slopes, etc.

I have already tested every phase position of each driver, gain, crossover freq's, etc, just not enough variables to dial it in anywhere near acceptable.

A pillars would make this really easy! I have a simple method I like to use, takes some time but no cost and will gladly share it or make some up for others but I may have molded ones made as well.
I just use double faced tape to find the sweet spot for mounting them, usually really easy, 2" above the tallest part of the dash and firing directly at each other. Then I cut a hole in the pillar that is smaller than the tweeter(best to start that way since working on an angle) and trim it by hand until I get the tweeter to barely fit and hold it's aim point.
Next I pull it out, wrap in the closest or contrasting grill cloth, push it back through until lined up, pull the cloth tight and glue in place.
This results in a really simple, pretty stealthy, widest separation of the tweeter, setup that works very very well. Molded pillars normally end up with a narrower sound stage
If I do work out a molded set it will be as wide as possible and I have to have a demand for it, once I do my pillars my way I can post pics, I actually prefer it

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Sub placement:

Easy, buy one of the prebuilt boxes for the C5 or C6 and put in the right sub
Problem, most weigh to much! I can get them made with half the weight but around double the cost. I do not have time to manf stuff as I used to in the old days but I have a great fabricator lined up, somebody that truly understands real audio performance and real vehicle performance can coexist.
BUT, if you want a flush fitting sub or subs in a C6, that might require a drop in enclosure after cutting out some FG in the rear corners. That is not a structural area, the enclosures could be bonded in, results would actually make it stronger most likely. I am sure few would consider this so a compromise may be needed.
I will be looking at other options, I am going to test fit an 8 firing backwards more likely under the waterfall in my C6 Vert. That would require a modified latch for the cover, etc...if there is enough room. I want to preserve the very useful storage of jackets, etc we use when cruising in ours which we did regularly, top down, until it got to 40 degrees, then a bit to cold but low 40's we managed ok

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I could go on for some time here but the bottom line is we need a really well sorted out system. These cars cost a bundle, we sink a ton more into them in mods, the stock audio is horrible and should be up to the rest of the experience of owning these wonderful but sometimes flawed cars and not have to kill the performance nor take up much needed space.

I am going to do this with my car so I may as well share the fun with others while doing so. I have always spent all my money on my cars and trucks, finally I learned to make them pay for themselves and now I have more of them and better ones

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I will be needing an unmodified car here in the next few months to do a more basic sound deadening job on, I went nuts on mine as usual and far beyond what most would do. I need to work out the best package to fit the requirements of the systems being developed and what most would want to tackle. This will not take a huge amount of time, one day or two at the most with the owner here helping, they get a free deadening job and a nice package offer on a system

I have a few tricks to keep the weight down and yet do a superb job on those big **** doors, did mine that way but added more due to the subless setup testing.

My car is quieter inside with the top down at 70MPH that a coupe with the top on or off

Thanks
Rick

0RAAMaudio

Setting up a system that can automatically make adjustments while you drive certainly can be done but the time involved to make this happen is well beyond what I can afford to invest. Since I am not an engineer I have to work harder to achieve some things but with my experience I can do the rest of a top notch system relatively easily, emphasis on relatively

The time it takes to develop pre cut deadening packages, invest into dies, packaging restraints, etc, and the materials I use does not add up to enough of a labor savings to justify the significant increase in cost. It is quite easy to cut and paste as you go, really, I have done at least 100 installs and with a bit of practice I know anybody can do this, save a bundle, do it right, etc....I have served tens of thousands of enthusiasts and rarely ever have anybody ask before or after about pre cut kits, hundreds of repeat customers and none has asked about it, it just does not come up.

In the past I was approached by a couple of major Vette vendors that were interested in buying large quantities of my BXT mat for their own pre cut kit development but I was not comfortable with that product for such use when I had BXT II in the initial design phase. I am now talking with somebody now about our BXT II, a fine tuned, least amount of material strategically placed package may be viable, we will see.

By choice I have always ran the entire RAAMaudio Inc business by myself with just a little part time help and prefer to keep it that way. But, I now have a wonderful new wife I love spending time with so I am in talks with a very talented installer that may join me for these special projects and eventually take over my US RAAMmat sales. I have a growing list of international distributors interested in our new BXT II but no time to deal with them effectively. He is one of the very few I have ever met and I know him very very well, that I would trust to have the kind of real care and concern I do towards my fellow enthusiasts and the experience to back it up.

Rick

TOOGECKO

Rick,
I'll be watching for progress here, particularly anything you do with the tweeters in the A-pillars. I have my stock A-pillars covered in leather right now and would want to do that again, so finish would not matter. Eventually I want a couple of gauges incorporated for a future SC install and not sure if I would go A-pillar or console on those. Either way, I have some leatherwork to redo . Thanks for taking this on for the community here

I will look into the IDQ sub to replace my JL Audio when the weather gets a little warmer...

0RAAMaudio

I have already heard back from one of our great members here, he did the A pillar mod himself and loves it

You could probably do the mod, carefully, on the pillars you have, just get some grill cloth in the same color or the right contrasting color to match the interior.

I am not a big fan of pillar gauges, the looks, night driving, etc....the only one I have in two race cars is a programmable shift light for tracks where it is hard to keep off the rev limiter and not shift up and down constantly. It is as out of my site line as possible, just right so I can see it without looking for it.

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I also heard back from another great member that swapped the sub (not the IDQ though, something else and great I have in stock) and is very happy and it is not even broken in yet He did have to make a 5/8" spacer to get it to clear, according to specs I read I thought it would drop in with the exception of maybe enlarging the hole just a tad. There may be a newer version of the enclosure they sell that is deeper for the latest model of the JL sub, some of them may drop in, some may need a spacer.

One thing that can give a bit more clearance on the rear and quite a bit more on the sides of the magnets on the sub I shipped him is to remove the rubber trim on the magnet. I always do this anyway for better cooling(not a huge difference but it adds up and is purely cosmetic, a little less weight to haul around as well

Thanks
Rick