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Another Audio Build: 2019 Ford Explorer

ProjectTwin said:
Tweets and mids I usually start at 2 x Fs and go up from there. Also depends on power. I have mids with a Fs of 128 that I was running a 300Hz HP on. They were unhappy at times. Bumped to 400. Sitting at 500 now. Running more than rated power on them.

Midbasses I usually HP at 70. The LP for them depends on the midrange HP.

Subs typically get LP at 70 or so and obviously play above/below Fs.

I'm not convinced that a full-range driver with a Fs of 73Hz is going to be happy with a 70Hz HP. That's why I said it'll probably be 80 or 90. Depends on how much power it sees. Won't be much with a 3mm one-way excursion rating. :homer:

If I'm doing a 2-seat car I'll do what I can to have the center channel capable of playing the same frequency range as the left and right.

My Chevelle has 8" midbasses in the kick panels and I have a pair of Audison Voce 5 1/4 coaxes in the factory 4x10 location as a center. :laughing:
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Yeah, a lot of people don't realize you can get away with running higher power by clever x-over strategy, as long as the power is clean. Every blown monitor driver I've ever replaced was getting square waves.
 
bigun said:
And here I am just trying to figure out how to work the Alpine that the previouse owner put in. What ever happened to just a simple on/off knob
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Bluetooth volume knob, look it up, see if it is compatible with your radio. The knob can be mounted anywhere.
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Sweet, another build to drool over

is the XB done? or just "done"?

Looks like the old sub enclosure was fiberglass and done in place? I bet you could still sell it to another explorer guy for a hundred or two even if it needs that corner closed off again
 
budget76 said:
Sweet, another build to drool over

is the XB done? or just "done"?

Looks like the old sub enclosure was fiberglass and done in place? I bet you could still sell it to another explorer guy for a hundred or two even if it needs that corner closed off again
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It's done for now. I'm just going to monthly shows and getting points for Finals. The goal is to have it 100% by Finals.

For now the SQ is great and SPL is OK. Final bits will boost SPL scores so I'm not in a rush to get'm done - especially when other stuff is making money.

The center channel driver arrived today. Morel Virtus Nano Carbon Integra.

What a fuggin' mouthful. :laughing:

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Separate midbass and tweeter inputs
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Anyway, it's a cool driver in pics, but even cooler in hand. The tweeter is stationary and the carbon cone for the midbass portion of the driver moves. The spider has an overall diameter of about 3.75" but there's a perforated 9mm section of it that is provides suspension/excursion.

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The top of the spider attaches to the back of the cone near the cutout for the tweeter opening.
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I'm cleaning the shop today. I'm covered in dust from cleaning the dust collection system and dust collector. :homer:
 
Fuuuck.

This is easily the single most expensive tool purchase I've made.

I know a lot of you guys have expensive shit and work with this shit every day, but to drop this much on one tool gives me that happy/scared shitless feeling like getting laid for the first time. :laughing:

Fuckin' hell.

This damned thing better make money. :homer:

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It's not that expensive, you got a $100 discount you shmuck :flipoff2:
Can't believe with the cost of all that, they still bone you on the cost of a cable.

In any event, move closer to Ohio, I can put that to good use for you.
 
ProjectTwin said:
Fuuuck.

This is easily the single most expensive tool purchase I've made.

I know a lot of you guys have expensive shit and work with this shit every day, but to drop this much on one tool gives me that happy/scared shitless feeling like getting laid for the first time. :laughing:

Fuckin' hell.

This damned thing better make money. :homer:

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Thats big pesos on a tool, but you know the potential for income on it and when it happens its so satisfying.


I might could use an audio build or 3 if you have consultation time.
 
TennPass said:
It's not that expensive, you got a $100 discount you shmuck :flipoff2:
Can't believe with the cost of all that, they still bone you on the cost of a cable.

In any event, move closer to Ohio, I can put that to good use for you.
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I cleared cookies for the website and reloaded the page so it would offer me that $100 discount. :lmao:

Jag said:
Thats big pesos on a tool, but you know the potential for income on it and when it happens its so satisfying.


I might could use an audio build or 3 if you have consultation time.
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This will get used for CNC plasma stuff that I've been farming out to the local metal shop. Now I won't have to pay setup fees and such. I can just go buy the metal and make parts the same day I need them. Having a handheld plasma is nice, but it doesn't give consistent circles that I need for sub cutouts.

I know there will be more uses for this thing, but right now I've got a 24" baffle that needs cut (for this Explorer) and I think I WILL farm that out to the local shop so I can get it turned around faster than I'd be able to while waiting on this machine to be delivered and then the time it's going to take me to build it.

I DO, however, have a BIG build coming. That thing is going to use a ton of metal. Told that guy I'd need a sizeable payment up front. I knew I'd need this plasma table for his build. Looks like I'm ahead of the game there.

Smart thing to do for now is to eat the cost of the single baffle for the Explorer so it can progress and have the plasma table in-house for future stuff.
 
Damn nice build. I thought I was getting fancy putting the cheapest 6x8 speakers Crutchfield has and a Jensen multimedia player in my service truck that had no foam left around the the factory speakers.
 
Welp...

Had a video brainstorm session with the owner today. :homer:

He said from the beginning that "If you can find a way to fit two of them back here, that's what we're doing"

So while our call was originally not about the 24(s) it DID devolve into this mess.

Two 24s are happening.

Fuk'n hell. :laughing:
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ProjectTwin said:
Fuuuck.

This is easily the single most expensive tool purchase I've made.

I know a lot of you guys have expensive shit and work with this shit every day, but to drop this much on one tool gives me that happy/scared shitless feeling like getting laid for the first time. :laughing:

Fuckin' hell.

This damned thing better make money. :homer:

1705034989702.png
Click to expand...

I'm looking at the small setup since I have limited space. I read good reviews of their stuff.
 
Provience said:
Close to being a drop in :laughing: Almost saved you a bunch of work
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frank c said:
I'm looking at the small setup since I have limited space. I read good reviews of their stuff.
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For the price they're tough to beat. I've researched the hell out of these.

When I started I was looking at the Crossfire Pro (because the XR wasn't out yet) but my concern was that I'd end up needing a larger cut area especially since the main reason for getting one is for IB 24 builds. Then they announced the XR and I've been back and forth on whether to get the Pro or the XR.

The big build that's coming from Florida pretty much pushed me to the XR. It will take up a big portion of one bay, but I can probably park the xB in that bay with the machine. Probably. :laughing: The laser is already in a corner of that bay so we'll see how it goes. Plenty of people are making good money with the Pro. They're all over YouTube. I just don't see myself trying to make money with the table doing signs and shit, but it's just another tool in the shop for the work I'm already doing. Shit, the 3D printer stuff escalated so quickly I don't have the time for it. I'm better off using them as tools to do what I need for whatever I'm working on.

I also debated saving money and getting the plasma table without an additional plasma cutter and using my current HF Titanium 45 with it.

I like having the 45 and hand torch on the cart with the MIG and TIG so I can use it wherever and I wouldn't be able to do that easily if it was dedicated to the plasma table.

After knowing that I'd want another plasma, it was a matter of the Razorweld, the 45XP, or 65 SYNC. 65 SYNC is a good bit more money than the other two, but I don't think I'll ever exceed its capability. It hurt to look at the price difference between the Razorweld and the 65 SYNC but I figured it's a "buy once cry once" situation.

The cool thing with the SYNC is when you change to fine cut consumables it automatically reconfigures itself. I'm guessing it's just a matter of configuring lead-in/lead-out and travel speed after that. The Razorweld puts more of that on the user.

The great thing is that it seems all of the issues people have had with the Langmuir stuff is attributed to user error either during assembly or just the learning curve to get the workflow for CNC plasma cutting correct so they can make parts.

I have Sterling Cool here for it already as well as a swivel monitor mount, air dryer, and a 3-way pool valve that I'll be using for draining/refilling the table. I also picked up some shallow zerk fittings for the ball screws that require lubrication, but there's no easy way to grease them. :shaking: There's simply a screw in the housing.

So yeah. I figure sometime in February I'll build the table. I've seen guys say it took them 11 hours and others say they did it over weeks. All I know is that I'll build it with the mods in place from the start so I don't have to pull anything apart and work around some BS in the future.

Hopefully this is the last tool I buy for the shop. I know there's going to be a learning curve, but it'll be worth it.
 
ProjectTwin said:
Welp...

Had a video brainstorm session with the owner today. :homer:

He said from the beginning that "If you can find a way to fit two of them back here, that's what we're doing"

So while our call was originally not about the 24(s) it DID devolve into this mess.

Two 24s are happening.

Fuk'n hell. :laughing:
1705085359791.png
Click to expand...
Your builds are as advanced as any that I've seen. So, I'm thinking down the road and applying some of my engineering experience and making guesses. :laughing:
Would there be any benefit to speakers like that to be on a gimbal to further the tuning capabilities within the vehicle?
 
rugger said:
Your builds are as advanced as any that I've seen. So, I'm thinking down the road and applying some of my engineering experience and making guesses. :laughing:
Would there be any benefit to speakers like that to be on a gimbal to further the tuning capabilities within the vehicle?
Click to expand...

The benefit is added complexity.

The downside is added complexity.

Sub frequencies don't matter.

What matters is when you take a large driver like a 8" or 9" midbass and try to play it up into the higher frequencies. It'll start beaming and output rolls off when you're off-axis.

So putting an 8" driver in the door and trying to play it up to 3,000Hz as a 2-way with a tweeter can be problematic because the 8" will start beaming and higher freq response will roll off on the driver's side 8 in the driver's seat.

Wait...that's one of the tunes in the xB. :homer: :laughing:

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Other crap.

More disassembly of the door card. Looking at installation of the Morel 9s
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The factory 6x9 location on the inner door skin.
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Pictures I sent the owner while working and on the phone with him.

Templates for filling the rear seatbelt slots.
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The usual dry fit.
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Then I mixed some Fusor 152 and stuck them in place.

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So I’ll let the Fusor fully cure and then I can work the rest of the panels for the MM3s.
 
Alright…3s.

The first thing was to make a template for the 3s. I copied the factory D-pillar speaker and made the center cutout for the Morel 3.

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Then I screwed it to the D-pillar.
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…and routed the D-pillar opening to coincide with the MM3s surround diameter.
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Then I changed my mind as to how I wanted to mount the 3s and made mounting rings from 1/4” PVC.

I then cut the bosses off the back side of the D-pillar and bonded the rings to the back side of the factory panels.
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Then I bled on it. It was at this point that it officially became a project. :laughing:
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CA fixed it. :homer:
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3s in the doors…

I made two more 1/4” PVC rings and put them on the back of the door, tacked them with CA, the started putting some PVC supports in place that serve to keep the MM3 mounting ring in place and also adds support for the next step - body filler.
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I’m using Evercoat filler and mixed some 1/4” chop strand into it to add some tensile strength. I started to add fumed silica to thicken the filler, but didn’t want to deal with it.
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Some early progress. This was prior to filler application.
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Photo in the vehicle for the owner.
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Time for filler. Aluminum tape was used everywhere I didn’t want the filler to stick. The goal here was to build a “waveguide” to direct sound from the MM3 position to the face of the trim panel.
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There was a mounting post directly under the ring. I cut that spot with the Dremel.
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To add filler to the area and make sure I had clearance to the nut for service I wrapped my socket in aluminum tape and applied filler.
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Progress.
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Aluminum tape made sure the trim panel released as intended.
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Raw panel where filler umm…filled the gap between the door card and trim piece.
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Trim panel in place. The “waveguide” leads directly to the cutout.
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Factory speaker grille in place with black grille cloth behind it.

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Escutcheon plate in place.
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As a slight derailment to the previous Ford flex audio I finally got the specs. Again I know nada about audio.

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-Killmat on all doors, floor and hatch
-1/0 big 3 in engine bay
-500 farad super capacitor
-JBL Stadium Series mids and highs
-factory amp for mids and highs
-factory head unit with 7.1 surround sound
-Audio Control LC2i for sub signal conversion
-Sundown Audio SAI-3500 amplifier for sub
-Sundown Audio X18v2 subwoofer
-custom birch enclosure tuned to 29Hz
 
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