Skids Custom Audio Install

[Smitty19TRD]

Yes 3-way active. It really brings the image up. AMT is an air motion transformer. Very detailed without being harsh.

The 8"s weren't as bad as I thought they would be. I made some spacers with some marine grade plywood I had laying around. Using them for sub duty they can vibrate your pant leg.

Doing a budget build, so far about $350 in since I'm using some old Eclipse amps I had from the 90's.

 

[Skidmarcx]

Yes 3-way active. It really brings the image up. AMT is an air motion transformer. Very detailed without being harsh.

The 8"s weren't as bad as I thought they would be. I made some spacers with some marine grade plywood I had laying around. Using them for sub duty they can vibrate your pant leg.

Doing a budget build, so far about $350 in since I'm using some old Eclipse amps I had from the 90's.

I bet those door subs are awesome I think I’m too nervous to try a 3 way active, at least I have a 6 channel amp I could support that system, I’d love to see pictures of your install, PM if you have any

 

[Smitty19TRD]

The 8"s begin to roll off at 40hz but still fairly strong at 30. I'm using a subsonic and rolling them off at 30hz because they really struggle below that. With the music I listen to that's fine since there's little energy that low. The drums in Dire Straits Money for Nothing are outstanding. It's the best midbass I've ever had in a car.

3-way active was easier for me. I'm using REW and "Jazzi's tuning companion" with the Audio Frog curve installed. There are some other curves in it to try as well.

Not for nothing I've heard those 6x9 Frogs in a 4runner 3-way active. They were outstanding as well. They are what made me go for 8's instead of 6.5's.

I have a build thread on an audio forum. I'll PM you a link

 

[WhiteMudhorn]

The 8"s begin to roll off at 40hz but still fairly strong at 30. I'm using a subsonic and rolling them off at 30hz because they really struggle below that. With the music I listen to that's fine since there's little energy that low. The drums in Dire Straits Money for Nothing are outstanding. It's the best midbass I've ever had in a car.

3-way active was easier for me. I'm using REW and Jazzi's tuning with the Audio Frog curve installed. There are some other curves in it to try as well.

Not for nothing I've heard those 6x9 Frogs in a 4runner 3-way active. They were outstanding as well. They are what made me go for 8's instead of 6.5's.

I have a build thread on an audio forum. I'll PM you a link

Can you pm me the link to your build thread as well? I would like to see what you did to get those 8's to fit.

 

[Smitty19TRD]

Can you pm me the link to your build thread as well? I would like to see what you did to get those 8's to fit.

Sent.

For those who have requested the link and interested in working on budget, I will try to update that thread soon. My gear is nowhere near as high end as Skidz.

 

[Skidmarcx]

Sent.

For those who have requested the link and interested in working on budget, I will try to update that thread soon. My gear is nowhere near as high end as Skidz.

That would be great, hopefully it motivates other members to install custom builds, I’m making some headway with my tuning I figured out if I crossover at 3.1k I can quell the harshness, I’m gonna keep at it til it’s perfect

 

[Smitty19TRD]

That would be great, hopefully it motivates other members to install custom builds, I’m making some headway with my tuning I figured out if I crossover at 3.1k I can quell the harshness, I’m gonna keep at it til it’s perfect

Excellent! I was wondering if raising it would help. I was going to suggest 3.5k but I'm not a skilled tuner yet either. I found the same with my tweeters. I also put a low pass LR 24db filter on my tweeters at 20khz. I have tested my hearing and can no longer hear above 17khz at my age (few people can hear all the way to 20khz anyway). Even in my 20's, being as honest as I could, I could never hear above 19khz.

Do you do all of your tuning through the Audio Control software? Can you install custom curves? I use Jazzi's tuning companion. It is an excel spreadsheet that allows you to pick your curve then crossover points. Then it makes separate curves for each speaker so you can tune them individually. This can be done manually in REW but the spreadsheet makes it easier because It saves the individual curves and the overall curve in a group, then I just use them as needed.

 

[Skidmarcx]

Excellent! I was wondering if raising it would help. I was going to suggest 3.5k but I'm not a skilled tuner yet either. I found the same with my tweeters. I also put a low pass LR 24db filter on my tweeters at 20khz. I have tested my hearing and can no longer hear above 17khz at my age (few people can hear all the way to 20khz anyway). Even in my 20's, being as honest as I could, I could never hear above 19khz.

Do you do all of your tuning through the Audio Control software? Can you install custom curves? I use Jazzi's tuning companion. It is an excel spreadsheet that allows you to pick your curve then crossover points. Then it makes separate curves for each speaker so you can tune them individually. This can be done manually in REW but the spreadsheet makes it easier because It saves the individual curves and the overall curve in a group, then I just use them as needed.

I have been using the Audio Control software and iOS mic plugged into my iPhone, so far it’s been working well, but yea the steep learning curve is apparent I believe I can upload custom references curves with the Mobile Tools app, I’ve read about the Jazzi tuning, but I don’t know where to access those files, the other challenge is that the Audio Control mic is for iOS devices, so I’m not sure I could use REW, I haven’t checked to see if it works on mobile devices. Perhaps I can load those curves into my mobile app?

I thought I was happy with 3.1k, but the stage felt very shallow, I then went the other way and tried 1.8k and it feels more real, I think the annoying frequencies are out of the crossover range, at least I’ll find out when I get more time to EQ grind

 

[Smitty19TRD]

That's always a tough battle with the mid and tweeter so far apart. I think the Audio Frog GS25 would be a perfect fit in your setup. They sound very good and make bringing your stage up so easy.

I say that because the guy the guy I off-road with has the same 6x9s you have with the GS25 and GS10 up high. He is also subless currently. It's the system I heard that got me back into the hobby and got me into DSPs.

You can download Jazzi's spreadsheet at Car Audio Junkies where my build thread is. It exports text files you load into your tuning software. You can also download the Audio Frog curve in different formats from their site.

What are your plans for the next stage once you get the tuning finalized on the front stage? Definitely following the whole build.

 

[Smitty19TRD]

Another tip that may work...I noticed above, you were using a 6db slope on the tweeters. I seem to have better results with 12 and 24db slopes when trying to cross tweeters lower. That can bring the stage up a bit but, can also sharpen the transition to the mid. Maybe a more experienced tuner can provide better advice but, it would hurt to play around with steeper slopes and see what the results are.

 

[Skidmarcx]

That's always a tough battle with the mid and tweeter so far apart. I think the Audio Frog GS25 would be a perfect fit in your setup. They sound very good and make bringing your stage up so easy.

I say that because the guy the guy I off-road with has the same 6x9s you have with the GS25 and GS10 up high. He is also subless currently. It's the system I heard that got me back into the hobby and got me into DSPs.

You can download Jazzi's spreadsheet at Car Audio Junkies where my build thread is. It exports text files you load into your tuning software. You can also download the Audio Frog curve in different formats from their site.

What are your plans for the next stage once you get the tuning finalized on the front stage? Definitely following the whole build.

I’m not sure I’ll take it much further, adding a 2.5” would mean doing something custom with the tweeter and possibly having to go to a 1” format for better sound... if anything I’ll ditch the stock HU once I feel the need to step it up in quality... maybe switch to GB60. The 10” sub I got works for now, but I might build a sealed box to see how I like it.

I’m definitely going to look into these tuning files I need some guidance. I’m currently using LR 24 slopes at crossover points, but trying a 6db roll off up high like in the AF curve.

Glad to hear you’re back in the game ��

 

[Smitty19TRD]

Yeah, I went back to the top of the thread after posting and saw the tweeter mounts. I also saw the sub listed but didn't realize you had it running yet. How did you install your enclosure? I have some 10W1's laying around and thinking of doing one of those in the corner pocket.

 

[Skidmarcx]

Yeah, I went back to the top of the thread after posting and saw the tweeter mounts. I also saw the sub listed but didn't realize you had it running yet. How did you install your enclosure? I have some 10W1's laying around and thinking of doing one of those in the corner pocket.

It’s a prefab slot port design on the same axis as the driver, I have it facing the rear of the vehicle on the driver side, it’s not gonna kick you in the back, but it has good low extension and provides sufficient volume... for the price I couldn’t pass it up

 

[WhiteMudhorn]

I've been talking to Smitty via PM but I thought I'd intrude a bit on you thread as you're doing a lot what I wanted to do. I did just drop in an AudioFrog GS25 and it brought the soundstage up, and much clearer without doing anything else. Though I may try to fit a tweeter in the same location but would have to cut away the factory grill and cover it in grill cloth.

Loving your thread by the way. Please post more pictures when you have the time.

 

[Skidmarcx]

I've been talking to Smitty via PM but I thought I'd intrude a bit on you thread as you're doing a lot what I wanted to do. I did just drop in an AudioFrog GS25 and it brought the soundstage up, and much clearer without doing anything else. Though I may try to fit a tweeter in the same location but would have to cut away the factory grill and cover it in grill cloth.

Loving your thread by the way. Please post more pictures when you have the time.

Thank you by the way

I’d be interested to see your idea of mounting a tweeter with a midrange in the dash... I imagine it would be easier for tuning, I think I’ve finally got mine closer to being dialed in, I had an error in my time delays which royally screwed things up, the bass appears to be up front now, I’ll look forward to your project.

 

[WhiteMudhorn]

Thank you by the way

I’d be interested to see your idea of mounting a tweeter with a midrange in the dash... I imagine it would be easier for tuning, I think I’ve finally got mine closer to being dialed in, I had an error in my time delays which royally screwed things up, the bass appears to be up front now, I’ll look forward to your project.

I really didn't want to run speaker wires.. I'm always limited on time to work on the car so I was thinking of building a T-harness like tacotunes..

Then I did some searching and realized the stupidity (or genius) of Toyota engineers and how they paralleled the Front dash and front door speakers.. and series the rear door and hatch speakers. So I guess I will have to do some wire running afterall.

 

[Skidmarcx]

I really didn't want to run speaker wires.. I'm always limited on time to work on the car so I was thinking of building a T-harness like tacotunes..

Then I did some searching and realized the stupidity (or genius) of Toyota engineers and how they paralleled the Front dash and front door speakers.. and series the rear door and hatch speakers. So I guess I will have to do some wire running afterall.

I wasn’t thrilled at first either, but turns out it’s actually very easy to do... at least for the front speakers I didn’t do rear fill

 

[Smitty19TRD]

I've also been exploring options to put tweeter in the dash with the mids. I'll be doing more with it after I finish the budget build experiment.

We may start another thread with ideas and options from other members so as not to intrude on your thread.

I'm still following your progress and would like to see some of your RTA measurements on some of your tunes.

 

[Skidmarcx]

Here are the time delay and level settings I have so far, this is close to being dialed in, still could be better, the image is pretty well centered, but I still need to check my EQ settings since fixing my time delay. For reference I used a stereo pink noise track available free on the JL Audio site.

Now I’m 6’4” so my seat pretty far back, my subwoofer is on the passenger side facing rear of vehicle, I simply used a tape measure from my right ear to each speaker while sitting in the vehicle to obtain these measurements, I did add 3” to each door speaker to account for the depth of the door panel and 2” to each tweeter to account for the grille, for the subwoofer just measured in a straight line to the face of the box

 

[Skidmarcx]

First is right tweeter EQ setting, then left.

Still refining, but need a good chunk of time without my kids crawling up my legs