I sure am. Spring terminals just seam cheap and unreliable. I wanted to bolt each coil individually through the box so that i can change the configuration without having to remove the sub from the box.
My sub build
- Thread starter FrankLS
- Start date
I sure am. Spring terminals just seam cheap and unreliable. I wanted to bolt each coil individually through the box so that i can change the configuration without having to remove the sub from the box.
When i was planning the terminals, i started thinking about metal conductivity. Its no secret Silver and Copper are by far more most conductive metals available but i wasnt going to spent hundeds or even more than 20 dlls on my terminals. I was planning on using materials that would be easily available at my local hardware store. That narrowed it down to Stainless, Galvanized, and Zinc coated.
I did some reasearch and found out that Zinc is actually very conductive and would be the best bang for my buck. I was originally going to use stainless but saw that it didnt stack up well against the other metals. I didnt find anything on galvanized as it was never included in metal conductivity charts.
So i decied to go with Zinc which would put me under 10 dlls for the complete 4 bolts.
Stainless may not be very conductive but im sure due to the diameter, its better than using small gauge copper wire. I honestly dont think that it would really make that much of a difference but when I can get something cheaper that is in "theory", supposed to perform better, Ill jump right on it.
http://www.tibtech.com/conductivity.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_resistivity_and_conductivity#cite_note-6
I did some reasearch and found out that Zinc is actually very conductive and would be the best bang for my buck. I was originally going to use stainless but saw that it didnt stack up well against the other metals. I didnt find anything on galvanized as it was never included in metal conductivity charts.
So i decied to go with Zinc which would put me under 10 dlls for the complete 4 bolts.
Stainless may not be very conductive but im sure due to the diameter, its better than using small gauge copper wire. I honestly dont think that it would really make that much of a difference but when I can get something cheaper that is in "theory", supposed to perform better, Ill jump right on it.
http://www.tibtech.com/conductivity.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_resistivity_and_conductivity#cite_note-6
Long day at work today.
So I forgot to mention that the carpet material that im using i baught from www.partsexpress.com part number 260-765. It is a near perfect match, I beleive it is the same material that the ebay box guy uses. It runs at $6.25 a yard. Shipping is insanely expensive with these guys. You get free shipping on all orders $98 and above so i went ahead and ordered all my ring terminals, wafer fuses, colored electrical tape among other things.
So heres a few pictures of wire and terminals installed in the box. I used all 5/16 zinc hardware along with rubber washers. This is the order of the bolts from inside box to out:
-Bolt/ terminal/ metal washer/ rubber washer/ box/ rubber washer/ metal washer/ lock washer/ nut/ metal washer/ terminal/ metal washer/ lock washer/ nut.
I used 2 nuts on the outside so that I could easily loosen the outer nut and make sure the bolt would remain firmly attached to the box. I beleive the bolt was a 2 1/2
The wire I used is 10 gauge Monster Cable that i purchased through Audiosavings on ebay. Cost me $29.95 for 50ft which is more than enough for my setup.
So I forgot to mention that the carpet material that im using i baught from www.partsexpress.com part number 260-765. It is a near perfect match, I beleive it is the same material that the ebay box guy uses. It runs at $6.25 a yard. Shipping is insanely expensive with these guys. You get free shipping on all orders $98 and above so i went ahead and ordered all my ring terminals, wafer fuses, colored electrical tape among other things.
So heres a few pictures of wire and terminals installed in the box. I used all 5/16 zinc hardware along with rubber washers. This is the order of the bolts from inside box to out:
-Bolt/ terminal/ metal washer/ rubber washer/ box/ rubber washer/ metal washer/ lock washer/ nut/ metal washer/ terminal/ metal washer/ lock washer/ nut.
I used 2 nuts on the outside so that I could easily loosen the outer nut and make sure the bolt would remain firmly attached to the box. I beleive the bolt was a 2 1/2
The wire I used is 10 gauge Monster Cable that i purchased through Audiosavings on ebay. Cost me $29.95 for 50ft which is more than enough for my setup.
Thanks. Hey thats the carpeting you used right? Is it the ebay box one?
Very nice build.
Everything looks put together properly with a nice tight seal. The sub is going to pound. And these subs sound better and deeper the longer you play them.
My sub hit pretty damn low at first but it got deeper and deeper and I'm only at 500rms 2ohms. I could imagine over 1000rms at 1ohms would make it hard to breathe in the ls. It has much more sound deadening than most vehicles.
Everything looks put together properly with a nice tight seal. The sub is going to pound. And these subs sound better and deeper the longer you play them.
My sub hit pretty damn low at first but it got deeper and deeper and I'm only at 500rms 2ohms. I could imagine over 1000rms at 1ohms would make it hard to breathe in the ls. It has much more sound deadening than most vehicles.
Thanks, i really havnt played it for too long. I still need to get my gains set and amp tuned. But damn!! How long would you say your lvl 4 took to start breaking in?
I can already tell my electical is gonna be my weak link : (
I can already tell my electical is gonna be my weak link : (
AQ is good isht. I really didn't push my lvl4 for a good month. I was probably too cautious, but you never know. Every Monday morning on the way to work, I would kick it up a notch or 2. I'll upload a video tomorrow or Monday.
The sub is so good my old amp (kenwood monoblock) literally melted trying to push it.
The AQ amp barely even gets warm and pushes the sub harder.
Come February or march ill be stepping up to this in a ported box and running it at 1ohms.
And i plan on doing a double din pioneer unit and pulling out the stock subs to allow more bass in the cabin. Big 3 upgrade may be necessary as well.
The AQ amp barely even gets warm and pushes the sub harder.
Come February or march ill be stepping up to this in a ported box and running it at 1ohms.
And i plan on doing a double din pioneer unit and pulling out the stock subs to allow more bass in the cabin. Big 3 upgrade may be necessary as well.
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jmtiseo
The Peanut Gallery
I'm curious. How would you say this sub compares to lets say a W7 or any other more "well known" drivers? The thing looks beastly! Would you say it's big performance without the big name, or do I just not know what I'm talking about?
Very nice on the box build. It's giving me ideas for when and if I ever get to do mine correctily. So far some good ideas I've seen are the bolt/terminals and the quick disconnect ground and power cables. Very noyce.
Very nice on the box build. It's giving me ideas for when and if I ever get to do mine correctily. So far some good ideas I've seen are the bolt/terminals and the quick disconnect ground and power cables. Very noyce.
It holds world records:
http://dcsoundlab.com/records.html
A W7 aint got :q:q:q:q on it. DC is well known in the competiion world, as well as Digital Designs and Audioque.
http://dcsoundlab.com/records.html
A W7 aint got :q:q:q:q on it. DC is well known in the competiion world, as well as Digital Designs and Audioque.
JL makes good stuff dont get me wrong....but better subs are made by lesser known comapnies. JL is more on the pro audio side and have been making subs for awhile but these newer companies have better stuff for the money.
jmtiseo
The Peanut Gallery
I had a longer reply but I deleted on accident. It looks like I'm going to be doing more research if I ever get the funds to do such a thing (finally paid off my control arm fiasco). This looks like a great build thanks for the input on the W7, AQ, DD, DC comparisons.
The sub is so good my old amp (kenwood monoblock) literally melted trying to push it.
The AQ amp barely even gets warm and pushes the sub harder.
Come February or march ill be stepping up to this in a ported box and running it at 1ohms.
And i plan on doing a double din pioneer unit and pulling out the stock subs to allow more bass in the cabin. Big 3 upgrade may be necessary as well.
Nice. I like the how AQ uses stitches for their cones. Don't know if its stronger, but it makes the sub look heavy duty. The only thing I never understood was the aluminum coils that are available.
I believe that in order to accomplish what you mention, you wil need to go custom. Either buil by yourself or local. Try craigslist. A local builder that does it as a side job should be able to make a box for you about $100. I've gotten plenty of quotes before my build started.
1LoudLS
Dedicated LVC Member
agreed, i would never use spring terms on a custom box running any real power, however if you do want a pre made term cup, i always recommend using banana style screw downs for anything up to a good 1000 watts
also, any reason you didnt just do the bridge the coils from inside the box?, you would to have only used two bolts and then just have two wires (one for each coil) coming off of each bolt, on the inside. if it is a mono amp, it only needs to be a mono box.
the JL cost twice as much and really is not quite to the level of this sub. while a good W7 setup is usually pretty bad fukcing @ss, you could have a much better system for far less with custom underground brands.
as would I, and for half the price, that makes it a lot easier to get that second one that you really want to get.
buy if you really going to spend that kind of money on JL, then you've got to be bat sh!t crazy to not get the trueW7, the 13W7 is the same price and can handle 50% more power, and with the mounting hardware concealed by the surround, they have to be one of the sexiest subs ever, and that extra cone area will really pound, hell with 1.5"-2" surround, you might actually almost have a 12"sub again!
custom boxes are the only way to go with any 1KW+ driver, and as well built as that ebay box is, i dont think it will hold up for too long with a setup up like that, you really need much thicker wood alone for the weight of the sub, and a lot of bracing to keep the box from flexing and draining are your SPL. the box is every bit as important as the sub for how well it is going to sound. always make a box for the sub you want to use.
Thanks for your response loud. You've helped me a lot on this site so your opinions, good or bad are welcomed.
Good point! I didn't realize my mistake until now. Originally I was going to run a DC XL D1 ohm on 2 1.2k amps. So the plan was that I could wire the sub in series which would create a 2 ohm load. As the amplifiers would be strapped, each would see half of the load, 1 ohm each. I would then be able to externally change the coil wiring to parallel which would create a .5 ohm load, therfore each amp would see .25 ohms just in case I got crazy and wanted to maybe compete in any local car show. .25 ohm although risky, is possible.
Later on, my plan changed and I went with a single amp, AQ2200. I changed my sub order to a D2 ohm. Wired in parallel would create a 1 ohm load which is what I want to run the amp on. I now realize that if I change the configuration, wired in series, I would be sending a 4 ohm load, which of course I do not want to do, as that would be way too high and I need to take advantage of this 1 ohm stable amp.
My mistake, for my specific install a change in the coil wiring would not be of any advange. I could of saved a little extra wiring and the 2 bolts.
Correct me if I'm wrong. All this coil wiring is still fairly new to me.
Good point! I didn't realize my mistake until now. Originally I was going to run a DC XL D1 ohm on 2 1.2k amps. So the plan was that I could wire the sub in series which would create a 2 ohm load. As the amplifiers would be strapped, each would see half of the load, 1 ohm each. I would then be able to externally change the coil wiring to parallel which would create a .5 ohm load, therfore each amp would see .25 ohms just in case I got crazy and wanted to maybe compete in any local car show. .25 ohm although risky, is possible.
Later on, my plan changed and I went with a single amp, AQ2200. I changed my sub order to a D2 ohm. Wired in parallel would create a 1 ohm load which is what I want to run the amp on. I now realize that if I change the configuration, wired in series, I would be sending a 4 ohm load, which of course I do not want to do, as that would be way too high and I need to take advantage of this 1 ohm stable amp.
My mistake, for my specific install a change in the coil wiring would not be of any advange. I could of saved a little extra wiring and the 2 bolts.
Correct me if I'm wrong. All this coil wiring is still fairly new to me.
1LoudLS
Dedicated LVC Member
it was just something i was wondering, if you ever do change up into a seperate set of amps then you might need the second set of terms, so that makes enough sence to me bud.
the box does look pretty good so it should sound like a beast!!!
the box does look pretty good so it should sound like a beast!!!