Ford Exploder Updated 2-1-12 w/ Xcon

[Stryker]

TBH... I'm sick of working on this thing night and day. It's kind of sad when you spend more time with your stereo than you do your girlfriend.

I totally understand , I too have so much more to do with mine as well, I'm just am not motivated to do so. Thing makes beat so good enuf for now.

[dwnrodeo]

Right now my only motivation for working as hard as I have been lately is I haven't driven this thing in 3 weeks and I'm going camping this weekend which is a 6 hour drive one way. The install might not be the prettiest thing, but I guarantee it will sound good. If you read my very first post in this thread, I stated three distinct goals for this install. 1. Make the vehicle quieter. 2. Do not take up any cargo room. 3. Good sound. There should actually be a fourth goal that also states theft deterrent, (all exposed screws are various types of security screws, even the one's I bondo'd over!) I think I've accomplished these goals.

[The Golden One]

the security screws should be mandatory one time i had a ford probe with a 0.3 running my front speaks even though it was temporary i still used security screws. well someone decides to break in my car at work and steal what they could mostly all my cds where gone but even though they folded my seat down to find my 0.3. they didnt get it and i could tell they tryed because they bent the shroud when they tryed to yank it out but failed so i was somewhat lucky that day.

[dwnrodeo]

I agree with the security screw comment. I spent almost $150 in screws and bits for this install.

I just got done mounting the mids. All of the speakers are in and sounding pretty good. I'm excited and relieved that the install is pretty much finished and turned out good. There was a severe ground loop noise caused by the EQ touching the vehicle chassis, but once isolated, it eliminated any noise. All electrical stereo components are connected directly to the battery to prevent any noise induced by voltage differences. I decided to mount the mids and the tweeters on axis and out of the way of any obstacles to minimize any phasing issues or reflections. With the mids and tweeters playing from 120 hz up on axis, with nothing between my ears and the drivers, the sound should not be affected by passengers legs, which is a problem in other installs. The enclosures for the mids are designed to minimize blind spots and maintain 1 liter of volume.

[dwnrodeo]

I finished putting together my box for the SSA DCON last night! This was my first real ported enclosure as I only wanted this to play low.
It is a 2.0 cu. ft. box tuned to 29.5hz and the sub is crossed over at 55hz @ 24db/oct and getting 500 watts from my XS2500.
I was extremely impatient and wanted to try it out last night to see how it performed, so I threw it in real quick to test it out and all I can say is... Holy Sh*t!
This thing gets really low and loud! I only turned it up to under 2/3 volume on the headunit and it was too much for me. I did a quick tune, reversed the phase
and adjusted the sub level to blend with the rest of the system (-7db down). The result is nothing short of spectacular. Before my bass was adequate for most of the
music I listen to: metal, hardcore, screamo, etc... but now the low end is reinforced and blends so much better. For those that don't know, I have 10" subs in my front doors
which sounded good, but I could tell where they were in reference to the mids and tweeters. Now... I can't locate anything. Pure sonic bliss. I was contemplating the ICON 12,
but after hearing this I'm glad I made my decision.

My box was made to be removable for when I need to haul things, so I installed a speaker terminal on the body panel. It also fits between the third row seat and the liftgate as to not
take up any passenger room when it is in. I plan on coating the box with bedliner later on, and installing some brackets to secure the box to the vehicle, but like I said, last night I was
too impatient and just wanted to hear it.

[stipud]

That's either a gargantuan box or you've got a teensy weensy trunk!

Nice work. You flushed in the woofer and everything! What kind of port do you have in there? Aero? Slot?

I just put my Dcon back in last night. I can't believe how that thing pounds in a 1cuft sealed box on 250w. It's at least 3dB louder on the same power as my RSDC.

[dwnrodeo]

The outside box dimensions are 11.25"Dx17.5"Hx35.5"L, and yes, the face is doubled to add extra support and flush mount the woofer. It's a slot port 1.5"x16"x32.5" with the edges routered. It is definitely louder than my RSDC sealed on 650 watts.

[dwnrodeo]

Just thought I'd share this with you guys as no one else understands how happy it makes me. After work got out Friday, I showed a co-worker my sub and had him listen to it. I turned the stereo on at normal listening volume and his response was, "Is it on, I can't hear it?" I quickly flipped the switch to my sub amp to turn it off and then he could hear it wasn't there, but with it on he didn't have a clue! It blends so nice with the fronts that I don't even notice it's there. Of course when I turned it up beyond normal listening volume it was noticeable as the vehicle was shaking, but that comment alone made me so happy.

I get upset when I tell people I am building a subwoofer box and they say, "Ohh, so you're the guy boom boomin' down the road blasting your music." No one understands why I'm really doing it until I show them how music is supposed to sound.

[shawn k]

Just thought I'd share this with you guys as no one else understands how happy it makes me. After work got out Friday, I showed a co-worker my sub and had him listen to it. I turned the stereo on at normal listening volume and his response was, "Is it on, I can't hear it?" I quickly flipped the switch to my sub amp to turn it off and then he could hear it wasn't there, but with it on he didn't have a clue! It blends so nice with the fronts that I don't even notice it's there. Of course when I turned it up beyond normal listening volume it was noticeable as the vehicle was shaking, but that comment alone made me so happy.

I get upset when I tell people I am building a subwoofer box and they say, "Ohh, so you're the guy boom boomin' down the road blasting your music." No one understands why I'm really doing it until I show them how music is supposed to sound.

RIGHT ON! That's the way to do it! Nice work!

[dwnrodeo]

I decided to change my install a bit after my mid amplifier (XS4300) decided to stop working one day. For those of you who are familiar with this install, I am running 4 way fully active with 4 separate amplifiers and it has been plagued with noise issues. Well, I used the mid amplifier quitting as an excuse to try out PG's new SD full range class D amplifiers and hopefully rid myself of the noise once and for all. Well I swapped out my XS amps for an SD1300.5 and an SD500.4. The 500.4 for the tweeters and woofers and the 1300.5 bridged to the mids and the subwoofer and the noise remained. After hours of EXTENSIVE troubleshooting (bypassed AX204, bypassed the DD5, new headunit, Ipod as a source, different battery, continuity checks, different RCA's, muting plugs, etc...) I found out that there are two noise issues which is why it has been so difficult to diagnose. One is a ground loop and one is induced noise. Turns out the ground loop was caused by the mids and tweets being powered by two separate amps. Don't ask me why this is because when I use the same RCA's and power the mids and tweets from the same amp the ground loop disappears. I guess the grounds were that different despite being grounded to the same point and RCA's having the same resistance and being connected to the same source. ??? The induced noise also significantly decreased by using a different amp with the gains all of the way down.

Now I'm going to run the tweeters and mids off of my Xenon 200.4 and run the woofers and sub using the SD1300.5. I decided on the Xenon instead of the 500.4 just for the extra power for the 8 ohm mids.Here are a few pics. I managed to squeeze the big Xenon behind the panel in the rear of the vehicle Oh and don't worry, the wiring will be cleaned up before I put everything back together.

[00goobs]

Recently, with a Kenwood 4volt head unit, we noticed using the 3 sets of outputs to 4 amplifiers seems to be too much of a load on the head unit. With the front RCAs to one amp then the internal xover of the amp out to one other amp, the sub out to the 2 amps for the subs, there was a much cleaner signal very much audible. I was looking for a black line driver to test this, but have not come across one yet. So the amp xover out to drive another amp for the front stage seems like a temp solution...

Not sure if you have a line driver on there, but I think it goes with signal level impedance matching to get the best sound out of any head unit...

Also, would like to know your overall impressions of the 200.4 after a while of it being installed...

Thanks.

[ttocs]

do you have your power, and your ground fused?

[dwnrodeo]

Recently, with a Kenwood 4volt head unit, we noticed using the 3 sets of outputs to 4 amplifiers seems to be too much of a load on the head unit. With the front RCAs to one amp then the internal xover of the amp out to one other amp, the sub out to the 2 amps for the subs, there was a much cleaner signal very much audible. I was looking for a black line driver to test this, but have not come across one yet. So the amp xover out to drive another amp for the front stage seems like a temp solution...

Not sure if you have a line driver on there, but I think it goes with signal level impedance matching to get the best sound out of any head unit...

Also, would like to know your overall impressions of the 200.4 after a while of it being installed...

Thanks.

I've read about others having this same issue with Kenwood decks on diymobileaudio. During my diagnosing, I was using both the Kenwood headunit and then switched it out with a Pioneer headunit and was able to replicate the ground loop with the Pioneer. The ONLY time I was able to eliminate the ground loop was to run just the tweeters or just the mids with no other RCA's connected to the amps or run the tweeters and the mids off of the same amp (even with the RCA's connected for the woofers and sub as well). I'm using an AX204 as a line driver and to seperate the signal to my tweeters and mids because neither the Xenon or headunit can crossover that high (2650hz). As for the sound of the 200.4, I was running it in my winter beater for the last 2-3 years running a set of Pioneer 6x9's up front and a sub and it sounded great. I'll let you know how it sounds on this setup once I get everything hooked up and the levels set.

do you have your power, and your ground fused?

In this picture yes, but I do have some buss bars to connect to the ground fuse block. I couldn't find an XS distro ground block, so I have two fused distros.

[dwnrodeo]

I finished re-running the speaker wires and RCA's to the new amps this weekend. I got everything put back together and guess what?... NO NOISE!!! I can even plug my antenna back in where before the noise was unbearable! The Xenon running active sounds great, better than the XS amps, but that could be due to the ground loop being elimated. I did realize however that I now have no option to lowpass my door woofers, so now I have to replace my AX-204 with an AX-406, but other than that small issue, everything's sounding great. Now I just need my Xcon to arrive...

[dwnrodeo]

Finally got my Xcon 12 and enclosure installed the other day, HUGE thanks to denim and SSA for getting my sub repaired after UPS damaged it. This thing POUNDS being run off of the SD1300.5 in a 1.35ish ft^3 sealed enclosure! Still have some tuning to do yet and the sub is still stiff as hell, but I'm really happy with the sound so far. It's not as deep as the Dcon was in the huge ported enclosure, but it is definitely louder and "tighter". Oh, and this is what the 1300.5 looks like behind the trim panel.

[kg1961]

looks great

[stipud]

Your trunk is surprisingly shallow. That sure fits better than the Dcon! Quite impressive that you get the sealed box sound with no loss in output. I assume you are feeding it more power?

[oldskoolmseriesfan]

That is one saxxy subwoofahhh!!!

[dwnrodeo]

Your trunk is surprisingly shallow. That sure fits better than the Dcon! Quite impressive that you get the sealed box sound with no loss in output. I assume you are feeding it more power?

Yes, the trunk area is extremely shallow due to the third row seating. It's only about 10" between the third row seat and liftgate at the narrowest point. I made this enclosure angled to match the seat angle whereas the Dcon enclosure was rectangular. I am feeding the Xcon about twice the power as the Dcon.

That is one saxxy subwoofahhh!!!

Thank you, I'm extremely happy with it!

[oldskoolmseriesfan]

Your trunk is surprisingly shallow. That sure fits better than the Dcon! Quite impressive that you get the sealed box sound with no loss in output. I assume you are feeding it more power?

Yes, the trunk area is extremely shallow due to the third row seating. It's only about 10" between the third row seat and liftgate at the narrowest point. I made this enclosure angled to match the seat angle whereas the Dcon enclosure was rectangular. I am feeding the Xcon about twice the power as the Dcon.

That is one saxxy subwoofahhh!!!

Thank you, I'm extremely happy with it!

Im surprised its got a foam surround though...not a big deal but just thought it would be trojan..lol

[dwnrodeo]

I couldn't resist Phoenixcolt's RsdC 10's and purchased them to try out in the Explorer. I've never used birch for an enclosure before so I decided to give it a try this time around. The box is sealed, 0.4 ft^3 per chamber per the SQ recommendations in the manual. They are seeing about 800 watts from my SD1300.5 sub channel. They aren't as loud as my Dcon, but play lower and blend well. They need more power to really wake up, but I'm not a basshead and it sounds great to me.