'99 Civic Sedan - sound system build up

[dc292177917]

where can i buy the sound deadening from and are they the shinny, aluminium foil liked thing in yr boot? thz!!

[wixxer]

where can i buy the sound deadening from and are they the shinny, aluminium foil liked thing in yr boot? thz!!

yep, that's it, the "shiny stuff". Any car hifi store like alberts have them, but they mostly sell "Dynamat". That is the probably best stuff on oz market, but it's pretty dear. I've got mine off ebay, bit less efficient than dynamat, but lot cheaper... and it does work! And, if you have leftovers, you can always stick a second layer on it!

[curtis265]

That's alright mate, just steal it
It would be awesome if you tell us what HU and what speakers you've got. Are the front coaxes or compos? (I reckon they're coaxes, otherwise you'd mention it). Also, what car does it go in? How much space do you want to sacrifice? All that sort of stuff...
Whatever they are, they're almost certainly underpowered, as ANY HU produces 4x15Watt RMS at most. And yes, forget about 4x50 what you read on the package, that's max peak power, has nothing to do with "real world", sorry.
So, imho you should get yourself a sub and an amp to match. Amp should be a 4 channel. Channels 1+2 will power up your front speakers, channels 3+4 will in bridged mode power up your sub. Most amps will in bridged mode accept only 4 ohm load, so your sub should be a 4 ohm sub. Dont worry if amp produces "too much power (RMS)" for the given sub, thats better then having not enough power fed to it.
As for your rear 6x9's, best thing is to sell them on ebay or alike, and invest the money in the amp and sub. But if you have to have them, they can run off the HU, but set them up not too loud. Remember, you want to hear music in front of you, not behind you!
Another VERY important thing if you want to have a half way good sound is SOUND DEADENING at least your doors and your boot!!!!! This can't be repeated too often, as it's CRUCIAL for a good sound in your car!!!!! Remember also this: All the music you hear when standing next to your car, IS MISSING INSIDE!!!
Wish you luck, if you need more info, or have questions, just ask, I'll help where I can

Wow, good post! That's what i gathered anyway - i'm well aware of that 4x50W being peak power and not RMS.

My HU is an alpine CDA 9813 (i think), producing your favourite 4x50w :P Not entirely sure about what all the speakers are actually, but my rears are some boschmann things that i can't figure out, and i have no idea about the fronts.. or the front tweeters either.

I shall be looking around on gumtree - Thanks.

What sort of sub power should i be looking at? I don't necessarily want to be creating earthquakes, but have a decent amount of it shuold i want to entertain.. And if the amp has too much power won't it blow the sub?

[wixxer]

Wow, good post! That's what i gathered anyway - i'm well aware of that 4x50W being peak power and not RMS.

My HU is an alpine CDA 9813 (i think), producing your favourite 4x50w :P Not entirely sure about what all the speakers are actually, but my rears are some boschmann things that i can't figure out, and i have no idea about the fronts.. or the front tweeters either.

That HU is sweet! Not the newest one but still, it's got the full package in it. And it needs an extra power (wire) straight off the battery for it's full potential (read here)
Never listened to your Boschmann's, can't say anything about them...

I shall be looking around on gumtree - Thanks.

yeah, you might be lucky

What sort of sub power should i be looking at? I don't necessarily want to be creating earthquakes, but have a decent amount of it shuold i want to entertain.. And if the amp has too much power won't it blow the sub?

Any good brand sub will do imho. These days you can't even buy a sub with less then 200W RMS (can you?, others please correct me if I'm wrong). And that will do the job for you. You can feed it with 300-400W RMS, should be fine (again others correct me if i'm wrong) as long as you don't push it to the max ALL THE TIME. I've had quite a couple of subs running 'em that way for years, never had any dramas. Problems mostly start if you don't give your sub enough power - if your amp is TOO weak, it will always be running on the edge, not being able to produce enough "clean", distortion free power. Result: amp will overheat, and your sond will be c.r.a.p. before stopping completely.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not sayin' that a 200W sub can/should be given 1000W, but in my opinion 50-100% more than rated will definitely work better then 50-100% less then rated.
just my opinion that is.

[UkuleleGod]

Hey mate,

Your install is looking pretty clean. I just finished my sound system on my EK Hatch.
I went for a 250rms MTX sub, JVC 6" and 6x9" speakers. I have mounted a Response AA-0425 and a Kicker zx300.1 underneath the front seats.
Will the sub be easily removable? Where abouts is the amp going?

It looks like yours will sound pretty good when it is done!

[wixxer]

Hey mate,

Your install is looking pretty clean. ...
...Will the sub be easily removable? Where abouts is the amp going?

...It looks like yours will sound pretty good when it is done!

Thanks mate
Amp will go in spare wheel space, in order to maintain a little bit of the boot space, but still to give a bit of a "show off" effect, as required by a 17yo teenie
Details will come later, when we come to it, it shall be "amazing", as my son likes to put it
Not sure about sub, weather it will be easy to remove, but I don't think so, because it will be enclosed with other soverings all around...

[wixxer]

Last night I hit the wall!
After being too lazy to do more sanding and filling, I thouhgt it would be good to measure (roughly) the volume of the box, so I get the idea of how to finish the back side - I left it open on purpose, so I can take away a bit of volume if the box is a lil too big...
So here we go:

Got all I need: cardboard box (I had to empty the beer carton to get the box ), measuring cup, tape, calculator, paper and pen, and of course the good old bean bag, with styrofoam pellets (wifey started wingeing about the mess I was gonna create...oh my)

filled it up as I thought that would be approximately the back wall height...

Started removing the styroballs out of the enclosure and into the carton box, and later into the measuring cup. Here's what I got:
3x full carton box + 3.8 litres in measuring cups.
Calculation:
1 carton box contains 24 beer stubbies @ 345ml each - makes 8.28 litres per carton. 3x carton + measuring cup make together 28.64 litres net volume... way too small, but with some polyfill it should be ok, as I'm AIMING SOMEWHERE AROUND 45 LITRES NET!
...NO GOOD AT ALL!!!
Ok, that was a joke, but let's measure it properly:
Carton is HxWxL= 380*255*225mm = 21.8 litres
3x21.8=65.4 litres
65.4+3.8= 69.2 litres net volume

Here's my dilemma: What can I do, what's the best thing to do?
Sub and 4'' port have a displacement of app. 7.4 litres. That is if I decide to go from 3'' to 4'' pipe.
That way I still have about 17 litres volume too much! Any ideas? Fill it with sand bags, make walls thicker...???

Thanks for comments and suggestions

[capita]

thats a huge box mate! To cut down some litres maybe you could cut the box and remove whats right of the port? That should help.. if it doesnt cut enough (litrage), or its not an option.. alot of sound deadening in the inside of the box or dacron? Also I just thught of adding layers of MDF to the base of the box?

[curtis265]

Sorry, my HU's a CDA 9811, not 9813 Does that make any difference?

[UkuleleGod]

Hey mate,

That box seems pretty massive for what you are trying to achieve, I would imagine it would sound undefined, but loud.
This website may help you when working on your box. Subwoofer Enclosure Calculator

@Curtis - The headunit should make too much different, providing the outputs on the back are the same.

[wixxer]

Guys, thanks for comments!
These two days I didn't do much on the box itself, but I played with WinISD for quite some time. Unfortunately, I'm not really sure how does a good curve look like, or what's the real world behaviour of the sub when the curve says that it will be overall louther then "another" box/port combo, but it has a big peak at, say, 45Hz. (+6dB), compared with -3dB at 30Hz an 89Hz.
@ UkuleleGod: mate, is it too much to ask you to run my sub through WinISD and see what you can come up with? Would appreciate it much. Or someone else please?
Thanks

[Mugen Civic]

excellent work dude, such craftsmanship.
puts my ek sedan sound system to shame...