2013 2SS 1LE Build Log

[mattyjman]

ok, got some bad news, some bad news, and some good news...

what do you want first???

so, today I pulled out the molds after letting them fully cure. it was a pain to get them out (when is it not ?!) but I was able to wiggle them out after some persistence. Gave them a nice trim, and this is what we have :







a shot of the woofer for comparo's sake:





so, the bad news...







there is no way I'm going to get 1.5 cubes net... I bet I have about a cube but that's it. I'll measure it when all is said and done to be sure, but I spent a lot of time trying to maximize airspace, but still fit behind the panels...

so, the second bad news...





so, this one isn't soo bad... but I got a little trim happy in the begginning... and I'm going to have to cut more so the speaker doesn't play into the panel. Oh, well... I'll find a way to make a cool grill out of this...

the good news...?

airspace for both enclosures appear to be the same... or very close to it. so, if I do have to run these sealed, I won't be dealing with differences in response due to differing airspace...

which brings me to my final thought.... how good are these going to be sealed?? from around 300hz on down to 60-70 hz... I hope i'm not disappointed after all this work...

[darkrider01]

Originally Posted by mattyjman

which brings me to my final thought.... how good are these going to be sealed?? from around 300hz on down to 60-70 hz... I hope i'm not disappointed after all this work...

Oh.....I'd say you can get plenty low...even when sealed.

[mattyjman]

Originally Posted by darkrider01

Oh.....I'd say you can get plenty low...even when sealed.

these JBL drivers aren't subs... they aren't designed to really play below 100hz or so... they are pro audio drivers... like you would see in some cabs at a concert hall... if i was using subs, it would be a different story, but I also need these drivers to play up to 300hz or so, in order to mate with my Audax midrange drivers... they only have .5mm of xmax, so they can't play super low, but they have some of the best, most open midrange I've heard...

[mattyjman]

alright... minor progress today since i'm back to work from my staycation this weekend...

got the grillcloth stretched, used CA glue to hold it down, trimmed it up, and then slathered on some resin.

this also marks to end of my first gallon of resin...

tomorrow i hope to have this all cured, so i can bring out my router and cut the speaker whole, measure with foam peanuts and figure out how much airspace I have...

[darkrider01]

Originally Posted by mattyjman

these JBL drivers aren't subs... they aren't designed to really play below 100hz or so... they are pro audio drivers... like you would see in some cabs at a concert hall... if i was using subs, it would be a different story, but I also need these drivers to play up to 300hz or so, in order to mate with my Audax midrange drivers... they only have .5mm of xmax, so they can't play super low, but they have some of the best, most open midrange I've heard...

I was just saying that you can go plenty low with sealed drivers. Is that .5mm or 5mm of Xmax?

I've been stalking your for sale thread for the AS300.2's on the other site. I even convinced my wife to let me buy them......but then when I really thought about it, I need an AS200.4 and an AS300.2. I have to keep my fronts active.

Solid build so far man. I'm glad there are peeps like you around that can remind me to stay away from SQ competitions.

[mattyjman]

alright, well...

the molds cured, so when i got home today, i quickly got out my measuring tape, marker, and drill bit and eagerly started drawing out the cut out and where i think the port tube should go.



pulled out the router and jasper jig and cut away



i decided to use dog food... it's cheap, and it fills up voids pretty easily...



and the moment of truth.... it's a 11x11x14 box... just about a cube...



it came out to be 8x11x14... anyone here good with math would tell you i'm not even close to my target. so some decisions have to be made...

i'm just not sure what to do at this point, nor am i sure where I can make up .3 cubes before port displacement. the whole point behind getting these behind the factory panels was to allow the seat back to fold down without running into anything. if i build this out further inside the car, then i lose the ability to fold down the seat. i'm not sure building it out in the first place will give me that .3 cubes anyway.

i could space the baffle out about an inch... maybe 2 ... but that's stretching it. but that would get me to the .75 cube target... i just get the sense that such a small volume will run me into problems along the way... not sure what, but i'm nervous to build it too small.

[mattyjman]

Originally Posted by darkrider01

I was just saying that you can go plenty low with sealed drivers. Is that .5mm or 5mm of Xmax?

I've been stalking your for sale thread for the AS300.2's on the other site. I even convinced my wife to let me buy them......but then when I really thought about it, I need an AS200.4 and an AS300.2. I have to keep my fronts active.

Solid build so far man. I'm glad there are peeps like you around that can remind me to stay away from SQ competitions.

.5mm xmax...

and i can sell just one as300.2

as for comps, i don't go, never had interest in that. i just want this to sound like the concerts i go to. conventional drivers just don't deliver the visceral impact i need in my car... and do it well.

[mattyjman]

ok, slight departure from the midbass mess... need to clear my mind on that so I'm starting on the doors this weekend.

got home tonight, and took off the door panels before it got dark. the inserts in the panels are gray and drab, and I'm just not feeling it. so, while the door panels are off, I removed the inserts and covered them as well as the linear trim that goes along the dash in 3m DiNoc Carbon trim.

Here are the doors from the factory...



with the panels removed:



and after covering them...



the goal for tomorrow is to deaden the outer door panels, inner panels, door card, line the door with ccf, mlv, and the door card with thinsulate, and build out baffles for the audax midranges...

if all goes well, by the end of the day we'll have it all buttoned up and ready to move on... back to figuring out the midbass enclosures.

stay tuned

[mattyjman]

soooo close to hitting my goal for the day... if I could actually mix resin right then I would have been set... I'll explain in a bit..

so, the goal today was to deaden the doors, add, mlv and ccf, and then thinsulate the door cards. make the baffles for the door speakers, wire everything up, install the audax speakers, and then button it all up.

so close...... awww

so, early this morning, I took the inserts that I removed, and then reattached them to the doors with a combination of ca glue, and hot glue (the panels were originally secured with melted plastic posts.

once i was done with that I set to deadening everything...

from the materials I got from Don, I allocated 1 CLD tile and Thinsulate for the door card, 2 CLD tiles for the inner door skin, and 6 CLD tiles for the outer door skin. And then of course whatever was needed for mlv and ccf...

here is the door with the panel off:



and with the vapor barrier removed:



this is how much deadening comes from the factory:



it's thickness is far less than 1mil total... with the aluminum sheeting barely more than tinfoil, and the rubber solution being as minimal as possible. I have significant doubts on it doing anything at all...

Here is the door panel with 1 CLD tile cut up into pieces:



and then with thinsulate:





for the doors themselves, I started first with Butyl Rope in the open space between the internal reinforcements and the door panel.



and then with the inner and outer door skins deadened



this made a dramatic improvement in the subjective "door panel "tap" test"

and finally, after much fussing with the mlv, ccf, and velcro, I have my noise barrier in place:

[mattyjman]

turning my attention to the baffles, i trimmed the door cards a bit where there will be some contact with the audax drivers... although a 6.5" driver, the outer diameter is 7.5 inches, so it makes for some tight clearances with the door card.

I made 6 rings, with 3/4" birch ply. I'm going to decouple the rings from the door panel with butyl rope. Since that will also be the main adhesive, I drilled two bolt holes in the door panels and in the first ring for each baffle, I counter sunk a bolt in each side to match. This was secured with ca glue and wood glue combination.





then i proceeded to laminate the remaining two rings together with wood glue and a series of clamps





after that dried sufficiently, I mixed my batch of resin and slathered away... this is to protect the rings from moisture, so I don't have to worry about wood rot or warping in the event that water comes into contact with the rings



had the rings cured in time... I would have had the speakers in and wired, door card back on, and ready to move on...

oh well, tomorrow I'll just have to do double the work.








.

[mattyjman]

finally... got the speakers in and wired up, doors in and buttoned up. what a pita. seriously. if the speaker rings would have been any bigger they wouldn't have fit.

so...

started by throwing some butyl rope on the rings... i didn't use a lot ... i see people use a lot, and i think it's a waste honestly... all you need is a small layer to keep the rings from the solid door, and the rope is damn sticky...



i attached each baffle this way, and then sealed around the outside edges again, with more butyl rope..



then with both speakers installed:





and then with the door back on: (this was a huge pain... i don't ever want to take these doors off again )






and finally, since it's all back together, I can show you the integrated trim now. from left to right:

[mattyjman]

double post

[lsuguy]

Been following your build over on diyma. Good stuff so far. Curious to see how you are going to finish up the front stage.

[mattyjman]

well, you're in luck, i'll be posting pictures of that in a second...