Car Audio 101

bigaudiofanat · 06-27-2009, 10:53 PM

This thread was made to help new people understand what is being talked about in car audio. There are different subjects on different pages just look around and enjoy your reading!

Music Compression UPDATED 3/2012
So I want to shed some light on the different formats out today. When you download a mp3 or wma file from the internet, whether it be from LimeWire, itunes, amazon, or other site. The file is most likely compressed. The standard for itunes is becoming 256kbps, while amazon is still at 128kbps. Now for some people this is fine. These format mp3 and wma are compressed audio. Compression removes some of the quality in music, the lower the kbps the more quality is lost. These formats take the highs and the lows of them song and compress them to the bit rate that you have selected. The big debate with some is that at 320kbps you can’t hear the difference between a cd and that bit rate. As far as my personal opinion I disagree, but again this is my opinion.

The standard for most programs to rip any cd is 128kbps than it goes up from there as you can select in your ripping options menu. A normal FLAC or apple lossless song is around 800-1048kbps. This will allow you to get the best you can from a digital format. For itunes users it is pretty simple just go into your setting and go to the rip tab and select apple lossless. For windows media users go into setting and select Flac. For whatever you use for ripping cd's there should be a setting for the best quality you can get. Another disagreement upon people is that there is no need for full FLAC or lossless unless you have a serious sound system. Unless you are using a boom box and using a upgraded system you will hear a difference. Whether you’re listening to a good car sound system, quality headphones, or a system at home you should hear a difference.

All and all this may not be for everyone; some people do not mind compressed music. Also for people that are happy for their factory stereo they will still hear a slight difference just not as much as an aftermarket system. People that just use mp3's for their ipod threw ear buds might not notice the difference unless using a more expensive set of ear buds. All and all I hope this has opened your eyes to a new kind of music. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have.

For itunes users it is pretty simple just go into your setting and go to the rip tab and select apple lossless. For windows media users go into setting and select Flac or uncompressed. For whatever you use for ripping cd's there should be a setting for uncompressed.

All and all this may not be for everyone, some people do not mind compressed music. Also for people that are happy for thee factory stereo they will still hear a difference just not as much as a aftermarket system. People that just use mp3's for there ipod threw ear buds might not notice the difference unless using a more expensive set of ear buds. All and all I hope this has opened your eyes to a new kind of music. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have.

bigaudiofanat · 06-30-2009, 03:37 PM

Well class take your seats it's time for another lesson. Today were going to learn about car audio and the terms associated with it, and what they mean.
Let's begin!

Ohm's

Okay ohms or Ohm's law is the rule of resistance that something has. Most of you probably think about things like rubber and all having high resistance and that is correct. But in car audio we use ohms for what a speaker's resistance is at. For example if you have a sub that has a 4 ohm single voice coil. Than that sub can be wired up to an amp with the resistance of 4 ohms.

The next part of Ohms is power. If you look at any amp's specs you will see that is has something like 100 watts RMS x 4 at 4 ohms (150 watts RMS x 4 at 2 ohms) 300 watts RMS x 2 bridged output at 4 ohms (4-ohm stable in bridged mode) so lets look at the first one. This one states that is can run 100 watts per channel "or speaker" as long as each speakers has a resistance or Ohm's of 4. The second one states that as long as all the speakers are at 2 ohms the amp can put out 150 per channel. The last one shows that it will put out to 2 channels 300 watts a channel if there ohms are 4 ohms. "you will also notice that is says 4 ohm stable at bridged mode." This states that the amp was built for the load of 4 ohms and is able to be bridged.

The thing with ohm's is that the higher the ohms the more resistance. So when you go with a lower ohms rating it can have much more power to run that speaker. You may be asking well can I wire different ohm rated speakers to two different sets output on an amp? You can ONLY do this if the amp is setup for it. If you want to get relay technical about Ohms law just google it and click on any of the first few links that come up. Or just simply ask.

RMS

Now you may have notice in the previous section when watts were being explained it said RMS. Something like 100 X4 at 4 ohms RMS. This is very important when choosing an amp. RMS stands for root mean square. In normal terms this means what an amp can continue to produce for long periods of time none stop. You may bee seeing things like 1200 watts MAX. In a few simple words this is a gimmick the amps will never produce this power and no matter how hard you try there just not going to make it. You always look at RMS when shopping for an amp. You will even see it on head units saying 50 X 4 max it is rely putting out around 12-15 watts RMS.

Amp Settings and Gains

So great you got your new amp and are wondering what in the world are all these knobs and switches on it for? Well here is your answer. Gain or volume. Some even say it differently than that but the deal with this is, think of it as a adjustment to insure your not clipping the signal. When you are all done installing your system is it time to put a test disk in of a normal song or a test tone of 80HRZ go to your amp and turn the gain all the way down than go back to the head unit and turn the volume 1/4 to full volume. Now you go back to your amp and slowly start turning up your gain until you hear distortion than turn it back just a hair. This will insure that your speakers are not going to distort or clip.

Now those Low pass and High pass knobs and all. Well a normal setup consists of your fronts being components. "speakers with separate tweeters" So the crossover will take care of the filtering of all that so your front should stay on Full. If you are going with rear speakers I would turn on the High pass filter and dial it to around 80 or maybe a bit higher. What these filter do are basically insure that the speaker will not get frequency's that it can not reproduce. The Low pass filter is fro when running a sub woofer your cut off should be around 60 for your sub.

Crossovers
So you know that little box that comes with your component speakers and some coaxial speakers. There things are called crossovers. Basically what they do it take the unfiltered signal that your amp sends it and sends the frequency's to the tweeter and the proper frequency's to the woofer. Some people like to turn there high pass on there amp to around 100HRZ so that way it takes more strain off the crossovers. It is a personal thing I prefer to let the crossovers to there thing.

Sub Wiring

This and this alone is the trickiest to master of everything in car audio. There are so many was to wire subs that it is very hard to explain, but I am going to try my best. There are 4 kinds of subs which included there Ohm's and all. There is a SVC "single voice coil" 4 ohm and a 8 ohm formats. Than there is a DVC "dual voice coil" 4 ohm and 2 ohm formats. The SVC are pretty easy. You can hook up a 4 ohm coil as a 4 ohm or if you have 2 you can wire them as 4 or 2 ohms. If you have a SVC 8 ohm sub than you can hook it up as 8 ohms. If you have 2 of them you can hook them up as a 4 ohm load. You can not wire different ohm rated subs or speakers together this will damage the sub and or the amp.

Which brings me to DVC subs. Honestly there are so many ways to wire them that I would hope that you IM me or consult this guide to help you wire them properly.
Subwoofer Wiring Diagrams

As always if you have any questions or comments let me know.

Next lesson will be on rely's, power wire, fuse ratings, and how much current until you have to upgrade your alt, and all. ENJOY!

rreign · 06-30-2009, 04:10 PM

Damn good write up. I thought about doing one of these along with my sound dampening thread but decided against it. Thanks for clearing up all the retorical and redundant questions. Probably could add a bit about crossovers though.

bigaudiofanat · 06-30-2009, 04:28 PM

Thanks you I went ahead and added about the crossover in there. I will be doing more write up's as I have so much time to do it. Hope you enjoy reading them.

rreign · 06-30-2009, 04:35 PM

Like a said bro, a great write up for the amateur installer. For guys like Jeff, you or I to try to break this all down in one write up can be difficult but I think you pulled it off well.

How long have you been doing car audio/video? I've been doing installs for about 10 years but just over the last 4 or 5 years, I started getting into building custom boxes, fiberglass boxes, kick panels and what not. I checked out some of your builds and they aren't bad, but if you need any tips/tricks for custom builds, just let me know. You can check out my album, I have one of my fiberglass jobs in there.

bigaudiofanat · 06-30-2009, 04:38 PM

Thanks man ya I am use to explaining things to people it comes easy for me for some reason. Well I have been self taught and been doing it for 4 years now if that. Built my first computer at age 7 and been into electronics ever sense. I can pick up on electronics in a few minutes of working with them. Thanks for the offer actually this weekend I begin learning fiberglass from what I have read so far it is pretty simple.

Plasmaball · 06-30-2009, 06:02 PM

So can i come to you for advice on what speakers to get and such for my Z?
I used to "get it" and lately i am just not sure anymore.

Is it smarter to buy a component system or part out the tweeter and speakers?
Does it matter if all the speakers are the same? Or is mixing and matching fine?
Are base blockers needed for tweeters?

As of this moment i want base from the front speakers and sub.The side speakers i want pure audio/vocal. So i was thinking base blockers for the side speakers. A lot of people are saying the side speakers are not even needed because of the acoustics. That i am not totally buying if you have no vocals basically coming out of the front speakers.

Can i list some speakers i am looking at for your opinion as well?
I already have a in dash installed. Its the kenwood DNX 8100 series.

thanks

rreign · 06-30-2009, 06:07 PM

lol, simple is not quite the word I would use. It definitely gets easier the more you do it though. Key rules ... watch your ratios with resin and hardener. Too much hardener and it can become brittle, too little and it can take forever to dry as well as weaken the mix. Don't be afraid of the bondo, lol. Make sure to sand and sand and then sand some more, inbetween layers. NO AIR BUBBLES!!! If you plan on painting, make sure there are no surface scratches, bubbles, cracks etc. If you can stand on it, it's strong enough for bass, lol.

Just work on your skeletons and don't be afrad to try different techniques. If you got any questions, feel free to hit me up. A good site for materials is fiberglasssite.com great wholesale company with great prices and everything you could need.

bigaudiofanat · 06-30-2009, 06:07 PM

If you have aim you can hit me up at reimermatt. But if you can not yes you can pm me and all. Your best be is to buy the tweeter and the woofer together. A component set already is setup for the best sound for those speakers and as well the tweeters will handle all your vocals and all. Honestly I dislike rear speakers anymore they just do not make the song sound real. Feel free to hit me up any way you want and I can truly help you out.

Plasmaball · 06-30-2009, 07:17 PM

thanks....My handle is Darkstream81 on aim

ssqpolo · 06-30-2009, 07:26 PM

ok so now the question for all of us that dont understand anything that u just said...what is the best sub? or a better question...what is your favorite sub? not the most powerful, or cheapest/expensive...what sub is your favorite? i'm not a brand whore. I have 10's, so if u want to be specific and say what is your favorite 10" sub...that would be much appreciated

bigaudiofanat · 06-30-2009, 07:39 PM

My favorite of all time is the Image Dynamics series Q sub weather it be a 10 or a 12. Best SQ sub out there IMO sounds great and can play anything you want it to.
http://www.imagedynamicsusa.com/prod...hp?Family_Id=3

tonmed123 · 07-01-2009, 06:03 AM

Yo Big, thanks for all your info. I wish you were in my city to do my installs! Listen, I have the BOSE system with navi and I was wondering about adding DVD and a back up camera. Do you see any problems with this and what do you suggest? There is a setting in the navi menu that say "CINEMA". I'm not sure what that is. I havent found anything in the manual refering to it or dvd playback.

bigaudiofanat · 07-01-2009, 08:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tonmed123

Yo Big, thanks for all your info. I wish you were in my city to do my installs! Listen, I have the BOSE system with navi and I was wondering about adding DVD and a back up camera. Do you see any problems with this and what do you suggest? There is a setting in the navi menu that say "CINEMA". I'm not sure what that is. I havent found anything in the manual refering to it or dvd playback.

The cinema that you are referring to is for making the audio sound like a theater. I do see big problems with adding a dvd player toy our factory head unit unless you are replacing it. If you replace the head unit than you should be fine. But At this point or even in the future I do not see any way of the factory head unti playing dvd's or having a dvd player connected to it.

rreign · 07-01-2009, 08:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ssqpolo

ok so now the question for all of us that dont understand anything that u just said...what is the best sub? or a better question...what is your favorite sub? not the most powerful, or cheapest/expensive...what sub is your favorite? i'm not a brand whore. I have 10's, so if u want to be specific and say what is your favorite 10" sub...that would be much appreciated

I have messed around with and personally owned quite a bit of subs. Car audio has been in my life for about 10 years. Personally I like 10's for the quick tight bass in comparison to 12's or bigger that are mainly for heavy bass and picking up lower frequencies. Here are a few that I usually recommend for my customers... (not in any particular order)

10" MTX TR75-22 (400W RMS, DVC, great style, wide range of bass/music, great SQ, good price)

10" MTX TS85-22 (600W RMS, DVC, square design, decent price)

10"/12" Cerwin Vega stroker/pro (2000W RMS, DVC, very crazy bass, a little pricey)

10" JL W7 (750W RMS, odd 3ohm impedence can be hard to judge different adjustments, amps, etc. a little pricey and over rated. IMO)

06-27-2009, 10:53 PM	#1 (permalink)
bigaudiofanat Car Audio Installer Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Magnolia DE Posts: 8,342 Drives: 2012 Infiniti G37x Rep Power: 852	Car Audio 101 This thread was made to help new people understand what is being talked about in car audio. There are different subjects on different pages just look around and enjoy your reading! Music Compression UPDATED 3/2012 So I want to shed some light on the different formats out today. When you download a mp3 or wma file from the internet, whether it be from LimeWire, itunes, amazon, or other site. The file is most likely compressed. The standard for itunes is becoming 256kbps, while amazon is still at 128kbps. Now for some people this is fine. These format mp3 and wma are compressed audio. Compression removes some of the quality in music, the lower the kbps the more quality is lost. These formats take the highs and the lows of them song and compress them to the bit rate that you have selected. The big debate with some is that at 320kbps you can’t hear the difference between a cd and that bit rate. As far as my personal opinion I disagree, but again this is my opinion. The standard for most programs to rip any cd is 128kbps than it goes up from there as you can select in your ripping options menu. A normal FLAC or apple lossless song is around 800-1048kbps. This will allow you to get the best you can from a digital format. For itunes users it is pretty simple just go into your setting and go to the rip tab and select apple lossless. For windows media users go into setting and select Flac. For whatever you use for ripping cd's there should be a setting for the best quality you can get. Another disagreement upon people is that there is no need for full FLAC or lossless unless you have a serious sound system. Unless you are using a boom box and using a upgraded system you will hear a difference. Whether you’re listening to a good car sound system, quality headphones, or a system at home you should hear a difference. All and all this may not be for everyone; some people do not mind compressed music. Also for people that are happy for their factory stereo they will still hear a slight difference just not as much as an aftermarket system. People that just use mp3's for their ipod threw ear buds might not notice the difference unless using a more expensive set of ear buds. All and all I hope this has opened your eyes to a new kind of music. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. For itunes users it is pretty simple just go into your setting and go to the rip tab and select apple lossless. For windows media users go into setting and select Flac or uncompressed. For whatever you use for ripping cd's there should be a setting for uncompressed. All and all this may not be for everyone, some people do not mind compressed music. Also for people that are happy for thee factory stereo they will still hear a difference just not as much as a aftermarket system. People that just use mp3's for there ipod threw ear buds might not notice the difference unless using a more expensive set of ear buds. All and all I hope this has opened your eyes to a new kind of music. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. Solid370z and That Pale Guy like this. __________________ Need help with car audio or electronics? Let me know!! Need Help Let Me Know Direct email address reimermatt@gmail.com Owner of: Dynamic Mobile Audio Follow me below https://www.facebook.com/Dynamicmobileaudio/ Last edited by bigaudiofanat; 03-28-2012 at 06:55 AM.

06-30-2009, 03:37 PM	#2 (permalink)
bigaudiofanat Car Audio Installer Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Magnolia DE Posts: 8,342 Drives: 2012 Infiniti G37x Rep Power: 852	Car Audio 101 Well class take your seats it's time for another lesson. Today were going to learn about car audio and the terms associated with it, and what they mean. Let's begin! Ohm's Okay ohms or Ohm's law is the rule of resistance that something has. Most of you probably think about things like rubber and all having high resistance and that is correct. But in car audio we use ohms for what a speaker's resistance is at. For example if you have a sub that has a 4 ohm single voice coil. Than that sub can be wired up to an amp with the resistance of 4 ohms. The next part of Ohms is power. If you look at any amp's specs you will see that is has something like 100 watts RMS x 4 at 4 ohms (150 watts RMS x 4 at 2 ohms) 300 watts RMS x 2 bridged output at 4 ohms (4-ohm stable in bridged mode) so lets look at the first one. This one states that is can run 100 watts per channel "or speaker" as long as each speakers has a resistance or Ohm's of 4. The second one states that as long as all the speakers are at 2 ohms the amp can put out 150 per channel. The last one shows that it will put out to 2 channels 300 watts a channel if there ohms are 4 ohms. "you will also notice that is says 4 ohm stable at bridged mode." This states that the amp was built for the load of 4 ohms and is able to be bridged. The thing with ohm's is that the higher the ohms the more resistance. So when you go with a lower ohms rating it can have much more power to run that speaker. You may be asking well can I wire different ohm rated speakers to two different sets output on an amp? You can ONLY do this if the amp is setup for it. If you want to get relay technical about Ohms law just google it and click on any of the first few links that come up. Or just simply ask. RMS Now you may have notice in the previous section when watts were being explained it said RMS. Something like 100 X4 at 4 ohms RMS. This is very important when choosing an amp. RMS stands for root mean square. In normal terms this means what an amp can continue to produce for long periods of time none stop. You may bee seeing things like 1200 watts MAX. In a few simple words this is a gimmick the amps will never produce this power and no matter how hard you try there just not going to make it. You always look at RMS when shopping for an amp. You will even see it on head units saying 50 X 4 max it is rely putting out around 12-15 watts RMS. Amp Settings and Gains So great you got your new amp and are wondering what in the world are all these knobs and switches on it for? Well here is your answer. Gain or volume. Some even say it differently than that but the deal with this is, think of it as a adjustment to insure your not clipping the signal. When you are all done installing your system is it time to put a test disk in of a normal song or a test tone of 80HRZ go to your amp and turn the gain all the way down than go back to the head unit and turn the volume 1/4 to full volume. Now you go back to your amp and slowly start turning up your gain until you hear distortion than turn it back just a hair. This will insure that your speakers are not going to distort or clip. Now those Low pass and High pass knobs and all. Well a normal setup consists of your fronts being components. "speakers with separate tweeters" So the crossover will take care of the filtering of all that so your front should stay on Full. If you are going with rear speakers I would turn on the High pass filter and dial it to around 80 or maybe a bit higher. What these filter do are basically insure that the speaker will not get frequency's that it can not reproduce. The Low pass filter is fro when running a sub woofer your cut off should be around 60 for your sub. Crossovers So you know that little box that comes with your component speakers and some coaxial speakers. There things are called crossovers. Basically what they do it take the unfiltered signal that your amp sends it and sends the frequency's to the tweeter and the proper frequency's to the woofer. Some people like to turn there high pass on there amp to around 100HRZ so that way it takes more strain off the crossovers. It is a personal thing I prefer to let the crossovers to there thing. Sub Wiring This and this alone is the trickiest to master of everything in car audio. There are so many was to wire subs that it is very hard to explain, but I am going to try my best. There are 4 kinds of subs which included there Ohm's and all. There is a SVC "single voice coil" 4 ohm and a 8 ohm formats. Than there is a DVC "dual voice coil" 4 ohm and 2 ohm formats. The SVC are pretty easy. You can hook up a 4 ohm coil as a 4 ohm or if you have 2 you can wire them as 4 or 2 ohms. If you have a SVC 8 ohm sub than you can hook it up as 8 ohms. If you have 2 of them you can hook them up as a 4 ohm load. You can not wire different ohm rated subs or speakers together this will damage the sub and or the amp. Which brings me to DVC subs. Honestly there are so many ways to wire them that I would hope that you IM me or consult this guide to help you wire them properly. Subwoofer Wiring Diagrams As always if you have any questions or comments let me know. Next lesson will be on rely's, power wire, fuse ratings, and how much current until you have to upgrade your alt, and all. ENJOY! Solid370z and 1991Z32 like this. __________________ Need help with car audio or electronics? Let me know!! Need Help Let Me Know Direct email address reimermatt@gmail.com Owner of: Dynamic Mobile Audio Follow me below https://www.facebook.com/Dynamicmobileaudio/ Last edited by bigaudiofanat; 03-22-2012 at 05:26 PM.

06-30-2009, 04:28 PM	#4 (permalink)
bigaudiofanat Car Audio Installer Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Magnolia DE Posts: 8,342 Drives: 2012 Infiniti G37x Rep Power: 852	Thanks you I went ahead and added about the crossover in there. I will be doing more write up's as I have so much time to do it. Hope you enjoy reading them. __________________ Need help with car audio or electronics? Let me know!! Need Help Let Me Know Direct email address reimermatt@gmail.com Owner of: Dynamic Mobile Audio Follow me below https://www.facebook.com/Dynamicmobileaudio/

06-30-2009, 04:38 PM	#6 (permalink)
bigaudiofanat Car Audio Installer Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Magnolia DE Posts: 8,342 Drives: 2012 Infiniti G37x Rep Power: 852	Thanks man ya I am use to explaining things to people it comes easy for me for some reason. Well I have been self taught and been doing it for 4 years now if that. Built my first computer at age 7 and been into electronics ever sense. I can pick up on electronics in a few minutes of working with them. Thanks for the offer actually this weekend I begin learning fiberglass from what I have read so far it is pretty simple. __________________ Need help with car audio or electronics? Let me know!! Need Help Let Me Know Direct email address reimermatt@gmail.com Owner of: Dynamic Mobile Audio Follow me below https://www.facebook.com/Dynamicmobileaudio/ Last edited by bigaudiofanat; 06-30-2009 at 04:41 PM.

06-30-2009, 06:07 PM	#9 (permalink)
bigaudiofanat Car Audio Installer Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Magnolia DE Posts: 8,342 Drives: 2012 Infiniti G37x Rep Power: 852	If you have aim you can hit me up at reimermatt. But if you can not yes you can pm me and all. Your best be is to buy the tweeter and the woofer together. A component set already is setup for the best sound for those speakers and as well the tweeters will handle all your vocals and all. Honestly I dislike rear speakers anymore they just do not make the song sound real. Feel free to hit me up any way you want and I can truly help you out. __________________ Need help with car audio or electronics? Let me know!! Need Help Let Me Know Direct email address reimermatt@gmail.com Owner of: Dynamic Mobile Audio Follow me below https://www.facebook.com/Dynamicmobileaudio/

06-30-2009, 04:10 PM	#3 (permalink)
rreign A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: South Carolina Age: 40 Posts: 2,341 Drives: 03 Evo 8 Rep Power: 709	Damn good write up. I thought about doing one of these along with my sound dampening thread but decided against it. Thanks for clearing up all the retorical and redundant questions. Probably could add a bit about crossovers though.

06-30-2009, 04:35 PM	#5 (permalink)
rreign A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: South Carolina Age: 40 Posts: 2,341 Drives: 03 Evo 8 Rep Power: 709	Like a said bro, a great write up for the amateur installer. For guys like Jeff, you or I to try to break this all down in one write up can be difficult but I think you pulled it off well. How long have you been doing car audio/video? I've been doing installs for about 10 years but just over the last 4 or 5 years, I started getting into building custom boxes, fiberglass boxes, kick panels and what not. I checked out some of your builds and they aren't bad, but if you need any tips/tricks for custom builds, just let me know. You can check out my album, I have one of my fiberglass jobs in there.

06-30-2009, 06:02 PM	#7 (permalink)
Plasmaball Base Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: San Diego Posts: 113 Drives: 6sp PG 370z Rep Power: 16	So can i come to you for advice on what speakers to get and such for my Z? I used to "get it" and lately i am just not sure anymore. Is it smarter to buy a component system or part out the tweeter and speakers? Does it matter if all the speakers are the same? Or is mixing and matching fine? Are base blockers needed for tweeters? As of this moment i want base from the front speakers and sub.The side speakers i want pure audio/vocal. So i was thinking base blockers for the side speakers. A lot of people are saying the side speakers are not even needed because of the acoustics. That i am not totally buying if you have no vocals basically coming out of the front speakers. Can i list some speakers i am looking at for your opinion as well? I already have a in dash installed. Its the kenwood DNX 8100 series. thanks

06-30-2009, 06:07 PM	#8 (permalink)
rreign A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: South Carolina Age: 40 Posts: 2,341 Drives: 03 Evo 8 Rep Power: 709	lol, simple is not quite the word I would use. It definitely gets easier the more you do it though. Key rules ... watch your ratios with resin and hardener. Too much hardener and it can become brittle, too little and it can take forever to dry as well as weaken the mix. Don't be afraid of the bondo, lol. Make sure to sand and sand and then sand some more, inbetween layers. NO AIR BUBBLES!!! If you plan on painting, make sure there are no surface scratches, bubbles, cracks etc. If you can stand on it, it's strong enough for bass, lol. Just work on your skeletons and don't be afrad to try different techniques. If you got any questions, feel free to hit me up. A good site for materials is fiberglasssite.com great wholesale company with great prices and everything you could need.

06-30-2009, 07:17 PM	#10 (permalink)
Plasmaball Base Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: San Diego Posts: 113 Drives: 6sp PG 370z Rep Power: 16	thanks....My handle is Darkstream81 on aim

06-30-2009, 07:26 PM	#11 (permalink)
ssqpolo Track Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Florida Posts: 882 Drives: '12 Black Nismo Rep Power: 267	ok so now the question for all of us that dont understand anything that u just said...what is the best sub? or a better question...what is your favorite sub? not the most powerful, or cheapest/expensive...what sub is your favorite? i'm not a brand whore. I have 10's, so if u want to be specific and say what is your favorite 10" sub...that would be much appreciated

06-30-2009, 07:39 PM	#12 (permalink)
bigaudiofanat Car Audio Installer Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Magnolia DE Posts: 8,342 Drives: 2012 Infiniti G37x Rep Power: 852	My favorite of all time is the Image Dynamics series Q sub weather it be a 10 or a 12. Best SQ sub out there IMO sounds great and can play anything you want it to. http://www.imagedynamicsusa.com/prod...hp?Family_Id=3 __________________ Need help with car audio or electronics? Let me know!! Need Help Let Me Know Direct email address reimermatt@gmail.com Owner of: Dynamic Mobile Audio Follow me below https://www.facebook.com/Dynamicmobileaudio/

07-01-2009, 06:03 AM	#13 (permalink)
tonmed123 Base Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Houston,Texas Posts: 223 Drives: 09 370Z Red M6 Rep Power: 267	Adding DVD to stock navi unit Yo Big, thanks for all your info. I wish you were in my city to do my installs! Listen, I have the BOSE system with navi and I was wondering about adding DVD and a back up camera. Do you see any problems with this and what do you suggest? There is a setting in the navi menu that say "CINEMA". I'm not sure what that is. I havent found anything in the manual refering to it or dvd playback.

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JL Audio	tommyguns	Audio & Video	5	06-03-2009 05:41 PM