maxwelhse

There's probably a reason you haven't seen it.. What size is TurboBladz running? 17s?

It's an honor just to be nominated.

For that price I would seriously research putting a late model GM SPFI alternator on it. The stock alternator on my '97 3.8 was 140A and I had it built to 195 for $130 (using off the shelf GM replacement parts). I imagine the stock unit would cost less than $100 from a junk yard. Fab up some brackets, change a pulley, and save 50%. I think Tim C said he can build his GM alternators up to about 140, which isn't at all shabby for Starquest purposes.

The last time I checked (long ago) the IASCA rule book specifies that the fuse/circuit breaker must be placed within 18" of the battery. So, if you ever want to compete keep that in mind.

Well Dude, either he's wrong or Sir Issac Newton is wrong. I'll stand next to Newton.

Umm.. They're treating mass as a constant with respect to time, so they just eliminate it from their equation? Yeah sure the mass isn't changing, so what? F=ma means just that. The more mass you have, the more acceleration you need to move that mass with the same force as a lighter mass. It doesn't matter if you're moving that object for 1 second or 100 seconds, it still takes X newtons to do it. That's why he's treating it as a constant, which it is considering a given speaker, but it is not a constant when considering EVERY speaker. What they SHOULD be saying is that there is 2 things that make a driver respond better, a lower mass, or a higher rate of acceleration achieved through greater inductance. He also neglects to mention is that MOST 10", 12", and 15" subwoofers share the same voice coil size (thus sharing the same inductance). So, according to him, all three of those speakers should sound exactly the same, since mass and air resistance play no part in frequency response. Also... Why is it that a tweeter has a VERY high frequency response but has a very LOW inductance? Because it has a very LOW mass and much less air resistance. I'm not a physicist, but I say the guy is wrong.

Ummm.. It also has a BUNCH to do with the weight of the cone and voice coil. Which is why large speakers tend to exhibit "sloppy" behavior. No matter what box any speaker is in, the one with the least mass to move will be the most accurate. And.. Speakers with more cone area have to move more air to operate, which also slows them down. More mass + more air resistance = less speed.

On that note... Don't run 8 awg unless you want to do the job again later. You will want more power than it can provide at some point.

That's a completely decent setup for that price. The memphis amps aren't the greatest thing in the world, but they do ok. They used to be marketed under the "Crossfire" name if that means anything to ya. If anything you can probably buy it and use it for a year and then sell it for what you've got in it. My only question is whether or not the box will fit in your starquest.

Days ahead of you, my good Brotha. http://www.maxwelhse.com/Album/2003/02-07/small/Olds%20-%2005.JPG That's just my interum solutuion though. I really don't like them because they aren't isolated in any way. I hit mine with some shrink tube and some of that rubber dip stuff to help out. When the 0/1 goes in, and I make some sort of weather proof battery cover, I'll be switching over to these: http://images.cardomain.com/products/pho/PHOZBR100KIT.jpg I've already got 'em.. Just waiting on the wire. I want the side posts to look stock so attention is attracted to the top. btw - I am the king of overkill. 8)

Already on the case. In fact, that's why both of my "nice" amps still aren't in the car. I haven't had time to run the 0/1 awg to replace the factory wiring. My car has the 2 connector, 3 wire, arrangement on the positive terminal and the 1 connector, 2 wire, arrangement on the ground. Just doing the engine compartment will be a full day job by the time I fab up some stuff and change a few things around. I want the car's starter and fuse box to retain the stock wiring. To do that I'm going to have to get the 2 wire positive connector off of a car in the junk yard and modify it slightly. It looks to me like the stock harness has the starter (4 awg) and alternator (maybe 12 awg?) sharing a connector. The fuse panel uses a separate dedicated connector (12 awg?). I want to rewire it so that the 2 lead connector runs the starter and fuse panel. I'll install a dedicated 1/0 awg run from the alternator to a top mounted distribution puck. I want the side terminals of the battery to look stock and the top terminals to house all of the new wiring. I'll probably replace the negative to block wire with a single wire cable out of a different car and run a 0/1 awg wire from the body to the top terminal. Any reason not to do this?

So, if you use enough cap that you're keep them mostly full most of the time, you should be able to relieve some of the stress on the charging system, right? My hope is to be able to work my alternator at a more or less constant rate instead of spiking it all the time. The reason I ask is because I currently have my power system budgeted for 2x the amount of "recommended" capacitance in addition to the optima red top and 190 amp alternator. I'm wondering if it's going to be enough... My ZPA 0.5 can produce 1000 watts RMS without blinking and my Adcom GFA-4404 will most likely run about 400 watts RMS. I have 2 Farads for the ZPA and 1 Farad for the Adcom.

Jack, what you're saying makes perfect sense in theory, but it doesn't really wash in the real world for me. If what you're saying is absolutely true then the cap represents a 1:1 i/o ratio. If that were true lights would dim when the cap recharges just like they dim without having caps. I can't believe that a 100A load out of the capacitor in t time creates a 100A load on the charging system in the same t. Gonna have to explain this to me.

How much are those kits selling for now? I seem to remember them being nutty expensive.

unheard of? Blau has been around for YEARs..

You know, I wouldn't think moviing the mechanical control to a different area would really be any harder. If anything you could custom make your own cables out of bicycle hand brake cables if you needed them longer. Or do they use some sort of mechanical rods?

Car Audio tested that JBL and found that it pulled 114 amps and it's maximum RMS load... I can't help but think they worked their's A TON harder than you're working yours. Caps are a nice thing to do for your charging system. It will live alot longer and happier with them.. btw, here's a slightly funny power system story: This is the first winter I've had my stock GM alternator built to 190 amps and big Optima red top (800U?). Since I had the alternator built I noticed that it takes a few more RPMs to get it spinning to where it's really productive vs. stock. Well, in combination with that and the Optima getting cold I've noticed that at stop lights my turn signals flash really slow. Like, half speed. It's kind of amusing to pop the tranny out of gear and give it about 400 more RPMs and watch the signals speed back up. That's more or less ok with me because the car runs down the street 90% of the time at 1500 RPM, which is where the alternator seems to like generating power. Oh, and just because I happened to think about it, big alternators when delivering a load (like mine constantly is.. 8)) get HOT. Don't pop the hood and decide to prop your upper body weight on the alternator housing while the car is still warm....

Turn your amp gain down a smidge and turn the deck sub volume up a smidge, then you can adjust up and down...

Just parts.

If a 100Hz wave will pass through the plushed out seat in my luxury car well enough to make my hair shake, it will go through a 1/4" cargo cover without trouble. If you're really paranoid about it have your installer make a frame work covered in acoustically transparent grill cloth to replace the stock cover since you like the stock design. I'm glad to hear you've got a good installer on the case. You'll save a lot of time that way. Unlike me, who has had two huge amplifiers and a couple of signal processors waiting under my bed for over a year now.... It is kinda fun when someone says something about my car sounding nice and I tell 'em "This is just the subsitute bangs." ;D

Why not use the rhestat lead? Isn't that what it's for?

You could sheild the amp with a section of chrome plated grate. The grate is cheap to buy, super heavy duty, wouldn't cause cooling issues, and would look sweet next to an Xtant. I imagine you'd have about $50 in the entire thing, plating and everything. I have a few large steel mesh covers from Sun servers that I plan to use as amp protection in my Olds. I definately think you should keep some kind cover over your gear, or some super super super dark hatch tint. Both of the Conquests I had didn't have that little platform thing, so I'm not very familiar with how the factory setup works. I would think that a 1/4" section of particle board, hinged at one end and attached to the hatch at the other with strings (the way a lot of hatch covers are built) would probably work fine. You may need to put some foam rubber stops on the bottom of it to keep it from rattling around though. Another thought would be to steal a page from the AMC book. My Eagle uses a window shade type of cover in the cargo area. You could affix the shade to the top of your enclosure and attach a hook of somesort to the rear of the cargo area. You can get window shades in any color you want and cut to width at JC Penny for about $20.

I unfortunately don't know much about Tim's alternator. From what the other guys have said it sounds like an impressive peice when it comes to bolt on performance. If you send him a PM I'm sure he could lay it all out for you... As for your second question, I think a single 12 is very possible for your application. Starquests are packed tight, but not that tight. It's been awhile since I was in the market for a small box sub, but JL has pretty much always led the masses when it comes to such things (as I'm sure you know). I've also been impressed with some of Image Dynamics' speakers. The IDQ series was, and may still be, the winningest sub in IASCA history (if not then it's a JL again ). I'm not sure where you plan to mount the amp, but the box screams to be built across the back of the back seat. A single, shallow 12 should go in there without much trouble. If the day comes that you need to access the spare you can just flip the seat up and flip the box up with it. In fact, that's about the only place I think you could get a 12 and have any hope of truck space unless you built a false floor. I agree with you about those Xtant amps. They're impressive for single amp systems. I very nearly went that direction myself.

(Psst.. Gabe! Try C-Ryan :'()

Yikes, this is getting nasty... An adult (not nessecarily porn) forum would probably be fun. The simplest way to eliminate all of the trouble is to remove the img tag in that forum and only allow users in who ask to be admitted. I'm pretty sure that little Johnny reading the F word on the internet isn't illegal, especially if he asks to do so. I don't understand why the mods here want to raise other people's kids.