Any of you who may know me know that I swap out sub enclosures every 6 months or so. It drives my wife nuts! This time, I already destroyed the above enclosure as I was not happy with it. This new enclosure will house a custom, painted to match my truck white R1-15 subwoofer, reverse mounted in an acoustic suspension enclosure. The new Tarantula TRX amplifers will be mounted above. Should be able to fiberglass the enclosure before vacation and build the amp racks as soon as I get back...



This will not be an off-the-shelf system, so please allow me to tell you what products I have chosen and why… Please feel free to email me with any questions you might have. BUT allow me to explain first…

Stage Speakers

• I am a hardcore 3-Way component fan. Since we do not offer a high-end 3-Way set ( yet!), I decided to make my own, carefully selecting my favorite individual pieces, some from high-end European manufacturers. These pieces are temporary until I finish engineering our new high-end components due out later this year…

• I chose a 1” silk tweeter because I prefer a soft dome and like the smooth response of this driver. I also like the frequency response at 30 degrees and 60 degrees off-axis. They will be in the top far corners of the dash.

• For my midrange, I'll be using a 5.25” in the kick panel… Traditionally, a 3-way component set comes with a 4” mid or a domed mid. I chose a 5.25” for a little more durability and output.

• My midbass driver is a 6.5” driver located in the factory door location.

Surround Speakers

• I chose the Tarantula SST6.5 to show off the quality of our component coaxial. I will be upgrading from the included crossover to a set of older Exact series 3-ohm bi-ampable crossovers with adjustability.

Subwoofers

• I chose the Reference R1-15. DUH! I love these drivers. They have truly unique features that are not found in subwoofers, especially American engineered subs. They are phenomenal Sound Quality drivers with more than enough capability of generating high SPL levels.

 

Center Channel

• I have a very specific location that I wanted my center channel speaker in. Due to size restraints, I needed an electro-static, planar or ribbon driver. The 3” x 8” Bohlender Graebener Neo8 planar will perfectly hide under a custom vent made in a new dash piece that I'll fabricate. Not just for 5.1 movies, a good center channel can make a great system even better and really improve staging and imaging. The staging will be awesome!

 

Signal Processing

• Immediately following the head unit will be an Audio Control Matrix 6 in /6 out 24dB gain line driver. Simply put – badass!

• There is a theory that if speakers are really high quality, that they do not need to be equalized with an equalizer. STUPID! How can any speaker sound just as good in one car as it does in any other vehicle. With phenomenon such as Transfer Function, Nulls, Axial and Oblique Modes, etc., every vehicle sounds totally different. Any serious competitor has a serious EQ, period. If I could get away with not using one, I WOULD! I don't particularly like spending months of tuning time trying to get a system to sound right. However, my Audio Control DQS will make it a bit easier for me in the digital realm with 30 bands to each front, each rear, center and sub, plus parametric equalization.

 

Amplifiers

• I can't say which line I will be using yet. But I can tell you that I will be running (3) 4-channel amplifiers and (3) monoblock amplifiers. Every individual speaker in the vehicle will have its own channel, eliminating any need for passive crossovers. The 3 rd of each amplifier will be for a small system in the bed to enjoy at shows.

Charging/Power Supply

• This size system will not perform on a standard battery alone. A simple cap will not do the job either. I'll be using the new CAPCELL SCELL-1000 unit which is combination of a deep cycle battery with extra capacitance. I've already upgraded to a custom Ohio Generator 200 amp alternator to keep everything properly charged.

 

The basic enclosure is complete. It is constructed of .75” ( 19mm ) MDF. Gross volume is 4.393 ft ^3 (124.4 liters). The enclosure is now coated with fiberglass resin inside and out since MDF “breathes” a lot more than people may think. The enclosure will have heavy Acousta-Stuf filling which will yield a Qtc of .756 with an anechoic F3 of 37.93Hz.

 

So that I can work on two things at once, I am going to start the door midbass location. Since I will be running 3-way components, I opted to install the 6.5” midbass in the oem door locations. The first step was to make sure the door is properly damped. There are 2 layers on the outside skin of the door and 2 layers on the inside skin. There is also a layer of eggcrate foam behind the driver. Next, the factory mounting has to adapted to fir the new midbass driver. A ½” adaptor was fitted to the oem bracket and then siliconed in place to eliminate air leaks.

The driver was securely mounted with 8 screws and 2-sided foam tape as a gasket.

 

 

The second stage of the enclosure is complete. Sides were molded to the floor using body filler. I then wrapped the sides with stretch cloth and coated it with resin. Once dry, two layers of fiberglass cloth strengthened the sides. The bottom piece couples the enclosure to the floor and will allow the center console to butt up to it. The enclosure now has 2 coats of resin on the inside and outside surfaces to ensure that the enclosure is airtight.

 

 

The next step for the enclosure will be adding some cosmetic “life” before I paint it. Stay tuned, you'll see what I mean…
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The rear OEM locations are in the very lower rear corners of the cab making them nearly inaudible. The rear doors have been very well damped in order to make a new home for the rear surround speakers. The first step below shows the back side of the fiberglass pods I'm building. I first prepped the door panel with PPG cleaner. Then I taped off the area making sure to form the tape perfectly to the panel. The perimeter of the area has a 1/ 8” groove that will help to align the pods. I used glazing putty to fill the groove over the tape and then proceeded to lay down the fiberglass. I used 2 layers of fiberglass cloth since it is very easy to form to irregular shapes. For strength I added 2 more layers of fiberglass mat. They are now removed and being trimmed. Meanwhile the enclosure is 90% complete with the body filler, sanding and primer…

I wanted to get as much rear fill as possible within the space I had to work with. While I hate listening to music with rear fill, I wanted enough amplitude for surround sound and for demos while at shows with the rear doors open. I chose (4) 4” coaxial per door pod. The stilts hold up the mounting rings and were hot-glued in place. The pod was then wrapped in stretch cloth and coated with resin. Once hardened, fiberglass cloth was laid over the pod in 1 piece for strength. Next, body filler was applied to the imperfections and to fill in the texture of the cloth. The last step I had time for was to grind everything semi-smooth and spray on a coat of filler primer. Next weekend I'll do my guide coats and get the pods ready for the finish coat.