drvnbysound,
Welcome to yet another psychosis my friend.
Sounds like you and I have a lot in common. (with the exception of the lil' electrical engineering thingy). :laughing: If it counts, I now have a son-in-law (since July) that is an Electrical Engineer, got his Undergrad and Masters at the same time from Ga. Tech all in 3½ years! Studied RF Antenna Theory. :dunno: Designs micro circuits that'll fit on your little fingernail. Geared at guidance and control circuits et al. As in defense projects. Whew!!!
rops:
Cars I can build, houses I can build, I've designed and installed more home theaters than I can remember. Was into structured wiring in the late 90's when people had no idea what the heck it was!
Car stereo, yup been there. Home audio, you betcha', started in audio back in the days of quad (the 70's) and was a very early adopter of 5.1, now I have a 11.1 Yamaha 3010, using it to drive a Sunfire Cinema Grand as my main amp and let it drive the added surround speakers. (
As I watch my vintage 73" RPTV that weighs in at some 430+ lbs)
Digital photography, got into that with a really early couple of hand held digitals and moved to Canon DSLR's years ago. Spend a fortune on remote control trucks? Yep did that too.
Tools to work around the house? Generally I have more than whatever the guys do that show up to do stuff around here. Got a new roof last year and they were needing a pneumatic finish nailer and stapler. (
Their nailer broke and didn't have a stapler) I took them to the shop and asked them what size nailer they needed, and of course there was a stapler hanging next to it. The guy said, "Sir, you sure have a lot of tools". To which I replied, "Never know when you'll need something, and I also have a
VERY BIG Doberman and a safe full of guns just in case."
:laughing:
But yeah... :welcome: to AGO, great place to prop up ya' feet and stay a while.
@Calendyr
On GM cars you can pull the code(s) of your glove box door and they'll tell you the alternator amperage. Our Envoy Denali for instance has a 140 amp unit. Wife called last week from work saying her battery was dead, "it just clicks" she said. So I ran by and picked up one and headed to her work. Took my jump box, a battery charger and enough tools to take the whole darned truck apart with me.
Got there and had the new alternator on in about 5 minutes, literally. GM books .7 hours for it. Only has two bolts on the mount and sits right on top (5.3 liter).
Turns out it wasn't the battery or alternator. It was the starter that wasn't kicking over. Ended up it was a loose negative battery CABLE of all things.
@Art
FWIW I put the Pioneer line in my kids 4Runner. Components up front and the 4" coaxial's in the back (doors wouldn't hold anything bigger). The sub is a single 12" Kicker solobaric L7. All Alpine MRX amps and front end electronics.
Hey buddy, don't get caught up in what your speakers are rated at versus what the amp is rated at. Many a speaker voice coil has been blown by an underpowered amp that's being over driven into distortion than a massively over powered amp that is pushing clean power into the speaker.
Also, keep in mind that say you have a speaker that's rated @ say 88dB (1 watt @ 1 meter) that (generally) for every 3dB increase in loudness you double the power. So say you like to listen at 100dB) which is
loud, that you'll only need 16 watts. But going to 110dB now.... that's another matter as 109dB would be more like 128 watts, continuously (plus power peaks, IE: headroom)! Yikes!!!
But yeah, for a sub you want one that'll handle a decent amount of power, but more importantly you want an amp that can put out C-L-E-A-N power up to the level(s) that you most normally listen. First things first, I'd get the best amp I could find/afford with the most power I could afford, (hopefully knowing the sub that I'd like to end up with). Could go with a bargain sub to begin with then upgrade later for instance.
That in mind; but you should b.e looking at pawn shops for your sub box, or at least the speakers that are in the box(es). They are a dime a dozen at pawn shops and there are deals to be had for sure. The Kicker L7 unit that I picked up sells for $350 or more without a box but we found one (in a ported box) that I haggled him to $110 for. Ported isn't my choice as it's a sloppy bass but the kid likes it.
(
He's big into dub step, European electronic style stuff and mixing his own stuff.) When he finally gets ready to tighten the bass up we can either build a bigger box or put a foam plug in the existing box. Foam plugging it will help, but still let it breath a bit. It'll kill the low end roll-off in that box because it's just not big enough to be a sealed box. (and it's a big box as it is.) :laughing:
Of course right after we bought it he found a dual Memphis Audio box he was jonesing for. Told him when he got the money to buy it that was up to him. As it was I spent over $2K putting everything in his truck, including Dynamat in all 4 doors. (They close with such a nice solid 'thunk' now instead of the oem sound.)
Cardaddy out! Im the MAN
Me has some Italian ceramic tile I need to complete in the basement before the wife comes home.
While she finished getting ready I went ahead and cleaned the engine bay. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow... 