2001 Honda S2000 Build Thread
07-14-2011, 11:27 AM
#22
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Thanks guys! I've been behind updating because I'm busy upgrading the midrange drivers. Perhaps I'll post up the pillar build and post some pics of the rival speakers.
11-06-2011, 09:23 AM
#23
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Some pictures that stopped working for some unknown reason:
This is the Modifry GPS adapter mated to a Motorola Droid X belt holder:
Final result with mini USB wired up from the headunit. That allows charging as well as mass storage connection. It uses the onboard 32gb mini SD in the phone as a thumb drive.
Using Winamp for music playback. It allows Bluetooth remote control, which means I can use the dash mounted knobs to control not only the headunit but also the phone:
These are the OEM knobs ran through a Modifiry adapter that allows interaction with any remote controlled headunit:
This is the firewall grommet you want to use to run wires through the cabin. I have a 1/0 gauge through there as well as many other radar detector and alarm cables.
Main wire harness complete with Anderson Powerpoles disconnects, wire loom, heat shrink, etc:
The modular design allows you to make any type of connector you want. Make sure you single out power cables from signal cables.
A failed experiment. I cut out huge chunks of plastic out of the rear tray to allow bass frequencies to pass through. This would also stop the rattles from the plastic panels a bit. I wrapped it in Ensolite thinking it will not only waterproof the amps if it rains with the top down but that it would allow the bass frequencies to go through with very little absorbtion and therefore little loss of output.
Reasons why it didn't work:
Ensolite absorbs a lot more than I thought so output was very low. Secondly the ensolite and panel formed it's own membrane and created lots of unwanted air displacement. Rattles were still really bad.
So the tray is gone. Instead of waterproofing I might get some marine amplifiers next. IMO you can't use the rear tray if you want any sort of quality output from your subwoofer. That thing cripples sound quality and output. Any membrane that keeps water out is probably too beefy to be transparent.
Next up, pillar pod construction and test results of the whole car.
This is the Modifry GPS adapter mated to a Motorola Droid X belt holder:
Final result with mini USB wired up from the headunit. That allows charging as well as mass storage connection. It uses the onboard 32gb mini SD in the phone as a thumb drive.
Using Winamp for music playback. It allows Bluetooth remote control, which means I can use the dash mounted knobs to control not only the headunit but also the phone:
These are the OEM knobs ran through a Modifiry adapter that allows interaction with any remote controlled headunit:
This is the firewall grommet you want to use to run wires through the cabin. I have a 1/0 gauge through there as well as many other radar detector and alarm cables.
Main wire harness complete with Anderson Powerpoles disconnects, wire loom, heat shrink, etc:
The modular design allows you to make any type of connector you want. Make sure you single out power cables from signal cables.
A failed experiment. I cut out huge chunks of plastic out of the rear tray to allow bass frequencies to pass through. This would also stop the rattles from the plastic panels a bit. I wrapped it in Ensolite thinking it will not only waterproof the amps if it rains with the top down but that it would allow the bass frequencies to go through with very little absorbtion and therefore little loss of output.
Reasons why it didn't work:
Ensolite absorbs a lot more than I thought so output was very low. Secondly the ensolite and panel formed it's own membrane and created lots of unwanted air displacement. Rattles were still really bad.
So the tray is gone. Instead of waterproofing I might get some marine amplifiers next. IMO you can't use the rear tray if you want any sort of quality output from your subwoofer. That thing cripples sound quality and output. Any membrane that keeps water out is probably too beefy to be transparent.
Next up, pillar pod construction and test results of the whole car.
11-14-2011, 12:07 PM
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Thanks! I'm quite annoyed with car audio magazine reviews because they almost never critique amps and speakers. Makes you wonder if the tests they didn't show didn't come out quite right. Aren't those the most important ones? haha
11-15-2011, 11:12 AM
#26
Haha, agreed on the point about magazine reviews. It's understandable(though not necessarily excusable), since too many negative comments about specific products and they will fall out of favor with manufacturers who might send them test samples, and too many design failures published may portray them as inexperienced. I like reading the reviews and following projects of enthusiast DIYers and magazines alike. It's all good stuff to learn from.
11-16-2011, 01:04 AM
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This post is devoted to the pillar pods.
The basic idea was to create speaker enclosures that allow a high enough crossover point to lift the soundstage up, as if all the sound is coming from pillar mounted speakers. Generally a crossover point about 1,000hz-2,000hz gives you that based on what we currently know about localization in human hearing. I chose 1,600hz as I thought it might be ideal for lateral localization as well. The speaker I use is also very low distortion over this threshold.
The second requirement was to not inhibit driving, aka it can take over any windshield viewing area. The passenger airbag still needs to deploy, and the side vents still have to operate to defog the side windows.
Thirdly I wanted to mount the speaker as much on-axis as possible with the driver seat. This gives me the best chance at getting a good frequency response out of the box so to say and more importantly it gives me great output and dispersion off axis if I move my head and such.
Enclosure Type
A sealed enclosure is a must. I don't believe you can create infinite baffle arrangements in a pillar technically. A ported or aperiodic arrangement would suffer from midrange bleeding and poor group delay.
First step was to fiberglass the back of the enclosure. Lots of taping and sealing needed to be done so the interior of the car would be unharmed.
After that I build an MDF baffle and attached with hot glue to the back. Then I fiberglassed over it:
If you look closely enough I used underwear as the material of choice. It was actually an oversized woman's pair of panties that had pictures of other panties on it. I though it would be funny to know that if someone sits in my car and marvels at the sound. I chuckle inside everytime I remember that I have oversized women's panties behind those high end speakers and leather wrapped pods. Now my secret can be your secret!
Trimmed and smoothed out a bit:
Then I painted them black and tried them out to make sure they do what they are supposed to.
Slapped on some wire with Anderson Powerpole quick disonnects for easy troubleshooting if need be:
This was my first choice tweeter, a Vifa ring radiator. You may also recognize it in the Polk SR speaker set. I don't know what people like about ring radiators. I found them to be despicable. They have one of the worse dispersion patterns, very little excursion capability and very small surface area. That means they require really high crossover points yet don't really have any of the qualities of a smaller speaker that naturally crosses this high. IMO get the dome over this, domes are simply superior.
So next I went to Home Depot and bought some plastic piping to fit a sleeve for my new set of 3/4 dome Vifas. These have excellent dispersion, excellent surface area per footprint and decent excursion capability. This is by far the best deal out there on a top of the line tweeter.
Then I had the pods wrapped in leather. I had them do a French stitch on the edge for styling.
Finished pod
The choice of speakers is the BG Neo 8 planar from 1,600hz to 8,000hz and the Vifa NE19vts from 8,000 up. I picked the planar because at the time I was in love with BG planars. They are truly amazing drivers and the tests prove it. The Vifa did supertweeter duty, it only need be high power and yet small to have good dispersion to 20khz. It does so beautifully with it's tiny 3/4 diaphragm and ridiculously large voice coil that uses the aluminum basket to cool. Amazing design for $25 bucks!
The basic idea was to create speaker enclosures that allow a high enough crossover point to lift the soundstage up, as if all the sound is coming from pillar mounted speakers. Generally a crossover point about 1,000hz-2,000hz gives you that based on what we currently know about localization in human hearing. I chose 1,600hz as I thought it might be ideal for lateral localization as well. The speaker I use is also very low distortion over this threshold.
The second requirement was to not inhibit driving, aka it can take over any windshield viewing area. The passenger airbag still needs to deploy, and the side vents still have to operate to defog the side windows.
Thirdly I wanted to mount the speaker as much on-axis as possible with the driver seat. This gives me the best chance at getting a good frequency response out of the box so to say and more importantly it gives me great output and dispersion off axis if I move my head and such.
Enclosure Type
A sealed enclosure is a must. I don't believe you can create infinite baffle arrangements in a pillar technically. A ported or aperiodic arrangement would suffer from midrange bleeding and poor group delay.
First step was to fiberglass the back of the enclosure. Lots of taping and sealing needed to be done so the interior of the car would be unharmed.
After that I build an MDF baffle and attached with hot glue to the back. Then I fiberglassed over it:
If you look closely enough I used underwear as the material of choice. It was actually an oversized woman's pair of panties that had pictures of other panties on it. I though it would be funny to know that if someone sits in my car and marvels at the sound. I chuckle inside everytime I remember that I have oversized women's panties behind those high end speakers and leather wrapped pods. Now my secret can be your secret!
Trimmed and smoothed out a bit:
Then I painted them black and tried them out to make sure they do what they are supposed to.
Slapped on some wire with Anderson Powerpole quick disonnects for easy troubleshooting if need be:
This was my first choice tweeter, a Vifa ring radiator. You may also recognize it in the Polk SR speaker set. I don't know what people like about ring radiators. I found them to be despicable. They have one of the worse dispersion patterns, very little excursion capability and very small surface area. That means they require really high crossover points yet don't really have any of the qualities of a smaller speaker that naturally crosses this high. IMO get the dome over this, domes are simply superior.
So next I went to Home Depot and bought some plastic piping to fit a sleeve for my new set of 3/4 dome Vifas. These have excellent dispersion, excellent surface area per footprint and decent excursion capability. This is by far the best deal out there on a top of the line tweeter.
Then I had the pods wrapped in leather. I had them do a French stitch on the edge for styling.
Finished pod
The choice of speakers is the BG Neo 8 planar from 1,600hz to 8,000hz and the Vifa NE19vts from 8,000 up. I picked the planar because at the time I was in love with BG planars. They are truly amazing drivers and the tests prove it. The Vifa did supertweeter duty, it only need be high power and yet small to have good dispersion to 20khz. It does so beautifully with it's tiny 3/4 diaphragm and ridiculously large voice coil that uses the aluminum basket to cool. Amazing design for $25 bucks!
11-24-2011, 12:48 AM
#28
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Evaluation of stated goals
Frequency Response
Legend for FR Graph
Red Right Speaker
Blue Left Speaker
Black L+R
Frequency response is +-3db for either left or right. This is an average of 30+ measurements.
HD @90db
HD @95db
HD @100db
HD @105db
HD @110db
Legend for HD Graphs
Blue THD
Red 2nd
Purple 3rd
Green 4th
Blue 5th
@100 db the majority of distortion is bellow 1% THD. Exceptions include 60hz where distortion rises to 2.2% and bellow 30hz.
@110db the majority of distortion is still bellow 1% THD. There are a few exceptions again. At 2,000hz the planar speaker seems to start stressing a bit, excursion is not its forte. Between 300hz and 1khz there is about 2% distortion. The S2000 cabin has a major dip at these frequencies and the extra eq. boosting I did to flatten the frequency response stresses the speaker more. The distortion goes up accordingly. The distortion at 60hz has not increased, this peak is likely due to the subwoofer baffle buzzing a bit, it doesn't seem to get worse with increasing output.
In my best hearing test results I could not pick up distortion under 3%. The commonly used threshold for audibility is generally 1%.
Total system weight:
125lbs net (after removal of spare and toolbox-30lbs, and stock audio-8lbs)
Frequency Response
Legend for FR Graph
Red Right Speaker
Blue Left Speaker
Black L+R
Frequency response is +-3db for either left or right. This is an average of 30+ measurements.
HD @90db
HD @95db
HD @100db
HD @105db
HD @110db
Legend for HD Graphs
Blue THD
Red 2nd
Purple 3rd
Green 4th
Blue 5th
@100 db the majority of distortion is bellow 1% THD. Exceptions include 60hz where distortion rises to 2.2% and bellow 30hz.
@110db the majority of distortion is still bellow 1% THD. There are a few exceptions again. At 2,000hz the planar speaker seems to start stressing a bit, excursion is not its forte. Between 300hz and 1khz there is about 2% distortion. The S2000 cabin has a major dip at these frequencies and the extra eq. boosting I did to flatten the frequency response stresses the speaker more. The distortion goes up accordingly. The distortion at 60hz has not increased, this peak is likely due to the subwoofer baffle buzzing a bit, it doesn't seem to get worse with increasing output.
In my best hearing test results I could not pick up distortion under 3%. The commonly used threshold for audibility is generally 1%.
Total system weight:
125lbs net (after removal of spare and toolbox-30lbs, and stock audio-8lbs)
