Nice picture of the box, i feel like a kid again waiting for a my christmas presents to arrive. I have yet to order my power cables and rca's, as it seems this hurricane is going to probably hit us here in florida. So much for installing the system over the long holiday weekend. I was going to make my own baffles using 3/4 inch mdf.

 

So tonight I get home, and there is a nice little priority mail box from Lucid. I think warm thoughts. It only shipped 8 days after I ordered -- Not too bad... They never notified me of shipping -- but it is here... In such pretty bags.

Then the install. First ring of the mounting kit goes on, no problem. Then I try to install the extension kit and their foam "baffle" (appropriately named) Aint no way shape or form this resembles the hole in the s2000. Ain't no way to secure it on with the extension kit. Aint no way it even works UNDER the ring of the mounting kit. Complete waste of money - and time. So finally, I give up, I mount the speaker over the extension kit. Easy! Then I put on the door panel - not so easy. WITH THE EXTENSION KIT, THE #@$(#*)( DOOR PANEL DOES NOT FIT.

The only part that was easy was the part they said would be hard. I slid a hanger from the door, poked it through the grommit on the other side, used electrical tape (and some creativity) to secure the (2) 12ga cables I will be running to the external crossover, a little lube on the end and it slipped right through.

To sum up - foam baffle, completely useless. Lucid extension kit - doesn't fit.

So the Score:

JD 0 (actually minus 4.5 hours)
LUCID $60 (of JD's Money)

I am wondering if I should cut through the door panel to free the woofer...

Shoot, if Lucid HADN'T shipped today, I would have had done it in wood and had a kit to return to them.

#)($*%)(*^)$(*_#()^%*)(*%)#(*)@(#*$)@#*$)@#(*$@#)( *$#*%(^#+$)( !!!!!

 

hey what do you think of the Van Gogh 800.5 to run a set of BA Pros and a sub. Or possibly the kicker 700.5

 

^ That should work fine. Are you planning to run at 2 or bridged stereo at 4 ohms? At 4 ohms and bridging the four channels to two you may be running a little hot, but that seems to be the topic of this thread.


So, JD, are they in? Where's my happy ending here? I want a listen when you get it sorted! Are you going on the PCH / Santa Barbara drive?

 

sorry i know i am a audio newb, but would be the benefit of doing it either at 2ohm load or a bridged 4ohm load. I say with the BA; the more power the better. Basically I am looking for a nice clean sq amp.

 

I think that instead of hijacking my thread you should start one of your own.

-JD

 

The system is roughed in and working. Lucid's install kit is not appropriate for the FoCal 165w, and their "baffle" simply doesn't fit the space. The tweeters popped nicely into the factory tweeter pods. Pulling cable through the doors was easy. the crossover is in the cabin, and I ran 2x 12ga cables from the crossover through the door to the speakers. I ran a 10ga cable from the amp to the crossover. All cables and crossover are floating right now and need to be "dressed" aka tucked away neatly.

The Bad news - the Zapco I bought on ebay has one dead channel in bridged mode. In 4x every one of the channels works perfectly, so I am running one channel from half of the "front" side and the other channel I am running from half of the "rear" side. So instead of 2x180wpc I am getting 4x50wpc.

Good news - the FoCals sound GREAT up until the amp runs out of steam. There is plenty of low end so my fears from the demo at super Autobacs have proven (get ready for it) bassless (sorry, couldn't help the pun). I think with a bit more headroom it will work out quite nicely. I think for my needs I can get away with my RSX sub - or maybe completely without one, for that matter.

Besides the amp replacement, I still have a lot of tuning to do. When setting the time delay on the Alpine, do you guys measure distance to the tweeter or to the midbass?

-JD

 

Sorry to hear about your zapco problems. Well at least you know when you get a working amp it will be amazing. I am still awaiting all my parts to arrive. Right now I am in the middle of deciding what type of sub I want to go with. I think I will just make a custom box and run the alphasonik 10" that NFRs2000 is running. Where are the pictures oat? Thats a good question about the time delay, but i would assume measure inbetween the two and use the mid distance to set up your time delay. I am no pro with time delay, but hopefully some one else chimes in on that one. Has anyone used a Alphasonik 8" with a wlaurents box, let me know!

 

ZSAK,

Yeah, Jackass! Start your own thread! HOMO!

 

Oh.
My.
God.

So first off, I was wrong about the amp. It works perfectly. It was an IO error (Idiot Operater) aka as I am a dumbass. In bridged mode, both channels are fed from one side of the amp - is this common in car audio or a peculiarity from Zapco's Symbalink system? When bridged, each channel is driven from a different side (f vs r)...

Anyhow.

To the OMG above.

Now the system is driven with the power it needs. Even with the gain at about 40%, this thing is LOUD. I went for a 20 minute drive and my ears are ringing like I was at a concert. Despite my fears from the autobacs demo, There is so much bass (with bass gain turned all the way down, neutral eq) that I can't begin to hear the RSX sub in the back, I don't think I even need a sub.

The amp doesn't even get warm. Sound is top rate, and I never began to run out of headroom when I turned it up as loud as I dared. Highs were clear, never harsh, never uncomfortable, but ultimately the ringing in my ears tells me it is louder than I can take.

As annoying as Lucid's hardware was, the compressed foam rings has done wonders for restricting door vibration - at the peak bass that I dared to put through it my mirror vibrated less than it did with the stock speakers drive with the Alpine 9835. I don't have any dynamatt in there and I don't think it needs it.

So, I need to dress the cables, mount the crossovers, place the amp more permanently, replace kick panels and the like, then I can start the long process of tuning - time delay, eq, etc.

Josiah, when I get it all more together I look forward to giving you that demo!

-JD