what's up jd? can you come by one day so i can hear the focals?

 

JD,

WOW OMG, now I really cannot wait for my FOCALS to arrive. I wont have as many watts going to my set as you have, i ended up settling on 125 watts rms from the tarantula. I hope it will sound as good as your setup. So the bass it that dramatic? I am still in the process of deciding on a sub, but if the focals have as much bass as you say they do, i might just use the 3 and 4 channels of my amp for another set of 5.25 focals 165w's for the head rests. Oat net, you need to get some pictures up!!!

 

So, not much in photos yet, but here is what I have from installation:

Here is the process I used to cable the doors. I ran (2) pairs of 12ga through the door to the crossover I am mounting on the inside. I took pains to make sure that the cable to the crossovers to the tweeter and midbass were exactly the same length, and that the 10ga cable between the amp and left/right crossovers is also the same length, so I am not introducing any time delay there.

First thing - BEFORE you remove the panel, wind the window UP. You want it out of the way to reach the cable channel. If you don't, you have to hook up the switch from the door panel to do it. No, the drivers side will not wind up the window if the passenger switch isn't connected, and yes I missed this both times.

Remove the side step, so that you can remove the kick panel, and unscrew the 2 screws in the kick panel that connect to the verticle piece.



I took a very thin hanger, cut off the twisted head part, smoothed it into a straight wire, and sanded the end. I then fished it from inside the door, carefully guided it through the rubber tube, and out through the rubber seal on inside the door well. Above is what it looks like threaded. Note also that I have captured both cables, fishhook style, on the wire hanger


This is what the seal looks like from the inside. I had to take a picture to see what was going on, I couldn't see it from outside, hence this shot. The second time I did this I used the wire hanger to push the diagphram out so I could cut it with a carpet cutter - you need a big space for the wires to come through and it is hard to pull them through until the hole is big enough. Oh, note the yellowish foam block on the bottom of the pic - that fills the hole behing the outer kick panel.



I folded the wire hanger flat into the groove between the cables....



Then I used electrical tape pulled TIGHT to hold it all together and neck down the tops of the cables... the tops are also slightly staggered, one higher than the other, to give a more gradual profile. Then, this is the vital point: Don't be shy, get some lube (KY has good bulk for this, astroglide is probably too light of an oil) and drench that cable. Professional cable pullers buy gallon jugs of cable lube, which is even better if you have access to it. Without lube, pulling the cables will be slow and painful and perhaps damaging. With lube, it pulls through to the seal in one smooth easy tug. Then like I said, you need to work a hole through the diagphram to get it the last few inches...



And the cable is through!



Now, on to lucid. This is what the kit looks like with the extension on it. HUGE!



As you can see, it measures to 1 3/8" with the extension. I cannot imagine any speaker would work with the extension as designed.



So instead of using the screw tubes that came with the extension kit, I just used 4 washers. I thought about cutting the screw tubes in half, but didn't have the tools/patience for such tiny work. This compresses the foam of the adaptor and the extension mightily, but I think that helped isolate the door from bass vibration. Oh, and as you can see, since the baffles lucid sells are completely useless for this installation, I used the rim of them to fill the sizeable gap between the adaptor and the door, and cut the rest out. At least it served a purpose!


This is a picture I took looking down the top of the door through the slot where the window comes out. Most of the white wavy tube you see in the picture is only a reflection in the glass - the bottom part is the little stopper that sits behind the speaker. The polished silver ring to the left of it is the speaker magnet. I might have been able to use 1 less washer, but it is good to have wiggle room and I now know that it fully clears the door liner at full bass extension.

Lots of people have photo'd the tweeters, I did the same thing they did, so no pics. I just took out the stock tweets, unscrewed and unglued the backplate, jammed in the Focals between the screw posts (with their "horizontal window" pointing up towards my ears) and used the backplate to hold it together.

 

Jack, you know you are my man - let me tweak it more and then show you. With that fine setup you have I don't want to drag in a mad-scientist installation! Oh, I forgot you wanted that lucid dci installed too, I need to make time for you.

-JD

 

Depends on how sub-centric you are. These are in no way a substitute for flitcroft's MONSTER sub setup - but that is more than I need for my musical tastes. But they are strong enough that I would recommend that you wait until they are in before figuring what kind of sub setup you need to balance them out.

Don't know if you'll get 165w's into spods - but the 136ws should fit. I am thinking about doing that with my spods - but replacing the flimsy metal front of my spods with thick fiberboard custom shaped and planed to fit the hole, and continue to use the nice-looking backs of the spods. However, I will never use the spod front covers - they really dull the sound.

There isn't much else to take pics of - the speakers/xovers/wires will be hidden, and the amp will probably get tucked under the seat - when all is said and done, it should be invisible.

-JD

PS - Please note that I almost NEVER use the phrase "OMG" in my posts. When I do (like above), it means something. Just wanted to clear that up for everyone.

Damn, my ears are still ringing!

 

Were do you have your amp mounted?

 

JD thanks for the pics, that clothe hanger idea is great, i will use that in mine install. I am going to run 12 awg all the way from the amps to crossovers to speakers. I will wait until I do my install to see what kind of sub I will get. I think I can get away with a single 8 in a laurent enclosure, as I am not a big bass person. Thanks once again for the pics, and congratulations on the install.

 

Go for that wire with a twist in it - having been into home audio since the early 70's, I had old school expectations with the wiring - now I see the twisted stuff is much better -oh well. I went with 10ga to the crossovers - probably overboard, but the cost difference is negligable, what the heck.

What are you going to do for the install kit? Fiberboard?

I won't bust on you for hijacking if you post your progress on this thread - cause after all, that is relevant.

-JD

 

Currently it is mounted Frankenstein style on my passenger seat with wires streaming everywhere so I can play with gains etc. I had it sitting vertically behind the passenger seat before. I had intended to rest it horizontally behind the passenger seat but the mounting tabs at the ends of the amp make it too long - I need to see if they are removable... I might also put it under the drivers seat. I need to play around with all this stuff, now that I have the connectivity worked out and my ears have stopped ringing.

-JD

 

Yeah I am going with knukonceptz twisted wire 12 awg for the speaker wires. Install kit? If you mean for the Focals, I plan on making my own baffles using 3/4 inch mdf. I plan on getting 4 awg power wires for the amp, as well as 4 awg for the ground. If I ever get my stuff, I will post pics as well here. This damm hurricane really put a curve ball in my install plans. I plan on mounting my amp in the tool well, and placing the laurent box (if i get one) on the passenger side.