Any Advice

howie777

Well I'm pretty new to car audio but have been into the home stuff for 7-8 years now. So I thought I'd see what everyone else thinks of my new system and any advice you can give me for when I do the install.

I have a 1998 Grand Prix. I installed DB525 up front and DB690 in the rear deck. I then installed an Alpine 9831 and ran new 16 ga wire to all speakers. This is where I was going to stop...

Then I noticed some reverb on the DB690 so I went to circuit city to get some of the silencer they sell. I ended up with 24 sq ft for $60 due to new packaging coming out it was all 1/2 off. Then I stared talking subs with the salesmen. I saw the MM12s there and asked what he recommeded I use for an amp if I get one MM12 ( I knew sound domain had them for $179 each). He said the C300.2 was great for that sub as it is 550W bridged and it was on sale for $269 (says regular $299 but every other authorized dealer has them for $399). So I picked up 2 (last two in about 5-6 stores they checked) and ordered 2 MM12s from sound domain. So everything I bought was 1/2 today! So I think I did pretty well. But I have never installed the silencer, amps, or subs before so hopefully that will go over well. Speakers and decks were very easy but mounting the subs/amps worries me. I'm not sure how best to install them but I really want to do the work myself as it is the best part IMO.

So what do you all think? Did I do ok? I still need everything to wire up the amps/subs but I will probably just buy what circuit city has unless you people have better options for me. I think the amp kit was $100 he recommened. 4 guage from battery to a distro block and 8 guage to each amp. plus a fuses and distro block. And some 12 guage for the subs should be fine.

I do not intend to play this system very loud, and am aware of the MM12s habbit to break if pushed too early. I still don't understand this concept of breakin period and am skeptical of it but I'd just not chance it myself.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Howie

MacLeod

OK, first I would like to say, HELL YEAH YOU DID GOOD!! You would have to mug somebody to get a Polk 300.2 for $270!! I doubt you could find em that cheap on Ebay! Way to go!

As far as wires, the Tusnami line carried by Circuit City is as good as any on the market. The only thing you might consider is shopping around online for cheaper prices on some of the other brands. Me, Im skeered of ordering online so Id be perfectly happy paying a little more at CC and not having to worry.

4 guage is fine as is the 8 but Id say stick with 4 all the way. Remember, you can NEVER have too thick a power or ground wire!

Also dont forget the patch cables. This is kind of like power wire in that you can NEVER have too good a quality cable. A $400 set of cable will sound a **** load better than a $30 set will. I believe that speaker wire is speaker wire (assuming its from a quality manufactuer) but patch cable is a crucial part to your install and you have to buy as good a quality as you can. You dont necessarily have to buy a $400 set but at least get one that is twisted and shielded. All major names are great wire, Tsunami, Streetwires, Stinger, Monster and the likes, however I feel that Streetwires is a tad better overall.

Ive never been told from an expert that speakers need to break in but back in the late 80s when I first got into car audio I remember being told that amps need a couple days to "read" the speakers. What this actually was I believe is that the speakers needed to break in. As with anything that moves for a living, it will need to "warm up" just as you would before a workout or something. Again, I dont know for a fact that they need it but I personally think a break in period is a good idea.

exalted512

I know for a fact they need a break in period
the MOMOs have one of the stiffest suspensions on the market...
most subs only need about 2-3 hours to break em in but the momos NEED 40 HOURS
100 for a wiring kit is rape
www.knukonceptz.com for all of your wire needs
after you install it and if you get some noise in it, chances are you wont, but if you do, move the ground, if you still get it, buy some Street Wires 3.0s
you can get em from sounddomain for cheap
-Cody

neomagus00

do the momos have the stiffest out-of-the-box suspension, and then it softens up? or does it stay hard? cause if it does, why can't it take a ported box?

exalted512

to tell you the truth...i have no clue
the 40 hour break in time is meant for everything to heat up and settle a little
and to loosen up the suspension
but although its stiff, its still a weak suspension, which is why they are more prone to damage in a ported
or maybe the suspension is heavy and the motor sucks and isnt able to control it...i dunno
Thom? Josh? Kim?
-Cody

neomagus00

now, assuming i'm using the T/S parameters correctly, the mm104's suspension is nearly twice as stiff as the adire brahma 10's suspension (momo's vas is 31.8, brahma's is 18).

mechanically (cms) the momo's suspension is about half that of brahma.

after a full-excursion pulse, in a sealed box with total system q of .707, brahma takes .0425 s to recenter. momo takes exactly the same... hmm... same with idmax 10, and diamond tdx 10... maybe it's a function of qtc, so we'll ignore this...

adire's bl (motor strength) is 14.84, while momos is 13.96; not a huge difference.

finally, momo has significantly more moving mass (i didn't look this up directly, unibox somehow derives this from the t/s params; i'll look it up later)

conclusion - brahma is fine in ported, while momo is not, but it looks like momo is from 2-4 times as stiff... i dunno...

as a note, the momo's around 4 times as efficient (going by 'reference efficiency'); w00t for momo!

btw, in case any polk people look here, i meant polk equipment - momo's just easier to type!

exalted512

im not sure if Polk and Adire measure their effiency in the same way
-Cody

LittleCar_w/12s

Hmm... As a test of suspension, I ran my db12's ported in a 2.1CF box. At 10HZ ( :eek: ) the sub went to high excurion, but never slapped around, and never bounced. I was putting about 150w to it, which isn't much, but enough in a ported. I wouldn't try a lot of power and a ported arangement. It'll perform ok at low wattage and ported, but sounds best unported. Because I still run low power to them (tuned, clean, low power) I still run them in the 2.1CF box, but I sealed the ports off with rubber boat plugs. (One day Cody... i swear I'm gonna build that new enclosure)
-Jerry