hey guys, so my dad decided to do his own handy work to my audio system the other day. check it out, give me your immediate reactions on this becauuuse i like the way it sounds now, annd i dont think ill be changing it back (sorry about the quality of the photos, it was taken off a blackberry. I know theres a camera right there in the picture but it decided not to co-operate with me on this one):

heres the scoop: My dad said that if we could raise the box a bit off the floor of the car, it would sound a lot better(yes/no?). it is also our last and only vehicle after the seriously unfortunate event on christmas eve of '08, im really lucky to still have this sucker in there. thus this will be his work van as well. so, being his son i trusted his judgment and went on a little trip to home depot with him to get some wood!



some braces are added on the sides of the board to add support as the combined weight of Jalat's box and the 15" L5 is... well a lot.



from the back of the box, its literally only raised about a couple inches maybe.. not even


all in all, my van rattles a lot harder now and it sounds great.. and something ive never seen caused by my system, people rolling their windows up when im not even sitting with them at a red light . another incident, not too long after the box lift, was me driving around with my buddy and he tapped my shoulder to tell me to look out his passenger window, to see that i was shaking the side view mirror of an f150 sitting next to me. that brought a smile right across my face. most of my friends now have to reach for my deck and turn down the volume though . i think i really need to head out to a local show.
So! tell me what you guys think? is it a big no no? orrr... lol

 

The fact that you centered the enclosure likely helps too. You could almost wire the amp in between them boards as a display. Looks good.

 

Your father is a smart man. Raising the enclosure isolates any box resonance energy from being transferred to the floor of the vehicle.

I use rubber motor mounts and metal framing to help isolate enclosures for more accurate output signal and spl.

Physics... who knew

Cheers

 

N130Gv2 - yeah i was thinking about that before this, would centering it make it better?
thats a good idea for the amp as it just sits on the floor right now on its own box though and raised off of it as well to keep cool. i may relocate it to the wheel wells on either side so i can have sub amp on one side, and then eventually a 4 channel on the other, but both on top sound cool too. its just my install guy didnt give me much slack to work with

Tubeamp - thanks, i like to think he is a wise man too hah. it is almost as if, if i may, it raised the sound stage a little and sounds great with my only two after market speakers being up in the dash if that makes sense.

 

I did so with my box and it made a noticeable difference. The only problem with raising it too high is that it changes your class in competition. You have to stay below the window line or under 26" depending on the format. Usually centered means no longer below window line/height... but none-the-less ... you seem happy with your system and that my friend is all that matters.

 

The cool that your dad has done, is to passively phase/Eq adjust your system

Effectively, things may/can be corrected when trying to control resonances. In your vehicle, potentially the frequency of the floor (or anything attached to the vehicle) vibrating was canceling (or overpowering) certain musical frequencies making your system sound as it did. Or, simply by raising the enclosure you changed some of the sub-woofer sound waves into better alignment ultimately reducing some cancellation. Depending the application, both or more things may have been altered in your vehicle.

Crank it up and enjoy the better sound!

 

haha fair enough you guys.

is there anything else i could do thats cheap and simple like this to do more for the sound? i dont like the idea of dynamat and stuff. my dad chimed in again and suggested layers of aluminum duct tape? i went with it thinking that it would be just as useful or something. 10 bucks a rolls opposed to 2 dynamat door pieces for around 30..

 

Technically anything mentioned above will work great. Though, unless you use many multiple layers of aluminum tape it will not work for your application very efficiently. Products like Dynamat and the similar are there to help add mass to the sheet metal (changing the resonance) or panels and provide some heat/noise protection it is applied to... so anything similar will work Just make sure it doesn't smell too much or is toxic when heated.

If you have the time/budget dampening the entire vehicle (roof/walls/floor/firewall etc) will help tremendously. As well, try to make any directly effected surfaces the sub is firing against as solid as possible. The rear hatch door will need to be damped heavily. The less vibration it has and the "more firmy" it is to resist the bass waves the better... some people even use mdf that is silicon'd and screwed to the sheet metal before applying the damping material of choice.

Hope this helps!

Cheers

 

You know what I think is cool, your old man helping you with something that you both seem to enjoy. Not enough parents are involved in their kids lives.