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Progress on this thread, which ended being too long to be readable.
It took quite a bit of sacrificial 4" PVC to finally get things right. The destination for the midrange is curvy, with compound angles galore, so getting the PVC tube shaped and angled to sit satisfactorily flush was a bit of a challenge. Out of 8' of 4" PVC, it looks like there's about 16" left. That's a lotta cutting & shaping and waste.
Once the shape was cut on a paper template, a jigsaw was used to cut the pipe, followed by a chop saw to cut the proper depth & make a flat a surface for the beefy little Fountek 4" to sit flush & attach to. Photos of that process in the thread linked above.
One of the mental "issues" to overcome is drilling permanent holes in the door panel. Although I've done it countless times for customers & friends, making irreversible alterations to ones main ride somehow causes more angst. In effort to minimize "damage" to the panel, the idea of attaching threaded rods to the inside of the tubes made way more sense than fabing L brackets. To do that, a 3/32"" bit was used to create channels on the inside of the tube, then threaded rod was cut to length and epoxied in place, facilitating a rigid upper and lower mounting point for the pod.
![Bumper Vehicle Auto part Car Rim]()
When the final assembly happens, black gasketing on the curvy inner edge is in store, which should create an air tight seal and provide an impact cushion for the assembled housing.
The PVC tubes aren't yet covered. When they are, the material won't be all that noticeable except when inspected closely. It'll be a nice finish touch no matter what. Have some left over light gray leather which would contrast nicely with the darker grays of the interior. Black vinyl carbon fiber is another option - which would pretty much disappear in the shadows of this spot on the door.
![Vehicle Car Center console Family car]()
The coils and caps seen sitting on the arm rest in the photo above are part of crossovers yet to be assembled. The coil is destined for the Silver Flute 6.5" already in the door. 1st order attenuation @ 1K for those monsters - the big fat cap is 1st order HP on the midranges @ 1K. The idea behind those gentle slopes is to allow a smooth, phase coherent blend between the door woofs and mid range. The 6db down point for the Flutes will be 2K with the Founteks -6db @ 500Hz, where they *should* produce a warm vocal. Upper end of the mid is 3rd order @4.5kHz. That stuff is part of a larger plan to integrate the ribbon tweets you can see mounted in the sail panel - and Air Motion Transformers already singing nicely in the factory dash location. The ribbons will be crossed 1st order @ 10kHz, which should focus some of the "air" currently provided by the AMTs in the dash, splashing off the windshield.
EDIT: correcting myself on a technicality. 1st order crossovers impose a 6db slope calculated for the point of attenuation based on driver impedance. So... the -6db point on the 6.5" Silver Flutes will be -1kHz at the top end while the Fountek's mids will be -1kHz on the low end. The correction here is: the -12db on the Fountek midrange will be 500Hz/-12db on the SIlver Flutes @ 2kHz. The intention of this design is two fold: limit "phase confusion" at the crossover point between woof & mid and limit power to the 4" Fountek's - which *can be* full range drivers in a near field config. However, operating @ full range, they are spec'd to handle 25 watts peak. That limited power spec is due to low frequency handling abilities of a driver this size - stemming from the limited mechanical excursion of a small cone, the system suspending it and the voice coil/magnet comprising the motor pushing/pulling the cone/diaphragm. When the Fountek's are driven by the 100 watt Zapco, the 6db slope afforded by the capacitor will allow 50 watts to pass @ 1kHz, dropping to 25watts @ 500Hz, 12.5 watts @ 250hz, 6.25 watts @ 125Hz, 3.125 watts @ 62.5Hz and so on until virtually no power (or 1.56 Watts) is passed below the stupid low freq of 31.25Hz. < at the lower end, the output of the Zapco will already be limited to somewhere around 80Hz @ 3rd or 4th order slopes (18 to 24db) by the Pioneer's DSP filters - so any energy lower than that will already be super attenuated before program material gets into the signal path. In other words, the Fountek's *should handle* the target frequency range nicely. The advantage of a gentle 6db slope is rooted in phase coherence when the Fountek's and Flutes acoustically blend into the space of the RL's interior. Realizing this kind of thing only means something to nit-picking crazy sound junkies like I, this correction to thought occurred on the rainy drive to work this morning - sitting in traffic with nothing better to do than think about stuff. This is more about getting things straight & putting it in text to solidify my own understanding than anything else. /end edit.
I simply couldn't wait to hear if things were headed in the direction imagined, so I strung together the mids, rigged the filters and made a quick/dirty connection to the front end Zapco amp. The orientation of the mids turned out pretty much as imagined. Pointed just a tad low, maybe shoulder high, closest to the window of a 6' tall passenger & driver. First listen was very pleasing, causing the thought: "headphones". LOL. What I mean is, the image projected by the system is not only physically raised up, mixing with highs above 4.5kHz reflecting off the windshield, but voices and guitars are "present" and "immediate". For just a few minutes, I played around with accoustistuff and batting materials stuffed into the PVC tubes, further pushing the projected image forward. This brings a smile to my face. That kind of fine tuning will hafta wait till the system is totally together.
![Vehicle Car Motor vehicle Automotive design Center console]()
With plenty of day light left, Mr. Rain said stop what you are doing. SO, more will have to wait. Damn it. Todays progress is making me anxious.
The sub side of things has made incremental progress but to make anything substantial happens on that, I'm definitely going to need a few days of sequential effort when cutting the cab wall starts. Once the hole is made, there will be no option but to finish.
Starting to think taking vacation days is the only way to string enough days in a row to finally finish this install.
It took quite a bit of sacrificial 4" PVC to finally get things right. The destination for the midrange is curvy, with compound angles galore, so getting the PVC tube shaped and angled to sit satisfactorily flush was a bit of a challenge. Out of 8' of 4" PVC, it looks like there's about 16" left. That's a lotta cutting & shaping and waste.
Once the shape was cut on a paper template, a jigsaw was used to cut the pipe, followed by a chop saw to cut the proper depth & make a flat a surface for the beefy little Fountek 4" to sit flush & attach to. Photos of that process in the thread linked above.
One of the mental "issues" to overcome is drilling permanent holes in the door panel. Although I've done it countless times for customers & friends, making irreversible alterations to ones main ride somehow causes more angst. In effort to minimize "damage" to the panel, the idea of attaching threaded rods to the inside of the tubes made way more sense than fabing L brackets. To do that, a 3/32"" bit was used to create channels on the inside of the tube, then threaded rod was cut to length and epoxied in place, facilitating a rigid upper and lower mounting point for the pod.
When the final assembly happens, black gasketing on the curvy inner edge is in store, which should create an air tight seal and provide an impact cushion for the assembled housing.
The PVC tubes aren't yet covered. When they are, the material won't be all that noticeable except when inspected closely. It'll be a nice finish touch no matter what. Have some left over light gray leather which would contrast nicely with the darker grays of the interior. Black vinyl carbon fiber is another option - which would pretty much disappear in the shadows of this spot on the door.
The coils and caps seen sitting on the arm rest in the photo above are part of crossovers yet to be assembled. The coil is destined for the Silver Flute 6.5" already in the door. 1st order attenuation @ 1K for those monsters - the big fat cap is 1st order HP on the midranges @ 1K. The idea behind those gentle slopes is to allow a smooth, phase coherent blend between the door woofs and mid range. The 6db down point for the Flutes will be 2K with the Founteks -6db @ 500Hz, where they *should* produce a warm vocal. Upper end of the mid is 3rd order @4.5kHz. That stuff is part of a larger plan to integrate the ribbon tweets you can see mounted in the sail panel - and Air Motion Transformers already singing nicely in the factory dash location. The ribbons will be crossed 1st order @ 10kHz, which should focus some of the "air" currently provided by the AMTs in the dash, splashing off the windshield.
EDIT: correcting myself on a technicality. 1st order crossovers impose a 6db slope calculated for the point of attenuation based on driver impedance. So... the -6db point on the 6.5" Silver Flutes will be -1kHz at the top end while the Fountek's mids will be -1kHz on the low end. The correction here is: the -12db on the Fountek midrange will be 500Hz/-12db on the SIlver Flutes @ 2kHz. The intention of this design is two fold: limit "phase confusion" at the crossover point between woof & mid and limit power to the 4" Fountek's - which *can be* full range drivers in a near field config. However, operating @ full range, they are spec'd to handle 25 watts peak. That limited power spec is due to low frequency handling abilities of a driver this size - stemming from the limited mechanical excursion of a small cone, the system suspending it and the voice coil/magnet comprising the motor pushing/pulling the cone/diaphragm. When the Fountek's are driven by the 100 watt Zapco, the 6db slope afforded by the capacitor will allow 50 watts to pass @ 1kHz, dropping to 25watts @ 500Hz, 12.5 watts @ 250hz, 6.25 watts @ 125Hz, 3.125 watts @ 62.5Hz and so on until virtually no power (or 1.56 Watts) is passed below the stupid low freq of 31.25Hz. < at the lower end, the output of the Zapco will already be limited to somewhere around 80Hz @ 3rd or 4th order slopes (18 to 24db) by the Pioneer's DSP filters - so any energy lower than that will already be super attenuated before program material gets into the signal path. In other words, the Fountek's *should handle* the target frequency range nicely. The advantage of a gentle 6db slope is rooted in phase coherence when the Fountek's and Flutes acoustically blend into the space of the RL's interior. Realizing this kind of thing only means something to nit-picking crazy sound junkies like I, this correction to thought occurred on the rainy drive to work this morning - sitting in traffic with nothing better to do than think about stuff. This is more about getting things straight & putting it in text to solidify my own understanding than anything else. /end edit.
I simply couldn't wait to hear if things were headed in the direction imagined, so I strung together the mids, rigged the filters and made a quick/dirty connection to the front end Zapco amp. The orientation of the mids turned out pretty much as imagined. Pointed just a tad low, maybe shoulder high, closest to the window of a 6' tall passenger & driver. First listen was very pleasing, causing the thought: "headphones". LOL. What I mean is, the image projected by the system is not only physically raised up, mixing with highs above 4.5kHz reflecting off the windshield, but voices and guitars are "present" and "immediate". For just a few minutes, I played around with accoustistuff and batting materials stuffed into the PVC tubes, further pushing the projected image forward. This brings a smile to my face. That kind of fine tuning will hafta wait till the system is totally together.
With plenty of day light left, Mr. Rain said stop what you are doing. SO, more will have to wait. Damn it. Todays progress is making me anxious.
The sub side of things has made incremental progress but to make anything substantial happens on that, I'm definitely going to need a few days of sequential effort when cutting the cab wall starts. Once the hole is made, there will be no option but to finish.
Starting to think taking vacation days is the only way to string enough days in a row to finally finish this install.
