Cus' NA6

[Rolley]

So...
What was the secret sound?

[Cus]

The secret sound was "A sombrero landing on a Taco after laughing so hard I dropped my taco and my sombrero fell off"

I've pulled the tape deck now, and put the Kenwood HU out of my Magna in there - I've fully decided I'm selling the Magna, in the time I've done 5000k's in little red, I've almost used a tank of fuel in the Magna.... so much for keeping it as a DD!

One thing I will give Mitsubishi though - their stock speakers are actually very good (well, compared to the clarion's that came with little red) where I was wanting to install a sub in the Magna for "More bass" in little red I just want "Some bass" - I do like music, the correct volume is "11" the correct distortion is "none" and the right frequencies are "all of them". I don't think I'm going to get that good of a setup in little red, the cabin's too small, there's too much road noise, and money spent on a sound system will not make the car faster or handle better....

Has anyone in or around central vic got a) headrest speakers, b) parcel shelf speakers, or c) both setup that I can listen to? I'm thinking if I put some 6.5" splits in the door and some 6.5" coaxials in the rear parcel shelf I'll have plenty of noise. I'd just need to worry about if a roll bar will fit over the top of the parcel shelf speakers - I imagine it should, someone on the internet sells parcel shelves that have the recess built in. Then they'll also be hidden away under carpet all stealth-like. (And the carpet becomes protection from the sun)

[speed]

Ripples had parcel shelf speakers in her when purchased. I ripped them out as they fouled on the plastic window. All the sound went out the back anyways!


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[gslender]

Long ago in a past 5 I installed a sub under the seats - worked well with the head rest speakers


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[speed]

G, good point. My bro has an 8in sub /amp behind seat and it makes a huge difference.


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[Jeo]

Headrest speakers are the terrible. I spent quite some time trying to get them right, tired many sets, in many sizes, with amplification; they all had the very obvious in hindsight problem of overpowering everything else. They’re right next to your head so they either have to be turned down to the point where they’re basically off, or they overpower the rest.

Buy some decent 6.5” splits, maybe a small sub either behind the seat or in the parcel shelf if you’re keen.

[Cus]

After back-and-forwarding with a mate all week who used to be one of them-there car audio buffs (but now has a wife and kidlet) we've settled on some 8's for the doors, some tweeters for also the doors, some sound deadening, all for a budget that looks like it's going to come in under the $200 mark.

The actual details of all these things are still being fleshed out, but the plan is (at the moment) put the 8's on the front channels, put the tweeters on the rear channels so I can use the fader like a lazy-man's crossover (the tweeters i'm looking at are 95dB sensitivity, so they're going to be too loud straight-wired)

The reason for the 8's is that said mate has a pair he's willing to part with for much less than they cost him. Having a wife and kidlet apparently means shelves in the shed get re-purposed. I don't want a wife and kids. *shakes head*

Once that's been done, I should have mostly-decent sound in the car for a bit, if I get excited in the future I can still put sound-deadening foam under the carpet (not dynamat, too heavy and expensive) a 2 channel amp and a real crossover for the existing speaker combo, or a 4ch amp and some extra speakers as well - probably going in the parcel shelf.

Speed: I appear to be the only mx5 owner on the planet that prefers my hard top - but it means my sound will bounce off the glass and into the back of my head. But the parcel speakers have been moved into the "not this time" basket.

Jeo: After sizing it up, headrest speakers are just going to pump into the back of my neck/shoulders, because I'm taller than the reference human, but thanks for confirming they're not going to be aural heaven

G: I didn't think of under the seat space, I assumed there wouldn't be any because people keep asking about the height of aftermarket seats on the internet, so that translated into "no room under the factory seats" in my little brain. But if I'm going to install subs, they need to "pass" this track: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxpJDIqTr-o otherwise not going to install them which probably means "no subs for lil red"

A "pass" being be able to get down to the low-lows, shouldn't affect the highs (I've played that track through a lot of systems, for the record the best speakers I've had them on are KRK Rokit 10-3's) a few PA systems pass on lows, but usually fail due to running compression (means the volume of the highs changes when it shouldn't) most "Fully sick" Off-The-Shelf stereos people have fail (however my sister has a panasonic setup that gets really really close, and cost about the same as one KRK) so if I'm putting money and time into a sub, it has to pass - but I'll be hapy with a non-sub'd setup that fails gracefully

== End Craziness ==

[speed]

Cus, you're not the only one. I bought mine with the hardtop on and didn't take it off for at least 2 months!
I copped the same criticism when I joined this forum earlier this year.
Sure I enjoy driving with the roof down but I don't need it down on every drive, I'm not a dog!


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[Nevyn72]

Sure I enjoy driving with the roof down but I don't need it down on every drive, I'm not a dog!

I suppose that make me a dog then....... WOOF!!

[Brewster]

Yeah, but what an album..

[Cus]

speed & Nevyn: you're only a dog if you bark at other cars, barking for recreation probably just means you need a hobby or stronger meds

Brewster: Telegraph Road and Private Investigations are two of my favorite stories told with music!


NOW! Onto the nuts and bolts. All audio planning has been cancelled temporarily while I chase down a new passenger guard thanks to some wonderful person in a lovey white commodore that decided giving way at a roundabout is completely optional, along with stopping after an accident, or just any kind of common sense in general... A lovely lady stopped and told me she saw it all, white car, sped off. So, good to know I didnt imagine it, less good neither of us got his license plate.

I did get a bit of his broken headlight (with red's paint) to keep as a memento of the occasion though.

I'll do the ring-around tomorrow and book lil red into a suspension place to make sure nothing's guffed in and around the FLH wheel - he got me fairly cleanly on the guard, popped the indicator out, but didn't break it, door has a small amount of white paint, but looks OK. everything opens and closes as expected, the guard is just stuffed by the looks of it.

I'm a little bit disappointed, it's my first collision (aside from the time I drove into the toolbox in the shed seeing how close i could get to it) I always assumed when I did have my first crash "Lucas being a phallus-head" was going to be the top of the cause-list, turns out my first crash was someone else being a phallus-head.

Oh well.

I hope his car rusts and he gets genital warts, whoever he is.

[Cus]

Say what you like about facebook, it really does allow lots of people to communicate, and sometimes it's useful.

My sister (who I often give a lot of flack to for being "A Facebook Soccer Mum") discovered she was (fb) friends with the mother of the guy that lives on the corner of the roundabout where I was collected. Said son makes a living selling CCTV setups to people, so naturally has the perimeter of his house under 24/7. Luckily for me, this includes the roundabout and so now I have footage of old mate in the dumbledore failing to give way, and failing to stop afterwards. It only cost me a bottle of Johnny! (He said it wasn't required, but it's the principle of the matter)

Still no number plate (the CCTV footage is of average 'CCTV' quality, so not actually very good) but I do have more evidence than my word, which has to count for something.

The footage looks like his whole bumper got displaced, possibly his guard, and definitely his headlight (because part of it is on my kitchen bench). So it makes me happy he's been fscked up too - and the way the po-po have been on cars with faults around here lately (a friend of a friend copped a fine for "dull" headlights the other day) they're likely to pull him over and have a chat anyway.

Off to present my video to the po-po tomorrow and make a statement and all that good stuff. Then off to see if the insurance company will let me make a claim without having to pay a stupid amount of excess. As usual, there'll be a short story on the outcome!

Anyway, here's a picture of the damage:

lil red broken.jpg

[Jeo]

That's already a pretty good story, really only missing the happy ending now. Hope it turns out well!

If it helps my sister's, friend's, son's, cousin's, dog's, mother's, owner's, parrot used to know a guy who...

[Cus]

Sadly, no happy ending here, insurance don't care because I don't have details of the other guy, so it's 550 excess for me, or find a guard that's red and put it on. police didn't care because they'd have to do actual detective work - and apparently I live in the "hoon capital of the known universe" (or victoria) and so they just cruise around catching the easy tickets. I can understand why though, in the rain the other day driving from one end of town to the other i saw three people pulled over in the space of 5 minutes... Liquid Horsepower brings out the best in everyone!

There have been about 5000 people see the vidya on FB, and i've been given addresses of people with damaged white commodores in and around bendigo, however, none of them appear to be the person who collected me. "broken white commodore" narrows my selection of cars down to "nearly all of the cars in town" haha

I did have a kangaroo offer to ding the other guard last week - which I declined. It was good of him to flag me down and offer though.

Did manage to sell my old car, so now I've got the folding fun tickets required to get lil red's bruising sorted out. And maybe a rollbar as well. Research is needed in that department though. AND I started a new job which has been kicking my arse with it's 4:30am starts (I'm a nerd by nature, 4am is (was) usually bedtime, not get-up time!)

So yeah, sh*t story, needs more dragons, but I should be back to "garage" and off the "dear diary" posts soon!

Bonus: You can fit 2000 Watt sound system into a '5!. You can't use it, but you can physically fit it in there! (they're QSC K12's in their tote bags, in case you're curious) If I can work out a way of powering them in the car, I'll have a go at zip-tieing them to the rollbar after it goes in, you know, for winning car audio comps. lol (don't worry, this will not actually happen)

[Cus]

Greetings humans!

Yesterday was a good day. Today was too, but yesterday is more interesting to the casual reader, so here it is!

I done gone and got me some of these here things right here:

lil-red-speakers-box.jpg

They're "German Maestro". Apparently they're what the German employees of "MB Quart" decided to do with their skills after the company was taken over and outsourced.

The Specs:
Power: 50W RMS
Size: 6.5"
Frequency Response: 40Hz - 28kHz
Sensitivity: 90dB 1W/1M


Mostly I had spare time and an overwhelming urge to replace the old speakers. Lots of research went into buying speakers. Almost none of it was followed while making my purchase. Walked into the local sound place, told them what I wanted, the guy said "wait here" and toddled out the back for a bit, and came back with those. They had them setup on the sound board. I had a 10 second listen to some random pop song, decided they had enough bass about them to do the job, and bought them.

I genuinely thought the existing speakers were 6.5inch for some reason (most likely explanation: I'm special) because they most definitely are not.

lil-red-speakers-old-vs-new.jpg

You can see the reason I wanted to be rid of the old speakers as plain as a red bonnet....

Someone had a moment of brilliance at some point in the car's life and made the speaker cover/panel out of ply wood with the little interior-trim clips on the back, which just meant having to find a jigsaw, and I'd be in business.

lil-red-speakers-housing.jpg

I found a relative with a jigsaw and went off to cut the holes bigger, and drill out the pilots for the new screws, mount the speakers in, and take exactly no photos.

At some point in my travels I picked up a pair of plugs so I could unplug the speakers - they detach with a firm pull (or if you kick them getting in or out) so being able to unplug them seems like a logical choice, it means I can pull the speakers right out if i'm working on the doors. I crimped the wires into the plugs, then soldered the crimp so it's one giant metal chunk. There is no photo, so it may not have happened.

lil-red-speakers-plugs.jpg

I soldered one end to the speakers, and the other end into the car, after checking which wire goes where, because the wiring in the car is all sorts of different. At some point I'll re-run the speaker wires back to the HU plug, the wires that are there are pretty average, the copper has oxidised under the insulation, so it's at least 9000 year old wire (or close enough to that)

lil-red-speakers-new-lead.jpg

Then I discovered there was a limit of 5 attachments per post. Please turn this recording to Side B.