My first "Active" "SQ'ish" build attempt.

Looking good my man.. you finally heading the right direction.. slowly but surely.. Great choices in equipment btw. Everything looks solid. Wait till you start tuning this beast. You're gonna sh1t yourself for real lol.
Bills, Bills, and more Bills. Yeah, it's slow going but once everything is here and the sub box is built... the rest is going to go pretty quick. I decided to NOT install anything until I button down the sunroof leak. It has 4 drain lines in the sunroof... I fixed the front two with compressed air. The two rear lines are harder to deal with so I am taking down the headliner completely and I am going to put new headliner material on to replace the gray with black while I am at it.

 
I am in the process of ordering parts to complete my 3Sixty.3 DSP... waiting to be able to purchase the remote for it. I ordered the patch cable to connect the remote to the DSP... RF says use a CAT5e cable... so I got a Black, Nylon sleeved CAT7 cable which should put the kibosh on any and all interference that may have happened with a CAT5e cable. I am going to be running a Class D amp near the DSP and RF says to keep the "CAT5e" away from a class D amp. Should be no issues with the CAT7. This cable will also visually match my USB cable that I bought for the DSP.

 
Curious why the Silver Flutes in a three way. They are not the best for mid bass which is what someone typically wants in a three way. In a two way they are ok, nothing special, but ok. 

 
Curious why the Silver Flutes in a three way. They are not the best for mid bass which is what someone typically wants in a three way. In a two way they are ok, nothing special, but ok. 
The price was right on the Silverflutes and after some research I decided to give them a shot. My doors are on the large side so there is some airspace in them to work with... should be able to get some bottom end out of them. This is my first SQ attempt so down the road I will most likely try some Satori 6 1/2's... I'd really like to give the ScanSpeak Revelators a try.

Update: RF fixed their site. I ordered the remote!!!

 
Sounds good. Just be careful with mid woofers not designed for car audio/in a car door installation. Their TS Parameters are not optimized for infinite baffle and they may have open voice coils that are exposed to the elements inside the door. The Silver Flutes don’t have exposed voice coils but the paper cone isn’t coated for car door use either. See if you can construct a rain shield out of either plastic or sound deadening to keep the dripping water from the glass above off the speaker. Scanspeak does make an autosound mid woofer https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/auto-woofers/scanspeak-discovery-autosound-16w/4434g-6.5-fiberglass-cone-woofer-each/ that would do well in a three way as a dedicated midbass woofer. Pair this with these tweeters https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/auto-tweeters/scanspeak-discovery-car-r1904/613001-autosound-tweeter-one-each/ and one of thier 4” mids and you would have a nice sounding system provided it’s installed and tuned properly. 

What happened to the Sony component set?

 
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Sounds good. Just be careful with mid woofers not designed for car audio/in a car door installation. Their TS Parameters are not optimized for infinite baffle and they may have open voice coils that are exposed to the elements inside the door. The Silver Flutes don’t have exposed voice coils but the paper cone isn’t coated for car door use either. See if you can construct a rain shield out of either plastic or sound deadening to keep the dripping water from the glass above off the speaker. Scanspeak does make an autosound mid woofer https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/auto-woofers/scanspeak-discovery-autosound-16w/4434g-6.5-fiberglass-cone-woofer-each/ that would do well in a three way as a dedicated midbass woofer. Pair this with these tweeters https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/auto-tweeters/scanspeak-discovery-car-r1904/613001-autosound-tweeter-one-each/ and one of thier 4” mids and you would have a nice sounding system provided it’s installed and tuned properly. 

What happened to the Sony component set?
I ended up taking the Sony set back... they tried to tell me I couldn't return them even though I never even opened the box. They ended up giving me store credit. The credit turned into a used pair of 6x9's for the back dash of the G6 (Temporary) just so I could have speakers there with no rattling. They are wired the same as the factory monsoon 6x9's, I was very slick about that lol and even used the OEM connectors. I also used the credit to buy the DD 2.75" speakers and a few other misc. items. The SF's and DD's will be housed in the factory speaker pods which will shield them from water droplets. The picture shows the same model SF's in the same speaker pods as mine. I wish I had the backside pic but the woofer is almost fully covered. The inside of the door will have sound deadening and a foam plug behind the woofer, the door will be covered in sound deadener behind the door panel which will also have some deadening on it. I have speaker gasket material that will go behind each speakers mounting surface and Stinger fast rings to finish it all off.

I am close to pulling any and all stereo components out of my Jeep so I can sell the Jeep as soon as the title for the G6 is in my hand... I was told the title is on the way so I told the guy I will hang on to the final payment until it gets here. I already know when I am using the G6 as my main transportation I WILL NOT be happy until the stereo is in it.

Monsoon.thumb.jpg.6d336eb0c776ea2e7dbe5bff074c46c8.jpg

 
What sort of foam plug are you putting behind the speaker? I’m assuming it’s not an open cell foam plug that will retain water every time you wash the car, or it rains. I haven’t seen the Stinger fast rings, but if they are also open cell foam, your wasting time and money on those too.

 
What sort of foam plug are you putting behind the speaker? I’m assuming it’s not an open cell foam plug that will retain water every time you wash the car, or it rains. I haven’t seen the Stinger fast rings, but if they are also open cell foam, your wasting time and money on those too.
It is in fact the Stinger fast rings... the package doesn't say what kind of foam it is nor does the website. Hmmm. Looks like open cell to me. I took a pic... you tell me?

20190216_010532.jpg

 
I got my Cat7 cable today. Has a very nice and positive click when plugged in to the 3Sixty.3. The first thing I bought for it was the USB cable also shown in the pic. The car has dark carpet and trim so I wanted the cables to disappear into the car. The USB will be hidden but accessible for connecting to the laptop even after the install is complete. I am trying to plan ahead as much as possible.

20190216_131810.jpg

 
The fast rings will hold water after a little while, tried it myself and I don't think they actually work as advertised. The Fast Ring made no discernible difference in SQ with my installation and the only reason I got them in the first place was because they were free with a set of speakers I bought. Not trying to rain on your parade either but I would be surprised if those silver flutes sound better than those high res Sony's you had. The Sony tweeter might have been **** but I bet the woofer was half way decent. The Sony's are made for a car door with a higher total Q and a resonant frequency ~ 60-80. The  Silver Flutes have an fs of about 37.5 and a total Q at a low .24. Without the air spring action offered by a smaller enclosure as they were designed to help the woofer out, the total Qtc of the system with the Flutes (total Q) will be low and bass response will suffer as a result. Attached is a graph I did in bassBox6 Pro showing an AudioFrog GS60 vs that Silver flute in a 1.5 cu ft enclosure simulating a car door so you can see what I mean. It has an fs of 80.5 and a QTS of .67 so the AudioFrog has a stiffer suspension more suited for the infinite baffle environment that is typical of a car door. The Silver Flute is in red and the GS60 in yellow. 

AudioFrog GS60 vs Silver Flute.png

 
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The fast rings will hold water after a little while, tried it myself and I don't think they actually work as advertised. The Fast Ring made no discernible difference in SQ with my installation and the only reason I got them in the first place was because they were free with a set of speakers I bought. Not trying to rain on your parade either but I would be surprised if those silver flutes sound better than those high res Sony's you had. The Sony tweeter might have been **** but I bet the woofer was half way decent. The Sony's are made for a car door with a higher total Q and a resonant frequency ~ 60-80. The  Silver Flutes have an fs of about 37.5 and a total Q at a low .24. Without the air spring action offered by a smaller enclosure as they were designed to help the woofer out, the total Qtc of the system with the Flutes (total Q) will be low and bass response will suffer as a result. Attached is a graph I did in bassBox6 Pro showing an AudioFrog GS60 vs that Silver flute in a 1.5 cu ft enclosure simulating a car door so you can see what I mean. It has an fs of 80.5 and a QTS of .67 so the AudioFrog has a stiffer suspension more suited for the infinite baffle environment that is typical of a car door. The Silver Flute is in red and the GS60 in yellow. 

View attachment 4199
Not raining on my parade I promise. This is why I am here on this site... I appreciate the input. What about the woofer from my eXcelons? It's the XR-1700P set in my Jeep.

 
Not raining on my parade I promise. This is why I am here on this site... I appreciate the input. What about the woofer from my eXcelons? It's the XR-1700P set in my Jeep.
IDK about Kenwood speakers because I never ran them and I can’t model them because they don’t publish their TS Parameters so that should tell you something right there. I had one of their budget amplifiers once and it was horrible sounding. I can tell you that AudioFrog speakers are fantastic and the guy behind them is well respected in the car audio sound qaulity community, which is what I like. I’m not an SPL type of guy so I don’t give a **** if my system can’t hit 140 db. I just acquired the GB12/GB60/GB15 combo But haven’t installed them yet. If I was on a budget and wanted the best possible mid woofer for under $300 than I don’t know if the AudioFrog GS60 can be beat. If I wanted to try something different and unique that is designed for a car door than I would look at the Wavecor wf166tu02. https://www.parts-express.com/wavecor-wf166tu02-6-1-2-paper-cone-mid-woofer-4-ohm--298-1186 If I wanted a decent budget component set with everything than AudioFrog G60S or Pioneer Z series. By far the best budget tweeter I have ever experienced is the SB Acoustics SB26STCN-C000-4 tweeter and NVX makes a version called the X series with grills. If you want small format and as low or lower distortion than the Scanspeak D3004 for off axis or the R3004 on axis cannot be beat for the price. The AudioFrog GB10 is also a nice tweeter and they come with some nice installation accessories and are on par with the Scanspeak (own GB10 soon so can review later). 

Depending on on your expectations for sound qaulity you could be fine with less expensive components. I tried the Silver Flutes and wasn’t impressed with them. They had a muted midrange that was off putting. I’ve been running the stock Ford woofers active in y F150 and amped with a D8604 for a year up until this weekend and they sound really good and cost me nothing. It’s surprising actually! I started out budget minded like most everyone else and quickly moved up the line in qaulity as I learned more. There may be nothing wrong with Kenwood speakers or any other brand you choose, and compared to some stock speakers, they may be superior. Now I just happen to have some very high expectations for sound qaulity now so that is where I’m coming from. I just got an opportunity to audition an Audi at Sound in Motion in Boston MA with an Illusion Audio subwoofer and Dynaudio Esotec components. This is Dynaudios budget line! Let me tell you that system rocked. Smooth, great mid bass that you actually feel, and detail that rivals the best $1200 component sets out there. When I got back into my truck I was like ahhh man, LMAOL. If you ever get the chance to go to some meets and audition some cars than do it. You will learn a lot and figure out real quickly what sounds good and what doesn’t. I’m still in the process of installing the Frogs but can’t wait to listen to them. 

I just installed some Image Dynamics XS57 mids in my truck, tuned them with the DSP and REW and I have to say they kind of **** right now. Kind of harsh in the male vocal range and a hollow sound too. Just got them in so I will give them some time to break in and do some more tuning but right now I’m not liking them. If they don’t improve than I’m taking them out. Good thing I didn’t pay full price for them. The X series mid woofers in my CX5 Sound much better, and smoother too, and the Focal mid woofers in my van are also better. 

 
Man I wish I knew where the literature was that I had back in the day when it was explained in said literature that thinner paper cone speakers react better in large enclosures and thicker and or non paper cones react better in smaller enclosures. Back when I read any and all magazines and info I could on home audio and car audio. Basically starting back in 1990. So much useful knowledge was knocked out of my head in my motorcycle wreck. Some of it comes back to me in spurts. I am going to try the Silver Flutes since I already have them. I plan to pay attention to the install and prep for the speakers so hopefully I can get some good results. If not... I will try as many speakers as I have to until I am satisfied with the end results. I am not looking to compete... just the best sound I can get for my own ears... better than anything I have had before in a car. The tweeters from my eXcelons actually sound pretty good... to me anyway.

Something tells me that the three way front stage I have currently should sound pretty good.

 
Only one more piece to get for the DSP now. I just got the remote from RF, they shipped it FAST. The last piece is the AptX HD Bluetooth receiver which will connect via an optical cable... which will also be gold tipped and sleeved in black nylon. ;)

20190219_124723.jpg

 
One more piece of the puzzle. I went with this fiber optic cable because I couldn't find a black sleeved cable with the look I wanted... came across this one which matches, aesthetically, my Knu Koncepts Krystal RCA's

20190225_1703431.jpg

 
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