Capt Nemo o2

Well, I got a JL W3v3 10" for Xmas and built a custom box for it back in January, but didnt have time to take pictures as I was extremely busy. Originally it was powered by a Coustic 161SE amp I had lying around taken out of my Jeep. That amp, you can say was well used! It spent 2.5 years in my Jeep, then sat for 3 years. Unfortunately it was past its prime and started to go. My mother asked me about it the other day and I told her it was dying, so she bought me a RF 250.2 amp to replace it (I wasnt looking for something extreme, just something to complement the HK system)

Unfortunately I've been out of commission since my second night back in NY due to a motorcycle accident, and cant drive my car. This gave me some time to do some limited modding of my ashtray. I took the bass control apart and built it into the ashtray as well as my XM radio. When my arm heals some more and can actually do more with it, I will make it look much better... this is just for the time being...



Excuse the mess... I got into my accident within 24 hours of returning to NY and couldn't finish unpacking! The amp still needs to be mounted, I just have to make the bracket to suspend it from the bottom of the rear deck...





It doesn't look that crappy in person, the flash just reflected differently on the different materials.



This is why I cant drive my car... Not allowed to lift more than ~2.5lbs



And this is what I have now!

TruTaing

ahh, Ive broken my right collar bone before (Im right handed) and it SUCKS. I remember having to sleep on a recliner for MONTHS and basically having my entire right arm imobilized for quite some time... Did they give you that butterfly sling around? Good luck w/ it all

-j0hn

Capt Nemo o2

I was actually only in a sling from the Friday night of the accident to the morning after the surgery which was the following Friday. Because I had done the clavicle mod (AKA titanium plate), the bone was being held together and didn't require being immobilized. But its only for extreme light duty stuff right now 'till the bone fully heals. It still sucks, just not as bad as being completely immobilized!

SeaCoupe

The Titanium mod?!

Looks good. How many watts are you powering the sub with? I like good fill, but am way past the boom type music I used to prefer.

Tell us about the rest of the system?

E

Capt Nemo o2

Well, the amp is rated at 250W RMS @ 4ohm bridged... The spec sheet that came with the amp says it was tested to actually make 318W RMS @ 14.4V... With the power wire I ran, I loose about 15-25W RMS... So I'm pushing around 293-303W RMS. Which was actually what I was hoping for. It sounds good, Its a good filler for the HK system, but I still need to play with the settings. I also already reinforced the box with fiberglass, but may have to do some more, I think I may have split a seam on the bottom of the box! The box itself was built to have the exact volume required by the W3, which is .67 +- .005 cu.ft.

For now, I'm using the factory sub signal with the factory sub still being used, wired in phase of each other as kind of a powered passive radiator (oxymoron!). It sounds pretty good right now. I actual have the crossover set to cut off the upper range of the factory signal. This lets me use the factory sub do its job, while the JL sub fills in the lower frequencies and gives a little more thump. This also allows me to set the amp remote to +0dB at intermediate volume levels which pretty much quiets the JL sub so that its not pounding over the music but still get good bass. Turn up the volume or turn up the amp remote to get some more thump.

All in all, I'm pretty happy considering that the rest of the system is factory. It doesn't sound as good as my Jeep, but that had:

Pioneer HU
2 Blaupunkt 6.5" components with tweeters in the door and factory Infinity tweeters in the dash 22W RMSx2
2 Kenwood 6.5" 3-ways in the back doors 22W RMSx2
2 Pioneer 6x9 3-ways in the tailgate powered 75W RMSx2
2 MTX Thunder 6000 200W RMS x 2
(According to OEM Math = 20 speakers!)

That system was really well balanced and played any type of music really well. The setup in my C230 plays all music pretty well, but I still need to tune it for the really heavy bass songs. But again, my Jeep took 2 years to get it right, with tuning and changing speakers.

As my friend says... "It sounds like an extremely high end factory premium sound system." And I'll agree with him there.

Only major thing left is fixing the rattle from the factory sub grill (was always there, brought it to the dealer, their solution was "Turn down the bass" which is not an option!) and the rear speaker or sunshade. Both which require taking the rear shelf apart. If I do that, I'll play with the sound with the factory sub removed.

Thats a mouthful!

Saprissa

Ouch...

that looks like some contraption I used to keep my carpet down at the seams...

hope you recuperate soon Capt Nemo !


Carlos

Saprissa

Mu9enx

sorry to hear about your accident! get well soon