ttocs

I had been saving up to get some good rca cables($50 is tight for me now) and finally got them together. I was able to get some good JL cables (4 channel and a 2 channel)for a good deal that I will discuss later. I had some final soldering to do to finish the amp rack and hook everything up. I was able to complete everything that I wanted to be able to pull the amp rack quickly if I want to go to the track(like my box). I made a wood piece at the top of the amp rack that I was able to fit all my connections on. I found some nice 9-pin hrns's that will allow me to easily disconnect the 8 speaker wires, and remtoe turn on for each amp(soldered). I mounted these on the wood piece I made for the connections of the amp rack, along with 6 channels(front, rear, sub) of female rca ends that I also soldered onto some nice monster cable rca's that I butchered. For the power connections I ran power wires from the amps to the same place I have the disconnects for the speaker and rca. I put a ring terminal on them, drilled a hole through the piece of wood that I mounted all the connections to, and ran a bolt through the ring terminal and the wood. I put another ring terminal on the power cables that I ran to the distrobution block, and now with a wing nut I can disconnect the power wires for both amps. I grounded both amps to the same point on the chassis, and it also doubles as a mounting point for the amp rack. By twisting another wing nut I will disconnect the grounds as well as then be able to lift the rack striaght out. I will not show the ground when I post pics as I do not want to give step by step instructions for a anyone that wants to remove it. If I ain't thiere it ain't commin out but I am willing to bet I will be able to pull out over 100 lbs of equipment in only a few minutes with the help of one person..........


It took me a little bit to tune it as one of my subs somehow was out of phase and when you are running 4 it takes a little while to figure out. After correcting that and adjusting the gain I gave it a small crank and wow. I can say that my thought that the old small alpine amp was not powering the subs enough was right. 5X the RMS power to the amp seems to have fixed this as I was amazed to remember that there were only "only" 8's playin, 4 of them mind you but the low end was better then any 8 I have heard(thankfully huh!). I did not get to play with it long as when I went to put my dash in with all the wires I have added it was giving me trouble(radio mounting really). I finally called it quits about 930 pm when I realized I was pissed enough to fource it in place, time to step away. Thinking about it later I think I have a better way to do it.

I was able to confirm that these amps will draw more then 40 amps of current by finally seeing my current meter dance a little, and then it blew the 40 amp fuse I had in the dist block from the old amp. I have a little more work to do on the package tray so I can mount the cross overs for the front speakers before I can wire and power up the other amp. After much debate and after driving around now for months with out any rear speakers I have decided to use the rear audio fill output(its a bandpass attenuated signal)on the front speaker x-overs. This will allow me to bi-amp the 3 ways and realy make them sing with 200 x 2 going to each side. I am sure somebody here will say "I told you so" and justifiably so.......

If I have the cash this weekend I will get the plexi and get it etched and mounted to take new pics.

KSUWildcatFan

Ah, gotta love headroom on components up front. And bi-amping FTW. Sounds like you've got a decent setup going. Some overall install pics would be interesting.

Keep it up.

-Jordan

PReal

Can't wait to see the pics. These are the PG amps you bought powering those MB 8's right?

KSUWildcatFan

PG amps, mm? Do tell.. I loved my M25/M50/M44/M100's and my ZX200/ZX250/ZX350/ZX500/ZX450 (yeah, I know, I've traded stuff in and out a lot). Oh, how PG has fallen..

-Jordan

ttocs

Don't make me cry with the PG amps. I used to love PG until they went to crap(I still own a limited edition octane amp(2zx600s together, the last of the good stuff!)). I had been dreaming of an old school cheater set up witha couple of the small M series amps Istill drool over before I found this deal. These amps are the diamond D9 800.4's(2 of them) I found a deal on.

I will try to get a pic of the rack with all the connections on it but I will probably wait to post new pics until I get the plexi inplace and etched but it should look as good as it sounds. I do havesome picsof the rack on my cardomain page. I am really happy with the ease of pulling the rack in and out. The amps are fan cooled and I am arranging myfans in the amp rack ina push-pull config and needed to find out which way the amps fan directed the air. I took about a 1 hr drive with it up most of the time and threw everything from technoand rap to live dave mathews and the box rocks now. I guess boatloads of clean power helped to fix the problems it had before as it is not a one note wonder anymore. After an hr of driving at high volumes the amp was barely warm but the fan was on thankfully as I did not want to drive around for another hr at high volume. I have the gains set a little more then 1/2 way, maybe 2/3's so I have room to grow there if the hex componants are as loud as I hope.

Thanks for the compliments. It is nice to see it finally comming to an end after all the time and it is nice to hear the compliments as well.

PReal

Diamond D9's! You are making my D5's envious! Why in the hell are you using two of them!

ttocs

why not? I thought more = better[:-]? I came across a deal on them a couple of months ago and thought honestly thought why not? with the 4 8's(that are a strange nominal impedence of 3 ohms(2.8 on a meter)) it would be hard to manage all of them and the 3 ways.... There are pics of them on page 8 er 9 of my cardomain page