Center console speaker box

[lonesouth]

This will be my second speaker box build. You can see my last build here. Since I'm going to be replacing my front seats, my old box will no longer fit, so I figured I would take the opportunity to upgrade my center console and my speakers.

I bought a paid of Polk Audio DB521 5.25-Inch Coaxial Speakers to use in this. I'm going to reuse my Optimus 50x2 amp and direct drive from an ipod/iphone for now. I'm also going to add a Rockford Fosgate 225.2 amp and Rockford Fosgate P3D2-12 sub which will either sit in front of, or behind, the rear seats with the speaker down firing in a sealed box.

I will update the thread as I go. Construction will be primarily with 3/4 MDF and black automotive carpet, I may hot coat or cover with fiberglass for waterproofing.

 

[BowHunter148]

Will u sell your old one!

 

[lonesouth]

Pay for shipping and I send it to you free...once I have the new one built and installed that is

 

[timhorr]

center speaker

take a picture of your work...i thought about buying a "centra-pod" but it looks cheap...

 

[skerrybronco]

I have the 8 inch in mine with 21 inch seats at the widest sections
Not much room for larger, I offset it to the pass side,
Have an inch and a half clearance drivers and one inch passenger

 

[skerrybronco]

Sorry guys I meant to answer the tuffy question in the chat

 

[lonesouth]

After some more thought, I've decided to put a 10" sub into the console. The design is a side firing bandpass with vertical port facing the rear. The intention is to protect the sub from direct exposure to knocks, sticks, elbows, etc; it is more about sub protection than bandpass performance. I'm going to try to sketch it up in Trimble SketchUp. The dimensions should closely match the Tuffy console, ~ 8" wide, 18" tall and 24" long. Going to put cupholders in the front, as well as house the 5.25 Polk Audio speakers mentioned above. The polks will also be separately enclosed.

I happen to have a couple of Infinity Kappa Perfect 10.1 subs laying around, so I figured I'd put that in.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-GjBrpV35BwK/p_108PER101/Infinity-Kappa-Perfect-10-1.html

http://www.sketchup.com/

This is a free basic 3d CAD program originally developed by Google.

I'm hoping this video will get me up and running enough to complete the design. Adding the sub, and amp mounted internally, will make it a bit more complicated, so sketching should give me piece of mind that the design is sound.

[youtube]ZCeUB63Sjks[/youtube]


This will by no means be an enclosure optimized for the sub or tuned to any particular frequency, but it will fit

 

[joser]

This will be my second speaker box build. You can see my last build here. Since I'm going to be replacing my front seats, my old box will no longer fit, so I figured I would take the opportunity to upgrade my center console and my speakers.

I bought a paid of Polk Audio DB521 5.25-Inch Coaxial Speakers to use in this. I'm going to reuse my Optimus 50x2 amp and direct drive from an ipod/iphone for now. I'm also going to add a Rockford Fosgate 225.2 amp and Rockford Fosgate P3D2-12 sub which will either sit in front of, or behind, the rear seats with the speaker down firing in a sealed box.

I will update the thread as I go. Construction will be primarily with 3/4 MDF and black automotive carpet, I may hot coat or cover with fiberglass for waterproofing.

What are using for direct drive of your iPod? I want to ditch my head unit and just run my iPod into an amp, but I don't know what to look for. My stereo doesn't have an aux jack and is so full of dust that the cd doesn't work.

Thanks,

 

[lonesouth]

What are using for direct drive of your iPod? I want to ditch my head unit and just run my iPod into an amp, but I don't know what to look for. My stereo doesn't have an aux jack and is so full of dust that the cd doesn't work.

Thanks,

You want to read the thread on my first build linked in the first post above. I was going to direct drive the amp from my iPhone this time, but then I found the kenwood receiver deal, so I'm going to use a head unit again.

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=240-135

I did pick up a kenwood head unit for cheap, so I am going away from the ipod to amp, and back to the standard radio install.

 

[lonesouth]

So, in creating my cad design, i've found that I can not keep the 8" of the tuffy. The sub has a mounting depth 5 13/16, so to keep the end of the sub off the wood, I'm making that 6". Using 3/4 MDF, I've only got .5" between the sub mounting surface and the opposing wall. Problem is the xmax of the sub is ~.55". So I am pushing the opposing wall out .5", as I am constrained on the mounting surface. This will make the whole console 8.5", but it will give me 1" gap from the sub mounting surface to the opposing wall, .45" between xmax and the opposing wall.

This picture may help understand what I mean.

 

[Thunder26]

I personally would change that design from being a bandpass like that. If you want to you could flush mount the sub in the box and just make it ported you would like the sound better and still give you protection of the sub.

Edit: Here's a quick design it's 1.1 ft^3 tuned to 36 Hz, once you put a pound of poly fill inside.

 

[lonesouth]

After putting more thought into it...The bandpass will take up too much space and I'm unsure of the sound quality that it would produce. I've changed the design to a sealed box with the sub flush mounted with some expanded metal or similar material used as a speaker grill to protect the sub. I may change the covering to a backless automotive carpet, which will not muffle the sound much, but will still hide the sub.

this yields a box that is ~.65 cubic feet. I may take 1/2" off the top and .25 out of the middle to get closer to the optimal .6 cubic feet the specs suggest. This would get me back to 8" and give me room on top to add a padded arm rest..

This is what I currently have mocked up for the front chamber that will house the 5.25 speakers and cup holders. It is a single chamber, I don't think the speakers will create enough pressure to appreciably interact. I can shrink this to 8" if necessary and the cupholders fit flush side by side. I could also offset and remove the junk bin to give more relief between the cupholders.

Being able to model this in CAD is terrific. I have changed my mind so many times on different things that modeling on paper would have already driven me crazy. Sketchup is pretty easy to get used to which helps.

 

[asinor]

What are using for direct drive of your iPod? I want to ditch my head unit and just run my iPod into an amp, but I don't know what to look for. My stereo doesn't have an aux jack and is so full of dust that the cd doesn't work.

Thanks,

I'm going to use the iAMPcbl available here:
http://www.ipodcarpros.com/Direct_T.../p469/iAMPcbl_-_iPod_to_Amp/product_info.html

I will be using the iPad version

 

[lonesouth]

I personally would change that design from being a bandpass like that. If you want to you could flush mount the sub in the box and just make it ported you would like the sound better and still give you protection of the sub.

Edit: Here's a quick design it's 1.1 ft^3 tuned to 36 Hz, once you put a pound of poly fill inside.

I'm trying to keep the size as small as possible and waste as little room as possible. I would make this 13" tall and get to .5 cu ft, but I do need the height to make an adequate arm rest and there isn't a downside to making it larger. Also, I like the punchiness of a sealed box more than the pounding ability of ported.

 

[KyleQ]

You can run anything with a headphone jack to an amp - you just get a 3.5mm to RCA and plug your cell phone into the amp and play music through it. You can get two amps and link them, one for door speakers and one for your subs - all off your cell phone.

I've got an old Zune I'm going to use for a stereo - no need for a HU, just an old MP3 player with radio option...

The Apple crap is more complicated then it needs to be-

 

[lonesouth]

Here's the first stab at the full console. I thought about adding some storage, but I don't think it would be large enough(lengthwise) to be useful. Still need to add a padded armrest to the top.

 

[Thunder26]

I like your sealed design a lot more than your bandpass. I prefer the sound of low tuned ported enclosures and transmission lines, I figured by going bandpass you wanted some semblance of a loud system. That sealed box volume though won't be very punchy though remember the smaller your sealed enclosure the punchier it is, the specs on that sub actually make that a pretty big box for it.

 

[gnsteam]

Great timing on this build. I just received a Kenwood Head unit for my birthday and I'm looking for speaker mounting options. I liking your plan, and I need a console as well. Looking forward to seeing your progress.

 

[lonesouth]

I like your sealed design a lot more than your bandpass. I prefer the sound of low tuned ported enclosures and transmission lines, I figured by going bandpass you wanted some semblance of a loud system. That sealed box volume though won't be very punchy though remember the smaller your sealed enclosure the punchier it is, the specs on that sub actually make that a pretty big box for it.

Looks like I miscalculated my box volume. I'll recheck and work the size down to .6 cubic feet.

 

[Thunder26]

I would go to .5 if the sub can still fit in those dimensions.