Pimp Mom's Car - How Pioneer Transformed a Jeep Liberty

[admin]

At Audioholics we love audio. We love it. Wait, scratch that... we love GOOD audio. And with that said, it's with great pain that we ride in a vehicle that doesn't live up to the standards of an audioholic. And believe me when I say that MOST vehicle sound systems don't live up to those standards. But even taking into account that most vehicles will never sound as good as a well-tuned home theater system, there was one car that was absolutely horrendous. This car was the worst. It had boomy bass that didn't play low, nor did it know enough to call it quits when it received frequency content it had no business trying to reproduce. A car with high frequencies that used to attract cats in heat from across the neighborhood and cause bleeding in the ears of small children. A car who's audio system could turn even your favorite song into a poisonous cacophony of grating chord-filled agony.

Discuss "Pimp Mom's Car - How Pioneer Transformed a Jeep Liberty" here. Read the article.

 

[GranteedEV]

Yeah, it's big what just swapping speakers will do for you..

But unfortunately, I'm starting to be convinced that the absolute most difficult thing for a car stereo to reproduce, is god-damn AM Radio

I think it's because male vocals resonate greatly with door-panels. You really need to do something about that aspect if you can.

My 2cents for a good car setup:

A bit of CLD is a good place to start to reduce those door panel resonances.

Road noise is of course an issue, because it raises the SPLs you try to force out of your driver. Mass Loaded Vinyl + Closed Cell Foam are never a bad idea in the doors, and anywhere else you can put them.

As far as speakers go, I think what you need is a larger driver that can cover as wide a range as possible. Something like this in a box:

Scan Discovery, 10F/4424G

Aim them so they cross in front of the middle driving seat it will be directional in the treble. That's got its pros however as it should improve imaging a bit . The main thing is that it's covering much of the whole midrange without space issues. If you need to add a supertweeter, that can be your call. I wouldn't bother.

Add in some decent 6.5" woofers to cover 100hz to 400hz. Don't need to go overboard

Dayton RS180S-8 7" Reference Shielded Woofer 8 Ohm 295-364

And cross them together near 500hz to your woofer, digital/actively with as much control as you get. Ability to measure is of course very important. Something like a miniDSP:

miniDSP 2x8 kit | miniDSP

Will handle this part.

Finish it off with a decently sensitive subwoofer, like this,

Peerless 830669 12" Paper Cone SLS Subwoofer 264-1118

in as large a sealed box as you can personally deal with, that will benefit greatly from pressure vessel gain inside the car. If you can mostly seal off part of the trunk, that may be best. Sensitivity in the 50hz to 100hz region is probably a lot more useful than deep extension, as you don't really want to need a lot of power for the sub.

The hard part? Figuring out a place to put the 3.5" mid-tweeter and an "enclosure" for it.

 

[STRONGBADF1]

Inconsistent functions and ridiculously bad manuals are a way of life in the car audio world. I have one in my truck that is so bad that I need to get another. Just tuning the radio is a chore.

 

[ChrisFox]

All I really ask in a car radio is a knob for volume, large easy to fell buttons for presets,an aux port and seek/scan buttons. If I could only find one that only had those and not the 300 things I'll never use. One I have now uses the one huge knob for everything. Volume, left and right without pushing in goes through presets. Pushing in brings up the menu. I've never figured out how to get out of the menu except for turning it off. Up and down without pushing in is for fade balance. Can't get out of that one either.