Big Meat Pix

So, I finally got off my lazy Arse and snapped some shots for you guys of the truck, I know I've been promising photos for a while, but I never had shots of the completed install, just photo-log shots. So here we go>

Here are the shots of the dash with concealed IR3 dome mids and Morel CR103 tweets in pillars. a big reason for the sound in here is the 1 piece dash grille covering the mids and concealing certain "acoustic treatments".

Here's the AVIC N2 and controller display for the DEQ-P8000 processor stashed under the drivers seat.

Here's the heavily-modified and rebuilt center console that still uses the factory arm rest and storage compartment, yet conceals TWO JBL GTi 10's in an isobarik (actually, it's proper name is "isoplanar") enclosure venting forward toward the dash. YES you are seeing them under 3/4" plexi.

Notice in the last pic above with the rear seats down, you'd be hard-pressed to notice anything, but...

(did ya catch the sponsor-friendly cover panel )

Next, we go to the bed, where we have a plain old truck tool-box

But, when we open the toolbox...

Thats TWO BPX2200's on a pair of GTi12's in a ported box firing throu a cutthrough behind the rear seat! No problem at all hitting cap in competition Of course, they remain off for normal listening and sq judging.

Oh and BTW, Big Meat is a dually that weighs in at just over 8000lbs. with me in it, but when provoked, it can lay down a 13.98 in the 1/4mile!!!!! Here's a few shots as to WHY this phenomenon sometimes occurs

Well folks, there's my daily driver and Pro Street system for the mpst part. All you dodge guys who have emailed me and you other guys wanting Meat info, please re-post or ask Q's here and I will discuss for all who care. Thanks for looking.

Well, I *am* a bit reluctant to divuldge too much info on the dash...Well, phuck it! We are all family, right

The mids are installed in the factory tweeter locations by first removing the entire top dash insert and enlarging the tweeter holes so the mids "drop" in from top, then secure to this piece. The mids fire upward and have been modified by myself to a) not resonate within the sealed chamber behind the dome b) add mass and damping material to the dome enclosure c) have a lower Fs.
Anyhoo, the mids actually sit flat ON TOP OF this dash piece,as far to the outsides as possible , and to get clearance below this piece I did have to remove some ABS plastic from the dash board supports and whatnot underneath.
the grille is basically a piece of 3/4" MDF with routered, radiused, and/or angle-cut edges and has a series of cut-outs across it. If you look closely at the pic of the driver's side photo, you can see the flash has illuminated the outline of the cutout around the mid. Notice this cutout is actually about 12" from outside to inside, a lot more room than the mid needed. there are actually 5 separate cutouts in this grill, the two large ones for the mids to fit into, two small ones for the inner defrost vents to blow up trough, and a larger center cutout for the 4" coax center channel with extra clearance on both sides of this driver.
So, this grill is 3/4" tall basically, and lays flat OVER the mids, follow me? THe dome mids are about 1" tall when mounted flush, so they DO poke up a little under the cloth, but that is of no consequence b/c the IR3 domes have grilles over them, and i DO still have those grilles on the drivers.
Next yo are likely asking "why the larger than needed cutouts at left, center, and right, Steve?". Well, therin lies one of many factors which makes this thing image and stage so great. These cutouts also contain a layer of 1/2" acoustic foam surrounding all three drivers...for the purpose of...can you guess????

Early reflection control! Yes, the grill functions as an acoustic damping panel of sorts as well, and it cleaned up the imaging dramatically after I put it in, in fact it was like night and day difference.

Now, before y'all go jumpin to conclusions, NO I DO NOT USE THE CENTER CHANNEL SPEAKER FOR SQ! In fact, it will NOT come on unless playing a DVD in ProLogic or DTS. TO be perfectly honest with you guys, the amp that is hooked to that speaker is basically in the truck for cosmetics, as I never use it, not even when playing dvds. Also, the rear doors contain Morel Integra 6 drivers, and they arent even hooked up to the amp! I havent heard music from these drivers in over a year. THis install was completed before IASCA/USAC finals last year, and I honestly have not played center or rear fill since. In fact, I need to throw in a 300.4 instead of a 600.2 so I can go ahead and hook up the center and rears and tune them into the system for movie playback. I know, peeps are like "WTF mate! Why not use the 5.1???" to which I say I mainly only listen to CDs, and each time I get in the thing I find myself marvelling at the stage produced from what is basically a 3 channel PASSSIVE system! More on that later.

Sorry to get off track, center console. It is an inner "enclosure" that is wrapped in gray trunk liner, and it has an outer "cover" that fits over the sub box that is wrapped in vinyl, yes it is one piece. yes I had to hide a couple seams. yes it does look factory. the plexi window cover is vinyl on the outside with trunk liner on the bottom. Did you notice the relocated and molded drink holders in back of it?

That amp, my good friends, is another reason the truck sounds so good. Say hello to my little friend...its a DLS A3 (close on the a6 guess). THis is a dual mono amp and it drives the 3 way set PASSIVELY. THats right folks, this thing is PASSIVE. Did ya notice the IR3 passives poking out from under the console cover out back??? that is yet another reason for the sound in this thing. Just beneath the cupholders, mounted to the back of the sub enclosure, is the tweet and midbass passives from a DLS IRidium set. So this A3 runs the Iridium passives in stereo via Monster M series wire (yeah yeah I know, wire is wire LOL!) THese passives were modded by soldering the output resistor level taps rather than using those silly little jumpers to complete the circuits...yet another sonic secret. Another secret is keeping the passives separated (notice the pic of the DLS amp that the passives are apart from each other and speaker wires run between them). THis is to prevent inductance and/or magnetic field interference from the coils of adjacent passive modules. Maybe Wolfie can dicuss how inductors can create "fields" which affect nearby components adversely and how simply orienting the coils vertically or horozontally will affect this phenomenon as well. At any rate, thats another secret.

Recall I said this is basically a 3 channel passive vehicle. The SQ system is as follows>>>

THe A3 runs Focal Utope 7W2s, DLS IR3 dome mids, and Morel CR103 tweets PASSIVELY thru DLS Iridium 3-ay crossovers.
The JBL PX600.2 on the driver's side is running MONO to the pair of GTi 10s in the console at 6 ohms (another sq secret!).

The DEQ-P8000 does ONE ACTIVE X/O for me at 63Hz to send low pass to the JBL amp, and highpass to the DLS. the slope is 12dB/oct. And since we are discussing the processor, this truck competes with MINIMAL EQ!!!! THats right folks, I have a total of 3 bands of parametric EQ at pre-set frequencies available with this processor! "But how can that be Steve? Dont you need a 1/3 octave to do SQ!?!?!?" Herein lies another key to the sound in the truck---LESS EQ IS ALWAYS BETTER!!! Competitors are astonished when they find out a Pro class guy is using a 3 channel passive system with 3 bands of EQ . It is really funny to see their expressions, especially if I tell them when they are auditioning the system in the driver's seat! THey simply do not believe me.LOL!

So, thats what the A3 runs. Remember all these times I point out that something is a "key factor" to this sound, b/c we are gonna summarize and discuss later, OK.

But what about the rear 12s? Well, if you notice in the pic of the driver's side 600.2 JBL amp, there are two RCA cables going into it...IXOS Ixotica is used for the input (dare I say yet ANOTHER factor contributing to the sound ), and Stinger Bullet, which is the pass-thru output and it runs to the back two amps in the toolbox in the same fashion (into one, out to the other). The 12's are part of the RTA and SPL system, and I use a valet switch to turn on the two BPX2200s when doing this competition OR I can turn em on for maximum street boom, whatever. They play IN ADDITION TO the front subs when on, but the gain structure of the BPX amps is set drastically higher than the front subs (of course!). THis is so I can switch to a different gain level setting thru the processor when doing rta and SPL and realize a drastic increase in system headroom and dynamic ability so that the system can play loud enough to max SPL cap simply by virtue of increased gain. During normal driving ans system setting, the rear subs are at least 12 dB too loud than the rest of the system, perfect to get panties wet, bad when you are over 30 Basically, i dont like it at my age so I dont do it. I hardly ever turn on the 12's.

THe DLS A3 is one of my personal "reference" amplifiers. it is a dual mono design which means the channel separation is superb and the construction and compnents used are simply top-notch. I have always felt that this amp is WAAAAAAAAAAAY underpriced as it EASILY outperforms amps costing twice as much, if not more. I am not going to get into a discussion of whether one amp sounds better than the other, because we all have our opinions on that topic, dont we? hehe
What I will say is this---One of the reasons I have mix-n-matched components and different amps in the truck is because I tested, listened, tweaked, tried, A/B'ed, and had others listen and evel as well...for THE BEST component for the BEST PERFORMANCE in certain aspects of the system. I am not saying the JBL amps sound bad. What I am saying is I tried the JBL 600.2, DLS A3, Butler Tube driver blue, Tru TO3, Tru C7.2, Tru C7.2T hybrid, Old school Orion HCCA and XTR amps, etc etc. IN MY TRUCK...none of these other amps can touch the A3 in stage width (there's that silly channel separation spec again ), stage height, image placement focus and clarity, and high frequency detail/ambience.
So, whats a boy to do??? I wanted it in the truck, JBL didnt. I made the room and built the cover. I refuse to remove this amplifier from this truck and thats that. THe sonics are simply that good....IN MY TRUCK!

Also on the topic of using what worked best for me, this is why the Utopia 7's are in there rather than the Iridium 8s or JBL pro 8s or whatever. THe utopes are more articulate than the IR8s and play the upper midbass/lower midrange better, and the sound seems to blend with the stage better than any other driver I tried, even tho I give up some dynamic impact to the JBLs and DLSs, I'd rather not have my attention drawn down to the driver or hear a rattling thumpy doorpanel. As it is, you can stare directly at the focals, and you will hear midbass emanating from the windshield. They also seem to enhance the width of the stage much moreso than other drivers...could be the phase plug??? I dunno, but they are in there b/c they are the best in my application. and the DLS passives work great with them as they too are 4 ohm midbasses just like the IR8's they replaced.

Next up, mids. Let's all take a moment to recollect the vast discussions of "dashboards and domes" purported by my esteemed colleague werewolf.........yes, you remember the topic. Well, my findings indicate it works very very well in certain circumstances, and horribly wrong in others...maybe this will be a topic for another thread. What I can tell you is this...
Small point source
wide dispersion pattern
close proximity to windshield
mostly reflected enrgy back at listeners
early reflection control
placed as wide as possible
=
OUTFRIGGINSTANDING soundstage

Keep in mind, this is a STREET CLASS vehicle, designed for one seat judging.

So, I tried some small 4" cones but could never get them to image the center well, or the apparent image location was "too big". These domes simply worked wonderfully in the truck because they are dynamic, modified, small pojnt sources, and image better than anything I tried (see above criteria). Another reason they are in is tonality, and furthermore one reason I went passive is because the IR3 passives make the driver sound better than active! YEs folks, it's true, the IR3 passive by virtue of design smooths out the impedance/freq resonse and makes the driver sound much more "real-life"...theres another one of those "key" ingredients again

Next up is the tweet choice. YES DLS makes great sounding tweets, and the JBL gti tweets do sound very good too. I tried some Morel Israels, Iridiums, UR1s, Morel USA CR103's, rainbow pros, and rainbow Vanadiums. The CR103's simply sound better than the rest of them with the DLS passives in terms of "disappearing", resolution of fine detail, and especially stage width and image focus. THis is likely due to two things, first this domes freq response is out to 22KHz with a smooth response curve and it exhibits a gentle roll-off inherent in all soft domes which totally negates any sense of listening fatigue or peaky response anomalies found in the hard domes. Second, have you seen this thing??? It has a type of "wave-guide" lens on the front of it that helps to disperse sound along the x-axis and keep it from dispersing along the Y axis. If you notice in the pics how I have them angled, you will see that even tho they are actually firing toward the windshield at about 30 degrees, I have them turned to disperse more along the same plane as the windshield and disperse LESS perpendicular to the windshiled. when I did this in testing, the stage immediately got wider, deeper and higher, and it too was night and day. This is another big reason why my tweeters will NEVER be changed out in this particular truck...they simply work flawlessly, and have zero problems blending with the DLS passives.

So there ya go...explanation as to why I mix-n-matched. I know there will be more Q's so fire away

dyno #'s----almost forgot
OK, Bigmeat has been on a dyno ONE time in it's life, not for trying multiple time tho....you see, she's got a big ass, kinda wide through the hips if ya catch my drift
Most mobile dyno trailers are only 85-90" wide clearance...Bigmeat needs 97" clearance

Anyhoo, at Elite Summer Nats, I got my chance...these guys had a portable dyno that was NOT on a trailer and had no 'sides' to it, so i could fit the truck on it, but we DID have to remove the outer rims/tires to fit on the rollers. Remember this is a dually.

So at Elite, here are the mods that were in play>>>

4" turbo-back exhaust with aero-turbine muffler and no cat.
Banks hi-ram intake
banks big-head wastegate actuator
adj. turbo boost pressure elbow
AFE cold air intake with torque tube
Bullydog PowerPup downloader and outlook monitor combo

With a slipping tranny, the best I got to the ground was 398HP and 841 ft/lbs. YES this IS an inline 6!!! YES these are incredible numbers considering the torque converter was begging 4 it's life LOL! It was fun to see the crowd disperse quickly when this thing spooled up, cuz at full-tilt-bozo, this thing is MEAN! Lots of smoke too

Anyways, tranny mods will be done before end of year finally. My poor tranny has been abused and after 60K it's tired. Will have new lower stall HD converter, street/strip valve body, HD input shaft, and deep sump pan with HD tranny cooler.

Also, since Elite, I have gotten the BUllydog Propane injection fixed, so that is back in there (look closely at pix). I have also stacked another tuner into the mix , and it is simply BAD ASS! This is the MP-8 box you can barely see in the other pix behind the drivers batt...its from TS performance. I have yet to make a 1/4mile run with this box added, mainly b/c i want to wait to fix/mod the tranny before beating it to death.

So there you have it folks....she's a lady until you piss her off, then she's a ***** that will embarass most anything around here.

OK, now I have the time for the "is there T/A in the Meat" question...

The answer is yes, of course there is, but the secret lies in HOW I arrived at the adjustment I did, and requires full explaination. I cant simply sit here and say 'yes I delayed the nearside drivers' cuz it would be ambiguously misleading.

First and foremost, I have to state that the T/A adjustment was almost THE LAST thing done tuning-wise. Once the speakers, amplifier, and passives were chosen, hooked-up, and installed...I had to first manipulate the physical polarity /relative 'phase' or each of the drivers so as to align them acoustically on either side of the car...follow me? Here's how...

Recall the system is a hybrid active sub-to-midbass/ passive midbass-mid-tweet, therefore the time alignement available to me in this set up is 3 channels total---the sub output (it is MONO), and left and right FRONT outputs. Any T/A adjustments I had to work with were only to these three outputs, so think of it as *entire left front channel*, *entire right front channel*, and *front subwoofers*.
THis meant I had to use polarity and phase of drivers to correct arrival times of the left mb, mid, and tweet with each other, and vice-versa on the right...follow me?

Iirc, what I ended up with was midbasses out-of-phase with mids, and tweets in phase with mids. In this truck, the mids are the furthest drivers from you, therefore it is necessary to use them as the baseline for listening and tuning evaluation and to try to get the other drivers to align properly with them. In this case, the tweets are about 2" closer to the listener than the mids, but they fire 30 degrees forward toward the glass, which added a sort of physical path length "extension" to them naturally. When I played the tweet out of phase with the mid, the image location appeared to be vague and a sense of harshness was apparent, not to mention tonality changed. Oh before I forget, I evaluated each channel individually like a good boy...meaning I listened to the left side only and adjusted polarity and x/o level settings that produced the MOST focussed and concise image at the HIGHEST height level at the FURTHEST DISTANCE from me. THen did the same for the right side. So in actuality, this was done by-ear with reference music (ECA vol 3 ) before actual time alignment adjustment was even thought of.

Back to the midbasses...they sound better out of phase (rev polarity) with the mids because being the closest drivers to the listener, regardless of being off-axis or not, they needed a little "mechanical delay" to align properly with the mids and tweets blend coming off the windshield. THe delay we create by reversing polarity is a function of several different parameters, of which I dont recall exactly, but it does depend alot on the frequencies the driver is playing as to how much delay you introduce. In my case, the midbass went from being localized low and "off to the side" when in phase to "high and coming from the midrange" out of phase. Did this affect tonality,? Initially, yes it did! Based on TOnality alone, it DID sound better IN PHASE due to a fuller, richer midbass presentation....BUT....couldn't we assist the midbasses later on with some gentle EQ massaging and run them out of phase in order to get that high image focus instead of having them sound like a separate portion of the stage??? You bet we can!

OK, hopefully I havent put anyone to sleep yet...Now that the polarity of all the drivers has been decided with reference to each other, it is time to play all three channels and adjust the arrival time. THe DEQ-P8000 does it's time adjustment based on 'distance difference in inches", and my final setting of the T/A in this truck is as follows>

Front left - 4 inches
front right - 21 inches
sub- zero inches

THis tells the processor to #1) Delay the sub by 21" of distance because it's sound arrives earliest #2) delay the left side by 17" of distance because that is the pathlength difference measured between the left-channel image-focus location and right-channel image focus location.

YOu guys follow me? I basically told the processor "hey, right channel is furthest away, so you go calculate the difference based on my settings for me on the other two channels and delay them accordingly". got it so far???