Im coming to H-T first because people know what they're talking about. Im a senior in high school doing my senior project. So im required to have an informal interview kind of thing, so pretty much Q&A. Im thinking about doing a custom fiberglass subwoofer enclosure for my Integra DC. I wanna use fiberglass because i want a particular design and wood can't really offer what i want. I have to keep the spare tire somehow. Im running Alpine mono amp and 2 10" type r's So here are my questions.
Answer anything you can. anything will help.

·In your opinion what is your favorite kind of setup and why?

·Fiberglass or wood or both? and why?

·What’s your opinion on Alpine Type R subwoofers? Would you use them?

·What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a Sealed enclosure? Ported? Bandpass?

·Is it worse to underpower or overpower a system?

·What is the process for breaking in new subwoofers?

·What kind of advice do you have for a beginner learning about car audio?

-Any advice for building the actual enclosure? Before I screw up really bad.

-Do you like what you do? Or do you wish you should have done something else.

-I’m starting off with an all Alpine system for now, in the future I may want to upgrade to better stuff. What other companies or products are just as good or better than Alpine?

-How did you get into the car audio business?

-Did you learn on your own? (trial and error kind of things)

-Is the career promising or would it be better as a side-job you do for fun?

 

-the best setup is the one that sounds good to you, someone will always have something better. deck, 4 speakers, 4ch amp, sub amp and sub is a good start
-wood is heavy if you use a lot of it, fiberglass is hard to work with and time consuming, most custom enclosures I've seen use a combination, but some only use wood. it really depends on what you want the setup to look like
-I have all alpine type R, 2 sets of 6.5 components, 6x9 rears, 3 10" subs. the subs have a very good range of sound, not just a loud boom. there is better equipment out there but I got these at cost
-I have 3 sealed enclosures, they have good bass with a tight response, sutible for a 10" sub. ported and bandpass boxes are a little louder, but not as quick, so sometimes they'll blur the notes together
-I'd say it's worse to under power your system because it won't sound as good as it could, but it will take a while to damage the equipment and by that time your warranty is probably expired. ideally you pick a sub, then get an amp that's slightly too much for it, and turn it down so the amp's not working as hard as it could
-Usually like half volume for a day, then your fine
-beginner advice, is buy a phillips tip for your drill with a sleeve on it so you don't slip and port your speakers. run your power and signal on opposite sides of the car, and double check with another person before you shoot a screw into the floor for the ground, other than that, just realize that each part of the system is as important as the rest, if you skimped on a connection, or ran a sloppy wire it's going to bring down the rest of the system
-plan your whole system first, run through equipment compatability, where are the wires going to be run and what wires do you need, then the last step is the sub box, how much air space, the type of box. wood's fairly easy with minmal mess. fiberglass involves masking off the car, mixing tubs, gloves, a respirator, grinding, sanding, a strong chemical smell, and a huge amount of dust
-I'm content with what I do now, it is a cool job, i work with cool equipment and cars, but not all the cars are nice, and if little billy just threw up on the dvd player, gues who has to pull the player and send it to service. its exhausting fast paced work, but overall I like the amount of knowledge I've gained from the job. As a lifetime career I'd say no, just the back problems alone would stop me, that's why I'm going back to school for the real job
-alpine is hella good stuff, mostly, every company has a lemon or two. eclipse is really good, kicker has good amps and loud subs, JL makes a good w6 and w7 research here is key
-I started the car audio business by messing around with my own car stereo, then just applied for a job and got it, looking back the stuff i was doing was crap, but live and learn
-I knew nothing about car audio, or the difference between ac/dc or 12volts and ground for that matter. all on the job training, and 4 years later I manage the shop
-Its a fun job, and it turned into a pretty good hobby for me, and if you want to work on your own car its really good to know how to troubleshoot circuits and work in and around a vehicle smoothly. I'd recomend it for a summer or for a year, maybe through a remote start season. As a lifetime career you couldn't do it, the industry isn't set up well enough to support you, not like a chevy mechanic or something. the only way to make decent money is to be management, which gets you further from installing and more toward running a business. If you really like installing, get a job doing it, learn how it's done then decide if that's what you want to do for the next 40 years

 

I am an installer and have been for over 30 years and I am very happy with the Alpine HU and 4 custom installed Eclipse 6.5" speakers in my 94 LS.

A combination of wood and fiberglass IMO is the best way to go.

The Alpine Type R sub is as good or better then others in that price range.

Here is a link that gives pros and cons of sealed and vented boxes and other info, although it is a Kicker sub, most of it applies to all subs. Read it all lots of good info
http://www.kicker.com/05/tech-...1.pdf

I am not a fan of band pass boxes, hard to design and build, they are big, and have other quirks.

You should not under or over power your sub, although I have seen more subs damaged that where under powered, so IMO a little over powered is better, [and I mean that the amps RMS watts is higher then the subs RMS handling power, not that you constantly pour more power into a sub then it is rated for]

Breaking in a sub is also explained on the Kicker link, but think of your sub as a new cars engine, the break-in proses is about the same, you need to take it easy for the first 500 mi.

Learning car audio, take it slow and easy, read all you can get your hands on, here is another link http://www.the12volt.com lots of good info and links.

Sub box info, first some rules about speakers, and it applies to subs....
1- You need a flat surface to mount the speaker/sub, warping a speaker basket is not hard to do, and can damage it very quickly.
2- You need an airtight seal.
3- Mass, the more mass the speaker is mounted to the better, if the speaker can move when the cone is moving you will get cancellation, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
4- IMO a speaker mounted to wood will sound better the a speaker mounted to anything else.
The sub box, and it applies to any sub box made of any material.
1- It needs to have a flat surface to mount the sub, [baffle] .
2- It needs to be airtight, yes even a vented/ported box needs to be airtight everywhere except, obviously, the port.
3- It needs to be braced, any surface that can "flex" will result in loss.
4- To avoid "standing waves" avoid having parallel internal surfaces, EG: the worst 1cuft box you could build would be on that is 12"x12"x12".
5- Use recommended enclosure air and port, [if vented design] volumes, it is critical to performance.
6- A strong, solid, airtight enclosure, with a wood, [MDF] baffle, and proper air volume will result in clean, tight and accurate bass response.

As I said, I have been an installer for over 30 years, the money has always been good, [upper mid. income] I have never been out of work longer then I wanted to be, I have been very happy doing it and would not change if I had to do it over again.
As a hobby maybe, as a side job no, this is an ever changing field, not just the equipment, but the cars also, it's the ever changing things about this job I like and that is also why you would have to be dedicated to it full time.
I have been off on med. leave for about 6 mo. and I am starting to release that I am starting to loose touch, I have asked one of my installers to let me know when the next 06 Honda/Acuras are in the shop, just so I can keep being of any help here, I don't even know how to pull the oem HU out of an 06 Civic .

IMO, Alpine makes as good or better car audio as anybody out there, it has, over the years, been the most dependably equipment I have installed.
There are many good brands out there, JL Audio amps and subs, Eclipse speakers, Panasonic HU, but as I said, it's ever changing, Sony used to make some great car audio "ES" line, can't say that about Xplode, the same with Nakamichi, the Nak. TD1200 was IMO the very best cass. HU around, [in it's time] as was most Nakamichi car audio, I am not at all impressed with what they have now, better then Sony, but thats not saying much.

I was a welder/fitter working for a large union shop making fans and blower for the mining industry, [very good pay for the time] about 34 years ago, I worked the graveyard shift, I walked home from work, walking past a new retail store being built, [Muntz] in Winterpeg Manitoba, it opened about the time we were just coming off a 2 month strike at our union shop, Muntz was the first car audio shop in town, one of the first in Canada and north America for that matter, 8 track. was already out, had been for a few years, one morning walking home from work, very dirty, [just finished welding about 5 mi. of bead on a massive blower] very pissed off because the settlement we ended up with, would take about 1/2 the contract to make back what I had lost in wages while on strike, so dirty, tired and pissed off and a sign on the Muntz store window, [help wanted, installer, no experience needed] went home had a shower, went back to the store before it opened and took the job, didn't even give notice or even go back to the plant, phoned and quit as soon as I had the job at Muntz, the rest is history.

Yes, most of what I know comes from hands on experience, although in later years, [when Alpine came on the scene] I have attended all the "Alpine schools"
and after the guys at Alpine started Mobile Dynamics, I have attended all their classes and seminars.

As a career, I think it's very promising, it is very apparent to me that car manufacturers are never going to be able to install everything into a car that people want, there is always going to be a need for installers, just like auto mechanics, we are here to stay. 94