I think I went a little overboard. I started out just wanting to replace my factory speakers. Then that morphed into getting some Bazooka's then a head unit, then component woofers and finally component speakers.

But hey, at least I can make my ears bleed now if I so choose. The Eclipse amp (130x2 RMS) on the Diamond Audio Hex components makes for some extremely powerful mid and high range sound. The only thing I need to adjust is the direction of the tweeters. I think when I get them pointed more rearward and upward they will sound even better. But I can't complain.

The two DA M5 12's under the rear seat slam. I'm now having to tighten down everything and trying to keep it all from rattling. Its a never ending task. And it was an experience driving home and having my lights dim when I cranked the volume. Guess I need a cap now. I'm definitely gonna have to Dynamat everything in the rear at least. And there seems to be a sheild around the exhaust right below the rear of the cab that makes hellacious noise when I turn it up. I can't believe how much the bottom of the cab flexes when the woofers hit.

All in all, a positive experience. Even though I definitely went much further overboard than I intended!

My Audio Gallery

Pioneer Premier P930
Pioneer P900XM XM Tuner
Terk SR2 XM Antenna
Eclipse 33240 130x2
MTX 500D 500X1
Diamond Audio Hex 600s Components
6 1/2" mid and 1" Silk dome tweeter
2 Diamond Audio M5 12" woofers

 

Did you build your box or someone else? Did you need to raise the seat? I've been trying to get info to build my own box, so any help you have will be appreciated.

 

Yep, it required about 3in. Now I just have to find an extension for the seatbelts. I'll get the dimensions of the box tonight.

 

My brother has a 97 f-150 extended cab and has what sounds like the same setup. Only he is using a Phoenix Gold amp and has three DA 12" subs. And you are not alone, his whole damn truck rattles and vibrates. Not only is it the exhaust shield but on his the rear wall of the cab, the back window and all of interior pieces. It is fun to turn up really loud but he has received numerous noise level violations. Have fun with it once you get it tuned properly.
John

 

Lightning, you wouldn't happen to know how much gross airspace he has for each woofer would you? I don't know if its the design of my box or the gross airspace being close to .9 but it seems boomy and muddy when I turn it up really loud. There is a panel on the front that goes from the top of the box all the way to the bottom and this covers the 1/2" of airspace under the box where the woofers fire. I may pull it off to see what difference its makes. Maybe I'm just expecting more than I should out of 2 12's.

It sounds tremendous at moderate-to-high volume and the highs/mids are consistently good all the way up. But when I get tired of metal and alternative and want to listen to some DJ Jimi, the bass quality seems to falter some. And my HU allows me almost unlimited turning and I still can't seem to get it...

 

I am not sure of the airspace that he has, sorry. I know his box looks similar to yours but doesn't have a spot for the amps it is completely enclosed. when you get into the really loud stuff his sounds sloppy but it all depends on the type of music. Have you tried using a polyfill type of material inside the box, several friends have it in their boxes and it cleaned up the sound some. I am partial to 10" subs myself because they seem to hit alittle harder and cleaner. I am sorry I couldn't be of more assistance.
John

 

Is this a sealed enclosure? If so, 0.9ft3 is on the small side for a typical 12" woofer. I'm sure it hits really hard, though. If you liberally stuff the box with polyfill you can make the woofer think it's in a slightly larger box. If it's a ported,etc box 0.9ft3 is way on the small side, aotbe.

Did you run the subwoofer/box design through the Thiel-Small equations? There are lots of freeware programs on the web (ie BoxPlot) which can let you enter the basic values for your driver and try out different box volumes to find the right size for your desired response curve.

I'm not sure about the 'airspace' issue. I'm guessing that the muddy boominess might be a combination of down-firing woofer and cabin gain.

 

Thanks, snoopy, but Diamond woofers are designed to work in small sealed airspaces. Minimum gross airspace for the 12 is .7ft^3. And the graph I wanted would be achieved by using the small enclosure and high power. Now the front panel does cover about 1/2" of space under the box. I'm going to remove that and see if it helps or not.

I'll probably go out later and tinker with it.

Diamond Audio M5 12" Specs