Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Hi all, what would it take to create a car for sound-off competitions?

I mean those crazy things that you see at car shows with heaps of speakers and subs and the like.

I've wanted to make one for a while, but other than the sounds gear, what else is needed?

I'm a little bit (Although not completely) clueless in this area, so any help would be useful.

Cheers

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/461139-building-a-sound-off-car/
Share on other sites

buy the right car first (panelvan, wagon, van, etc) then turn it into a giant sub enclosure. remove flex from all panels, seal everything up, with a shitload of expanding foam, sound deadener, bog and plywood...

then, fill it with the biggest subs possible, a crapload of high power amps with the right amount of power for the subs, good dozen of deep cycle batteries to provide the current, and don't forget all the zero gauge cabling

electrical is pretty much the same as any other audio setup, just at a bigger scale. you would at least need several batteries wired in parallel, some fat 0 gauge cabling between the batteries and the amps, upgraded alternator, properly rated fuses, a set of amps capable of driving all the speakers and subs you plan to install and maybe some capacitors as well.

i haven't done a setup like that myself, my most complex build was just a standard head unit/splits/pair of coax/two amps and a sub so wouldn't call myself an expert

Edited by junkie

electrical is pretty much the same as any other audio setup, just at a bigger scale. you would at least need several batteries wired in parallel, some fat 0 gauge cabling between the batteries and the amps, upgraded alternator, properly rated fuses, a set of amps capable of driving all the speakers and subs you plan to install and maybe some capacitors as well.

i haven't done a setup like that myself, my most complex build was just a standard head unit/splits/pair of coax/two amps and a sub so wouldn't call myself an expert

Fair enough, what do you think the ballpark would be for all gear, excluding the car. Like 3-5k?

3-5k will build a decent oem replacement system with some good quality gear

but sound off, that's a whole different story. amps and subs cost a lot when pushing those kinds of power and decibel levels. plus, you would be up against some cars that have had six figures spent on the installs, so its a case of go hard or go home

3-5k will build a decent oem replacement system with some good quality gear

but sound off, that's a whole different story. amps and subs cost a lot when pushing those kinds of power and decibel levels. plus, you would be up against some cars that have had six figures spent on the installs, so its a case of go hard or go home

I was only really thinking of it as a way to spend some time messing around, as an excuse to enter into shows and such. Not a completely nuts thing. Time to reconsider I think....

a wagon and not a coupe..

then a bunch of subs, slot ported individually and tuned using a SPL meter to see what resonate frequency the sub will peak at... each cabin is different.

I used to be into this shit 1.5 decades ago.

Fire it backwards to load it up (know as superpositioning) which will give you about a 3dB gain - approximately double the "loudness" and with careful port tuning you could pull another 2~3dB from the cabin gain.

I did 146dB with a single 12" Solobaric being fed 1.5kW back in the days however I had a 140L or so box.

I reckon a single 12" DD Subwoofer with about 1kW going to it will push you past 145dB easily in a ported box and if you feed it more it will make even more power.. downside is these subs don't go low and need huge boxes.

http://www.ddaudio.com/products/mobile-audio/woofers/dd9500

Question is, what is your goal and what is your budget?

You can go loud on a budget but you'll need at least a decent subwoofer/driver... get a pair of Jaycar monoblocks and strap them together

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Hi, is the HKS  Tower Bar still available ? negotiable ? 🤔
    • From there, it is really just test and assemble. Plug the adapter cables from the unit into the back of the screen, then the other side to the car harness. Don't forget all the other plugs too! Run the cables behind the unit and screw it back into place (4 screws) and you should now have 3 cables to run from the top screen to the android unit. I ran them along the DS of the other AV units in the gap between their backets and the console, and used some corrugated tubing on the sharp edges of the bracket so the wires were safe. Plug the centre console and lower screen in temporarily and turn the car to ACC, the AV should fire up as normal. Hold the back button for 3 sec and Android should appear on the top screen. You need to set the input to Aux for audio (more on that later). I put the unit under the AC duct in the centre console, with the wifi antenna on top of the AC duct near the shifter, the bluetooth antenna on the AC duct under the centre console The GPS unit on top of the DS to AC duct; they all seem to work OK there are are out of the way. Neat cable routing is a pain. For the drive recorder I mounted it near the rear view mirror and run the cable in the headlining, across the a pillar and then down the inside of the a pillar seal to the DS lower dash. From there it goes across and to one USB input for the unit. The second USB input is attached to the ECUtec OBD dongle and the 3rd goes to the USB bulkhead connected I added in the centre console. This is how the centre console looks "tidied" up Note I didn't install the provided speaker, didn't use the 2.5mm IPod in line or the piggyback loom for the Ipod or change any DIP switches; they seem to only be required if you need to use the Ipod input rather than the AUX input. That's it, install done, I'll follow up with a separate post on how the unit works, but in summary it retains all factory functions and inputs (so I still use my phone to the car for calls), reverse still works like factory etc.
    • Place the new daughterboard in the case and mount it using the 3 small black rivets provided, and reconnect the 3 factory ribbon cables to the new board Then, use the 3 piggyback cables from the daughterboard into the factory board on top (there are stand offs in the case to keep them apart. and remember to reconnect the antenna and rear cover fan wires. 1 screw to hold the motherboard in place. Before closing the case, make a hole in the sticker covering a hole in the case and run the cable for the android unit into the plug there. The video forgot this step, so did I, so will you probably. Then redo the 4 screws on back, 2 each top and bottom, 3 each side and put the 2 brackets back on.....all ready to go and not that tricky really.      
    • Onto the android unit. You need to remove the top screen because there is a daughterboard to put inside the case. Each side vent pops out from clips; start at the bottom and carefully remove upwards (use a trim remover tool to avoid breaking anything). Then the lower screen and controls come out, 4 screws, a couple of clips (including 3 flimsy ones at the top) and 3 plugs on the rear. Then the upper screen, 4 screws and a bunch of plugs and she is out. From there, remove the mounting brackets (2 screws each), 4 screws on the rear, 2 screws top and bottom and 3 screws holding in the small plates on each side. When you remove the back cover (tight fit), watch out for the power cable for the fan, I removed it so I could put the back aside. The mainboard is held in by 1 screw in the middle, 1 aerial at the top and 3 ribbon cables. If you've ever done any laptop stuff the ribbon cables are OK to work with, just pop up the retainer and they slide out. If you are not familiar just grab a 12 year old from an iphone factory, they will know how it works The case should now look like this:
    • Switching the console was tricky. First there were 6 screws to remove, and also the little adapter loom and its screws had to come out. Also don't forget to remove the 2 screws holding the central locking receiver. Then there are 4 clips on either side....these were very tight in this case and needed careful persuading with a long flat screw driver....some force required but not enough to break them...this was probably the fiddliest part of the whole job. In my case I needed both the wiring loom and the central locking receiver module to swap across to the new one. That was it for the console, so "assembly is the reverse of disassembly"
×
×
  • Create New...