[j.f.leonard]

Originally Posted by Encanto

No.

Ordered them 5 minutes after I made that post. Should be here Friday and I'll update after installed.

[cwleth]

Originally Posted by j.f.leonard

Ordered them 5 minutes after I made that post. Should be here Friday and I'll update after installed.

Just ordered SWS-8Xi too - looking forward to hear your review

[Onizukachan]

Great minds. My up7 arrives tomorrow and I ordered the earthquakes as well. Just can’t justify installing 2 or 3 8” subs under the rear floor in one cube as I don’t think they’d play low enough to be worth it.

Thanks also to Billfitz for sharing the parts numbers for your better passive xovers. Plan on copying those ASAP.

[j.f.leonard]

Installed the earthquakes today. They definitely hit a-lot lower and are also a little louder, but also aren't anything close to a trunk system. I believe I'm content and wont do a trunk sub though. Overall pretty happy, will see how they sound after a few hours of play time.

[Onizukachan]

Just arrived and looking forward to install.

[GtiGyver]

Originally Posted by Billfitz

...the crossover I designed and built for mine is better than the Focal, at a cost of $60 for four of them.

I believe as you do that the OEM speakers are not bad, but probably not equalized correctly or filtered.

I upgraded my base HiFi speakers to the L7 speakers, and this is fine. Extra power handling headroom.
I wanted to know though, how can I design a passive highpass filter for use on the underseat midbass speakers?
I want to use a sub in the trunk for anything below 65~80Hz and use the midbass for everything above that.
Assuming a 4ohm speaker and say a first-order 80Hz HP crossover.

Is this doable without sacrificing too much power?

[Billfitz]

Passive crossovers in that frequency range are impractical, and expensive. First order filters don't do diddly. You're better off leaving as is with the stock arrangement, turn the head bass EQ down to remove some of the low frequency content from the under seats, use a sub amp that has low frequency boost to bring it up as required.

[j.f.leonard]

Update: the speakers stopped working on the way to work this morning. Will have to check them out later today I guess:

[j.f.leonard]

On the ride home from work I noticed the speakers were fine again, and then the left one eventually stopped working, again. What could this even be? One thing after another.

[Billfitz]

Intermittent cutting out is usually wiring. Another possibility is that you don't have the amp set up for two ohm loads.

[j.f.leonard]

Originally Posted by Billfitz

Intermittent cutting out is usually wiring. Another possibility is that you don't have the amp set up for two ohm loads.

I checked it out and the posts on the adapter ring were very loose, so I tightened those and reinstalled the wiring and all seems to be well again. Not sure how the terminals became loose.

[Billfitz]

Those drivers vibrate a lot, as in whenever they're playing. so the screws must be well secured.

[j.f.leonard]

New issue of the day: not sure whats causing it, will have to take everything apart once more to check it out, but now the drivers side sub vibrates to the extent that I cannot even enjoy my music. Even at low volumes, you can hear a significant vibration. These things sound good when they work properly.

Edit: checked it out, and one of the corners of the mounting screws came loose, and it seems that whatever it screws into is now stripped. The screw is tightened, yet still spins. Wasnt like that when installed. What should i do about this…

[Onizukachan]

Wax the bolt really well (as in hard wax not car wax) and epoxy it in? The wax is so you can unscrew it once it dries.

Alternatively a breakers yard/ junkyard/ pick a part might have one( or several) from an f30/31 for purchase.


Since you are pulling it back out suggest you also trim back the carpet so it doesn’t impinge on the surround and add some poly fill around the edges and especially across the vent area, I have 0 sideskirt rattle on the right side and only a tiny bit on left side after doing mine.

[j.f.leonard]

I pulled the screw out, and the plastic threads of the enclosure were inside the screw (if that makes sense) so I imagine the screw hole is smooth now. I covered the screw in silicone and put it back in the hole with some pressure and let it tack, but with no threading leftover I dont believe that will work. May have to use a larger screw and create new threads. Anyone else have this issue with these subs in stock enclosures?

[j.f.leonard]

This is getting ridiculous. I used epoxy to secure the screw and sub, and now the sub doesnt even play unless I apply pressure to the middle of it. What even is this…?

[Onizukachan]

I feel for you, mine have been perfect since first install.

[j.f.leonard]

Originally Posted by Onizukachan

I feel for you, mine have been perfect since first install.

Super strange. Ive done many audio installs and never had these issues. But, I'm tired of messing with it so I may take it to an audio shop when I get some free time and pay them to do whatever they need to do to get the whole thing working properly.

[Onizukachan]

Id suggest that you check if you lost a connection somewhere between factory wiring, adapter ring and the driver inputs themselves. Hoping that the frame didn’t get tweaked during your initial install. Noted these were thin stamped frames and not cast so when I installed I used the 4 lug star pattern and did them up in about 4-5 passes. To avoid bending them.

[j.f.leonard]

Originally Posted by Onizukachan

Id suggest that you check if you lost a connection somewhere between factory wiring, adapter ring and the driver inputs themselves. Hoping that the frame didn't get tweaked during your initial install. Noted these were thin stamped frames and not cast so when I installed I used the 4 lug star pattern and did them up in about 4-5 passes. To avoid bending them.

I took it to an audio shop and told them to do whatever they needed to do to fix it. Said one of the terminals or some other connection was broken so they fixed it. Now Im going to turn the tuning switches back to standard for the subs, gain seems too high.

[j.f.leonard]

Update: drivers side sub stopped working again so i checked it out and the negative wire came out of the terminal and refuses to go back in, so tomorrow I get to take my seat out yet again and try to find a better solution for keeping the wires in the terminals. Frankly, I'm not very fond of these speakers and mounting rings. Quite a PITA, and I move back in at my university in 3 days so Im running out of time to get these things to where they wont be an issue any longer.