Porch Enclosure

have a 2003 BMW 325i with 2 12" Alpine Type R SWR-1242D DVC subwoofers (500w rms) and a Kicker ZX450.2 amp sitting in a ported enclosure with a Dual XD7600 head unit. I am in the market for a new amp and have $300 to spend. I narrowed it down to three different amps to choose from: Kicker ZX1000.1 class D mono amp, Alpine MRP-M1000 mono class D amp, and JL Audio A1400 mono class D amp. I am looking for the best amp for my subwoofers. Also, I am more than willing to take suggestions of better amps for my subs and in the range of $300. I also would like to have the amp be compatible with my vehicle set up too: I haven’t upgraded my alternator, I haven’t swapped out my stock battery, and I haven’t upgraded my Big 3 wires. I need the knowledge of some real audio electronic guru’s on which amp would be the most compatible and the cleanest sounding & hardest hitting amp with my subwoofers. It has to stay just at or below $300 and it has to be compatible with my setup. Anything would help!!
Also, I wanted to let it be known that i’m also looking for an amplifier in that price range that will not cut off or "clip" whenever I turn the volume past 30-35. One that will also work with the stock electrical system that my vehicle has. Thanks

If you’re narrowing between only those 3, rule out the JL A1400. You won’t increase power much from your ZX450.2. In one of my cars I switched from a ZX350.2 to an A1400 and found very little difference.

Either the Kicker or Alpine will work fine.

I have a 2003 BMW 325i with 2 12" Alpine Type R SWR-1242D subwoofers and 2 Kenwood KAC-8103D 1000 watt amps sitting in a ported enclosure with a Dual XD7600 head unit. I am very aware that my amplifiers are underpowering my subwoofers. I just purchased a Kicker ZX450.2 amplifier. My first question is with this new amp, will I be able to feel the difference? My next question is what is the best way to setup my amps to my subs? Meaning, should I setup 1 1000watt Kenwood & the Kicker amp, or should I setup 2 1000watt Kenwoods & the Kicker amp? How should the setup be wired? I need to know what would be the the best setup to get the most out of my system? Unfortunately, at this time, I cannot afford to upgrade my system by any means so I need some true electronic (specifically car audio electronic) gurus to inform me of what I can do to my already installed system to make it better (more reliable, safer, & better-sounding). Anything would help but I would appreciate serious answers. Thanks

Car stereo design is a complex subject that CANNOT be learned by a few answers here. You need to go out and research and LEARN what makes a good install. I would start on www. sounddomain.com. Explore the forums and study the descriptions and pictures. Search on Yahoo! or google and try different search terms relating to car stereo design and installation. This will take some time. Be prepared.

So I know that metal blocks radio waves, but would it be possible to reach a device in a metal enclosure if an antenna was incorporated onto the metal enclosure?

You could run a coaxial cable into a Faraday cage and bring in radio signals that way. You could connect that cable to an antenna inside the cage. A radio receiver inside the cage could receive that signal. Is that what you’re asking?

This is sometimes done for auto tunnels, so people can keep listening to the radio while driving through the tunnel.

I have just installed a Glass Enclosure Shower with a metal frame. Is there a way to seal the glass and the metal? Rain X on the glass and car wax on the metal was the only suggestion I have had thus far. Thanks in advance.

get a automatic shower cleaner
at wal-mart

Just wondering if any of you good people out there have used the program and then measured different results than what was projected? As you surely know, certain enclosures can involve quite a bit of time and money, and since it is a free program, I wonder sometimes just how much I should trust it.

There is no reason it should not be accurate. I think it’s more a features issue than an accuracy issue. You are probably asking this in the wrong place, the AVS Forum DIY section would probably be better. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=155

I don’t do much with box speakers anymore and virtually never with ported. Just don’t have a use for them! A simple pocket calculator is all you need for sealed systems or open baffle systems. The tools you do need are LspCAD and some sort of measurement system. I use Arta with an Earthworks M-30 microphone but a cheaper option would be this… http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=390-790 It uses a modified Panasonic mic element that is pretty close in quality to my M-30. I haven’t tried this system but I’m familiar with the guy that designed it and it should be very good.

You’ll have to check with the DIY’ers on the AVS Forum about box modeling software. I know Bass Box Pro is a popular one. I’ve been doing almost exclusively open baffle for 16 ~ 17 years and have little or no interest in conventional box speakers. They do still have their applications, not sure that’s true of ported systems but I suppose that’s a matter of taste.

mk

I am getting a baby red tail boa and i heard you are supposed to put them in a plastic bin?

You can but if you would like to use a vivarium/terrarium then that’s fine too it shouldn’t matter what you put him or her in as long as the temperature is correct and he has a warm and cool spot to go to and a water dish for drinking and soaking and some substrate such as newspaper, astro turf, aspen, or cypress mulch and about two hides for him to go in on each side and you should also supply him with a branch or some branches in case he starts to shed to help him out a bit and maybe some fake plants too just to make him feel a little bit more at home and last but not least some thermostats to control the temperatures too.

I need an external enclosure that will work with this hard drive (fujitsu mhv2160bt pl). If someone could help me find a external enclosure that would work with this hard drive I would really appreciate it.

If you’re looking for a hard drive enclosure that will support your drive; this will work:
http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-2-0-2-5-SATA-HD-HARD-DISK-DRIVE-CASE-Enclosure-/110682715656

There are lots of website references (usually newspapers from the day the event happened) of people entering bear enclosures and getting killed, but does anyone know of any books that mention this?

Here’s a book about Binky the Polar Bear:
http://www.amazon.com/Binkys-Trophy-Story-Alaskan-Polar/dp/0965420019
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?pq=binky+the+polar+bear&hl=en&sugexp=gsis,i18n%3Dtrue&cp=25&gs_id=g&xhr=t&q=binky+the+polar+bear+book&rlz=1R2DKUS_enUS364&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&biw=1344&bih=705&wrapid=tljp131489070161408&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=2293194181545091958&sa=X&ei=0qNfTrrEAsGesQLDjeUI&sqi=2&ved=0CEAQ8wIwBQ#

If you want a quick review of Binky’s story, look at this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binky_(polar_bear)

Somebody actually made an amateur video while it was happening:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wGbCNDw-m0

Note that this woman had to climb over two (TWO!) fences to get that close to Binky. She was injured but not killed, and she later admitted that it was colossally stupid to do that and that Binky was not to blame. Binky kept her shoe as a toy.

In the Near future, I will be having one Hybrid SSD/HDD and one HDD both 7200rpm

which one should i keep in the laptop and which one should go in the USB 3.0 external enclosure.
mainly, i only use the internal hd just to boot the os and run applications. i keep all files, sessions, videos, pictures, music in the external. so what would be the better placement of these two for me?

please provide reasoning. thnx!

Put the SSD into the laptop, and the operating system on the SSD. The laptop will be ready to use 7 seconds after pressing the power button. It looks cool to other people, and they think you have an extremely high end computer.

Hi there,

I’d like to ask for advice on this since I’m pretty ##### that my data HDD just seem to have failed and I had 300GB of stuff on it.

OK, so my problem is now that Windows won’t boot unless I unplug my data (secondary) HDD; my primary or BOOT drive is an SSD and no problem with it.

Now, I’ve read that we can sometimes recover data from a dead drive by using a drive USB enclosure since it allows you to hot plug the drive once your OS is up and running.

My worries are that OK, it will allow me to plug it after a successful boot, but isn’t it almost the same as having it as a secondary drive (slave?) which is already the setup I’ve been using for months?

I mean, if it is just data on the drive and it prevents windows from booting, chances are that hot plugging it through USB will just bring errors as well or even something like the drive is not formatted error message?

A few additional details:
I’m using XP home and a 80GB SSD for boot.
The ‘dead’ drive is a 320GB caviar which is pretty full’ I tried to do a de-fragmentation on it a few weeks ago and it didn’t go through because too full.
Yesterday I deleted some 10GB from it which would give about 18GB free space on it if I remember well.
Lately, I observed that my transfer speed to that drive were getting slower (I should have stopped right there - I know!!) but I was receiving no other sign of a dying drive.

So what’s your take on this? USB drive enclosure has some chance of success or not? I’m sure that for the price vs 300GB of data, it’s worth a try anyway, but I want to hear from you on real life experiences on this.

Thanks
thanks for answer keep them coming!! A1: No jumper I believe it’s a SATA drive. A2: Have you ever undeleted 300GB of data? That could take months to do I think because I’ve tried just a few videos (100MB total) before and it took over an hour…
Edit #2:

OK, I took apart 2 of portable 2.5" HDD I had here and with one of them, I could fit its board to my SATA ‘dead’ drive [in other words, I made my own "SATA to USB adapter" or "drive enclosure" ]
I hooked up some power with a 4-pin connector from my PSU and plugged the drive+board into USB and voilà! There were all my files!! - I’m a happy camper!!

So now I’m going shopping for at a new (of at least 1TB) HDD drive….

Thanks again for the answers again.

The USB interface is different than the internal connection, so you should be OK if the drive is still good. You will probably need to change the jumper to Master.
In any case, the attempt will do no harm.