Jump to content

jeffreybehr

Edge Member
  • Posts

    178
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by jeffreybehr

  1. First, I own an '07 SEL+ AWD in Blazing Copper; it now has 17000 miles on it.

     

    I LOVE mine. I'm an incorrigible tweak and have lowered it with an H&R spring kit, had the front and rear facia painted, and replaced the wheels and tires, the exhaust system--it was WAY too quiet!--the stereo's door speakers and added dash-top tweeters, It gets 18+ MPG life-to-date and has plenty of power when I want to go fast or faster.

     

    It has recently developed its first problem--the stereo intermitently doesn't work correctly, so I'll be getting that fixed.

     

    Sidesquare_700w.jpg

  2. I change oil in new vehicles the same way the Dems vote in Cook county--early and often*. Only because I bought my Edge 1600 miles from home did the original oil last that long. I changed oil and filter a couple times before I switched to fully synthetic RedLine 5W20 at c. 4000 miles, and now I use the 7500-mile interval.

     

    Oil and filters are cheap; engines are not.

     

    Of course, many will opine that Ford's and all others' dead-dino engine oil is just fine to use, as is the 7500-mile interval even from brand-new. Personally, I use better-than-required material and intervals.

     

    * I guess the 'even if dead' part of the Dem's voting policies doesn't apply to oil-change intervals. :)

  3. Surely they can be painted, but since they're chromed, they'll have to roughened first with something like sand- or bead blasting. I had my front and rear valances painted body color...

    Sidesquare_700w.jpg

    ...and probably will have my foglite surrounds painted when I have some minor body-repair work done.

     

    BTW if you're looking for an extra set of chromed 18" wheels (w/o pressure sensors) for $150 + freight, e-mail me at jeffreybehr[at]cox[dot]net.

  4. I strongly urge each of you to consider an instrument-panel ('IP')-mounted tweeter as part of your speaker upgrades. I chose the Infinity Reference 1"-dome tweeters... http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/Ite...&i=1081021T

    ...and painted the silver-colored mounting cups brown before I installed them in my Edge.

    Tweeterinstalled_700w.jpg

    Probably I'll have a dashmat made to reduce/eliminate the reflections from the IP into the windshield, and I'll have it cut around the tweeters which will further reduce their visibility.

     

    I really didn't like the sound of all the music coming from around my knees, and these tweeters started to put the orchestra in front of me. I use 'started' in that sentence because I then replaced the original crossovers (2.5KHz, 2nd order) with some high-quality capacitors to reduce the crossover frequency so that more of the midrange portion of frequencies came from the tweeters, in front of me. The hi-pass filterpoint is now an incredibly low 1.2KHz, something I never thought I'd achieve, but the tweeters still sound fine and never sound overloaded. Lowering the tweeters' crossover frequency is NOT something the headbangers or those who turn the treble control all or most of the way up ought to do, as those folk likely will blow or damage them by overdriving them with midrange frequencies, but it works very well for the rest of us.

     

    I also strongly recommend the Sonic Craft 6-1/2" bass/MR driver (with low-pass coil) for front-door use, but doing so requires some cutting of the plastic inner door panel.

    Leftclose_800w.jpg

    This is an excellent-sounding driver; I suspect it's quite better sounding than about anything offered by auto-sound manufacturers. I use them in my home system's main L/R speakers...

    Inprocess6Lch700h.jpg

    ...and here they sound REALLY fine driven by 'flea-powered' Single-Ended-Triode amps. One has to buy a carton of 24 of these to get them from Sonic Craft, but I have some extras (at delivered cost of only $11 each) if anyone's interested. E-mail me directly at jeffreybehr@cox.net for details, etc.

  5. A few notes on the subject of replacing door speakers.

    1. I replaced my FD speakers with the EXCELLENT-sounding SonicCraft JG65s, the same now-discontinued-and-inexpensive drivers I use in my main L/R speakers in my multichannel audio/video system. I use a coil to roll off the upper-MR/treble starting at a calculated 2KHz.

    2. The upper-MR and treble are handled by Infinity tweeters.

    Tweeterinstalled_700w.jpg

    I tossed the original 2nd-order high-pass filter (at c. 2.5K IIRC) and replaced it with some HQ BlackGate caps...enough to lower the x-over point way down into the MR to get more of the music coming from in front rather than around my knees. Currently that filter point is c. 1.2KHz (!!!!), MUCH lower than anyone thought I could get away with, but they sound great and don't smoke!

    3. The rear-door speakers are 8" woofers that I run full-range. While they add a bit of fullness...warmth...to the sound, they have little bottom-octave output, so I bought...

    4. ...an Infinity 10" subwoofer system...

    SW1_600w.jpg

    ...that turned out too big and I never installed it. I've just ordered a Blaupunkt 8"-driver SW system... http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/Ite...mp;i=023THB210A ...that ought to fit.

     

    Overall my system sounds QUITE good, and having some bottom-octave energy will cause it to sound even better.

  6. PrinzII: "Highs = Treble

    Mids, or midrange consists of the frequencies starting at 1,000 Hz and up to 9,000 or 10,000 Hz."

     

    Not quite. The approximate range of human hearing is 20Hz (cycles per second) to 20,000Hz. That range is about 10 octaves, and they're labeled as follows.

     

    Bass--3 octaves...20 - 40, 40 - 80, and 80 - 160Hz.

    Midrange--4 octaves...160 - 320, 320 - 640, 640 - 1280, and 1280 - 2560Hz.

    Treble--3 octaves...2560 - 5120, 5120 - 10240, and 10240 - 20480Hz.

     

    The fundamental tones of virtually all musical instruments fall within c. 40Hz - c. 2KHz. The harmonics of those fundamental tones--that is, the multiples of the fundamental frequencies--are what create the sound of the instruments. For instance, both a bass guitar and a bass fiddle play the same range of notes starting with their lowest note of E (= c. 42Hz IIRC), but they sure don't sound the same, and those differences are caused by their having a different mix of harmonics.

     

    Just thought you'd like to know.

    • Like 1
×
×
  • Create New...