Modded Table Tuba Idea. Good or Bad? Suggestions?

[gunwagon]

So i have a 76 K5 blazer that i use for wheeling. I am looking for a summer project and was thinking about building a table tuba for the K5. I am wondering if i can mod the box to hold 4x jbl gto804's or 4x infinity ref. 860w's.

Anyone have any suggestions about this idea? or should i just go with a THT? I have the room just looking for a fun build and possibly a mod to the current design. I find these plans easy and would like to build off of them.


Thanks for your input.

-Zach

[howiez]

Most of those designs are meant for 1 driver due to space constraints. If the specs of the driver match BFM plans then go for it. The only reason to adapt would be because you have those 4 (8) on hand already?

Bills designs are meant to be efficient, no need for the normal piles of drivers you see in car audio. No need for megawatt amplifiers.There is a thread here somewhere about putting a full THT in an SUV. If you really are trying blow something up, I'd go for that. I have one THT in my house, can't imagine what it would do in a confined space of a vehicle with cabin gain.

[Ryan Sober]

Funny, I was just talking to a car audio addict buddy of mine the other day.
He has a Montero Sport with 4 15" in it. I'm thinking 6 TTLS would make him cry for mercy.
I showed him the sales page and response graphs... He's very interested.

[gunwagon]

This build would be fun because i could put of my own intuition and design skill to work.

Would the box support six jbl804's if i added supports between each driver on the horn side? How wide should it be?

[Ryan A]

6 8's? Thats a 30 x 30 X 56 inch cab or so. Are you sure it would even fit?

[Stratispho]

This build would be fun because i could put of my own intuition and design skill to work.

Would the box support six jbl804's if i added supports between each driver on the horn side? How wide should it be?

Have you built even 1 of Bill's horns to know what you're getting into soundwise? I had an 85 K5 and I guess if you wanted to take out the back seat and have no cargo room you could fit 6 drivers. For reference, a Truck Tuba (one of the smaller horns) is roughly 2'x3'x6". So take that out X 6 and you're talking a 2'x3'x3' cube.

Start with 1 Auto Tuba or Truck Tuba, and see if you like it. Better to spend $15 on the plans now and follow them, then try and design your own horn and go through the headaches that Bill has already solved for you.

Have you compared your desired speakers SPL chart with the chart Bill has posted for the Auto Tuba?

[Ryan Sober]

6 8's? Thats a 30 x 30 X 56 inch cab or so. Are you sure it would even fit?

He's thinking of doing it as six singles, for ease of moving and such.
But yes, it would fit.
Going minimum width, each cab is 15x12x60... leaving final size as 36x30x60.
His cargo area is 37 wide, so tight fit there, but the other dimensions are easy.
Btw, this is a guy who has 1/0 wiring everywhere, an extra battery in the cargo compartment, etc. etc.
We'll see if it happens... he wants to do something "drastically different", hence my introducing him to this site.

[Tom Smit]

This build would be fun because i could put of my own intuition and design skill to work.

Would the box support six jbl804's if i added supports between each driver on the horn side? How wide should it be?

Hey Zach, may I suggest a slightly different route. I would suggest a 2x10" TableTuba 30-35" wide. This will give you some room at the mouth to let it "breathe". I think that you may find it uncomfortable when you will turn this baby up.

[caddylackn]

For max volume, I would do two 36" wide by 22" tall by 20" deep Tall Auto Tubas with 2 - 1060w Infinitys Each. Wire speakers in parallel in each cab and two cabs wired in parallel. You could drive them all with a single 500 watt mono amp wired in a 2 ohm load. Place the cabs back to back for a total size of 40" wide by 36" long by 22" tall. This will leave a lot of room around the mouth and won't be as tall as the back seat.

Build one cabinet first and test it out, if for some reason it is not loud enough build another. If still not loud enough move up to a 1,000 watt amp. I think just one TAT cabinet with two tens and a 500 watt amp would be complete overkill, you couldn't be in the car for any amount of time at even half volume without hearing damage.

If you really want to impress your friends you don't have to be louder, just build a system that is just as loud, sounds 5 times better, and cost only 1/4 as much.

[67baja]

"drastically different" to me means a dual Lab 12 loaded t60. Sounds like he has the room. Or maybe 2x t39 or t48s if you want LOUD but little smaller than t60. It doesn't really take any longer to take any longer to build, but a bit more expensive.

[bitSmasher]

If you go down that route, how about T45?

[Tom Smit]

Nope, nope, nope and nope. The only sub that is reasonable in a vehicle is the AT (and it's variants) with the TT being a possibility as well (as demonstated by "bassmonster").

[67baja]

Nope, nope, nope and nope. The only sub that is reasonable in a vehicle is the AT (and it's variants) with the TT being a possibility as well (as demonstated by "bassmonster").

Why not? What's wrong with a pro sound sub in a vehicle?That's like saying a sub is good for rock music, but not country. IMHO, the only reason to not use a pro sound sub is the size of it, and it seems to me he has the room. I have a t30 under my computer desk for the bass (which is hardly a pro sound application). Is it overkill? Hell yes it is, but sometimes that's what people want. There was a guy on here with a pontoon boat that loved the t39 vs. the jbl 10's he had previously. I would absolutely do it if I was trying to be the baddest bass head on the block.

[caddylackn]

What's wrong with a pro sound sub in a vehicle?

Prosound drivers like high voltage and low current, which is the opposite of what auto amps provide since they have to start with a 12v - 14v DC power supply. Auto amps provide higher current at a lower voltage. It would take a real pricey auto amp to get even 500 watts out of a single prosound 8 ohm driver. Auto amps get their big watts and output by running 2 ohm, 1 ohm or 1/2 ohm loads. It would take at least 4 T-30s wired in parallel to even get close to 2 ohms, which indeed would be pretty loud if you could get them all to fit. To answer your question, there is nothing wrong with using a prosound driver, it is just more expensive to get auto amps that will run them to the same output.

[Tom Smit]

What's wrong with a pro sound sub in a vehicle?

Prosound drivers like high voltage and low current, which is the opposite of what auto amps provide since they have to start with a 12v - 14v DC power supply. Auto amps provide higher current at a lower voltage. It would take a real pricey auto amp to get even 500 watts out of a single prosound 8 ohm driver. Auto amps get their big watts and output by running 2 ohm, 1 ohm or 1/2 ohm loads. It would take at least 4 T-30s wired in parallel to even get close to 2 ohms, which indeed would be pretty loud if you could get them all to fit. To answer your question, there is nothing wrong with using a prosound driver, it is just more expensive to get auto amps that will run them to the same output.

Um, not quite. Amps put out wattage, which is volts times amps; drivers receive wattage. We measure in volts, and it doesn't matter if it's auto, pro or home speakers.

Pro cabs in a vehicle will not respond well because of the confined space.