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Another subwoofer option - NVX Audio
- Thread starter tlr1000
- Start date
cdub715
Member
Wanted to report so far no issues with 12V battery though i do plan on upgrading to the Ohmmu battery on my car's 2nd birthday. Power draw on JL RD500/1 seems to be efficient enough not to trigger a 12V warning. Side note: Ive been blasting my music 70% with the bass turned up to 95% for 2 weeks now.
Excited to receive my kit. Wondering how everyone who owns this setup tuned there amp and xlca units. (Anyone have pictures or levels used)
In my previous car audio setups I would find myself tinkering with the adjustments, has anyone found an easy way to access these units to do so without tearing the whole trunk down again?
Thanks,
M1X
In my previous car audio setups I would find myself tinkering with the adjustments, has anyone found an easy way to access these units to do so without tearing the whole trunk down again?
Thanks,
M1X
ratcityrain
Member
I'm still trying to determine the same thing. I plan to begin the install this weekend and I plan to put the amp and LOC near the factory amp and I'm hoping there is a way to access them to fine tune the gains w/o having to remove a lot of the interior.
Right on man, my kit is still processing not yet shipped. I am considering doing a false floor or suicide mount on the rear deck... I like the idea of out of sight out of mind, but I know I will be wanting to adjust and fine tune more than once or twice...
Hope your install goes well.
cdub715
Member
Wanted to share my experience on how to tune the Box + XLCA2 + Amp. Disclaimer: My JL Amp has a clipping LED so it made tuning the amp a lot easier.
Make sure your equalizer settings on the MCU is completely flat when tuning your setup. I used a 0db 50Hz sine wave file to test everything to simulate maximum travel for the subwoofer. Idea is to find the max before your signal starts clipping ergo distortion.
1. Based on Travisllado's post, there doesnt seem to be any factory bass roll-off so you should turn the bass-threshold arrow on the XLCA all the way clockwise. Start by disconnecting the RCAs from the amp-XLCA2 as safety precaution. You could leave everything connected but you risk damaging/blowing the sub.
2. Find the Max setting of the XLCA2 by playing the 50Hz signal at 3/4 volume or higher. Turn the Bass Output knob on the XLCA2 until you see the maximize LED go off, then dial it a tad back until it flickers or barely off. I turned it back a little more than I should but I wanted to be safe.
3. Now that you have the max signal setting on the XLCA2 dialed in, you can now feed that signal to the amp, in my case, the JL RD500/1 which has a clipping LED. Ran the 50Hz signal through again at 3/4+ volume and turned the input sensitivity knob until i saw the clipping LED flicker, dialed it back and Voila, the tune is complete! If you dont have a clipping LED, I recommend getting at cheapo multimeter to measure the actual AC voltage coming out of the RCAs.
I listen to mostly hip hop, electronic, pop, rap, etc so my bass preference is on the "higher" side. I usually have my bass turned up to 4-5 on the equalizer at 3/4 volume. Bass is more than i need. I also get the added bonus of being able to view the clipping LED from my trunk so i know if my amp is clipping at high volumes. Happy Bumping Y'all. By far the best mod I've done so far to the car.
Make sure your equalizer settings on the MCU is completely flat when tuning your setup. I used a 0db 50Hz sine wave file to test everything to simulate maximum travel for the subwoofer. Idea is to find the max before your signal starts clipping ergo distortion.
1. Based on Travisllado's post, there doesnt seem to be any factory bass roll-off so you should turn the bass-threshold arrow on the XLCA all the way clockwise. Start by disconnecting the RCAs from the amp-XLCA2 as safety precaution. You could leave everything connected but you risk damaging/blowing the sub.
2. Find the Max setting of the XLCA2 by playing the 50Hz signal at 3/4 volume or higher. Turn the Bass Output knob on the XLCA2 until you see the maximize LED go off, then dial it a tad back until it flickers or barely off. I turned it back a little more than I should but I wanted to be safe.
3. Now that you have the max signal setting on the XLCA2 dialed in, you can now feed that signal to the amp, in my case, the JL RD500/1 which has a clipping LED. Ran the 50Hz signal through again at 3/4+ volume and turned the input sensitivity knob until i saw the clipping LED flicker, dialed it back and Voila, the tune is complete! If you dont have a clipping LED, I recommend getting at cheapo multimeter to measure the actual AC voltage coming out of the RCAs.
V=√P⋅R
so in my case (500*2)^(1/2)= 31.62V should be what I read on my multimeter from the RCAs. If you have the VADM1, itd be (320*2)^(1/2) = 25.29 V.I listen to mostly hip hop, electronic, pop, rap, etc so my bass preference is on the "higher" side. I usually have my bass turned up to 4-5 on the equalizer at 3/4 volume. Bass is more than i need. I also get the added bonus of being able to view the clipping LED from my trunk so i know if my amp is clipping at high volumes. Happy Bumping Y'all. By far the best mod I've done so far to the car.
cdub715
Member
Definitely loud enough to hear from upstairs. Also the bass is almost unbearable with the back seats down and bass turned to 100%. Very clean bass as you would get with a sealed box.Good to hear that a bigger amp is working without issue. How do your neighbors like the bass?
As stated above, the important thing is to give the amp as much power as you can without clipping. That way you don’t starve it. The stock amplifier does not have an LED, so I did that by ear. As far as the other settings, I waited to put the trunk wall liner back together until I was sure I was happy with the sound. The rest the trunk I put back together once the wiring was done. Adjusting the sound took a week or two. Then I put the liner back.
there is a remote bass level knob they give you which you could keep outside of the liner. But honestly, you can do about the same thing from the screen EQ.
The good news though is the wall liner covering the amp and LOC is not hard to take down, just a few clips. You could always do that if you needed to later on
there is a remote bass level knob they give you which you could keep outside of the liner. But honestly, you can do about the same thing from the screen EQ.
The good news though is the wall liner covering the amp and LOC is not hard to take down, just a few clips. You could always do that if you needed to later on
cdub715
Member
well im more of a quantitate kind of guy vs qualitative so i based everything on the numbers. If you want maximum bass, I'd suggest getting a cheap multimeter for 10 bucks at Home Depot or Lowes. I like blasting my music and know im getting maximum output hehe.
cdub715
Member
Welp guys, I hate to report, I got the 12V battery error. Mine was a quirky one though - Throwing VC_Front errors, specifically:
VCFront_a402 - Electrical system backup power is unavailable
VCFront_a220 - Electrical system is unable to support all features
VCFront_192 - Electrical system power reduced (Common)
Luckily I got the 12V Ohmmu LiPo battery coming so hopefully I can last until then - for now, everything seems to be working fine despite the error. Stay tuned.
VCFront_a402 - Electrical system backup power is unavailable
VCFront_a220 - Electrical system is unable to support all features
VCFront_192 - Electrical system power reduced (Common)
Luckily I got the 12V Ohmmu LiPo battery coming so hopefully I can last until then - for now, everything seems to be working fine despite the error. Stay tuned.
I wonder if adding a "Car Audio battery isolator" would work? I don't see anyone trying this, basically instead of the lead going to a second battery it would go to the amplifier(s)... When the remote lead is powered it would connect the amp to the penthouse and should stop the errors... It might be worth the $80 gamble to try...
Sorry to hear that. Hopefully the Ohmmu helps but I guess for most folks installing the NVX sub kit it might be better to stick with the smaller NVX amp. I know many have reported that the NVX amp, although not anywhere near the JL500/1, is still very capable and haven't heard any error messages so far with the NVX amp...knock on wood. @cdub715, have you considered swapping out the JL to the NVX just for testing purposes to see if error message will continue? (assuming you bought the full NVX kit instead of NVX sub only).
ratcityrain
Member
Yesterday I completed my install. I would say the "hardest" part was the jack nut. I used a step up drill bit and made micro adjustments, but the hole became just a tad too big. I used gorilla glue to glue it in place, but only time will tell if that worked.
Here is what I did for my installation
1-turned off power from the head unit
2-disconnected negative on battery
3-removed all the interior pieces
4-unplugged oem amp harnesses and removed all electrical tape and tesa tape so that I could install posi-taps farther away from the oem amp
5-installed posi-taps
6-grounded oem amp, XLCA2 and VADM1 to the metal bracket where oem amp was grounded
7-installed fuse holder (w/o the fuse) and ran power cable back to VADM1 with zip ties along oem wire bundle
8-installed power cable onto penthouse (pictured below is how I did it)
9-installed fuse into fuse holder
10-re-connected ground wire at battery
11-tested to make sure everything worked
12-tuned (to the best of my ability)
13-re-installed all the interior pieces
14-tested with a couple songs. Didn't want to do long in my garage so I'll wait to go on a drive to test it more, but so far it sounds good.
I placed both the VADM1 and the XLCA2 next to the oem amp and sub for a easier installation. They both fit and are snug in this location. The only drawback to this is if I wished to do anymore fine tuning, all the interior pieces would have to come out to do that.
I would say start to finish, took me about 4.5 hours. I took my time trying to figure out best location to install the VADM1 and XLCA2 and how to best connect power wire to penthouse.
For those who may ask. I did leave oem sub connected and wired NVX sub out of phase. I played a 50-54hz tone at around 3/4 volume. On the XLCA2, I have the bass threshold dial all the way clockwise. I turned the bass level dial up until the maximized led turned red, then I backed it off until light was no longer on. On the VADM1 I set the LPF around 80hz, subsonic to around 25hz and sens all the way down and if I remember correctly, the boost at mid point.
I am pretty sure it could use some more fine tuning, but I think I got it pretty close. I'll report back later as I listen to it more.
Here is what I did for my installation
1-turned off power from the head unit
2-disconnected negative on battery
3-removed all the interior pieces
4-unplugged oem amp harnesses and removed all electrical tape and tesa tape so that I could install posi-taps farther away from the oem amp
5-installed posi-taps
6-grounded oem amp, XLCA2 and VADM1 to the metal bracket where oem amp was grounded
7-installed fuse holder (w/o the fuse) and ran power cable back to VADM1 with zip ties along oem wire bundle
8-installed power cable onto penthouse (pictured below is how I did it)
9-installed fuse into fuse holder
10-re-connected ground wire at battery
11-tested to make sure everything worked
12-tuned (to the best of my ability)
13-re-installed all the interior pieces
14-tested with a couple songs. Didn't want to do long in my garage so I'll wait to go on a drive to test it more, but so far it sounds good.
I placed both the VADM1 and the XLCA2 next to the oem amp and sub for a easier installation. They both fit and are snug in this location. The only drawback to this is if I wished to do anymore fine tuning, all the interior pieces would have to come out to do that.
I would say start to finish, took me about 4.5 hours. I took my time trying to figure out best location to install the VADM1 and XLCA2 and how to best connect power wire to penthouse.
For those who may ask. I did leave oem sub connected and wired NVX sub out of phase. I played a 50-54hz tone at around 3/4 volume. On the XLCA2, I have the bass threshold dial all the way clockwise. I turned the bass level dial up until the maximized led turned red, then I backed it off until light was no longer on. On the VADM1 I set the LPF around 80hz, subsonic to around 25hz and sens all the way down and if I remember correctly, the boost at mid point.
I am pretty sure it could use some more fine tuning, but I think I got it pretty close. I'll report back later as I listen to it more.
Attachments
I did it with zero experience so I’m sure a shop would have no problems as long as they follow the proper shutdown/disconnect sequence prior (linked earlier in this thread)
cdub715
Member
Installation should be straight forward. If I can do it, and the local shop cannot, you should tell the owner of the shop to pivot to another industry lol
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