For anyone who is interested. Finally got one of my DLS UP6 woofers installed. For testing to see how it sounded, also put the tweeter up on the bare metal of the mirror sail (help up by the tweeter's magnet).

Sounsd absolutely amazing. With the amp ONLY outputting to this woofer and tweeter, it produces a sound that fills the entire car with better sound than the entire Bose system.

Bass? It makes me question if I really needed a sub.

This is WITHOUT accurately tuning the gains on the amp (voltmeter for clipping, etc), without sound dampening yet (lots of shakes in the door panel and without the tweeter fully enclosed behind the window sail (which seems like it is going to be a little tricky).

All I can say is... wow... and I'm glad el_duderino convinced me to get these over the Diamond Audios. Anyone who is looking for a non-bright system without breaking the bank, take a look at the DLS UP6 setup.

Oh and they are being under powered by 25 watts (they are rated at 150 nominal and the JL 500/5 outputs 125).

 

Dont post this, I'm dying to get this setup....ahhh...must resist.

Congrats man, enjoy it! I hear nothing but good things about the DLS, pun intended.

 

Glad to hear your happy with them. I just picked up DLS as a new line recently. That along with Dynaudio, my customers can only appreciate me more.

 

You'll like the UP6, pearlG35. The neo magnet inside the voice coil really makes it fit in a lot of doors (WAY more doors than the MS6 set right below that). The xover point is so low that the vocals are forced to stay elevated with an A pillar or dash mounted tweeter. Very similar to Dyne. I just wish the tweeter grille didn't look like a basketball, but it does prevent comb filter effects.

I will caution you that DLS is very conservative in their "recommended - not recommended" woofer directions. I've talked to a couple other shops across the country - some with IASCA-winning owners - and they run the MW110 the same way I do, in small sealed boxes. DLS says "Not recommended sealed", but it performs very well.

Also, when the paper in the box says that they take 10-20 hours to fully break in, they mean it. Woofers get a LOT louder in 1 hour of playing, and tweeters smooth even more after 20-30 minutes of playing - but I would seriously advise every customer of this before the install starts so they don't get disappointed.

Really, we have been impressed with every single DLS part we've tried - 426 coaxes, W310B "cheap" 10" subs, MW110 subs, Iridium 12" sub, UR35 set, the whole thing. The amps rock too - I have a CA41 in my car and what should sound WAY underpowered sounds great - better than my 300/4 did. But I want to upgrade to an A8... we just have to rework the install cause it won't fit where the CA41 is. We just put Reference amps into a BMW in place of Genesis Profile, and they kicked those Genesis' butt (this was not the high-end Genesis series).

And hey, you obviously can make anything work well, if you have one of those damned Alto processors in your car and it doesn't constantly crash or hang up...

 

We just put a set into a Civic Si today. Replcaed his Diamonds. Guy was blown away. Loves them.

 

Pearl05G, where are you in Central Jersey? I'm up in Freehold.

And by the way, you wouldnt happen to be the 05 sedan that was done by street effects, would you? They seem to be pretty fond of DLS there. Unfortunately, didnt have anything from them that I could hear at the tmie

 

I am familair withboth lines, just never carried them as a dealer. I was making the jump on one or the other, and just ended up with both. Primarily due to the fact of dealing with Alumapro and their complete understocking of Rainbow products. I wanted to have something else highline to compare with the Rainbows.

Now that Illusion is pretty much gone, I will be replacing my Nd8s in my doors ith either the MW170s or the Iridium 8s. As for replacing my Peerless domes, most likely will be with the MD140s as I cant stand the basketball grills. The MD330 tweet *may be possible later down the road, but for now Ill keep my CAL26s.

Your familiar with the Alto pieces? Im still new to their products, although they seem promising, Im already having problems with SUB-16s. Im still waiting on a Drive30 to come in, although now Im a bit skeptical. Theyre also taking a bit long to "revise" it.

 

Im in Edison.

No my work has always been done by me. I run my own business. Although I dont have anything bad to say about Ron,Craig,etc... They have a great imagination and do very nice fabrication work.

 

So, amthar, you listening in stereo yet? : )

 

lol, not yet, finished the install of the drivers side tweeter yesterday which pretty much finished up that side of the car (except now I need to take the panel off and close the gap which exists between the woofer and door panel and install sound deadening when that comes in).

I'll tell you that while these tweeters will fit in the stock location, you have to do some modding/fabrication to make them fit. Didn't bother me, just something to keep in mind.

Now that I know exactly what/how to do the install, I expect the passenger side to take 1-2 hours (max) with me taking my time.

Any recommendation on what the sub high cut off freqneucy should be running with these components?

I still need to grab my meter and test the voltages on the amp for clipping, and balance the sub's gain.

This is by FAR the cleanest, most successful, and most enjoyable install I have ever done (I've only done about 4). It's coming along! I'm not looking forward to the sound deadening.. seems like a helluva lot of work.

 

I'd run the sub like 60-70 and down, and the mids 50-60 and up, IF you get a good seal between the door panel and the spacer.

Glad it's going so well.

 

Ken? (not sure if thats your right name) Would it be possible for me to contact you? I have a few questions that Id like to pick your brain about since picking up Dyn and DLS. I saw on your site that your doing both as well, so maybe a brief conversation...

 

Could I use something like this:

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-nllE175...250&I=15411105

(but cheaper) to make a gasket to close the gap between the spacer and the panel?

I could cut two "rings" of this accoustical foam, glue them together, glue the 1" accoustical foam ring to the spacer.

I know the space is not 1" but I figure the door panel will compress the foam down to 1/4 ~ 1/2" and make a nice seal.

I figure foam will provide a better seal them some hard MDF against a non-flat panel surface.

 

If your using that, then you could just lay it over the rings (once mounted) then cut out the circle for it. I typically do this with regular dampning, then follow up around the ring with 3M Strip Caulk. The strip caulk is non hardening, but will be a Very tight seal, and somewhat difficult to remove If you ever need to take the driver out.

 

Ok I want to make sure that I understand. You are agreeing with my method? I want to cut out some foam rings to glue to my MDF spacer ring (MDF ring screws to the stock Bose mounting locations, woofer mounts in smaller inner cutout and screws to MDF ring).

I'm fairly certain I can attach these rings and still allow for access to the screws that mount the woofer to the ring (in case I need to remove the driver in the future).

I heard that caulk (perhaps it's only the drying kind?) releases a fume as it is curing that actually damages/weakens the foam surrounds of speakers. I was told by multiple people to make sure my caulk was fully dried when I was making my subwoofer enclosure (previous car, previous sub) before mounting the sub in it. Confirm? deny? unknown? Just curious.... more importantly is your thoughts on mating the MDF spacer ring to the door panel via compressable foam acoustical rings attaced to the MDF spacer.