Couple audio questions

[Wolfman213]

I've got a few questions concerning some audio related material. I'm pretty sure I know the answers, but not 100%.1) I have the M&T. I pretty sure that there is a bass blocker inline from the door speaker to the tweets. Will the stock bass blocker be sufficient if I choose separate door and tweet speakers? Or would I be better of getting an actual compnent setup?2) I still have the factory battery. I will be adding my sub setup by the end of this month. Should I splurge for a capacitor or hold of till the battery dies and just get a really good one?3) I have am planning on putting some LEDs in my ported box. Since I'm looking at probably .5 A draw, could I wire that in parallel to my amp without risking putting too much of a load on the amp?Thanks in advance!

[ColonelPanic]

Back in the day I had a 500 watt amp and had some incandescent strip lights in the box (this was back before LED's were common for automotive purposes)... Didn't have any trouble powering them off the amp.

[audiovibe]

Quote, originally posted by Wolfman213 »1) I have the M&T. I pretty sure that there is a bass blocker inline from the door speaker to the tweets. Will the stock bass blocker be sufficient if I choose separate door and tweet speakers? Or would I be better of getting an actual compnent setup?I believe that the resistor for the factory tweeter is is soldered directly to the factory tweet, I'm sure it would work fine to an extent. Depending where it starts to block frequencies, the cutoff might be to low for the aftermarket tweets which would in turn leave you with some smoked tweets in the end. Also since all speakers perform differently you might end up buying a tweet that plays warmer and the factory resistor could hinder the performance of the new tweeter. However the up side to getting new tweeters is that a lot of them come with a inline passive filter to protect them. I am all for the DIY method of speaker building as it opens up a whole world of possibilities for improved sound at a fraction of the price. Another option would be to look into building your own X-over for the tweets and should be do able for under $30.00, for this method I would look into the speaker building forums at parts express.Quote, originally posted by Wolfman213 »2) I still have the factory battery. I will be adding my sub setup by the end of this month. Should I splurge for a capacitor or hold of till the battery dies and just get a really good one?IMO caps are a band aid solution it is just another thing taxing the charging system. you will benefit from the cap for a few moments but once it starts to discharge it will have to get charged back up. At this time you are still playing music but are in a worse position because instead of just trying to keep up with the music the alternator also has to recharge the cap. With the money you save from the cap you should be able to get a pretty nice battery, or have a decent chunk saved for a kinetik battery.Quote, originally posted by Wolfman213 »3) I have am planning on putting some LEDs in my ported box. Since I'm looking at probably .5 A draw, could I wire that in parallel to my amp without risking putting too much of a load on the amp?How would this be paralleled? If in conjunction to the speaker leads I would suggest not to. I know a lot of people do this so the light will flash with the music, but it is just another load the amp is trying to feed which in turn feeds back to the battery issue. Sure it will be a minimal draw but it will still be taking power from your amp to shine.If you mean to parallel it to the remote turn on and ground so the light is on with the amp I would say that would work fine but I would recommend adding a relay in the amp turn on line. The relay will ease some of the load on the amp turn on lead by using a constant source to turn the amps on. So in turn your amp turn on would switch the relay on instead of the amps.Hope it helps Aron

[Wolfman213]

Wow, thanks audiovibe!! I think I'll do some more research into the whole tweet area and X-over area.I never really thought of that issue concerning the cap and charging system. Good to know now before wasting the money!!You hit it on the head with you second comment on powering the LEDs. That's what I was thinking, however, I didn't think about the relay.Once again, thanks for you insight!

[audiovibe]