Prolly a useless thread, but I had to tell someone, none of my mates are into car audio!

Well anyway I have some 6.5" Morel Pulse splits up front, with fully sound deadened and sealed doors and an acoustic tile (Acoustic Tile (http://www.electusdistribution.com.au/products_uploaded/productLarge_195.jpg)) behind the drivers in the doors. Speakers were mounted on the factory plastic baffles.

I couldn't figure out why I wasnt getting much midbass. The Morels are 120Wrms and I was feeing them with a 150Wrms amp, so power wasnt an issue. The EQ settings on my HU were flat, no fiddling. The only thing I could think of was the plastic baffles, so I booked it into Tonkins down at Salisbury to make some 18mm MDF baffles ($75/pair for those interested, angled and everything).

I get a phone call from Aaron at Tonkins (hes had 2 magnas with nuts sytems in them) saying that he thinks I'm wasting my money. They pulled the foam tiles out and it made a HUGE difference! They then tweeked the EQ and tuned the splits/sub crossover points and its a whole new system! I got him to put some Focal Plain Chant tiles in the doors while he had the trim off.

I havent been able to stop grinning every since!! :D
A huge thumbs up to Aaron and Tonkins for being totally honest and spending a heap of time just talking to me about the system, recommending stuff and showing me step by step what they did and why. I have dealed with them a few times now and they have been awesome every single time.

Oh and for those who may jump up and down about NO FIDDLING WITH EQ!! YOU SHOULD LEAVE IT ON FLAT SO ITS TOTALLY NATURAL!

Yeah true... in a studio with a valve amp and $10,000 speaker system. In a car, there are a million and one hostile variables which mess with the sound. Different path lengths, tin cans for boxes, stage height difficulties etcetc.

Aaron only fiddled with the EQ a little bit, and now my stage height, midbass and clarity is 100% better!! I could not believe the difference! I can hear stuff now that just wasnt being reproduced before.

Good to hear you are satisfied with the customer service and quality of work you got. I reckon its getting harder and harder to find honest, hard work blokes that are willing to put in a whole heap of time into your car even. A lot of sales guys these days are pushed too hard to make sales targets/quotas etc to really spend quality time and effort into ur car... See, thats why u went to tonkins and not strathfield or JB (not tha they're bad places though :P)

I buy gear from JB but there is no way I would let them near my car! :shock:

I have done nearly everything myself, as I have fixed up too many 'professional' installs :doubt:

$75!? That's a bargain... I'm actually in exactly the same boat as yourself. Fully deadened doors, with a foam acoustic tile behind each speaker from Jaycar, mounted in the plastic baffle, and I really find that I'm lacking midbass from my Hertz HSK's, which are supposed to have fantastic midbass. They're getting 75wrms, which should be enough to go well, although not getting the most I could out of them. Do you think I'd be alright going to Tonkins in the city? Or is it worth the trip out there to Salisbury?

Aaron also did most of the work in my car, and its all exactly what i was after :D

he doesn't bull**** you into buying crap you dont need (actually probably the other way around!) and definately knows his stuff.

good to hear you were satisfied with the work also

D-VAN: I have no idea what the Adelaide store is like. I go to the Salisbury one purely because I am confident I wont get screwed and know they take real pride in their work. He has also done it all before in his magnas, and other people also have been happy with the work.

Asylum: Yeah I was very impressed at his honesty! Lots of other places would have just made the baffles and charged me, and the problem would have still been there. He checked my whole system out first and tried a few things, then rang me to say he had found the real problem, here is the solution, what did I want to do. So now he has a loyal client and I am happy to recommend him to anyone!

Poita, have your front doors been sealed aswell? As in all the service holes covered up by MDF like s_tim_ulates?

Yep! This makes a big difference as well.

http://file004.bebo.com/large/2006/02/05/11/7733404a263401968b624975433l.jpg

Definately great to hear! They should sound much better now!

I'm lucky, Bora is fully sealed from the factory.. just add deadening :D

Just thought I would show you the inside of a stock door and the after shot :D

i have the same problem, im not happy with my mid bass

so they fixed your problem by removing the tiles and tunning?? (leaving it in the plastic baffles)

thanks

MrCharisma: Yeah the Euro cars doors are fantastic! My mate has a Mazda 3 and the doors are the same, fully sealed from factory! Means the stock system sounds very nice and punchy without any mods to it.

Megatron: Yeah they removed the foam tiles, but replaced them with some Focal Plain Chant tiles. Which do a similar thing but no way near as aggressive. You still need something behind the speakers to stop waves bouncing off the inside of the door and into the back of the speaker.

As for the tuning, he adjusted my amps as well, with the crossover freq between sub and splits. I have to look at this yet to see exactly what hes done. But mainly he got a CD and just played with the EQ till we were both happy with the sound. Hasn't adjusted much, maybe moved certain frequencies up one or 2 notches but thats it. I can get a photo of the settings if you like just to see that it really doesn't take that much to make a big difference.

Personally, I've always gone for the Car Audio Australia certified shops, as you know they're quality.

Usually pretty dear though, but they (Doran Pro Audio) made my girl's sound system sound twice what we paid for!