Okay, it's been forever since I had any updates for the Jimmy. Of course with the work load we have over the winter months it's hard to get any free time to work on it at work and I don't have a great place at home to work on it there when it's cold, so.... enough for the excuses, lol.

The ETE Reman trans was shipped and arrived last week. I figured I'd throw up a few pics for giggles before the truck and trans went to the mechanic. I just can't wait to get to driving this thing again.



















Once I get it back from the mechanic work will begin on getting the doors modified and the 8" SLS's and Fountek FR89's installed!

 

That's hawt.

 

Isn't it though? It's beautiful and I love the way they packaged/shipped it. Very secure and much better than being held down to a pallet and wrapped in saran wrap.

I'm hoping to get a start working on the doors as I still can't get it into the mechanic this week, hopefully he'll have an opening next week. I'm going to (hopefully) improve the mounting of the door panel to the doors and try to repair the door handles so I can shut the doors without the door panel trying to pop off. Damn cheap plastic tabs.

 

Finally got an opening at the mechanic. The Jimmy has been dropped off and now it's just a matter of time before it's back on the road!!

 

Well, nearly a month later and I have the Jimmy back!!!!


New engine, new transmission, the starter noise is fixed, rear U joint is replaced (didn't even know it was bad) and she's running like a top!

The stereo as it sounds right now is pretty damn impressive so I'm going to put the permanent installation of the full ranges and the 8" midbasses off until I get the build work in the wife's new Traverse done before I take on the finishing of the build in the Jimmy.

Damn it feels good to be driving it again!

 

Well, I discovered one SUPER annoying problem... The Clarion CZ702 doesn't like my iPhone 5S. Won't recognize it's hooked up and won't even charge it. So I'm going to switch the Kenwood KDC-X492 back into the truck since it doesn't seem to have a problem with it.

You might think "Well isn't that a downgrade from the Clarion?" and you'd be correct, except I have an item that I'm going to try to get installed this weekend that makes the HU I'm using completely irrelevant. Sure the Clarion has great signal control capability but it's nothing compared to my new toy. I recently picked up a Soundstream Harmony DSP for much more control of the signals feeding the amps in the Jimmy.

The Harmony has separate quasi-parametric EQ's for each of it's 8 channels, much more powerful crossover controls that are adjustable to any frequency you input from 20hz to 20khz at 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, and 48dB slopes, time alignment as always and separate adjustable gain levels for each of the 8 channels. It's not quite as powerful as some of the other DSP's on the market such as the miniDSP, Soundstream Synthesis, Zapco DSP-Z8, Helix DSP, JBL MS8, etc. but it's also less than half the price of those.

So hopefully I'll have an update here very soon on the installation of this wonderful little box and the difference it makes over the controls of the Clarion.

 

Well, I can never help myself but to scroll through listings on ebay, typically the ones that are about to end so that if it's what I want and a good price I can nab it up without getting into a bidding war. Anyway I was scrolling through listings this morning and came across a BNIB set of Mach5 MLI-65's a guy was selling and I got them for $75 with free shipping. I thought they might be fun to play with as an alternative to the Bravox mids from the CS60K component set was being used before going to the FR + dedicated midbass setup. Hopefully I'll have them before the end of the week and can get them tossed in before the weekend!

 

Little update. The Mach5 MLI's are absolutely unreal for 6.5" drivers. I'm about 100% sure I'm right about the harmonic distortion in the Bravox's making them seem louder. After installing the MLI's and getting them broke in they absolutely decimate the reproduction quality of the Bravox's without any noticeable difference in output besides the fact they definitely have stronger output on the lower frequencies than the Bravox mids did. When playing Alice in Chains - Would for example, the bass guitar can not just be heard but felt throughout it's range, even in the upper registers. At full tilt you can just about feel everything which has impressed many more than just me, lol. I have a buddy who's a big heavy metal nut that's always asking to hear one song or another to hear the difference in it. I've played The Zack Brown Band's Chicken Fried for a couple of different people and it scared them when they felt the string plucks of the guitar at the very beginning of the song, let alone the rest of it.

I also installed some FR88EX's I bought from an SSA forum member into the little Logitech enclosures on the dash to see what kind of difference I could hear between them and the FE85's. Now, don't get me wrong, the FE85's were absolutely amazing for their modest $13 price tag but the FR88's aren't coming out of the Jimmy until the fiberglass work to permanently mount the full rangers is complete. Even then they're only coming out to be replaced with the next model up, the FR89's.

Today I also got the opportunity to drop the Soundstream Harmony in the Jimmy to start using it for processing instead of the capabilities of the CZ702. I don't know how there's not more of units something like this more widely available than there is. Sure, the laptop is a little gangly and cumbersome to have in your lap the entire time you're making adjustments but damn is it ever worth it. I had only a couple of little problem areas that I couldn't quite adjust enough on the Clarion due to the restraints of the built-in DSP but they're about gone now. The biggest issue I had was with the crossover for the midbass only being adjustable down to 630hz. I had to use the LP crossover on the 125.2 to get it the rest of the way down to the 250hz region to blend properly with the FR's. I still had some issues with some frequencies being a little "bloomy" near the crossover points on the top and bottom. I couldn't get the crossover points and EQ to find a happy medium with it. Thanks to the independent EQ's and the infinitely variable crossover frequencies the Harmony everything I've played on it so far is so much smoother than before. It's really hard to tell where the beginnings and ends of everything lies now. It's all blending better, sounding so much smoother, and that's only after a couple of hours of tuning. I can't wait to spend more and more time with it dialing in every little thing until it's about perfect!

Overall this thing is sounding more and more ideal the more I work on it. It's no SPL show stopper by any means but the way it sounds and FEELS when I'm listening to it is beginning to truly meet my expectations. It doesn't do bad on output by any means, but when you hear and feel EVERYTHING and not just the sub bass at the output levels this thing is doing right now it's a whole different kinda loud.


Here's a few pics of the Mach 5 in the passenger door and the Harmony installed.



I gotta say, I don't really care for the look of the grilles that came with the Mach5's on my doors but I gotta have them protected and the grilles to the Bravox's wouldn't fit so I'm stuck with this for now.










I was able to tuck the Harmony in behind the glove box. It's a tight fit and takes a little push to get the glove box to close but at this point I don't really have any place else it can go very easily.