Matt's SC 97 Riviera

AA wrote:

EXACT crossovers from that period are highly sought after in audio circles for some reason. That was before Sound Stream got bought and started sourcing from overseas. Very similar if not the same units used with the separates. If you know anything about speakers, you know the filters are a big part of getting the right sound. There are better coaxials out there, but none of this caliber still brand new in the box for the price he paid.

Matt - have you tried different high-pass settings for the fronts? I like to tune by turning the subs off, and just playing the fronts. Start at around 150 Hz and play them loud enough that you would comfortably listen. If they handle that, see what happens when you try 100 Hz. Play some kick drums and hip-hop bass tracks to see if they can take it. If you hear any distortion in the bass, clipping, or other noises, go back to 150 Hz, or 180 Hz, 200 Hz, etc., until they sound clean. Be careful when you play low bass to the fronts. If you hear a "clack", that's bad - abandon that filter setting and raise the high-pass to a higher value. Be gentle, keep your hand near the volume knob!

Now bring up the sub level. Cut it off really low, like 60 Hz and down. Get the volume where it sounds good with the highs, then try higher filter: 75Hz or 90Hz, until the midbass starts to impose. I prefer a slight gap between the subs and fronts, like 125 Hz-up for the fronts, 80 Hz-down for the sub. This works well with 12 dB/oct slopes. If you have 18 dB/oct or 24dB/octave options, you can move the crossover points a little closer together. Sometimes it's cool to try a steeper slope on the fronts to get some extra midbass from the doors, while keeping a 12 dB slope on the sub. Lots of tuning will get you sweet results!

I Have seen Soundstream build qaulity first hand And I can definitely tell the components in that crossover are as good as $1,000 pair of speakers I've seen like PSB makes. Some of my posts might look half retarded, but I learn in a really weird way I guess, but I can definitely see the build quality. Very good buy




https://2img.net/r/ihimg/a/img841/7452/dsc00469hl.jpg

The link is a higher res pic if you wanna look in more detail, and that's more than half the pic cropped out lol :o

But I consider that a crappy image actually. I don't even have a macro lens for my new DSLR, and my good 50mm F1.8 lens is horrible for macro, the kit 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 lens is just garbage, so the pic doesn't really do it that much justice :/ By the way, this thing was made in the USA, and usually when high end things are, it's much better wuality than something imported from china. there's a reason Conrad Johnson amplifiers can cost upwards of $10,000 when the rated specs are the same of an Asian $500 amp. I'd like to learn more about building amps some time soon, because without a schematic, it's really hard for me to do, and I don't fully understand everything. Only built one small amp so far :3


I really really wanna fix my Soundstream Class A 10.2 amp some time, and eventually hook it up, but until I get a way better driver like the TC sounds LMS ultra, it's not a huge priorty. I'd need to upgrade my alternator just for that amp which apparently pushes up to 1000 watts+ RMS unregulated, and my current subs are just garbage >_>

By the way, Matt, since you said you're not a sound guy, I'm actually really impressed by how well you did the install. Huge kudos!

Thanks for the props guys!

AA, my amp doesn't have high-pass settings, only low pass. I did remember what you said, and there is zero bass coming from the front because I set the amp at High-pass for the front. I know they can't take it. I set the rear at "all-pass". But i'll tune it as suggested some more. But when you get into slopes, that's where you lose me.

About the crossovers, they looked very high quality, but other then that, didn't look special to me. One of them actually has a broken component inside, it's a blue coil looking thing, solder joints broke I think on it. I said something to the people on eBay, but since I tested it and it worked anyway, I just left it in. Don't really feel like removing both and shipping both out again.

Of course, when playing hip-hop tracks, my car can shake the second floor of our house from the driveway. Haha. It's a powerful amp, I think anyway.

Corey, yea, I'm not a sound guy, but enough to where I can do a good install. Thanks for the compliments, I did really try to make the install as clean and as well thought out/routed as possible. Some of the things I had to do, I didn't really like, like how I routed the 2 ga power wire to the amp, BUT it works. I had that 2 ga laying around BTW, I know it's overkill.

Looks very simple to open the box up and resolder the joints at least if it starts breaking on you


And, if you saw how much crap I just pulled out of my interior from my Riv, you'd wanna puke lol, I'm going to redo the sound system again :o

I'm jelly of that head unit by the way, lol

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Not bad at all. I'm not gunna lie though, I'll end up just spending $500 on the Pioneer Appradio 2 most likely, and basically have my phone turn into my head unit

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my amp doesn't have high-pass settings, only low pass. I did remember what you said, and there is zero bass coming from the front because I set the amp at High-pass for the front. I know they can't take it. I set the rear at "all-pass". But i'll tune it as suggested some more. But when you get into slopes, that's where you lose me.

Looks like you have an 80Hz high pass switch. Leave it on. Check your head unit's output settings. Does it have any active filtering built-in? My friend used to own a Pioneer that let you choose high-pass frequency and slope before the signal even left the head. If you have this, there's your answer.

Be sure to do the bass test anyway, with sub off. If the EXACTs can handle the midbass without stressing out, you might be good. If you have a bass boost on your head unit, set it at the point you think might be the max level you would use. To be 100% safe, test with bass boost at max setting. This prevents your friends from "turning up the bass" and destroying your speakers later on. If your amp has bass boost, leave it flat, or in some cases you could set bass boost low on purpose to make up for lack of high-pass filtering. In fact, cutting bass boost does the same thing as a high-pass.

Slopes are an advanced feature, but a simple concept. Slope is the degree of roll off, or how sharp the cut-off is, measured in dB per octave. An octave is double or half a particular frequency, for example 50Hz to 100Hz is one octave. From 100 Hz to 200 Hz is the next octave, 400 Hz and so forth. A 12 dB slope high-pass at 100 Hz means the signal level will drop 12 dB from 100 Hz down to 50 Hz. The speaker is still getting 50 Hz, but it's 12 dB softer than the reference signal. Very steep slopes like 24 and 36 dB/oct can let you dig into lower midbass frequencies, while still protecting your midwoofer from the damaging sub-bass.

I doubt your amp has a slope option, but may want to check. Also check your head unit for this. Slopes and filter settings are extremely important to sound quality and SPL levels. If you have the capability, definitely use them!

Sorry to hear of the failed solder joint. This might be the whole reason these speakers were never sold at retail. I wouldn't assume this doesn't matter just because you can't hear the difference right now. You may find out later when the connection fails for good, or an intermittent problem will arise. If it were mine, I'd pop the case open, unscrew the board, and re-solder the bad joint. It's a 15 minute job. If you have a local electronic repair shop, they may do it for $20-30. Seriously, fix this! If that's the only thing wrong with your speaker system, I'd still consider it money well spent. Send it to me if you want. I've fixed my own equipment before, no sweat. Would have no problem repairing your issue.

I did some tuning, and while my SoundStreams can handle a decent amount of bass, I just like it with the 80Hz high pass switch on. There is a high pass on the head-unit settings, but it goes for all 4 speakers instead of just two, which I don't really want.

Yea I should have it fixed somehow.

I'm not sure if that takes into account for mechanical roll off or not, because if it does, then it could very well be setting your -12db slope to 80 Hz, if not, then your -12db slope is about 40Hz which is actually a really good setting for your speakers imo. AA would know that much better than me.

I'm about to rewire my entire sound system while my car is taken apart lol. I never got around to wiring the front door speakers into the amp int the back so they were always driven by the head unit prior.





Let's just say that I stripped about 200 pounds of interior out of my Buick while I am trying to swap a better, dark blue interior from a parts car into it, no better time to rewire, huh? :p

By the way, if you wanna tweak it more precisely, passive EQ's can be had pretty cheap.

I posted on your thread, but cool! No, no additional EQ for me, headunit has one that's pretty awesome as is.

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another option:
I gotta dig up where I got them but I found solid state delay relay for HID's and since you have the standard relay harness already, adding it is almost nothing at all. It's a simple block with three prongs and dip switches to preset the delay in seconds you want.

Yea I'm interested in that, if you can find it.

here it is

pdf link for info

link to a g8 forum where somebody made some cute wiring pictures

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I got a Ported Gen 3, 3.4 pulley, and N* TB with LQ4 MAF. Awesome! Only problem is, when it's all together with possible headers, my trans might not hold up. Boom.

Toys! Sounds like a fun group mwahaha.

Sure maybe the transmission will go boom, but at least you will have had fun doing it .

Yea, boom there goes my DD to work and back...haha. I may be getting a set of headers here too.

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oh man! those look nice

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You'll have trouble with the 3.2 and KR, with just the 1.9s. I couldn't get my 3.2 completely KR free without a lot of timing reduction, to the point where I probably should have stuck with a 3.3 or 3.4 and kept my timing in.

But start with the 3.4 and go from there is a good plan.

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dats bright!

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