Feature photo is my wife’s wheels and tires. She just rounded about 20k miles and I had them replaced with new Michelin Pilot Sport 4S. I’m keepin’ her safe on these Florida roadways.
This year has been getting a little easier every month. There was a major company reduction in force (read: layoffs) back around January and it hit me pretty hard. A lot of my coworkers felt like family, and it felt like the new management broke my family apart. I mean, it still feels that way, but each month it just gets easier to keep going. It’s almost like losing a loved one.
I don’t know how accurate it is, but it feels like I have been working harder and longer than I have in years past. I mean, the team is noticeably smaller now, but the job responsibilities have also evolved due to the recent company acquisition. At any rate, I have a few days off to close out the year, so I am planning on knocking out some projects, one of which is self-imposed and a bit of a Christmas gift to myself. Let’s run through these projects I have for the next few days that will make up my long weekend.
Drain the hot water heater
This one is a new one–I have not done this before, and honestly, I’ve heard that you probably shouldn’t if you have not done so for a significant amount of time. For example, my home was built in 2004 and I purchased it in 2016. I replaced it within the past year. I assume that the hot water heater never had been drained, and I know that I did not drain it for the past 8 years. It likely had not been drained in about 20 years. The plumber I hired to replace it did not bother with the drain valve– he siphoned the water out of the tank because he did not trust the valve and did not want to mess with it. I assume that the likelihood for something to go wrong was high!
So anyway, I have some directions which I got from Google Gemini and I am planning on going for it tomorrow. I don’t expect too much sediment build up from a year’s worth of use from a household of two.
General yardwork activity (winter time)
So basically I need to mow, and honestly, I don’t really need to mow because the grass has started becoming dormant. I really just need to survey the yard because around this time of year I generally have armadillos visiting for the winter. I checked and I do see the makings of a burrow, but at least it is not up against my house like usual. I’m tempted to accept the compromise this year to save hundreds of dollars in trap and relocation.
Car audio overhaul for Fate
So I have had a perpetual struggle with the car audio in my GR Corolla (which I named Fate). The issue is I purchased this Premium 2024 model with the JBL sound system from Toyota. It is generally regarded as a terrible sound system, and I have a love-hate relationship with it. It is not the worst sound system I have ever heard compared to systems I have heard in the 90s timeframe. It is an 8 speaker system with 3 way components in the front and rear fill in the doors. I have always had an issue with the bass output, which is a problem I attempted to solve with an aftermarket subwoofer. I installed the subwoofer maybe a month ago, and then I was further disappointed to find that the issue is not the bass output as much as the bass input. Basically, there is a factory head unit (stereo) that is sending signal to a JBL amp under my seat. This amp has 6 channels that feed my 8 speakers. Apparently the issue is the amp itself is attenuating frequencies known as “sub-bass” around 50 hz and down, meaning that the subwoofer I added is not getting the signal because the amp is not sending it. There is no way to fix that via software–my options are deal with it or replace the amp, which would lead to a snowball of other requirements.
I struggled with this conundrum for a good month and ultimately I decided I am going to fix the problem and remove/replace the JBL amp. The snowball of issues this creates are numerous and detailed:
The head unit and amp are tied together via proprietary signaling, and the head unit is tied into the CAN bus of the vehicle, integrating with its ECU. This means these items are a bit of a package deal–I can’t replace the amp without replacing the head unit, and I can’t replace the head unit with losing ECU integrations. This was a major issue I struggled with until I found out that the Rockford Fosgate DSR1 DSP provided an option for me to retain my head unit and remove the amp. Basically, RF is able to speak the proprietary language that Toyota was speaking with the JBL amp so it can be removed. Perfect, right? The only problem is this DSP is not an amp–it only gives you the signal, not enough power to drive the speakers. This means the DSR1 has to be paired with one (or more) amps to drive my speakers. On the bright side, I am gaining an 8 channel DSP, so there’s that!
So my sub already has an amp, so there’s nothing to worry about there, and once the DSR1 is in place, it should receive full sub signal (including low frequency sub-bass). Now I just need an amp for my speakers. Recall that I have 8 speakers, 3 way components and rear fill. The DSR1 has 8 channels. It did not occur to me until midway through my planning that I am at a channel deficit–if I have 8 speakers and a sub, that’s 9 channels. I have to replace the JBL amp to gain full range signal. The two options of doing this were replace the head unit (and lose ECU integration) or use this DSR1. I did not find any other options other than PAC AmpPRO AP4-TY12 which is only 6 channels. Now, I did play with this idea. I could not remove the JBL amp with this AP4-TY12 because of channel deficit, but I could augment for additional channels on top of the JBL factory solution. It should provide full range bass signal for the sub (with 5 unused channels since the JBL amp is still there), however, I could not trust it because the JBL amp was indeed still there. Also, obviously, the JBL amp is still going to attenuate the bass (on top of other signal processing it does) since it is still in the picture, but that would be going to my factory speakers anyway. Ultimately, I decided against AP4-TY12 because I just wanted the JBL amp gone. Also, the allure of new replacement speakers was strong…
So back to my original problem–8 channel DSR1, 9 channels needed. I went back and forth with Copilot on this one–I could drop from 3 way components in the front to two way components and keep rear speakers, or I could drop my rear speakers and keep 3 way components in the front. I could also split some channels in parallel to feed front and rear, however, that works the best when you are splitting to the same speakers, and midbass is not the same as coaxials which would be in the rear. I ended up opting to remove the rear fill since I rarely have folks riding in the back seat and even if I did, I don’t care about them having speakers back there. I still will have one unused channel on the DSR1, which I guess I could have split to the rears, but again, I don’t care if passengers have speakers back there. It also saves me money in spending to replace them.
So the JBL amp and the factory speakers are kind of packaged together since the factory speakers are low impedance and the amp is matched to them. This pushes me to replace the speakers in addition to replacing the amp. I’ll be honest, I did not require much pushing–every time I replace speakers in the car I am always impressed with the replacements.
I found a set of 3 way components from Focal which would work as replacements and complement my powered 10 inch sub. I also found an 8 channel amp at 75W x 4 ohm which drive them. I would have two extra output channels available. If I change my mind about a sub or add/replace my DSP, I could drive the rear fill with them. Also, I got the amp for a pretty good price and it fit my design (as it lacked a DSP of its own). I think it should sound good with the 3 way components and the sub, though.
So now all of this just to get bass. I’m not crazy–I know this is way too much, but honestly, I enjoy tinkering with sound systems in cars. I get a real and profound sense of accomplishment and satisfaction with these types of projects. When I think back, basically every car I’ve ever owned has had some sort of car audio improvement made to it except my Tesla–the Tesla’s stereo system is very adequate, even for my audiophile tastes. So now it’s Fate’s turn.
That is pretty much my vacation. I’m still expecting packages before I can start on the car audio efforts, which is why I plan on working the other projects prior to Saturday.