ohms, crossovers

That will work fine.  Polarity through the L-pad really doesn't matter.  All you need to ensure is the relative polarity between the woofers and the tweeter is reversed (since a second order crossover introduces a 180-degree phase shift.)Support the12volt.com

Ok, been working hard on it and just about done! Have to get better speaker grills and put the new head unit, battery etc. back in the boat before I can try her out but here are the latest pics:

Outstanding!  That looks great.  Have you connected it to an amp yet to see what it sounds like?Support the12volt.com

DYohn wrote: Outstanding!  That looks great.  Have you connected it to an amp yet to see what it sounds like?

Not yet, all of the stereo equipment and batteries are out of the boat for the winter and I plan to start putting things back together as the weather permits (Cincinnati weather sucks). I may try to run it from the amp in my truck though, I could do that fairly easily and may try that tonight. Will let you know what I get. I did hook up an ohm meter to it and with the L-pad at dead center it reads 2.8 Ohms. Not sure if that's what I should be seeing but it's within the Amps tolerance level.

The DC resistance you read with an ohm meter is different than the impedance it will exhibit in use, which varies depending on the music's frequency.  Your system net impedance will be around 4-ohms.Support the12volt.com

DYohn wrote: The DC resistance you read with an ohm meter is different than the impedance it will exhibit in use, which varies depending on the music's frequency.  Your system net impedance will be around 4-ohms.

Ok, didn't know that. I'm anxious to hear how it sounds, hopefully will know this evening.

Well, Got home and hooked it up to the truck amp (Kenwood 350 watt) and disconnected all the truck speakers so I only heard my box. At lower volumes it sounds great but the bass gets a bit muddy and slightly distorted when I turn it up. The HLCD definitely overpowers the eminence drivers and I had to turn those down quite a bit with the L-Pad. I'm thinking the Eminence drivers probably need to be broken in a bit before they really sound good. I have a bag of Acousta-Stuf Plyfill that I'll probably put in to see if that helps. I played a bit with the EQ on my head unit and setting it to deep bass made it sound much better Unfortunately I didn't have time to play too much with it so not sure if it was the setting of my stereo or something else. It'll have a dedicated EQ (WS420) that I can make sure the levels are right. It did sound much better the further away from it I got so that's a good sign and what I intended the unit for, probably just needs some tweeking.

The box is complete, everything is hooked up and it sounds great! I finally was able to listen to it with a clean source so I think my problems before was the Amp in my truck. Bass is tight and the highs are very crisp. I hope to have it installed in the boat this weekend weather permitting so that I can hear it in it's intended environment. Thanks for the much needed help. Couldn't have completed this project without it. I learned a lot making this and may end up re-doing the enclosure to save a little weight, it's pretty heavy. But that's only after I get a chance to put it through it's paces. Thanks again DYohn for your help. This was a fun project, one I'll probably repeat.

Having fun and ending up with something the looks and sounds good - a perfect ending!  Please post a picture of the finished system once it's installed on your boat.  Support the12volt.com

Finally got around to taking some pics of the speaker unit installed on my boat. It's about the max size available and I think I'll redesign the enclosure over the winter to make it a bit more streamlined with the speaker shape. I also think I'm going to break it apart into 2 separate units for ease of handling... This thing is Heavy! But they sound fantastic and I've already had offers on them. Running them (and the speakers in the boat) off a Kicker 850.4