Should I promote my HLCD in USA ?

Hi guys,
I'm very happy with my new home made HLCD tower speaker. This thing is loud and sound quality.

A few asked me to build one when I finished the first one (not HLCD yet). But shipping from France to USA is a big issue and double the price of the thing.

One of my dream is to live in USA. Close to a lake to can ride of course :)

To live and work there, I need the Green Card. I can win one at the annual lottery (a friend of mine is trying since 10 years without success). Get married to an American girl. Or find a sponsor company who ask it for me to work with them.

Other idea is to get the tourist visa, so I can stay in USA 3 months a year. More than enough to build and sell some cool stuff. But I can't work for a company. I need to open my own. I know it's possible, a no more friend of mine did it 2 years ago without the green card. But I don't know how it is possible, how to get money back etc.

Anyone with American laws knowledge ? Any lawyer in the place ?


And is it a good idea to promote it in USA ? Anyone interested in a cheap HLCD ?

Here is the link for those who missed it : https://forum.supraboats.com/showthr...-speaker/page3

Change your name to Jose and sneak across the southern boarder . Then you can apply for food, housing and medical benefits if you get caught our beloved president will give you amnesty. Make sure you don't mention you are French, educated with a trade or you will be deported for sure.

Good luck, Stephane!

Haha thanks for advise Michael, it sounds insane ... I'm already Da Costa as second name, I'm on the good way ...

Thanks Marvin ;)

You've got some heavy competition in the US between wetsounds, exile audio, JL audio, Rockford Fosgate, etc who are already major players in this segment. You've got skills... I'd put your resume out there to some companies you find interesting and go from there. Probably your best bet to get into the audio segment here in the US.

Thanks Mike for advises.
Not sure JL audio and RFF are doing HLCDs ?
Regards

I say go for it, i would love to have HLCD but no way in hell i'm paying for wetsound prices. A price point alternative would be awesome.

Thanks Jeff for support ;)

You're correct, JL does not offer HLCD, but RF does. I just mentioned JL because they're a high end provider of just normal near field range speakers that are one of the major players in boat audio. There's others that have HLCD's as well.. Bullitt, Krypt, Exile, WS, RF, etc are all the leaders in that market.

Are your speakers that you're using designed for marine environment? Do they have paper cones/woofers, styrafoam surrounds, etc? Or are they other materials that take wet moist weather better? Those are the kinds of things that bring these others' costs up. Not saying you couldn't compete, but I think you'll find there's lots of competition out there.

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Originally Posted by 2500HD

I say go for it, i would love to have HLCD but no way in hell i'm paying for wetsound prices. A price point alternative would be awesome.

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My last boat had the Bazooka HLCD's. My current boat has the Kicker HLCD six-pack. so there are midrange options out there in addition to all the others mentioned in this thread.

Yes Mike, my speakers are not marine grade ... yet !
I'm in touch with a speaker builder. I asked to clone Faital 8FE200 in marine grade material. I'm waiting for answer and price. Once I get marinized speakers, I can try to sell a real boat HLCD for everyone :)

Trayson, I will be under Kicker KM6500.2's price (30% less), with 8" woofers instead. I would be curious to hear your setup man ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sdc77

Yes Mike, my speakers are not marine grade ... yet !
I'm in touch with a speaker builder. I asked to clone Faital 8FE200 in marine grade material. I'm waiting for answer and price. Once I get marinized speakers, I can try to sell a real boat HLCD for everyone

Trayson, I will be under Kicker KM6500.2's price (30% less), with 8" woofers instead. I would be curious to hear your setup man

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I got mine for a lot lower than retail. My boat already had 4 cans with Polk Coaxials, so for $200, I was able to replace those with a closeout deal on the KM6500.2 drivers. Then later on, I added two more cans ($140) and another pair of the midrange speakers ($100). SO all in, I'm at $440 with re-using the Ariel enclosures that I already had.

Since the speakers were previously wired using 4 channels of power, I was actually able to repurpose some of the existing tower wiring. I went from a 4 channel amp to using a 2 channel amp at 2ohms. so it only meant I needed 4 of the 8 conductors. I used the "extra" wire to add LED rings and LED cone lighting to my speakers. I think it came out fantastic.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-D...420_194611.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-E...2/GOPR0552.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-u...420_192757.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-o...425_185611.jpg

Still probably more money than yours, but pretty good for using off the shelf proven marine grade components. I've been told that my setup is equivalent to a pair of the 8" HLCD speakers (like the WS Rev8 or the Exile XM9)

Nice setup, leds make it even more crazy !
How do you deal with filtering/connexion ?

I saw filters on the rear of compressions, but how are filtered woofers ? Do you use 2 channel amp for comps, and 2 channel amp for woofers ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sdc77

Nice setup, leds make it even more crazy !
How do you deal with filtering/connexion ?

I saw filters on the rear of compressions, but how are filtered woofers ? Do you use 2 channel amp for comps, and 2 channel amp for woofers ?

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Sdc,

The mid-bass woofers also have their own passive cross-over. Each component has a 4 ohm nominal impedance. The bass KMS67 setup includes a pair of mid-bass woofers and a pair of Compression drivers. This setup is designed with the intent that a mid and a compression driver will be wired together in parallel, but they can actually be run as individuals. When each mid- and compression driver is wired together, the cross-overs allow for the nominal impedance at the amp, to maintain at 4 ohm. This makes this setup ideal to bridge on a 4 chnl amp or a typical 2 chnl stereo. When a pair of the extra mids, for which we call the "6-Pack" is added in and wired in parallel, the nominal impedance drops to 2 ohm. At this point, a 2 chnl amp or a 2nd 4 chnl is the ideal setup.

My bad... Kicker is what I was thinking of with HLCD options, not RF. You're correct Stephane.

Fosgate actually does offer an HLCD. Its an 8" mid-bass but uses only a 1" compression driver. The Wet Sounds Rev series uses a 2" and the Kicker KMS67 uses a 1.7" compression driver for comparison. This reduces overall power handling as well as mid-bass extension. From what I understand, it also has a very simple cross over like commonly found on a traditional 2-way coax. The horn flare looks somewhat long with parallel walls, then abruptly ends with little flare.

Hi Michael,
Curious how sounds PM282HW Fosgate HLCD.
I installed M262B on my friend's Wakesetter, and it ... sucks ! No any power handling, absolutly no bass out of it, had to cut it @250Hz high pass to get some SPL. Got 4 of them on a class D Fosgate amp. No way to get high quality sound.

He asked me about a HLCD transformation :)

absolutely hard pressed to get any real bass out of a 6.5" for sure, but I see no reason they would not run as low as 125HZ hi-pass but 250HZ will certainly allow for them to be driven harder but the trade off is SQ. IMO, 120W with a strong source signal is about all they will take. But keep in mind that that speaker is a true IB speaker as its their same in-boat M262 just in a pod. That small pod displacement is going to effect the mid-bass.

I have not heard the 8" HLCD in person yet, but the feedback i got was it was a little peaky at 10K