Why do my subs sound better like this?

[venom107]

I used to have my slot ported type R's facing the trunk until I got my USX800D. It just seems like the subs sound better and hit harder facing the driver. (as long as the seat is down) Plus it just eliminated all my TRUNK rattles. I'm gonna stick with my subs facing this way cause i've spent so much time sound deadoning and now it doesnt make any other sound but sweet bass. Anyway if somebody could explain why my subs sound better facing me I would like to know. I have them all the way in the back of the trunk it sounds the best in the far rear. I swear a lot of people I've talked to say that facing the rear of the trunk they sound better and put out more SPL. Could my sound be worse facing the back of the trunk beacause air escapes from the lid. My stupid stripping is seperating because of extended bass listening at high levels. Could air escaping be the reason for this?

[Diabolic]

SPL is higher with rear-facing subs when the seats are up. The reason for this is because you get early reflection off the rear of the trunk, rather than the back of the seats. I have read tests on this and conducted my own, with results proving that the closer to the rear of your trunk the subs are, the higher the SPL return. This is only true of rear-firing subs.

Front-firing subs with the seats down could give you slightly more clarity if, for whatever reason, you are pushing frequencies above 80Hz to them, but only with the seats down. As for your front-firing configuration sounding better with the subs near the back of your trunk, I suspect this is a matter of listening preference but what could also be happening is a degree of reinforcement / standing waves, due to the dimensions of your trunk, which artificially amplifies certain frequency exponents.

In the end, all that really matters is how it sounds best to you, not the technicalities of it.