Best options for 6x9 subwoofers

[Essex23]

Before anyone starts in on me and gives me the whole "just get a 8-10" powered sub ya noob" kind of response, let me just get this all out there ahead of time. I get it. I KNOW a larger powered sub would be ideal...but please read on.

I have a 2011 Altima Coupe. For those that don't know the car...space to put anything is virtually non-existent. The only place to really put anything is the trunk...but I am trying to avoid that as that is really my only way to store anything when I am shopping or need to carry things back and forth from my house to my mother-in-laws house as she can't drive as she is in late stage Alzheimer's. So this leaves running a good 6x9 set as pretty much the only option for me.

I listen primarily to hard rock/metal/symphonic metal (Metallica, Nightwish, Babymetal, Band Maid, etc…) and love great bass and being able to hear all the different layers to musical compositions…but have no desire to have something so powerful that it blows the clothes off a woman (not many will get that reference).

Money is not a concern for me...good sounding, quality speakers are my main concern. So something that fits this description would be great. I would appreciate any/all educated and informed suggestions.

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[SlugButter]

Are these going to be free air in the rear deck?

 

[Essex23]

I will be putting there exactly where the factory speakers are now....so I guess that means in the deck?

 

[SlugButter]

I will be putting there exactly where the factory speakers are now....so I guess that means in the deck?

Yes. Are you able to modify the rear deck at all yourself? There are some 6x9 subwoofers but I think they may be heavy to put into the factory location without giving the speakers a little more wood to screw into, If you’re just putting them directly into the factory location I would look at the CDT midbass woofers. They get down pretty low actually.

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

I think you should seal off the trunk and find the highest powered and xmax IB capable woofers you can fit. If the woofers are playing free air, your loudness for bass will come from cone area (Sd, usable piston area) and xmax (excursion, linear travel of cone). Find a woofer that has higher values of those two things, and a Fs around the lower frequencies that you want to play.

Sealing off the airspace of the trunk from the cabin will make the trunk itself a very large sealed enclosure, which will keep lower bass notes from cancelling out from the phasing of the front/rear waves at lower frequencies. Good news is that IB (free air) type setups sound the most natural and are really efficient.

If you want to go more hardcore, I would seal your trunk airspace from the cabin, and see if you can fit bigger woofers than 6x9's in the rear deck, if you're willing to go to that level.

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

Even just being able to fit 8" woofers would be a signficant improvement over 6x9's, and I do mean from a sound quality perspective, IMO. Small woofers reach low end response limitations. I would think there's some lower Hz thuds on hard rock and metal that would work well with high xmax IB woofers, IMO. I know the hard rock I listen to, some of the kick drums seem to resonate sort of low, and even though it's not a heavy, continuous bass note like rap, you still want a good bit of xmax+cone area to really throw that woofer in a linear fashion, so you can feel those thuds. You might look into pro-audio type woofers, and see if anything fancies you there.

 

[djdilliodon!]

In 6x9 it’s tough but if you are willing to go 6.5” and make an adapter plate, it makes things a lot easier. I did this for someone awhile back and built custom 6.5’s for IB use. They actually had decent low end output with 200w rms running to each. The thing is tho will it be enough for you’re tastes? Only you could answer that and won’t know till you do it. Another option is cutting the rear deck and making a plate for some 8’s. If you go that way the nice part is you can run more than 2 no matter if it’s 6.5 or 8”. All depends on how far you are willing to go.

 

[Essex23]

is there such a thing as a 6x9 to 8" adapter? lol

 

[Firewalker]

Possibly most likely you can have them custom made. Lot's of people 3D print those sorts of things these days.

 

[LsGuy]

is there such a thing as a 6x9 to 8" adapter? lol

Yeah, a grinder/saw. There are such things as 6x9 to 6.5 adapters though, and true 6.5 subwoofers