Downfiring vs. upfiring (pros & cons)

[lost1700 10+ year member]

What are the differneces of your subs firing down or up? Any advantage of one over the other? I am trying to decide which way to go.

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[Crown_amps]

the spiders on sub subs are not stiff enough to be suitable for downfiring from what i have read here to handle all the moving mass when firing down

 

[lost1700 10+ year member]

the spiders on sub subs are not stiff enough to be suitable for downfiring from what i have read here to handle all the moving mass when firing down

I have no idea what that means.

 

[RollinGTO 10+ year member]

thats b/c you aren't very smart //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[phantom240 5,000+ posts]

I have no idea what that means.

It means that the weight of the sub's moving parts will weigh down the suspension, which if extreme enough will cause overexcursion, damage to the sub, or in many cases, poor sq.. Of course not all subs will suffer from this, usually the heavy subs do though.

 

[tweet02 10+ year member]

I dont have an answer, but i do have input that might help. I have 4 subs, 4 L7's on a 2500d, i have a 96 explorer , and the installer built my box to were my subs fire upwards. I thought thiwas kinda odd when i was watching the box being built, and I asked. The installer said this was the best was for all 4 subs to fit in the cargo space of my truck, he also said that this would give the subs more then enough room to breath. To my surprise, i got more pressure than i can stand, and ive had to readjust the gaines and the Hu crossover, to stop my windows from swelling when the pressure rises on some songs. So my subs fire upward, and the SPL is very much more than i was looking for. Also i guess that box might have to be to the subs specs aswell. If you have a flea market box, im welling to bet its not to the specs of the more popular subs. The only flea market box built to specs is for the L7's and L5's, other than that, its a gamble!!!! Upward dose work if the box is to the specs of the sub(s)!!!!!!!! Hope this helps!

 

[Immacomputer 10+ year member]

Suspension sag is going to happen whether you upfire or downfire the sub.

 

[Relax 10+ year member]

Suspension sag is going to happen whether you upfire or downfire the sub.

Exactly- the only difference will be which way the sub sags.

 

[Justintoxicated 10+ year member]

well, I think downfire is better in some cases and upfire is fine in others, other than wether or not the sub is suitable for it...

For example, I want to put subs under the rear seat in my truck. Then I can still throw crap on top of my sub box groceries etc and use the hooks on the seat (when it is in the up position) for teh grocery bags, without any impact on the sub. Do this with upfire even with a grill and the subs are going to be blasting into groceries. Sure you could put the bags ontop of the seat and then when I take a corner they will slide around everywhere. LOL ok enough about buying food thats for women anyways

Unfortunately however, it is harder to design the downfire box to leave enough cleanance under the woofer and fit a sub under my seat. My Steats are not perfectly flat like the floor either. Upfire would be a simpler design....

With the box I have I find the bass to be tighter or more punchy with the box in downfire position as opposed to setting the box on top of the seat (obviously I can't test the box in upfire under the seat due to the shape of the box.)

Vehicle shape, space, and what your bounching the sound off will all come into play. I don't think for example firing a sub towards the rear of my truck under the seat would work very well.

 

[04silverz 10+ year member]

i seem to recal someone from adire audio having an article on this topic

im too lazy and dont care enough to search ithtough. maybe someone else has the desire. im pretty sure it was dan wiggins, could be wrong though. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[04silverz 10+ year member]

ok here you go, my curiousity got the better of me

http://www.adireaudio.com/Files/TechPapers/DriverOrientation.pdf

if that doestn work google "subwoofer suspension sag"

 

[Justintoxicated 10+ year member]

I have just been informed on another site that downfire requires at least 3 inches of airspace and upfiring into a seat will produce an extra 1 to 2 DB...

Can anyone verify this? it has not been my experience...

 

[04silverz 10+ year member]

I have just been informed on another site that downfire requires at least 3 inches of airspace and upfiring into a seat will produce an extra 1 to 2 DB...
Can anyone verify this? it has not been my experience...

ive often heard the 3" rule of clearance from the sub to the floor. seems like a good idea to me. factor in cone movement and then the fact that you want some clearance for it to "breathe"

as far as the extra db, i think that would be more car dependent than anything else. i only knowof one guy from a few years ago in hs that had downfiring subs in his truck. they got pretty loud and sounded good. me personally have always had forward firing in trucks or upfire/forward fire in suv's and my lone hatchback car i had.

 

[Lakota 5,000+ posts]

I think the normal force should be the same either way...

 

[CBFryman2 5,000+ posts]

Depends on the vehicle and the configuration of the sub