Installing a Subwoofer, Just Wanted to Check on Some Things

[SnoopKatt]

Hello,

I recently bought a subwoofer to add some bass to my system:

subwoofer:

JL Audio 10w1v2

amplifier:

Rockford Fosgate P 300

box:

Scosche SET10CC

Everything seems to be working pretty well, and the car is all wired up (2005 Mercury Sable GS). Right now, I'm planning to attach the box in the trunk with some L brackets. Would this be an ideal way to install the system? Should I face the subwoofer towards the front of the car or the back of the car (sorry if this is a stupid question, I'm really new to all this) ? I'm definitely going for sound quality on this setup, and I don't really care about it being really loud.

Thanks!

Click to read more...

 

[Fiendstolemyamp 10+ year member]

Sure L brackets are fine to make sure the box doesn't move. You can try firing the sub different ways to see what sounds best before you install the brackets.. You will likely find firing back does the best for you. Also read up on how to set the gain on your amp(s) properly & do so.

 

[SnoopKatt]

Thanks for the quick response!

I will Google around for some guides on how to set the gain. Hopefully by next weekend, it will be installed and set up. I'll post back on how it goes //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[dafobbishon3 10+ year member]

have your port facing the trunk, never face the cabin

you can have your sub facing your cabin but have your port facing the trunk.

all is good.

 

[whitedragon551 5,000+ posts]

Make sure you seal the corners of that box before you put the sub in it. Chances are it will not be air tight.

 

[SnoopKatt]

Will do! I'll seal it up with some caulk.

 

[KyleBechtold 5,000+ posts]

box direction is opinion.. so try it firing both ways before you bolt it down.. if you do end up enjoying if firing forward you will want to seal it off from the trunk..

 

[mylows10 5,000+ posts]

hey kyle where the hell you been

 

[Ronny 10+ year member]

L-Brackets work wonders. Simple and effective undoubtedly. But, to be honest, some good velcro works fantastically as well. I have an enclosure that weighs ~155lbs with woofers installed of course, in my trunk and it doesn't move a titch even when I drive hard (and you can bet I push my car hard ).

This is just with some good veclro and me gluing the velcro with CA glue instead of relying on just the adhesive backing on most stuff; So I have an enclosure and amplifier rack that don't move at all and don't have eye soreness causing stainless or galvanized steel brackets visible. Uninstalling only take a bit for when I head out to autocross events and when traveling and I need some room back But the brackets and velcro I'm sure are quite close in the amount of time needed to removal if that is ever needed. Sorry I'm rambling. Anyhow!

Are you utilizing a sealed or ported pre-fabricated enclosure? If you have enough room depth wise, try side firing the woofer or port into one of the sidewalls of the trunk. What you get out of it SQ wise and output wise just may surprise you.

 

[Ronny 10+ year member]

box direction is opinion.. so try it firing both ways before you bolt it down.. if you do end up enjoying if firing forward you will want to seal it off from the trunk..

He's going SQ though Kyle, lol, though if the OP is up for it an IB would be sweet...

And what's goofy is that myself and tons of other trunk fellows have lost tons of output via sealing the enclosure off into the cabin. Myself and a few others gain a hefty bit on the meter with just placing the enclosure in the cavity or opening with seat folded or removed and just having the woofers fire into the cabin with alarming amounts of room around the enclosure for sound waves to head backward into the trunk and rebound back forward to what we would think would cause uber cancellation but apparently not :s

Ah, the dynamics of our hobby.

I'll stop this off-topic or sort of "thread jacking" I'm doing here //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/uhoh.gif.c07307dd22ee7e63e22fc8e9c614d1fd.gif

 

[SnoopKatt]

L-Brackets work wonders. Simple and effective undoubtedly. But, to be honest, some good velcro works fantastically as well. I have an enclosure that weighs ~155lbs with woofers installed of course, in my trunk and it doesn't move a titch even when I drive hard (and you can bet I push my car hard ). This is just with some good veclro and me gluing the velcro with CA glue instead of relying on just the adhesive backing on most stuff; So I have an enclosure and amplifier rack that don't move at all and don't have eye soreness causing stainless or galvanized steel brackets visible. Uninstalling only take a bit for when I head out to autocross events and when traveling and I need some room back But the brackets and velcro I'm sure are quite close in the amount of time needed to removal if that is ever needed. Sorry I'm rambling. Anyhow!

Are you utilizing a sealed or ported pre-fabricated enclosure? If you have enough room depth wise, try side firing the woofer or port into one of the sidewalls of the trunk. What you get out of it SQ wise and output wise just may surprise you.

It's a sealed enclosure; I'll play around with the positioning though. I will check out the Velcro as well, thanks for the tip!

There is a spot in my car for what looks like an 8 inch woofer (possibly precut out for the premium stereo?), But I haven't played with it. Would A place like that be worth a shot?

Thanks everyone for all the input; this is extremely helpful.

 

[Ronny 10+ year member]

Do you mean instead of placing a woofer and enclosure into the trunk, you'd utilize the precut 8" hole in the rear deck and just install a woofer onto that? Of course being powered by an amplifier you'd have to install yet?

Or am I missing something here?

To be honest, some of the SQ cars I've been in and judged, have used small woofers installed into a very heavily deadened and sealed off rear decks. It makes for what is called an infinite baffle enclosure essentially. One of the BEST SQ enclosures (or lack thereof) sub-stage orientations there is.

 

[SnoopKatt]

Yeah, I was thinking something like that. I'd probably have to widen the enclosure though.

 

[TheUnderFighter 10+ year member]

You're likely better off just removing that woofer. The steps it'd take to actually make that a viable enclosure over your current one are tremendous. And you only do 1.

 

[SnoopKatt]

Thanks for the help everyone! It is all set up. I used Velcro to secure it, and it's not going anywhere //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

I chose to have the subwoofer facing the back of the car. I followed the guides online, and the gain seems to be set correctly (I set it to about 24 V with a 50 Hz tone playing). I'm pretty happy with how it came out //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif