Sealing off trunk vs rear firing?

[ancorp 10+ year member]

I've always found rear firing (port/subs) to sound much better in my Mazda 3 trunk (4 door sedan, not the hatch) then having the subs facing into the cabin.

This I assume is because of the corner loading effect. The closer the woofers/port to the corner of the area they have to fill with sound, the more reinforcement to the low frequencies, yes?

Would firing forward with the trunk sealed off be significantly better? Not looking for scores here, just sound better to the ear.

My trunk lid flexes like there's no tomorrow. It seems that quite a bit of sound pressure is wasted to move it. I've compared different boxes/woofers in my car to similar sized sedans (with a wire running to my amp from their window to my trunk) that had almost no panel/trunk lid rattle, and they were significantly louder inside the cabin.

So theoretically, not only will I help stop pressure loss by bypassing the trunk, I will also make the the volume the subs have to fill with sound smaller (since the trunk will no longer exist to the subs). And they would technically still be in the corners of the car, since the area they have to fill now ends at their mounting baffle.

Therefore it will be louder, less rattle, and still have good cabin gain like it would when it was in the trunk, if not better?

Em I correct? Please share insight and personal experiences fellow enthusiasts.

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[TaylorFade 10+ year member]

The general consensus is that forward firing sealed is meter louder but rear or upfiring sounds better.

My advice... unless this is an SPL setup, deaden the crap out of the trunk and upfire them.

 

[gunz4me2 10+ year member]

I'm planning on firing forward to stop the trunk from rattling like a mofo plus I want to see what pressurizing the cabin is like for a change of pace. I already heard a 2007 Civic Si with a 12" Type X direct cabin fired, and while it lost the "bandpass" type effect of a box within a box (i.e. sub enclosure in the trunk), it was loud as fawk for a single Type X subwofer.

 

[CAT MAN 5,000+ posts]

The general consensus is that forward firing sealed is meter louder but rear or upfiring sounds better.
My advice... unless this is an SPL setup, deaden the crap out of the trunk and upfire them.

so i should not turn my box around....

 

[gunz4me2 10+ year member]

so i should not turn my box around....

That's the thing with trunk setups in that "it depends"... It depends on the car, the enclosure, and how the combination of the two gel together.

 

[gunz4me2 10+ year member]

so i should not turn my box around....

grrrr... autodupe

 

[TaylorFade 10+ year member]

so i should not turn my box around....

The thing is... you have to try. Like gunz4me said, it just depends.

My first trunk setup... I was bound and determined to get the sub and port through the ski pass. Sub and port forward. It wasn't sealed very well to the pass, but simply turning the box around was worth exactly 3db. AND sounded better. Now, that was a 10". And as such, the pressure can still get around the box into the cabin. With big ass boxes, I don't recommend rear firing because so much pressure gets trapped because it has no way to get around the box.

Look at every single one of the loudest trunks in the world. You'll see subs and port forward. It's just louder. Period. But if it's a daily and sounds like shit that way.. is it worth it?

 

[ancorp 10+ year member]

Thanks for the input guys.

Yes my box is quite **** big (biggest I could fit through that **** small opening) and takes up most of the trunk.

The trunk lid looks like it will fly off at any second. I don't think I can afford the deadening, and I fear it'll take a lot of material to stop that thing from moving. Sealing off firing forward actually seems a lot easier and cheaper. Everything in the trunk rattles, not just the lid itself.