Very strange lack of bass?

[Trey803 5,000+ posts]

my opinion......100% vehicle acoustic properties. If your sub is MOVING and your voltage isnt dropping then the only possibility would be acoustic properties of your car. Try some different positions for your box.

 

[bass-aholic 10+ year member]

That link doesnt work for me, can you find a different link from google?

 

[CaptNKILL 10+ year member]

That link doesnt work for me, can you find a different link from google?

Try one of these:

http://www.google.com/search?q=Q-Logic+QLH-12S125&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a

Its the Q-Logic QLH-12S125.

 

[bass-aholic 10+ year member]

That box is alright if its not leaking or anything. The quickest and cheapest way to get MUCH louder is going to be just building or buying off some one on here a nice ported box. Id say around 2-2.5 cubes at around 38hz. Normally i dont get this involved in helping out but i want you to be happy with your new sub considering all the money you spent.

 

[CaptNKILL 10+ year member]

I really appreciate it bass-aholic. Same to everyone else who posted.

The only thing more frustrating than having this stuff not work like I want it to is not getting any help with it.

I'll try messing with my sub's position tomorrow, and just for the hell of it I'll try some 8ga speaker wire that my brother has left over.

Once I can get the money aside I'll look into getting a roll of rammatt for my car. Hopefully before fall since the winters here make it impossible to do anything car related for about 6 months out of the year.

I'll also keep my eyes open for a nice box that fits those specs, just in case.

Also, I was just thinking about it and I don't think a ported box would take up too much more room if I could mount my amps onto it since I'm using a small wooden amp rack (I built it out of MDF) to hold my amps right now.

 

[king ranch 5,000+ posts]

you could go aeroport with the new box which takes up much less airspace in a box than a normal slot port which allows you not to have to have the box as big

my aero in a 5.2net box tuned at 34hz only takes up .16cu ft of airspace so it might be the way to go

also some say aero's are louder in some cases and less port noise

 

[Rashaddd 5,000+ posts]

I really appreciate it bass-aholic. Same to everyone else who posted.
The only thing more frustrating than having this stuff not work like I want it to is not getting any help with it.

I'll try messing with my sub's position tomorrow, and just for the hell of it I'll try some 8ga speaker wire that my brother has left over.

Once I can get the money aside I'll look into getting a roll of rammatt for my car. Hopefully before fall since the winters here make it impossible to do anything car related for about 6 months out of the year.

I'll also keep my eyes open for a nice box that fits those specs, just in case.

Also, I was just thinking about it and I don't think a ported box would take up too much more room if I could mount my amps onto it since I'm using a small wooden amp rack (I built it out of MDF) to hold my amps right now.

A ported box will be louder, but the problem is its still not really a solution to the problem. Its like if you were to buy another sub and have two sealed, and then you'd be louder, but you still aren't getting what you should be out of them.

Sound deadening will not cause you to be much louder if you aren't already loud enough to be flexing trunk/doors/roof/etc. Sound deadening stops sound from escaping, but if its not powerful enough to be escaping in the first place, sound deadener will mostly just make your car sound better in terms of the quality.

I gaurantee you that 12gauge speaker wire is plenty, unless its like...really crappy 12 gauge which is acting more like 18 or 22 gauge or something...

Bottomline is you haven't found the right spot for bass to originate in your car. It may seem like you have tried everything, but seriously try again. Sub should definitely be in the trunk, if there is no opening at all to the cabin from the trunk other than folding the seats down, you should consider always having your seats folded down, or figuring out a way to create more air flow through your rear deck. On my rear deck, I had grilles from where the stock rear speakers used to be. This was on my old system which was alot quieter than mine is now, but even when I didn't have speakers there, the grilles alone were stopping alot of the sound transfer into the cabin. One day I just decided to pop them off and I could tell it was noticeably louder (keep in mind we're talking about a mesh covering vs no covering...if it was a solid metal sheet vs a hole...it'd have been an even much more significant difference)

Everytime you try a different position/direction facing in the trunk, close the trunk, and get back in the car just like you would regularly listen to it each time, having a friend sit in the passenger seat the whole time really helps too. You guys can figure out where and how to get it to maximize on cabin gain and minimize on backwave cancellation. Also, when you think you've found the loudest spot, while sitting in your seat listening, pop the trunk and see if it sounds louder. If it does (especially if its significantly louder) then you're getting bad backwave cancellation. If it sounds quieter when you pop the trunk, thats what you're looking for, it means you're getting gain.

In my car...if I have the trunk open, and you're sitting in the front seat of the car, subs on full tilt...its loud...but if you've never heard my subs on full tilt before and don't know what to expect you're in for a surprise when I slam the trunk closed and all of a sudden it sounds like I turned the volume from 30/60 to 50/60.

 

[CaptNKILL 10+ year member]

Thanks a lot Rashaddd. I've been leaving at least one seat down since I put a system in this car because it makes such a huge difference. There is some kind of hole in the metal underneath the rear deck where a stock subwoofer could be placed if I had that option, but it has a plastic cover stuck on the bottom and the top has carpet on it. If I ever needed to make some kind of "port" for my deck, I could definitely use that.

I'll try messing with the location of my sub today. I remember that it used to get louder when I closed the trunk when I had it back there, but I don't think it was real significant. My old 300W infinity system gained a lot of volume when I closed the trunk on my old Buick Century.

you could go aeroport with the new box which takes up much less airspace in a box than a normal slot port which allows you not to have to have the box as big
my aero in a 5.2net box tuned at 34hz only takes up .16cu ft of airspace so it might be the way to go

also some say aero's are louder in some cases and less port noise

I've looked around a bit but I can't find much about aeroport subs. Are there any schematics for them online so I can see how they're built?

 

[CaptNKILL 10+ year member]

Well I tested the 8ga wire and it didn't make any difference... no surprise there.

I moved my sub all around and I did manage to find a sweet spot! I have the sub facing directly into the back passenger side corner of the trunk. It sits in there tight without touching anything and it really helped the volume a lot.

I think I mistook what I was hearing with the sub in the back seat. It wasn't louder, but it was clearer. In the trunk, the sounds tend to reverberate and get "noisy", even with the rear seats down... but it is significantly louder this way.

I guess I'll just leave it like this. Maybe doing a bunch of rammatt could help clean up the sound later on, but this is plenty of volume for me now. I actually found a few songs that almost felt TOO loud... almost. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

My brother's system still has the advantage of being a bit punchier and clearer because the sub is so close to the listeners, but I think I have it met or beat on volume now. My system significantly is louder from the outside now too when I have my windows down. When I close the car all up its barely audible from a few feet away. I'm surprised how air-tight this car is.

Thanks again to everyone who told me to change the placement of my sub. I knew the back seat was a dumb place for it, I just didn't think there was such a great spot in the trunk that boosted the volume so much.