Putting a sub-woofer in my car!

[Sedako]

About 6 months ago I ditched the shitty 14 year old Delco factory sound system in my Geo Prizm, which I acquired from my grandmother about 2 years ago. I went with a Clarion receiver and 4 cheaper Pioneers speakers, as I'm not going to spend a lot of money on such an old car. The speakers really don't sound too bad running off the receiver's power, but what they do lack is bass. I came across a pretty nice deal on Amazon: $41 for a 10" Infinity sub-woofer. Bought a Kicker 250.5 amp (with perfectly matched RMS wattage), Scosche sealed box and wiring kit to go with it. All together it was around $190 for the whole setup. I may attempt to install it tomorrow pending no rain. Has anyone had any experience with this sort of thing? I know exactly what I have to do, but it's slightly more intimidating than installing the other speakers. Either way, I love to tinker with stuff, so it'll be fun.

 

[Qonfused]

Make sure your doors rattle when the bass gets intense.

 

[knut]

A few of my friends have sub-woofers and I hate it because it turns people on to music they don't actually like, but will work ''best'' with the equipment, such as generic drum and bass or trance. Actually there's worse than that; bassline. Urgh. They don't even like the music!

 

[Viperidae]

Cars are great for hi fidelity listening. Most interiors these days aren't designed for cargo space or comfortable seating, but for optimum room acoustics.

 

[VirusType2]

lol you're gonna have hearing problems if you blast that shit all the time.

nothing really to say. File down the paint where you ground it. Wire the battery last.

Do you have a box for the sub? Otherwise it will be horrible.

 

[Sedako]

Do you have a box for the sub?

Yes, I mentioned I got a sealed box. I'm not going for volume, but accuracy. As I said, right now I'm getting close to no bass from my speakers as they are. I don't plan on listening to shitty music just to blast the bass all over the place. I know it pisses me off then people drive by my house with their dual 12" ported setups.

 

[VirusType2]

Sorry, I wasn't assuming that you would, I just want to warn you about hearing damage.

You've got to make your ears last for another 80 years maybe. You don't want to be the old man where everyone has to yell in your ear. Every time your ears are ringing, damage has been done. Tinnitus is also common, where you will forever have a ringing in your ears. It's very annoying! And difficult to fall asleep.

I just feel the need to warn everyone about everything ;p

 

[Sedako]

Trust me, I greatly value the longevity of my ears. I wear hearing protection whenever I pass through the processing room at work. After it's hooked up, the sub will be adjusted to scale at a proper volume with the rest of my system.

 

[FrostedxB]

Do you have a box for the sub? Otherwise it will be horrible.

not necassarily, I have two subs in an enclosure, but there is a lot of air trapped inside causing the subs to work against each other at higher volumes or when set to mono. I have them at a lower bass level and on stereo and they sound pretty good, but it sucks not being able to turn them up without distorting a song.

Just make sure there isn't to much air in whatever you put them in.

 

[Sedako]

Got everything done in about 5 hours yesterday. Did some adjusting on the bass earlier, and it sounds great. You can barely hear it outside my car at my normal listening volume, but inside it's really substantial. Overall it was well worth the time. As an added bonus I put some new capacitors in my home speakers today.

 

[Ennui]

One of my friends who is a bit on the "gangsta" side (and black) has put well over $2000 into the sound system in his SUV, when he drives by it's like an earthquake.

 

[Krynn72]

Make sure you blast that shit while driving slowly down residential areas, and dont be afraid to just sit in your drive way at night blasting base heavy rap with your windows down. Oh, and go ahead and pop back inside for 20 minutes while leaving your rap going so you can catch watch a bit of the football game. Your neighbors wont mind at all.

 

[Sedako]

Make sure you blast that shit while driving slowly down residential areas, and dont be afraid to just sit in your drive way at night blasting base heavy rap with your windows down. Oh, and go ahead and pop back inside for 20 minutes while leaving your rap going so you can catch watch a bit of the football game.

That only possible if I actually listened to rap. I don't consider it music though, so it's not allowed on my Zune.

 

[CyberPitz]

At least it's just one 10"....I have a friend with a 15" and 2 10" subs in his Super Beetle..yeah, you can see how that would make your ears bleed.

I get so sick of people driving by, while I'm inside of a concrete/brick building on the second floor...and I can hear the base easily. Then you have the morons that while you are outside of the car, every door/lid is rattling, about to fall off.

People going for light bass/accuracy are the ones that are doing it right.

 

[VirusType2]

not necassarily, I have two subs in an enclosure, but there is a lot of air trapped inside causing the subs to work against each other at higher volumes or when set to mono. I have them at a lower bass level and on stereo and they sound pretty good, but it sucks not being able to turn them up without distorting a song.

Just make sure there isn't to much air in whatever you put them in.

I can't speak for your sub box, but a sucky enclosure is going to suck obviously.

There are a few types of enclosures, but all of them have air in them. That's how a sub works - it moves air. I started building sub boxes 20 years ago. Using a sub woofer without an enclosure sucks, trust me. They even sell some subs that don't require a box, but from what I've heard, they suck and won't have nearly the same impact.