Heya,

I have a few questions so will put them in numbers (make it easier for yes's and no's )

1. Is it better to face the subs in a sedan forwards (about 100mm behind the back seats) or towards the boot lid.
2. I will be removing the stock 6x9 speakers from the back shelf as I only want a front stage. Would it be better blanking them off, or leaving them open. I am thinking maybe the 6x9 holes would almost act as a semi-bandpass box, not literally, but it could alter the sound slightly?
3. Would a ported box or a sealed box be better for SQ? I know this is a useless question, as it depends on speakers and setup etc, but just wanted to get some general responses.

Thanks for any answers, it is appreciated,

Cheers

any opinions on what the best way to face a sub enclosure in a sedan is? Was reading tonight, and someone said it is best to face them upwards to load off the boot. Would you get a similar effect pointing them towards the back seat? thanks

For no 2, Id leave the 6x9 holes free, so the sub bass isnt completely sealed off from the boot into the cabin, unless you are going to open the ski hole up

thank for the reply.

Has anyone tried pointing the ports directly into the inside cabin? A friend did it years ago in a BMW sedan, but I forgot it it sounded good or not.

cheers,

going off my magna (had a single 12 in a wedge box with the port on the side)...........i found if i faced the sub through the ski hole it sounded better.....sub facing the rear it was louder. If you have the oppurtunity try moving the subs around and finding what sounds best to you.

thanks for that hardyards.

i think you are right, I will make a nice sealed box for my 2 x 12's and point it in the 3 different directions and see which is best.
I want to put a window in it, but can do this once I know which way it is going

cheers,

i would make a crappy basic sealed box first of all, play with positioning for a while until you get it perfect, then design and build your second box around that.

As a general rule, most speaker enclosures that lean towards SQ are sealed. It keeps construction simple. Trust me when I say x 12's will be plenty loud.
+1 on leaving the speaker holes uncovered (or maybe some grilles to cover the holes but completely).

thanks guys,

Ye, i decided this morning to build a box and play with directions. My past installs I have been in too much of a rush to listen to (think of a small boy on Christmas waiting to open his presents).
So this time, I will build a nice box, move it around and see what sounds best.

I used to have these 2 subs in my Renault Hatch and they punded something fierce, and that was running BOTH subs off 400w. But I am going for SQ, so no real need to go too loud.
Infact, I am even considering putting one sub in and running it at its rated power (400w) as it should be more controlled than 2 subs running at half power.

shot for the replies,

If it helps, check out my old install thread (click on the picture in my sig)... It had the subs firing into the cabin, which I felt worked best, and gave less rattles outside .

The sound quality was a lot better than a rear facing setup, but I did (seem) to lose a bit of grumble (20-40hz) with the subs going through the ski hole... Interestingly though, my biggest spl figures were made using the front facing setup

hey Ben,

I actually saw your thead and read every entry (right up until you sold your car

I am thinking of ging for forward facing subs tbh, as it gives me 2 advantages, namely it protects my subs from weekly shopping and what not (still a family car) and lets me put windows in it like yours, for some really nice lighting effects.

Just 1 question, did your ski hole have to be open to get good sound out, and if I remember correctly, you had a ported box firing into the ski hole?

Also, how far did you put the box behind the seat?

Thanks for the help,

ps, you don't have the old box lying about do you?

I noticed a definate increase in spl with the ski hole open, but it only measured a difference of 2-3dB on the termlab. The ski hole flap (plastic thingy) was eventually removed as it clearly was being slowly destroyed by the air mass moving through the ski port.

One thing I will mention about the box setup is that I packed copious amounts of quilt wadding around the box edges so the front of the sub enclosure was completley sealed from the rear cabin, and this "felt" like it was helping the low end freqs stay inside the cabin area, and I noticed my shirt sleeve would resonate slightly more whilist sitting in the driver's seat, as compared to the box without the wadding. All I can think is that the wadding stopped the pressure wave from escaping out into the boot, however on the termlab there was absolutely no diffrerence in spl, so it may have been my mind juz playin tricks....

Unfortunately I don't have the box anymore, but if I rumage around in my old photo folder I may be able to find a photo of the box before I installed it... The box is actually in "lucifer's" magna atm, with the infinity subs now getting over TWICE the amperage as they were in my old setup. Absolutely deafening to say the least!!! .
Lucifer (luke) has made his own install thread on AMC featuring the sub box (in the member's machines section), and if I can't find any photos from when I had it, I'll remind myself (or Luke) to take some when we wire up the blue lighting LEDS...

The box face was virtually pressed right up against the rear seat, leaving only a 10 cm gap for the subs (which were slightly recessed) to pump through. Quilt wadding was packed around the edges as tight as possible, as well as along the top of the sub box, effectively making the sub box front face air sealed from the boot. This also stopped the rear seat from resonating, and forced the resultant wave from the subs to "shoot" forward through the ski hole. I experimented with this gap, and found that any tighter than 10cms made the subs starve for air to pump (you could hear the ski port chuffing), and on the other hand you tended to lose a fair bit of SPL if the gap was larger (as the resonance from the rear seat interacted with the subs), and by 20-25cms from the sub face panel to the rear seat panel a noticeable drop in sub freqs from 40Hz down was evident (by nearly 6dB).

Good luck on your setup, if you do it right you'll get nothing but pure bass, with absolutely no drone at all, just the feeling like your gonna crack your chest in half!!!!

I went for a late night lap with Lucifer last Sunday. Forgot how sexy it was listening to those subs at full blast, I've yet to be able to get anywhere near to what the old setup sounded like with my new car. Fast, detonating bass pulses that made you cough uncontrollably .... Godamn I miss the ol' magna

Damn it man!!! Now I'm fricken starting to cry!!!! I wantz my magna back....

hey man, you seem like a nice guy, tell you wht, I will swop you my Magna foryour new car...mammmmmaky?

I will definately try what you have suggested, although I must admit I am more after SQ than SPL, but I guess its nice having both

I suppose with the ski hole open, and all the stuffing you put in, you almost made a band pass box!

thanks for the ideas though, and taking an interest. Once my container arrives I can get my equipment out and make a start

Cheers,

Have u got the polk subs yet?? i was thinking of grabbing a pair of 8 inch db polk subs just wondering how they sounded. Local shop recommended them over the apline type S at a considerbly cheaper price (in the 12 inch version) but havent had a chance to listen to them.

heya,

yes, I had them back in SOuth Africa in my renault megane hatch for around 3 months. They were in a spec sealed box (wedge shaped) pointing towards the back of the car.

i was very impressed with the sound. I was running them off a PG Xenon X200.4, so the two were only getting 400w between them (other 2 channels were running my splits).

Thats just some background on my setup. The sound was very very nice, it really pounded when I pushed the sound up, and at lower volumes it was controlled and nice.
I think they are really under rated subs, and put in the right enclosure, you will not be sorry buying them.

I liked the sound more than the Rockfords that I heard, and I had some JL's back in the day, and they sounded better than them too.

I say purchase them, you will not be sorry. Just remember, the 12's can take up to 400w each, but mine ran nicely on 200w each. They also dontneed the biggest enclosure in the world for sealed, another bonus.

Below is alink of boxes for the DB's.

http://www.polkaudio.com/caraudio/subbox/index.php