planning a sub/amp....have questions

[Renthorin]

I want to put a single sub in the GN to add some punch.

I plan to put it on one side of the floorboards in the rear, not the trunk.

I will build a box and drop the sub in. I would like to mount the amp to the box and make it a simple to put in/take out as possible.

I will be keeping the stock CS radio and speakers.

1) What brand of sub?
2) How big? 10 or 12?
3) What amp?
4) Speaker level inputs or line converter?
5) Where to tap into power without drilling holes?

Anything else I should be aware of?

 

[SilverSleeper]

Okay, question..
Why would you want to put it on the rear floor and not in the trunk?
You will be very limited to the sub size and box that will fit, and whatever you decide to put there will be in view of any sticky fingered thief.
You might be lucky to get an 8" sub with proper size box on one side of the floor. There wouldnt even be room for the amp to mount to the box.
My suggestion? Don't limit yourself to that space, and use the trunk. You could build a nice small box for a 10 or 12 and mount the amp to the box.

BTW- Give my sticky post a good read. There really isn't a lot of help we can give you unless you know what you want. Its kinda like going into a clothing store and asking for a pair of pants without knowing wether its for dress, casual, a size, a style, or a fit. I can suggest a certain pair, but I would probably be of more help with some system goals.

 

[Renthorin]

Sleeper..yeah.. I saw the sticky after my post and realized that the final decision will be mine and based on quite a bit of study and observation.

I will be building a box that fills both the passenger floor boards and crosses the DS hump. A sub on each side with the amp mounted in the middle next to the fire extinguisher.

The GN is a show/cruise car and is never left unattended. Sleeps in an alarmed garage when not being driven. Not worried about sticky fingers.

I had a sub in the trunk of my 84 Cutlass and the sound was terrible. Barely any solid base in the car and the whole rear end rattled. Sounded very amateur and ghetto for my tastes.

Anyway, I have some ideas on subs and amps already so things are looking up

 

[darkfa8]

the cars are over 10 years old, stuff rattles unless you freshen things up...

- replace worn weather stripping
- you can put dynamat on the back of the license plate and make sure its secured toghtly to the brakcet
- fill in the webbing of the trunk lid with DAP expanding foam
- "upholster" the trunk sheetmetal with Dynamat/brownbread/rammat or similar sound deadener
- secure your sub enclosure to the car

Unless you have a hatch-back, I'd say that 90% of sub installs are done in the trunk. Majority of which are pointed towards the back of the trunk to compensate for the long wave-length of the sub frequencies, by pointing the subs to the rear the wave length travels a longer distance before reaching your ears inside the car, this allows for the Bass Up Front illusion.

Read some of this stuff, or all :

http://www.audiocontrol.com/techpapr.htm

Eddie has his subs ported into the passenger compartment via the rear deck trim surface being augmented with ports.

Putting a enclosure into the footwells of a car, unless for some sort of show-statement, isn't really going to provide optimum sound reproduction and it also isn't practical since it eliminates the foot-space for back seat passengers.. and if you just stick a box in there, its not very asthetically pleasing either.. even if its matching color to the stock interior.. its just not done for a reason.

Read some articles on carsound.com and termpro.com and check out rides at sounddomain.com for other ideas.

A lot of SUV owners in particular like building a custom center console in-which they house a 10" or 12" sub. Gary Biggs put in a sub right behind the glove box of his competition Regal. So, having the sub inside the passenger compartment or venting into the compartment can be done, just a matter of working around what your given in terms of space contraints, asthetical appeal, practicality and well, money.

Overall, if you just want to throw time, money and speakers at the car, do whatever .. but even with the most fancy of professional installations, there is some function and physics to the layout.

 

[Audiowizard]

Welcome back Dan! glad to see you post again in car audio!

 

[darkfa8]

thanks Eddie, been busy as heck .. my car audio stuff is stalled for now until more $$$ and a second car come down the pike..

take care

 

[Audiowizard]

I understand about being busy! Don't be a stranger and keep us up to date on your Buick.

 

[Renthorin]

Ok....how about this

What about those boxed subs? Found one in Best Buy that is 10 x10 x something high with a 10" sub inside. Has a plexiglass front (don't care about that) and two ports pointing straight up on top.

The sub would be firing into the back of the seat but it is completely enclosed in the box so the sound will shoot out of the ports straight up yes?

I would mount my amp somewhere hidden and run just the one set of wires to the sub box.

That means I can take the box out when I want and not have wires everywhere except the speaker wires and I can tuck those under the mats.

As I mostly just show the car, I don't have rear seat passengers and I don't have anything in the trunk but what came from the fractory.

Second question, if I want to mount an amp under the passenger seat should I invest in one with a cooling fan?

 

[darkfa8]

a boxed sub is fine, if you want true portability, you could mount the amp to the sub enclosure.

as for mounting a amp under a seat, hardest part is making a sturdy mount for it.. you could make something out of steel and weld it to the seat tracks... as for cooling fans.. an amp with one is a good idea, though the ones that just rely on radiating heat without a fan might run a lil more hot than the fan cooled ones, it might not amount to any consequence either way you go.

Irreguardless, you'll have to run some 4-gauge wire from your battery, fused (i prefer Monster Cable Magnetic breakers) to your amp. and then some 4-gauge to a ground point.. like the frame.

 

[Audiowizard]

Re: Ok....how about this

Originally posted by Renthorin
Second question, if I want to mount an amp under the passenger seat should I invest in one with a cooling fan?

There isn't that much room under the rear seats for a decent sized amplifier due to the height and irregular mounting surface. If you want a cooling fan to do its best work, I recomend and enclosure that you can install the amplifier into and use a single 3" fan or two 3" "push/pull fans to bring air across the amplifiers heat sinks to help with cooling. If you click on my website in my sig, you will see that I did this in my GN but with some pizzazz by adding 3/8" plexi and neons. (the plexi and neons are for car shows and looks)