Hello,

New Z owner here. I have been searching/ reading posts for at least 2 hours now on subwoofer locations (aftermarket). I was wondering, what's everyone's thoughts of just building a box under the read tower or installing the sub behind the driver's seat. Will the sound be ok in the stock location behind the driver's seat, or should I throw that idea out the window and just build/buy an encloser from Nazar?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

It sounds better under the bar, from what I've read. Most ppl will tell you it sounds better firing back than forward.

 

To me the best sound came from firing straight up towards the glass. I tried under strut (too much rattle and seemed to trap bass in rear), and behind seat (no way).

 

thanks much for the input. much appreciated!

 

Firing it up towards the glass creates bandpass. It does give it a pretty good sound, but I'm in for giving my car a mix of originality and good sound, so Im going with mounting them facing forward toward the seats. (in a custom box, not in the stock location)

 

Here's a few Auctions i came by on Ebay... maybe help ya with some ideas.

Auction 1:
Single

Auction 2:
Dual


Good Luck!

-Sully

 

Srivero297 you already have dual 12" in there? How are your's mounted. I hav a single 12" (the one I told you about facing upward from the tire well area. Also, how do you like thosae Crystal comps? Does the treb sound good or does it hurt your ears?

 

I bought the dual 12" but I haven't built the chamber for them yet. I am busy right now trying to mold my front components in perfectly because I did a custom piece for them and I'm redoing the whole door into a Blue/White color scheme for my DB. I haven't tested having all 8 Crystals on at once (4 comp 4 tweet) but with 2 of each behind the seats they sound great so far, much better than the stock bose, and thats with the stock amp, not even plugged into my Orion yet.

Ehh, my design is a little hard to explain but I will try, bare with me. Okay, the Z bar splits the trunk in two. For simplicitys sake I will call them front half and rear half. The front half I am using as my sub chamber (part closer to the seats). I am mounting them each on a sligh angle towards each other kind of like this- \_/ but on much less of a slope, and also leaning forward toward the front. Also, the subs will be inverted, so they will be firing into the chamber and the magnet will be facing outward. I chose that because, personally, I think the idMAX triple stack magnets are works of art, but their cones look plain and ugly. Inverting them = problem solved, and saves air space in the sub chamber at the same time.

Being that the front half of the trunk that the Z bar creates is an awkward area, these are definately NOT regular everyday cube shaped chambers. I am building them out of fiberglass resin and pasting the resin on directly in the car right onto the stock plastics to get an exact fit, and the least amount of rattle possible while achieving maximum airspace. Paint roller, resin, and fiberglass cloth/mat . The top board with the circles cut out for the subs has to made of wood so I have something to screw into, as well as the back board facing the rear of the car, because that is where the Z bar is and I have no stock plastic to resin against. Also, near the top of the resined sides I will need to make small wooden guides for the screws going through the top board to come into and those have to be drilled into the sides.

Pretty complicated design overall, but that is what those boring lecture hall class and plenty of notebooks and pens are fore
You guys dont even want to know what the amp rack design looks like, haha
Construction is going to start as soon as my door panels are completed, and they are almost done. The pieces are completed molded, I just have to pick up the paint and spray them. I am buying the paint today so hopefully I will have them done by the middle of the week--
I already have all of the materials bought and ready to start construction on the sub chamber. Thats when the real fun begins

 

Wow! sounds like you got your work cut0out for ya. I know the feeling, I did a custom fiberglass box that takes up most of the tire-well area. Those little glass fibers get everywhere and itch.

Dude, you can list all that cool stereo stuff in your signature if it's just sitting in your garage, I thought you had it hoooked up ;-)))

 

Oh by the way, I was reading an audio mag article regarding subs, which said some of the best have crappy looking cones. Apparently some of the high-tech metal looking type subs are just a facade.

 

See? I think it is too simple really, and... I dont know, something about it is just ugly too me.

 

but the backside/magnets are gorgeous.

 

Yeah, the logo shape looks lame, they should do something about it. Would probably look better with no logo at all I think. Anyway, the back looks awesome.

 

Yeah. I have two Eclipse Titanium 12" in my M3 and those are gorgeous from the back and the cone. I dont know which sub I like better, those or the IDMAX. Both are pretty mean subs.

 

If you think the IDMax's cone is ugly .. go look at a Brahma ..

V2 IDMax cones look better than V3's. The one I really like is the RE XXX ... SeXXXy

My 15 XXX made the 12 look like a 10 Weighed a *hitload too.

 

Yeah I think shipping weight when I bought my idMAXs was like 40lbs each.

 

Hey Srivero, try mounting your subs using mdf rings instead of a large flat piece of board, kinda like this:
mdf rings example
I think contouring that area would leave you with the best results. Flat there I think might look strange given the contour of the rest of the interior. Oh, and I'm sure you already know this, but just in case, I'll mention it: Resin does not bond directly to plastic. Don't ask how I know, let's just say I found out the hard way. But, if you drill holes through it and glass the inside of the plastic too, it will hold tight. Otherwise, you'll have to run screws through your nicely glassed project into the plastic behind. Again, I'm sure you already know, but somebody else reading this might not. You should put up some pix of your door panels in progress. I'd be curious to see them for sure! Good luck with the painting, I always vinyl-wrapped everything in an effort to avoid the kind of sanding required to do a painted surface. Lazy? Yeah, I don't deny it. Good luck with your project, sounds like you'll be busy all the way to New Year's!

 

My 15 XXX was 67 lbs in the box/crate. It was freaking HEAAAVY.

Good thing I picked it up right at RE in Vegas & drove it home.

 

Yeah what I am doing is using the flat board as the basic shape for the top piece. Actually, probably 3 flat boards in that \_/ shape I mentioned before, and then cutting out rings for the subs to raise them up. Then I can use resin or bondo/bondo-glass to fill in theangles between the rings and the flat board and give it a nice subtle slope. I dont want any sharp angles that can be seen from the outside, I want it to be nice and curvy, like a sexy woman, haha