So I did search but couldn’t find a main thread for car audio, subs, speakers, radios, systems etc.
My 2005 GTO doesn’t have that great of a stereo , it has the factory speakers still, but not that great of bass. Has 2 6.5" subs in the rear deck from the factory that are infinite baffled, which you can’t really fit anything good back there for a little extra bass, not many options.
So the past few days I’ve been thinking of adding a single 10" or 12" in the trunk for a little extra bass.
I need to build a custom box to fit it in the trunk behind the driver quarter panel, trying to maintain as much trunk space as possible. Should be a fun project, trying to do it fairly cheap.
I tried to pick a decent sub, it’s a pioneer TS-W310D4 single 12" sub , and the amp I cheaped out on a bit, it’s a boss AR1500M which should be too much power so I’ll have to turn it down, people did give it good reviews, but to me I always thought JL audio, MA audio, kicker, are top brands, so hopefully the boss works good.
Anyone still into this stuff at all? Really I’m not trying to go crazy so this will probably be overkill for what I want lol
I <3 8s. They’re my favorite. I’ve got two ProTech [Eminence-built] 4Ω 8" woofers in the Subaru getting ~600W RMS at 2Ω overall in a large-ish ported enclosure and it sounds pretty good. Almost a bit much. The amp is a MMATS joint that’s 1Ω stable and puts out ~1200W RMS. Genuinely considering building a [much] smaller sealed enclosure for two Sundown SA-8s wired down to 1Ω for maximum power. Components are CDT HD-M6 6" mid-woofers paired with CDT HD-1 tweeters driven directly from the Lightning LA-8004, i.e. no passive crossovers. I’ve got a Kicker KX3 crossover/preamp that separates the appropriate frequencies for sub, mid and high output channels and I don’t run rear speakers. Ever. The signal from the deck back to the gear is digital coaxial, so I have to run a little USB-powered DAC to get back to analog into the crossover. No big.
I use the same deck in both cars. It slides into and out of a sled that mounts in the dash kit and wires in. This is so that the radio unit itself is removable for service and updates. It’s basically a little Linux computer that plays MP3s which you’ve loaded via Ethernet or USB. Serial would be wicked slow.
The Fiero is a very similar setup. The subwoofer is a Sundown E8v3 D4 wired down to 2Ω, taking advantage of the 440W RMS available from the NVX JAD-900.5’s sub channel. It’s in a teeny, tiny ~.3 cubic foot box. Slams in that little cockpit. Pretty amazing. The components in that car are run active directly from the amp because it allows for that; no external crossover required. The components consist of CDT ES-04 4" woofers coupled with Aura 1" aluminum-dome tweeters. They might be slightly harsh.
There’s pics of all of the Fiero stuff in my thread, right in the first page, I think.
To answer your question, all of the name brand stuff is pretty decent. Really, it’s all okay to use as long as it’s appropriately treated. Just don’t expect to send 500W RMS to a Pyle woofer and expect it to last a while. I find that cheaper low-down audio sub setups absolutely rely on box design for optimal output. Keep in mind people used to hit mid 140dB with a single 12" sub on 500W RMS in the 90’s.
I’m way more interested in sound quality these days, which fortunately is a bit easier to achieve.
I’ve been trying to find an application for these brutal 6.5" subs from Digital Designs. The 506.
Sundown has a 6.5" sub as well, but I don’t like the box requirements or the specifications as much.
I like the look of those subs with the thick surrounds, look like they are high excurssion. Reminds me of when I was 18 years old looking at audiobahn subs on eBay lol, I wasn’t looking at the chrome tribal flame ones but some had super thick surrounds that were rated at like 2k watts give or take.
I’ve never had anything other than a refurbished 1000watt MA amp, and (2) kicker compVRs in a vented box. So i havent had many systems in my lifetime.
What’s crazy to me is MA audio is no more, same with audiobahn.
I’m definitely excited to put together my new sub. I’m using a LOC to keep my stock radio for now. Hopefully it will sound ok.
I used to have a great system in high school / early college. And I have several Daryl’s Car Audio Bass-Off trophy’s collecting dust in my basement to prove it, lol.
The super huge subs always looked impressive, but I found I liked the sound from smaller subs better. But a lot of that also has to do with they type of music I listened to at the time I think.
I’ve read about this but I haven’t done it yet. I actually just did this. LS1GTO Forums
Which made everything sound crystal clear, although now because of the antidistortion mode, the music only gets so loud and just stays there even if you keep turning it up.
I haven’t bothered checking the factory amp for the factory subs yet, I’ll have to give it a try, I hear the amp eventually trips thermal overload and turns off when cranked.
I’m planning to leave the factory radio and just use a line output converter to run the extra sub. I may remove the factory subs and leave it open for bass to travel from the trunk to the cabin. We will see how it goes, might end up doing the rest of the speakers and radio later on.
I have a second set of stock rear deck rings I was going to hack up, but I found a guy that designed some rings that can hold an 8". I downloaded the file and 3d printed (in ab) the rear deck rings for an 8" sealed them with a few coats of mek stuff. I found some low clearance pioneer 8" freeair subs to install. i’m not looking for a booming system, just something that sounds good when turned up louder than the car itself. I have a kicker amp somewhere that till hide away easily. but I cant give up much trunk space. I got golf clubs to fit.
I’ll give it a try. Don’t worry I don’t plan to turn the car into a bass off machine or anything like that lol. I was gonna install a 10" woofer but then thought it costs the same for a single 12" so I might as well go that route since I could always turn it down.
I was super into audio back in the late 90s, I miss those days. I was invited to nationals more than once.
Ive recently started looking into it again and its crazy what they are doing now with boxes and all these cool new router tools and fixtures. The days of rectangle carpeted boxes are long gone.
Thats pretty cool that you can tweak the sub gain on the factory system. Id def start there
I did read about that, there’s someone on the ls1gtoforums that even sealed up the area above the gas tank, which looked super tight!
Even buying 2 decent 8" subs and then an amp would have cost around the same or more than buying a single 10 or 12, and i wasnt sure if it would sound that good so I decided to go this way. But i hope youre turns out good, id like to see the out come.
I probably should have bought a single 10" but the price between a 10 and a 12 was like $5 so I felt I had to do a 12. It will probably be overkill and I’ll have to turn the amp way down.
I still need to buy MDF to build a box.
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It is pretty bad lol, I don’t really put anything back there, if I did a road trip I would need the space, and I suppose i could pop the sub out then if need be.
I’m more into making my cars faster then this type of stuff but I’m excited about it.
i have door and side speakers to do as well. just kicker stuff, nothing fancy or high end.
i saw where the guy sealed it. that would be ideal. i just aint got time fo dat.
i’d really much rather have a box in the back, but American safety standards really screwed us moving the gastank to where it is.
I’ve grown out of it for the most part, but have probably had some sort of a sub in my all my DD I just don’t have the time these days to rip out the entire interior to put a nice setup in there.
So I bought a jigsaw, drywall screws, liquid nails, and a sheet of 3/4" MSG.
I’ve determined I suck at making sub boxes, I guess if it was just a square or rectangle I would be fine at making them but since I’m trying to fit it in the corner of the trunk. Idk it’s not turning out to my liking, this would be better suited for fiberglass.
