Subwoofers

[Barbapapa]

Anyone have any experience fitting subs in a 928? Any pics or advice? There doesn't seem to be as much room available when you start considering rear visability, at least when keeping the rear seats is desired.

[MPDano]

I've seen some use the Spare Tire area as a place to put a custom sub box.

[Barbapapa]

Originally Posted by MPDano

I've seen some use the Spare Tire area as a place to put a custom sub box.

Hmm... I thought that would be a good place for an amp but assumed a sub would be better pointing forward, I don't know if that's important or not. It is just bass.
A single 10 in a box would be all that would fit pointing forward in between the rear seats but a shallow sub in the spare tire cubby would be a neat solution.
Pics anyone?

[N2O-SHARK]

This was my first attempt. Sealed the spare tire well and used 3/4" MDF across the top. 15" Sub. Reverse mount as the tire well does not have enough cubic volume for the 15". Just reverse the phase.


Later, 15 and 2x12's in fiberglass box I made, amps later relocated to seat delete area.

With hatch closed, the speakers missed the glass by less than 1/4"..no slamming the hatch..



Now subs are in the garage as I turn the Shark into a track car. Going in the daughter's shark next.

[Danglerb]

Best to listen to a few real systems before you decide.

I use some variation of an 8" Bazooka powered sub in all our cars. They work great, plenty of bass, easy to move around or remove, and when you high pass the main stereo signal and use the sub for all the low bass sending none of it to the main speakers, main speakers, even factory stuff sounds much better.

I don't keep a spare in my car, but sheesh, thats where the battery lives so I still want EASY access, which means no boxes of amp or speakers.

[psychII]

I bought this:

[IMG][/IMG]

and put it here:

[IMG][/IMG]

It looks like this:

[IMG][/IMG]

It's not as clean as I wanted (there is a hump under the mat). But gets the job done and really rounds out the sound. Got it off ebay for about $90.

[MPDano]

Guys, you don't need a huge Sub to achieve Bass. I know back in the day (20 years ago) when i used to sport a Rockford 15" to get that deep Bass. A lot has changed since then and I know 8 years ago when I put a Sub in my Expedition, which is only a 10" and the enclosure I built is not much bigger since I put it in a side compartment, it achieved close to what my 15" did. I think it was called a Rockford Dual Voice Coil. Anyways, you can achieve the Bass you need out of that spare tire well and you don't need to point forward, up or down it wont matter. It's just Low Frequency sound. Don't get one of those pre-made tubes or amplified boxes, the custom enclosures are not hard to make, but you can do what psychII did and be done with it. IMHO.

[N2O-SHARK]

It all depends on how much bass is enough for you. Personally I liked having to reglue the rearview mirror back on every week or so...

Even with a HUGE box, I still had plenty of rearview. Testing the fit before fiberglassing the top.


A single 10 or 12" DVC sub with 200w+ will fill the shark with decent bass for a nice full sound with a little thump.

One note: If you mount anything on the other side of the hatch area, use very, very short screws or you'll go through the gas tank. Not good, don't ask how I know..

[MPDano]

One note: If you mount anything on the other side of the hatch area, use very, very short screws or you'll go through the gas tank. Not good, don't ask how I know..

Yes, very true about your personal tastes. I guess I am getting too old now

[MPDano]

I don't keep a spare in my car, but sheesh, thats where the battery lives so I still want EASY access, which means no boxes of amp or speakers.

You can easily make a custom box that can be easily removed to access the battery, unless you have a speaker with one of those Kryptonite Magnets on them

[Landseer]

I inherited an aftermarket fiberglas box that looks to have been made for the 928. It holds roughly a 6 X 10 speaker.

Fits in place of the tool tray in the back of the car, contoured to fit around the wiper motor.

[Danglerb]

I used to have a pair of 4" woofers in my 944 turbo, and without eq the system was +10db at 16hz and flat from about 35 to 150 hz. Physics hasn't changed and nether have speakers in the last 20 years. The volume of air inside a car is so small you can treat it like a poorly built two chamber box, and bass is EASY to get. The purpose of MOST of the larger drivers is that they make LESS low bass, which compensates for the 6 db per octave rising response rate below 60 or so hz most cars have.

I've been in cars with so much bass your eyes can't focus, and in contest cars where you couldn't stay inside with lead poured in your ears. Makes no sense to me.

I like impact bass, the thump in the chest type, and all that takes is 115 db at 60 to 120 hz on peaks, which means rms levels around 100 to 105 db with enough head room for the peaks. An hour of that is permanent hearing loss, even half an hour, maybe one or two songs the most that is safe. OTOH all the kids growing up now will be wearing hearing aids at 40, so why stand out from the crowd?

Listen to a few real systems and then decide what you want.

[Barbapapa]

Thanks guys! This has been very helpful.

That's incredible work N2O. It's a shame to not use that sub setup in a dedicated street 928. You can get extra 928s cheap you know. If I could get my mirror to fall off I'd spike it on the ground and do a dance like an NFL player that just made a touchdown

I'm thinking of using a single 12" shallow Rockford DVC. They would fit into the wheel well flush with room to spare. Let's see if I can build something that drops in place and can be easily removed with some kind of quick release. Then there's the matter of locating amps, hmm.. That whole rear area migh be perfect for that and anywhere else would be a challenge.

[MPDano]

You can't go wrong with Fosgate stuff, they really hit hard. I am sure you can fabricate something. Use some good particle board (no less that 5/8 maybe 3/4), don't forget to port it too. I am sure there are some good tips by googling speaker porting, I think I used 2 or 3 inch black pvc to do the job. I always like to hide the amp, but not sure where in the 928 that you can, is there room under the rear seat cushions?

[Danglerb]

No room under the rear seats, a thin layer of metal and your outside. You could always use a tiny Oddessy battery and put the amp in the battery box with it.

Dunno how well it would work, but there is some space between the rear bumper and back of the car.

[Shark_GTS]

We use the spare tire as the enclosure seal the top and bottom with closed cell EVA foam, heat and pressure moldable. Sounds really good and also makes the back quieter. The pioneer compact sub needs only 1 cu ft. Anf because the sound board of the sub is "frame connected" low freq can pass through the chassis of the car.

[rhjames]

Originally Posted by psychII

I bought this:

[IMG][/IMG]

and put it here:

[IMG][/IMG]

It looks like this:

[IMG][/IMG]

It's not as clean as I wanted (there is a hump under the mat). But gets the job done and really rounds out the sound. Got it off ebay for about $90.

Mike--

I did one of these as well, before I took the car apart for painting, engine rebuild, blah...blah.


it has the amp built in it, and will probably do enough to disturb the neighborhood.

mine did.







--Russ

[Barbapapa]

Shark_GTS, that is amazing work! A very clean, well thought out setup!
I want to duplicate that. If you want to offer that as a product please let me know and I'll be your first customer.

[MPDano]

Originally Posted by Barbapapa

Shark_GTS, that is amazing work! A very clean, well thought out setup!
I want to duplicate that. If you want to offer that as a product please let me know and I'll be your first customer.

I agree, this is the subtle look I would want mine to look like.

[Alan in AZ]

You don't need a whole lot of speaker size in a car for decent bass and it doesn't matter much where it is located or where it points - but it all depends what you want to achieve.

I carry a spare & compressor so that wasn't an option. I saw someone built a fiberglass box with a 10" sub in a box molded onto to the rear tool panel - it was blended well with a matching cover & grill - nicely done - but no pic - anyone have that?

In the end I fitted a small ~6" 'sub'-woofer into my passenger door panel. Its not really high power capable (70w) and its low range is a little limited but it has a huge Xmax for its size and moves quite a bit of air. For my tastes its OK and keeps everything else functional.

It wont shake the neigborhood - but it can balance out the sound nicely... I also have dual 4 channel amplifiers mounted to my rear seat backs (they are actually covered with speaker cloth in the final implementation - stealth) and a capacitor/filter in the spare tire well next to the wheel (outside the wheel - tight).



Alan