Best position of sub?

rxboy · Post by **rxboy** » Tue May 27, 2003 3:29 pm

I'm planning to buy a 10" boxed sub and mount it in my boot. Is that the best place to put it? Does anyone have a better suggestion?

I'm also tossing up between buying a pair of 6" front speakers with splits (to go under the little vents on the sides) or buying the tweeters separately. The former is more expensive, but is there an advantage of doing it that way?

PS: I DON'T have a rear strut bar.

GPXXX · Post by **GPXXX** » Tue May 27, 2003 5:00 pm

if you're willing to lose the spare tyre, you can mount them on the boot floor as well and i gotta say i've seen some that sounds really awesome on preludes/Civics... dunno how they'll sound on FTOs though since the boot floor is so shallow, but that's another option...

if you have plenty of $$$ to splurge, you can always have a custome ported enclosure made out of mdf & fibreglass for show-quality job, but this will cost way more than the price of the system alone.

Boney · Post by **Boney** » Tue May 27, 2003 7:35 pm

I'm planning to buy a 10" boxed sub and mount it in my boot. Is that the best place to put it? Does anyone have a better suggestion?

No.. definatly put it in the boot

if you are going for a simple box.. get one made that fits into the rear seat/back of boot perfectly.. so the subs are firing streight into the backseat.. i did some simple tests on mine with a sealed boxed sub and was the nicest...

I'm also tossing up between buying a pair of 6" front speakers with splits (to go under the little vents on the sides) or buying the tweeters separately. The former is more expensive, but is there an advantage of doing it that way?

Dont bother with buying different component speakers.. EG 1 brands 6 inch speaker for the door and another breands tweeter...

all split systems come with a crossover designed for the speaker/tweeter combination you get with that package...

how much you willing to spend.. i can give you some names if you like

rxboy · Post by **rxboy** » Fri May 30, 2003 12:49 pm

I'm looking at about $800-$1000 at the moment (including installation). JB Hi-Fi has some good 40W 6x9 Pioneer speakers for sale. I reckon 40W should be enough since original FTO rear speakers are only 20W. I'll run the sub through a 2 channel 600W amp and Bob's your uncle.

Boney, which brand of speaker/tweeter combination can you recommend? In general, does anyone have a preference over particular brands (eg Pioneer, Sony Xplode)?

Boney · Post by **Boney** » Sat May 31, 2003 2:04 am

ok.. here comes the long post....

I'm looking at about $800-$1000 at the moment (including installation).

Im guessing this is for the whole set-up so ill continue with this in mind

JB Hi-Fi has some good 40W 6x9 Pioneer speakers for sale

6X9's are pointless if you have a sub woofer.. the only difference that 6X9 has over a set of splits in the front is the fact you will get a better bass responce as they have a larger cone area (Suface area)

since you are buying a sub, (provided its installed well) ill provide much better quality bass and low end responce than the 6X9's will..

go to any audio car show or comp and you will notice 90% of the compeditors only run subs and a Front stage (ie Splits in the front)

the only reason to have rear speakers like 6X9's is so people in the back of the car have somthing to listen to as they will be overpowered by the sub

a common solution for this is (and this is easy in the FTO as it has stock 6X9's already) is run a sub and a front set of splits off an amp (or two)
and just run the 6x9's off the speaker wires.. so they are run at a modest volume.. this allows the people in the back to get a nice amount of mid to high range - and the sound from the back wont carry up the front where you are..

the best part of this solution is.. it costs you nothing..

I'll run the sub through a 2 channel 600W amp and Bob's your uncle.

600W is a lot of power to run to a sub.. (especially if you only have $1,000 to spend) but then again there is the tricky point of.. 600W max or RMS?

forgive me if you already know this.. but if ya dont.. heres what i mean
there are two types of power rating when talking about speakers/amps
Peak Power and RMS

Peak power refers to the maximum amount of power that the device can handle...

RMS refers to the nominal power handling.. or the amount of power it can take at "continous levels" (ie listening to your music)

so this is why you see at JB-HI-FI and strathfield all those cheap ass subwofers and amps for $100 sayingthey putout 600W - becuase thats peak! you might get 600 for 1 second.. but you wil blow either the speaker or the amp.. or at the very least cause damage to either

these amps/speakers only put out a modest 40w RMS when you read the fine print...

so always when looking at speakers and amps.. look at the RMS rating or Nominal Power Handling

so anyway.. what sub are you thinking of buying that can handle 600ws??

a good reasonably cheap sub that come to mind.. is the alpine series type - R -

now this sub can handle up to 300W RMS - and trust me.. this is plenty loud enuff (unless you want everyone in the whole suburb hearing you comming) and the funny thing is.. you dont need toput a whole 300Ws from an amp to it.. 150w-200w will be quite sufficiant. its always better to underpower your speakers if possible.. as it will give you a much longer life span on the speaker.

Boney, which brand of speaker/tweeter combination can you recommend? In general, does anyone have a preference over particular brands (eg Pioneer, Sony Xplode)?

Sony : Poor For the price
JVC, Kenwood : Same as sony
Alpine : good quality but pricey
Pioneer : a little better than sony.. but not a great deal

so there are the major brands.. which most people go out and buy.. but that due to marketing.. there are a lot of better brands that are twice as good

such as

Focal : - Have 4 types of speakers - access / polyglass / kevlar / utopia

these are one of the best speakers out there.. the utopias are out of the price range being about 1,000 a set..

but the other 3 are much better roughly between 300 - 600

check out the polyglass.. and the kevlars if you can afford them

alternativly check out these brands

Boston
Phenoix Gold
Kicker
MB Quart

and 1 that i know of at the moment which is a fanstic speaker for the price
and probably your best bet.. Hertz

hertz have a speaker out called the HKS 165's and they retail for about $330 - $350

So heres a possible setup

Hertz HKS 165's front splits $350
Type R Alpine Sub $300
4x100w Amp $400

(with the amp you would run two chanels to your front speakers at 100w each.. and bridge the other two to run 200w+ to your sub)

so there you have it.. a $1,000 system that will seriously make your windows rattle and sound bloody good...

and now.. my final point... no matter how much money you spend.. or how good your equiptment is.. installation is everything.. a $8,000 dollar system can sound SH*Thouse if the installation is poor... so make sure who ever does it, makes sure that the sub box, location mounting is all done with care... places like jb-hi-fi are notorious for just wacking stuff in..

some suggestions for good installers in melbourne

GL pro sound in Essendon/Keilor
Stylin in Boronia

and my favorite Freeway car audio in Malvern

so good luck.. and i hope this was helpful.. if not.. oh well.. i have just crippled my hand from typing..

best of luck with choosing a system..
if you have any more questions.. feel free to ask