A lot of you want better bass from your Fender systems. I've read many descriptions on how to add a new power amplifier, processor and subwoofer to the car. I know how great that can sound, that's exactly what I did with my last car. This time however, I did not want to go the extra mile both in terms of cash and the effort to bring a power line through the firewall to the back of the car. I'm guessing there are a lot of people who don't want to mess with the powerline as well.
I wanted cheap and I wanted it all delivered to my door.
My first effort was a fail. I connected a Pioneer 10” sub that came preinstalled in a very nice narrow box ($107 on Amazon). I connected directly to the lines that feed the Fender sub and was able to get deep, reasonable sound, but not all that much output even when the sub control was turned up to 7 or 8 (even after I got the polarity right). It did however hit much lower notes and this gave me encouragement. The problem turns out I did not pay attention to resistance, as this is a 4 ohm single voice coil subwoofer. I returned the Pioneer to Amazon.
The Fender subwoofer has a dual voice coil woofer labeled 2x2ohm and is fed by 4 wires from the amp, a pos and a neg pair for each side of the woofer. The two white wires are positives and the brown wires are negatives. There is a yellow stripe on one of each color to distinguish which belong together as a pair.
This is the setup I connected yesterday, and it sounds every bit as awesome as the 500 watt Boston Acoustics setup I had in my Saab:
Rockford Fosgate 12" Prime R2 2-Ohm DVC Shallow Subwoofer, $68 on Amazon
http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/products/details/r2sd2-12
Atrend slim 12” box, $36 on Amazon
https://www.atrendusa.com/12-single-sealed-slim-2
PIXNOR DIY Home Car Stereo 2-Way Speaker Box Terminal Binding Post Round Spring Cup Connector Subwoofer Plug (Black), $7 on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00P5Z76NO?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00
I wanted to copy exactly the stock configuration, which meant two pairs of wire entering a box made with connections for only one pair. The biggest bit of work was drilling a 2 inch hole in the box for the extra connector terminal and then vacuuming up the sawdust. You need two 1-2 foot pieces of speaker wire to run inside the box for each of the 2 pairs of connectors on the new sub. You will need another two pieces of wire to connect to the stock wires, as they are too short to reach directly to the new sub. One terminal is connected to the yellow-striped pair of wires, the other to the plain ones, whites are positive, browns are negative.
I face the sub down and it straddles the round indent in the floor. Four little squares of sticky-backed velcro keep it from sliding. The deck cover almost closes flush over it but not quite; the sub box is still about half an inch too thick for that. Not a bother for me, some others may want to seek a thinner box (4.5 inches would be perfect). I really should put a grill on the sub for protection - maybe someone can recommend one (if it is cheap and on Amazon).
The sound is awesome, though some will say that a 1000 watt amp is needed for any meaningful bass. Now I know there is an easier way.
And did I mention it only cost $111?
I wanted cheap and I wanted it all delivered to my door.
My first effort was a fail. I connected a Pioneer 10” sub that came preinstalled in a very nice narrow box ($107 on Amazon). I connected directly to the lines that feed the Fender sub and was able to get deep, reasonable sound, but not all that much output even when the sub control was turned up to 7 or 8 (even after I got the polarity right). It did however hit much lower notes and this gave me encouragement. The problem turns out I did not pay attention to resistance, as this is a 4 ohm single voice coil subwoofer. I returned the Pioneer to Amazon.
The Fender subwoofer has a dual voice coil woofer labeled 2x2ohm and is fed by 4 wires from the amp, a pos and a neg pair for each side of the woofer. The two white wires are positives and the brown wires are negatives. There is a yellow stripe on one of each color to distinguish which belong together as a pair.
This is the setup I connected yesterday, and it sounds every bit as awesome as the 500 watt Boston Acoustics setup I had in my Saab:
Rockford Fosgate 12" Prime R2 2-Ohm DVC Shallow Subwoofer, $68 on Amazon
http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/products/details/r2sd2-12
Atrend slim 12” box, $36 on Amazon
https://www.atrendusa.com/12-single-sealed-slim-2
PIXNOR DIY Home Car Stereo 2-Way Speaker Box Terminal Binding Post Round Spring Cup Connector Subwoofer Plug (Black), $7 on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00P5Z76NO?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00
I wanted to copy exactly the stock configuration, which meant two pairs of wire entering a box made with connections for only one pair. The biggest bit of work was drilling a 2 inch hole in the box for the extra connector terminal and then vacuuming up the sawdust. You need two 1-2 foot pieces of speaker wire to run inside the box for each of the 2 pairs of connectors on the new sub. You will need another two pieces of wire to connect to the stock wires, as they are too short to reach directly to the new sub. One terminal is connected to the yellow-striped pair of wires, the other to the plain ones, whites are positive, browns are negative.
I face the sub down and it straddles the round indent in the floor. Four little squares of sticky-backed velcro keep it from sliding. The deck cover almost closes flush over it but not quite; the sub box is still about half an inch too thick for that. Not a bother for me, some others may want to seek a thinner box (4.5 inches would be perfect). I really should put a grill on the sub for protection - maybe someone can recommend one (if it is cheap and on Amazon).
The sound is awesome, though some will say that a 1000 watt amp is needed for any meaningful bass. Now I know there is an easier way.
And did I mention it only cost $111?