Under my Passenger Recaro....

Re: Under my Passenger Recaro.... (Ricks8vGTi)

Its a Soundstream D100II, oldskool for sure. But it really hasn't been used at all. It was sitting in my sister's toy truck powering her factory speakers for a few years, so its all scratched up. I guess its about 3 inches tall.
It fits under the passenger's seat fine, but I might disconnect the power seat button and leave it in the lowest position that gives enuff clearance for the amp so I don't have to worry about it getting smooshed. Heh, that button only works 1/2 the time anyhow.
Another question, audio related. I need some speakers to fill out the bass and rear of my car, and i'm on a budget. I saw some place selling 2 kicker 10"s for 80 bux. My parcel shelf is already cut out for huge speakers cus one of the PO's had the GLI as a boombox on wheels. If I mount 2 10 inch drivers, or maybe 8"'s and don't put them in an enclosure, just use the whole trunk as the airspace, anyone think it will sound OK? I don't wanna make or buy a whole box. I just want some sounds back there, don't want to spend much money, and don't want anything that will warrant a break-in. Also, that way i won't lose trunk space, and the sound won't be as muffled if its in the trunk, coming through the back seats, but rather pointing right into the cabin.


[Modified by GetOuttaMyWay, 12:13 AM 11-24-2001]

Re: Under my Passenger Recaro.... (GetOuttaMyWay)

Subs have a minimum and maximum air space that they can be put into. If you us the whole trunk at a box for say two 10's that would be way too much air space and you subs would sound like crap and eventually blow. I have two 12's in my trunk in the right sized sealed box and they sound great...not muffled at all. If you are worried about muffled sound, port your trunk into the cab of you car. Also in your case, being on a budget, if you buy low-end speaker they will distort and if they are in the trunk the back seat will act as a filter and you will not hear the distortion. Well I think I have saud enough... good luck

Re: Under my Passenger Recaro.... (teeter2426)

Subs have a minimum and maximum air space that they can be put into. If you us the whole trunk at a box for say two 10's that would be way too much air space and you subs would sound like crap and eventually blow. I have two 12's in my trunk in the right sized sealed box and they sound great...not muffled at all. If you are worried about muffled sound, port your trunk into the cab of you car. Also in your case, being on a budget, if you buy low-end speaker they will distort and if they are in the trunk the back seat will act as a filter and you will not hear the distortion. Well I think I have saud enough... good luck
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now that's some sound advice. Do you also run 2 midranges in the back, like maybe in the stock locations near the rear window? I was looking at kicker's website and they say that some of their woofers are designed to run without an enclosure, but I get the feeling they're all hype... As for a port to the trunk, how does just removing the little cupholer behind the middle armrest in the back seat work? Would that make any difference?

Re: Under my Passenger Recaro.... (GetOuttaMyWay)

hmm, loose the rear speakers, use our HU to power door speakers and tweeters up top, then amp a 10" sub in an enclosed box, you may loose more sound quality running speaker wires and RCA across the floor but power wire you only loose amperage or whatever, but as long as your not in sound competetions i'd say run some thick power wire all the way back and bridge amp to one channel and turn the gain down to a desired balence of music and words, i think two subs equals a big heavy box and too much bass, kinda sux are cars cant have any midrange i dont think those "free air" subs are worth your time, if you want somthing good sounding you gotta enclose it, or like dude said pull out back seat, make custom amp bracket and stuff and post up some pics
wouldnt put the amp under seat there like motors, get hot and if there's always hot and hot and stay hot thats a lot of stress there gonna break down easier, but it'd also be kinda cool also so i can see that, anyway you'll figure somthing out
paul

Re: Under my Passenger Recaro.... (mr Paul)

Awesome, I like mr.paul's advice, but there's good advice all around (except for getting rid of my rear seats... ) think 1 10" is the way to go, or 2 8 inchers? I think my amp is a 60 or 100 watt amp, but i was told that if i bridge it into mono it puts out mondo power cus its a competition amp. What brands of 10's (or 8's) should I look out for that are decently priced and sound ok?
Oh, I couldn't find a Gain setting on the amp. my HU has 40x2 as well as 2 RCA outputs, front and rear. Can I just use the fader on the HU to balance out the levels of what the front speakers are putting out and what the amp+bassdealio will be putting out?
The car already has some heavduty speaker wire running to the trunk, from a PO. But I think I'll just run the RCA's all the way back and have both the amp and the box in the bootie. Good Idea/ Bad Idea?

Re: Under my Passenger Recaro.... (GetOuttaMyWay)

1) Amp will fit fine under seat as long as it's not too tall. I have a Sony 40x4 under my pass. seat, have '92 GLI seats in there now. Fits no problem even with the seat on its lowest setting.
2)Under Seat mounting does subject the amp to multiple hazards. First amp I had under that seat had large adjustment knobs. Had someone kick one and broke the potentiometer it was connected to clean off the circuit board. Apparently the amp didn't need it as it continued working fine. Spillage/door seal leakage is also an issue.
3)I'd consider what has been reccomended, 1 10" and drive it either with this amp bridged or get another small amp. You may also need a crossover too. You could easily recarpet or replace your rear deck with one not so holey.

Re: Under my Passenger Recaro.... (GetOuttaMyWay)

getouttamyway-
get a 2 ohm boston pro 10", kicker solobaric, alumapro alchemy, or other high quality, tight sub that has low impedance to get the most out of your amp, if it really is a low-impedance drive competition amp. a single 10" in a properly built sealed box will blow your mind with enough power. it's much more impressive to get a ton of sound and sound quality out of a high-powered single 10" than to drop a couple cheap 12's in a bigass box and run them with a Profile jazillion watt amp (more realistically like 50 watts rms per channel) like so many people do. minimize trunk space used and you can still get downright scary amounts of bass and keep it punchy and tight all at the same time. make sure you don't get a sub that will be underpowered with the amp you're running to it, as this is the easiest way besides poor box design to make your sub sound like crap and eventually blow.
good luck!
peace,
ben