SafetySlug

Bass 4 low bucks

Howdy people. I got my widows tinted this last weekend and I was deciding on my next mod. After having that car for over 3 weeks, I have come to the opinion that the stock stereo sounds pretty decent (highs and mids) but it is lacking bass at low volumes. I am not saying that the Bose system is the best I have heard in a new car, but it does stand up favorably to BMW’s and MB’s (I am talking about the M3 and the AMGC32), but that is for another discussion.

Since I love to buy cars and trade them in (much to the annoyance of my wife), I like mods that are not too intrusive or make the car difficult to sell. So, I thought a sub woofer would greatly enhance my listening experience in my CL, but I wanted to make sure I did not alter the car’s electronics too much. And I did not feel like spending a billion dollars so I tried to keep under a 400.00 budget for a sub (tough to do and still get nice tight bass).

Soooo, I shopped around a bit and did some planning and I found a nice system, which is not very intrusive and very easy to install. Picture this, a sub with 380 watts bridged (RMS) that gives amazing bass (I had to turn the gain almost all the way down as to not rattle my mirror off (or my teeth). Here is what I bought and how easy it was to install:

Pioneer GM-X962 125W x 2 Car Amp $149.00 (list is 179.00 but I was able to haggle)



Bazooka TVB-141 Bass Reflex Subwoofer $169.00 (list is 199.00 but who pays that?)


Wiring Kit $49.00

High to low level adapter $25.00

I ran 8-gauge wire from the battery (with a 30amp inline fuse supplied in the kit) through my firewall (I used the grommet on the driver’s side just below where the windshield wiper grommet is). I then hid the power wire under the carpet (as easy as snapping off the plastic door sill cover) and ran the wire past the back seat and into the trunk.

I then found a little yellow wire (that goes into the DVD) that only supplies power when the stereo is on (found it on my second try with a multi-meter and luck). I tapped into this wire (using a wire tap) for the remote turn on for the amp. I then used the DVD chassis (the metal bracket that holds the DVD in place, not the DVD itself) for the ground wire.

I then mounted the AMP to subwoofer with supplied screws. The sidewalls of the sub are very thick and can handle the load of the amp with no problem. Sub is actually pretty damn big and since it is triangle shape, it does not roll around much. I did not want to mount the AMP to my trunk since I wanted this to be an easily removed type of mod.

Next, I use wiretaps to tap both rear factory speakers to go into my Hi level to low level adapter. Then I used a set of RCA’s to go from the Hi level to low-level adapter to the amp.

Finally I tidied up the wires with black conduit and used the Acura trunk net to help secure the sub.

Here are the pluses and minus I found with this setup:

+Great bass for little money
+Stereo can be turned up with bass set to neutral (on stereo) with little to no distortion
+Not the kind of components that will amaze your friends and enemies

-The Bazooka is a bit heavy and takes up a bit of room
-Not the kind of components that will amaze your friends and enemies