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So I finally updated the rear sub. I used a Bazooka 10" 100 watt powered sub which I bought used for 125 CAD. I tapped into the wires going to the factory sub and hooked them to the high-level input on the bazooka. For 12V power I used a cigarette lighter plug and plugged it into the console. The wire runs under the removable carpets and into the rear. This sub is about 21 inches long so it does occupy a fair amount of space. It provides tons of bass. I would have been a bit happier if I could have found the 8 inch version of this product used somewhere since I'm sure the amount of bass would still be fine. One of the best aspects of this setup is that it includes a small box with a rotary control knob for volume that you can mount up front for easy access while driving. Took about 90 minutes to install completely. (not including tapping into the factory sub wires..I did that last year and it was pain to get to them) Takes about 10 seconds to unplug it and remove if needed.
Bazooka tubes are sneaky good. I've done many installs with them and never do they disappoint. Point it towards the rear of the vehicle for best results.
Last edited by Bchester6; Jan 7, 2019 at 08:05 AM.
Excellent job JD8!! Thank you for sharing!
Do you have any pictures from the back of the vehicle (and measurements) showing how far it sticks out compared to the stock sub-woofer?
Personally I did not disconnect the noise cancellation system. I had installed a Bazooka sub and left the existing sub speaker alone, the Bazooka is tapped into the wires going to the factory sub speaker. I do get some rumbling low frequency sounds that come and go for about 5 seconds after starting the vehicle which is the ANC fighting with the sub due to feedback but it doesn't really bug me too much, and the bass is fine, much better than before.
Personally I did not disconnect the noise cancellation system. I had installed a Bazooka sub and left the existing sub speaker alone, the Bazooka is tapped into the wires going to the factory sub speaker. I do get some rumbling low frequency sounds that come and go for about 5 seconds after starting the vehicle which is the ANC fighting with the sub due to feedback but it doesn't really bug me too much, and the bass is fine, much better than before.
Thanks for the reply.
But do you think if changing the OEM subwoofer with a punch PS3 2ohms on the OEM enclosure without a amp will have a benefit or not at all? There will be a rumbling feedback too with the ANC or it's because the subwoofer is amplified?
In my case I think the rumbling is due to the fact that my sub has its own amplifier so there is undoubtedly a phase shift in the audio signal coming out of the bazooka that screws up the ANC for a bit. In your case, I doubt there would be rumbling from just replacing the sub speaker itself but you said its 2 ohms, I would be worried about overloading the OEM amplifier. Thats a very low impedance. For comparison purposes, you can get an idea of the factory sub speaker impedance (if its not labelled on the back) by measuring the DC resistance of the speaker and multiplying by maybe 1.25 or 1.3. ie. if it measures about 6.2 ohms, its an 8 ohm speaker.
Check out the powered subs by Sound Ordinance sold at Crutchfield. I've rotated the low profile box through 3 cars and it adds plenty of low end for little $...
Is it possible to install it under the driver seat (or passenger) ? Enough space?
From where I can tape it the high level input ( the easiest way?) For a RDX 2014 Base.
Thanks.
Last edited by AlanShik; Nov 20, 2020 at 02:03 AM.
Reason: wrong car year
You said you pluged the bazzoka Sub to the cigar lighter. Is not too much for the ciagrett lighter with a 100 watts the bazzoka? It will be fine if I do the same with the Sound Ordnance B-8PTD 125-watt compact powered subwoofer ? or better to pass a cable from the battery?
The power outlet (cigar lighter) is probably on a circuit that is protected by a 10 A fuse at minimum. 10 amps at 12 volts = 120 watts. You should be fine, you will not be consuming 120 watts unless you are driving the sub at 100% output constantly. Which is not possible anyway in the real world of normal listening. But use wiring for the power of 18 gauge..
The easiest place to tap off the high level for the factory sub is at the sub itself.
I know this thread is a little older, but I just picked up a 2017 RDX a couple weeks ago and I was blown away with how crappy the sound was in it. The fix was fairly simple, although I have a little more tuning to do. I used to install high-end car audio about 30 years ago and I've never been afraid to use cheaper components to get a decent sound and be happy.
1. I replaced the factory sub with a Pyle 8" from Amazon. Easy fit with a couple new screw holes. Heck, the factory holes may have lined up but I had a Phillips driver in my hand with a few drywall screws nearby so I did what any normal man would do... The speaker is a dual 4ohm voice coil so I wired it in series to take it to 8ohm, but bridging the amplifier it sees it as 4ohm.
2. I installed a bridgeable amp in the wheel well (I took out part of the foam around the spare tire) so the amp is hidden from view. This amp has settings to control 6 vs 12db crossover as well as frequency cutoff adjustment for subwoofer use and the standard gain.
3. I simply snipped the wires to the subwoofer and ran them into the high-level inputs on the amp and back out on the bridged channel from the amp to the sub. Since it's mono going in it should not hurt anything so I ran it parallel into both channels. It's possible the amp might burn up in a year or two but I'll replace it for that price and enjoy my music in the meantime.
4. I don't know if it made a difference but I had already disabled the ANC in the system prior to see if it made a difference so I left it off.
I will probably change the capacitors on the front door tweeters as they are way too high. A 1" dome (and they aren't bad tweeters) should not be crossed over that high. I might bypass the caps for a while to see how they sound as I believe it's possible the factory amp is crossed over, anyway. As a quick test I bypassed them temporarily the other day and they sounded fine and sounded like they were still on a HP filter, anyway. We'll see where that goes.
Hope this helps someone else!
I can say it is a thousand times better and I'm amazed how anyone at Acura would lay claim to that factory ELS sound system.
For two reasons, 1. Because the stock amp is about 6 feet closer to new amp than the subwoofer. 2. Because the stock sub wire is crap so I replaced it with some high quality 12 gauge wire.
I also did some frequency analysis and discovered the subwoofer line is skipping some crucial frequencies between 30 and 50 hz. The center dash speaker doesn't filter those frequencies but does cut off below 35 hz. So, now I'm running the sub lead into the left input channel of the amp and the center lead into the right input. It may seem wonky, but I'm now getting bass throughout the entire range and it sounds killer. It's a mono amp and combines the two channels perfectly.
Also, as a side note, I just bought at 10 inch alpine type r to replace the 8 inch r series. The enclosure is going to require some serious modification to get it to fit but it should sound even more amazing.
Nice thought on the splitting the channels for the input. I'm going to follow your lead and do the exact same thing. I have a similar Rockford amp - the 250 version (from earlier car that I removed). At 2 ohms, it is 325+ RMS, so I think I'll be fine. Going with the 8" kicker low profile series that also operates in low volume enclosures. I'll take some pics to post as I'm new here. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Thanks for sharing this info, I am going to go the same route that you took to upgrade my system. Quick question, did you run a new power cable to your battery for the amp or tap into one of the existing 12v power sources in the back of the car?
Ok so i used @JD8 Idea mainly because the 8 inch sub that I got didn’t quite fit the hole. The stock hole was slightly oversized for my sub Which made mounting it extremely annoying because the screws wouldn’t all catch like I’d want them to … This lead to air escaping between the The rim And makes the sound poor This also increases the inside space so it will make the sound a lot better
Final look Waiting for the grill to come in Getting the fit right making sure the surface is nice and flat Shaping to fit Nice and flate Here you can see the attempts to mount the speaker to the oem sub enclosure Filled all of it down and i had to remove the 4 standoffs that held the inner plastic grill Standoff removed top right corner Surface filing
Wiring wise i cut the sub out near the sub and used the high level in on my amp (this did alot better for me than using the inline converter i tried to ground that thing and it just would not stop picking up engine feedback so i used the high level in on my amp since it had one
Copying JD8 for my 2013 RDX Tech, same subwoofer, 6.5 inch NVX V series door speakers for the front and rear doors, dedicated amp for the sub, and dedicated amp for the door speakers, keeping the OEM amp for the other 5 speakers and using the LC2i to tap the rear speaker wires to get full range speaker signals sent to both amps.
