Has anyone just for kicks, unhooked the speaker leads going to the factory subwoofer and tried to hook up another subwoofer?
This weekend I unhooked the factory subwoofer and hooked the speaker lead into a 6 1/2" Bazooka base tube. I had this speaker in another car and it really rocked! At any rate, the bozooka hardly moved at all. I understand the Bose is something like 1/2 ohm, but the power at 4 ohms couldnt be anymore than 5-10 watts pushing that Bazooka. I was quite annoyed and re hooked up the factory unit.

I guess I was looking for a cheap and easy upgrade.

 

I believe the moderator will soon move this post to Audio & Electronics.
Anyway, there is no cheap way to upgrade the subwoofer. The stock amp for the sub sucks !!! It does not have any juice to drive an aftermarket sub.

If you want more bass, hook up an aftermarket amp and a subwoofer in your TL-S and you will love the bass.

Good Luck.

Cheers !!!

 

I hooked up a 12" in the trunk and the bass really comes out well.... but like DRCookie said, you will need an sub AND amp... OEM amp just doesn't cut it... IMO, it won't even run a 10" sub properly.....

Andy Kuo

 

What about an aftermarket amp hooked up to the stock sub? Curious how many have given this a try?

-Mike

 

don't waste your time or money, the stock sub blows and so does the stock sub ampo. Just get a good amp and a good sub or two and it will sound great! I have 600watt Fosgate amp and 2 12" orion DVC's in a sealed box and it pounds big time!

 

A while back I tried replacing the stock Bose sub with an aftermarket one, it was an MTX 8 in. and powered it with an MTX amp and put the sub in the same spot as the stock one. I had to modify the hole to make it fit, because the stock sub is a 9" and the 8" fell through the hole. Anyway, i got it working, but it sounded horrible. Whenever i turned it up, the entire back bench rattled from the vibrating sub. Plus, the MTX, (and most aftermarket subs) are designed to be in an actual box, (sealed or bandpass), which the Bose sub isn't in either, so the acoustics of the trunk make anything other than the Bose sound horrible. I switched it out and put it back to stock. Expensive little experiment, wouldn't recommend it. I also would say No to hooking up the stock sub to an aftermarket amp, I really doubt that small Bose sub can handle any more power than the stock amp gives it. The best thing would be to just put a box in the trunk with an amp. Just my


Here is what it looks like:

 

might as well rip out the stock sub and smash it with a hammer!

just get an aftermarket amp/subs. i got a JL amp with Alpine Type-S 12"s in the trunk. sounds LOVELY

 

i thought we had a stock 8"?! anyrate i semi blew mine along with all the door speakers so i need to upgrade very soon

 

kicker makes free-air speakers that you might be able to try since it doesn't require a box...

 

This is true, But I went with 2 12" JL audio 12w3's And im loving it. You go with a pair of subs and you forget all about the factory sub, Some have even removed it once they get subs in the trunk so it acts as a port to let bass in the cabin. I kept mine in but its un hooked I use the armrest hole as my port for bass.

 

The factory sub is a 9" BOSE papercone shitbox. It's also a 1 ohm impedence woofer. Which runs well off the BOSE amp. BUT.... Most aftermarket subs are 4 ohm. The higher impedence will cut the output quite noticably. My advice.... Don't be a cheap-ass. Do it right. And if you don't know what I mean, then you shouldn't be doing it yourself.

 

where do you get the signal from for the aftermarket amp. do you take the leads from the factory sub and use the speaker level input on the amp?

 

Hook the factory sub up to a better more powerfull amp. it will sound better (not sealed 12 inch good, but better)

 

The signal is already crossed over at about 80hz into the sub amp. Easiest way to get signal is to pull the rear seat unplug the BOSE subwoofer amp and use the signal input wires. What I usually do is solder a good set of RCA ends to the sub signal wires. The you can pipe those right into any amp you want.

 

YIKES If your going to go this route just take a lighter and burn the money you were going to spend on "free-air" speakers.

 

Thats what i did too, that way you don't have to run all new wires from the deck, makes it much easier!

 

Aftermarket amp and sub seems to be the clear replacement choice...

 

is it possible to keep the stock sub and add aftermarket amp/sub????

 

u can do that, chances r it might blow, i left mine in, and i heard it crackin, i blast my system, so then i popped it out, and now it acts like a port, since it leads right to the trunk

 

I did that 2 weeks after I bought my TLS new.

What you do is either get a Bazooka or some other amplified sub with a speaker level input and jump it off the stock sub or get a sub amp that can run off a speaker level input (and then get a sub too).

I bought a Soundstream Angina sub amp and had a Soundstream SPL 10" sub lying around and used that (total cost was about $300 for box, amp, ans power wires). The one PITA thing you need to do is run a power wire from the battery (or fusebox) to the amp (ground is easy). It sounded pretty well and was in the car for 4 years until I upgraded my system to Alpine/DLS last month.

Keep in mind that when you jump the signal off a factory sub, it muddies the sound a bit due to the bose amp distortion and the speaker level input (not as clean as RCAs). Still 1000x better than stock.