The sub install is finally complete so I thought I'd share my results with you guys and post a few pics to see what ya'll think. My first attempt at putting a sub in failed horribly. I tried taking the easy (if not cheap) route and installing an Alpine PLV-7 powered subwoofer. With manufacturer claims of 'replacing two 12" subs', I had to give it a shot. Basically, my experience with the PLV-7 summed up is that it would sound great in a hatchback / SUV, but NOT in a sedan like ours. It rattled the trunk more than it provided bass. Sent it back, moving on.

For the second round, I decided to go with a conventional sub and amp combination. The equipment I purchased for the system is as follows:
- Kicker SoloBaric S12L7 12" Sub
- Kicker ZX750.1 Mono Amplifier
- Power Acoustic 4 Farad Capacitor
- Rockford 4 gauge wiring kit (already installed this with the Alpine)

The sub has dual-4 Ohm voice coils wired to a single 2 Ohm load.

For the install, I wanted something very clean from the trunk side with the amp and capacitor hidden from view. I saw the picture of lilvinnyb's setup in this thread https://acurazine.com/forums/ramblings-12/weve-all-been-there-121845/ (post #5) and decided to follow that general concept.

I took the car to Earmark in Plano, TX to have the box built. The entire install took about 5 hours. The box is sealed @ 2.0 cubic feet in volume and is filled 50% with poly-fill per Kicker's recommendations. Here's what we came up with:

The capacitor mounted and wired out of sight


The amp mounted to a custom amp mounting plate


Amp plate installed, as seen from the rear


Amp as seen from the rear-seat pass through. It's offset to the left to allow access to the controls.


The box out of the car. Sub installed and white vinyl wrapped


Box installed without the cover board


Finished product....


Well... that's it! The sound is incredible! The bass is tight, not boomy at all yet will blur my vision at higher volumes. What do ya'll think???

 

That's f*cking clean. I like! I put in 2 aw1208t's in a subzone ported box, w/ an ma audio hk-4000d. Pushing probably 1500 watts rms to each sub. Woops! It's rediculous overkill. On volume level 2, you can barely hear music, but my cupboards inside are buzzing away cuz' the bass.

Is your box sealed? I havent heard that L7 in a sealed box, I bet it sounds clean, but they sound clean either way, im sure. Anyway, congrats on a clean ass install! How much for everything, parts and install?

 

nice install. congrats on the new addition. need to straighten the amp for a better in car veiw through armrest

 

Very nice!

 

Around $1k for everything. Half parts half labor.

 

It's around $1k for the whole thing. And yeah, the box is sealed and is the maximum volume that Kicker recommends for that sub @ 2.0 ft^3. It's really tight all the way through the bass spectrum but still hits hard down low. I had to tune the amp a bit to bring up the response in the 20 - 80 hz range but it's great now.

 

Yeah... I realize the amp is off-center but it has to be in order to get to the controls on the front of the amp. I'm keeping it closed all the time anyways... a function over form decision.

 

Looks nice!

How is the cover board attached into place? I'm thinking about doing a similar setup.

 

It's actually just pressure-fit. It's cut to really tight tolerances on the top and bottom and it holds itself in place with friction. Thanks for the compliment!

 

understandable

 

nice

 

very nice...

 

Added to favorites, so I can show the installer what kind of setup im going for. Glad to see most of the bass in the cabin now
Thanks KC

 

Hope your install goes great... make sure to get some pics during the process so we can see.

 

Do you find that 1 12L7 is enough bass in the car or do you need 2?

what do your recommend?

I might go with a sub 12" pioneer premier TS-W2000SPL with a MA Audio amp M1889i 800 rms a 2 ohm installed in a ported box?

what do you think?

 

For my listening purposes, the single 12 L7 is plenty of bass for the car. I wasn't looking to break windows or anything. I just wanted a sub that would provide very solid fill bass across the musical spectrum. And the 12 L7 does just that.

From jazz to rock, rap, acoustic, it sounds great. I keep it turned down pretty low most of the time which is to say that it can get a lot louder than I'd want to listen to it on a day-to-day basis. I think you can definitely get away with only having 1 12" sub if you pick the sub carefully. I'm a big fan of the SoloBaric L7's (obviously) and from what I've read here on the forums, it sounds like the higher-end JL's sound great in our cars as well.

I would recommend that you re-consider your box style though. Ported boxes are great if you intend to listen to mostly rap / bass heavy music that has bass in the tuned frequency range of the box. Ported boxes just boost frequency response in a specific frequency range while sacrificing sound quality in the rest of the range. If you listen to a variety of music, you might want to go with a sealed box instead. Plus, the sealed boxes have lower recommended volumes, which saves you trunk space.

 

Thanks for the pictures and all. I was at the installer today and I'm sure he was hating the fact that I wanted everything mounted at the back and there is no way to fold the seats down.

I'm going back on Thursday and he is going to fabricate a board to mount everything on. I like the look of your set up. I think I'm going to ask him to do something similar so that we can access the controls just like yours. Hopefully my amp controls are located similar. I think on my RF amp they are all hidden.

Question ... is there any concern about ventilation for the amp? Its now in a sealed location, will it not overheat?

Also, there are a few levers there (I think its a trunk release). Do you still have access to it? I think I'm going to tell the installer to keep that open "in case" of emergency for whatever reason.

 

First off... good luck on your install! Post up some pics when you get done, we'd like to see for sure.

To your questions, I don't think amp ventilation is going to be a problem at all. For one, its a class D amp so it runs pretty cool. Also, the space that the amp is sitting in is pretty large and I think there's enough air in there to keep it cool enough. If I remember right, there's some vents in the rear deck of the car as well.. which would aid in venting that space. But I haven't had any problems with heat. I can keep it turned up for extended periods of time with no over-heating problems.

As far as the trunk release, if I remember right, the car has redundant emergency trunk releases. One is inside the trunk behind the license plate and the other is up near the rear seats. So for emergency situations (if you could actually fit in what's left of the trunk, haha) the release that is located on the trunk lid itself would still be accessible.

One thing to keep in mind during the install is being able to get the spare tire out. You can see in my install that the box sits on two small riser blocks. This allows enough clearance to open the spare tire hatch and remove the tire. Something that you might not think about until its too late.

 

Good to know. Thanks for all the info. I will double check with my installer about ventilation. However I want to use your pictures as a reference for the install of the amp rack.

I was also concerned about the spare tire. Thats why I've kept my install as a removable box. I still need to use the car to get groceries and put my golf clubs in the trunk. So I need to be able to pull the box and put it back whenever I want easily.

Thanks for the info.

 

i will make the same setup as you KC, and mount everything in back of the board

 

Thanks for the compliments guys... I hope ya'lls installs go smooth.

 

how wide is your box and much space to do u have left in your trunk?

i picked up my PIONEER PREMIER 12" SUBWOOFER TS-W2000SPL with a 800wrms amp today sounds sick will install next weekend or the one afterwards hehe

 

As you can see in the pictures above, the box is about 5 - 6 inches narrower than the trunk up by the seats. It's a good idea to make the box as wide as possible to save depth in the trunk. You (or your installer) have to keep in mind the depth of the sub as well as the intended box volume when coming up with the right width for your setup.

Also as seen above, I have probably 6 - 8 inches of depth behind the horizontal cargo net left. It's enough for large grocery run or a full size suitcase. I don't really plan on hauling much in the car, so there's enough space left for me.

 

did you have to remove the rear seats to pass the power wire to the trunk?

 

Yeah... I sure did. I tried my best to run the wire without removing the seats, but it didn't go too well. There's a thread around here somewhere that shows a lot of detail on how to run that power wire.

 

thanks for the info and pls disregard that last pm

 

would it work with the Acura TL rubber trunk floor liner in?

 

Revival of a year old thread.

To answer your question: It will, but you won't be able to take the trunk tray out. I removed mine whenever I installed subs and amps, Just doesnt look clean with that in

 

any rattles?

 

With who's system?

I am running a JL12W6V2 enclosed in Uncald4's fiberglass box and being pushed by a JL 500/1. No rattles whatsoever, I did pull out the stock subwoofer, and have the cover that is on the bottom of the rear deck cover that is located in the trunk removed.

 

I'm guessing you were asking this question in regards to this setup being for sale in the black market. Yes, you can use the trunk mat, as you see in the final pictures, I had mine in with the system. If anybody wants this sub / amp / box setup, check my thread in the black market or shoot me a PM.