aftermarket subwoofer install?
 

Has anybody done an aftermarket subwoofer install on the TLX? Did quite a bit of searching, could not find a write up anywhere.

There was someone on here who mentioned having a 10w6 installed in his wife's car or something and civicbdx (I think that's his name) has a pair of subs in his car.

I put an Image Dynamics ID8 in the stock subwoofer location and a JBL MS5001 in the right rear above the wheel well area in our TLX base. Covered the upper and lower area of the rear deck as well as (most of) the bottom of the parcel shelf with dynamat. I built the dynamat up in the area that the sub mounts to so the sub sits flush, used self tappers to mount the sub and then sealed the circumference of the sub to the panel with a UV resistant silicone.

The sound difference is night and day. The little ID 8 blew away my expectations.

I have two twelve inch pioneer subs in my trunk.. Its a bit of a long process, but if you have installed before its basically straight forward.

I had Best Buy drill a hole in the firewall for my 8 gauge wire, then surrounded the hole with silicon to seal the hole. From there, you run the power wire down the driver's side under each kick panel (the thing that says TLX on it, front and back door). The kick panel just pulls right up.

Then, you need to run the remote wire down from the fuse box under the steering wheel.. You add it to a fuse that only comes on once ignition starts via an add-a-fuse. The hardest part is tapping into the stock sub wires.. Do that via a line-out-converter.

A shop will be able to do this for you if you have never done it before.. But honestly, its a pretty straight-forward install.

Did you have any trouble with interference from the noise cancellation system in the car? Did you have to turn off ANC on the headunit and/or disconnect the ANC module? Thanks in advance

The ANC is on. I played around a bit with the ANC settings in diag mode as well as disconnected the unit behind the glove box. I did this with both the factory sub and the ID8. In the end I left the ANC on. The sound is excellent regardless.

I notice a difference with the car off as opposed to on but it isn't enough of a difference to warrant turning the ANC system off. It was however enough to turn it off with the stock sub. I don't drive it often but when I do, I drive it in sport mode; Supposedly the ANC is less or non active in sport mode. My SO drives in normal mode and thinks it sounds great as well. The quietness in the cabin was a main selling point to her, so keeping it on while having excellent sound was a win win.

Anyone within reason of the Chicago's far northwest suburbs is more than welcome to come have a listen and judge for yourself.

Any of y'all know how many watts the stock electrical can handle?

I usually stay within 70% of the amp output of the alternator. I believe (but could be wrong) that the TLX alternator is 135 amps, so you could run 1000 watts without upgrade. This is assuming that you use proper power and ground wires, installed properly, etc.

I put 2 ten jbl sub's in my tl 06 wasent to hard to install I ran my power wire from the battery threw the fire wall threw a hole under my steering wheel ran it threw all my button panels on the driver side and tucked threw my back head rest threw the trunk . now what I did was diffrent was I ran my amp wire n t tapped it into the DVD power my stock radio has in the back truck just find the which wire hhas power idk know if you're has that now I bought a in n out converter off eBay tapped into my sub woofer (stock) n ran it to my amp so I have a stock radio but can adjust my bass n subwoofer off the converter still maybe this can help

I did 1 12" sub.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/724/23...f1062f8f_b.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5754/2...f80cda9e_b.jpg

https://i238.photobucket.com/albums/...slkqkz0hr.jpeg

What's the highest quality LOC out in the market right now? Do y'all have any issues with the sub drowning out the stock speakers? Sorry for thread jacking lol

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/acurazi...ebcb251480.jpg


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/acurazi...50a2b32b50.jpg

no issues with subs drowning out stock speakers, i only have amp gain at approx 30-40%. with a line level input coming off the factory sub wires; and sub level on headunit set to -3. lots of quality bass, although the rear deck vibrates quite abit depending on the song / certain bass frequencies

Can you replace the factory sub for a JL or name brand and still using the factory amp to power it? Or the factory amp is too weak? Where do you connect the RCA cables if you ad an after market amp?

On the topic of sub upgrade
 

Hi all, did some searching and found this as closest thing to what I am looking for...my apologies if I missed a more relevant post...

But on the topic of sub upgrade, does anyone have any good detailed instructions on actually getting the rear parcel shelf trim off to access the sub for replacement? I have done a fair bit of audio installs, so I'm good once I get in there, but my challenge is dismantling the OEM trim and such without breaking clips, especially since we have SRS stuff behind everything in this car. The service manger at my dealership gave me some printouts, but really don't tell you anything. I would definitely dynamat the area before putting it all back together. A good free air sub that is supposed to fit is this one...as per some searches on the net.

https://ultraautosound.com/2015/11/0...e-40w-to-200w/

My days of going hog wild on audio are done, as this system is decent, but bass does need improvement, if you are used to more. (I still drive my 2003 TL-S with a full on system I installed back in the day, including kick panels and 2-12" solobarics fiberglassed into the corners of the trunk area near taillight area. They can say all they want about ELS computer designed systems, but my old school alpine install from 13 years ago with Type R components, MRV V-12 Amps and those solos stack up pretty well. Thus, my craving to enhance the bass on my new TLX. thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

I have already done this.. Dynamatted the entire area under the rear deck and replaced the rear deck speakers. This is really not too hard.. You need to get the shoulder-bolsters off on each side (those are the piece of the seat that the seatbelt rests on at the top).. from there, you can then remove the SRS airbag trim on each side just by pulling towards you and the clips will snap out. Once you have that done, make sure you fold down the back seat and start pulling the rear deck plastic cover off towards you at the base (which will look like its behind where the top of the back seat would rest if upright like normal).

Then you just kind of push up from underneath teh plastic cover of the rear deck.. Eventually the whole thing will come off and your area is exposed. Under there you will see the two rear deck speakers and the factory sub as well.. I added two twelves in the trunk, so I left my factory sub intact. I will post a pic of my rear deck dynamatted in a moment.

To get off the shoulder bolsters you have two options: 1, you can reach down to the very middle of the area behind the back seat cushion (where you sit on, dead center).. and remove the 8mm bolt that holds it in place. Or 2, you can just lift the far end of the bottom seat up on either side, kind of bend it upwards, and from there you should see the bolt that holds in the bottom of the bolster on each side. From now on that is what Im doing because its just so much easier and saves time.

On the topic of sub upgrade
 

Hi all, did some searching and found this as closest thing to what I am looking for...my apologies if I missed a more relevant post...

But on the topic of sub upgrade, does anyone have any good detailed instructions on actually getting the rear parcel shelf trim off to access the sub for replacement? I have done a fair bit of audio installs, so I'm good once I get in there, but my challenge is dismantling the OEM trim and such without breaking clips, especially since we have SRS stuff behind everything in this car. The service manger at my dealership gave me some printouts, but really don't tell you anything. I would definitely dynamat the area before putting it all back together. A good free air sub that is supposed to fit is this one...as per some searches on the net.

My days of going hog wild on audio are done, as this system is decent, but bass does need improvement, if you are used to more. (I still drive my 2003 TL-S with a full on system I installed back in the day, including kick panels and 2-12" solobarics fiberglassed into the corners of the trunk area near taillight area. They can say all they want about ELS computer designed systems, but my old school alpine install from 13 years ago with Type R components, MRV V-12 Amps and those solos stack up pretty well. Thus, my craving to enhance the bass on my new TLX. thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

READ MY POST ABOVE YOUR LAST ONE. Lmao.

Sorry, not sure why my post got on there twice...but thank you very much for the great instructions. Yes, it sounds similar to my 2003 TL-S, in which I did a full blown system back when it was new. 2-12" also in it. And the seat bottom removal sounds similar.
My biggest concerns was the trim on C-pillars, and the SRS system behind it. I don't want to break any clips...so if you or anyone has any more details on the removal of these (you suggested, just pull them out towards you) it would help. Once they're out, it will all make more sense as it always does. Crutchfield used to sell master sheets for vehicles, but I think now they only provide them if you are buying components from them. But I think once I get those off, I am good to go with the rear parcel shelf trim. I'm just going to replace the sub, with an aftermarket drop in sub and aftermarket sub amp...not looking for huge thump (I can get that in my current TL) but want some lower bottom end frequency and a little bit of thump.
You got me thinking now however, when you talk of rear speaker replacement...did you notice an significant improvement? and assuming yes, what size are the speakers to replace back there?


While we're talking about this, taking this to the next step....what about replacing all speakers, including center....to be honest, I am not unhappy with this system at all in this TLX...(my standards have changed over the years as I have aged) ...but if I can pick out a weaker area, I would say the sub, and the center speaker...and it seems to have a lot of the sound directed through it, which then to me, should be a very good, (and larger) speaker than it is. I get some buzzing out of it at times...indicative that it simply can't deal with the signal being pushed through it, as smoothly as a larger or higher quality driver.


For the rears, are they 2 ohms?


I also did a full on install in my MDX when I bought it (see link below) strange now to look at this, with all the technology that is now available, and how crude some of this seems now, but it was 13 years ago, I finished this installation...still working perfect to his day, although my kids have long since left home, so the rear monitors seldom get used anymore....
Here is a trip down memory lane.
Basically Complete!!! - Acura MDX Forum : Acura MDX SUV Forums

What the the best free air sub woofer for the TLX you found on the internet?