I'm trying to figure out the best way to place a subwoofer in the trunk. I'm going to get a 10 inch sub (not sure what brand) in a sealed box and need to know if I should have it facing the rear of the trunk or upwards toward the stock sub. For those who have a sub installed, did you keep your factory sub or did you remove it?

I'm thinking that I should take out the factory sub and have my new sub facing upward, which will direct the sound through the hole of where the factory sub once was. Any suggestions?

 

pointing a sub in any direction other than staight back to the trunk will have cancillation problems. the sub in the rear deck works because it uses the trunk as an enclosure. if you remove it and point a sub there you will have less bass than if you pointed it straight back.
hope this saves you the trouble and makes the decision easier.

 

Thanks for the info, preludeshfan.

So has anyone removed the factory subwoofer? It would seem like doing so would help the sound travel inside the car much better. Keeping the pass-thru open in the rear seats would help, but I don't really want to do that.

 

I have an Alumapro 10-inch bandpass sub with the port firing directly into the cabin thru the empty stock sub hole. The empty sub spkr grill is filled with foam to eliminate noises from the trunk (if any). Here's the top of my sub - you can see that the sub is facing the rear seat, not the rear. Still sounds great though

 

looks cool TLdaddy i tried the same thing in my tl when i first got it using a band pass box. i even sealed the port to the rear shelf. i could barly tell the sub was even playing.
then i turned it sideways to see what it sounded like pointing to the rear and BOOM!! sounded like a couple of 12's you ought to give it a try and see what you think. if your box is not bolted down it would only take you about 30 seconds to try the experiment.
let us know what happens.

 

but I made a new trunk floor that has a cut-out recessed area that my sub sits in. The port is not in the center of the bp box - it's closer to the end - so if I flip it around the port will not be under the hole and the sub is too big to slide it back an further. It bumps pretty good too - way better than the stock sub.

 

Master-G:
Your best bet is to get a bandpass or ported box and port it into the trunk through the sub hole.

"pointing a sub in any direction other than staight back to the trunk will have cancillation problems. the sub in the rear deck works because it uses the trunk as an enclosure. if you remove it and point a sub there you will have less bass than if you pointed it straight back. hope this saves you the trouble and makes the decision easier."

This is not true, no offense preludesfan, and I've actually had a long and heated debate on this somewhere else...forget if it was in this forum. That seems to be a popular misconception. No matter what you will have transferred waves that enter the cabin and reflected waves that do not, and instead bounce around and cause interference. The rear sub works as an IB sub by the way. Depending on the modelling of the trunk and box, the waves will interact differently, so in lieu of heavy modelling calculations you could use a good old oscilloscope and test. However, nothing will compare to a box ported into the cabin, and you won't have any vibration either. Otherwise place your box comfortably and dampen your trunk sans the rear wall and the rear deck.

Austin519

 

Right now I'm looking at a sealed enclosure using the new JL W6v2 subs. Although I would love to have the Alumapro 10 that TL Daddy has, it just takes up too much space for me. I think that I could get away with a much smaller box by going the sealed route.

So, If TL owners are going to use a sealed box instead of a ported one, then would it be better to point the sub toward the rear AND take out the factory sub or should we do something entirely different?

 

Master G:
"So, If TL owners are going to use a sealed box instead of a ported one, then would it be better to point the sub toward the rear AND take out the factory sub or should we do something entirely different?"

Well first off...if you're only looking for 1 10" sub...I suggest you go with a 10w7 instead of a 10w6v2. That said...no taking out the factory sub won't help the sub in the trunk any, and in fact may cause some strange acoustic effects, seeing as by doing that you've now created a ported enclosure (your trunk) with a 10" hole enclosing a sealed enclosure (sub box). However, you will want to remove the factory sub as it will color the sound of the sub in the rear. Your best bet in terms of how to face your subs would be to have them as close to the rear wall as possible facing the back seats. That way you take care of most of the reflected waves, and allow for less dispersal.

Austin519

 

So the sub needs to face the back seat, eh? That's odd, cause I've only seen one person do it that way and he was having some problems (can't remember who it was). That's not saying that the sub facing the seat is bad, but I just haven't seen alot of people doing that.

I've concluded that I'll just need to test the sub in several positions and see what the best method will be. Thanks to all who made suggestions.

Auston519:
The W7's are nice but they're just too pricey for me!

 

Master-G:
Hmm...usually I have the best results that way if done correctly. If you'll notice the latest JL and RF competition sealed box systems, you'll see that done similarly, though admittedly ported is a better solution.

And as for the w7's, yeah I can understand how $500 per sub is a bit pricey...it was rough for me too

Austin519

 

This is a somewhat confusing post. First you say that its better to not remove the stock sub because of the "strange acoustic effects" of creating a ported enclosure enclosing a sealed enclosure. Then you say its better to remove the stock sub as it will "color the sound of the sub in the rear."

also: "Your best bet in terms of how to face your subs would be to have them as close to the rear wall as possible facing the back seats." Is this with the stock sub in or out?

 

my2sense:
"This is a somewhat confusing post. First you say that its better to not remove the stock sub because of the "strange acoustic effects" of creating a ported enclosure enclosing a sealed enclosure. Then you say its better to remove the stock sub as it will "color the sound of the sub in the rear."

also: "Your best bet in terms of how to face your subs would be to have them as close to the rear wall as possible facing the back seats." Is this with the stock sub in or out?"

My apologies...I can see how that was confusing...let me be more clear. And let me prefix this by saying I'm not sure yet how our cars react to bass systems, as I have yet to place mine in. But, in other cars, and in general with this setup...having the subs in the back, as well as the sub in the rear deck will color the sound. The reason is that the sound from the stock sub will travel to your ear faster because of a shorter distance to travel, and also be out of phase with the sound coming from the rear of the car. This is bad. So the stock sub cannot be allowed to stay plugged in with a new system.

Simultaneously, removing the new sub will now create a hole. Your subs, as they are in a sealed box, now inside a trunk with a port in it...are acting as a 4th order bandpass system, horribly tuned and of improper volume. This will muddle your bass. On top of that, your port (reardeck hole) will now act as a virtual subwoofer (much like they do in ported boxes) and your bass will reflect off of the rear windshield...not an attractive solution.

Admittedly, the first problem is much worse than the second. So I'd worry more about having the stock sub playing than removing it unless you want pretty accurate sound. In fact, removing the stock sub will allow the trunk to depressurize and so not have such bad trunk vibration. The best solution is to physically port the box through the hole...second is to seal the hole and dampen the trunk...third is to leave the hole open...fourth is to leave in the stock sub and just add this setup.

Hope that clarified

Austin519

 

thanks for the clarification.

you've now alerted me to the fact that I have an acoustical nightmare of a setup in my trunk.
but that does explain my chronic trunk-rattle problems...

 

my2sense:

Yep...that was my 2 sense

Austin519