Couple of questions. Can you still access your spare tire? When I get my CL-S I want to add a small box with 2 10"s, or 2 12"s. If I put it in the trunk, can I still get to my spare, or do I need to move it to gain access?? Also, The seats don't fold down like my current car. Is there any problem in hearing the bass, or how the bass hits from the drivers seat? I know it's non directional, but I had another experience with a car that the seats did not fold down, & even with 500W I couldn't here the sub very well, & it didn't hit hard at all. Which would be the best way to face the sub? Pointing into the back seats, or facing the rear trunk lid?
Thanks

 

Regarding the spare tire, it depends on the size of the sub(s)+ box. If it's small enough you can always access to the spare.

About the bass, I have no problem with my subs+box. As a matter of fact, I should not have any problem at all, the whole car is shaking and my amp is only pumping 120w rms in 2 10W0s in a sealed box pointing toward the trunk lid.

 

i have a 12 inch MTX sub (8000 series) in one of those pre-constructed q-logic boxes and it fits right smack to the back of the rear seats in the trunk. and yes, i can access the spare tire quite easily. the amp i'm using to power it is an mtx amp as well....i think it's like 250 watts....it's more than enough. i have the gain set to about less than half. this car is very well sound insulated so you shouldn't have any problems hearing the bass from the inside. in my situation though, the bass is significantly louder and much more felt in the rear seats than in front but no one ever sits on my rear seats anyway.

 

I have a single 12" in a downward firing custom enclosure that is about 1.5 cubic feet. I still have plenty of room to get to the spare and the bass is overkill for the rest of the stock system... of course that might have something to do with the 600 watts I'm running to the sub!

 

Go with 1 - 12" sub facing forward. Seal off the box to the rear seat. This forces all the waves into the cab. This cuts down on unwanted viberations into the trunk. You should have plenty of room for a spare. Do not make the mistake of underpowering your sub, spend a few more $ on the amp and your combo will last a very long time.

Have fun

 

For the absolute clearest sound from any sub you will want to face it toward the rear of the vehicle. The further the distance that sound has to travel to reach your ear the clearer it will sound when it gets there. Being that it is aimed at the trunk lid you might sacrifice a bit of rattle, but being as the vehicle is solid and has quite a bit of sound deadening from the factory it should be quite negligible.

 

i agree! that's how i have mine set up. and even if i'm blasting my music, i don't hear any rattles from the outside....just the thumping. rattles from the inside, you can get rid off.

 

This would not be correct. Any time sound reflects off a surface the sound waves will change. The purest sound will always be from a direct wave. However as far a bass is concerned by reflecting the wave off a surface it will increase the the pressure of the wave, this will be at a cost of pure sound quality.

 

i'm not sure about this. it seems the bass always sounds much tighter and better if it can move across a bigger airspace.....like the trunk when you have the sub smack to the back seat with the speaker facing the trunk opening. this is just my experience with all the different subs and positioning that i have done. it may also have to do with lower frequencies having a wider wave length thus needing more room to flow. just my opinion. now, if your are talking about higher frequncies, then you are correct, that the purest sound would be to face the speaker directly at you.....and that bouncing it of something would slightly deteriorate it.

 

Pointing the subs facing backwards and reflecting them off the trunk does not add accuracy. But, what it does do is increase volume. You get approximately +3db when you use this method. Ofcourse, volume is often thought or initially heard to be more accurate (as long as it's not distorting)... but in reality it's just louder. Another thing to think of. Firing a sub forwards usually means right into the back of a seat. You have to have air to move in order to make the proper sound waves. If you don't have enough space between the seat and woofer, well... you might as well put duct tape right on your driver.

 

I've got a 10" MTX sealed box sub facing rear, the bass is nice and tight down to 30-35hz and the spare tire is very accessible. The main trick was setting crossovers, eq and levels properly so that the bass extended down smoothly.