Icemark...Sub in the spare tire area...
 

So Mark,

You figure that the best location for a sub in a FC would be in the spare tire location. It would definitly be out of harms way there, but is it worth all of the work to make an enclosure to fit there?

In one of the storage compartments I can fit the Clarion 10" with out much trouble at all, how about a convincing argument for the other location?


Al

A single 10 in the spare tire area generally will sound better than 2 or 3 tens in the storage bins.

Its gonna be about the same amount of work per woofer either way... with f'glass and MDF.


BTW, 2 10s in the spare tire iso loaded (or compond loaded- depending on what book you read-its the same either way) will blow away 4 10s in the storage bins.
The only good thing about the storage bin area, is your spare still fits in the car.

Well, now I'll have to take a look...
 

Hmmm, I was thinking of a single 10" in a sealed enclosure to take advantage of the acoustic transfer function of the interior cabin space rather then a vented enclosure that would have a little more bass extension but very minimal output below the tunning frequency of the port.

Would you agree?

If the woofer works, I am always partial to sealed.

More accurate freq response, in most cases, and harder to accidentaly blow up.

I agree here, I got tonz of experience with Isobaric. They play extremely low, but usually arent very loud. The main advantage of this is being after to use an enclosure of 1/2 the size.

Saying this again, If you take 2 10's iso in .5 cu ft. Theres no way in hell its gonna sound as good as the same 2 10's in 1 ft cu/ea. You just gonna gain, a smaller box, a little lower F3 and a lot of people going that looks cool :) LOL

Agreed here sealed handles tonz of power, easier constructed, you can be off quite a bit and still get a reasonable sound. On the downside only way to tune a sealed enclosure is with volume. Although the addtion of a little polyfill helps :)

correct me if i'm wrong. in a sealed or ported enclosure the reason a woofer placed furthest away from you, i.e. spare tire area, sounds better is because you end up sitting in the midst of the sine wave. a enclosure placed directly behind you, i.e. storage bin area, firing upwards won't sound as loud is because the sine wave ends up infront or above of you. now, say we don't place the enclosure in the storage bins, but on top with the woofer firing towards the rear hatch, wouldn't that be just as good as placing the sub in the spare tire area? the time it takes for the sine wave to reach you is increased due to it having to travel to the back of the car and then bouncing back towards the front. of course this situation probably only applies to hatchbacks, an SUV or a vehicle that's wide open because in the trunk of a car the woofer ends up fighting against itself and cancels the signal out. which in return can result in woofer damage.

also, if you're worried about not having a spare tire, just rig it so it's in the storage compartment instead :D

What you are refering to is the 'creation of standing waves' and the theory of propogation vs. modulation. If you place a subwoofer in the middle of the vehicle what happens is some of the bass goes to the front, while some of the bass goes to the back. Thus the waves going to the back are gonna be later (time) that the waves to the front. That will cancel out some of the bass. That expalins why when you open the hatch a little it seems you have better bass. Whats happening is you are letting the waves that are canceling leave and therefore making it sound as if you have more bass. This used to be major problem with S-10's and snugtops, people would have an no back glass and place a woofer directly behind the seat of the truck, and then when they open the snugtop it was like nite and day difference. Horn loading an enclosure/subwoofer combo in a back corner, is one of the major benefits of a car sub woofer design. A good rule of thumb is load an enclosure combo at least 1/2 of the drivers diamater from the surface. This isnt always practical, but works quite well.

i am sponered by momo so there subs are going in... anyway i was thinking about puttin the subs in the cubbys but u guys say it will sound bad.. what if they were angled back a bit so they can bounce from the back to the front?? any ideas... i really want my subs there so guys brainstorm even if they were there what would be the best install for them

Check out KICKER SOLOBARIC speakers!!!!!!!!!!!
Small sealed enclosure.... LOts of power...
BOOM!!!!!!!!

Go with the sealed enclosures. I had 6-12's in my FC once, then I switched out to three of them and it sounded much better. I plan on putting a 10 in the spare tire compartment of my FD too this winter...I'll let you know how that goes. I have pictures of everything I've done if you want to see them...just let me know.