Check out my SUB-BOX!!! by chusteveb

6 minute read

Check out my SUB-BOX!!! 

Compliments of chusteveb @ https://acurazine.com

12-9-2004

OK so the project to seal up the rear deck to simulate a subwoofer enclosure and replace the stock sub with an aftermarket was difficult and I was only about 70% satisfied. It took a ton of dynomatt and a few items from Home Depot. I started out with a Diamond Audio 8" and moved to a JL 8W0 which helped significantly. However when you put some serious power to it is when it starts to fail. This is when I decided to scrap that project and move on. At least I tried and know it wouldn't meet my standards. If any of you guys want more info on how I did it, just ask.

So on to the results of the sub woofer in the trunk. I really tried to shy away from this originaly because I didn't want to have the look of anything back there (theft and other misc reasons) and more importantly I needed all the trunk space I could get. So this is what I ended up with, a 10" Alpine Type S Dual Voice Coil, powered by an Alpine sub amp. As for the enclosure, ... I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

I know how you guys like pics so I took a few more than I needed to. This setup to me is awesome and exceeds my expectations. The carpet matches extremely well. I lost no useable trunk space since my navi was sitting in that corner already, even my trunk matt fits almost perfectly. I've showed a few friends my setup and most of them couldn't find the sub (they kept looking in the spare tire well for it). I really like how it doesn't even show the sub. I did leave the stock sub out of the back deck and this helped out alot in letting it filter to the inside of the car. I don't have a DIY for this box since I don't know how to fiberglass but let me know if you like the set up since my shop has a mold for it now, ... maybe if it's worth it I can talk to the mods and see what we can do. No biggie one way or another, just thought I'd share my setup with all my fellow TLers!

No rattles but I did just finish putting in a bunch of Dynomatt in the rear dash (under and over) in efforts from my last project of the aftermarket 8" sub in the factory location. I did have to add a bit of byno matt in the right rear quater panel but that was because I wanted to have a bit less rattle outside of the car. Inside sounds great!

12-10-2004

Thanks for all the cool comments! The enclosure is about .6 cubic ft, maybe just a bit more. I did place this box on the passenger side of the car because I didn't want to loose any useable trunk space and since my navi was already in that corner I considered that less useable trunk space plus I didn't have to cut my trunk tray.  

Funny the JL W7 was mentioned. I just aquired and installed 2, JL 8w7's. They went into my Integra. OMG what a sub!

I love the sound of the sub now in the TL. I used the factory sub woofer line level inputs to my aftermarket sub amp this way I keep my sub level controls at the head unit. I gained the amp perfectly to where all the settings at the headunit are set to zero all the way across the board. I changed out the factory tweeters for some memphis tweeters to make the whole system sound just a bit brighter and it works great. The whole set up is now very much perfect to me! I gave the TL's stock system a boost in the low's (sub) and a boost in the high's (tweeter's).

For those of you that are trying to imagine how it sounds, ... the sub matchs the volume level to the rest of the system. It gains perfectly from volume 1-40 (max) without overkilling the rest of the system. I can easily feel the bass and turn up the sub level at the head unit if I desire more, but by no means is it over kill. In other words, I can take my mom or heck grandma around in the TL without having to worry about gaining down the sub level no matter what is playing, but at the same time I can take my woman and her sorrority girlies out and let them crank on the volume knob and get more than plenty of bass w/o distortion and also not have to gain up the sub level either. Basiclly the volume knob is all that needs to be touched in any situation.

I was pretty happy with how the TL's sound system came from the factory, I just tweaked it a bit to make it perfect.