Hey everyone,

Im pondering ideas on how to change my sub setup without really messing where the amps are right now... I like the location of the amps but want something better for the subwoofers. Right now its cool looking yes, but im not pleased with the sound, and i want to change the location of the subs for better sound. I would like to keep where the amps are, and the piece over the amps, the piece housing the subs is another whole seperate piece that can come off. Any opinions would be great... Here are a few pics of the setup currently...

 

subwoofer placement inside of a vehicle, especialy the xB, wont matter at all. Bass is Omni directional there for it doesn't matter where it sits back there, it's going to give the same result. if you're not pleased with the sound, sad to say, it's the system it's self not having a quality sound production.

i never liked Fusion audio, they've never had the good sounded products compared to what i've worked with. they seem more like another Audiobahn to me *don't mean to bash any Audiobahn boys/girls* but it's just a little too much show and not enough umph. if you want something powerful and looks nice at the same time, i would sugjest the follow, listed by best sound, quality and appeal:

1 - JBL GTI MKII series *not because they are my favorite but by popular vote on sound quality with most advanced audio designers*
2 - JL W7 series *i don't find these all that great*
3 - Alpine X series
4 - Sound Stream XXX15
5 - UK based company, Ground Zero's Plutonium series

if it's a matter of look because of the matching green paint, you can get the baskets repainted as long as it's a pro paint shop that knows what thier doing.

but for directivity and less sound cancelation, the way you have them is almost perfect, have them tilt more towards eachother other then having them more pointing towards the back. that way the only canelation that happens is right between them instead of throughout the mid section of the rear, this will help warm up the bass feel a bit.

 

It's hard to tell from the pic but it looks like the air space for the subs is only what's on top of the amp rack. If that's true, those subs don't have near enough air space to sound good.

 

i was just about to say something about that after a second look. seems you only gave them a fraction of the space they need.

 

Exactly, the area above where the amps are, is the only airspace that those 12's have, and it is NOWHERE near what they need. And im trying to design something to replace that whole piece to where the airspace is alot more significant...

UPDATE: I came up with this ROUGH draft, and exclamation on ROUGH because im no artist, but I think this enclosure would help with airspace, as well as allow me to build my "mad sciontist lab"... What do you guys think?

 

you can actualy utilize the settup you have now to accomidate those 12's i think... i'm going to guess you are in need of anywhere from 1 to 1.25ft^3 of sealed air space for those. you an easely get that. the walls that hold your amps in there, the area behind them, make that entire area mixed with what you have and you should an "about" right amount air space that you need, if not, it will be a bit more punchier then what you woul normaly get with the right air space BUT it would sound ALOT better.

 

I'm going to have to assume that you don't need to see out of the back of your car??
Your picture with the "lab" should work fine as long as the airspace is right, and you can live without seeing out the back.
Fiberglass enclosures might be a better option if you need to use less space.

 

From you diagram you are thinking about something like this but with a "lab" in the middle?



How about something like this. The scale could be changed to fit stuff in the middle. I just did this quickly to provide a visual.

 

it doesn't really seem like he's gota do that though... seems that the walls that hold his amps, if properly sealed and added on wiht his current enclosures would sufice just fine i would believe... that should be about 2-2.5 ft^3 easy if not more, and if theres a little more, Great! means you'll have a lower deeper warner bass tone but would be sacraficing a very small amount of power handeling but well worth it!

 

The first drawing is right but the subs wont be downfiring anymore... They will be regular...

 

ahh, killing alot of effective volume... and making your project difficult hahaha

 

When are you starting your project?

 

Hes talking about me... And im not sure, still trying to figure out stuff...

 

the biggest issue is thier mounting depth... simular to my subs *JBL GTI's*. i wouldn't imagen anything else other then reverse mount for something like that, greatly reduces the amount of total enclosure space and size... especaily when using 12's... i used 10's so it was a little easier to work with.

 

So the space behind the amps, i should use that as the airspace, your saying??? I think i gotcha, just making sure...

 

ya, that should give you plenty of room, if not, then about enough... atleast enough to sound ALOT better. as it is right now, all you are hearing is extremely amplified harmonic distortion, giving more space, even being Close to if not at or more then what you need will be a dramatic diffrence in sound quality.

 

even if you cant make up all the necessary space, adding a little polyfill into the enclosure should help a little bit...

 

a general rule about subbass - mid and high bass, the more volume you have being seeing to the subwoofer, the better it's warm and quality sounding prodction will be heard and generated, but to a certain point ofcourse. the smaller you go, the less able the woofer is to create it's deep and low abilities because it hasn't the air space to move, the compression ratio becomes too high within the enclosure and begins to limit too much of the woofer's movement and becomes muddy sounding and very hard and thumps and kicks in the 100-120hz region wich is generaly all harmonics and just sound like ____. but this is mainly for sealed applications that are based on a short throw design *aka standard sealed enclosure* smaller sealed enclosures or generaly opimised specificly for horn applications where the length of the horn and the horns mouth opening determin the low end capability and how loud it can possibly get.

summery...
12" sub requiring 1FT^3 of effective air space sealed will sound almost exactly the same in something that is of 0.9 to 0.8ft^3 with some very very small changes to low end capability and some peaky'ness on the kicks while having a 1.2-1.5ft^3 of effective air space will give for a much lower end capability which results in a warmer bass sound but will hinder the kick a bit.

in your case, i would make sure you can supply atleast 1.5ft^3 of space per sub, 3ft^3 in total being Fusion recommends 2.0ft^2. be within 1.5-2.0 per sub and you should see a dramatic diffrence in quality. being the rear end of the subs are so huge, having around 1.5ft^3 of total inner air space should be fine if you do a reverse mount, it will help you fit it all in there, but if you do a standard, you will have to make them around 1.75ft^3 i would say...

 

polyfill will not help at all if he doesn't add the space, he's only got maybe 1/4th the space he needs per sub, if not even less. all poly fill does is help dampen standing waves inside the enclosure, sound quality wise it will actualy hurt his current application *unnoticeably* because it's subtracting even more effective air space, even though it's almost nothing at all, with how much space he's working with right now, it means ALOT to the sub right now.

 

yes i know, i've seen heard the setup in person

i was assuming he rebuilt the enclosure