someone i know has an alpine type r subwoofer hooked up directly to the stock head unit in lieu of the rear speakers. there is no amp. i didn't know that this was possible. can someone explain to me how this works or what it takes to do this?

 

Even if it is possible, it would be retarded. You wouldn't get anything out of it.

There would HAVE to be an amp or something powering it.

 

Yea that is pretty dumb, that would be like 35watts running the sub. There would be barely any output from the sub

 

maybe you'd hear a type-s, but not a type-r, its just too much of a speaker

 

Technically, it could work. The volume a particular speaker is capable of producing is inversely proportionate to the amount of power it is given. However, with the sophistication and exact measurement involved in building speakers today underpowering a subwoofer is almost as bad as overpowering it. It would produce sound, but I dont think it would be as accurate or as responsive as it could be with proper amplification.

I'm with the other guys too, I could see a Type-E or Type-S, but not a Type-R...

 

i'll double check the subwoofer type the next chance that i get. but the bass quality was shockingly clean and responsive. i'm not disagreeing with you guys, i'm just trying to keep an open mind here.

 

w0w

 

It's not difficult to do. You could use a DVC sub, and use the rear speaker wiring to power it, left to one VC and right channel to the other. It'd need passive low-pass filters in such an implementation, which could be accomplished using a large inductor wired in-line on the positive lead for each channel. It might sound ok at low volumes, but wouldn't be able to compete with a real amp of just 50wpc and an active LPF.