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Thread: Active Subwoofer without Subwoofer?

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    Passive Subwoofer without Amplifier?

    Bear with me here people, although I've been in electronics/computers for almost twenty years I've NEVER needed a "boost" in my car but I feel my mirage's bass line is "lacking" a little...

    SO..that being said...

    I have a subwoofer which I currently have sitting in a closet. It has an in-box crossover enclosed within the unit. It's an 8ohm Dual Voice Coil speaker and gives AMAZING bass response even on a rinky dink 25 watt line coming from a tiny VM Audio system that I bought off ebay for 25 bucks as a "new toy" for my daughters room, but she didn't use it (squirt.)

    **NOTE** Found out a little more about the speaker although it won't pull up much unless you're an older audiophile***

    The subwoofer is a sealed box Design Acoustics 12" Subwoofer with L/R Input, and L/R Output Crossover inside the unit.

    Anyways, I'm wondering if the stock radio has a sub line, and IF NOT seeing as this sub already has an active pass filter/amplifier built into it, couldn't I simply connect it to one of the rear channels (or both as it's dual voice coil) and throw it behind the rear seat and get a decent bass response from it?

    It doesn't use external power, or anything like that, it's all on-board. Just audio inputs, and outputs (dual channel) that's it.
    My method of thinking tells me that if I were to hook my Rear speakers wiring into the sub it would catch the bass frequencies (as it does) then the crossover would send the remaining signal to the corresponding speaker?
    Any help with this would be appreciated.
    Thanks


    Last edited by Dracconus; 03-26-2014 at 11:53 AM.

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        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 36.2 mpg (US) ... 15.4 km/L ... 6.5 L/100 km ... 43.5 mpg (Imp)


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    Well, if the crossover does what you think it does, that sounds correct. Now, with that said, most stock systems put out around 15-20W RMS. Now you said you were good with a "rink dink 25 watt" line, however, that was only powering the sub. If you have 25W trying to power a speaker and a sub, you're not going to get much. (Oh, lets not forget, 15-20W RMS was powering 4 ohm speakers, so with your 8 OHM load you are looking at a max of 10W even if it's just powering the sub, and split between the speaker you are looking at 5W or less)

    You'd be much better off picking up a cheapo powered sub. They start at $100 and go up from there. Here is all of them. If I were going to get one, personally, I'd get this one. Most of these are going to be fine on a 10 gauge power wire which is completely trivial to run to the back. Of course, no compact system will give you the sound of a full sized system, but from what you said one of these small ones would work nicely. Both of the ones I linked have speaker level inputs.

    With all that said, no matter which way you go the speakers are not easy access in the Mirage in terms of wiring. So, it will be a pain without an aftermarket headunit. All 4 speakers are in the doors and it's a tight fit. I originally wanted to run new speaker wires from my amp but couldn't make the wire fit. If I couldn't run wire to the speakers it's reasonable to say you couldn't run it from the speakers. If you do some tapping in the harness inside the car that might work, though. But it'd be far easier to pick up an aftermarket head unit.

    So, to install any external speaker, be it a new one you buy or the ones you have, you will have to take the stereo out of the dash and splice into the wires either way. You'll have to run the wires back to the cargo area. If you were using an unpowered sub to avoid work, that ship sailed. You're looking at equal work for setting up a powered vs unpowered sub in the Mirage.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ancyker View Post
    Well, if the crossover does what you think it does, that sounds correct. Now, with that said, most stock systems put out around 15-20W RMS. Now you said you were good with a "rink dink 25 watt" line, however, that was only powering the sub. If you have 25W trying to power a speaker and a sub, you're not going to get much.

    You'd be much better off picking up a cheapo powered sub. They start at $100 and go up from there. Here is all of them. If I were going to get one, personally, I'd get this one. Most of these are going to be fine on a 10 gauge power wire which is completely trivial to run to the back. Of course, no compact system will give you the sound of a full sized system, but from what you said one of these small ones would work nicely. Both of the ones I linked have speaker level inputs.

    With all that said, no matter which way you go the speakers are not easy access in the Mirage in terms of wiring. So, it will be a pain without an aftermarket headunit. All 4 speakers are in the doors and it's a tight fit. I originally wanted to run new speaker wires from my amp but couldn't make the wire fit. If I couldn't run wire to the speakers it's reasonable to say you couldn't run it from the speakers. If you do some tapping in the harness inside the car that might work, though. But it'd be far easier to pick up an aftermarket head unit.

    So, to install any external speaker, be it a new one you buy or the ones you have, you will have to take the stereo out of the dash and splice into the wires either way. You'll have to run the wires back to the cargo area. If you were using an unpowered sub to avoid work, that ship sailed. You're looking at equal work for setting up a powered vs unpowered sub in the Mirage.
    I wouldn't say that it's that I'm "looking to avoid work" I was just wondering if it would be a reasonable amount of work for a free extra bit of boom. I'm not some...okay, I AM a bass head, but quite frankly while I'm in my car I don't particularly care if I pass as an audiophile or not. The mirage, as it is has a decent amount of bass considering the 6.5" speakers that it comes with on a 140 watt system I just figured I'd see if anyone has had any experience with the wiring within the doors themselves. as to how "pretty" it all is in the end I couldn't give a rats proverbial..but..

    The crossover that is in the sub just got tested (somewhat) from my desktop's sound card through a 3.5mm jack running a single hi-lo to the sub left channel and out the sub left channel to a small 1.5" "satellite 'woofer' " that I had lying around from an old cyber acoustics set I did some PCB tinkering with for the remote and it SEEMED to run the line just fine, but since there was no actual POWER running through the line the volume was so low it made it REALLY hard to tell...

    SO..

    In your experience, what did you need to do to remove the trim on the door? When removing did you find yourself needing extra trim clips, and if so do you remember the part number?

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 36.2 mpg (US) ... 15.4 km/L ... 6.5 L/100 km ... 43.5 mpg (Imp)


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    Senior Member Ares's Avatar
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    Funny you say that the mirage is lacking in bass, because after driving around in my rio and mustang, I think the mirage is commendable.

    Once I put in a good set of speakers, I'll judge again if I need subs or not.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ares View Post
    Funny you say that the mirage is lacking in bass, because after driving around in my rio and mustang, I think the mirage is commendable.

    Once I put in a good set of speakers, I'll judge again if I need subs or not.
    With an aftermarket head unit (Kenwood) and stock speakers it sounded a little better. With an aftermarket head unit and aftermarket speakers (Kicker) it sounded a lot better. I didn't test the stock head unit and aftermarket speakers, but I don't expect a good result from that because of how factory systems are tuned. I imagine it'd sound about the same, possibly worse. Go look at the sine wave of factory systems on YouTube... they are bad. Better speakers would make how bad it is even more noticeable.

    I went with a 4 channel amp, that didn't really make it sound "better" at low-mid volume, but it did make it louder and removed all distortion. I also put in a sub and setup crossovers so my door speakers no longer output anything below 150Hz. This sounds significantly better.

    Now based on input from friends/family, everyone liked the aftermarket head unit upgrade better than the stock head unit. Most were fairly satisfied there, and everyone was satisfied with the aftermarket speaker upgrade and said they would do it if they had the car. Only my 1 friend felt he would need the amp and sub, but we are both bass head "shake the block" types.



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