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Thread: What direction to take with my under seat subwoofer

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    What direction to take with my under seat subwoofer

    Well, after replacing the front speakers and adding a subwoofer under the passenger seat, I have been very pleased with the sound of the stereo in my Mirage. However, things have changed. I now have to fit a car seat in my back seat which leaves me with 2 options.

    1. Put the car seat behind the driver's seat, but the driver's seat has to be moved forward several notches making driving uncomfortable. or......

    2. Put the car seat behind the passenger seat, but the only way I can do this is to remove the subwoofer from under the passenger seat since the sub currently does not allow the seat to be moved from it's far back position.



    So here are the solutions that I could do;

    1. remove the under seat subwoofer and replace the stock back speakers with shallow mount (there is only 3" of mounting depth available) 6 1/2" subwoofers. or....

    2. replace the existing Polk Audio 8" subwoofer in the box under the seat with a shallow mount sub so that the passenger seat can be moved from it's current far back position without hitting the subwoofer.



    I am leaning more and more to replacing the current subwoofer with a shallower one and keep the subwoofer box under the passenger seat. I really love the sound of the current setup and I am afraid that if I put the 6 1/2" subwoofers in the back doors, I will loose the rear fill from the factory rear speakers, the 6 1/2" subs will not put out the same output that I currently see, and the 6 1/2" subs will cause rattles in the back doors.

    So what do y'all think I should do?


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    Or you could upgrade the back speakers and amplify them then build a shallower box for a new sub under the passenger seat haha.

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    I'd go for a shallow mount sub-speaker.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Messy Mitsu View Post
    Or you could upgrade the back speakers and amplify them then build a shallower box for a new sub under the passenger seat haha.
    Well, the problem with that is for sound quality, the factory rear speakers do a great job of adding just enough rear fill without becoming overpowering. I really like listening to my music so it sounds like it does when you are at a concert, or when you are at the recording studio. 90% of the music coming from in front of you with just a little rear fill to bring the sound stage off of the dash. Not to mention that if I were to replace and amplify the back speakers, I would have to buy a 4 channel amp so I could amplify the front speakers too. Then I would have to find a place to mount a 4 channel amp.

    As far as the sub box under the seat, I can't get any more depth out of the box unless I went with thin MDF, which I don't want to do as it would end up not being stiff enough. If I knew how to work with fiberglass then I could build a box with more depth and more air space, but I have never worked with it before and I would not want this to be my first try at it.


    So, I am really leaning more and more to just buying a better, shallow mount 8" sub.
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    Interesting perspective but if you did upgrade / amplify all 4 of your speakers with a 4 channel amp than could you not just fade the sound 80-90% to the front via the headunit? I agree with your above post but I always do speakers before subwoofer just because I don't want too much bass, just enough to add a nice crisp quality sound.

    It sounds like you need a new sub then, but fiberglass wouldn't be any harder than the materials you use. If its thick enough say a half or quarter inch couldn't you cut / seal / drill it like wood? Not sure how well it would dampen sound but you could always carpet over it.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Messy Mitsu View Post
    Interesting perspective but if you did upgrade / amplify all 4 of your speakers with a 4 channel amp than could you not just fade the sound 80-90% to the front via the headunit? I agree with your above post but I always do speakers before subwoofer just because I don't want too much bass, just enough to add a nice crisp quality sound.

    It sounds like you need a new sub then, but fiberglass wouldn't be any harder than the materials you use. If its thick enough say a half or quarter inch couldn't you cut / seal / drill it like wood? Not sure how well it would dampen sound but you could always carpet over it.

    Yeah, I'm with you. I replaced the front stock speakers with Infinity Reference ones first. But if I fade the sound primarily to the front then replacing and amping the rear speakers seems kind of a moot point. Now if I was competing with the car, I would have already upgraded all 4 of the speakers and there would probably be a 5 channel amp under the seat to power it all.

    As far as building a fiberglass box, well I know 2 people that do that professionally. Each one makes their boxes at least 3/4" thick (3/8" MDF that is then layered with fiberglass to increase stiffness until it is about 3/4" thick) so if I used one of them to help me than it would not gain me anything.
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    Well, I have decided on what to do.


    I am changing out the subwoofer to a shallow mount subwoofer that will allow the passenger seat to move back and forth freely. Not a single local car audio shop sells a shallow mount 8" sub (I prefer to try to give local businesses my money first before buying online) so I went online and looked around.

    I have decided that I will replace my current Polk Audio sub with an MB Quart RLP204 sub.

    http://www.amazon.com/MBQUART-RLP204.../dp/B00APYH8OM


    Since it has 2 mm more Xmax, 4 db less sensitivity, more power handling, and it is actually designed to work in the small enclosure that I've got, it should be a good replacement for my old Polk Audio sub. Not to mention that it has a depth of only 2.7" so there will be plenty of room under the sub for the voice coil to freely vent and stay cool.


    The sub has been ordered, the old Polk Audio sub has been removed from the old box, and so now we wait until the new sub comes in.
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    While we wait for the new sub to arrive, I am curious as to why you need a car seat? Is there a little one on the way ?

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    Quote Originally Posted by DonHoot View Post
    While we wait for the new sub to arrive, I am curious as to why you need a car seat? Is there a little one on the way ?

    Yeah, we've got a little one on the way. She should arrive sometime pretty soon as she is due on February 15th. However, my wife just had an ultrasound today and they estimated the baby's weight right now as being between 7 pounds 13 ounces and 9 pounds 13 ounces!!
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    Will the car seat go in the middle of the rear seat or is it a older kiddo seat that needs to be on the side ? They say the middle of the back seat is the safest place to be.


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        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 44.8 mpg (US) ... 19.1 km/L ... 5.2 L/100 km ... 53.9 mpg (Imp)


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