Anybody installed a compact subwoofer under their passenger seat?

[Clutch Cargo]

Curious as if anyone has tried that? Read lots of positive reviews. Of course this is not for "in your gut" throbbing base but more to round out the sound which is what I am considering not wanting to overtake the trunk and I drive a 94 convertable. Thoughts/experiences? 8" or 10" would suffice?

 

[b1pig]

In my opinion, that would be a massive waste of time unless you were just devoted to taking on a project. There might be a sub on the market that is a self contained unit (JBL, Infinity, etc) that MIGHT fit under there, but you could be running into problems with seat travel.


If you look into fiberglass formed enclosures, you can fit a 8, 10 or 12 inch sub into the corner of your trunk without loosing any real usable trunk space. You'll need to pay close attention to the sub you are going to use and ensure the sub will work in the airspace you plan to provide. It is a custom job, so if you're not able to take the task on yourself, you'll have to find a stereo shop or someone you trust (with experience) to do it.

I have a Skar 10 sitting on the floor of my cave just waiting on me to catch up on things and build a box in the trunk of my '94 vert. It's gonna happen. I promise....

 

[ttocs]

you will not find a compact enough sub that requires such little airspace to go in such a small area. I know they make some shallow mount subs, but they still need some air and the box takes up space. If you don't believe me stick your hand under there and see how much you can move it around.

No there is no space under the back seat but now if you were to delete it you will NEVER be sorry to say "Oh I can't take more than 1 I don't have a back seat" rather than listen to the passengers behind you complain about space as though you can hardly shift, and then you get all kinds of room for subs.....

 

[96blak54]

Bass needs a box. I cant imagine any available space under the seat of any sport car that could harbor any sub. Now a good bass shaker will definitely fit. If the current system set up produces some depth, a bass shaker set right will enhance that bass depth and draw it out more.

 

[ttocs]

A bass shaker will be felt, the only part I never liked about them is that you still need an amp to drive them just like a sub. At that point the expense just seemed like more than I thought was justifiable. Is this a convertible? Got kids that keep the trunk full or what are we working around now to think about this?

 

[r3dn3ck]

As the lads have alluded to, you need a specific amount of air volume in an enclosure for a sub-woofer to operate correctly. The amount of air is related to the diameter and shape of the cone, the distance the cone can travel (called excursion distance) and the bass frequency response (in layman's terms this can be thought of as the relationship between the input signal delivered to the coil and the output signal delivered by the cone). The best slim mount sub on the market for this kind of application is probably the JL Audio 13T5V2-4 which is meant to have .8 cubic feet of air in the enclosure. .8 cubic feet is a box roughly 12x12x10. That's a big-arse box. No fitting that under a seat. There are things in the world like 6" shallow mount sub-woofers which you could effectively put under a seat, the Kicker 48CWRT674 being an example, which require much less volume. It must be noted that enclosure volume affects bass response. With too small of an enclosure you lose low end responsiveness. You would not be able to have a power seat and would likely need to add some spacers under the seat mount brackets, and you may lose the ability to move the seat back and forth as much or even at all, but it could be made to work. It will need its own amp.

That's all well and good as far as physically fitting the thing and it functioning in the intended way but ignores the fact that you'd be driving the sound up the passenger's butt ithrough seat foam, which will eat some of the sound. What would work much better and probably look cool too is to do a rear seat delete and use the rear seat cushion wells with a custom fiberglass enclosure which is super easy and kinda fun to fabricate. There's plenty of volume there to drive a top quality 6 or 8 inch shallow mount sub and get great bass response.

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