Sub & Amp Pics

[edevlin]

"A speaker creates sound by pushing air at different frequencies. What you hear are the sound waves from that air being pushed. Now with subs in a sealed trunk with no direct passage into the cabin how on Earth could you hear the air that is being pushed?"

A while ago I stopped at 5-guys burger joint and picked up a couple of cheese burgers and a couple of bags of frys for the family. It was a 15+ minute drive home, so I put them all in the rear trunk to keep them warm. As soon as I started driving, all I could smell all the way home was burgers and frys. Based on that experience, there would seem to have to be some way for air to get from the rear trunk to the passenger compartment, I found that interesting,

Ed

[Gary in BR]

^^^^I can not wait to hear someone explain this one^^^^

[boxster7614]

I actually drilled some small holes in the wall to let more sound into the boot area. How ever I didn't really notice that much of a change in sound with the holes added. You can see in the pic I put a small black speaker grill in the carpet to let the air through. (Just left of the oil fill)


Trust me every car stereo expert out there told me this would never work and I would never hear it. I went to 3 high end car stereo stores here and they all told me the same thing. One shop said they had tried it in a viper and you couldn't hear it. I purchased this box as a trial and error...it was made for a jeep wrangler.....I only paid $80 for the box. It turned out sounding great and I am very picky when it comes to sound.....my next move was to have them custom make a box that fit an 8" sub between the seats. I saw some pics a long time ago of a guy who had done this it was in a yellow boxster if anyone has the pics. They wanted $800 to make the custom enclosure. I like my $80 setup better.

You can definitely hear the bass and feel it...and yes I know the difference. I think there are plenty enough factory air leaks from the trunk area into the boot where the convertible top retracts to make this possible.

Yes the best sound quality would be to have no restrictions but on a scale of 1-10 10 having the sub in the cabin with you, this set up would probably rate a 9

We don't have many options when it comes to sub placement in our cars. Just trying to give people a few more options

The other pro to this set up is no one knows you have a sub setup or expects it. So would be thieves just pass me by.

If anyone would like to hear it and they are in Salt Lake City let me know. It's kind of hard to convince people how good it sounds in text.

[Kirk]

Originally Posted by boxster7614

It's kind of hard to convince people how good it sounds in text.

I agree. Rating it a 9 out of 10 though gives us a pretty good idea. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but hey, if it works for you cool...

BTW, I put my sweaty gym clothes in my trunk and thankfully I never smell them! The food in the trunk deal does raise an interesting question as to how much air passage there is between the cabin and the trunk.

[Cloudsurfer]

I know many of the other members here utilize the same 8" JL 8WO install that I have in my car, and yes, it sounds very musical and offers decent output. A LOT of homework went into designing that sub, and based on my audio background, I'm at a complete loss to understand your logic on how this could work.

I have seen some 996 guys build a bandpass box into the FRONT trunk, and tune it through a port into the cabin through the right hand drive steering shaft hole in the firewall. I have heard one of these cars and it wasn't bad- punchy, but over a narrow frequency range as it to be expected of a bandpass box.

Now, with the subs in the REAR trunk of a 986, BEHIND the engine, BEHIND the SEALED firewall, how do you plan on hearing anything? Sure, you're vibrating the hell out of the metal, and yes you will feel that, and you are losing plenty of SPL to the outside environment, but since you have no channel by which to tune this into the cabin, and no, there aren't plenty of leaks in the firewall, I'm really at a loss as to how this is a good idea.

Sorry to disagree with your findings.

Patrick

[rick3000]

I agree. The back of the trunk is metal, and even if you drilled holes in it, you have about 2-3' of engine which is all metal, then the cabin firewall, that has about an 1' of padding to muffle the engine noise.
I don't doubt that your hearing something, but I don't think you're hearing the speakers. Maybe the vibration are moving some thing in the cabin and that is amplifying the sound, or something.
Also, where you driving with the top up or down? Slow or fast? When you managed to smell the burgers in your trunk, and when you hear the subs.

[edevlin]

I think the top was down when I smelled the burgers in my Boxster. Parts of this discussion are interesting and remind me of some of my colleagues at work that have said they thought something is not possible without having any direct experience with the process they are discussing.

Now, it may be that there is no bass comming out of those two big subs in the rear trunk, or it may be very tight, clean bass, we do not know, as we do not have any direct experience. Based on our understanding of the construction of our cars, we can make educated guesses on how it sounds, but until we sit in the car, those opinions are just guesses.

I have often suprised myself when I have played the "it-just-cannt-be-so" game based on my understaning on the theory involved. Only to find out that in fact, in practice it was so..... fun stuff,


Ed