A single subwoofer or a box on the engine cover?

[JustPlainJeff]

Hi All,

I've been lurking for years, but now that I've taken the three minutes to sign up, I hope to be an occasional poster! Woot!

I have an '01 986 and I'm one of the few with the M441 stereo (dash speakers only).

The head unit was swapped out by the prior owner to a Kenwood KDC-BT945U which seems to be adequate for my purposes.

I'm in the process of swapping out the dash speakers with Alpine SPS-410s but want to add some bass and maybe some back speakers as well.

My thoughts are as follows:
1) Adding door speakers would be an ENORMOUS pain in the ass. I would need new door panels (since mine have no grill or "hump" to accommodate a speaker), figure out a way to get speaker wires to the doors, and then shoehorn something in there. I've heard it works in the end, but I'm not up to the task

2) My options seems to be a) Put a sub in the passenger footwell or b) Get either the Bose subwoofer or storage compartment and build it out with decent speakers/subs.

I'm inclined to put the sub in the footwell and be done with it but here's my problem. My head unit has a left and right channel for the sub outputs. There isn't a single channel. Is there a way to "mix" the channels for the sub or do most people just pick left or right when there is only one sub? I'm guessing it's a bad idea to buy a dual voice coil sub and run the left channel through one coil and the right through another. Thoughts?

What about premanufactured sub boxes for the footwell? Does anyone make them or am I going to be fabricating one?

The back up plan is to get the bose bassbox or the storage compartment and pack it with speakers. But those things seem so tiny that I'm not sure I'll get much bass. Again, thoughts?

THANKS!
-jeff

[alm001]

For the sub output, your amplifier will take both channles in, and you will most likely be able to bridge the amp for a "summed" output. The output from the head unit may already be summed if it is specifically labeled for subwoofer use.

[R8 Pilot]

I just installed a whole new sound system and it is awesome!

Alpine 4" in dash
Alpine 6.5" Splits in doors with the separate tweeters actually mounted up in the dashboard grills
Pioneer 7" Double Din AV Screen.
Pioneer 4ch x high power amp
Dynamat on doors

But to your point of you need more bass..here's the perfect answer which I just installed along with the rest.

Hideaway Powered Subwoofer | KICKER®

Self powered,compact(perfect for a Boxster) and can be connected via line in or just using your radios speaker outputs.

I used the Velco straps provided and mounted it on the carpeted wall behind the seat.

It will not break glass .. but it kicks as% and is certainly loud and has a really really nice underpinning bottom end that just fills the whole cabin so well.
It makes my system sound serious and big.

The thing I like most is that it is not the usual nightclub in a car boom boom subwoofer.

For what its worth I listen to mostly Guitar Based Hard Rock type music from over the decades

[DarkStar]

My system for the longest time had a 10" 1800w Pioneer Competition Sub in a Ported Truck Box on the floor board. Hard for people to get in lol. But I didn't care, it hit hard.

However I am building a new system. First off, the Door speakers aren't hard to add if your car don't have them, I've honestly never heard of such a thing. I dislike my Dash Speakers even tho they are aftermarket. I have some MBQuartz in the doors and they sound amazing. The Dash Speakers overwhelm them and I can hear sounds I don't want to hear.

Anyway. I'm building an enclosure to replace the drop top, since my car is strictly hard top now. It will house 2 JL Audio 600wRMS 13" Subs. Before I decided to go all out, I was developing an enclosure for just one JL Audio 13". Under the Top when its down, is enough room for a very decent sized Fiberglass Enclosure. However if your not ok with fabbing up such a thing, JL Audio makes a dual 8" Ported Enclosure which sounds and hits really hard. And its virtually the same size, if not a lil smaller than the stock BOSE Sub. It fits in this location quite well, top down, up. And loooks pretty good too.

The Bose Sub is worthless. The Kicker and Infinity Hideaway subs are worthless. I've been working car audio for a long time and yes, while you can get some decent sound from those hideaway subs, they just aren't all that.

I've put one of these twin 8" JL Audio enclosures in my car just for test purposes and from everything I've seen on here for people's bass, I would have to say this would surpass them with ease in audio quality and bass output.

http://www.amazon.com/JL-Audio-CP208LG-W3v3-Subwoofer-Subwoofers/dp/B0082DIYBO

If you want to keep it simple and small, The Self Contained units are good for this.

My system is a lil out there for any of the typical Purists. I have an 8.4" Octa Core Computer in the Dashboard connected to a 5V Preamp Output Sony Reciever (top of the line in sony's book and only radio that has a legit App Remote program for Android or AOS) Then from there I have a 4Ch Amp Bridged to 2 Channels for the Door Speakers and a 1500x1 RMS Mono Amp connected to the 2 13's. But the enclosure isn't built yet since I'm lazy and overworked at the same time.