Recommeded area to place a 12" if possible

[YELLOW KalviNSX]

I have a 12" audiobahn sub with a RF bd 1000 amp. Does anybody have any recommendation to place the sub or should I just keep it factory? I would like to place it in the front where the spare tire sit, but I doubt it will fit. What you'll think about the trunk space? Has anyone try placing it there before?

Note: I brought the 12" sub because I was thinking about buying a supercrew truck, but the plan went into a new and exotic direction.

 

[Zishan]

If you dont already know, the NSX has a joke of a subwoofer in the passanger footwell. Its about 5 - 6 inches I believe. You can do a search, people do upgrade to a 10 inch box to replace the factory one, sometimes a 12 inch sub too. Off the top of my head, I know Andy Buzz makes them. Also Dali sells a nice one too, but I think they are both for 10 inch subs.
Also, placing a sub in the spare tire area is completely worthless IMHO.
Regards
- Z

 

[D'Ecosse]

Sorry, Z - lots of bad info here ......

..... the NSX has a joke of a subwoofer in the passanger footwell. Its about 5 - 6 inches I believe.

Yes it's a joke, nothing like 5-6" however - it is a 4"

..... sometimes a 12 inch sub too....

I don't know of any 12" subs out there in that space in an NSX but if there is I can guarantee it doesn't work worth a damn unless it's occupying most of the floor area in the passenger foot-space! There are probably a lot of 10" subs out there in NSX's but few are likely working to their specifications.

..... Off the top of my head, I know Andy Buzz makes them. Also Dali sells a nice one too, but I think they are both for 10 inch subs.

Both do have a custom-fit box available for the NSX - However, Dali's is clearly listed as for an 8" Eclipse (will sell bare shell or together with the speaker); Andy Buzz is not specified & he will customize it your requirements but good luck finding a 10" speaker that will work properly in that size enclosure - it's much better suited to 8" also. Neither will accommodate most 10" subs that will be able to perform in that volume.

I believe you can fit a fit 10" sub in the NSX footwell, but that is not a generic statement: first you must find a speaker that has been specifically designed to work in a small volume (by small I mean less than 0.5 cu ft); that will require a custom enclosure anyway as neither of the above is close to that. Generally 10" subs will require more than that anyway - most people can't really conceptualize just how big a 0.5 cube box is! - a lot bigger than most imagine.

If you are happy to compromise on your passenger space legroom, then go ahead & build a custom box to accomodate, just make sure you understand the volume requirements for the speaker you select. You must also remember to add the speaker displacement volume to the required air-space to get the net volume.

Generally I would recommend you sell/trade the 12" for a smaller speaker that will end up sounding a whole lot better. Also to bear in mind the custom boxes for Dali are Buzz are both likely to be at least 2x the price of the speaker itself.

..... Also, placing a sub in the spare tire area is completely worthless IMHO

Got to agree with you there, Z!

 

[Zishan]

Sorry, Z - lots of bad info here ......

Yes it's a joke, nothing like 5-6" however - it is a 4"


I don't know of any 12" subs out there in that space in an NSX but if there is I can guarantee it doesn't work worth a damn unless it's occupying most of the floor area in the passenger foot-space! There are probably a lot of 10" subs out there in NSX's but few are likely working to their specifications.


Both do have a custom-fit box available for the NSX - However, Dali's is clearly listed as for an 8" Eclipse (will sell bare shell or together with the speaker); Andy Buzz is not specified & he will customize it your requirements but good luck finding a 10" speaker that will work properly in that size enclosure - it's much better suited to 8" also. Neither will accommodate most 10" subs that will be able to perform in that volume.

I believe you can fit a fit 10" sub in the NSX footwell, but that is not a generic statement: first you must find a speaker that has been specifically designed to work in a small volume (by small I mean less than 0.5 cu ft); that will require a custom enclosure anyway as neither of the above is close to that. Generally 10" subs will require more than that anyway - most people can't really conceptualize just how big a 0.5 cube box is! - a lot bigger than most imagine.
If you are happy to compromise on your passenger space legroom, then go ahead & build a custom box to accomodate, just make sure you understand the volume requirements for the speaker you select. You must also remember to add the speaker displacement volume to the required air-space to get the net volume.

Yeah, some wrong info, just off the top of my head. But I have been told that you can fit a 12 inch sub in the passanger footwell. Now, how good it will sound with which ever sub is clearly subjective with out proof. But again, I was told it can be done and sound great from several people at the cost a 1 - 2 inches in leg room. Again, what I've been told.
Regards
- Z

 

[demigod]

I don't know about putting a sub under the hood. But I have my Amp under the hood in my mr2, theres a lil more room under the hood of the mr2 so I didn't have to remove the spare tire.

 

[Texas91Brent]

Blaupunkt makes a 12 that will fit... it is flat about 3" deep? and requires little air space....

 

[D'Ecosse]

Yeah, some wrong info, just off the top of my head. But I have been told that you can fit a 12 inch sub in the passanger footwell. Now, how good it will sound with which ever sub is clearly subjective with out proof. But again, I was told it can be done and sound great from several people at the cost a 1 - 2 inches in leg room. Again, what I've been told.
Regards
- Z

Wasn't intended to be a slam, Z, but you have to be careful about offering what appears to be facts as references for people looking for info. You can't necessarily believe everything "you are told" and good advice is try to validate the information rather than simply accepting unquestioningly - that goes for mine too! (even though I attempt to validate information I am suggesting before posting)

A decent quality 12" like
this one from Elemental Designs requires a recommended 1.0 cubic foot but will operate in a range of 0.7 - 1.2 cu ft. This is a very efficient speaker (one of lowest volumes out there for 12") and a highly recommended component in an affordable range by many audiophiles.
Now even at the lower end of that, 0.7 cubes is still a huge box for that space: first there is the problem of just trying to fit that diameter, let alone the volume; a 12" speaker is 12.5" diameter and the overall dimension of the Buzz box for example is 12.5" - that means you need at least another 1" top & bottom, so would require a 14.5 " tall box just to accommodate the speaker diameter. The only way that will fit is to make the box have the "front" be at a more aggressive angle (i.e. towards horizontal rather than vertical); this also means that effect will reduce the volume even less, than if you could mount it more vertically.
Next to the volume - as described above, now you're looking at perhaps trying to fit even more volume into an angular space - even considering a 14.5" x 14.5" face that still would require a depth of 5.75" asssuming you could fit a perfect rectangular box in there; the reality is because of the wedge shape you would need (both for the shape of the well & because of the comporomise to fit the overly large face) it would probably require more realistically 12" depth.
Waaaaayyyy more than a 1-2" loss of legroom.
Bottom line, don't even try it. Better to buy the 8" from that Elemental Designs line and an Andy Buzz box & be done with it.

The most compact 12" Blaupunkt I could find their overdrive series does indeed have shallow mounting - doesn't count for much when you need volume anyway plus the face size issues highlighted above.
http://www.blaupunktusa.com/BlaupunktUSA/Products/Speakers/Overdrive/Subwoofer/ODw1200.htm Supposedly they recommend 0.5 - 1.5 cubes (web site has very little product data) but the test report I found on a search used a full cube. Even at the same 0.5 cube volume, the 12 speaker will extend further into the passenger space than a 10 utilizing the same volume, because of the face size requirement stated above. Makes the 2" mounting depth irrelevant.

Clarification: I'm not saying it can't be done with a 10 or 12, just realize the consequences & compromises of using such a large component in a small space the NSX can afford (or requires)
I myself am using a 10" speaker that requires a net 0.45 cu ft.

 

[NSXCessive]

I'm not saying it can't be done with a 10 or 12, just realize the consequences & compromises of using such a large component in a small space the NSX can afford (or requires)
I myself am using a 10" speaker that requires a net 0.45 cu ft.

I have to agree here, I install an Infinty Kappa Perfect 10.1 in a custom box. There is loss of leg room, as the box comes up just before the air vent. The sub I used requires 0.6cu. ft. sealed. I believe I got around 0.7~0.8cu. ft in the fiberglass/MDF box I had made. The sub also has a mounting depth of almost 6 inches as well. It does sound great, but remember you will loose a bit of leg room depending on how big you make the sub box. I do think a 12" is overkill, now that I installed my new 10 I think its overkill as well. There are subs out there that are alot more shallow in depth that my Infinity. But I love the way it sounds!

See here for more info on my install:
Click Here!

 

[YELLOW KalviNSX]

That look real nice. I like that. How much did it cost you to customize it?

 

[Darkcyd]

My setup utilizes a 10" inverted sub in the passenger footwell.

http://www.illusionaudio.com/illusion/Driversx.html

The bass isn't anything like the two 12" JL's I had in my previous car, but it does the trick.

 

[robr]

i used the same sub, the illusion audio, only i havent ponied up the $$$ for a custom box yet. i just slapped together a box of MDF for now and put a little lip on it and stuck the lip behind my harness bar to hold the sub in place .

 

[robr]

oh and as darkcyd said, nice bass, but it wont be tearing your head off. like him once again, i also had jl's in my previous car, no comparison, but we're talking much more power going to the JL's too.

<img src="http://www.nema.com/nsx/dc0015m.jpg">

 

[YELLOW KalviNSX]

Good lord, you need that much bass. How much rms output were you using per each JL sub? Nice system.

 

[robr]

The three JL Audio 10W6 subs were driven by a Phoenix Gold ZPA 0.5 amp, which is conservatively rated at 1000x1 (for competition purposes, the lower the published output, the better - IASCA classes this amp as a 150x2). I ran two, so was in the 301-600 category running somewhere in the neighborhood of 1500-2000 watts. (I had a second PG ZPA0.5 running a set of Dynaudio System 340's up front). Basically it's what they call a "cheater amp" in the audio competition circuit, though there are FAR FAR worse cheater amps (like amps with 10w ratings putting out 1000w at insanely low impedences ).

 

[YELLOW KalviNSX]

I am not a audio pro. Could you give an idea of how good my system is? I have a Rockford Fosgate 1000bd with a 12" audiobahn flame sub. Rockford fosgate claimed that the amp will produced 500 rms output per channel at 2 ohm stage. Since the sub is 4 ohm dual coil, I could parallel connect and drop the ohm to 2. Is it correct to say that the amp will produced 1000 rms output to drive the sub?

 

[robr]

honestly the equipment is only a small part of the quality of your audio system, the much larger part is the install and the sound. you can have the best equipment in the world, if it's installed like crap and set up improperly, it's possible for a system 1/10th of its price to sound much much better.

now the equipment you have is certainly decent equipment with excellent potential. as far as the rockford fosgate and your subs, yes, if you wire the 4 ohm voice coils in parallel, you're looking at 1000 watts into two ohms (per the specs on that amp). Are you running them in series at 8 ohms right now (I have no idea how much power that amp puts out into an 8 ohm mono load)? Just another little tidbit, doubling the wattage to a given set of drivers only increases the loudness by a mere 3dB, so if you were running 500 watts, going to 1000 on the same subs will result in a barely perceptable increase in volume.