4080 Box Installed - Very Nice!!!!
 

As some of you may notice we don't spend a lot of time in the IAE forum, mostly because we sell performance parts and not too much in the way of Audio and Electronics. However, I like a decent stereo as much as the next guy, and have put subs into every car I've owned. I'm not an audiophile-type, and don't really know a ton about what's good and what isn't, but every time I've upgraded a stereo I've been happy with the results. So I keep doing it :).

The problem with the RX-8 is that is has a small trunk, and generates some pretty incredible cornering forces. We are on track (road course) at LEAST 10 times a year, but I've also driven in a spirited manner once or twice on the road. So I needed a box that I could secure very well yet be easily removable, or one I could just install securely and not worry about regardless of what I was doing. And it needed to be small enough so I could still get a full-size spare in the trunk for longer trips and track days.

Anyway, Jedi54 showed me a pic of his trunk while contemplating suspension upgrades, and I liked the look of the boxes he had in there. He told me to PM 4080. I did, and sent him money, and in a week I had a passenger-side box. Dug up my JL PowerWedge with a 10W0 in it, and swapped the woofer into the 4080 box. Looked on here to figure out amp wiring, which I must thank G8rboy for :). Mounted a board on the back of the back seat to install the amp on. A pain to do, but it's working well thus far. Installed amp and box, and I've been quite happy with it ever since. The bass really integrates with the Bose system nicely; it won't knock you out of the car, but it definitely fills out the bottom end and will hit hard enough to annoy passengers if you so desire.

Though probably unneeded, I used an old Prodrive battery tiedown I had lying around for an additional brace (screwed into the trunk floor) to keep the box from going anywhere. I doubt it's necessary and no one recommended it, but I like things to be VERY solidly mounted in my car so they don't go flying about when on track. Otherwise, the box fits perfectly as advertised, and looks to be a very high quality part. It's not the cheapest thing in the world at $299, but in this business you get what you pay for and I got exactly what I wanted for a fair price. The car has a little over 200 track miles on it since the install, and the box has not moved a millimeter. Really couldn't ask for better.

Other relevant install details that one may or may not care about....

- The amp is an old Crossfire CFA202. I believe it pushes out 125W RMS bridged into 4 ohms. Which matches up perfectly with the old 10W0 that wants right about that much power. With a bigger amp and more woofer, I've no doubt you could make the thing really hit, but this setup is excellent for me.

- Something that was never clear to me in any other post was whether you had to use a Line-Out Converter when splicing into the wires before the factory amp to turn it into an RCA-cable signal, or if you could just splice directly into the OEM wires before the amp and go directly to the amp's speaker-level inputs. Turns out the latter works great. Really a seamless integration in fact; I'm confident that you could convince someone (who didn't know stereos too well) it's a factory setup by the sound and the appearance of the 4080 box.

- Notes for the pics below; yes, that's a Subaru trunk liner. I've had lots of Subarus, and when cut up it fits well enough. The red knob poking out near the amp on the shock tower is a Tokico adjustment cable. The Prodrive tiedown is screwed directly into the trunk floor. There's not much under the trunk, so nothing critical to hit when drilling the pilot holes for those screws. At least I don't think there is, the car is still running :).

http://www.dpeweb.com/GalleryImages/rx8sub3.jpg

http://www.dpeweb.com/GalleryImages/rx8sub2.jpg

http://www.dpeweb.com/GalleryImages/rx8sub.jpg

http://www.dpeweb.com/GalleryImages/rx8sub5.jpg

http://www.dpeweb.com/GalleryImages/rx8sub6.jpg

Looks good and I'm glad to hear happy feedback as I am going to be ordering one.

Is it just me or do you have a Subaru mat in your 8?

congrats on the install DPE, I'm glad to hear you're happy with it! :rock:

nice setup.

but i'v always wonder if you putting 2 4080, amp(s) and all into the trunk... thats would probably closes to 70-80LB... would that upset the 50/50 balance of the car?

DPE: did you tap the rear speakers for those subs? If so, I'm pretty sure you're going to need a line converter.

sweet setup!

i think you just helped me make my decision on getting this box. Especially since the box is no where near the suspension adjustment cables is a plus because i change the settings often. I just wish that this box was made for a 12" sub.

how easy is it to remove this box if needed?

Yup, that's a Subaru mat in there. Cut to fit, but it works :).

I only have one box, which with the sub weighs I believe about 25lbs. Box by itself is about 15lbs if I recall. Then my amp is all of 6lbs. So you're adding at most 35lbs to the car, which isn't enough to notice in a 3000lb street car. It didn't feel any different on track sliding around at 11/10ths anyway :). Now if you were an avid autocrosser and every pound counts, that's different. But I am usually not competing for time, so it doesn't matter to me. And that said, the box would be quite easy to remove and reinstall if you were competing and wanted it out of there on weekends.

I tapped the rear speaker wires before the Bose OEM amp. Just used the little splice-connector deals. Then ran the wires from there directly into my speaker-level inputs on the Crossfire amp. Gain is all the way up, and one might argue that you don't get enough bass out of it at low volume levels, but to me it sounds just fine. Plays clean up to MAX on music like DMB, and is fine into the upper 20s for some of the heavy-duty rap. Might be fine at MAX on rap as well, but my old ears can't take it :).

I really can't say enough in regard to how well-integrated it sounds; and maybe that's because I'm shortchanging how much signal the amp sees due to how I wired it. If you want a ton of bass at low volume levels, my way won't work as there's no real 'Loudness' control or way to boost up the sub with the OEM HU and my amp (I do have a bass boost switch and it is on, but doesn't boost it a ton). But like I said, it sounds great to my non-audiophile ears. I don't anticipate changing a thing for as long as I have the car. Except maybe getting the Mazda MP3/CD player; mine skips pretty badly, and I hear that's an improvement. . .

As far as removing it, I could take mine out in about 3 minutes and that's with unscrewing the battery tiedown from the floor. It's basically just shoved into the corner and has a metal tab on top that fits under the trunk seal rather cleverly. Friction with the carpet keeps it in place just fine as I understand it, I'm just a paranoid type so I added the tiedown.

You're going to burn up your head unit because you tapped before the bose amp. You need either the soundgate locb.2 or you need to tap it after the bose amp.

DPE,
I asked Rasp to post here since he was the brains behind my stereo install. I'll see if I can find the link to the soundgate unit I used.

The bose head unit sends a differential signal to the bose amp. Tapping that signal without the proper adapter is almost as bad as running the pre-amp wires directly to ground.

maybe rasp can help me out with my system too when i get the box and hardware this summer :bowdown:

Interesting. Yes, do tell me what I need to do here. Generally on stereos in the past I've done aftermarket HUs as well, so obviously just used the RCA outputs on those.

I'm not even doubting you, but can you tell me in a bit more detail why this will ultimately fry the HU? Not enough resistance because I've opened up another path? And then of course the next question is what does the Soundgate deal do to alleviate that problem?

Thanks for the help, sorry for being dumb! Now you know why I don't post very often in here. Ask me about suspension mods and brake theory. . . :)

I'm also interested in the 'frying' problem. I'm installing my sub today and was planning on wiring it just like DPE did and like a million other posts say to do. I haven't read anything about needing an extra part in between.

Check the stickies in this section, it's been discussed to death.

(in a nutshell: after tapping either pre- or post-Bose amp signals, using aftermarket amp speaker level inputs is as safe as using a LOC to feed the RCA inputs; however if you don't have speaker-level inputs and choose to use the pre-Bose signal to feed the RCA inputs directly w/o a LOC, that's where badness occurs)

eug, thanks for the info. I did go look around a bit more per your suggestion, and indeed a couple others in the Sticky thread say the way I did it is just fine. I didn't touch the RCA inputs on the amp, just speaker-level.

Are there still dissenting views here, or was it just not clear exactly how I wired it?

Ok stupid question (new owner)...Where is your spare?

I don't believe he has the spare tire kit as it was an option. My car has it, but I almost want to remove it.

RL - Spare's are actually hard to find on this forum ( at least the audio forum i'm not sure about the others) they are VERY rare. I sold mine when i got my first system, I'll just use the mazda roadside or the emergency repair kit if I ever need them.

DPE: here's the Line Output Converter I used:
http://www.logjamelectronics.com/sounlocbosli.html

I have the spare tire kit. It came with my car when I bought it (whoever the first owner was must have asked for it). Anyway, is it safe to take it out? I mean, has anyone ever had any problems where they kick themselves for not having it? Granted, I will and NEVER have driven around on a donut unless it was an emergency.

I really want to put in my box from my last car, but I don't have the room. Something like what you did would be awesome.

DPE,

I'm glad your happy with your box.

My car was the test car for the box and they wanted me to drive it like hell to see if it stayed in place. So I turned off the DSC and fishtaled my car in every which manner I could. The box did a very good job of staying in place.

I don't think the brace in the floor you added is necessary, but it couldn't hurt.

-Mr. Wigggles

Ps. that is a pretty clever place to store extra quarts of oil. I think I will do the same.

love the setup, I've been spending many hours on creating the exact same setup. My box is almost done, SO TIME CONSUMING, but I will be sure to post pictures of the final product. I've also been researching where to tap for the LOC, and I think it is very clear now. I've got one 12'' type r with the MRD-M605, (600 watts at 2ohms) so I'm sure it'll be bumping :rock:

Mr. Wiggles: I thought that's what that spot was for, to store two extra quarts of oil and a rag; fits perfectly :). Also, it was actually some of your posts that I referenced saying my wiring job was fine and won't hurt anything. The dissenters have not come back to tell me otherwise, so I'm hoping this is okay? Pre-Bose amp tapped directly into speaker-level on the amp? Hate to belabor the point, but want to be 100% sure there all think this is okay.

Yes, I'm sure my brace on the floor is overkill, but now it literally can't go anywhere. On track I'm quite sure an RX-8 can sustain well over 1g in corners (at speed you generate notably more cornering force than on a skidpad, so keep that in mind), so I just wanted to guarantee there wouldn't be an untimely departure from the corner of the trunk.

Nope, no spare on my car. I do take a snow tire with me on trips to tracks that are far from home, just in case I get a nail or something happens to a tire. Hate to have to use the fix-a-flat crap. Once the Avons on my car are toast, which is coming up all too soon, I'll pick the best one, mount it on an extra wheel I have, and make it a full-size, full-use spare. We've had another guy have a weekend trip to the track ruined by a tire getting cut on the drive down, so it's a decent precaution. And since I got a 4080 box that fits so nicely out of the way, I can still easily get a full-size spare in the trunk along with various tools as needed :).

I'm sure it's common enough on this forum, but crikey mcgregor, a nice 12" sub with 600 watts feeding into it? Yeah, I think it'll be bumping just fine!

Thanks for the positive review DPE! It's nice to hear good comments like this from my customers.

I have plenty boxes in stock and ready to ship. PM me for pricing and other questions you may have.

Our website is not yet complete but you should check it out:

www.4080enclosures.com