JL Audio subwoofer install
 

Like others in this group, I considered building a custom subwoofer enclosure for my car, but as I get older, I find that I have less interest in spending the time and effort to do so. So I started searching for a pre-made enclosure that would fit in the trunk, under the rear dash, without taking up too much trunk space. I found the perfect solution in the JL Audio CVS110RG-W6v2:

http://www.jlaudio.com/enclosures/CVS110RGW6v2.html

It contains one 10W6v2-D4 10" subwoofer, capable of handling 400W of continuous power at 2 ohm. The enclosure is 12.75"H x 16.00"W x 11.35"D.

For the amp, I selected the JL Audio e1400D, which puts out 400W RMS into 2 ohm:

http://www.jlaudio.com/amps/e1400.html

When it came time for installation, I decided to stop by my local Ultimate Electronics and meet the installer. He was very knowledgeable, and I felt comfortable leaving my car in his hands. He only charged me $100 for the install, including running a fused power line to the battery, remote turn on lead for the amp, tapping into the low-level pre-amp signals going into the Bose amp (thanks to several posters for providing this information), and securing the enclosure in the car.

The results are fantastic. It looks and sounds great! That little 10" sub can put out some serious bass.

Attached are a few pictures showing the sub in the car and the wiring. The amp was mounted to the rear of the enclosure, which is in between the enclosure and the rear seat, so you can't even see the amp when you look in the trunk.

If you're looking for a way to add great bass to your factory stereo without sacrificing your trunk, I highly recommend the two JL Audio products I chose.

-Carl

JL Audio is known for their sound quality on their subs. They've been in the business for a long time, and are not going to go anywhere. I have their top of the line W7 sub, and the W6v2's don't fall that much shorter than the W7. I'm am hoping that I'll be able to transfer my 12W7 over to my RX8, whenever I do get one.

I've been doing custom installs and everything, and this is a pretty clean setup, and I'm sure it gives you enough bass. How does it sound with the RX8 though? Are you able to feel it through the cabin and stuff or does it sound "contained" in the truck?

Nice install by the shop, but $100 for labor might be a little much, however, if you're going to go with top of the line stuff, I'm sure you'll be able to spare the $100 to save time on doing it yourself. Glad you like it!

Sound quality and install
 

The sound qualty is outstanding. It doesn't sound contained in the trunk at all. It's very clean and loud when cranked up.

I think $100 for the install was a good deal. He spent about 4 hours on it, something that would have taken me far longer. My time is worth more than $25/hr. :)

-Carl

Also, how about the rattles? The bad thing about the W7 is that it really takes a beating to my car, and I do not want to turn my RX8 into a rattle machine. Any sound deadning?

No rattles at all
 

I was concerened about potential rattles as well, but happily there isn't a single rattle at all. We were prepared to install some dynamat if needed, but there was no need to do so.

-Carl

carls,
Thanks for this thread. I was considering having a passthrough sub fabricated but the cost deterred me. The JL enclosure with a removable installation in behind the seat back might be perfect for me.

I went with the 2 10"s JL audio enclosure, link here and the 500/1 amp.
The box fits perfectly and hits very hard. I did the install myself and decided to dynamat the trunk and doors.
More pic's here.

Do you have a sunroof, and if so....does it rattle/leak when thumping?
I noticed the sunroof pops up when slamming the doors and figure it could leak if bass pressure wave pushes it up too.

im so jeolous i have i jl"10 and you have more trunk space than me and mines only a w0...but i like yours alot very nicely done looks very clean i like that

Considered two 10" subs
 

Very nice. I considered the two 10" enclosure as well, but I didn't want to use up that much space. The one 10" sounds really good, so I can imagine the two 10" subs sound even better.

-Carl

No sunroof rattle
 

I don't have any rattles at all, not even from the sunroof.

-Carl

In the next week I will be having my own sub installed as well...and I am totally ignorant of car audio. I have read several threads in here in regards to tapping into the Bose system, so is this information, "tapping into the low-level pre-amp signals going into the Bose amp," all that I need to tell the installer in regards to particulars for the 8?

Low level signals
 

The installer will need to know which wires to tap into. If you search this forum for terms like "speaker wiring diagram" or "low level bass", you should be able to find some threads that talk about this. There's one in particular that has some good pictures and diagrams.

-Carl

If you don't mind me asking where did you get that encloser? I can't find it on the web anywhere.

thanks

Ed

I purchased my sub enclosure (CVS110RG-W6v2) and amp (e1400D) from BC Electronics:

http://www.bcelectron.com/

I dealt with Warren, who was a pleasure to work with, and gave me great deals on the two products I bought from him.

-Carl

8 inch sub mounted in passthrough
 

Well I also found the sound lacking in my new Rx8 so before I modified the performance of the car i fixed the sound.

I installed in the trunk mounted against the back seat a JL 250/1 amp. The amp is plenty for my bass needs. I then tried out some speakers. I started with a basic JL 10w0 which I drove around for a few days. The result was way too much bass relative to the rest of the music. Actually with the 10W0 in a box in the trunk it was so much bass that you could not hear anything else.

"turn it down!". Ok so I turned the amp down but that seemed silly to have so much woofer turned down so I tried the JL 8W3v2 instead. The JL 8W3v2 is actually more expensive than the 10W0 and with good reason. It is very responsive and plays with a lot more punch than it 10" cousin.

I removed the storage bin that is attached to the center console/trunk passthrough and built a subwoofer enclosure for the speaker that mounts into that space. The space is 9" across so it holds the 8" sub quite nicely. Then I got the rear rotary accent and cut a hole in the rear passthrough cover to match it exactly and used the rear rotary accent as my porthole. So for those counting rotary symbols on the car I now have one more.

I tuned the amp to play only those parts of the music starting at 65Hz and lower. The result is that the sub produces only those bass frequencies missing from the factory installed 300w bose system.

The result has been excellent bass and almost no missing trunk space.

I will attach pics is anyone is interested.

Cuzzin

pics please

Anyone interested in custom 8" sub enclosures built specifically for the 8W3v2 and the RX-8 trunk, see this thread here. :D

I have uploaded my pics here. http://www.msnusers.com/RX8Sub/

Total time to do the entire thing was 4 hours.

Basically the box was built to fit into the trunk with the speaker pointing out the passthrough. the entire thing (speaker and amp) are hidden by a piece of board covered with material to match the trunk fabric. you can determine the total trunk space lost by checking out sub04.jpg and sun005.jpg. You can see the tire repair kit still half exposed. The faux back was cut to allow the tire kit to remain in its original position.

Dynamat (visible in some photos) was added to cut down on some slight vibration during some pounding bass music. The pass trhrough cover also has dynamat on the inside (not shown). Fibre fill was added inside the speaker enclosure.

Cuzzin