rx8 install started...want bass with no sacrifice in space? :)
 

brought my freinds rx8 to the shop yesterday and started building the system...his main requirements were good sound quality, retain as much trunk space as possible, and have a little bit of flash...

after thinking about it for a while, i decided instead of trying to build as small of a sub enclosure as possible in the trunk, why not have NO box in the trunk...? :) since my freind mainly listens to asian pop and techno, we dont need tons and tons of sub 20hz bass.

so this is what I came up with, i modified and fiberglass the back center cover and turned it into a sealed enclosure of about .3 cubfeet for two jl 6w0s. Hooked it up briefly with an amp from another car, and listened to some songs, and to be honest, it sounded very good, similar to a good 10 in the trunk :)

if you are not famaliar with the jl 6w0s, they are a true subwoofer, good response down to 20-30hz, and with two of them with in the confines of the small cabin of hte rx8, they really rock...

i think if you are into bass that shakes your neighborhood and or listens to lots of hiphop, this set up may not be good for you, but if you are like my freind who enjoys some good low end reinforcements, dont want to loose any more of that already tiny trunk, and dont want to add lots of weight, this would be a good solution for ya :)

probaly have to wait week before i can put up more pics since I got two more customers waiting :)

http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/images/rx81.jpg
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/images/rx82.jpg
http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/images/rx83.jpg

I am doing something very similar to that except I refuse to cut into the factory plastic piece. I need something much more rigid.

I dont know if that will sound that great but it looks awesome

taht center peice is reinforced with 8 layers of fiberglass, and is more rigid than 3/4" mdf wood. :) and he enclosure behind it is 8 layer of fiberglass as well :)

its sounds fine, if you have ever heard a dodge viper or similar set up, you will know what i mean :)

b

can you take some pic from behind the sub
from the boot
thanks

I like it. You just described me exactly. What would something like that cost and what is an approximate of how much it all weighs when finished?

that is just too sweet! it wouldnt work for me since i like have more low end resonation, but damn that is an awesome install!


now you just need a cover with material on it (like a home stereo speaker) to go more stealth when you want it to not be seen, or leave it open when you want to show off

great work . and a pic from inside the trunk would be great

well, the trunk part is not done yet, i had some free time today between working on other cars so I decided to do the sub box...i will have more pics of the completed install next weekend or so, but basically,t he idea is i am going to have a flat amp racked with the amp trimed in red with some aluminum deocation, so basically the total loss of trunk space is less than 3" :)

as for weight, i acutally weighed it, the box, with the two subs, is about 28 lbs...thats 8 layers of fiberglass and another 3 layers of dampening.

as for covering, JL acutally makes little grilles that cover them, whcih i plan to get if my friend wants it, with his tint, you cant really see them, and that is a pretty unlikely place for htem to get damanged...and i used security screws, and the box is LOCKABLE, hehe

I like that setup a lot. Your idea of one sub instead of two sounds like that would fit me perfectly.

Just wondering where you're located at?

i am a small one person shop in Pittsburgh, PA, i focus primarily on custom installs that are clean yet cost effective...

***moderator edit***

i would suggest you guys to demo a 6w0 at your local JL dealer to see if the amount of bass is what you want, most good jl dealers should keep one or two in a small box ready to put in a car and hook up.

b

Apologies to the moderator about listing my website in the posting, everything is in my signature now...

:)

Now if you just would finish that work.... and I could buy one of those boxes already :p
This wait is killing me... your 8" sub box and OverLOAD's aux-in module. Aarrghh...
If this continues the way it is now, I'll probably have to look into going this route that 16psibrick just described... and resort to an FM modulator for the MP3 player. Ugh... :eek:

i thought about going with an 8 in there, but decided against it for a few reasons, it would look kind too big, it would require too big of a box behind it, and the whole hting would be much harder to fabricate and personally, i think two 6w0s will match the sound of a good 8" sub, unless of course, you are talking about a jl 82w7, crystal cmp8 or such, but I odnt see any chance of those subs fitting :)

b

Two questions: does the passthrough door rattle when the subs are active and did you consider using an infinite baffle sub instead to completely eliminate the need for a sub box?

If it was an infinite baffle I could see using quick disconnects so you could still use the passthrough for its intended purpose when needed. That would be neat.
________
Mary Jane

no rattling from the box itself, after hte fiberglass build up, three adiditonal layers of dampening was placed inside and on the baffle, the thing is DEAD...and the seats left and right whcih sandwiches the enclosure seem to help wiht the rattling as well.

as far as infinite baffle, the problem is that the 6w0s are not intended for IB applications...but I do thinkit is an option for a much easier install...perhaps with a single ib8... yet another option that could work well is a aperiodic enclosure behind the subs...whcih you can do with the 6w0s...

all in all i thinkt here are quite a few options with idea, this is jsut my solution this time :)

16psibrick, if you get a chance, please post pictures of the backside and if possible, something about the fiberglass reinforcement you made... thanks.

That looks great. :)

will do, i will get some pics hopefully in a week or so, right now, the car is sitting back at my house (myfreind is away in cali for a month), and I am working on other cars, but i wildefinetly post more pics...

That looks excellent. Pretty much what I was thinking of, when I get around to doing something about the sound.

I must agree, that really looks great man.

WOW.... definitely what i want also ..... looks sooo CLEAN .... what other speakers could i get if i listen to hip-hop and wanted the bass to sound like a good JL 10" sub?????

well, if you want it to look like that, the 6w0 is about your only bet, but if you want to enjoy hip hop or similar mucho bass material, a kicker solo 8 maybe the best bet, but it woudl require significantly more work than this, i would think its best not to use the stock piece...

as good as the 6w0s are, they jyust dont have that sub 30hz sound a real 10 can delier, aobve it, i think two of them will match the output of say a 10w0 or so...:)

b

So i have to either choose the sub box in the trunk with kickin bass.... or the not so kickin bass but nice looking 6s in the rear seat..... im so sad there is no in between....

I'm with you there. As much as I love the way that rear seat setup looks, I somehow can't shake the feeling like that's a break-in just waiting to happen. A little to tempting to some stupid kids :(

Yes can we have pics from the trunk ?

does anyone have ANY POSSIBLE SOLUTION... so i can satisfy my need for a great lookin system... such as the rear seat JL 6 setup which saves the whole trunk space... with the kickin bass sound so i can blast my hiphop.... please.... anyone....

bulding the amp rack as we speak, should have pix tommorow night of the entire hting :)

as for that kickin bass, then I would suggest spending more time (money) and putting a kicker s8l7 in there, and give it a good 4-500 watts, it will really rock and move your hair, i haveinstalled a single l5 in a tacoma double cab with only about 250 watts, and it really did move the air much similar to the way a single 12 with 3-400 watts does when its mounted in the trunk, so I am sure with an l7 and power, it can be done.

the reason why i say more work is that one, the entire front end of the cover piece wil need to be molted to acoomdate the width of the 8, cuase the cover piece is slightly curved, the ends o fhte sub will not sit flush, where as the 6.5" subs essentially sit flush with the flat part of the cover piece, with only a mm or so of overhang with is sealed by the sub's rubber gasket...also, a small portion of the sub box will need to be extended intot eh trunk since hte kicker sub will need about .5 cub feet or so to sound good. but it certianly can be done.

as for theives, i havenoticed a few things that i think make this set up not so eye catching, first, with the dark tint this car has, unless y9u are standing right in front of hte car looking straight in, the subs cannot be seen, secondly, most people dont seem to look over there at all, and ifnally, i think i amg oing to get the grille JL sells for the two subs so the bright white JL audio symbol cannot be seen and make the whole thing even more stealthy and looking part of the car...

if you think about it this way, the firstplace a theif is going to look to be stealing stuff is thet runk, and if you put subs and amps back there, there is no saving them at all :(

b

Oh how i wish 16psibrick was closer... dang man... i dunno if i could do all the work myself... since i am a novice at anything to do with systems.....

anyways... so two 8" S8L7 kickers and i need to make it flush to the cover piece ???? what about the new kicker SL8L7s??? are they any good.... or do JL make 8" subs also????

just looked at ur website..... nice custom stuff 16psi..... after lookin at the systems in the site.... maybe i should get a JL 10" w7 and mount it to the bottom of my trunk and get a plexiglass lid???? how would i do that????

well, some asnwers:

1. no way you can fit two s8l7 in there, not enoughroom, i was saying ONE s8l7.

2. if you want to do a jl w7 in the trunk facing up, you are going to have no trunk space left, cause the rx8 does not have a deep trunk well to do a fiberglass trunk tray in.

basically, your option sare limited, i you want to the s8l7 in the seat back, its gonna probably cost you quite a bit, if you want do do a sub facing back wards in the trunk, you willg et lots of bass but loose a lot of trunk space :o

its basicaly the whole loudness versus trunk space debate

This is all i have to say..... :(

One last question.... please bear with me because i am a noob.... i would think that the 2 JL 6" subs would kick more than one 8" kicker no?? maybe even kick as hard as a 10"????? All im looking for is a clean bass tone for hip hop... i kno that most hiphop heads tend to like the nasty rattling ear damaging bass from like 2 12"s but i just want a clean bang.....

They have more surface area, so they can in theory produce more sound pressure. However, the problem is that their extension is not as good, add that with their being smaller and you have a recipe for less low-end frequency response. Basically, they may "hit" as hard, but most certainly not as "deep". If you want low end "rumble" and strong, deep, lows look for a larger woofer (or power the piss out of smaller ones and extremely limit their response range). In essence, it's much easier to get lower bass with a larger woofer. Of course, lower bass also requires more power just by nature of the sign wave.

Ummm...probably getting over your head. Simple fact, smaller woofers (in general) = less sound pressure at lower frequencies.

Good point. Do you think you could post pictures after you install the grill from inside and outside the car? Is there anyway to be rid of the bright white symbol? I have yet to tint any of the windows. I'd really appreciate it, thanks!