Sub Woofer Installation, Tried to get better Audio without carving up the car Options

[ctc911ctc]

All,

Been silent, very cold - garage is a 100 year old Yankee version, no heat.....will not hold any. So, my 17yr old son and I decided to upgrade the speakers (the old ones were absent any cone material).

Found a set of KFC-4675C (kenwood) that fit the spec, integrated mid range and tweeter. Now for the low range. We decided that carving up the car and running a large alternator and battery was not for this car, we are trying to restore it to 80-90 points. So we are using a passive crossover, the original tuner with a power amp that was installed in the 80s, still works (both units are Blauplunkt). We have about 40 watts - more than enough for the size of the car.

When we rebuilt the car we installed sound deadening material in the engine bay, passenger compartment and will put it in the trunk. Amazing how quiet the car seems in the passenger compartment now.

My son had the idea to install the Subwoofer in the engine compartment, cut through the back seat - had to explain the concept of FireWall to him, we looked at a dozen other places and settled on what I think is a very elegant solution.


Our car is a '74 2.0, Silver. So it has a center console. We are installing it there!



First, where should the speaker go????



Wow - no particle board - furniture grade ply!



Peel back the Vinyl, careful!



Counter sync for flush hidden finish



Score the vinyl, perhaps we can STRETCH it!



Heat gun and PULL, gently



Look at that circle, no wood showing, barely a wrinkle!



Add a screen



Bolt that Micro SubWoofer in place



What the Passenger will see



Perfect Fit



Passive Crossover


Will post a note as to how this sounds in a few weeks (months?)

[R Dub]

ctc911ctc what sub did you go with? Also have you installed it yet? If so how does it sound?

[ctc911ctc]

How does it sound?

In the 70's I worked at Miller Audio on Wilshire in Beverly Hills. They made subwoofers called the M&K 1, then 2, then 3, etc. The drivers were suspended speakers and needed an unported enclosure. Took one home and paired it with two satellite speakers from Pyramid. $$$$$


I then studied EE and always read the acoustic proceedings of the IEEE. When I started making money I spent a great deal on audiophile-grade components chasing THD, sonic coupling and other audiophile absurdities seeking the perfect sound. Back at Miller audio, they started pressing Direct-to-Disk recordings to also chase the perfect sound. Such a holy grail.

My ears are now old - the sub-woofer in the car sounds great to me and my 18-year-old son who did the work loves the sound.

All that said for the following. In a small enclosure, a lot of what has been said on this thread is not necessary. We used a driver that did not require acoustic suspension (airtight enclosure) since it is very stiffly suspended, We used the middle counsel as the enclosure with the ports being the top and front opening. Bass waves at 10-300hz are very large, so getting great bass in such a small space and driver is difficult. Most audio engineers use acoustic coupling to the entire car just to get close to a small fraction of Lamda. However, we spent a great deal of time welding the car back together so I am against putting an audio jackhammer inside the car assaulting every component of the automobile.

Here is the driver we used:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NHTXXN...=UTF8&psc=1

Also, we used a passive crossover and a 400-watt amp (peak) - make certain the amp only goes on when you are using it - ask me why I say this! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif)

What I like most is not having to cut the car apart (holes in the doors) - we put in new Jenson speakers within the original enclosure and also used the original radio to turn on the power amp and to play the radio, though my son plays his phone most of the time. 70's rock is his favorite - Seriously!

Send pictures of your system and your decisions.....

No matter what you do, you probably won't listen very often, the engine sounds too cool! A good friend has a Ferrari with a very high-end audio system installed. When I asked him how it sounds he replied that he never turned it on.......then we went through a tunnel.......THAT'S MUSIC..........ahhhhh (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

ctc911ctc what sub did you go with? Also have you installed it yet? If so how does it sound?