I'm wrestling over where to put a sub in my car. I would like to put it in a morph sub kit and have it hidden with my cocoa mats. Either way the mats would completely cover the speaker grill.

Is this a waste of time, in other words will those heavy mats just muffle out the base?

My top three choices are:
Morph sub kit
The small powered sub self contained closure that could slip behind the seats or upside down under the steering column (under dash above pedals)
Recessed in backpad (I would hate to cut a hole in my back wall though)
Thanks, Mark

Bass (spelled like the fish) frequencies are rarely muffled. Due to their extremely long wavelength they can travel through most anything. This is why you can hear them in the parking lot of the bar or resonating from the pimp mobile at the stop light.

I wouldn't let it bother me.

Also, "generally" speaking, the bigger the box the better. A tuned box is best but, you want to move air. I'd be leery of the tablet style subs over a decent footwell box.

I deciced to make a new box to accept a larger sub. This would still cover your mats but it worked in my case.

There was a thread not to long ago that McMark had built a sub box for behind his seats. As I recall someone had chimed in and rattled off some stereo lingo (I'm challenged in this area) that seemed to imply that wasn't the best. I guess I was sort of relating sound going through a seat and cocoa mats.

You "can" dampen bass frequencies... It's just difficult to do. Hence things like dynamat etc. It has to be a very dense matter to dampen a bass frequency. It all depends on where your crossover is set as well, meaning; which frequencies are you sending to the sub. Once you get into the 250 area you'll probably start losing some of those frequencies. Most modern subs are fairly dedicated and you'll be crossing over around 150ish. A coco mat isn't going to do anything to those frequencies.

Eric is right. Will it dampen any of the bass? Yes. Will it be noticable? Not likely unless your sub is crossed over way too high. I'd personally keep the sub crossed over right around 100 hz depending on the size and capabilities of the speakers.

As others have said, bass won't be overly affected. I have Morph's sub in my footwell with stock carpet plus a pretty damn heavy and plush floor mat/carpet over it. I am picky about bass (the Bass in my screen name is for the low frequencies in question here, not the fish..) and I am quite satisfied with the audio in my car. Even covered with the mats, I hear bass response at reasonable volumes with the engine wailing and the top off.

I have a sub in the front trunk....I can feel it and hear it quite fine...so can anyone else if I turn it up.
Its all about the feeling of the lower bass, not a speaker directed into your face.

My son has 4 subs in his truck in the rear seat.
It sounds worse than my single sub...just because the direct bass tends to drown out the mids and highs far to much.
The music is in the mids and highs..the bass is mixed as background..and you should design your system to reflect the music...

From what I have found...a properly sized sub and amp will push the right wavelengths through just about anything...so mats wont affect it at all.

RIch

Tuning is key there. I'd much rather have the subs in the cabin with me, but they must be dialed back so they aren't overwhelming. I used to run 4 subs like that, but they had to be dialed way back for any sort of blending with the front stage.