Positioning my Subwoofers.

Bloodhound50

My subwoofers aer faving upward toward my trunk roof, if i manage to fit them to face the driver will they be louder and have more bass? Actually i know they will but how noticable will the change be? also will my trunk and car rattle more with them this way? maybe becuase of the sound pressure in the car from the new direction in which they are facing? I was also wondering if getting a speaker amp would increase the amount of bass alot. my friend ahs two small speakers amped by kicker and i have four polk speakers unamped and mine already have more bass.
Thanks!

Greg Peters

What are you powering your subwoofers off of currently?

I assume you are referring to powering your higher frequency speakers with an amplifier and are currently running them off head unit power.

Positioning of the subs will depend partly on what vehicle you have installed them in. In many cases, firing them straight back towards the license plate will get you the most output- it minimizes some cancellation. Try as many positions your subs will allow and see for yourself.

iworkfortweeter

in my opinion, it doesn't make much of a difference. bass is in most cases, non-directional. you won't gain much if anything by making your subs "face" you.

1996blackmax

Positioning of the subwoofer in a vehilcle can definately play a part in how your subs sound in your car. I have had many different systems in different cars, and in my applications, the subs have always had more impact as well as blended in better with the rest of the system when they were facing toward the rear of the car. This has been in vehicles where the subs were in the trunk of the car.

I would do as Greg stated, and try different positions to see which one works best for your application.

Bloodhound50

well unless i modify my trunk or build a new box its only 1 position. and i know that polk box is kickass so i kind of want to keep it, damn cougar trunks!

Ecin

is there a way to place the subs so it can feel like someone is kicking the seat?

MacLeod

When you fire the sub into the cabin, the bass wave goes out in all direction. Part of the wave goes into the cabin and part goes back toward the back of the trunk. It then bounces off and back into the cabin out of phase and cancels out a ton of your bass.

Firing the sub toward the back of the trunk can help this but you still get some cancellation and not the cleanest bass response.

Firing the subs up does reduce cancellation some.

For my car, I put the sub as far forward as I could get it and fired it into the cabin mounted behind the amp rack. I lost half my bass response. So I bought a big roll of foam (the kind shaped like an egg crate) and a couple pollyfill pillows from Hobby Lobby and stuffed them into the space behind the amp rack and the back of the rear seat. This helped a TON! I still have a smidge of cancellation (you can test it by opening your trunk all the way and listening to the difference) but about 90% less than I had before.

1996blackmax

MacLeod wrote:

Firing the sub toward the back of the trunk can help this but you still get some cancellation and not the cleanest bass response.

I will have to disagree with this..... I think that the bass output in my application is pretty darn clean.

Greg Peters

1996blackmax wrote:

I will have to disagree with this..... I think that the bass output in my application is pretty darn clean.

X2.

While I noticed really good sound quality with my single sealed 10" firing up/back at a 45 degree angle (a nice "intimate" response), firing it straight back netted more output without loss of sound quality. It actually cleaned up some upper bass response firing it straight back .

MacLeod

Didnt say it would sound like ****, just that it would lose some clarity.

If youre getting a lot of cancelation firing forward, then firing rearward will sound cleaner because youre getting more bass. Its the same principle as downfiring. An increase in output with a little loss in clarity. But if you were fire the sub forward and build an airtigh baffle that the sub would mount to and be completely sealed off from the trunk, this would be the best way for SQ purposes. But its a major PITA to build a good airtight baffle to seal off part of the trunk. So pillows from Hobby Lobby it is!