he wanted to know if its okay if he has alpine subs and amps if his rear seat doesnt fold, his question is will the sound come into the cabin.... does anyone have subs without the folding seat? how does it sound in the cabin?

 

you will still have bass. Just like in the Lexus IS300, the seats dont fold down and there is a metal barrier between the seats and the trunk.

It will sound good, but it will not be as loud inside the cabin as it would if the seats folded down....but you will not really be able to tell that much of a difference.

 

thanks!

 

no problem! If he wants a nice box that hits really good I have a guy in town that makes an awesome box, I would be willing to ship it too you if you are interested.

 

how much? he was thinking of buying the OBCON SS122-.88 Subwoofer Enclosure with Two Alpine SWS-1240 12” Type-S Subwoofers and Alpine V12 MRV-F357 5 Channel Amplifier. is that a good setup to go with the bose speakers? do you have a pic of the box?

 

I will try and get you some pics of the box this weekend and post them! I like Alpine amps...but not really. Have him check out the new JL amps, or the new Xtant amps.

The way that they build these boxes, you can have 2 12 inch subs, powered with a 500 watt amp, and it will blow your mind.

The idea is to get a box that can use a smaller amp for better sub sounding music. It also saves you a lot of money.

In my BMW I had 3 JL W6 12's, and a memphis 1500x1 watt amp. They hit good, but this box, with 2 Xtant 12's, and a JL 500x1 watt amp, hits about 5x's harder than my JL subs did. Its not the subs, its the box. The boxes are pricey because they are custom made this way. I think the 2 10 boxes run about $250-350 and the 2 12's run about $300-400.

I will get you those pics, and hopefully you will get one. You will not be dissappointed!

 

He might want to dynomat his trunk because it will rattle. I have my system up with the seat up and I do hear the bass. It sounds ok but causes a few rattles, with the seat down on one side i really dont hear any rattles.

If you are going to have a custom box made, I would make it in the trunk, to Alpine spec if you are using alpine so it is more worth the money. Maybe he should port it and have the ports coming up thru the rear deck so it can bounce off the rear windshield. That was something I felt would help carry the bass.

 

Carter,

I'm contemplating doing this install in my C240:

Remove the 8" factory sub from the rear deck, and replace it with an IB (infinite baffle) type of Subwoofer. JL Audio, Kicker, Pioneer, and other manufacturer's sell IB subs specifically made for these types of installions. These subs have T/S parameters designed for "open-air" installs and have high Q ratings. Essentially, you are using the entire trunk of the car as sealed enclosure, rather than installing the subs in a sealed, ported, horn-loaded, or bandpass box in the trunk.
Using an IB subwoofer would require a 3/4" MDF board to mount the sub onto the rear deck to be more stable. The output of the woofer will produce soundwaves directly into the cabin of the car since you will be removing the stock subwoofer. I haven't checked the rear pkg tray yet, but ideally it would be sweet to mount the sub in an inverted manner (like the stock) to save a little trunk height space, but more than likely, there's no room to do it this way since aftermarket subs usually have much larger magnets, deeper baskets, and voice coil diameters then those cheap stock subs.

I'm not a big fan of big subwoofer enclosures anymore since they take up so much trunk space and I need the trunk space for 3 bags of clubs (4 can't fit). When installing a sub enclosure in the trunk of a sedan, the trunk itself acts as somewhat of bandpass design. In other words, the entire enclosure for the sub is a "box-in-box" The trunk will actually muffle the basswaves from the enclosure, sometimes in a good or bad way, depending on your musical tastes. It also depends upon the resonant frequency of the trunk and the cabin of the car. Purely, it's trial and error.

I'll probably do this install after we all do the group buy for the CD changer from autoclass, and if anyone is interested, I'll post some pics and provide more feedback.

- spindrome

 

what's the status of the changer group buy? who's setting it up? when's the deadline? any info would be appreciated

 

as you know, the S class has the COMAND system. i was wondering if it is possible to get two 12" boston accoustic pro subwoofers and an apline amp to run with my COMAND system? by friend said i may have to get a new head unit to do this? is it true? i really dont want to get rid of the COMAND system because it would be a lot of money to get something to replace it. what are some alternate setups that i can use, and i wouldnt have to sacrifice my COMAND system?

 

Just get speaker wire to RCA jack converters at your local stereo shop and run that from your subwoofer speaker wires to your subwoofer amp and from to the new subwoofers. You'll need a good subwoofer amp or regular amp + crossovers to get the ooomph you want out of the subs.

 

The vernacular for these is Hi-Lo converters.

They do more than lower the amplified signal to pre-amp level the good ones also match impedance.

The problem is a good chunk of noise exists in an amplified signal. This noise is generated the during the amplification stage (THD, Transient Response blah, blah). This is the reason whether knowingly or by rote your friend recommended a new head unit.

Hence when you use a (Hi-Lo) converter you are reducing the clean signal portion proportionate to the noise. In turn when you run it through another amplifier your now amplifying pure signal + old noise and adding new amplifier noise.
Every amplifier introduces harmonic distortion so unless the original system comes equipped with something like a Krell or Mark Levinson amp and you also purchase and run Class A high Quality amplifiers you will end up with a less than optimal set up. But if you had a Mark Levinson system for starters why would you f*** with it.

YMMV you as an individual may not even hear the difference. You can answer that question easily by doing listening comparison of a Bose Acoustimass System vis-a-vis say a pair of Boston Acoustic Lynnfield reference speakers (not the $20,000 variant). If you can't tell the difference between the two then by all means disregard my post and amplify till your heart is content.

 

I like a quality high fidelity system as much as the next guy but there are three factors here. 1) The sound quality of any stereo is greatly diminished by the noises in the car, 2) it's just a subwoofer, the loud boom boom they make won't be impacted that severely, 3) costs, there's a point of diminishing return. I put a sub amp and speaker in a previous 190 and it made a huge difference in my enjoyment of the stereo and I used the speaker wire inputs on the amp.

 

If you must use speaker level input to you sub amp try and get an active hi-lo adapter rather than just the resistor kind. The active (IC's used)are much better in general as they give the source amp the proper load and drive the sub amp with a low source impedance, which is a good thing. The IC type require a 12V connection, just so you can tell, the resistor type dont.

 

Carter -

At 80hz and below, there's not a lot of critical sound quality going on. You'll hear and feel kick drum, double bass, eletric bass, the lowest notes on the piano, and of course sampled "miami-style" 808 kick drum bass found on rap music. You'll be fine with the hi/lo converters for subwoofer applications. Obviously, sound Q is more of a concern where our ears hear most (800hz - 15Khz). Let's not even talk about imaging. We'll save that for another post.

Your audio system is only as good as it's weakest component. For most people, the stock system is fine, but could use a little sub. Now if you were running a custom system with modified B&W, Dynaudio, or Martin-Logan type electrostatics drivers on the dash (for you audiophiles, yes I have seen these installed before), then I'd say, go with another head unit.

I think adding those BA subs with an active hi/lo converter (as mdp pointed out) will compliment your system quite well.

$.02

- Eric

 

I DO NOT have the Bose System in my car and I'm thinking of adding an amp two power 2 subs. Is this difficult? Is it Do-It-Yourself?

Secondly, will this affect the function of the car in anyway? i.e. steering column controls eilminated?

Thanks!

 

Whats the point of adding an Amp & 2 subs if you dont change the headunit? You will only find your system sound even worse because your stock speakers and headunit cannot handle the power supplied by the Amp. The first thing to do is to change the headunit, then the speakers, then add a 4 channel amp, then add the sub.

Adding an amp + subs will not eliminate the sterring column controls but changing the headunit will. It can be a DIY job but I would recommend you to have some professional to do it because there are quite a bit of wiring involved.

 

I don't plan to change the stock speakers. I just want to add an amp to power 2 subs. I plan to retain the head unit and the stock speakers.

 

You can do that, but you'll regret. Thats all I can tell you. Good luck!

 

its best to keep the OEM headunit !!! anything aftermarket looks like it doesn't belong !!!

let us know how it turns out.

 

Can you suggest what kind of amplifiers that support the rockford fosgate 2 of Power Hx2 12" or 2 punch hx2 12" ? I am still stuck on that two subs.
I am looking at Zapco 1000 for the amp? what you guys think ? any other suggestion ?

 

post this in the stereos & electronics forum.

 

I am putting in 2 10inch audiobahn alum10 subs and a 1200d concept amp. Is there a thread or can somebody help me on suggestion on first. Where I should put the amp and second a detailed explanation of what panels I have to remove and how to remove them plus also which wiring to connect my hi/lo converter to .

 

do a search for stereo installation. my only other suggestion is to get a reputable stereo shop to install it.

 

I just had my system installed today. Well should i say bass./

I got 2 12' rockford fosgate puch DVC's with the box for 220 bucks. That part was the great deal.

Then i bought some MA audio 800 watt amp from a local shop and they installed it with cables, hi-low converter and installation for 400.

The bass hits SO hard, that my rear view mirrors all shake. My hair moves at 3/4 volume. Its great!!!

I cant drive with it too loud tho i have troubl epayiung attention.