has anyone upgraded their rear subs? if so what kind/brand and how does it sound versus the factory Bose?

 

That is wierd I was thinking the same thing last night.

 

I have just fitted a Kicker powerd sub to my beloved CLK. It is a temporary measure. I am looking for the right units to install into the rear parcel shelf.
The options as I see them are:

1 - Fit freeair 8" subs to the parcel shelf. I am assured this will do an OK job. Free air subs are quite difficult to find. Most subs are designed to fit an enclosure. Those ugly great boxes covered in black carpet. Freeair do not work as well as enclosed subs, but will a better job than the nasty units already in the car.

2 - Fit mid range speakers to the parcel shelf and install a sub in the boot (or trunk for you americans). The type of enclosure you opt for can either be of the stealth variety, ie designed to look like a part of the vehicle, or the kind favoured by those who want to make a big bass statement from two blocks away

I would strongly recommend replacing the head unit first, then the door speakers, add a decent ampifier, then worry about the sub last.

What do you have at the moment?

 

I went with the stealth look, cause I still needed my trunk space...

2x 10" JL audios

 

Never seen that approach before. Great idea. Where do you store the amps? What are you using? Does it sound good and what would you improve on?

 

The amps are actually in the picture too.... they are under the top cover, the bottom bigger cover are the subs, the top is the amps.

It took my stereo shop a while to figure out this design, cause I told them I wanted my trunk, it was a major concern for me...

I had to give up my spare tire and tools, but heck, my dealer drives to where I am to replace flats anyways, so I figure I don't need my spare tire...

 

I am using a combination of Kenwood, Eclipse, and Diamond components.

Kenwood headunit, Naigation, Eclipse Amps, and Diamond speakers.

Just added the Kenwood Digital proessor, so now I have 5.1 digital douby surround sound....

And because of that, I had to add 2 monitors on my headrests... for my rear passengers..... Oh and I also have a P2 hooked up.

 

I chose to go this way for the subs. And it works extremely well

 

next

 

How are the RF's? I was thinking about them, but my sales talked me into the JL's.

 

I really like the Rockfords they can handle the power without a box. The JL's are designed for a enclosure. They would work but chances are that the bottom will drop out of then in no time. I actually had to turn down the gains on my amp because there was to much bass in the car. The Rockford's kick ***.

 

ME TOO, I'm at negative 4 gain!!! I guess I am getting old...

 

we're not getting older our ears are getting better. I'm done with bass systems I've been a sound quality guy for a while now

 

replace that sub with a 15"!!!!


b

 

My current setup:

Alpine 7811R head unit.
Kenwood Dual Mag component and coaxials in the doors.
Kicker self powered sub in the boot.

My intention:

Replace original subs in parcel shelf with coaxial speakers, probably another set of Kenwood dual mags.
5 channel amp to run the front door speakers, sub and rear speakers.
12" sub in custom box fitted to recess in the left of the boot area.
Coaxial speakers in the rear of the door running off the head unit also connected to a bluetooth hands fee phone kit.

Am I insane? Anyone tried running midrange speakers on the parcel shelf? Any other recommendations other than Rockford?

 

I would kill the kenwood speakers and go with higher quality stuff like MbQuart, Diamond Audio, or the DynAudio setup. DynAudio is exspensive but once you've heard them there is no comparison to any other brand! I don't have them in my car yet, but I plan on upgrading soon.
If you truely want quality sound then you really need to upgrade the whole setup from the deck to the amp. Then worry about the speakers.

L8tr
Jeremy

 

I was told to upgrade everything (H/U, Changer, Speakers, 2 amps and Subs) and that doing piece by piece would not sound much more different than stock.
The whole deal using Alpine stuff was running around $2500 total, which I'd rather spend towards rims and tires!

 

It will sound totally different than stock if done right! It takes a certain amount of experience to get things correct as well. You can't just replace the speakers or head unit and expect anything, you have to at least amp them (not just the sub) in order to get proper sound.
It also depends where you want to spend the money. I did my stereo first then rims and so on......as long as you do it all who cares right hahahaha.

L8tr

 

Here's mine, not a big stereo person so nothing fancy.

-Bruce

 

As always Bruce, your car looks great!!

 

Nice clean Alpine subs, they match the color of the car pretty well

 

Hey Bruce I like your setup but what's behind the enclosure? I can't imagine the subs need that much space from the back of the seats. It may be just the picture angle or do you have your amps hidden back there as well.

Either way, looks clean and I bet it sounds good too.

Did you do any insulation for the vibration? Does your trunk rattle when you're bumpin'?

 

Thanks for the compliments guys, I pushed the subs further away from the backseat and custom made the setup myself, I'll work on it a little more this summer, this one is just temporary. The trunk does not rattle at all when I have the bass to max. The license plate frame was rattling before so I put some double-sided tape under it. Those 10s sound pretty clean.

-Bruce

 

You are lucky, I have two 12's, and something in the back of my car is rattling like hell even at low volume. When I find the time, I am going to tear the thing apart and get to the source of it.

 

check behind the first aid kit. Thats where I experiences the biggest rattle problem. I use foam in behind there to get rid of the rattle and it worked great. Also the rear head liner. You can fit thin foam in there and that helps too