Direction of Sub?

[str8jkt]

I recently had my Civic broken into and all of my equipment stolen from my trunk. :(
I had made my own custom boxes and custom mounted the amp to the back of the seat. The boxes were on either side of the car just behind the wheel wells in the trunk facing towards each other in the middle of the trunk (2 sealed 10").

My question is, if possible I would like to get a little more trunk space back. I was wondering if it would be ok to put a single box on one side of trunk still facing to the middle (possibly a 12" this time)? Will it make a difference only having one sub facing towards the side of the vehicle instead of facing either forward or back? I am assuming not but just wanted to make sure with some of the more experienced users here. Thanks in advance for your help!

[Gonthro]

you could have custom fiberglass enclosures made to fit behind the wheel wells and that would take up basically no space...


having 1 12 would be a mono sound and i dont really think it would sound that great.

[str8jkt]

Originally posted by Gonthro
you could have custom fiberglass enclosures made to fit behind the wheel wells and that would take up basically no space...

Agreed, and would love to do that but I am not proficient nor have the time to do that myself and I am assuming that it would be fairly expensive to have it done in a shop. Considering I now have to purchase a new amp and sub (or subs) again.

[str8jkt]

Any other comments on a single sub compared to 2 subs? And as to the direction it is pointing? Anyone with past experience with this?

[Tony2]

X1 12" sub will work great and give you roughly the same cone area as X2 10" subs. Just use a good bridgeable amplifier as you don’t want to run subs through a stereo signal (Particularly a dual voice coil) As far as “Mono” sound goes that’s exactly what you want as bass is non directional, when you bridge an amplifier your combining the left and right signals to work together, regardless if you have 1 or 6 subs they are all playing the same thing bridged and working together not against each other. As far as location goes well most try to integrate it into the vehicle the best possible way to not take up all your cargo space, however sometimes when you corner load subs (i.e. facing back towards hatch etc) it gives you a slight gain in bass output. I suggest you talk to a local shop that knows what they are doing to eliminate any bad suggestions or advice you may get, sub box design and stereo wiring is not as easy (See threads such as "help my car wont start, did I blow my....?, and so on) as just slapping a radio shack woofer into a back yard plywood box and be ready to hit the local DB drags.


Tony

[RPD]

You can usually get inexspensive pre fab boxes for your make and model of car. I've installed single 12" subs in a slim "truck box" and bolted it to the back seat of a few hatchbacks. that seems to work well and they don't take up very much space. With the sub facing the rear window, it actually gets you a few more db's. SPL isn't any more than 2 x 10", plus you get a deeper tone out of a 12"! Check it out
www.excitersound.com

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by Gonthro
having 1 12 would be a mono sound and i dont really think it would sound that great. haha mono means 1 channel, and just about all sub setups are 1 channel, even if there is more than 1 sub.

the reason nobody hooks up subs with more than 1 channel is cuz anything below 80hz is nondirectional to the human ear.

[Harryc8786]

I swapped 2 12' subs for a kicker solo l5 and i fed the same power to it. I freed up some trunkspace. But the box is built to the spec of the suba nd its kinda massive. But i get just as good output and more space. You could try something like that... Usually having the sub far back fireing towards the trunk is best cause it gives the sound more air space to travel and usually is louder then.

[Texas]

Originally posted by str8jkt
Any other comments on a single sub compared to 2 subs? And as to the direction it is pointing? Anyone with past experience with this? I just know that two is better, and if you aim them to the rear of the vehicle, the acoustice medium is more efficient.

[Weapon_R]

Originally posted by str8jkt
Any other comments on a single sub compared to 2 subs? And as to the direction it is pointing? Anyone with past experience with this?

I've found that it's very hard to find a single sub able to outperform 2 subs, even low end ones. If sound quality is what you are after, one single subwoofer will do, but a low end duo will usually outpound a single high quality sub.

As for direction, that differs from car to car. Aim it a different way each week, and find the best setup.