Hey whats up...im sorta new to everything and have been really getting into car audio. I read some stuff and was wondering if how you place your subs makes a difference in sound? For example, i have a van so everything is open...do i fire the subs forward towards me or should i put them firing towards the back doors? Any suggestions? thanks
hi chris. waves of frequencies that low are omnidirectional. so, theoretically, there should be no difference in speaker placement. however, theory and caraudio rarely go hand in hand. particularly, if you have a ported box. depending on where your ports are firing, it can make a difference regarding determined output (i.e., facing the ports toward you). the most significant factor is the resonance that the speaker produces while moving. it is best not to be able to determine the location of the sound. so for this reason, most individuals aim the drivers away from them, facing the rear of the vehicle. some will argue all day that,firing subs towards the rear affords the waves more time to diffuse around the cabin before they reach your ears. then others will maintain that the waves are too long/wide (crest to crest) for this to be an issue. there are also those who aim their subs in a downfiring position. i personally appreciate this position, but it can be a problem when it comes time to access the subs. you often have to open the box to get to them (depending on the setup). even w/the resonance issue aside, i have noticed a significant difference between aiming my subs forward and to the rear. it has ALWAYS sounded better toward the rear (of my hatch). i am currently going against the grain and installing my subs inverted firing downward (or really upward taking the rear of the cones into account). since you have a van, i would fire towards the rear to be safe, but still fiddle around w/the locations if you are afforded the time.
I know that it is kind of a stupid question, and most of you will say just try different things to see what works best, i am just curious to see what you all have to say on the forum about positioning.
One of my friends said that i should put one enclosure on each side of the trunk aiming eachother. I was thinking about have 2 aimed front with the seats down and the other one up against it aimed back. My other idea was to have on facing back and one facing up front near the trunk opening. Finally, my last idea was to just aim them upwards.
i dont like facing the subs toward the back seats..every time i see someone whos done that it feels like the subs arent hitting at all...ive done what your friend said about facing the subs towards eachother and it was alright but with 4 subs youll probably get better sound from facing all 4 upwards
I'll try them out and see out it sounds. I will keep everyone updated on my system. if i can get my hand on a digital camera i will post them, but i doubt i will.
I am expecting the RE's to be pretty loud, but i am unsure of their SQ capabilities.
It is going to be somewhat tricky making everything look clean when viewing from inside the car. I currently have to wire both XM and Sirius to the trunk, so i will ahve some wires to hide there. My only break is that i put my amps on the back of one of my seats(looks really nice and easy access) so i wont have any wires to be seen when viewing from the trunk.
when you get them tell us how it turns out especially SPL wise because i was thinking about doing something like that but i have a 98 Eclipse=ZERO trunk space my box for my mtx sub barely fits in their let alone 4 or more subs
