where to put subwoofer?

Hi!

I have an old crown vic wagon from 1990.
My father had installed a nice sound system in a pontiac bonneville, that was recently junked (309,000 miles and still running! but starting to burn oil), so we tore it out.

Specifically an amplifier and subwoofer. The head unit had been nice, but some of the internal servos for the fancy faceplate were broken.

I'm trying to figure out where to put it?
In its current box, the subwoofer is too deep to put anywhere without loosing cargo room. The ability to load up plywood must be preserved!

I'm thinking however that I might remove the existing box, and build a narrower one, and install the subwoofer inset into the plastic trim on the sides of the cargo bay? There's a little storage compartment on the left that I don't really need for storage, the wheel is on the right... and there might be space in front of either. This car is a keeper; I don't mind cutting a square hole in the plastic trim if it means a superior sound system.

Will the shop manual have a good description of how to tear apart the trim to run the wires discreetly back to the head unit for installation?

 

btw, how do the stock speakers and head unit rate?
Cheap new speakers are about $40/pair, and a cheap new head unit is $80. Aside from the ability to play CDs (but I have a 10 CD player too, along with the amp and sub, that I can install), would a new head unit get me any better sound? I'm not, yet, much of an educated audiophile.

My father also had an old alpine head unit from 2002. I think it was a $300 head unit back then. Would it be any better than an $80 head unit from 2010? If i can find it; it's buried in storage somewhere :-( If it won't be better, I won't spend more time looking for it.

 

i was also looking to put a subwoofer in my 87 caprice without sacrificing cargo space or the opening and closing of the 3rd row. I'm anxious to see what others have done, seen, or can recommend.

 

I'm in the same boat. I have a subwoofer enclosure and if I want to haul stuff I have to remove it. I did think about camouflaging it by wrapping it with grocery bags and buying fake food at Hobby Lobby so it looks like a couple bags of groceries in the back.

 

well,

bernie... your factory speakers in your merc are JBL's it was fords high end sound system for 1990. and they were awsome.....in 1990!

if you really wanna throw some money into speakers, you want (imho) infinity kappa series.

guys...if you want to fit a sub into the factory side panels i STRONGLY urge you to go to the boneyard and try to find a matching panel to butcher. rather than your original equipment.

that being said....those of you that have a 3rd row or rear underfloor storage. (bernie, molivia...this would be you!) a sub box works VERY well in that rear well. remember, bass doesnt need direction so subs can be hidden...which is nice because that also makes them less likey to be stolen!!!

 

i considered that but i don't want to lose that space or have the kids stomping on it when they're sitting back there.

 

there is no way to install a sub without losing space. you have to sacrafice to gain here. If you want to just have enough bass to balance out your system then just get a all in one compact sub system. Infinity and Rockford Fosgate have very awesome all in one systems. i would not suggest cutting into the interior peices, for one you could only fit a 8in sub in there cause anything larger will not have enough airspace to perform at it's max. you could put a single 12inch sub in the very rear were the feat go and i would either have it facing downward or have plexi over it or a nice grill. other then that your really gonna have to sacrafice your cargo area. you could mount the amp behind the plastic then just have the speaker wires for the subs running out and when you need to haul something or have kids in the back you can just take the subs out and tuck the wires away till you put the subs back in(be sure to put caps on the wires so they don't short)

now if you really wanna try something different and i promise it works. I'm speaking of installing Tactile Transducers under your seats and you will only need about a 200 watt rms amp to run up to 8 of them. these transducers are used by the military and airforce for simulators. and they reproduce every aspect of sound a subwoofer a does but without the air pressure change. you would have to mount them to your seats for this to work. I'm telling you they do work though. these transducers are a godsend for single cab trucks when you want some bass in them. but i would suggest check out Tactile Transducers.

as for the head unit you want to make sure you have a good one cause that is the source of your sound. even if you have a top of the line amp your speakers will sound like crap if the source of the music is crap.

as for your door speakers, i will say that if it is anything like the Bose or Infinity systems i've dealt with. you will have a hell of a time making the original speakers work with the aftermarket headunit. On a side note i would suggest buying aftermarket speakers cause even the high end stereos in cars are still crap. they usually all use the paper cone although some might paint it to hide it. but if you have any other questions let me know i did car audio and video installs for 3 years at custom audio shop.

 

Bernie?, where did we as a forum go wrong?

 

i'll look into it over the winter. i prob will look to do a shallow mount in the back floor area with something to protect the woofer. i'll look for an enclosure shaped like the one i had under my rear seat in my ram with 2 12" subs. i'm not looking for that same knock in here. (but i'll take it if i canget it without sacrificing too much)

 

I just finished putting a sub-woofer my in my '81 Caravelle and have to admit that I'm far more than impressed with the result.:2_thumbs_up_-_anima The best part is that there was no interior modification of any sort required and I didn't lose any cargo space! If you're prepared to spend a bit of money I fully recommend the Focal Bus 20 under-seat active sub-woofer. This particular one, recommended to me by my favorite local audio shop, is an 8" woofer (a 10" (the Bus25) is available if you have the room). You can see full details at http://www.focal-fr.com/ under the car stereo, bass enclosures section (use the arrow at the right of the pics to scroll over to the Bus20 and Bus25). The site also contains a dealer locator.

I wasn't sure what to expect from an under-seat unit like the Bus20 especially since my closest frame of reference is the stereo system that I began to assemble during my "I love it loud" period (one that I don't seem to have outgrown) of my 20's which is now in my SUV: Pioneer Premier head-unit, fully crossed over Pioneer Premier mid's and tweets in the back doors, fully crossed over Focal 6x9's in the front doors, 2 - 12" Cerwin Vega 'Stealth' subs (which are now over 15 years old and still thundering ) in a ported box in the back, a 600 watt/4 channel Pioneer Premier amp powering the main drivers and a 400 watt bridged Clarion amp powering the subs). While the Bus20 could not possibly match the power I'm used to, it came much, much closer than I ever imagined it could! The bass is full, deep, rich, accurate and completely capable of rattling your fillings!

 

Oh right! I always forget about that storage compartment And that's storage that I don't mind using up. It's just the main bed I can't bear to put a subwoofer in, or no more bandsaws, hydraulic presses, or plywood hauling for me!

Nice other ideas though! My sister just bought a nissan versa, which she loves, but it doesn't have any storage space that she can sacrifice and the subwoofer she/ my father gave me out of the old sedan wouldn't fit kindly under any seat. I'll tell her about the effective under-the-seat options she has! Like the transducers. Maybe an audio store will let us listen to them first, of course....

 

BTW, do people REALLY go through such effort to steal subwoofers? I mean, they're not cheap, but they're like $100, $200; worth smashing car windows for...? Most people's cell phones are worth more than that these days, and those are easier to steal!

 

Woohoo! Finally found my dad's old radio headunit, and it's a nice one.

Perhaps this weekend, I'll start installing the amp behind the spare tire, the new radio, and the subwoofer under the cargo bay (where the 3rd row of seats would have been) :-D And also replace the 4 other original speakers.

 

it don't matter what is in your car, it will get broke in too if the right theif comes along. you won't be able to find Tactile Transducers at any local audio shop. you'll have to get the tranducers offline.