Rear Deck Speaker Enclosure

[MAV]

I installed some free air 10s in the rear deck, and while they added a lot to the existing factory system, they're not ideal for tight, controlled bass. I can live with them, but I just wondered if anyone had seen or considered an enclosure that fits under the rear deck with woofers firing up through the deck rather than through the back seat or into the trunk?

Sponsored

 

[StangTime]

The rear deck on these cars is not an ideal place to mount free-air subwoofers. The design of such requires that the rear deck and seats create a mostly sealed trunk area to isolate the rear of the subwoofer from the front. This can't be easily achieved without some ambitious fabrication. Like this (From unix_usr on DiyMobileAudio):

This is a pair of 18"s mounted on a slanted baffle with a steel center brace, sealed with expanding foam, and firing through the rear speaker holes.

You could flip the drivers around so the magnets are behind the seat so save some trunk space. Not saying you need 18's though. This is just an example of how to do it right.

Another way is to build an appropriately sized and tuned sealed box that sits on the trunk floor behind the seats. Woofers firing straight up. Create a sealed coupling from the face of the drivers (or top of the box) up to the rear deck openings.

Again, you will need some serious fabrication skills to build the box coupling. The rear deck panel is also very restrictive. So much in fact that it was actually flapping when I turned up the volume. So I removed it and punched out the restrictive carpet that was choking the bass. The holes on the back where already there. I just used them to center the 8mm hollow punch and wacked them out. I gained 3 to 5db more output on the audio spectrum analyzer:

Zip tied the OEM speakers connectors to the rear deck so they wouldn't rattle.

I am using a JL Audio HO110RG-W3v3 sub. It's only a 10" ported box but having the perforated rear deck gives me all the bass I need. It's surprisingly tight and controlled for a ported enclosure.


Hope that gives you some ideas.

 

[MAV]

Thanks for your reply and ideas. The free-air speakers aren't bad. But I miss the tight bass that you get from an enclosure, and I just wondered if anyone had heard of one that connected directly to the rear deck frame.

 

[StangTime]

There isn't anything pre-made like you are talking about. It will need to be custom. Also keep in mind that sealed subwoofers are the most inefficient. They require the most power.

Sponsored