I was out trying to figure out how I was gonna put a sub in my convertable. I think I can fit a 6.5" tube snugged under the cover, behind the backseats, in front of the top when it's down. It'll be tight, but as near as I can guess it'll fit. I couldn't find anything around the house close enough to mock it up. Before I buy it, has anyone tried this?

this is the one I'm talking about.
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-DscDnOH...0&I=204BTA6100

 

When the top is down, it practically comes right up to the back of the rear seats when underneath the tonneau. I would think that it would be impossible to fit a bass tube in that space, even a 6.5" tube.

I have a 10" Rockford bass tube in the trunk, or what's left of a trunk. The tube and amp pretty much take up all of the space there, but if you want to use a tube, that's probably the best place for it. The trunk on a convertible is pretty much useless as a trunk anyway.

 

yea, but having the sub in the trunk, don't you lose all bass when you put your top down?

Personally, i just pulled out the back seats and custom fit a box to the entire back w/ 2 12" subs. Didn't look to bad, but I'm going to give it another try as it was my first real box.

(as the back seats are fairly useless too )


Ohh, and as for the bazooka tube, I could only see that working if it was mounted to the Tanue, so that it lifts away when you go to put your top down, and then fits back over when you lower the tanue. And even then you'd throw off the balance of the tanue and it'd be a bit of a pain to raise/lower the top..... but still possible i think.

 

Not at all. Unlike higher frequencies, bass frequencies are non-directional so putting the bass in the trunk makes little difference as to how that bass will sound. With the tube and amp that I have, I could practically mount the thing underneath the car and still get bone-jarring bass out of it.

When the top is down, there is really no space between the folded top and the underside of the tonneau cover to mount anything, unless your top is very different from mine.

 

not a chance you could get a sub where the top goes down to
doesn't matter how you mount it


you do lose some bass when the top is down compared to up
but its minimal

but if you have minimal bass its seems like alot

there is enough room for 2 10's in the trunk 12's your pushing it unless you undersize the box or buy subs designed for small enclosures

heres a shot of my system you can here me for blocks top up or down

 

Check out this thread of other setups for subs

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=280521

My picture is at the end of the postings.

 

interesting setup
my box is done by good old fashion math, and graphing just acurate as computer but way slower

are the subs down firing?

 

I wouldn't waste my time on that Bazooka. They market those things like they're worth the money and say they're easily removable (which makes you think they're easy to install, too). I have news - you have to do the same install (minus building a box) that you would for any other sub and amp setup. The output isn't that great, either, and that's if you mount them right - it's necessary that the woofer is 1"-2" (or something like that) from the corner of the vehicle, or you won't hear anything.

Dropping the top is going to make a considerable difference. Even if I just roll my windows down, the bass gets louder. When I take the t-tops off, its different still. I realize the convertibles are put together differently than the hardtop and t-top models, but the same principles should apply. Any time you change the acoustic environment, it will sound totally different. Bass notes may be "non-directional," but if your installation isn't well thought out, reflected waves that are out of phase can decrease your output. You may want to check out this site for reference:
http://www.installer.com/tech/aiming.html

 

They are firing towards each other.

P.

 

My experience with doing bass setups in cars is that building the box correctly is about 80% of the install. Is the bass as good with a bazooka? Of course not, but if I even need to take it out for anything, it takes all of about 2 minutes to do so, and even less time to reinstall it. Plus, trying to build a ported box correctly for a specific application involves even more math and physics than I care to involve myself with. For my money, the tube sounds fine for me. If I were going to enter a 'sound-off' or other competition, or just wanted a kick-a$$ system, I'd spend the money, do the math, build the boxes and do it right.

Absolutely true, but I bet I could hook up an entire speaker out of phase and 9 out of 10 people probably wouldn't even know or hear the difference. It's easy to see what is being talked about when you are on a test bench and can represent a single frequency at a single moment as a sine wave on an oscilloscope, but in the real world when you have multiple frequencies of varying durations coming from multiple angles within a defined, confined space (car interior), it gets rather difficult to determine which individual frequencies, or their reflections, are in or out of phase.

 

To clarify, I wasn't referring to hooking up a speaker out of phase - one speaker out of phase actually wouldn't make a bit of difference as far as output goes (and nobody could tell without looking to see whether the cone goes in or out on a drum kick). You only run into problems when one speaker is out of phase and another is in phase. 10 out of 10 people can tell a difference of two speakers in phase versus one in and one out. My point about phase is that the direction the woofer fires and how close it is to the wall of the vehicle and other object in the car, is just as important as building the box, itself. It does not require NASA technology to figure this stuff out, even though it is available.

Bazookas are made out of cheap stuff - paper cones and foam surrounds, and the sound quality isn't that great. It only takes about 1 minute to remove my entire setup, so I'm not sure how the Bazooka is an advantage there, either.

Building a sealed box isn't hard, all you do is put some numbers into a program to get a volume (heck, the sub manufacturer usually tells you an acceptable volume so you can skip this step), make measurements, and design and build a box. No higher math needed, just algebra and trig.

My setup is nowhere near brain scrambling, and I only spent about $1,000 on the whole thing - head unit (which was overpriced and I had it installed at Best Buy, which cost even more), 2 amps, component set and custom kick panels up front, 6x9's in the rear, one 12" sub and box, and all wiring and installation (which I did myself). You can't buy the "premium audio" from the dealer for that much. I'm just saying that for the price and the time it will take to run wiring through the car, you might as well take the extra time to build/buy a box and do it right.

 

when it comes to subs and bass
box is everything

you can spend huge money on subs and an amp then buy a cheap cookie cutter box and you won't be impressed

or you can spend a little less on the subs and amp then buy a good box built to size for those subs and you'll be twice as impressed as the guy with better stuff and a cheap box

 

I agree completely!

 

See I told y'all it would fit.

I managed to just barely wedge in a 6.5", dual voice coil 200w bazooka tube under the tonneu cover, between the back seat and the top. Bought off ebay for $65. The top opens and closes fine...you don't have to take the tube out, and the back seats still latch in position. Best of all, the sound doesn't change if the top is up or down, and I didn't lose any trunk space.

The sound is surprisingly good. Very clear bass, and with the amp cranked all the way up it's just perfect for loundness. Granted it'll never ever win any bass competitions, and if I were a cRap listener I probably wouldn't be happy, but as it is I think it was just the solution.

With the tonneu up......yeah I know my seats are trashed


With the top down, the tonneu down, and one backseat lowered so you can see how it fits.

 

You know that the woofer end is supposed to only be a couple inches from the wall, right?

 

Yeah I know, but it doesn't fit so well that way.

 

I agree with you about Bazooka products, but mine is actually a Rockford Fosgate tube so the quality is much better.

Building a sealed box isn't hard, but building it correctly does require a little more skill. Building a ported box correctly is considerably more difficult.

Interesting shot of the tube under the tonneau. Not the most aesthetic install, but I guess it works.

 

is your car a ASC conversion?

cause mine looks nothing like that where the top folds down

 

yeah it's an ASC car.

And yeah it's not the most trick looking thing, but of course a large part of the reason for putting it under the tonneu in the first place is it would be tucked away where noone would see it.

 

Did you wire this in to the rear speakers or do you have to have a radio with sub outs?

 

I'd like to know the answer to that also....

 

fyi - to save room in the trunk, i put my two amps in the fold down back seat by cutting into the back of the back seat to create compartments for the amps. for the sub, i just sunk a bazooka into the well of the trunk.