[audio] subs & boxes

[treed2 at wsu.edu (T. Reed)]

Don't make 'yet another' hatch lid with speakers in it. Many a nice
decklid has been ruined by some moron with a saw installing 6x9s. Even if
you're planning on building a new lid first, consider the problems with
such a setup:

- your speakers will be very visible to the world, particularly thieves.
- you'll have to make an abnormally thick lid (=uneven surface with the
  carpet side panels) because the speakers add weight and if you don't the
  lid will flex and sag a lot.
- the extra thick lid will weight a lot more and the rubber straps that
  hold the lid will break so you will have to replace them with chains or
  cables that rattle and make noise.
- you will have to run wiring to the lid, which means you can't take it
  out. Or, you can only take it out if you seperate disconnects. This is a
  pain no matter what.. and makes it much harder to remove the lid to put
  large cargo in the trunk.
- if you take the lid out to transfer large cargo or whatever then you
  will have no speakers there until you put it back in.
- if you just drop them in the lid without a box they will sound like
  crap, but if you build a box on the underside of the lid it will add
  weight to the lid and make your trunk smaller
- the car looks extraordinarily goofy and non-stock with the two side
  speakers, plus two speakers in the rear lid.
- if your trunk is open when its raining then the speaker cones will get
  wet and the grilles may rust.
- etc etc etc

Installing speakers in the decklid is a choice along the same lines as
lowering a car by cutting springs, using armor-all on the dash, or
installing nitrous instead of 'legitimately' building a quicker engine. It
is a bad idea, made in bad taste looking only at the short term and will
in quickly lead to problems or damage that reduces the value of the car.

Do yourself and any future owners of your car a favor and build a box, run
new wiring and do a clean install. I would suggest for subs as small as
yours that you build a triangular box that takes the diagonal formed by
the rear seatback and turns it in the a vertical, with the subs firing to
the rear. Speakers that small don't need very many cubic feet and this
would be a very compact arrangement that would take away almost no trunk
space, be easily removable, out of sight and still sound good.

I have something similar in my car, but it is more of an isosceles
triangle with a flat peak than a right triangle. I had to sacrifice
some cargo space to get the cubic feet necessary for my larger subs.

My 2 cents, flame away.

-Toby


On Thu, 27 Nov 2003, Foxx (in a box) wrote:

>    i managed to pick up a pair of 5.5" bose subs from a porsche box that
> were going to be thrown away (the box was bad and it was covered under
> warranty = good by subs). at any rate, i'm planning on building a
> special hatch lid for them and thought they should probably be included
> in a box. is there any special formula for box making? they've got their
> own little cool ports that i can use. info would be appreciated. thanx.
>
> --
>   /\_/\	  Foxx (in a box)
> < o o >	  http://foxx.tripod.com
>    \ /
>     ?
>
>
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