Subwoofers and why everyone needs one.

"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa) 01/28/2016 at 10:05 • Filed to: car audio

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I feel that subwoofers get a bad rap. Teenagers tossing the cheapest Walmart Boss Audio 12" in a generic ported box in the trunk of their Cobalt and rattling their trunk all over town in search of tite beatz yo have given a certain stigma to one of the most important parts of a quality audio setup. But first, some background.

Many cars with cheaper audio systems have a simple 4-speaker setup. Two in the front, two in the back. Each speaker is in charge of delivering the full range of frequencies to you: low, mids, and highs. The problem with this is that there is only one speaker cone doing all this. Typically these setups have overpowering mids, dim highs, and next to no bass. This can be rectified to an extent with a “smile curve” which consists of turning up the bass and treble on an equalizer, but that will only sound good at low levels because as the volume gets higher the speaker begins to distort. Even if it doesn’t necessarily sound bad you still aren’t getting the full quality of sound because the cone has to convey the small vibrations of the higher frequencies on top of the large, slow vibrations of the low frequencies. It’s like Clarkson’s description of a powerful FWD car. It’s just going to go wrong.

Adding a sub to your system allows one to set up a “high pass filter” on the rest of their speakers. This filter does exactly what it says on the tin by only letting high frequencies “pass through” to the speakers and be reproduced, preventing any bass from getting to your standard four speakers. A “low pass filter” is then set up for a subwoofer, which does the exact opposite and prevents any highs from distorting the bass. Clear bass, clear mids/highs, happy ears.

Of course, having a sub in your trunk doesn’t mean that you have to devote yourself to a life of dubstep and hip-hop. If tuned properly the subwoofer will become invisible. The bass will blend into the mids and highs smoothly and your passengers won’t even realize that big-ass speaker is back there.

Still unconvinced? Take a look at any hi-fi speakers and tell me what you see.

A pair of tweeters, mid range speakers, and a large subwoofer cone in a ported enclosure. A set like these Kenwood bookcase speakers will have crossovers (high-pass, low-pass, and band-pass filters) built into it so the proper speakers only get the right frequencies, something you’ll have to tune yourself in your car with the settings on your head unit (aftermarket head units are a must, I prefer Pioneer or Sony).

Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 01/28/2016 at 10:18

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I’ve seen plenty of instances too where simply “amp’ing” the stock speakers has significantly improved the sound quality.

Example: My buddy did it with his ‘98 Dodge Stratus in high school, and it sounded like the car had a 10" sub added. Nice clean sound too.

Aaron M - MasoFiST > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 01/28/2016 at 10:23

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If you only have a four-speaker system and the mids are reasonably sized, adding tweeters and a set of crossovers to act as a “high-pass” filter may get you similar results without spending nearly as much money, as you can generally run the tweeters off the headunit as opposed to needing an amp to drive the subwoofer. If you’re going whole-hog with your system, you’re going to end up buying both eventually anyway. In my Subaru, the speakers were underdriven and there were tweeters already, so the head unit was the most cost-effective upgrade.

StndIbnz, Drives a MSRT8 > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 01/28/2016 at 10:23

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Amen.

I have a full set-up in my car. JL Audio speaker amp powering Polk Audio component speakers front and rear, tweeters in the dash up front and mounted with the mids in the back. JBL amp powering 2 12" Infinity subs in the back. Once you go with a full build, there is no going back. Nothing else ever sounds as good.

Sir_Stig: and toxic masculinity ruins the party again. > Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow 01/28/2016 at 10:28

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Yeah with old cars replacing the head unit can make a world of difference.

Master Cylinder > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 01/28/2016 at 10:28

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This is good advice. I don’t have a great stereo in my 944 because I don’t want the extra weight but even switching out the stock speakers for a component-type setup with separate tweeters made a noticeable difference. I still have no bass, but I ain’t sticking 30-40 pounds of subwoofer, amp, and enclosure in that car. If I had a car where I didn’t care so much about weight, it would definitely get at least one nice 10" woofer.

DrScientist > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 01/28/2016 at 10:31

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my biggest concern has always been loss of cargo space!

the big subwoofers (i assume to produce big bass) are BIG! and when youre an unreasonable childless, unmarried man like me, and have three cars, none of which could comfortably carry an adult human more than 30 minutes old in the rear seats, space back there becomes reserved for luggage and those brief stints carting your girlfriend’s brother to an AA meeting or whatever.

if you can make big bass out of a woofer the size of a box of tissues, count me in!

Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 01/28/2016 at 10:39

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I am thankful my car came with a nice Bose setup from the factory. Meanwhile, my dad traveled down the path of “ALPINE ALL THE THINGS!!!” with speakers, tweeters, 2 amps, and a subwoofer.

TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts. > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 01/28/2016 at 10:51

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Back in college I had a 91 Jetta eco-diesel with a sound system probably worth as much as the car.

I was running an Apline flex 4 amp to two JBL 12" subs in the trunk, 4 alpine 4" speakers in the doors, 2 1" tweeters in the front and a pair of alpine 6x9 inch 3 way speakers behind the head rests in the back seat.

While I wouldn’t win any bass competitions, but I had a pretty kicking sound system non the less.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 01/28/2016 at 10:52

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“I feel that subwoofers get a bad rap. Teenagers tossing the cheapest Walmart Boss Audio 12" in a generic ported box in the trunk of their Cobalt and rattling their trunk all over town in search of tite beatz yo have given a certain stigma to one of the most important parts of a quality audio setup.”

It isn’t about teenagers and their rattletraps. I hate your subwoofers because I don’t want to hear your bass from a block away when I’m sitting in my house, especially when I’m trying to sleep, my kids are trying to sleep, or I’m trying to do something important like study for an exam. Bass carries. You know that. The physics of resonant frequencies that make tuned ports work also applies to other structures. Many of the notes which rattle your fillings also match the resonant frequencies of rooms in the houses around you (room modes) and get amplified.

It may not be audible when I step outside, but it is clear as day when I’m at the dining table, on my couch, or in my bed.

It’s like you walked into my house and turned my stereo up, but it isn’t what I was listening to and it isn’t what I want to hear.

That’s what pisses people off.

Now, get off my lawn (and out of my neighborhood, and turn that damn stereo down)!

functionoverfashion > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 01/28/2016 at 11:01

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I have an 8" self-powered bazooka sub in the back of my wagon. It’s held down to the floor-mounted cargo hooks with a bungee cord and it has its own plug-in wire harness with power and everything. It’s just about the right amount of bass to fill out the sound, as you describe, and take the bass out of the poor factory door speakers. It won’t rattle the windows, but it’s enough.

And for all those who say they don’t have the space? You can easily take it out when you don’t need it. I do it all the time, it takes 10 seconds to unplug and undo the bungee cord fastening system.

Übel > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 01/28/2016 at 11:12

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Counter point: trunk space, the shame of owning subwoofers. I had some 12s in my first car, and took them out before I sold it, and then realized I didn’t like having them and sold them for that sweet green

Also cars are naturally just a terrible soundstage

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow 01/28/2016 at 11:27

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Yeah adding a decent Pioneer with an amp to the four-speaker system in my Mustang has done wonders, but there’s still a lot of distortion to the highs when any bass comes in and pumping any bass through the door speakers makes EVERYTHING in the door rattle.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Aaron M - MasoFiST 01/28/2016 at 11:28

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Head unit is always the first thing to do. The other reason I prefer keeping all my door speakers just doing mids and highs is because doors rattle. A lot. Pumping bass through my door speakers makes the window switches sound like maracas.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > StndIbnz, Drives a MSRT8 01/28/2016 at 11:29

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I’ve got a 1000W RMS JL audio monoblock class D powering a single 10" vintage MTX in a vented box. It’s not as good as my dual RE 15" boxes were, but it’s alright. The stock four speakers do an adequate job at mids and highs. I had a really nice full system in my Civic. I miss that quite a bit. I could max out everything without distortion and give EVERYBODY glorious, glorious hearing damage.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Master Cylinder 01/28/2016 at 11:30

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Yeah. My ‘stang is daily driver status so I’m tossing in a small-ish sub/amp combo and I already have a nice head unit installed. Storage space is at a premium though so I’ll probably get one of those “custom made for your trunk” stealth enclosures.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > DrScientist 01/28/2016 at 11:31

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Many modern cars have “stealth boxes” made for them that fit inside the spare tire or in some little bit of unused space and can do a nice job filling out the lows (not rattling windows or anything) without taking up much cargo room at all.

luvMeSome142 & some Lincoln! > Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow 01/28/2016 at 11:31

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Hear, hear! I had an old 40Wx4 Sony amp laying around and hooked it up to the stock speakers and it made a huge difference! My car also has a stock subwoofer and amp that I didn’t change.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts. 01/28/2016 at 11:32

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Quality over loudness is how I roll, and it looks like you do too. Good man.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > TheRealBicycleBuck 01/28/2016 at 11:33

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But... none of this is about loudness, it’s about quality. Regardless of the volume you listen at you’ll get better quality by having your lows go through a speaker that’s actually designed for the low frequencies. Yes, lows carry, but a well-designed system will minimize what’s heard outside the car. It takes a ridiculous amount of power to make a subwoofer audible from inside a house.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > functionoverfashion 01/28/2016 at 11:34

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Or you get a stealthbox that fits under the seats or in some random unused cargo area or cranny in the trunk, and looks factory to boot. I’m getting a 12" sealed box for my Mustang that looks more factory than the optional factory 10" subs do.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Übel 01/28/2016 at 11:34

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True on both points.

Aaron M - MasoFiST > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 01/28/2016 at 11:36

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This is true. That said, unless you get a good sealed enclosure or dynamat the hell out of your trunk, a sub will rattle just as much. The difference is in how much you can do, but if you do nothing it’ll still be bad.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Aaron M - MasoFiST 01/28/2016 at 11:39

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I love sealed enclosures. So tight and punchy.

StndIbnz, Drives a MSRT8 > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 01/28/2016 at 11:41

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I had the stock Kicker system in my SRT, and it still left me wanting. I had this system in my old Stratus and was just sitting in the basement waiting for a radio upgrade. Picked up the Pioneer 4100NEX and installed everything into the Magnum. So much better.

Next step is making some fiberglass sub pods for the sides of the hatch. Not a huge fan of the box sitting back there (it keeps tipping over when I floor it....).

TheRealBicycleBuck > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 01/28/2016 at 11:59

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“It takes a ridiculous amount of power to make a subwoofer audible from inside a house.”

No, it doesn’t. One of my neighbors likes to have parties in his back yard. He drives his car around back so he can crank up the tunes. His house is roughly 350 feet from mine (four houses down). Even though it isn’t that loud in his back yard, I can hear the bass inside my house, especially near the head of my bed, on the living room couch, and at the dining table where I sit when I work at home. A few steps away from those places and the sound rapidly diminishes. Resonance frequencies at work.

DrScientist > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 01/28/2016 at 12:24

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yes... that’s what i’d need. of course, i’m always hesitant about tapping into anything electronic in older cars. which, of course, is all i have.

WiscoProud > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 01/28/2016 at 12:24

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In my early 20s I had a few car stereos, with the peak being a ‘89 celica with a 15" JLw3 and Boston acoustics components each ran off of JBL amps. It sounded good and could blur your vision when cranked. I’m actually starting to research it again since my cruiser needs everything.

I will say that car subs get a bad rap for two reasons. One is the shit box with a huge sub rattling and disturbing the whole neighborhood. The second is that many systems, my past ones included, were so heavily weighed towards bass that there was no balance between the front components and subs, making the SQ argument largely meaningless.

I will say the coolest thing I’ve seen recently is the introduction of auto eq software like has been available for home theater.

Nibbles > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 01/28/2016 at 12:40

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Where would you recommend putting a sub in an extended cab Dakota? I have a single 10“ in a slimline that I’d like to install but it has to be inconspicuous and can’t just be in the backseat because dogs .

Would installing it in one of the under-seat storage bins still produce decent lows? I mean it’s a small fuckin’ cabin, it shouldn’t need much

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 01/28/2016 at 12:59

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I prefer accuracy to output, so I’m partial to sealed sub boxes.

I’m considering yanking the Bose setup from the Silverado and starting with a Kenwood Excelon 2DIN deck with Android Auto, and putting a JL Audio sealed sub box that fits in the center console.

Then we can talk about the speakers and amps, since I have to find places to stash those...probably under the back seat.

TheD0k_2many toys 2little time > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 01/28/2016 at 14:10

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I have the cheapest alpine two ways, a 10in kicker ported with a 300w mono amp in my truck and it sounds great. including head unit i spent less than $400 on it all from Crutchfield

Stewbacca > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 01/28/2016 at 14:14

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So your dad has a really nice sounding system, and you overpaid for the convenience of not having to install a system later?

functionoverfashion > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 01/28/2016 at 14:15

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I’ve used the small under-seat ones, and didn’t find them to be nearly as good as a bazooka. There is a trunk-filler sub box for my wagon... but the thing is, I really need ALL the space when I do need it - my car also serves to take the trash/recycling to the dump, often while also housing all my ski gear and two kids and possibly a dog.

On second thought, maybe I just need to get a beater suburban for those days.

wiffleballtony > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 01/28/2016 at 14:30

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Alternatively

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs 01/28/2016 at 15:02

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Silverado/Suburban Bose setups are amazing. The door speakers rattle my feet around. They aren’t particularly responsive, though, and a bit muddy.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Nibbles 01/28/2016 at 15:03

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Under seat would probably work. I don’t know much about slimline stuff but they’re usually super low excursion subs that can get away with the small airspace. Won’t need a very powerful amp, though many have an amp in-built.

KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 01/28/2016 at 16:25

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Hence why after 10 years (and 314K miles and counting), it makes sense to take them out and dump the Bose system, since it has had it’s useful life come and go. Plus the radio has some reception issues and the CD player doesn’t work (and I have to hook up my phone with a cassette adapter)