Have you fitted a Sub?

[BillBlank]

If you have stuck a sub in the boot I'd love to hear how simple it was to do and is there any chance I could see some piccies as I'm considering it for my christmas pressie.

I know it marks me as chav scum but after posting in a music thread I found myself musing on the lack of bottom end with the standard set up.

What about those slimline subs that were designed to fit under seats a few years back by the likes of Pioneer? Did any one ever try one?

Thoughts and advice would be appreciated. I'd rather have a set of S8 springs and dampers to be honest but I run two active subs in the living room with an AX10ai amp so I'm used to quite high levels of sub 100 hz. I miss that in the car.

Bill

[PsYcHe]

PaulW fitted a sub to his a while back, but I think he took the feed from the parcel shelf speakers and took them out to allow for better sound transfer. (he left the grilles in though)

[Ska]

I have a couple of 10's but I also have a lot of other aftermarket Alpine stuff. As above its a case of gatting signal supply from one of the speakers or depends if yor already running an aftermarket Head unit. For me those under seat subs are crap (and not sure if you could get one under an A8 seat anyway). Your centre arm rest has a blanking plate if you don't have a ski hatch so can be opened to vent the bass into the cabin. I'll post a couple of pics later this evening.

[waynester2]

I have a couple of 10's but I also have a lot of other aftermarket Alpine stuff. .

I bet that sounds nice, when I first got my '8 I noticed the bass was awful after a bit of investigation, I found the rear speakers out of phase with the front speakers.

Basically bass wise they were cancelling each other out.

When sitting in the front of the car put the fader to all speakers and put some bassy music on. Then put the fader to rear speakers only. Leave for about 1 min so you get used to it, then move the fader back to all speakers, does the bass get better or worse? If worse then they are out of phase. Whip the headunit out and either cut and chock block the front speakers polarity (bit of a bodge) or carefully take the condctors out of the plastic connector and reverse them (I did this) , or you can buy a lead from halfords which breaks the speakers out and then back in again, which you can use to reverse it without modifying the car. I think one of the reasons this happen is because the front speakers are powered from the headunit, rears have their own amp(s) I have also had this in 2 A6's.

admittedly the bass is not amazing (mines non bose) but its ok, my next project is to use the TV inputs to put my mp3 player into, saving up for the adaptor off ebay

Slim line subs under the seats are rubbish IMHO usually vibrate (ie the case vibrates as well as the speaker) and more for boy racers (present company excepted off course! )

Edited November 6, 2008 by waynester2
clarification

[harpersimon]

Just get bose - awesome sound, no mods :-)

[Ska]

I bet that sounds nice, when I first got my '8 I noticed the bass was awful after a bit of investigation, I found the rear speakers out of phase with the front speakers.

Basically bass wise they were cancelling each other out.

When sitting in the front of the car put the fader to all speakers and put some bassy music on. Then put the fader to rear speakers only. Leave for about 1 min so you get used to it, then move the fader back to all speakers, does the bass get better or worse? If worse then they are out of phase. Whip the headunit out and either cut and chock block the front speakers polarity (bit of a bodge) or carefully take the condctors out of the plastic connector and reverse them (I did this) , or you can buy a lead from halfords which breaks the speakers out and then back in again, which you can use to reverse it without modifying the car. I think one of the reasons this happen is because the front speakers are powered from the headunit, rears have their own amp(s) I have also had this in 2 A6's.

admittedly the bass is not amazing (mines non bose) but its ok, my next project is to use the TV inputs to put my mp3 player into, saving up for the adaptor off ebay

Slim line subs under the seats are rubbish IMHO usually vibrate (ie the case vibrates as well as the speaker) and more for boy racers (present company excepted off course! )

Sounds like you have the same OE setup as me. Are you sure they are out of phase? IIRC sometimes audiophiles used this approach when placing rear fill speakers as they didn't want the front sound stage being messed up. Having said that, another reason why there may be more bass up front is proly down to the tuned enclosures for the front door speakers (on mine they are made by Nokia!). I have completely disconnected the ones on the rear shelf and am running a four channel amp through a DSP EQ with time alignment- so can mess about with the sound stage (sounds impressive but its a PIA to get right then if you ever disconnect the batttery and you can't remember the settings you'll have fun for hours setting it back up again - Doh!). The subs run of a mono class D amp.

My system needs to setup correctly again will do it when I fit the new multimedia player & my health improves:(

Your not half right about those under seat jobbies they are Crap!:dung:

I've heard Simon's Bose set up and it does sound very good indeed. No audible distortion at high levels and decent depth of bass. The only mod I would consider, as Simon himself pointed out was to have a different head unit; something with SATNAV. But those bose compenents seem to be married up quite well so not sure if that might hinder the quality or make it better. I would though add an extra sub which could be switched on for when I feel like a hooligan.

Bottom line is everyone has different tastes and ears so the best judge can only be yourself.

[BillBlank]

Thanks Gents, I guess those slimline subs are just as pants as I suspected. My wife hates the size of my subs in the living room but baby sized enclosures just don't cut it unless you spend silly money and even then...

When you played with your in car entertainment how bad was the interference? A car is such an awful place to install a hifi thanks to all those wave guides and electrical gizmos. I'm worried that I'll end up with that all too familiar whine from the cars of my friends in my youth.

What way did you route things like power leads and pre outs from the head unit?

Bill

Edit to add: Piccies Ska?

[Ska]

All signal cables went down the passenger side under/behind the glove compartment then under the carpet near the sills(easy to remove), then under the back seat into the corner where there is foam and some other wiring. The Alpine monitor takes its feed from the normal harness but you do also have to run an ignition live wire so that all the amps etc switch off when you shut down the HU. I suppose you could tap the rear speaker amps under the shelf for that you'd just need to ID the wire IIRC I think its white and red.

The key to minimising interference is keeping power/earth cable away from signal carrying cables and making sure all your earth points are clean etc. Failing that a noise supressor may be in order.

Oh heres a pic of the phone.

Edited November 6, 2008 by Ska

[DJStrange]

Hi Ska! Quick question, are your type R's in ported or sealed enclosures? I've got a single 12" RE SE in a sealed enclosure currently, I'm really stuck as to leaving it sealed or building a new ported enclosure for the 8.

The SE12 performed well in it's sealed enclosure in my vectra saloon (simillar scenario, ski hatch flap open gives more bass, split fold seats down gives even more) - I'm just wondering if it will still deliver in the audi's bigger boot but with smaller ski hatch and no split fold seat option?

Only problem is that I don't want the extra size/weight of a ported enclosure - just wondering if you've had experience of both ported & sealed in the 8?

[Ska]

I've not tried a ported box but then I'm after a flat response as I listen to wide variety of tunes films etc. One of the things I have noted with ported enclosures apart from the fact they are larger is that they are quite sensative to where they are palced in the boot and how they are vented into the cabin. They also tend to have a narrower response band than a sealed (depends on the complexity/order of the enclosure). If your after more SPL then I'd add another 12 which would automaticaly increase the SPL by 6dB (twice the amplification & twice the woofer cone area). In hind sight I would have opted for a couple of 12 the 10 are a little too tight for me.