pkolaboy

I installed an older L5 10" Kicker sub w/ Kicker 200w @ 2ohm and am having problems. First problem is the bass seems like it isn't traveling to the cabin. Secondly, when I get up to 20+ mph the bass seems to drown/distort. I went and bought another amp (punch 900w one ch) and the sub hits harder but still not traveling to the cabin and also distorts/drowns the bass at 20+ mph. First things first I am going to remove the soft top tray and maybe spare tire to ease access. Maybe down the road I might install dynomat also. As for the starving amp syndrome, I'm lost! I appreciate all the help and thanks for looking!


-Mark

pkolaboy

anybody?

iDashX

how are you running your wires? are your power cables ran on the right side of the car and audio/signal cables down middle or left? are there adjustable frequencies on the amp? what kind of deck do you have? kind of cables do you have? how old is your battery?

cvjoint

I've measured road noise at 98db c weighed, and at the same time 82 db A weighed like magazines do. That means road noise is hella loud in an S2000 and in the low frequency range. You are going to have a hard time even beating road noise with a mild setup.

That rear tray had no breathing holes and furthermore it has sound absorbent material.

1st you want to clear the rear tray, it's no good for audio. Taking out any of the paneling before the spare will help a lot too and obviously the spare.

2nd you may want to use sound damping materials under the spare in that area and the bottom of the trunk if you don't mind the extra weight.

3rd buy more powerful gear. Look for a high efficiency motor design with plenty of xmax and surface area. I'm a big fan of Acoustic Elegance you probably want to look at the AV series. Other good choices are JBL GTI and Creative Sound Solutions.

pkolaboy

Thank you for the replies.


Idashx, the equipment I am using isn't the most popular but it should do the job. I ran the power cable on the pass. side and rca's/remote throught the center console. The rca's, rem, and pwr are kicker. I have a somewhat newer model kenwood HU, w/ a one ch. rockford fosgate 900w amp with the db setting to 12 db, and gain somewhat all the way up. I am using the older series 10" L5 in a wedge box.


Cvjoint, I removed the upper smaller and lower bigger panels and the bass definatly improved. I think roadnoise is what's killing the bass when I am up to speed. I am definatly thinking about dynomatting my trunk area though to kill some of the roadnoise. Also when the top is down, the bass is completly gone! lol...

sdosmil77

ull love my center console hidden sub when im done w it. nothin wrong w havin the bass come from between the seats right? vipers do it

oth

the vent panels behind the seats lead to the trunk, but there are insulation
flaps that hang down potentially covering the vents. If you reach in through
the trunk (behind the liner), you can remove the flaps or tape them out of
the way. Some people have vented the trunk liner as well.
I have no idea if either of these things actually make a difference to sound
from a trunk sub box though.

cvjoint

If the bass response changes from top up to top down then the top up condition actually creates some cabin gain. I am going to document whether the top in the S actually does this, but if you notice it then it should be substantial. Cabin gain is the reason sealed boxes work so well in hardtops.

The smooth rolloff of a sealed box combined with the car's transfer function sum to a fairly flat response all the way down to 20hz. With the top down there should be no gain at all, the response will rolloff at the box rolloff rate, which is 12db for sealed. Same thing happens in a larger room in home theater.

There are two things you can do to make the response flat to 20hz when the top is down:
1. use a ported enclosure
2. Use the EQ. function to progressively add more gain as you go towards 20hz. Maybe you can make an EQ setting for top down and one for top up.


As for the insulation in the vents:
the material isn't thick or dense enough to do any filtering for common sub frequencies: 80hz and down. The coefficient of absorption is way too low for long wavelengths. I would probably leave it in there if you use a fairly low LP filter on the sub, it will block only frequencies you are not interested in, like high pitch whine from the fuel pump.