I must first thank the forums and the board the wealth of information that you guys have put up over the years. The electronics FAQ is a wealth of information. Thanks again =)

I had a buddy that just got an s2k and had his sound system upgraded. After listening to his system, my vanity kicked in and I decided that I've definitely got to upgrade my stock system, but I'd try to do it with a limited budget. *gasp* It seems that the simplest way to ease the pain of outlaying a thousand bucks is over the course of a couple weeks and months rather than all at once.

So far, I've upgraded the head unit to a Pioneer DEH400UB. It's a great unit with usb for ipod control, front aux, rca components and the other goodies without breaking the wallet too much.


I've also got on order a set of Infinity Reference 6022i speakers to replace the door speakers.
I am also scouring eBay for a good deal on the Alpine PDX 4.150, so hopefully something shows up for <= $300. My plan for the amp was to amp the new door speakers and bridge the remaining channels to power the subwoofer.

I found an Alpine Type E 10" online for around $60 (including S&H) and now am at a point of dilemma for the following options:
1. Scour the s2ki.com boards and look for a custom enclosure to fit the side of a trunk.
2. Create my own box.
3. But a premade box that would fit the trunk.
4. Try an open air woofer setup and mount the 10" speaker somewhere between the cabin and trunk under the convertible tray.

It seems like #4 would be a great option and I've seen it done before as part of stock premium setups. I'm not looking for back breaking bass, but just more of a refined range of sound so open air seems like a good fit.

So my question is, has anyone tried an open air sub setup and absolutely hated it or are there people who have done it and had just enough extra sound to fill up their lower ranges even with the top down?

I think by having an openair setup and the speaker mounted underneath the convertible tray, there's absolutely no sacrifice in trunk space and I still get a spare tire.

Also the amp would most easily be mounted behind the passenger's seat with only a loss of about 3 inches, which isn't too bad for me.

What do you guys think?

 

Post up of you find a great deal on a PDX. I like their small size but prices are just absurd. I'm looking at Alpine's other, larger, amps because pricing is much better.

The cheapest custom sub enclosure I've found is about $105 shipped, ZEnclosure on e-bay that fits the tool well. But I can't find any reviews.

 

That's a really nice deck, where did you pick it up?

 

Well the PDX 4.100's are going for ~250 on eBay. The higher powered 4.150s can be found occasionally for $300 on eBay and $360 and up... From any online retailer the 4.150 can be had for ~400 easily.

The 4.100's seem like they could be okay as well. The Alpine amps seem to be underrated. I was at a Best Buy and saw a 4.100 with some papers that tested the output at 125watts...

 

Does the Z enclosure fit flushly or is it just a square box that happens to fit in the trunk well?

For $100, I'd probably be willing to pick up some mdf board myself and just make an enclosure from scratch for the fun of it though.

 

I got the floor model at Tweeter for $183 including the honda harness, and 6% PA sales tax.

I did over pay by about $20 in some regards, since I could've picked up a brand new deck cheaper (~140) on eBay or online and bought a harness from Best Buy for $20.

I think Best Buy has the DEH-P4000UB, not 400 which is pretty much identical for around $160 ish.

I didn't get one of the more expensive models since they didn't have a front aux in port, for long drives and movies.

 

My PDX 1.600 was tested at about 713 watts

 

I don't know much more about that ZEnclosure but they claim it is custom-fitted and leaves a little room underneath. If you think that's overpriced you haven't checked out JL's Stealthbox yet!

I imagine the PDX's are under-rated because, IIRC, they are class D. I'm an old guy so I have some bias against Class D for anything other than subs but I'm told the new tech works fine. I've seen the prices you noted. I don't consider those wonderful prices. The equivalent MRP series units are cheaper.

 

I don't think that $100 for an enclosure is unreasonable at all. It would probably cost just as much to make one myself. Of course the wood and glue would be relatively inexpensive, but I would have to purchase some extra tools which could easily put me over $100 to build my own custom enclosure, but I would want to make one for the pure enjoyment of making one rather than buying an off the shelf product.

As far as being biased against Class D amps, I can definitely understand your reasoning. However truthfully, I would have a very hard time justifying more than a Class D amp setup for s2000s and most other cars. I'm sure you'd agree that there's just way too much cabin noise that would warrant a higher end(in audio quality, flat spl curves, etc) setup. From what I've read about the PDX series, they user from Bang and Olufsen's ICEPower for amplification which is supposed to yield very high quality results very efficiently. =)

Not counting people whose main objective is 130db bass (jk), I think most are looking for a modest flatting of their SPL curve throughout the listening range, aka having a well balanced sound from the lows, mids and highs.

Ahh, I digress, the PDX amps are pretty decent boxes for our cars, small, efficient and quality, but it'd be nice to pick the 4.150s up for around 250.

Anyway, does anyone have any experience, suggestions as far as doing an open air subwoofer setup for the s2000, or am I going to be among the first to experiment?[B]

 

Btw, anyone know where I can see shots and look at the ZEnclosures?