Under-seat Powered Subwoofers - let’s talk about em.

In my truck, I prefer having the sub under the passenger seat.

I'd rather experience the fundamental octave as a subtle force acting upon my whole body, rather than a jarring vibration of my butt through the seat.

But I don't mind riding shotgun from time to time either.

 

It takes distance to develop low frequency sound waves so the further away the speaker is from the listener (referring to a reasonable distance) the more the deeper bass notes will be heard. The lowest frequency the human ear can hear is around 20 Hz which takes about 20 feet to fully develop. So in a vehicle the more the sound waves bounce off of a wall/roof/etc before those sound waves hit the listeners ear the better the low bass notes will sound..

 

This is information I have been needing. I'm going to try the sound Ordinance in other locations in my AC. Currently, it's behind the driver seat on the floor. I don't enjoy feeling the bass as much as I do with it under..

Also, I'm still playing with the tune. I have a 10 band equalizer in the HU and the lowest frequencies, 80 hz and 100hz, are at -6, so the sub does the work.

 

When the sub is firing through the seat it slows the sound waves down which in turn gives them more time to develop which will allow a human ear to hear more of the frequencies being heard without being 20 feet away.

Have you ever been in a vehicle listening to the stereo and whenever the music genre is changed the system needs adjusting its EQ/bass and treble controls? Or it's sounding great and then a female singer comes on and it feels like fingernails on a chalkboard? That occurs when there are peaks and dips within the frequency response curve. Maybe you've heard a system that sounds like it's missing part of the music's frequencies but you're not sure which frequencies are lacking, that is also created by peaks and dips within the frequency curve.

In the old days it would take me an hour just to set up the equipment required to adjust the frequency curve but nowadays we have apps that makes it much easier to get to the actual tuning. I eventually got to the point where I could adjust the curve extremely close to correct without using equipment but I'm too old now (hearing loss). So nowadays you can use apps to assist you in tuning the entire frequency range or individual frequencies.

The "sound level meter" app is just that, it shows the decibels of each frequency being played. The "frequency generator" app generates individual frequencies which is extremely helpful in tuning bass systems (determining and verifying port frequency, quantity of pillow stuffing, etc...). The "relaxing noise" app can generate pink noise which is the correct noise used to tune the entire frequency range.

This is what the sound level meter screen looks like while playing pink noise out of my cell phone.

I was writing an in depth article about building a tuning a sound system. I wrote 8 pages on the topic on my PC but then one of my other threads got trashed by haters and ignorant fools and then another thread got completely ignored so I deleted the article I wrote about sound systems off of my PC.

This sound system stuff was so much fun to do for decades but there isn't any real money in it for 99.9% of the people that choose to do it for a living.

 

Oops, lol.

This is what white noise looks like on the sound level meter app

You'll notice the frequency range is higher. 99.9% of the installers out there will tell you to not use white noise to tune I however would use it to tune the upper frequencies (only).

 

IIRC, I think that I had them facing sideways. I'll remember for sure when I get a couple pics after work today.

 

The sub's grille sticks out a little, but otherwise remains out of the way. I'm thinking of making a better shelf on top of the box, since it's flat there.

The back side of this enclosure has a bunch of cutouts and fiberglassing so it would match the contour and protrusions at the back. It was a fun project. This 10" really gave me what I was wanting, the low bass that the Sound Ordinance couldn't hit.

I went with a Kicker amp and mounted the wireless remote bass controller up front. With my stock HU, it hits pretty hard with things turned up 50%. 75% starts shaking my mirrors. I haven't maxed it yet.

 

Thanks. I’ll read that 5 or 6 times to digest it. I appreciate the time you took to explain.

 

Sub showed up today.

Surprised the amount of work it took to fit it under the passenger seat even with 1/2” rear spacers.

Flipped the bar and still had to relocate all the under seat plugs to make enough room.

 

Initial thoughts. It does exactly what I want it to do.

I listen to alotta pop punk ( Story So Far and Wonder Years and shit like that) and American (like Tyler Childers, Lucero, ect) and this thing is perfect for that type of music.

I do need to tune it now though.

 

Sorry if I’m thread jacking.

For those of you who flipped the bar under the passenger seat, was the air bag still able to come on with someone on the passenger seat? I’ve read that flipping the bar sometimes won’t let the seat travel low enough to activate the sensor. I’m asking because I will install another amp and don’t want to be flipping that bar if it the sensor won’t be able to sense that there is a passenger on the seat.

I will be moving lc7i and a kenwood 5 channel from the driver side to passenger side. And will be putting a rockford amp under the driver seat for the sub.

Edit: I just realized this is a 2nd gen thread

 

Not the best pics but here’s a couple. Wiring is on the side. It sits right up to the weather tech liner.

 

Well, I got my Rockville SS8P installed this weekend. I put it under the driver's seat, mostly because I didn't have the correct-size star-driver to flip the crossbar on the passenger's seat. It did fit with the connections and controls pointed towards the back.

I was able to disassembly the control box and mount the circuit board in one of the switch blanks. I cut out the internal ribs and drilled a couple holes, then held the board in place with a bead of silicon adhesive along the edge.

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What about the air handling vents under the passenger seat? I'd like to place a powered sub but not sure how to handle the handling...

 

Gotta go under the driver seat

 

Ah. My 2022 has a powered seat. Risky? Seems problematic

 

If clearance is an issue, grab some seat jackers/spacers. It worked for me.