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Rear hat shelf mounted subwoofer

ogamer777

ogamer777

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Joined
May 22, 2016
Location
New North Winchestersonville (PNW 425 gang)
Been pondering upon the idea of getting a single subwoofer, an amp, and upgrading the speakers on the 244. I don't want to sacrifice trunk space to accomplish this. I know that there are some vehicles that came with rear hat shelf mounted subwoofers from the factory so I know it's doable. My question is has anyone done it on a 244/242? What brand and model sub did you go with? I'm looking for an 8" or 10".
 
2 decent rockford fosgate 8" woofers. They work decently using the trunk as their cabinet. The parcel shelf panel is made from 3/4" MDF and sealed off around the edges.

subwoofers.jpg
 
He is Clive, head of Volvo's crash test dummy department. I think they used to sell them at the dealerships. Not sure where mine came from. They were around in Volvo circles 10 years ago.


nel621 said:
^ Where did you find the dummy?
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You'd have to make an enclosure below the woofers to make them sound decent. Otherwise it won't sound nearly as good. Better off putting some large speakers in place, with an amp driving them like white855t mentioned. They won't sound tight. Someone with a Musical Engineering degree back me up

If you want the boom boom like the buick le sabres then just angle your driveshaft out of line and enjoy the racket.
 
LeedomtoFreedom said:
You'd have to make an enclosure below the woofers to make them sound decent. Otherwise it won't sound nearly as good. Better off putting some large speakers in place, with an amp driving them like white855t mentioned. They won't sound tight. Someone with a Musical Engineering degree back me up

If you want the boom boom like the buick le sabres then just angle your driveshaft out of line and enjoy the racket.
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I've got some old 6x9s in there now. I've got a 750w (I think) amp ready to go. I've never had a vehicle with subs but I've read and heard even just a single 8" will make the listening experience much much better.

I'll keep my driveshaft nice and tight and correctly aligned tyvm
 
LeedomtoFreedom said:
You'd have to make an enclosure below the woofers to make them sound decent. Otherwise it won't sound nearly as good. Better off putting some large speakers in place, with an amp driving them like white855t mentioned. They won't sound tight. Someone with a Musical Engineering degree back me up

If you want the boom boom like the buick le sabres then just angle your driveshaft out of line and enjoy the racket.
Click to expand...

What you want is ?infinite baffle? speakers. Or IB. They have a QTS of around .7 and won?t need a cabinet to sound good -ish. I doubt you?ll find a lot of car subs with a higher Q like this, but there are many home speakers that can work. Call www.partsexpress.com amd tell them what you want to do.
 
To use the rear trunk as a subwoofer enclosure, you would need a very large/high powered speaker. And you need to calculate the volume of the trunk, and match it to a sub. If you want to use the tray to mount the sub, I would look at the cheapest 10" JL brand sub, and build a sealed box behind it that attaches to the underside of the tray. Cheapest does not mean worst with JL. If the RMS rating of the amp matches the RMS rating of the subwoofer, it will sound great and be loud. The amp specs are super important. Also you don't want to overpower the rest of your speakers

Subwoofers have specific enclosure needs, they will not sound good or actually self destruct if not matched to the proper enclosure and amplifier. There are some made to be "free mounted" like that but not many.

I could go on for a while about this, I've built many sub boxes, and there are a lot of considerations to get the most from a speaker. Type of enclosure makes the sub sound different, ported or sealed enclosure, or a hybrid of both.

For the previous post, you would need to check the ohm of that kind of speaker, car audio is typically 4 to .25 ohm, home audio is 8
 
HiSPL said:
What you want is ?infinite baffle? speakers. Or IB. They have a QTS of around .7 and won?t need a cabinet to sound good -ish. I doubt you?ll find a lot of car subs with a higher Q like this, but there are many home speakers that can work. Call www.partsexpress.com amd tell them what you want to do.
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Thanks for your input. Not looking to go vibrating people's hearts off rhythm, just a little extra umpf for the bassier music.
 
Use bigger speakers and higher power amps or build an enclosure for the specified sub. I have a fairly small sub in the opposite spare tire spot in my sedan that is fairly small but adds a lot. 6x9s in the same spot as yours powered by a 4ch amp at like 750watts. Gotta scrap all of this and get the same sort of setup in the wagon. Putting more power into small speakers is where it's at. Some of the nicest stereo systems have fairly small speakers with lots of nice TIGHT power running through them.
 
Is "lots of nice tight power" a technical term or suggestion? The answers to this thread hurt my brain, no facts involved in any way. Who uses 6x9 speakers in 2018?. no one who cares what their stereo sounds like. "putting more power through small speakers is where its at" How do you do that? You need to play with the ohm load, match the sub and speakers exactly to your amp and it will sound great, even with a lower powered system
 
2turbotoys said:
You can't use home audio equipment in a car. Ohm load is way off. Pm'd
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Speakers are speakers. ?Car? speakers don?t follow any different laws of physics than home or pro speakers. They just have specs that lend themselves to be used in cars where the primary thing is to be small and efficient.


Seriously. An infinite baffle sub will do you just fine. It isn?t louder than any other type of sub. It typically has less coloration (or distortion) than other subs because there is no box behind it.


FWIW, I am a 25 year pro sound veteran. I know a thing or two about speakers. Google a little about IB subs. Some folks like them.
 
Strap this this to your shelf and be done.
s-l640.jpg
 
The reason you don't use home audio stuff is because the ohm load (typically 8 ohm) of a home audio speaker cuts the power output of a car audio amplifier in half (typically 4 ohm), therefore wasteful and unnecessary when there are tons of speakers available with the correct ohm load.
 
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