Is a subwoofer necessary?

[jonleelk]

Hi guys. Changing ride next week, thus dekitting stuff from my old ride.

 

Focal 27V1 10" sub woofer driver : $120

Eclipse E505SSP satellite speakers : $50

 

$150 if take all together. Please PM if interested.

 

[SGCMVassago]

Sorry, just to hijack the thread a bit.

It is worthwhile to change speakers, install amp and underseat subwoofer if my car have stock HU?

Will it help in terms of sound quality?

 

The HU DSP does have option to align the sound to driver.

[Clement]

Sorry, just to hijack the thread a bit.

It is worthwhile to change speakers, install amp and underseat subwoofer if my car have stock HU?

Will it help in terms of sound quality?

 

The HU DSP does have option to align the sound to driver.

 

I was advised by a few ICE gurus that if you have a stock HU, amp and upgraded speakers, an underseat subwoofer is not of much use. Better to go for a boot mounted subwoofer (10" or 12") with proper enclosure and dedicated amp.

 

But if you have a stock HU driving your speakers, an underseat subwoofer may help.

I will not install any subwoofer until I see how my stock HU, amp and upgraded speakers are like first.

[Loki]

[SGCMVassago]

I was advised by a few ICE gurus that if you have a stock HU, amp and upgraded speakers, an underseat subwoofer is not of much use. Better to go for a boot mounted subwoofer (10" or 12") with proper enclosure and dedicated amp.

 

But if you have a stock HU driving your speakers, an underseat subwoofer may help.

I will not install any subwoofer until I see how my stock HU, amp and upgraded speakers are like first.

Thanks! Had installed front, back speaker and tweeter now, the previous owner dekit and installed some weird speakers.

 

Sound seems good enough now.

[Hachi28]

I started with speaker upgrades with 4-channel Focal amplifier added on. Finds out that original speakers have more bass and now my new Focal K2 though less bass but have better SQ. So I added in active sub-woofer, but I removed it within a week(total regret to waste money on this). Next I spend on a pair of under-seat Rainbow shallow sub-woofer with Moconi 2-way amplifier to push it. The result is very subtle improvement. It is more of a well balance sound quality with some bass. So, I dig out my old 13" Focal sub-woofer with casing and use a 1-channel Focal amplifier to push the sub. Now the bass is enough to vibrate my rear windshield.

 

The conclusion is that the sound quality is not as good as my previous car because now I am using original head unit as compared with my old car which I use an upgraded Pioneer head unit. The solution is to add in a processor to beef up the head unit and tune it, which I have not done it yet.

 

To answer TS topic on upgrades.... In Car Entertainment is like a hobby that you slowly appreciate through building it better. However, I do agree with setting a budget and not overspent on car audio. Do remember that on average we only keep the car for 10 years and if you want to dekit, the new car speaker size may not be the same. Actually I did overspent as my car audio is more expensive then my Monitor Audio home hi-fi, and my home hi-fi sounds a lot better.

[Clement]

I started with speaker upgrades with 4-channel Focal amplifier added on. Finds out that original speakers have more bass and now my new Focal K2 though less bass but have better SQ. So I added in active sub-woofer, but I removed it within a week(total regret to waste money on this). Next I spend on a pair of under-seat Rainbow shallow sub-woofer with Moconi 2-way amplifier to push it. The result is very subtle improvement. It is more of a well balance sound quality with some bass. So, I dig out my old 13" Focal sub-woofer with casing and use a 1-channel Focal amplifier to push the sub. Now the bass is enough to vibrate my rear windshield.

 

The conclusion is that the sound quality is not as good as my previous car because now I am using original head unit as compared with my old car which I use an upgraded Pioneer head unit. The solution is to add in a processor to beef up the head unit and tune it, which I have not done it yet.

 

To answer TS topic on upgrades.... In Car Entertainment is like a hobby that you slowly appreciate through building it better. However, I do agree with setting a budget and not overspent on car audio. Do remember that on average we only keep the car for 10 years and if you want to dekit, the new car speaker size may not be the same. Actually I did overspent as my car audio is more expensive then my Monitor Audio home hi-fi, and my home hi-fi sounds a lot better.

 

I know that under seat sub-woofer is sub-optimal at best.

So I did not go for it, my system now has no sub-woofer at all.

 

I have upgraded front to component speakers and rear to co-axial speakers.

Lacks low end punch, but high frequency sounds are very impressive now.

Low end only goes down to 60 Hz.

 

I got no space in boot for proper sub-woofer enclosure.

So will skip a sub-woofer as I hate rattling windows in a car.

 

My home hi-fi is using valve amp with 15" woofer and horn loaded MF and HF drivers, so no comparison with my car system.

Home audio is always better, no road noises and better sound staging as you can place speakers in ideal positions.

Agree that you should set a budget as the skies the limit as far as ICE goes!

 

Cheers!

[Baojian1990]

Any good 10" rms: 200w single coil woofer to intro??

[start2]

Hi am new to ICE stuffs.  My mech actually intro-ed me to install Pioneer TSWX120A active subwoofer to my stock system.  

 

He did mentioned that it will improve the bass sound quality but I'm not sure whether it will be a good investment. Is anyone using this currently? Hope to have some opinions.  

 

Of course I'm not expecting major improvements as it's just adding on a active subwoofer, but just want to improve the sound quality from my stock audio system.   

 

TIA

Edited September 28, 2016 by start2

[Budgetice]

Hi am new to ICE stuffs. My mech actually intro-ed me to install Pioneer TSWX120A active subwoofer to my stock system.

 

He did mentioned that it will improve the bass sound quality but I'm not sure whether it will be a good investment. Is anyone using this currently? Hope to have some opinions.

 

Of course I'm not expecting major improvements as it's just adding on a active subwoofer, but just want to improve the sound quality from my stock audio system.

 

TIA

Try the focal active sub too before making a decision.

[Hachi28]

Hi am new to ICE stuffs.  My mech actually intro-ed me to install Pioneer TSWX120A active subwoofer to my stock system.  

 

He did mentioned that it will improve the bass sound quality but I'm not sure whether it will be a good investment. Is anyone using this currently? Hope to have some opinions.  

 

Of course I'm not expecting major improvements as it's just adding on a active subwoofer, but just want to improve the sound quality from my stock audio system.   

 

TIA

I installed it before and removed it next few days. It is not the kind of bass I am looking for. 

[eltonteo]

Hi all gurus,I am thinking of getting a Mazda 3 2l sedan and would like to find out about the stock audio setup. Is the stock HU considered decent? Need to change to component speakers with tweeters? I probably will migrate my active-sub and 4 channel amp over to the new ride although they would have been 10 and 13 years old by next year. Do I need to change if the acfive-sub and amp are still in good condition?

 

Thanks for all comments and advise.

[hyuna]

It depends on what music you enjoy listening to.

[coolbluepica]

The most basic is a box woofer in the boot, driven with a mono block. For cheap and good set can consider Hertz or Rockford. No underseat can be compared with box woofer. If budget allows go for Ground Zero monoblock and a decent Hertz 12" woofer would be good enough. Focal K2 woofer is expensive , cost about $1K for woofer alone. But I personally think all bass is the same. So my bass set up is ground zero mono and Hertz 12".

Hi all gurus,I am thinking of getting a Mazda 3 2l sedan and would like to find out about the stock audio setup. Is the stock HU considered decent? Need to change to component speakers with tweeters? I probably will migrate my active-sub and 4 channel amp over to the new ride although they would have been 10 and 13 years old by next year. Do I need to change if the acfive-sub and amp are still in good condition?

 

Thanks for all comments and advise.

Active sub will never sound as good as box woofer. For Mazda 3, the stock HU SQ is sucks. Suggest you install a processor which has aux input so that you can play MP3 directly to processor, and processor need to tune your setup as the HU sucks.

 

Run front 2-way active, 4ch amp, processor, woofer with mono block. For best decent setup. It depends on your budget to decide the brand to choose.

[Jusnel]

I got a amp, capacitor and box subwoofer for sale

 

Taken out from car because selling off the car.

 

Anyone keen, just PM me.

[Aeledkawy]

Actually u have to fix subwoofer the sound it will be great

[azaouogh]

I wonder, is there anyone out there who installed both active sub and passive sub + amp in their ride? I have a new active sub (yet to be installed) and passive sub and amp which was taken from my old ride. Thought of installing both :)

[Meemee]

DIY SUB BOX

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