Subaru Forester Owners Forum banner

Aftermarket underseat sub

7K views 26 replies 7 participants last post by  sirwilliam 
#1 ·
I was going to use my 8 inch Solobaric in the stock subwoofer location but decided it would be easier to just build a box and put it under the pax seat. There is a huge space under there. Many 8 inch subs work well in .25-.33 cubic feet of space. The box to these specs will fit under the pax seat and not take up space for a rear passenger. That's a moot point for me anyway since my babseat is behind the pax front.

I'll give impressions after this weekend. Just need to seal the inside of the box and carpet it.

Obviously an aftermarket amp is required.

Frank
 
#4 ·
Mounting depth of this sub is only 3.5 inches. I'm making the depth 4 inches. The box is basically 12 x 12 x 4 internal dimensions using 3/4 MDF. It wont' look pretty 'cause you won't see it. I'll probably just carpet the end that might be seen from the rear seat in black carpt.

I was considering using the CDT EF-8 but had the solobaric 8 sitting in my garage (since 1998 or so!). I could probably do a box under each seat but I don't have the wattage now to do that. I'd be pushing one side of my amp pretty hard.

Frank
 
#5 ·
fmowry said:
Mounting depth of this sub is only 3.5 inches. I'm making the depth 4 inches. The box is basically 12 x 12 x 4 internal dimensions using 3/4 MDF. It wont' look pretty 'cause you won't see it. I'll probably just carpet the end that might be seen from the rear seat in black carpt.

I was considering using the CDT EF-8 but had the solobaric 8 sitting in my garage (since 1998 or so!). I could probably do a box under each seat but I don't have the wattage now to do that. I'd be pushing one side of my amp pretty hard.

Frank
Yeah, I would like to know how you would mount the enclosure...are you just placing it under the seat or do you have actual brackets to hold it secure. I wouldn't want an underseat sub moving around, especially when it could hit some important wiring under there.
 
#6 ·
Is it going to be a sealed box, or ported?

and how are you planning on securing it to the floor?
 
#7 ·
Sealed. A ported box of this size wouldn't work well. It would have to be bigger. The solobaric was designed for a small sealed enclosure.

Velcro will hold it. I could make brackets and attach it to the seat mounting points but the hook side of the velcro will grab well on the carpet under the seat. It will be pushed up against the front "bump" under the seat so it can't move forward anyway.

The wiring under the seat is the airbag and the heater. You can bend the tabs up so they are up under the seat. Even if the box slid it would miss the connectors if they are bent up.

Frank
 
#8 ·
I had a JL Audio 8w6 in a sealed .33 cu ft box under the passenger seat. It didn't stay their long. When I drove and turned up the tunes a bit the wife didn't care for the vibrating seat. However she did liked the sound when she drove. We are moving it into the location of the stock 6x9 sub.

For mounting the box under the seat I used liquid nails and attached a 3/4" piece of MDF under the carpet. I then screwed the box to this board. It was very simple and it held up very well. I ended up screwing my amp into this same board when the sub was removed.
 
#11 ·
I ran two 8" Solobarics of the same vintage for years in a previous car- those particular ones insisted that the sealed enclosure be no larger than .33 cu/ft or risk blowing them out...

BTW, they now serve (and well!) as the bottom end of the HT's full-range center channel...awesome subs!
 
#15 ·
It looks like a box with a speaker in it :). I'm more motivated to take pics after work than I am during the weekend for some reason. I'm working today so I'll get pics tonite or tomorrow after work. Had to charge the digicamera battery too.

Frank
 
#16 ·
Pics of sub.
1) Sub with seat in normal position
2) Sub with seat all the way forward
3) Sub out in the open

Ignore poor carpeting job. I was out of carpet and using scraps. Since it's only visible from the one end if you sit in the back seats, I could have left the rest uncovered.

Frank
 

Attachments

#19 ·
sea-scooby said:
Nice work! It looks good. What do you have pushing it?
An even older amp. :) One side of a vintage 1995 Rockford Fosgate 400X4 Transana (400X4 is the model model number which is actually 4X50 and 2X200 bridged. I'm running it 1X200 for the sub and 2x50 for the rear door speakers).

It's a bit boomy as is. I need to lower the sub level a bit.

Frank
 
#22 ·
I did have the first gen Kicker Solobaric which was a simple black sub with Kicker over the cone (which was not inverted). Old skool, baby. Sold my Rockford Punch 45 and Punch 75 amps unfortunately. Ahh, the good Soundstreams.

Time to shave the gray hairs off! I'm dating myself.

Frank
 
#23 ·
yea i like the old stuff more then this new fandango, but Memphis car audio is some good stuff, wish soundstream was still around they made some good things, but were they expensive, dam miss the car audio days, oh well, all the car audio stuff in a box will go into my diesel tow rig for the rock crawler and the FOrester wit be the Daily driver er wolf in sheep clothing
 
#24 ·
BenMara said:
yea i like the old stuff more then this new fandango, but Memphis car audio is some good stuff, wish soundstream was still around they made some good things, but were they expensive, dam miss the car audio days, oh well, all the car audio stuff in a box will go into my diesel tow rig for the rock crawler and the FOrester wit be the Daily driver er wolf in sheep clothing
Actually, I heard a lot of early soundstream amps weren't mosfet powered and had some serious problems...so I stayed away and just went w/ Rockford and MTX amps.

Used to have a Rockford Punch Classic 18" sub in 6 cu. ft box in the trunk of my '88 sentra, blew the seals on the trunk and water would leak in all the time...also had to physically bend the rear panel of the trunk to get the box in and then screw the top panel where the sub was mounted down once it was in the trunk...had a punch 400i powering it w/ a 50x2 sony head unit split 4 ways to power the front and rear pioneer speakers (basically running 400RMS to sub and 12.5RMS to each speaker:lol:)...let me say that it was too much bass...first real system of course.;-)
 
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top