How To Make an Underseat Car Subwoofer Louder

If you are limited on space, an performance car parts underseat subwoofer is certainly recommended for you to install, if you are looking to install more bass into your car its highly recommend. Usually, more bass means more space, an underseat car subwoofer will never sound like 2 12 car subwoofers, but it will provide you that extra fill of bass, your overall car audio system is lacking.

Fitting an underseat subwoofer, is generally the same process as fitting an regular subwoofer system with an standalone car amplifier. You have your constant 12 volt power, to ensure its getting its voltage, an remote wire, to turn it on and off with the ignition system of the vehicle and also an ground wire. RCA cables are used to feed the car subwoofer an music signal, you will need to use an rca converter if you are using an factory headunit. Some underseat car subwoofers come with an high to low plug that you can directly add speaker wires onto and tap into the rear speakers from your factory radio.  

If you're not happy with how your underseat car subwoofers sounds, then they are few different options to make it sound louder. The first thing you want to consider is the gain control. As the gain control increases, so does the volume, but there is also distortion that comes into play. Turn this gain control, slowly turning it up with an bassy song and stop until you hear the speaker making mechanical noises.

The low pass filter is another important setting, but before you tune it, you need to understand what it does. The low pass filter blocks vocals or should we say voice going to the subwoofer, so the subwoofer speaker purely focuses on bass. This makes the compare parts subwoofer play more efficient and louder. For an underseat subwoofer, it will have less potential to play low bass like an 12 or 15 inch car subwoofer, its more of an midbass speaker, So i would suggest, setting up the low pass filter to around 120 HZ. This will give you the most potential out of the underseat subwoofer, as setting it too low can hinder sound as it can only produce so much.

How To Tune a Car Amplifier For The Best Sound & Peformance

If you have purchased the correct wiring kit for your compare parts amplifier and it is installed correctly, then you car amplifier will be getting its full potential. Its important the car amplifier wiring kit is the correct gauge size to ensure that your car amp is getting the most power. This is to prevent voltage drop going to the car amplifier, as if this happens the bass performance will be reduced. If you are not happy with the way your car amplifier is sounding, then you may need to tune the settings on the car amplifier. Usually, there will be switches and dials to adjust, but before you make any changes, it is important to understand what they do.

The 'GAIN' is what controls how much input signal is received into the car amplifier. This is often mistaken for an volume knob on car amplifier but it is totally different. The best way to tune the again is to use your ears. Play an song of your choice that has good amount of bass, crank it all the way on the headunit to your desired listening level, just before any distortion can be heard from the door car speakers and slowly turn the gain up and stop until you hear any level of distortion. There are many fancy tools that you could use to tune the car amp gain settings, however they tend to be expensive and no better than tuning it the old school way.

The 'LPF' or 'LOW PASS FILTER' is also an important part of getting your bass to sound good in your car. This is responsible to how deep or boomy your bass sounds, as it cuts of what bass frequencies are being sent to your car subwoofer. Usually, 80 HZ is the recommended setting for an low pass filter option on your bass amp. This is because around this number, this is were bass plays, you could turn the LPF to 60HZ to cut some of the boomyness from your car subwoofer. 

The 'BASS BOOST' is often mentioned not to be used when tuning an performance car parts audio amplifier. However, i believe it can be used in correct situations. If you have an aftermarket radio, then you don't need to use this feature at all. However, if you are using an factory radio and an lineout converter, then bass boost can often provide an strong signal to your subwoofer. Bass boost on your car amplifier is an preset equaliser setting, often around 50HZ and when you increase this, it will provide more boom and sound to you car subwoofer. Play around with this setting to see if you get an increased amount of output from your car audio system.

How To Stop Subwoofer Box Moving AROUND in the trunk

An car subwoofer can be added into the trunk of your vehicle. This can provide you with more bass on the go, as factory speakers usually fail to deliver serious bass. It is important to ensure that your car subwoofer box is mounted securely down to prevent it sliding around. This will prevent the speaker wire getting pulled from the speaker terminal cup on the back of the subwoofer. I have seen in many instances that an car subwoofer is damaged from sliding around. Either the front of the cone gets damaged and breaks from impact or the speaker terminal gets pulled and damaged. If you have invested alot of money in your car audio system, its important to protect your equipment to keep the longevity.

The first most important thing is to mount the car amplifier before anything else. There are an couple of places for this. The most common behind mounted directly into the back of the subwoofer box or screwed down onto the back seat. The benefit you get when you screw your car amplifier down to the back seat is that you can remove the subwoofer in and out of the car without taking all the power cables off the amp. Simply remove the positive and negative speaker wire that goes into the terminal cup into the back of the speaker box and remove your subwoofer

In terms of securing down an car subwoofer box to stop it moving around in the boot. The best method is to use velcro tape to secure it down. You simply purchase an roll of velcro tape cheaply from eBay or amazon cut it to length and place it underneath the subwoofer box. Try to cover all areas underneath the box to form an square shape of the box. If you have purchased 3M strong velcro, this will provide you with lots of strength and grip. This in my opinion is the best method to secure an car subwoofer box down because it looks clean and professional. Some people use metal brackets and bits of rope to secure the subwoofer down but this is not very aesthetically pleasing to look at when showing off your car audio system to your friends of family.

How To Make an Car Subwoofer Stop Vibrating The Car

If your car subwoofer is playing really deep and low, the vibrations will transfer across the car. The metal panels will rattle inline when the bass from the car subwoofer drops. This can be slightly embarrassing if heard outside the vehicle and at times can also be heard inside the car. If your running lets say an 8 or 10 inch car subwoofer, in an sealed box you wouldn't have to worry about this kind of issue. But if you have multiple car subwoofers that have an cone area of 12 or 15 inches in an custom ported box, lets say an 1000 rms each, your whole car is going to flex.              

From my experience, japan cars are the worst when it comes to preventing car subwoofer rattles. This is because the metals used on an japan car is constructed from cheap and brittle materials. German cars have much more solid outer metal body parts. The first thing you should consider is positioning of the car subwoofer. Facing the speaker cones towards opening of the trunk is going to make the trunk more prone to vibrations. Try facing the car subwoofers, so that the speaker cones pointing towards the inside of the car.      

Sound deadening material works wonders if applied correctly. This material is usually shiny like foil and is thick, the job of car audio sound deadening material is to absorb any kind of vibrations from bass. It is easy to apply, you just need an sharp scissors. Simply cut it to the shape you want, remove the paper from behind to expose the glue and stick it down. Use an roller of some kind to press it directly onto the metal panel. If your going to use your hands to pat it down, make sure you use gloves as the material when handled can be sharp. Areas to cover are the trunk floor and trunk lid, you can double up on layers to add more padding to avoid subwoofer rattle. You can also remove the rear number plate and stick some behind it followed by remounting it to stop it shaking too.

How To Get Better Sound Out Of Your Car Subwoofer

An car audio subwoofer is an component integrated into an vehicle to enhance the level of bass. An car subwoofer can come in an wide range of different sizes and shapes. Anything from an small 10 inch subwoofer all the way up to an 18 inch car subwoofer. Usually, the bigger the subwoofer, the more potential it has to play deeper bass, but don't get me wrong an good low tuned ported box made right can make any subwoofer play low. Now, in most cases the subwoofer itself is not to blame if you have poor sound and bass response. How it is setup plays an more important part on how much potential you gain from your car subwoofer. 

The main element is the enclosure. When people are introduced to car audio, they automatically are under the impression that the box is just an shape constructed from wood. This correct to some extent, however the car subwoofer box has to be made to specification of the subwoofer. The air space inside the box has to be exact to what the subwoofer can work in to play its best. If there is too little or too much air space inside the box, the subwoofer will not work at its best ability. This means you are left with an confused face. Get an custom box made from an subwoofer car audio shop, they will measure your vehicle and tune the port to what type of sound you are trying to get. The great thing with an vented box is you can tune the port to gain lower or higher type of bass. My optimal tuning for the best of both worlds is 33 HZ, this gives you nice smooth deep bass, but at the same time also gives you that punch. Them sealed boxes already made on the shelf hanging about on shop floors and internet websites like Ebay are not going to give you the sound you expect.

If you are purchasing an new vehicle, it is always essential to make sure you do your proper research before taking ownership. Never rush into buying any vehicle and always do the basics such as VIN decoder and VIN lookup checks. This is very important.

How To Get Deeper Bass From Car Subwoofer / Ported VS Sealed Explained

An car subwoofer is designed to play bass, hence why it has such an large surface area compared to other smaller speakers, such as a mid range driver and tweeter. What type of bass your car subwoofer plays can make an big difference on your overall feel of your car audio system. There are two types of bass, the boomy bass and the deep earth shaking bass that you can feel before you hear. What type of bass you gain from your car subwoofer depends on the enclosure itself and how big your subwoofer is. 15 inch subwoofer has more cone area compared to an 10 or 12, so technically it has more potential to hit harder and deeper. An sealed box is air tight, there is no port that allows air to escape out of the box. This provides an punchy sort of sound and provides an flat frequency response. Sealed boxes tend to respond better to parametric equalisers because they can play from 80 HZ all the way down to 20 HZ. However, the trade of is the bass is even throughout the frequency range because of this reason sealed boxes are known to don't be used in bass competitions. Sealed boxes are small and easy to construct, all you are doing is building an square.

Ported or vented subwoofer enclosures provide loud and deep bass, with some trade of in punchyness and sound quality. The idea of an ported box is to make as much noise as possible out of the speaker. Ported vented style boxes are usually louder by 3DB compared to sealed. Ported boxes are bigger in size and also have to be designed correctly for the subwoofer and your music tastes. You can tune how you want your bass to sound with an vented box. You can tune the port to any frequency you are targeting, for example if you want deep lows, then 30 HZ will allow your speaker to play that type of sound. If you want louder boomier bass, then you can tune higher to 38 HZ. Any music that has bass content around the tuning frequency of the subwoofer enclosure will sound its best. The old trade off with an ported subwoofer enclosure is it will only sound good on certain tracks, not every song will sound good. 

If you want deep low bass, get an custom subwoofer enclosure made that has an low port tuning, 30 HZ is my recommendation, along with the current internal cubic feet volume your subwoofer requires. You can find this information in the user handbook. Furthermore, the tuning frequency is based on your listening tastes there is no perfect number. You can also consider interchangeable ports to increase or decrease box tuning to experiment with your sweet spot. Go to an proper box builder in your local area, don't go to no cowboy, car audio shops are expensive but they are knowledgeable and can get you the best sound.

How To Remove Car Subwoofer From Sub Box Enclosure

cheap ebay speaker terminal cup

A car subwoofer is often added into an car audio system to provide more bass. The subwoofer enclosure makes the most significant difference on how well your car subwoofer performs. The box is what defines the sound output of the car subwoofer, both in terms of quality and loudness. A sealed box will provide you with an flat frequency response, making the bass feel punchy and have an kick to it. This is why sealed boxes tend to be great for playing all types of music. Ported boxes of the other hand provider more loudness and depending on the port vent tuning frequency, more deeper bass. Depending on what they are tuned to, they often don't sound on all music apart from an certain genre. Prefab boxes are just cheap wood stapled together and carpeted over. They are a good solution to getting your car subwoofer playing if your on an budget or don't have the time to build an custom enclosure. However, they are poorly constructed in most cases and they leak lots of air. 

If you need to remove your car subwoofer to replace it, refresh the speaker wire inside the box or to change the ohm load, then this guide will help you. It's important that you remove the car subwoofer the correct way because incorrect removable can lead to an damaged speaker cone or speaker wires being pulled inside breaking the terminal connected found behind the speaker terminal cup.

The first thing you need to do is identify what type of screwdriver is required to remove the screws. Usually, in car audio it will be a Philips head screwdriver and there will be several screws around the speaker that you want to remove.

Put your thump over the rubber surround near the screw hole and remove each screw individually by turning the screwdriver anti clockwise. Placing your thump will protect the car subwoofer getting damaged if the screwdriver does slip. 

Once you have removed all screws, place them into a container or an plastic bag. Screws are easily misplaced when messing around and the last thing you want to do is waste 10 minutes finding them after or using mis matched screws.

Now carefully remove the car subwoofer from the box, go slowly remember don't pull the magnet part too far away from the box as it will snap the wires inside. Remove the spade connectors or push down the speaker terminals individually to release the car subwoofer connections. Now you can freely remove the car subwoofer from the enclosure without breaking anything.

How To Make Cheap Car Subwoofers Louder

If your on an budget, then they are cheap car subwoofers brands such as sony xplod or boss audio available from ebay or amazon. If it often seen that expensive subwoofers such as from big brand car audio such as JL audio often sound average, compared to an cheap car subwoofer in an custom ported box. The box makes up most of the sound output that is achieved from adding an car subwoofer into your car. If you get an custom enclosure made for your cheap car subwoofer, you will get more louder and deeper bass, in comparison to putting it into an cheap sealed prefab box. Tuning of the port or vent is also just as important, if you want louder bass with some quality, 35 HZ is an good number to choose. If your looking for really deep bass that shakes seats, but don't mind compromising some loudness, 30 HZ is an good vent tuning. Sealed boxes need alot of power to sound amazing, they are not as loud as ported. The cheap prefab boxes are often leaky of air and also made from chipboard stapled together using an nail gun and not proper constructed MDF that needs to be glued and screwed together.

Overpowering the car subwoofer slightly can give you more performance. The first thing you want to do is match the RMS of the subwoofer coil with an amplifier of the same rating or often an little more powerful. This will prevent clipping and distortion being heard at high volumes and drive the car subwoofer to its full maximum potential. Never match an car subwoofer and car amplifier by matching the max and peak ratings. Some car amplifiers allow you to bridge two channels together for double the power, this is technically possible as you're adding both power from two channels into one big channel. This will make your car subwoofer louder. Ensure that the low pass filter is tuned to 80HZ and that the high pass filter is switched off. This will allow the subwoofer to play bass only and not to play vocals, which should only be coming out of the car door speakers. This will make your car subwoofer play more efficiently and cleaner.

Upgrading your car stereo is also an great way to get more out of your car subwoofer. This is because an aftermarket car stereo will have high volt RCAs which provide better sound quality and also have an adjustable car equaliser. The car eq will allow you to have more control over your sound, allowing you to adjust the bass frequencies. The frequencies starting towards the very left in the eq range will be the ones responsible for controlling low bass. They will be labelled as 50 or 60 HZ adjustable sliders. Increase these to an higher level to increase the amount of bass your subwoofer produces. Try different equaliser custom presets to get the sound you are looking for.

How To Fix Car Subwoofer Not Powering ON

An car subwoofer can be installed into your vehicle to add more bass. If you have purchased an brand new car subwoofer and it is not powering on, chances are you haven't connected it correctly. To power on an car subwoofer, three important wires need to be connected, I am going to explain them to you in more detail. The remote turn on wire, which is usually an blue thin wire is what tells the subwoofer amplifier when to switch on and power off, if this is not connected to the correct wire, the subwoofer will not power on. The blue remote wire from the car amplifier should be connected to blue turn on wire on an aftermarket radio such as alpine, sony, pioneer, kenwood or jvc or to any other source that works an an switched ignition setup. If you have an stock radio, you won't have an dedicated turn on wire, so you will have to connect it to the ignition on wire that makes the power go off and on with the key for the car stereo. Refer to online wiring diagrams for your factory car stereo or get an multimeter to identify which wire is switched.

The red chunky 12 volt wire is what feeds direct power to the subwoofer, this long wire should be routed down the opposite were the rca cables go and connected with an inline fuse holder to the positive terminal found on the car battery. Make sure the fuse is not blown, remove it from the fuse holder and check if the wire is snapped within the fuse. Also make sure the ring terminal were the wire is crimped into is secure, loose or an broken connection can cause not enough voltage being sent to the car amplifier.

The black ground wire. This is the shortest of cables and is meant to be securely mounted to an bolt within the trunk area. The area were you mount the ground wire loop terminal should be an clean metal surface. It is suggested that you sand down the area with sandpaper or using an flat head screwdriver to remove any paint on the surface. Most people that fit there car stereo subwoofer for the first time are not aware that this procedure has to be done. Paint blocks electricity flow, and it is common that an poor ground attached to an broken screw found somewhere in the trunk is usually the cause to an car subwoofer not powering on.

Also check the fuse on the car amplifier itself, if this is blown your car amplifier will not power on. This can happen if somebody has cross wired the car amplifier or the fuse used in the past is too low. Refer to the user manual of the car amplifier you are using to find out the correct amp fuse rating. Replace any blown fuse with an brand new, your car subwoofer should now have power again. If both the car amp wiring kit you installed and the fuses look fine, then there is an fault with the car amp.