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Thread: Car Subwoofer Selection Question - Voice Coil Options?

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    Club Member WhiteHawk's Avatar
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    Default Car Subwoofer Selection Question - Voice Coil Options?

    So I am going to try to stick a subwoofer in my 2016 Camaro convertible. Yea, it is a crappy solution for a less than adequate stereo, and I have to use a line level convertor from Pac Audio or Audiocontrol to read a speaker signal (or pay $1000 to decipher the proprietary digital MOST signal from the Bose head unit - pass). The 5th gen Camaro actually had a factory 10" behind the rear seat, but for the 6th gen, they got rid of the subwoofer and moved the electric motor for the top into that space. Waa waaaa.The real estate is downright tiny. I am trying to get an 8" sub to fit behind the drivers side rear wheel, and if that doesn't work it is going to be a 6.5". JL and Memphis both make 6.5's, but I think the JL 8W7AE-3 is the dream sub to fit, although it has been out of stock for a year. I have seen a lot of other installs with portable boxes, but I don't want to have to pull the thing out ever time I need to put a suitcase back there. I have about 10" of width 13" tall including the box and rattle clearance to fit the JL sub that is nearly 8" internally wide. Uggghhhh.

    With the JL out of stock, been looking at Memphis. They have dual voice coils with the options of getting dual 2 ohm or dual 4 ohm. What is the difference? Is there any benefit to getting the dual 4 ohm other than theoretically I could run a TON more power into it? If I run the dual 2 ohm in parallel it will be a 1 ohm load (a little light), dual 4 ohm in parallel will be a 2 ohm load, dual 2 ohm in series is a 4 ohm load, or dual 4 ohm in series is an 8 ohm load (Don't think I could even get a decent amp big enough to run this). What is the best option to run this? I haven't got the amp yet either, so I can put just about anything with it. It seems like getting a 1 ohm sub with a one ohm stable 700 watt amp is cheapest, but will it sound the best? Is here a rule of thumb for picking subwoofer loads? or should I just wait for the JL to get back in stock and try to cram it in?

    Thank you.

    -Geoff
    Last edited by WhiteHawk; 04-26-2021 at 01:37 PM.
    2016 Camaro Convertible 2SS

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    The voice coil impedance will depend on what amp you decide to run or vice versa (if a specific sub is only available in a specific config). Impedance of the subs wont have an effect of the sound quality.

    I replaced the factory 8" sub in my F150 with a dual 1 ohm shallow mount kicker so I could get a final impedance of 2 ohm. They for some reason did not make it with dual 4 ohm, only dual 1 and 2.

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    Forum Member camaromann's Avatar
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    You should look at sundown subs. I will never ever use another brand of sub woofer.

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    Club Member WhiteHawk's Avatar
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    They look pretty cool, kind of short on info though. They definitely have a bunch of them in the smaller sizes. What model do you recommend?

    -Geoff
    2016 Camaro Convertible 2SS

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    Forum Member camaromann's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by WhiteHawk View Post
    They look pretty cool, kind of short on info though. They definitely have a bunch of them in the smaller sizes. What model do you recommend?

    -Geoff
    About how much room do you have? How about depth to mount a sub? I had there relatively cheaper SA-10 a few years ago. I bought 2 of them and only used 1. The guy who owns/builds them took my sub and unhooked 1 voice oil and sent I think like 800watts through it non stop for 20 minutes and recorded it all. Then hooked up the other voice coil and continued beating on it. He rated the sub at 600w rms. I had a JL 1,000watt mono block amp and sent everything I could to that sub at either 1 or 2 ohms I forget. I sold the other one I bought to a member here a few years ago. Once I hooked one of mine up it rattled my brain cells. Big big crisp clear punch and it hit lower then any other 10 or 12 I’ve ever owned. They have shallow mount subs as well. I highly recommend them.

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    Club Member WhiteHawk's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by camaromann View Post
    About how much room do you have? How about depth to mount a sub? I had there relatively cheaper SA-10 a few years ago. I bought 2 of them and only used 1. The guy who owns/builds them took my sub and unhooked 1 voice oil and sent I think like 800watts through it non stop for 20 minutes and recorded it all. Then hooked up the other voice coil and continued beating on it. He rated the sub at 600w rms. I had a JL 1,000watt mono block amp and sent everything I could to that sub at either 1 or 2 ohms I forget. I sold the other one I bought to a member here a few years ago. Once I hooked one of mine up it rattled my brain cells. Big big crisp clear punch and it hit lower then any other 10 or 12 I’ve ever owned. They have shallow mount subs as well. I highly recommend them.
    I am still working on the design, but the width of the outside of the box is barely 10 inches. That is the sum total of all the room I have. Just fitting a strong 8" is going to be tough since most of the good ones are nearly 8 inches wide around the magnet, and I was going to use 3/4" MDF for the box - so that is 9" plus without any airspace around it yet. And it needs to be bigger than to barely fit the sub too. It is a horrible place to put a sub, but it is where it needs to go.

    -Geoff
    2016 Camaro Convertible 2SS

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    Club Member WhiteHawk's Avatar
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    My multi-decade project still underway. Stuck on the electrical now - would prefer not to cut the harness, but nobody is making a T-harness. Here is the connector I need to make a "T" for. Hoping for some help finding this part. I can get the part listed from the dealer, but I need to find the mating connector to make the "T" harness. They usually come in pairs.

    Tx.

    Geoff

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    2016 Camaro Convertible 2SS

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    A gun is like a parachute. If you need one, and don't have one, you'll probably never need one again.

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    Club Member WhiteHawk's Avatar
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    I already have a similar one to that from them. That one only has the two front door mount speakers - which is enough to get a subwoofer. It also includes power and ground and two wires are not used in the convertible. The remaining dash, center, and rear seat speakers are all on the 16 way. I am on the fence again - the Nav-TV units which decode the MOST signal into RCA are back in stock now for $600, and by the time I buy all these harnesses, and line out converters, it might actually be cheaper.

    I actually called the head engineer from Bose and asked him to tell me the crossover points for all the speakers and he told me it was proprietary to Bose - not GM. Why does this have to be so hard!

    -Geoff
    2016 Camaro Convertible 2SS

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