My custom sub enclosure w/ pics

Give us a report on how they sound. I'd like to buy a second Rockford Fosgate Punch 10" and bury both of them as you are doing. However, I'm concerned about how crisp the bass will be under a cover. I listen to rock, jazz, and classical and like clean bass more than boom.

Anyway, great looking enclosure!

 

Nice stealth install.
Let me know what all shakes/vibrates please.
I'm currently working on a fiberglass subwoofer box with a sinlge JL audio 10w1for the driver's side cubbyhole.
Why'd you make the decision for 2 8's instead of a single 10 or 12", mounting depth?
How many cu ft per sub?

 

nice

 

In theory, since an 8" woofer has less mass then a 10", the response/recovery time of the driver is faster. This gives crisper bass, and two 8" have more surface than a single 10" (again, more total bass). Many years ago Bose used a whole slew (9, I believe?) of 6" woofers in the 901 series to get really good bass that was very crisp. However, back then a 10 or 12 inch woofer was massive compared to modern materials, so the advantage is less now than it was then.

 

It seems like the Prius gives us quite a gift by having that storage box and the side storage containers. It'd be nice to see a whole install take up just those areas, and be all hooked up with quick-disconnects so that the entire setup can be removed in under a minute in case the spare tire is needed.

If you wanted to maintain the stock head unit, but still run amplified signal to the front door speakers, would you use something like a JL Audio CleanSweep? Or what's the plan for the front speakers?

 

The shop that did mine used speaker level to line level converters. However, my Clarion amp has speaker level inputs, so I think they just did that to add cost. In fact, I get some background noise from the converters (very little, but it's there) and I am not sure if they might be adding some distortion. I plan to remove them and re-wire straight to the Clarion speaker level inputs. I figure the circuitry inside the Clarion amp is better than some no-name converter. Plus I can re-check the polarity of everything since I don't trust the shop that did the work.

Of course, the best approach is something like the CleanSweep to truely level the input from an equalization standpoint. I'd also recommend the JL amp that has 5 channels out and a remote for the sub. My Clarion does not have a remote for the sub, meaning I have to crawl into the trunk bin to change the equalization, then use the head unit bass control to fine tune. While that Clarion is a Class A amp, it is New Old Stock and went out of production something like 5 years ago. I just happen to like it and got a screamin' deal on it (I've used a couple of them before). Some of the older amps had great specs, but the newer stuff tends to have better control features (such as the sub remote).

Bball, If I were you I'd consider having the shop go ahead and install a 5 channel amp. You can cut the speaker leads to the door speakers (the fronts are under the kick panels, and I believe you can get to the rear ones in the harness that runs under the front door sill). You take the output side (fron the head unit) and run a paired wire for each speaker back to the 4 inputs in the amp, then take the 4 main outputs back to the cut and wire them to the speakers. Finally, take the 5th (subwoofer) output and wire it to the sub. What this gives you is you still have front to back and side to side control of the system fron the touch screen as before, but you're boosting the signal going to the door speakers. In the long run this might kill them, but hopefully by then you have upgraded the door speakers to something better (I used Infinity Reference 2-ways - these are probably less than $150 for 4 on the internet). In most amps you also get the advantage of what channels to sum for the sub out (I sum all, so no matter how I have the fader it doesn't affect the sub - however, you can sum the output of the sub just to the rear speakers, for instance, which makes the sub volume controlled with the rear speakers from the fader - your choice).

 

One thing I was considering was cutting two round holes in the trunk floor right above the speakers and putting some strong speaker grills in the floor. That way the sound gets out, but the floor can be left in place and used to put cargo on if needed (the sound would suffer a bit, but oh, well). This is also a cleaner installation than having to make the speaker box pretty. If you're worried about cutting a stock part, pick up a cargo floor cover from a salvage on the internet and cut it (or save it and cut yours).

 

Ok, here we go from what I have experienced with my recent long going custom install. Our JBL amps are total crap and have been a major pain in my installers behind. I went and did a full audiophile install with hopes of amazing sound in my little car that I spend alot of time in. Needless to say it's not working out as so. Right now it certainly sounds better than stock but far from it's potential. Just so you know the JL Audio Clean Sweep and the other piece for summing the signals will not work with our cars. He tried after not having as much luck as he was hoping in the Alpine PXE-H650 unit which is much more feature stocked than the Clean Sweep. The way the JBL is tuned for our cars is just baffling. The output from left to right are nowhere near the same. The right side has a much higher output and there are crazy spikes at certain frequencies that are off the chart and the Alpine unit could not even come close to flattening it out with great results. I will take pictures of my setup tomorrow now that I finally have the car back. I went with all Hertz Audio for speakers which are an Italian company which gets very good reviews for sound quality that compete with speakers 2-3 times more expensive. They are amazing. I did a 3-way system up front with a 6 1/2" mid-bass driver in the front doors with a 3" dome mid-range and tweeter in custom molded pods in the front A-pillar. Tons of Dynamat in all doors. Rear doors haven't been hooked up yet because of the mess and time the fronts have taken to get decent sound out of but will have to run a separate small amp to drive the 6 1/2" coaxial speakers for rear fill. We did a custom fiberglass enclosure for the Hertz High Energy 10" sub in the cubby above the battery so I still have access to my storage compartment and spare without having to remove it. All of it is being driven by the new JL Audio 900/5 HD amp which is just an unbelievable piece. Incredibly small, efficient, and underrated at 100x4 and 500x1 for the sub. The fronts are bi-amped so I am running 400 watts to the fronts and then of course the sub output to the 10" sub. My recommendation would be not to go this far at least until someone figures out how to bypass or defeat the equalization in the factory JBL amp. It's needed of course for the NAV/Bluetooth voices which of course come from the front outputs. I was hoping maybe to try and find a 6ch. amp from the 6 speaker system and pray the rears were full range outputs but then realized it still wouldn't do any good as it still would have to go through the front outputs to still have the accessory functionality. It's still a work in progress, but hopefully once the car has been out for awhile more people will find a work around or hopefully JBL Intl. will reply to his email about there being a way to defeat the factory EQ. It even went as far as an Alpine tech spending all of last Saturday from 10am to 8pm on his day off trying to tune my car. It's not a good situation as of now. For those with hopes of upgrading, I suggest put it on a back burner for now until more research can be invested by those of us who have already taken the plunge.

 

That sounds like a nightmare

 

Hi shawnb2,

Was wondering if the JBL system in Prius III and up uses a seperate amplifier for the speakers? If so, you can always trace out the line level output from the nav unit and make RCA inputs into your crossover/processor. I have done that on many JBL OEM system with lots of success. Unfortunately I only have a lowly Prius II and cannot help you on this. Just a suggestion.

Cannot wait to see you A-Pilar PODS. I am designing mine now for a couple of Dynaudio Tweeters...

-Chan

 

Thanks! This confirms what I have been suspecting all along with my simpler upgrade on a non-JBL. I have been tweaking my sub amp about weekly for months trying to find some setting that gives good base and mids. What you are seeing with the "flatteners" explains a lot of what I'm hearing trying to manually tune this beast. I've been considering getting a 4-channel equalizer and just going at it manually. Since my sub is a sum of front, back or both, cleaning up the mains will also clean up the sub input.

Keep us informed on how it goes. If I pick up a 4-channel equalizer, I'll report back on what manual equalization curve seems to sound decent. Until then we just have to get by (and, I agree, my upgraded system is much better than stock, but still has some really wierd quirks across the spectrum).

 

Have you considered trying out either the Rockford Fosgate 3Sixty.2 or the Audio Control DQL-8? Just a couple alternative ideas for getting signal from the highly equalized output from the JBL amp to suitable input for an aftermarket amp.

 

From what I've been told by a trusted source, the weak point in the Prius stereo is the head unit. There's no point trying to build an audiophile system around a crappy deck. Even the stock speakers sound half-decent with a good deck and amp.

 

Ok, here's a couple of pics for you guys to see. We tried bypassing the JBL amp all together and by far had the best and closest to near perfect sound that way through the Alpine unit. Unfortunately because I have the Tech. package with park assist I can't do away with my head unit. Was seriously thinking that was going to be my only route, then realized the IPA goes through the unit as well. It would be one thing to switch to an aftermarket unit and use their backup camera, bluetooth and Nav, but the IPA is the killer in my situation. I am going to totally disagree with the factory head unit being the weak point of our systems. It is by far the JBL amp and its quirkiness and tuning. If there is a way to defeat the internal EQ we would be golden. My shop guy mentioned the Rockford and the Audio Control piece, but didn't have them handy or in stock to play with each. Maybe another weekend down the road or maybe someone will be able to get to test before we do. It will be perfect to me someday, but for now will have to live with about 80% of its potential. Tell me what you guys think of the pics. I think it all turned out great. Decided to go with darker color A-pillars to camo the pods a bit so the speaker grills don't stand out like a sore thumb. The sub was covered in a similar charcoal vinyl to blend in with the color of the seats and other pieces, Besides the cargo cover will cover it up as well. Love the stealthiness of how it all turned out. Enjoy the pics and good luck with all of your projects. In the pics you can see of the sub it fits perfectly into that space above the battery. The other picture you can see the cargo door just slips by the cage without any contact.