JL Audio subwoofer and amplifier installed

Finally! I've shown bits and pieces of this in progress in other threads, but finally last night and this morning I got the amplifier in and powered up. Configured everything using JL Audio's excellent printed instructions and had no trouble.
BOOM! This bugger can really put out some rumble and thump. The little amplifier has plenty of power - I have it dialed back quite a bit so that it doesn't boom too much and overpower everything else.
I still have to install the amplifier for my front speakers and configure everything to balance nicely, but so far I'm very happy with this.
I put everything in the cargo tray because I wanted it hidden and out of the way. Plus I figured it would be easy enough to pick the whole tray up and tilt it back a bit to get the spare out if needed. Well, it's all a bit heavy. You can do it but it's not easy. Removing the speaker from the tray helps a lot tho, and that's easy enough to do if needed. Both amplifier and speaker box are just held in place by heavy duty Velcro.

Photo links to follow, but here's the details:

JL Audio CP108LG-W3v3 - 8" subwoofer in ported box
JL Audio CP108LG-W3v3

JL Audio J2 250.1 mono block amplifier
JL Audio J2 250.1

Upgraded 12V battery ground wire to 4ga
4ga power taken from (+) terminal, fused
Fused distribution block splits power into 2 8ga lines
(One line will power front amp when I get to that)

Entire photo gallery here (most recent at end):
http://s58.photobucket.com/albums/g267/d_roady/Prius Audio upgrade/?albumview=grid

Some highlights:

Original 12V battery ground wire compared to new


Installed


Power taken from positive battery post


Grommets in holes, speaker wire routed out and around


The pair installed


Speaker wire connected


Amp wired


All hidden and sounds great


More later I'm sure. Bye for now!

- D

 

Thanks, it's been fun but sure has taken me a long time.

The amp is secured with heavy duty Velcro, labelled "Rough Surface". It's not going anywhere.

The actual clamp is from Parts Express or SonicElectronics maybe, can't remember for sure. There's a million options out there. But the adapter sleeve for the small "Pencil Post" of the OEM battery was a lucky find: Battery Post Connectors Conversions Adapters Repair a little more than halfway down the page.

The sub actually sounds better covered up. At first when I was setting the amplifier gain and listening to some crazy bass heavy tracks I had the lid off. On some of the really low tones I thought I could hear air sucking through the port, but with the lid on that disappears. Low frequency sound isn't going to be affected much by that thin WeatherTech mat.

- D

 

Thanks! It's been fun to finally get some sound out of that thing.

- D

 

Heheh, well don't worry, this is a very tame system. Nothing like the boom sleds you're thinking of. I'm looking for sound quality not sound pressure. Nice thing about a hatchback is that it doesn't take much to provide a lot of bass. It's amazing how music is coming to life already, bass that you didn't even know was there, and I have a lot more fine tuning to do still.

- D

 

Your method would be easier than mine. I can still pick up the whole tray, set the back edge on top of the HV battery and tilt the whole thing up, I've left enough slack in the cables on the OUTSIDE of the tray for that. But it's heavy. Removing just the speaker box helps a lot and that's just two banana plugs to pull. I'm already dreaming up other solutions but secretly hoping that I'll just never get a flat. ;-)

- D

 

Hmn... 3 posts and each one plugs the same website. I smell sizzling SPAM.

 

Yeah I made the mistake of not quoting the original post in my reply, so they just went back and edited their post to make it look harmless (and senseless). I've reported them though.

- D

 

Heh, good idea but so far no issues. It's really not a ground pounder, at least not the way I listen to it. But I have plenty of weather stripping on hand so I may just stick some in there.

- D

 

Spammer reported again.