I'm building a subwoofer box for my '05 Reg. Cab. I'm planning on putting one 12" ID sub right behind my center console in a sealed enclosure. I measured and I believe I have room to mount the sub there in any orientation. It was recommended that I have the sub facing forwards or backwards but I was also curious about having the sub fire down. Here are my questions"

1) Which orientation do you think would give the best sound, does it matter?
2) Will firing the sub up or down affect sound quality and will I get cancellation?

The rear surface isn't level so when I build this box I won't really be able to play with orientation. Thanks

 

Mine fires into the seats (forward) and sounds pretty good. I have also heard recommendations to have the sub fire towards the box. I've heard people say that the further away from you the sub is, the better it will sound, and that pointing it towards the box is about as close as you can get to actually moving it further away from you.

 

That's interesting. I was thinking of putting it in the middle so I would have better access to storage in the back, with the small suicide doors and all. But if it's gunna sounds horrible in the middle, then I'll move it. Any other thoughts about this or my original questions?

 

Wait.. You said regular cab... There should only be two doors unless you mean an extended cab...

But the other thing to consider is visibility.. If others are going to see it, have it fire down, thus protecting the speaker at the same time from being kicked.

 

Yeah, it's an '05. They have really small suicide doors. I like the idea of down for the sake of visibility, I just don't want it do sound like crap for whatever reason whether it be because of cancellation or some other reason. I may just have to build it and see what happens.

 

Downfiring won't sound like crap. It's one of the most common ways to mount a sub in a truck. Just make sure you have enough room between the floor and the sub so it doesn't touch the carpet, then you're in for some trouble.
I think they recommend 2 - 4 inches between the sub and the floor?
Maybe someone with more experience there will comment.

 

i would say dont put them down

 

What do you suggest?

 

I would shoot it down. Its going to be much more protected from things than if it were getting fired forward, it wont be visible, and it would somewhat be firing right in your face, which is usually irritating.

Having the sub further away from you will not nessecarily make it sound better (unless like I said before, its right in your face).

With it firing right at the back of the cab, I think your going to make that back wall flex and resonate like crazy. That back wall is pretty flimsy and I would think it would sound like crap firing to the back also. The floor is much sturdier and with all the padding and that is less prone to resonate.

I think the floor is your best bet.

 

Thanks. That confirmed and answered a lot of my questions. Also thank you Rage for the help.

 

I think downfiring would be best as the plastic panel at the back of the cab is mostly just a big slab of plastic. If you back point it the panel will reverb with the woofer. I have a small woofer in my 04 Reg cab and pointing it at the seat works pretty good. Probably lose a small amount of sound from the back of the seat absorbing it, but really, a 12 in a regular cab should be able to damage your hearing plenty, even with some loss into the back seat.

You may want to pop the rear panel off and sound deaden it if you are going to 'bounce' any bass off it.
Chris


The 20 buck solution, sitting in front of the big sound reflector that is the rear wall.


The panel before I added more sound damp stuff.

 

Thanks Chris. I've been following your Nuprene install. I think I will definitely add some material to that back panel.

 

While I typically try to place the sub as far away as possible(pass corner) having the sub inverted does look great and can certainly show off the sub if it's worthy. I did that when I built the interior for my brotherinlaws truck. The sub doesn't know if its playing either direction and the bass output is nearly identical. One advantage you have is you can build a smaller box than the sub will actually fit into or mold it into odd shapes for mounting. There is a picture of the sub sticking out between the seats in my install gallery and there is a better view of the whole box on boston acoustics website here http://www.bostonacoustics.com/car/pdf/S10.pdf You will also have room to mount the amps to the back wall behind each seat. There are alot of pros and cons to each design it just depends on what you want

 

Lol, where did this "inverting the sub" come from.

Did I miss something?

 

I guess I thought orientation could mean normal or inverted, sorry if I'm wrong Bartak1 If it's not what you were thinking deerfeedrb, it does offer some additional options since the box doesn't have to accomidate the sub.