I'm planning on getting a Rockford Fosgate Punch HX2 12" Sub for my expended cab. Now I KNOW this thing wont fit under the seay so I was planning on building a box that would sit on the floor behind the driver's seat and either fire downward or hatchback-style. Which would sound better? I'd probably like for it to be down-firing because it would look better with just a square box sitting there and the sub underneath. How much space to I need between the flooar and the sub if it is down-firing? Thanks.

 

Down firing will give you a better sound as well as help to protect the sub from damage. SPL wise I would expect down-firing to be a bit under the side version. carpet absorbs SPL like a sponge. however the bass will be reinforced at certain frequencies because a down firing sub sort of acts like a bandpass box. what freq is reinforced depends on the sub, box, and the gap between the box and floor. no easy answers there. I would expect for the rock sub to hit hardest around 45-50Hz and roll of rather quickly on either side of that. Hope this helps some. Overall I would downfire and having an EQ available would be a definite plus.

 

I hope you plan on getting an amp to push those 12" I have an entire Rockford Fosgate system, I have a regular cab and my 10" are behind the seat in a custom made box, I am using a 160.2 Fosgate amp, and I'm still not happy with the amount of bass, I want more, sure when the bass hits, I can't see out my rearview mirror it is shaking so hard, but if your going to use 12" you better step up to some ampage. Just remember Rockford Fosgate isn't cheap, my entire system was over 1,200 dollars...

 

Just an idea but why not go with another company. There are way better deals out there for the money. Check out Audiomoble,Orion,Audiobahn pretty much the most bang per buck of them all. and many others. Heres a comparison on amps fosgate vs orion: the rf 1000 watt amp goes for 1000 dollars and is pretty good, but the orion xtr pro 2400 watt amp goes for the same price with over double the wattage. and is the better amp. All im saying is look around there are better deals than rf.

 

I agree there is better equipment than Rockford. Even though I use a Rockford Amp myslef. (Got a really good deal on it) I believe it is made with cheap parts. They are to popular know to have to worry about quality. No matter what people are going to buy there equipment. It's popular with everyone and the stores that sell them make a killing so there trying to push them to the people also. I'm staying away from RF on my next system. 0.02

 

I'm afraid I would have to disagree (nicely and only somewhat) with CHUCKM.

I agree that downfiring will help protect the sub, but not really sound any better, (sort of subjective), but it will NOT produce more SPL. The wave of sub freq. is very, very long and you want it as uninterupted as possible, and you want to minimize cancellation (don't fire two subs at each other), that is why most SPL vehicles will try to set the subs up as FAR back from where the SPL mic will be placed to register. Now, since you are not building an SPL beast, your choices become limited, and pretty much eliminated for an uninterrupted path. If you send the appropriate freq. range to the sub, you will not really have any problem with carpet absorbing anything. Low freq (sub, stuff) is monodirectional, while the higher freq. would be affected by carpet, the sub will not. You may however notice that a down firing sub will sound "BOOMIER" , this is really a function of placement. You are not getting any more base, you are just getting a certain freq. exaggerated. Similar to Home theatre, if you place a sub (or any speaker for that matter) into a corner, then the sound will be amplified at certain freq.

D@mn can I ever ramble on

TK
2001 SuperCrew
Clarion Drx 9255
Xtant 3300C
P.G. 1 farad cap
P.G. 0 gauge wiring
Monster Cable interconnects
P.G. Xmax 10" subs (four)
Focal Kevlar 6.5" mids
Focal Kevlar 5.25" mids
Focal Kevlar 1" tweets (four)

(wanna go multimedia now )