Installing active sub

My active sub required a direct feed to the battery. I used the grommet on the passenger side. It comes into the cabin behind the glove box area. Tricky to threads it through.

 

My Sony unit has a live feed I believe and so the live feed for the sub fed straight from the Sony double din DVD/radio/usb.

I didn't fit it but that is what I was told.

Happy to supply make of units and prices

Kevin

 

Active subs are ok if space is limited, Focal do some pretty nice ones which come up on the bay used now and again for sub £100 but they never give as much punch as a regular sub.
They're great for placing under/behind the seats though to add some bass.

I'd take a good look at this from Alpine, its meant to be very good for its size. I might get one myself for my Saab if my Genesis P69's are lacking as it doesnt take up much space plus its had some great reviews:
http://www.roadradio.com/Alpine/SWE-815/

^^^^nice little sub

 

Have you deadened the doors? Makes a huge difference.

What 3 ways did you fit?

 

We fitted some Alpine SPG-17C2 door speakers, in readiness for a double din upgrade later, they're only co-axial but are 17cm and I have to say sound pretty good and so much better than the original Pioneer ones in the door.
This was a spur of the moment upgrade as we had the door skins off to change the handles for some Chrome ones, fom Japan.
I have contemplated one of the 'under seat' style sub woofers when we get around to doing the rest of the job, certainly can't see where the Alpine one above would fit in
There was a requirement of some adapter rings and extra holes for mounting the speakers but there is plenty of room within the moulding on the door panel to accommodate them and worth the effort!
Kenwood, Alpine and Pioneer all appear to make a similar shallow sub for this kind of installation, I'll be investigating further later so will keep an eye on this thread too...

 

Sort of mate, its pretty easy to do, just time consuming (but well worth it!!)

It's good to do it in stages for the best results. Ill knock up a better post later from work with some links on what to get/how to do it. Given the choice between say £100 worth sound deadening with standard speakers or £100 speakers & no deadening I'd always go for the first option, it really makes a big difference

 

For your deadening you've got a few options ranging from cheap flashing tape from b&q to mega expensive Dynamat. In between there you've got Silent Coat products which is what I've used in the last 2 cars. IMO its just as good as Dynamat but half the price...I'd avoid flashing tape, I tried it a few years ago and its smelt, plus didn't do much unless I put a few layers on.

Here's whee I get mine from-
http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/deadening-damping-mats/

I've used these products from CAD-
http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/silent-coat-volume-pack.html
http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/silent-coat-multilayer-extra-door.html
http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/sil-isolator4-bulk-silent-coat-noise-isolator-4-pack.html
http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/silent-coat-isolator-8-bulk.html
http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/sil-absorber35-bulk-silent-coat-sound-absorber-35-2-sheets.html

With the above products it works out cheaper to buy them in bulk packs. The more expensive multilayer extra is very good, but you get less in the pack. A lot of guys just double up with the regular 2mm silent coat instead.

There's also another product I'm getting which is MLV (Mass Loaded Vinyl) but I'm struggling to find one that I want, there's a product called Tecsound SY50 that's meant to be good but it does give off a bit of a smell....

Doors
Basically what your trying to do is add mass to the door with the deadening sheets which is CLD (Constrained Layer Damping) and this is in the first 2 links, and also known as damping mats/deadening sheets, which adds weight to the body panels and cuts down on vibrations from outside like road noise and passing vehicles. So you need to add these to the outer skin, then add to the inner skin and if possible seal up the door by covering any panel gaps. On some cars this isn't possible as the door card moulds into the gap (like on my Saab! But the previous Saab was fine) if that happens then you can add CCF (closed cell foam) which is in links 3 & 4 to seal up the doors instead (I've had to do this on mine)

With the CLD some say 25% coverage is fine, some say 100% coverage. I've gone for 100% just to be sure!

Once that's done the next step is to add CCF to the inner skin ontop of the deadening sheets. The main purpose here is cut down on outside noise and it also acts as a decoupled for MLV if you decide to use this on the doors for the best effect. MLV is meant to kill noise but its pretty heave at around 5 kgs per meter square.

Lastly you can also use the stuff in link 5 on the back of the door cars which stops any rattling between the door card and door skin. Some just add a bit here and there or even just add CLD to some areas then top off with CCF. I've gone for as near to 100% coverage here again and its really made a difference.

Speakers mounting is also important and some people just screw the speaker to the door skin then can't understand why it sounds bad. The best way I found was to either mount a MDF ring to the door, then mount the speaker to the mdf. Or you can get plastic mounting rings.

Then if you want to take it further your looking at doing the floor, boot and roof for the best results with the same process-
CLD
CCF
MLV

Installations everything mate, makes a huge difference when done right! I put cheap Edge speakers from Halfords in the last car when I sold it, these sounded really nice because of the deadening. Like I said it takes ages but well worth it.

HTH Dave

 

Hi Binz,my active sub

 

There goes the storage space.