Subwoofer in a 328

Aside from the guy that put the massive thing in the spare wheel well, has anyone actually found a space to hide a small Subwoofer in a 328 (without compromising the interior in any way) ?

I've seen the threads on installing in the kick plate but those all seem to refer to 308s. My (89 ABS) 328 has a load of "stuff" behind the kick plate & a big box of relays mounted to the back of the plate. Even if they were relocated somewhere else in the void I can't see there'd be enough room for anything much else in there.

Any other solutions/suggestions? The only installation I'd consider doing would be one where you couldn't see it was there.....

 

I was just talking to a friend about this.

He said that he had heard about someone installing one in the service hatch in front of the passenger seat. It is on the floor under the carpet.

You would cover it with wire mesh, and maybe use some kind of acoustically invisible carpet over it.

Another option is to use seperates. You can fit a 6" subwoofer in the original speaker location behind the door panel and surface mount the mid and tweets. You would have to confirm that the deeper speaker will clear the window, and you should use a backing cover for the sub. This would probably give you the best sound of any option, but you would have speakers mounted on the inside of your door panel, and that would effect resale value.

Polk audio used to make a very good seperate set like this. The alpine sets with the paper cones were also very good. Infinity used to make a very low profile ribbon tweeter that might work well here.

When using seperates, the cross overs are the key to good sound. They will a lot of tweeking to get it just right.

One other option is to fit a very shallow sub in an enclosure under the passenger seat. There is very little space there, but there are some fine subs made for tight fits like that.

Any of these set ups will require a good amp. The best place I have found for it is in front of the pedal box under the dash. There is also some space in front of the console. Be sure you have adequate ventilation. Use a seperate circuit breaker to the amp power. Another alternative place is on the fire wall by the spare tire well, but then you will have a lot of wires running through the fire wall. Not necessarily a problem, but not the cleanest install either.

 

Thanks for that - I think what you have referred to as the service hatch is what I've called the kick plate in my original post. That's been done, but I think only on a 308. As above, there's a load of "stuff" behind there on a 328

My 328 has the later seats - no option/room to put anything under those at all. Less than 2" clearance.

I already have a set of Alpine speakers in the door & some pods on the rear shelf that I made & have replaced the dash tweeters (but retained the stock grills so you wouldn't know).

I also have an Alpine head unit & a KTP 445 4x45W Powerpack amplier thing which fits inside the front centre console about level with the pedals - its tiny.

Again, on the ABS 328 there is a lot of "stuff" in the front compartment by the fluid reservoir etc so not really any room to do anything much there either.

I'd thought about installing them in the doors but as you suggest I'd have to mount some mids somewhere else in the cabin & that's a "no-no" - I want it looking as standard as can be (except for what I've put on the rear shelf obviously).

 

Respectfully Guys,

Aren't the 4 horns out the a$$ end of the car enough?

That is part of the reason we bought these cars in the first place isn't it?



I got nothing (noise makers) in mine ..... for what it is worth.

 

This is the old debate. Sometimes indeed the motor is enough - sometimes I want some music, depends where I'm driving.

Likewise, most of the time I have a sports exhaust on my car - which is fine for Sunday morning hooning. On the other hand I recently acquired a standard system to use for longer trips.

I suppose the point is the car can be more than one thing, it can do more than one job (and why not?) , BUT, I'm not about to start carving the interior up for this one.

 

Granted, it's a 308-specific question, but see this thread
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6257

chaa spoke from experience - he hasn't been active here for several years
Nuvolari spoke from experience and is a Sponsor

 

Iain,

Understand your POV. Good Luck.

I am 50 years old. I long for the days of Internal Combustion purity. THAT is music to me.


No car has made my blood boil since the early 1990s. Generally, CARS were no longer built after 1969.

I am so glad I grew up when I did.

I'll leave "eco friendly" to the new guys.


Good Luck on your quest.

 

Thanks for that Wax, helpful thread, hadn't seen that one before.

 

Music is a must..no matter how good your F car sounds...I'm going to put in a 6. Inch bazooka tube..it will sit right between the seats..and you can disconnect it whenever you want...itsself powered and portable

 

Know about pancake (thin) speakers which open several mounting possibilities including under both seats, just below the evap core above passengers knees, and in the doors. Pancake speakers are roughly 2" thin and available in 10" and 12" diameters.
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I concur. I hope the ghost of Enzo haunts these blaggards.

 

Interesting idea - but ideally I'd like it to be "fix & forget" (and hidden!)

There is also a new Pioneer 8" sub around that's pretty thin - the TS-SW841D somewhere around 3" total depth. 328s have two types of seat, I have the later ones & there is no room for anything more than about an inch in thickness under them. I think you can get stuff under the earlier seats (and 308 seats) but there isn't room for amps or speakers under mine.

See above - the car can do more than one job.....

 

Mark, et. al,

If you wanted to be respectful, you wouldn't piss and moan in this guy's thread.

What help is a post like this? The OP wants to know where to put a sub, and you tell him "don't!"

Let's try to be a helpful community, not a bunch of purist d0uchebags.

 

Its all good, nobody's been rude & to be honest I think the point's been well made. Different people want different things from their cars.....

...and some of us want different things depending on what day of the week it is!

I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that this project is dead in the water though - I just can't see how it can be done without too much carving up of the existing interior or having something that is either highly visible or temporary - neither one an option for me.

I was hoping somebody with the same car (i.e. an ABS 328) would pipe up & either say "this is how I did it" or "forget it, can't be done" . Who knows, maybe nobody has tried !

 

when i get my bazooka tube,,,ill give you some feedback...as far as my system goes,,it sounds pretty good with the top in,,,with the top out,,for me ...a sub woofer is absolutely necessary,,,in my car ,.,you can enjoy both music and exhaust note all at the same time,,,dont give up,,,you will be able to figure out something ...

 

There are several posts on sound deadening in the cockpit. You are still able to hear the engine, but the decibels inside are lower thus reducing the need for a louder more powerful stereo.

 

Good thoughts - and I've already done some of that. I recently had my engine out & replaced the decaying foam insulation on the front & rear firewalls with 20mm thick PVC Nitrile foam. The front firewall (which is very thin sheet steel) also got a layer of Dynamat first. I also put some Dynamat in strategic places in the cockpit area & in the doors. You don't need to cover every square inch with the stuff for it to deaden things & remove the vibration/resonance.

 

Iain,
how effective was the sound deadening? I might have my engine out soon and would LOVE to quiet things down in my car. Now that you have done that, would you do anything different? The roar of the engine is great for the first five minutes or so. After that, it gets annoying.

 

Hard to say really - but overall I would say its made the car feel more solid (especially the doors). Absolute noise levels with the roof off probably not much different - but maybe not quite as harsh.

Not something you go "Wow!" about anyway - but it can't have done any harm as far as noise is concerned. You don't want too much of the stuff though because its not that light. I probably added maybe 10-12lbs in weight to my car with it. Dynamat weighs about 2lb a sheet.
But in reality its nothing really in the grand scheme of things & in any case, I could compensate because I could stand to lose a few pounds myself

Its the exhaust on mine that's really the big source of noise to be honest.

 

Many times I've seen 10" subs mounted in the passenger footwell...the passenger loses a few inches of legroom, but the sound is improved. You can also mount mid-bass drivers in the doors with sub baffle material behind them that will help in low frequency production.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_237XT652/XTC-6-1-2-Speaker-Baffles-Slim-line-2-3-8-depth.html?search=baffle

 

Thanks for that - some useful ideas starting to come out now. Do those baffle things really make much difference? I've not seen them before.

I thought about "Mid Bass" speakers for the doors - but then I'd need something to do the mid range stuff - need to get my head around what that would mean in terms of X-overs etc. At the moment my door speakers are full range Alpines & the dash tweeters are just wired in parallel.

Sub in the footwell would have to go behind the kick plate & the problem with the 328 is that that area has a whole bunch of wiring & a big relay box (attached to the back of the plate) in there that would have to be relocated.

 

ive got 6.5 inch 2 way infinitys and 4 inch MB quarts in each door ,,with crossovers behind the speaker wells in the doors and the dash tweeters,,,my alpine head unit is an old 3 cd cassette changer am/fm,,,i also have a roady xm reciever that has 10 different light settings (really cool) .,including a perfect orange to match the gauges,,i have a kenwood amp custom mounted inside the spare tire compartment,,,i forgot what its rated at,,,i wont ever cut into my car to mount any other speaker/ woofer,,,im definetly going with the bazooka tube,,,but ill tell you,,i believe i have the maximum set up you can have as far as whats in there,,,and it really sounds good,,,,a bass tube will make it perfect.....i can put it between the seats..or fasten it to the front of the passenger seat via the slide bar...
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Jason,

I am lots of things admittedly, I'll even take the ******bag part,

But a "PURIST" is NOT one of them.


I even went so far as to buy two different units from wrecked Ferraris just to plug the dash hole with something with the word Ferrari on it.

In the end the Maranello Quartet easily won out.



PLEASE though, use earbuds if you insist on driving your Ferrari to the Magnum PI theme. That IS ******baggery at its finest and embarrassing to the rest of us.

 

Hmmm - I think I might have cracked this.

It'll only be a 6.5" driver but I think that will do what I want. Just need to find the smallest(thinnest) possible 2 channel amp to drive it - something between 40 & 75W /channel that can be bridged. Any ideas/recommendations appreciated.

 

i drive mine ., now and again .,while listoning to the miami vice soundtrack,,,,!!!lol...