[klipseracer]

Wow.. The subs already showed up.

[kaigoss69]

Originally Posted by VP Electricity

See, I've done 10"s in E46 and with the skipass panel removed it sounds great. I think that a lot of the confusion here is that some of you guys want your "subwoofer" to sound loud at higher notes than a subwoofer is technically supposed to be playing. (Technically, 50 Hz and down is sub-bass, with notes above that handled by your in-cabin midbass drivers).

A lot of rap music has a lot of bass energy at higher notes - think 80 Hz, and maybe you're expecting that?

Although I have not done this, I have always thought that a trunk-mounted sub can work, but ONLY if the underseat drivers were used as midbass drivers to bridge the gap between the trunk "monster" and the door "midgets". If you try to play the trunk sub up to 100Hz or so, the higher frequencies will just get swallowed-up by the trunk insulation and create nasty rattles on top of that. I would expect that to sound like shit.

[kaigoss69]

Originally Posted by klipseracer

Wow.. The subs already showed up.

Hurry, you can still catch the Saturday night eBay rush.

[VP Electricity]

Originally Posted by kaigoss69

Although I have not done this, I have always thought that a trunk-mounted sub can work, but ONLY if the underseat drivers were used as midbass drivers to bridge the gap between the trunk "monster" and the door "midgets". If you try to play the trunk sub up to 100Hz or so, the higher frequencies will just get swallowed-up by the trunk insulation and create nasty rattles on top of that. I would expect that to sound like shit.

In the earlier post, I was specifically referring to the E46, where the doors had 6.5" drivers - but yes, either way you need to go down to meet the woofer.

I've done it a few times in E9x with the OE 8" as midbass - both on OE amp and on aftermarket amp high-passed at 50 hz - and I've usually crossed the trunk sub at 60 or so.

[klipseracer]

Ok. Got my hands dirty tonight before changing out my seat belt tensioners. Took some pictures and measurements which I will post up later. Basically this is my conclusion. The subs that I purchase actually fit.... But. The problem is they don't really fit. They could be usable however there are restrictions that prevent this from being drop in.

1) The bottom of the speaker well is affected by the ribs in the floor. The grooves in the floor that are put their are curved and the subs I have are not rounded on the bottom like the SWS series woofers and can not utilize the lower 1/2" of the well.

2) the mounts for the seat rails are actually sloped downward toward the back seat. The clearance on the rear seat mount is about 3.5" max not compensating for carpet, speaker grills or woofer excursion. I have a picture that shows that the eclipsing point is about 3.5" in the rear. The front is about 4" or so. However because this is a sloping angle, the true clearance for the woofer itself is probably around 3.75" max. This space would require the groove in the bottom of the floor to be used. The width of the speaker well is not an issue at all.

The stock woofer is even slanted in the stock speaker box to accommodate this issue. There are a couple of solutions that I can see.

1) Put some sort of VERY strong spacer on the two rear seat mounts. This however would put the rail at an suboptimal angle for the front seat rail bolts and may require the fronts be spaced as well. This would be the best way to utilize a larger woofer like this. And if this could be done safely, the woofer would likely pound very well. The carpet would have to be cut out and a new, fiberglass box would have to be made and there would probably not be a speaker grill unless custom made.

2) Second option and the one I'm leaning toward right now is to get the SWS-10 which doesn't handle the same wattage in there and hope the curve in the bottom of the speaker is similar to that of the SWS-8. The sws10 is made shorter than the Memphis sub as well and I HOPE that it could fit in there better. I think I may purchase one to get a better fit/angle. This too would likely require the carpet to be cut away in a couple of areas and a new grill/enclosure would have to be fabricated, which is not an issue and was to be expected.

I can say however, its VERY close and only a difference of an inch or so and if it was slightly larger, we would have some pretty serious bass underneath the seats. Another option for the memphis sub to help generate more space would be to pound the bottom of the metal floor down to create a little more room. I can say the metal down there is very thin. Only about 1/16th of an inch of metal separates the woofer well from the outside and would likely bend very easily. I will update more later.


EDIT:

Ok, here are some pics.

Here is the Memphis 10" sub sitting in place... this is likely the largest sub you will see in this location. Ever.


Here is the edge of the woofer nearest the driver pedals. As you can see if that wiring loom was not there it would fit even better.


I am pulling as much carpet back as i can to show fitment toward the passenger and by the driver door


This is shooting toward the back rear seat driver side. This specifically is a picture of the seat rail mounting location. Inside the red circle is where the T45 torx bolt goes that secures the rail down. I'm trying to give an idea of how much higher the sub is than the rail mount. Its about an inch or so.


Here is another shot of the same thing a little more level of an angle to give more perspective


This is measured driver door toward the passenger door. Width wise to show how wide the dimple in the floor pan is. The SWS-10's curve must fit inside this area. The depth of the dimple at its deepest location is just over 1/2 inch or so.


This is my finger poking through a very small piece of felt underbody covering that had a hole in it. That is the black stuff. The metal around it is very thin.


Here is a picture of the depth in the back. This is another shot of the rear seat rail mount. The circled part is where the T45 bolt bolts into. You can barely see the hole. You can see the hole on the tape measure is just over 3.5" in depth.


Here is the same shot but a little bit lower. This gives you an idea on how deep this is. You can see that the height of the hole is truly around 3.5". Therefor the top mounting depth of the sub + The height of the sub rim must be less than 3.5". More if you want any room for woofer travel.

[kaigoss69]

Good info, thanks!

[808MGuy]

Very interesting. I went through a part of this exercise before. I never actually got to the point of purchasing subs and trying to install them but I did model the response of several 10" subs in a very small enclosure to see what kind of performance I would get. Turned out that trying to squeeze a 10" sub in a very small box didn't give you much better response than an 8" in a properly sized box so it wasn't even worth the effort to try.

[klipseracer]

Originally Posted by 808MGuy

Very interesting. I went through a part of this exercise before. I never actually got to the point of purchasing subs and trying to install them but I did model the response of several 10" subs in a very small enclosure to see what kind of performance I would get. Turned out that trying to squeeze a 10" sub in a very small box didn't give you much better response than an 8" in a properly sized box so it wasn't even worth the effort to try.

Well, the plan is to rip out the metal bar where the stock enclosure bolts to, and build the fiber box in all four ways as far as you can go. Keep in mind we are completely ditching the tiny plastic stock enclosure all together here. I want to do this as replicatable as possible so this information is useful to more than just me. Possibly even sacrificing or re-routing the rear vent. I think you can get a lot of space from what I've seen. Maybe even .75 cuft if you build upward also including the door vent.

[klipseracer]

I just bought an SWS-10. Lets hope this one fits better. If it does, I have a couple people that do fiberglass boxes. I'll try to get some better airspace measurements.

[kaigoss69]

did you ever finish this? Results?

[BlackHot]

Yea, I'm interested in this as well...any results?

[eddie smith]

If you have not done, try to buy SWSxi from Earthquake, this is an 8" drop in under the seat. THEY ARE 2 OHMS IMPEDANCE. I put them in my son's ( 335 2008) IT ROCKS.
It is twice as loud, no changes to the car.
Last night we were messing around with installing a shaker in the seat to make it loud when the top is down. BOY it feels loud. and owsome. the vibration the low frequency extention is owesome
I think that you better save your money and your car. use the factory spot, then if you need more add a shaker ( mini quake)
good luck
eddie

[mob17]

Seeing as though he was trying his idea out 3 years ago, i think your advice is a bit late...

[mob17]

Plus you cant just add a 2 ohm speaker unless your amp can handle a 2 ohm load.

[VP Electricity]

This is probably a troll post from Earthquake.

As most members of the forum know, the SWS are not drop in without some kind of adapter, and they don't plug in without some kind of adapter either.

[mob17]

Yeah i remember when i talked with someone from Earthquake UK a few months ago when i was deciding on what to buy. He was adamant they were drop in, even after i challenged his claim. I think most of their sales team seem to think they are