Sub (Bass) upgrade

[phiebert]

For those of you thinking of upgrading the sound system in your Viper, here's some thoughts.

I had a couple proper boxes made for that terrible between the seats enclosure (highly leaky) and compared them. I still am not perfectly happy with the set up but it is soooooo much better it's probably worth mentioning.

Trials:

1. Tried to find a way to create an enclosure that would fit and house a 10 inch sub, didn't really work.

2. Had an enclosure built that fit and housed an 8 inch sub. Sounded alright but tended to buzz at higher volumes. I think the amount of space in the enclosure was too small for the size of driver. I tried to add some filler (which makes the enclosure "appear" larger to the drivers) but it only helped a little.

3. Had an enclosure built to house two high end 6 inch drivers. Sounds pretty good and doesn't buzz. Doesn't have quite the bottom end I was hoping for but pretty good.

I'm still working on it but in the end I might have to resort to having a custom box built to fit at the passenger's feet to get a decent bass range.

Anyone else have experiences to add? And please no comments like "Why would you bother with this, just listen to the engine!" I too like the sound of the engine but I spend a lot of time in the car.

[Mike Brunton]

I upgraded the sound system in my car - I am on my 2nd upgrade.

I have a 1998 GTS. My goal was to make the stereo sound a lot better, without doing irreversible 'custom' work. I am also not an audiophile, and didn't want to spend TOO much money.

The first thing I did was replace the front door speakers (both pairs) with Rockford Fosgate Fanatic X components. I then replaced the rear speakers with Kicker 6.5" "Freeair" subwoofers. This made the stock system sound a hell of a lot punchier and a lot better. Cost of the Fosgates was $300, and the Kickers were about $200.

After a year of that, I decided I wanted more, but still didn't want to spend TOO much. The Fosgates in the doors would buzz a bit at higher volumes, and the kickers would buzz a bit too. I think the stock amp was not capable of driving the kickers (which can handle 150 watts RMS each), and the Fosgates in the doors just weren't the kind of speaker I wanted.

I bought 2 Sony XPlod 2-channel 100watt per channel amps. I also bought a set of Infinity Kappa components for the doors. I bought an Aiwa CDC-MP3 head unit that plays MP3's off CDR's and CDRW's. I wired it all up, and put the subs in the trunk. Now it sounds VERY nice. I can crank the volume all the way up and there is virtually no distortion. I get plenty of bass (don't want the whole car shaking) and the system just sounds very very clean up to max volume, and it can go VERY loud if I want it to.

I removed the spare tire and made a custom panel that goes where the tire went. I covered it with carpeting and it looks stock. Everything is hidden below the panel, and the speakers are in the stock locations and are the stock size. You can't tell anything was ever done to the system - UNTIL I turn it on!

I can take some pics if anyone is interested.

[phiebert]

I tried subs in the trunk too but couldn't hardly hear/feel it with the gas tank being inbetween you and the sub. Are you happy with the in-car bass with subs in the trunk? I'm sure the people in the cars beside you can feel it!

[BigsViper]

I think the difference of the bass in the trunk between Mike and Patricks set-up is GTS versus RT/10. Mike, I would definitely like to see some pics, also, since I'm not an electrician, can a shop do this without tearing up my baby?

[Brian Denham]

I am a huge audiophile and spent probably more than I should have on my system. At least that is what my wife thinks My thinking was that you only go round once. I have my dream car and I wanted it to have my dream stero system too!! I went full out and had custom work done in the rear of my gts. I had a custom box built to house 2 12" woofers, 2 amps, and the 2 rear speakers. Had to move the 2 rear speakers from factory locations to get the box to fit correctly. I changed out everything in the car. Used an Eclipse head unit, eclipse 5.25" components in the front factory location, eclipse 6.5" coax in the rear, memphis sub amp pushing 1100 watts to the 2 eclipse 12" alluminum subs, and another memphis amp sending 75 watts x 4 to the mids/highs. Used tsunami wires throughout the system and a tsunami stiffining capacitor. It turned out better than I had ever imagined! Also, none of the work is something that cant be removed later. If/when I decide to sell the car I can return everything to stock/factory. And when I upgrade to a newer snake I can hopefully get all this in that one!

The guy who owns the shop where I had the work done is also a viper owner. He has an older rt/10 and is running into the same problems as phiebert. I do think that he has figured out how to get a 10" in between the seats though. Im pretty sure I remember him telling me that. If anyone wants his number for info just email me. Tim Zimmerman, another viper owner in Little Rock, also took his gts to this shop for work. He didn't go as crazy as me, but I heard from the shop that it turned out great. Tim, tell us about it! And I wanna see it soon!!

Pics of my install can be viewed by clicking on the link in my signature.

[Mike Brunton]

Patrick,

I think BigsViper hit the nail on the head with the bass difference. My car is a GTS, so the trunk is open to the car. When my subs are blasting, you can feel a little "wind" brushing the back of your neck, and these are only 6.5" subs! There was a guy who had a red RT/10 that posted on this board a while ago that had put the subs between the seats. I think this is really the only place to put them on an RT/10. I'm not sure how much better the 10" sounds than the 8", but like I said I'm not a huge audiophile, but I'm very happy with my 6.5" kicker subs.


Bigs,

I'll take some pics and post them for you. Yes, a shop can do this for you, but I would get some recommendations for shops in your area. My experience is that shops are really good (see Brian Denham's install), or really bad to the point where they scratch up your car, or just don't do a good job. I did the work myself, and now I know that everything is done right. It's really simple to hook it up - I ran a pair of RCA cables from the stereo deck to the trunk (routed them through the driveline tunnel, up behind the driver seat, and put them down through the hole in the trunk where the factory wiring harness comes out). Then I had to run power cables. I ran 4 guage wire right to the battery, and I went through factory holes so it took about 2 hours to do this. I also had to run speaker cable to each door and to the trunk, and I routed that the same as the RCA cables, but it went under the kickpanels of each side and through the plastic tube that connects to the door. After that, it's really just a matter of hooking it all up and mounting the amps. I used the factory speaker locations so there was no problem with building custom enclosures. I'm blabbing - I'll take some pics for ya


Brain,

I actually saw your install on some site that shows various custom sound systems in cars. It was an amazinly good job! It's the one with the metal half-circle that houses the cap and power blocks right? The only thing that struck me is that you lost pretty much all your trunk space, right? I still have quite a bit of space - actually more than stock, although I have no spare tire now. Was you install expensive? (if you don't mind me asking)

[Brian Denham]

Mike, yes I did lose just about all of my cargo space. But there was not even enough room for me to put my golf clubs there in the first place so that didn't really bother me Thanks for the praise on it as im very proud of the work they did! I agree with you also about getting recommendations before allowing them to touch your car. In every city, there will be the top 2 or 3 installers. Ask around at car audio competitions or from people you see with nice looking installs and they should be able to point the right direction.

That site with the installs is www.sounddomain.com or www.cardomain.com They both link to the same installs. You can search by vehicle make and model. Very nice place to get ideas.

Mine was fairly expensive. All depends on your point of view I suppose. I got exactly what I wanted and love it each time I get in the car, so price was a secondary concern for me on this. When I received my car it had a terrible alternator whine coming through the radio. 6 trips back to the viper tech over 2-3 months and many replaced parts did not fix the problem. They even called DC and they said they knew about it, but did not know how to fix it! So my dealer agreed to pay for me to replace the head unit, amplifier and wiring. Of course I had to pay for the rest of it, but that was a nice chunk that I did not have to spend. Total for the system was around $3800 and I had to come up with $2500 out of my own pocket. May seem excessive to most, but I really enjoy it! Im also planning on entering it in local competitions and have emails into a couple car audio magazines to see about having it featured. Hopefully...

<FONT COLOR="#ff0000" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">This message has been edited by Brian Denham on December 08, 2000 at 14:32</font>