do we need to consider vehicle dimensions for car subwoofer?

[60ndown]

ive seen people say that allowing for a vehicles internal dimensions is important when designing a subwoofer for a vehicle.

do you agree?

or does the way a subwoofer will perform in a vehicle have nothing to do with the vehicle size?

[johnr66]

Yes, for if the subwoofer is too big, it will not fit in the vehicle

I find the position of the speaker in the vehicle makes a huge difference. Placing the speaker more towards the rear enhances the lower bass. Placing the speaker more forward, say behind the front seats looses the punch. This made the most difference. Vehicle size does have some effect, but position is more important.

[weltersys]

Originally Posted by 60ndown

ive seen people say that allowing for a vehicles internal dimensions is important when designing a subwoofer for a vehicle.

do you agree?

or does the way a subwoofer will perform in a vehicle have nothing to do with the vehicle size?

Differing internal dimensions will cause dips and peaks in response at different frequencies.
Smaller interiors will have more "cabin gain", more very low bass compared to upper bass. A rolled off low end as a sealed speaker will have may end up with (near) flat response in a small vehicle, but need compensation (bass boost) in a larger vehicle.

[BP1Fanatic]

Tapped Horn meets Bandpass Sub

[djQUAN]

check out PWK Designs He uses his own special software to create a box tailored to a specific to the vehicle and sub used based on the dimensions, TS parameters and your desired response.

[hooligan72]

A good parametric eq, even if only one band is used for the sub, can sometimes be your best friend. It only takes a couple of minutes using a frequency sweep to identify that all vehicles have a huge peak in response at the resonant frequency of the car. Your eq can flatten that out......usually.

That being said; a lot of people actually embrace that peak and enhance it just for the boom factor. Those of us who enjoy music the way it was intended to be heard just eq out the peak.

[1audiohack]

Why wouldn't you include cabin volume in the design process?

For instance an Eminence Lab12 modeled in ¼ space like you might use it in a house wants about a 2.8ft³ vented enclosure, in a 160ft³ box like an extra cab truck the same driver performs very flat from 100 down to 10 Hz in a 1.6ft³ sealed box and has better time domain performance as well. Easy to build, less space in the cab and less elecrical processing required. Sounds like a win win win to me.

[rvrazvan]

Is it possible to have an open baffle sub in the car )?

[TheBaronGroog]

60ndown-i'm sure you know the answer to this Xtremerevolution on diyma will model an enclosure with boundary loading for you-small fee attached.
rvrazvan-yes IB works very well in saloons, hatchbacks it's harder to seal the boot from the cabin. I have seen an E39 BMW 5er with two 15" IB mounted into the front footwells! Anything over 3x Vas can be considered IB, so provided your total "boot" volume is over 3x Vas you're hot to trot. Remember with IB that cone area is king, if you have a factory 8" hole in the rear deck you can fit a 15" under the hole and suffer little loss in output. Just remember that higher QTS subs will work best and that power handling will be approx 1/2 of the same sub in an enclosure.