DIY Sub for an '87 Mustang GT...Suggestions? (1 Viewer)

[Chu Gai]

my soon to be 17 yo son would like to take his first stab at making subs for a car that I may give him limited use of, the Mustang. He wants to do this himself but doesn't want to commit substantial funds to the driver(s). Assuming one's going with PartsExpress and further assuming he's gonna screw it up (despite being a teenager who knows it all), what are some suggestions for drivers and possibly a box enclosure? Looking for lowball price suggestions so whatcha got?

 

[Jeff Rosz]

how bout this woof from parts express, should fit the bill. take a look at the spec sheet for 6 suggested boxes. ~1 cu ft and less for sealed and ~2 cu ft for vented.

 

[Cam S]

The Shiva would be perfect in a 1cuft box, or even .75cuft. I tried it out in my car with a 1cuft box with an Eclipse 380 watt rms amp, and WOW, it was just as loud and punchy as my $600 Eclipse sub. The shiva hands down!

 

[Ryan Schnacke]

From parts express I'd look at the DVC and Quatro lines of subwoofer drivers.

17 year old in a Mustang GT ... a brave father indeed. I had access to Dad's 85 LX 5.0 when I was 17 and I somehow managed to survive. But there were times when I was just lucky.

 

[Chu Gai]

keep the suggestions coming...yeah, the first teenager survived too...of course that was after he took the car out without permission, got pulled over by the cops....live and learn

 

[Cam S]

Chu, what kind of a budget is your son going on? Does he have an amp already?

 

[Mark gas]

Adire audio recomends 1.5 cubes for the shriva.

Depending on budget and if he wants sq, spl, or both I would go with somthing from IDQ or http://www.edesignaudio.com/.

For power I would go with a JBL 1200.1 or the new ed nine.1 amp.

Also what are you gointg to do about the front stage?

 

[Dan KW]

I used to be very big into car audio. I visited sites like termpro.com and sounddomain.com to learn more.

Shiva's seemed to be very popular with the car crowd. I never used one becuase I still have a ten inch adire brahma

Tempests were the rage (for a little while) with the budget spl guys but they require larger enclosures.

 

[Greg_R]

I'd suggest a sealed box design because it's pretty hard to screw up.

I built a 2 cu.ft. sealed box for the Shiva in my car (SQ install). The nice thing about the Shiva is it doesn't need a lot of power (and thus car electrical system upgrades). I drive it with 400W and am very satisfied. Obviously a smaller box will give you more 'punch' which may be what your son is after.

 

[Chu Gai]

don't ask me about the front stage. right now he's got limited 'screw with the car rights' and he's doing things on the cheap so to speak. The amp he's put in is called an NSound Storm Laboratory which was donated by a friend of his. Seems to be in good working condition. I really wish I could come up with a dollar amount he'd be comfortable with and to be honest, I don't think he really knows. my contribution to all of this, aside from providing the car, is to assist in the cabinet construction. as to whether he's looking for oomph or accuracy, my guess is he'll define oomph as accuracy. I'd say the driver that Jeff suggested up above will be the top end of his budget. after all, he has dreams of other things like upping the horsepower. we'll see how that and school work out though.
thanks and if anyone has other suggestions, even less than optimum ones, i'd love to hear it.

 

[Tim Morton]

I was a huge CA fan a few years back, had thousands of dollars invested in my car and for the life of me have never heard of NSound Storm Laboratory amplifiers and search Google as well.nada. So without any info on the amp you intend to use it will be hard to pick a driver. Also what kind of bass is he looking for? Does he want tight punchy bass and is willing to give up some output volume? Does he just want loud boom to impress those he drives by? What are his CD choices these days? What type of Mustang is it? hatchback or trunk? Is the amp going to ONLY play subwoofer drivers?(dedicated to the sub)...Sensing that this amp is a cheap knockoff amp not up to producing serious watts, I think i would be looking for a 10" woofer or possibly a pair of 10's if the amp can handle that. Uts VERY imposrtant to know the ability of the amp before buying a speaker, or you might make a mistake and not get the best sound. Car amps can come in many flavors, i would assume this is maybe a 2 channel amp that puts out 30watts per channel into 4ohms. Can it be bridged into a single mono channel and if so at how many ohms? These are questions to find out before buying the driver. Once as many of these questions can be answered you can then decide what kind of subwoofer to build. IE: lets say its a 2 channel amp NOT capable of running into a mono load...which is my quess...well then you CAN"T hook just a single driver to it unless you buy a DVC driver. And if it is a low powered amp..which is also my guess...you won't want a larger speaker than a 8" or 10" driver and you might want 2 drivers...I have heard 2 8" subs in a car that will blow your mind for all but the lowest of RAP bass....

Sorry for the rambling post, but you want to do it right..it pays to do your homework. Sorry also for the typo's but its late...reading the posts i don't think you need to spend $150 bucks for that 12" Parts express sub because the amp may not be up to driving it...and someone mentioned IDQ subs...They are fom a company called Image Dynamics, owned by an old friend of mine Eric Stevens...ID makes some of BEST low priced subs in the ca market, but you will be paying around 100 bucks each for the ID's and i think more for the IDQ's..great sub, but i think you are looking at spending half that..lets ge the specs on the amp before taling about which sub to buy.

 

[Jeffrey Noel]

Chu, if you're interested, I have two ID10" subs(like Tim refers to in the above post) that I'm selling for cheap. They are in perfect playing condition and very good physical condition. I currently have each sub in a 1cu.ft. enclosure powered with 90watts RMS from a MTX amp. They sound awesome, but take up too much room in my little trunk. Can't get much more than my golf clubs in there. If you're interested, I'll let them go for $80 shipped. They've been hooked up for about 6 months and I bought them new in June or July.

Sorry for the plug. Just thought you might be interested!

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

You should give a serious look to the Kicker Comp VR 12" driver. In a 1 ft^3 sealed box it's flat down to about 30hz, and close to 35hz in a 2 ft^3 sealed box.

In a 2 ft^3 ported box tuned to 30hz, it's flat down to 31hz w/ a 3db peak at 50-55hz that your son will most likely enjoy, especially for rap music.

These drivers can be had for around $75 on yahoo shopping or $65 on ebay.

Hope this helps

 

[Jeff Rosz]

soundstorm laboratories homepage
try here
or here
there are many more links i can find to sellers of their stuff. the confusion comes in that soundstorm's LOGO looks like an " N " .
ya gotta use what ya have. model # please?

 

[Chu Gai]

Says the Model # on the side is S1002 (500 x 2 watts into 2 ohms). Helpful?

 

[Tim Morton]

OK ...its is a inexpensive knockoff amp like i was thinking, it sells online for about 100 bucks and is a "knockoff" of the Soundtream(well respected car audio amp) name.It claims to be a 500x2 amp for 100 bucks...it might be capable of producing 1/2 that at 100% THD..but we are not hear to discuss the quality of the amp. So.....if it were me i would look for 2 10" drivers and If Jeffrey is selling his for 80 bucks for both total shipped I would grab that. You won't find anything close for that price.
http://www.imagedynamicsusa.com/webs...oducts/id.html

But it also appears that the amp might be bridgable into a single channell so you have other options. What kind of bass is he looking for or are you willing to tolerate?

 

[Chu Gai]

oh I'm sure those are very optimistic numbers. my tolerance for bass like he's probably looking for doesn't exist but then he's young. Jeff, are those prices for 2 units? I'll bounce all of this off him later this evening. Maybe I can get another octave if I spike them On the other hand if this report card doesn't look good I just might spike him!

 

[Jeffrey Noel]

Chu, that price is for both subs. I will tell you that the cones look brand new but the trim rings have minor scrapes/scuffs. They are both the single 4ohm models, just FYI. Just let me know.

 

[Dan KW]

One thing to think about. If you get two 4 ohm subs, you will either have to run the amp in stereo, or mono into an 8 ohm load. I'm assuming that by the 500wpc @ two ohm rating means it is only stable to a 4 ohm mono load. I wouldn't chance that thing into a 2 ohm mono load unless it is rated stable. You may want to consider two 8 ohm or 4 ohm dvc drivers to get a 4 ohm mono load.

 

[Tim Morton]

We never got into the crossover discussion and how the signal will get to the amp...I think he will be fine running the subs in the 2-ch stereo mode. Simply mix the signal ahead of the amplifier into mono and build the box with a sealed divider so in effect it will be 2 boxes. I agre with Dan about not running that amp bridged into a 2 ohm load. He should be fine in stereo.