305Busa

I think its about time to redo my system and saw one with a down firing sub. The owner said it sounds great and he did it to keep the sub protected from stuff in the trunk and also to hide it but I didn't get a change to hear it for myself. His system was in an LS460 as well so I figured he wouldn't have spent the money if there wasn't something there. I'd just like to know if anyone has any experience with this set up and would it sound any different than a rear facing sub. I'll be running a single 12" Pioneer TSW3002D4 which was 1 or 2 that I won at a local audio shop. Any help of pics would be greatly appreciated.

Robert_J

No experience in the car environment but a lot in the home. Orientation of the driver makes no difference audibly. You may be able to measure a db or 2 with a meter but then again, that will change if you measure in different seats or even if you adjust the height of the seat.

twistedman

Here's one that pioneer makes for a 12", does yours look similar? If your sub doesn't have a grill on the bottom, make sure it's 3-4 inches off the floor for sub excursion and you should be fine!!

swtjlsy

iTrader: (6)

the only problem is the bass needs to fill the trunk before it comes into the car. Most new lexus 06 and up have completely sealed trunks which traps the bass or sound inside the trunk. You need to make sure the sound can vent some how into the trunk

Robert_J

That part is a car audio myth that has been dispelled for quite a while. The wavelengths of bass frequencies are longer than the size of the trunk.

As for the sealed trunks, that can be an issue with any environment. Bass, like all sounds, relies on vibrating air. Since the trunk is sealed, the air in the trunk can't "touch" the air in the cabin to pass along the vibrations. The air in the trunk vibrates things like the seat backs which pass along the vibrations to the air in the cabin. Same concept in the home if you have a sub in one room and you are listening in another or if you are listening to a car "thump" as it goes down the road. The low frequencies contain more energy and excite objects easier than the high frequencies. There's also resonant frequencies of materials and lot of other stuff that goes into this but hopefully you get the idea.

305Busa

I dont have an actual enclosure yet. I have the subs and wanted to try a down firing enclosure. The guy that built my last enclosure will be in town in the next 2 weeks on vacation, so I thought I'd put him to work.

305Busa

The factory sub in the middle of the rear deck was removed and some of the bass comes in thru there. And then the ski hole or as my wife calls it, the "purse retrieval hole" door was removed and covered in a mesh to allow a bit more to come in.

twistedman

I still have my factory sub installed, and never open up the armrest compartment on the back seat and the bass comes through just fine!!! My wife always complains about disorientation, discomfort and a pain in her ear so the low frequencies are coming through without any issues !! Lol

marcsis250

iTrader: (2)

i found down firing sub enclosures work good in trucks or cars where there is no trunk. In a car with a trunk i believe it wont make that much of a difference unless you can keep the woofer as far into the tail light area.

I find that corner loading the woofer in that area yields suprising results. I would recommend you play with the postion of the woofer in your trunk and "find" the sweet spot.

good luck

RobzKar

iTrader: (7)

I have 2 12" w3v3 jl audio subs firing down with a 2 1/2" space from the bottom in my 2is and it sounds better than firing them back. trust me ive done a lot of systems for my self and firing down sounds the best from my experience.. hope that helps.

Slammer1

I had a pair of down firing subs in a GMC Sierra once and loved them. Unfortunately, when I went with bigger subs and more power the new subs wouldn't fit in the relatively shallow down firing box and I had to switch up my design. For what it's worth, try a down firing enclosure and see how you like it. Do move it around in the trunk before you decide you don't like it though. Placement can make a big difference.

maxx430

interested to see how this sounds if you ever bit the bullet and get one installed.

Koach77

My bass sometimes becomes tight but when I roll down the windows it has full range of sound and response.