I have a 93 400 with the nakamichi system and while it does sound pretty damn good for a 23 year old factory system (some speakers have been dealer replaced), I want to upgrade of course. As you would expect I want more bass, nothing crazy like a competition system, but more clean bass. I am worried that a box in the trunk isn't really the best option since you have so much between the trunk space and the interior. That got me thinking, what about an aftermarket 8" or 10" in a sealed box mounted where the stock sub is? I am sure it has been done, but I couldn't find anything worthwhile on it. Does anyone know of any that have been done like this? How much mounting depth is there? Any info at all?

I will likely be powering the sub with a 500 watt alpine amp just FYI. I don't keep my SC at my house currently (garage is full of other cars) so I cant just tear it all apart to see what I am working with. Just trying to figure out if this is even an option at all. I can work with any material, fiberglass, MDF, metal, whatever. So I am prepared to fabricate to make it all work and mount up, and look stock.


Thanks,
Sean

 

If your wanting to mount a sealed enclosure where the stock is your out of luck. The stock sub is 10 inch free floating style. There may be 3 inches between the bottom of the sub and the top of the gas tank. There's just not much room in there at all.

 

Mount the sub in the gas tank. Problem solved.

 

Man is it that tight? I wonder if you can even fit a slim profile sub in there!

I like the way you think!

So I more than likely I should go with the traditional box in the trunk? Just seems like a lot of energy is going to go away from the cabin compared to a car with a pass thorough back seat. I saw one member (SSmith I believe) duct his port through that hole. That seemed like a great work around, but I don't want to build that elaborate of a box. I want a nice stereo, but that is not the cars main focus.


Sean

 

Just pull the panel down in the trunk that hides the tank and you'll see how little space you're working with. It's held in along the top by some fairly strong metal clips that release easily.

 

You could rewire the factory sub to work in conjunction with an after market one in the trunk. Ive seen that before on other cars but doing it in an SC may require quite a bit more work than what its worth. Ive always been curious of the frequency range that the sub can do. Mine still sounds great in my 93 400 and has more than enough boom for me. (but I've always been more into quality sound than hearing a sub 20 blocks away) I know its a 5ohm sub and that the nak system is like 280 watts but thats all I ever see spec wise.

 

This is something I can probably actually do, sweep the stock sub to find out what range/output it has.

Looks like I am back to a more traditional sub build for the car. It was a good idea for about 5 minutes


Sean

 

If you're willing to make an entire new deck, then you could fiberglass a new enclosure to get the proper sized box for your sub. It won't be easy at all, but it can be done if you're creative.

A shallow mount sub can fit in the rear, but you'll have to raise it up about 1". The factory sub cover won't work anymore. You'll also have to cut the rear deck too into an oval, so the sub basket can clear. The metal is surprisingly thin and easy to cut. There is a thread on here somewhere about fitting a JL sub into the rear deck.

 

I put an Earthquake SWS-10 in, using the factory mount and cover, with plenty of clearance down below. No cutting necessary.

 

Your sub looks a lot smaller than the kicker comp I tried to use.

 

Precisely why I selected it. Here's the post on what I did:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/per...ml#post8569066

I don't think I ever took a picture of the clearance on the bottom, but it's comparable to stock.

 

Mine seems to fall off around 30hz or so. (98 with Nakamichi sub, but deck has been replaced and an aftermarket amp powers the sub.) And the whole Nakamichi system is supposed to be 280 watts, but the sub itself is more like 120 to 150 watts. Also remember that there's a difference between peak and RMS wattage.

My amp is rated for 160 watts RMS at 4 ohms. At 5 ohms it should be putting out about 135 watts (possibly more since it wouldn't be current limited.) I certainly have times where the sub seems very strained (suspension travel, not clipping), but I don't know at what wattage that's at.