So last summer I got tired of carrying CDs and MDs. I had quite a music database going with my Centrals and thought it might be time to get a used Empeg and extend my music collection out to the car.

I knew that I'd need to add an amplifer, and I thought I'd also add a subwoofer in the back (the car is a hatchback). Not only was I looking for a little bit more bass, but I thought that I might get better performance with the rest of the speakers if I sent the lower freqs. to the sub. Maybe that would help with the distortion I was hearing at louder volumes. I thought I'd try and put the amp and the sub together in the back and consolidate some wiring....

I decided to keep the stock Toyota speakers for the time being, since I'd read on some other Toyota boards that it was pretty difficult to replace them. I thought I'd see what they sounded like with the new equipment and then make a decision about replacing them. There are fairly large speakers in the front doors, tweeters on the tops of the front doors, and large speakers on the side by the rear seats.

So I purchased my first Empeg in the late summer of 2004, added two 80GB drives, and started the process of copying music. That took a couple of months, and gave me time to purchase an amp and subwoofer.

I decided on an ADS 6 channel amp (25 Honest Watts per channel with home stereo specs i.e very low distortion at 25 watts), and a 10 inch dual channel MB Quart sub. I looked at sub enclosures and didn't see anything that I liked. I didn't want to lose my precious trunk space, so I thought I'd try and build a cabinet for the sub...

Here's a photo of the sub (before finishing) with the various pieces and hinges. The goal was to make a cabinet that could fit into the car and look built-in while minimizing the space required...The center portion is the actual sealed subwoofer portion, the other pieces to the left and right are just to make it look more built-in and provide a mounting area for the new amplifier...

Randy