I notcied Crutchfield sells a number of free air subwoofer speakers. Any comments on these? I'm considering one of these!! :)

Calvin

Remember that a "free air sub" doesn't mean that you can just sit the speaker on the back seat.

A free air sub still needs an enclosure, it's just that the car's trunk works as the enclosure. You need a solid mount with a complete air seal between the car cabin and the trunk. For instance, it wouldn't work on the rear deck of most hatchbacks because that's not an airtight seal between the trunk and the cabin.

Make sure to call Crutchfield and talk with their phone reps about what's best for your car and your budget. Don't rely on just the catalog or the web site, their real strength is their people. Talk with them one-on-one and ask them all your questions. They'll be able to help you out.

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Tony Fabris

Best would be to try before you buy. Maybe try a free air sub and a closed box. I've heard some free air subs (and also had one in a car some years ago) but I'm not very happy with the quality and power of the subs.

You'd have to do some work to make it sound good.

TeeMcBee
Got my Mk2! # 080000143

I have a Pioneer 12" free air sub in the parcel tray of my Primera. It sounds great, really well controlled punches, I prefer that to droning subs. The only problem I had was that I had to butcher the car to get it in. Nothing that an afternoon, a jigsaw and a pair of tin snips doesn’t fix.

I have a convertible, so my trunk is a sealed box for the most part.

:)

Calvin

I have a convertible, so my trunk is a sealed box for the most part.

And there's enough room on your "parcel shelf" area to mount a decent-sized subwoofer? Or is all that space taken up by the mechanics for the retractable top?

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Tony Fabris

I'm not certain what you mean by the parcel shelf area. The space layout (profile view) looks something like this (not proportionate):
windshield
/ 1 2 3
/ front seats back seats convertible mechanism trunk
|__________| ___________|____________________|___________|

Areas 1 2 3 signify the three "open" areas in the car. Areas 1 and 2 are loosely connected, there's room for air to move from 1 and 2. However, the trunk is pretty much sealed off from the back.

It seems to me a free air setup might work here... Since one of the requirements is to have a baffle seal off the back from the front...

Calvin

Can anyone recommend speakers for free air use? The only ones I can find are Pioneer free air speakers?

Calvin

I think I know what you mean by parcel shelf area now, after reviewing a number of different free air installs. My car does not have a parcel shelf in any form. :-) That's where the top goes when it goes down so it's just a gaping hole that should not and must not be sealed.

Calvin

I just wanted to follow up on this:

After doing research for quite some time, I chose to just JL Audio 10 inch IB (Infinite Baffle) subwoofer speakers. For my installation, I used 2 JLA 10IB4 subs, mounted free air in the rear wall of the trunk facing forward into the back of the rear seats. Also, a 300 watt Phoenix Gold amp. The trunk is a 5 cubic foot sealed space separate from the main cabin. (on a convertible, the main cabin can vary between a sealed volume and an infinite volume ;-). I had to do quite a bit of additional work isolating the spare tire compartment from the main cabin because the spare compartment is built deeply.

So at the end of the day, I'm able to take out my Bazooka amplified tube which takes up all the trunk space. That should give an idea of how small the trunk is on my convertible, my old 8" tube sub takes up almost all the space in it. :-( However now it is replaced with 2 10"s :-), and a get my trunk back.

How does it sound? It sounds wonderful, very smooth with a good amount of slap. My system just went up the scale by quite a degree. With the gains adjusted too high, it can make the whole car blurry. With the gains properly calibrated, it can make you just cry! It's very musical!! I ran the iasca cd through its paces and somehow it improved the stereo separation -- so the sound staging is incredibly clean. I can't quite explain why or how, maybe the 24db crossover in the phoenix gold had something to do with this.

Anyway for those with my car (basically no one ;-) I highly recommend the free air install.

Calvin