rockthebeef

I've been talking to the guy on eBay who makes the sub for the right side of the trunk. If you check out the auction he re-listed it for $199. Thanks, i know... He even will do dark gray carpet to make it match better. Seems like a nice guy.

ScionFred

iTrader: (1)

Thanks... that price is much better. Now if you can just talk him into reshaping it so that it blends instead of simply 'fitting'.

jpauletteUSAF

I just got the Kenwood KSC-SW1, and I'm just wondering: Is it a difficult installation?

rockthebeef

I did my powered sub in 2 hours before work one day. if you've installed an amp before it shouldn't be hard at all. The part that wasted a good 30 minutes or so was getting the power wire to poke through the rubber thing in the firewall. Putting in the line output converter was a snap and so was running the wires under the carpet. I used a seat bolt for the ground.

You basically have to remove the radio and all the plastic trim pieces around the shifter. You do this so that you can run the RCAs down and under the carpet.

When you remove the door sill to hide the power wire, you'll also remove the kick panel. From there you can see that the carpet is hooked in place. It's a snap to get it out of the way enough to run your wires underneath.

jimmbomb

Rock... just you wait till you hook that sucker up to a H/U that has sub RCA's already built in.. You'll get 5X the sound that you do from line out converters...

I like all your write up, beef.. but like I said.. wait till you hear it thru HU RCA outs!!! i had mine like yours.. They guys at the audio shop told me not to expect miracles.. They said when you up=grade, you do back flips..
2 month later I did replace the HU ( a different store too).. You'll see..... the line out adaptars are pulling you underwater......... just my 2 cents, brothaaaaaaaaaaa....... good job reporting your progress... keep up the good investagative reporting!!.. jh

rockthebeef

jimmbomb - I know what you mean man. Believe me! I had a LOC running off the Rockford Fosgate HU on my previous Nissan. It sounded good but when I changed out the head unit the sound became much more clear. It really was a big difference.

I say the chance of me doing that to this car are slim to almost none. I paid $2k for the SNS so hypothetically somebody has got to offer $1250 or so before I even consider switching it out. It sounds plenty good for my current needs - seriously. I'm all but done with car audio in general. I'm older now and my priorities have shifted a bit. I just want my bass to play down to 30 or 20Hz at a volume that can blend well with the main speakers. If I don't stop it there I'll get obsessed.

As for the LOC being less loud - I'll have to do some research on that. Don't you adjust amp gains to compensate for the strength of the source signal? In other words you'll set the gain lower for a HU that has 5V preamp outs compared to one that has 2V preamp outs. The result is the same volume. But I think the difference is less noise. With a 2V signal you will need to turn up the amp gain more in order to reach the same volume. When you do this you amplify the signal as well as the noise. Higher voltage preamps allow you to use less amp gain, therefore amplifying less noise.

A line out converter take takes a high power signal and converts it down to a range acceptable by most amplifiers. I bet this probably degrades the sound more than anything. It's much better to completely bypass the HU's amp in the first place, hence line-level RCA outputs. Am I right with this? Sorry I'm using this post to *think out loud*.

Anyway my point is that I think changing a HU shouldn't make your system louder if your amp is adjusted properly, but it should make it sound much cleaner. But I could be way off base here too.

ScionFred

iTrader: (1)

IMO you're pretty much correct on all points. Speaker lvl outputs will contain any distortion added by the HU's amp while pre-amp lvl outputs have only the distortion added by the HU's pre-amp circuitry and are cleaner. There is no difference in signal strength that can't be compensated for with the LOC and remote amp's gain controls (if properly installed and adjusted).

Personally I wouldn't amplify speaker lvl outputs for the main speakers but I think it's far less important for a sub woofer. The only way a new HU will make your system louder is if it has a more powerful amp. I'm very happy with the sound from my speaker-lvl driven sub and the amp's gain is only set to 1/2. I haven't heard any distortion in the 20-90Hz range that the sub fills.

ScionFred

iTrader: (1)

Jimmbomb, did you connect both L&R speaker wires to your LOC or just one side? I'm not even sure if you need both channels for <100Hz sub-bass but perhaps the signal strength was too weak and/or overly attenuated by the LOC resulting in a very weak signal through the line-outs? I don't know much about LOCs but I suspect that their quality varies quite a bit. Maybe you had a bad one?

FWIW, when I had my Kenwood amp connected to a Premier HU with 2.2V pre-amp lvl output, I had to set the gain to 1/2 which is the same as it is now with speaker-lvl input.

jimmbomb

Rockbeef......... sooryy My apologies... i DIDNT KNOW that the Scion HU you have DOES NOT have RCA outs!! WOW...... why in the hell did they leave them off of such a nice peice of equipment?? same on them.. anyways.. glad that you are happy with what you'se sounds like.. Good Going!!!.. jh

jpauletteUSAF

I installed the Kenwood KSC-SW1 in my car yesterday and it's perfect for me. I'm not shaking my doors or ____ing off the neighbors, but it fills out the bottom end of the factory stereo nicely. Installation was a piece of cake, and it took me about 90 minutes. I couldn't find the P.Control wire, so I just spliced it up to an accessory wire and everything was gravy. Bravo, Kenwood.

jimmbomb

Where's ScionFred with his 10" underseat' deal?? have you gotten it done yet, bud??? Let's check it out!!!! jh

fcastle11

Has anyone tried these from Focal?

http://www.focal.tm.fr/catalogue-fro...roupe=caissons

http://www.focal.tm.fr/catalogue-fro...roupe=caissons

http://www.focal.tm.fr/catalogue-fro...roupe=caissons

I'm thinking about putting on in our a Tc.

ScionFred

iTrader: (1)

Scionfred's been working 11 days straight! This is the busiest time of year for my company and I haven't had much free time lately. I did get the eD sub and the box but haven't had time to move my amp and install the new sub. I have 2 weeks vacation coming and should have this done in a few days with a write-up and lots of pics.

I did hook up the new sub/box in the cargo area just to test it but it didn't sound much different from the sealed box Pioneer 10" I have there now. I'm hopeful that it will sound even better under the seat, being so much closer.

rockthebeef

I ended up selling my Blaupunkt THA 200B to somebody who was looking for one. I just got a really small amp from Blaupunkt that puts out 75x2 or 190x1 watts. I'm currently waititng for a Pioneer Premier 8" shallow sub and enclosure to put under the passenger seat. I'll be feeding that 190 watts.

In the meantime I hooked this up. It used to be in my SUV before I sold it. God I missed my bass... It sounds so good and I'm only giving each sub 75 watts each. This is what the doctor ordered! I guess I can use this daily and hook up the under-seat enclosure when I need the cargo space.

I hope I'm not catching th car audio bug again.

xseveredveganx

How do those CDT subs sound, btw?

I know on some other forums, guys rave about CDT's components and what not. I want to run the Resonant Engineering XXX 6.5's all the way around. That would make me happy.

jimmbomb

hey beef, can't you just pull your front seats out & move that monster up front & sit on that box seat?? LOL lOL.... sorry man........ I 'm in a mood I guess!!!! I'm waiting for my new box to get done & it's bugging me bad....... jh

rockthebeef

The CDTs are awesome. These are the old MS100 subs that are meant for SQ. They are very efficient and only take 100 watts each. They work really well for deep bass without being boomy. These are great if you don't have a lot of power.

I had CDT HD62 components in my old truck as well. Those speakers were great too. I had 100 watts going to each one.

I've been trying to control myself with the new xB but it's tough!

ScionFred - I'm in the same boat as you. I've been busy at work too. I'll be working Saturday for sure.

rockthebeef

I think you might be onto something - custom seats with built in subs!

exige

man that looks fantastic! As a CDT dealer, i gotta tell you....i love that

ScionFred

iTrader: (1)

I always have to work weekends and holidays... sux. I did get my sub box installed under the seat today and discovered that my previous under-seat box space dimensions were way off. The available space is 12" between the seat rails, 12-16" front to back (depending on how much rear foot room you're willing to lose) and only 5" depth unless you mod the underseat wiring, etc. I fit my 12"x13.25"x7.5" box but it's very tight and I had to mod all of the underseat wiring to make room.