Here is my current setup in my 68. For some reason it seems as if i'm not getting very good sound from my subwoofer while in the drivers seat. I think it has to do with the way the sub is located. Its setup exactly how it looks. Would adding a port to the package tray help the sound. I have 2 6x9's in there now. If i did put in a port hole or 2, would i have to make boxes on the bottom side of the 6x9s to keep their sound quality up?
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a306/eonick/DSCF0857.jpg

You could try removing the card board from the carpet under the rear deck.
Recarpet with just carpet make sure the 6x9 are crossed over for just mid bass so they won't distort and the bass should fill the cabin.

you may just need a different box. Do research on sub boxes. They have like Bandpass, sealed enclosures etc.

By the way, I have drunken a lot of beer in Chico a long time ago.

The box size is a good idea, also did you play with the wiring phase at all, I've had that effect the sound before too.

Make sure you didn't cross the wires when you hooked it up.. Double check that the + is to the + and the is to the -.. Otherwise it will beat out of phase....

FWIW, they make subs that just mount to the back of the seat frame that use the trunk as the inclosure...

i'd say go with a bigger box, get all the highs out of the sub channel, make sure the trunk is sealed tight, and take any sound deadener out from behind the back seat. sometimes, a little bit of dynamat or something similar on the bottom of the trunk lid helps, too. if the trunk lid is bouncing a lot, that is just wasted energy that couldbe knocking your internal organs around.

Believe it or not guys, there's a lot of physics involved in getting good sound from a subwoofer. Luckily there were two guys a long time ago that were acousic geeks... Thiele & Small.

Any good driver (speaker) worth it's salt has a spec sheet with the Thiele/Small parameters in it. From these numbers you can calculate:
Box Volume
Port diameter & length (to tune cabinet to a specific frequency)

From the pic, it looks like a 10"? A 10-inch sub, in a simple 1st-order enclosure (sealed box) needs about 1-1/4 cu.ft. of air space in the box. Time to dredge up that HS geometry you slept through. Calculate the internal volume of the box, subtract the space the basket & magnet occupies, and you have your volume! Simple!

What I used to do (in a previous life as a competition car-audio installer) in a car/situation like yours was.... build a vent/port/duct from the box, up into the package tray. The blower motor/defroster would go away, and this would become the bass grille. This duct volume would have to be calculated as well.

I didnt know the thiele/small guys, but as above my sub had the info on the box size and tube (port) size, i followed this, with the sub aimed at the rear of the seat port forward as well and had good results (rockford 10"). 6x9s had passive crossovers to supply mid base only... is that sub box vented??

a

not sure how much power you expect from one 10" sub in a trunk. i don't see any dynamat so you prob get more vibration than sound anyway. i would suggest, depending on the sound you are looking for, either more 10's or some 12's. i had a 79 malibu and tried that 1 sub approach and it sucked. i switched to 2 12's and a bigger amp and it rocked!!! i also see that you've chosen the rockford punch. i would suggest getting rid of a much overrated sub and look into a boston acoustics. rockford makes great amps but they are not nearly as good as the bostons. you could get away with 1 boston sub in that trunk, but guessing you'd need a new amp.

I got the sub for free, so i just used it. It's a 12". I will prob redo the whole trunk down the line. Its not a wiring issue, but a physics issue it seems. Well, thanks for the input guys, now i have some info to use when i redo it down the line :)

I got the sub for free, so i just used it. It's a 12". I will prob redo the whole trunk down the line. Its not a wiring issue, but a physics issue it seems. Well, thanks for the input guys, now i have some info to use when i redo it down the line :)


When you redo it, Rockford has specs as to the enclosure sizes and types.

I would also think about having the subwoofer speaker pressurize and rarify the interior space you are in to listen to it and not the interior AND the trunk. I've seen way too many installs with the subs in the trunk moving the air in the trunk which then creates it's own problems like trunk lid rattle, license plate rattles, panel rattles, and so on. By having the speaker work on more of the interior area's where people normally sit and listen to it you should have less problems. To me with the sub moving the air in the trunk and then letting it filter into the interior it would be like taking a home sub, putting it in a closet and shutting the door. Yes the bass will still get through but at a reduced volume.
Behind the seat make a solid baffle board and also under the rear deck and have the sound coming off of the front of the subwoofer firing through an opening on it into the interior so as to prevent or reduce the sound from filling up the trunk also. Also take out any sound deadener between the back of the rear seat and this baffle board. I did a 70 Malibu a few years ago with 4-10' rockford subwoofers and 2-1,000 watt amps and with the design the trunk lid didn't move at all and we had all of the sound off of the subs directed into the interior. It got plenty loud inside and when the trunk was opened it didn't affect the sound inside or have any nasty rattle issues to confront.
Sometimes too just reversing the polarity of the subs can have an affect on the bass output in the interior in your listening position.

Jim

if the trunk is properly sealed, firing the sub into it can actually amplify the bass that gets into the interior. the trick is to keep all that energy inside the car. i've seen cars that bounced the hell out of the trunk lid, and just having someone lean on the trunk lid kept all that energy from getting dissipated and caused a very noticeable increase in the bass getting into the passenger compartment. i've seen people cut up tire inner tubes and jam the strips between the bracing and trunk skin before, and it helped a lot.

Adding a port to the package tray will not help the transfer of bass into the interior. The trunk is not sealed well enough and much too large to concentrate the sound waves into the port. As said above, removing the padding under the rear package tray will help. Building boxes around the 6x9s will help seal the trunk, but the 6x9 woofers should not be tasked to provide any bass when a subwoofer is in use.

One good option is to mount the box so the woofer fires directly into the interior, either flush against the back of the seat or up through the package tray.

Another option is to port the box and extend the port into the interior. Adding the port will upset the dynamics in the box and will make the bass less tight.