Down firing sub

[Hammer]

Interesting idea, but it didn't work in practice. I'm thinking it's the penske material and the extremely well built structure. No sound escapes that front storage compartment under/behind the observation seat. Open it up and the bass is monumental. Close it and get nothing.

Now I'm faced with how to vent that compartment.

[Jason B]

use a "Hammer"

[Hammer]

Has anyone done the down firing sub successfully?
I'm trying to figure out where I went wrong. I did the entire install in the left forward storage of a 20i. Extra battery, amp, sub. Open that storage and it sounds awesome. Close it up and the sub is just absorbed by the carpeted, insulated area.

[da.bell]

Did you leave any holes between the sub and the floor? Sorry, had to ask.

[philwsailz]

Down-firing works real well almost all of the time.

The issue you find is common, and is unrelated to your down-firing mounting. You really need some way to get the sound out of the area you mounted the sub in. You will have a hard time getting the boat to vibrate enough on its own to make good bass.

A really cool way to do this is to go by your local stereo shop and see if you can find a couple of speaker grills that match your in-boat speakers. Determine a good location, pop a hole, or two, and then dress out the new vent holes with the car stereo grills. Many time we see people cut a small ring of some kind of weather resistant material and then cover it using either black double-knit, or fiberglass window screen cloth, or something similar to just hide the rough cut edge and whatever is behind the new hole.

[Hammer]

That's funny that you suggested that. I was out late last night with my "door knob saw" and 2 speaker grills I had from the truck project letting the air out of that compartment. I think that will work.

[Hammer]

Update

I took your advice and vented the front storage in 2 places. First I put 8 two inch holes in the wall between the front storage and the observers seat (under the cooler) and 3 more to the outside, covered up by a 5"x7" speaker grill. Second I cut 3 more two inch holes through the side wall of the front storage and covered them up with another 5"x7" speaker grill. That was a huge difference.

I spent a lot of time folded up in that front storage wiring the system. It's damn hot in there. Any issues with amp heat?

[philwsailz]

I took your advice and vented the front storage in 2 places. First I put 8 two inch holes in the wall between the front storage and the observers seat (under the cooler) and 3 more to the outside, covered up by a 5"x7" speaker grill. Second I cut 3 more two inch holes through the side wall of the front storage and covered them up with another 5"x7" speaker grill. That was a huge difference.

I spent a lot of time folded up in that front storage wiring the system. It's damn hot in there. Any issues with amp heat?

Wth regards to heat, the answer is sometimes.

It will always be better to try to assist the amplifier(s) by providing a means of replacing stale warm air.

For the full range amplifiers, those who are running at 2 ohms are going to have more of a heat issue than those people running at 4 ohms. Digital subwoofer amplifiers really do not care and are not as prone to heat issues at 2 ohms. Also, if you have too small power wire, or run at lower than optimum voltage, you will generate more heat in the amps.

My recommendation is to run what you have and see if you over-heat. If you don't you never had an issue. If you do, then there are some things you can do to optimize system setup, and also things you can do to aid in cooling.


Have fun with it, prevent itching as much as possible and let us know!