TuneYourVW
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Hello everyone,
I recently saved up some extra cash which allowed me to finally buy a subwoofer and amplifier for the Uberstealth box I've had for months. I read numerous threads on the matter and I felt I was making an excellent decision for my needs with the setup I purchased, but I'm honestly unimpressed thus far. Maybe it's not the setup at all; maybe it's me. I need some suggestions!
Let me preface by saying that I'm *not* demanding BOOMING bass, but I was expecting at least some thump when the bass hit. That's what's missing and why I'm disappointed.
Here's my setup:
My installation kit consisted of a Rockford Fosgate 10AWG power and ground wiring kit (as recommended by RF) with the PBR300x1 amplifier mounted in the hatch, at the rear most part of the box.
The power wire was connected to the bus bar on the fuse box in the engine compartment. I used terminal 'G' directly next to the power wire that comes into the box. I choose this location because the RF power wire already has a 25-amp in-line fuse. The line was secured using a stainless steel washer and stainless 5mm nut. The line was then tucked under the driver side rocker panels in the interior of the car, all the way to the trunk. When the line met the amp, all additional slack was cut off to keep the line as short as possible.
The amp was grounded behind the side panel carpeting next to the box, utilizing an existing hole in the sheet metal. The distance was short enough that I was able to cut the RF supplied grounding wire nearly in half. Before mounting the wire, I made sure to wire brush any paint/finish off the metal before tightening it down securely with zinc played bolt and nut with a washer on each side.
As recommended by RF, I used 16AWG wire for my high level inputs. The rear speaker wires were t-tapped behind the headunit and a pair of wires were run down the same driver side running board panels as the power wire. Once they reached the amp, I cut the excess wire off and spliced them into the amp's wiring harness. The amp was toggles to 'high level input'.
Lastly, the 8" Rockford Fosgate 4-ohm DVC subwoofer was wired for 2-ohm load and installed into the box. One thing to note about this - Nik uses 12AWG wire inside the box, but this was simply too large to use with my subwoofer wired for 2-ohms. When I twisted two wires together, they couldn't fit into the terminal on the sub. Therefore, I removed his 12AWG wire and replaced it with my 16AWG. Two twisted 16AWG wires would fit into the sub so that I could bridge their connections for 2-ohm load.
All in all, I feel confident about my installation as far as quality of work and care taken during the process. All wires were labeled during the process to ensure nothing was mixed up and the work was double checked before putting everything back together.
Next came powering everything up and giving it a test run. Amp turns on with the radio without fail using the signal from the high level inputs; blue light on the amp says it's good to go. Then I turn on some music and you can hear the subwoofer working. I follow the manual and "tune" the subwoofer's low pass to ~65Hz and gain to about midway. Now when you're standing over the box in the hatch, it sounds like a good deal of bass.
Here is the problem - when I'm in the driver seat and in-motion, it's hardly audible. I know it's on and working because you *can* hear it, but it's disappointingly low in volume. It doesn't matter what genre of music I'm playing or what volume I have the stereo at (usually 1/4 way). And believe me, I shuffled through dozens of songs over the last weeks commute to give it plenty of work.
I've also tried fiddling with the frequency adjustment and gain, but either I'm missing the sweet spot, or I'm totally oblivious to how this works. Too much frequency adjustment and you hear distortion and noise in the sub and too much gain and the BRT [Boosted Rail] light flashes (is that such a bad thing?). Nonetheless, I still can't seem to get it right because nothing I try translate into audible bass.
From the driver seat I've tried adjusting my headunit, but that's not doing much either. Moreover, I like to keep the settings around -5 treble, +3 mid, -3 bass so that he components sound halfway decent. Anything other than that results in shrilling highs and muddy lows.
This is getting long winded, so let me wrap it up..
Am I just expecting too much of this setup or may there be a problem with my install? Perhaps the sub is wired wrong? Or, maybe my ears are too old to hear low frequency sounds! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
I recently saved up some extra cash which allowed me to finally buy a subwoofer and amplifier for the Uberstealth box I've had for months. I read numerous threads on the matter and I felt I was making an excellent decision for my needs with the setup I purchased, but I'm honestly unimpressed thus far. Maybe it's not the setup at all; maybe it's me. I need some suggestions!
Let me preface by saying that I'm *not* demanding BOOMING bass, but I was expecting at least some thump when the bass hit. That's what's missing and why I'm disappointed.
Here's my setup:
- Chinese market, Delphi RCD-510
- Uberstealth box with added poly fill
- 8" Rockford Fosgate P3SD48 4-ohm DVC subwoofer wired for 2-ohm load
- Rockford Fosgate PBR300x1 @ 150W
- Rockford Fosgate wiring kit w/ 10AWG power & ground
- 16AWG speaker wire t-tapped to the rear speakers at the headunit
My installation kit consisted of a Rockford Fosgate 10AWG power and ground wiring kit (as recommended by RF) with the PBR300x1 amplifier mounted in the hatch, at the rear most part of the box.
The power wire was connected to the bus bar on the fuse box in the engine compartment. I used terminal 'G' directly next to the power wire that comes into the box. I choose this location because the RF power wire already has a 25-amp in-line fuse. The line was secured using a stainless steel washer and stainless 5mm nut. The line was then tucked under the driver side rocker panels in the interior of the car, all the way to the trunk. When the line met the amp, all additional slack was cut off to keep the line as short as possible.
The amp was grounded behind the side panel carpeting next to the box, utilizing an existing hole in the sheet metal. The distance was short enough that I was able to cut the RF supplied grounding wire nearly in half. Before mounting the wire, I made sure to wire brush any paint/finish off the metal before tightening it down securely with zinc played bolt and nut with a washer on each side.
As recommended by RF, I used 16AWG wire for my high level inputs. The rear speaker wires were t-tapped behind the headunit and a pair of wires were run down the same driver side running board panels as the power wire. Once they reached the amp, I cut the excess wire off and spliced them into the amp's wiring harness. The amp was toggles to 'high level input'.
Lastly, the 8" Rockford Fosgate 4-ohm DVC subwoofer was wired for 2-ohm load and installed into the box. One thing to note about this - Nik uses 12AWG wire inside the box, but this was simply too large to use with my subwoofer wired for 2-ohms. When I twisted two wires together, they couldn't fit into the terminal on the sub. Therefore, I removed his 12AWG wire and replaced it with my 16AWG. Two twisted 16AWG wires would fit into the sub so that I could bridge their connections for 2-ohm load.
All in all, I feel confident about my installation as far as quality of work and care taken during the process. All wires were labeled during the process to ensure nothing was mixed up and the work was double checked before putting everything back together.
Next came powering everything up and giving it a test run. Amp turns on with the radio without fail using the signal from the high level inputs; blue light on the amp says it's good to go. Then I turn on some music and you can hear the subwoofer working. I follow the manual and "tune" the subwoofer's low pass to ~65Hz and gain to about midway. Now when you're standing over the box in the hatch, it sounds like a good deal of bass.
Here is the problem - when I'm in the driver seat and in-motion, it's hardly audible. I know it's on and working because you *can* hear it, but it's disappointingly low in volume. It doesn't matter what genre of music I'm playing or what volume I have the stereo at (usually 1/4 way). And believe me, I shuffled through dozens of songs over the last weeks commute to give it plenty of work.
I've also tried fiddling with the frequency adjustment and gain, but either I'm missing the sweet spot, or I'm totally oblivious to how this works. Too much frequency adjustment and you hear distortion and noise in the sub and too much gain and the BRT [Boosted Rail] light flashes (is that such a bad thing?). Nonetheless, I still can't seem to get it right because nothing I try translate into audible bass.
From the driver seat I've tried adjusting my headunit, but that's not doing much either. Moreover, I like to keep the settings around -5 treble, +3 mid, -3 bass so that he components sound halfway decent. Anything other than that results in shrilling highs and muddy lows.
This is getting long winded, so let me wrap it up..
Am I just expecting too much of this setup or may there be a problem with my install? Perhaps the sub is wired wrong? Or, maybe my ears are too old to hear low frequency sounds! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.