Sound quality with OE sub enclosure?

99gst_racer · August 14, 2013

I have an '01 Suburban with a factory 8" sub in the OE plastic enclosure. When I bought the truck, the factory sub was in bad shape. The surround was gone and the voice coil had damage.

I've since tried 3 different subs in that enclosure and nothing sounds good. Nothing has a deep bass tone and they all sound like I'm over-working the speaker. I've tried a Kicker, MB Quart, and a Rockford. The amp I'm using only puts out 300 watts at 2 ohm. I've ran 2 ohm, 4 ohm, and 8 ohm between the 3 different subs and there's really not much difference in sound quality. I'm starting to think it's the enclosure. I like the enclosure because it's built into the interior and takes up no extra space. I can load down the hatch without having a speaker box in the way. I absolutely love that.

So, I recently installed one of those powered sub enclosures and I find it very lacking. I can hardly tell there's a subwoofer present with the gain at 50%, and anything above 50% and sound quality goes out the window.

I'm willing to try anything at this point. If someone has a recommendation of a good sub to fit the factory enclosure and not sound like garbage, please post it up. Or if it's common knowledge that the OE plastic sub enclosure isn't good for sound quality, let me know so I can officially give up on it.

I'm basically just looking for a little bit of bass, but I want it to sound deep and clean. Nothing really loud by any means. I'm beginning to think an 8" or 10" sub isn't going to get it done with such a large interior. But I'm completely open to suggestions.

Carder09 · August 14, 2013

You need to figure out the exact depth and dimensions of the enclosure and work from there. Matching the sub to the enclosure is what you want to do to get the best frequencies as possible. That being said, an single 8in woofer will not produce much bass but will hit nicely in the mid to highs. I had an custom enclosure with a kicker 8in L5 which is the square woofers and man did people think I had tens in the trunk! So once you have all that, make sure your amp is mono and not class D or A/B. To add on that lol, correctly match your amp and sub too! Poly fill will also help in the enclosure to trick the sub into thinking its a bigger box; weird, I know!

99gst_racer · August 14, 2013

I did try poly fill with the MB Quart. Didn't seem to make a difference though.

So, what's a good sub to match the OE enclosure?

I've been using shallow-mount subs, so depth wasn't an issue.

The amps is a little Rockford that I've had for about 10 years. I'm using it only because I have it and it still works and it has a low-pass X-over. It's been in several different vehicles over the years and has powered two JL 12's in my sisters car for years too. I don't see why it couldn't power an 8" sub just fine.

Carder09 · August 14, 2013

Alright, been diggin a bit and the closest I can match to such a small enclosure, is this sub Pioneer TS-SW841D. I would run the sub without poly fill first hooked up to the factory amp. If not satisfied, run with the amp. No need for poly since the sub is a little bit bigger than min. Specs.

99gst_racer · August 14, 2013

So, what is the cubic footage of the OE enclosure?

EDIT:

The enclosure specs on that Pioneer seems to be spot on with the Rockford that I already tried. I'd venture to assume that most shallow-mount 8" subs are going to call for about the same min/max enclosure size.