Bass options for 1500 CC

azcactusjuice · September 8, 2005

I want to add some bass to my 2005 GMC 1500 CC and want some opinions. What is the best way to add some good deep bass to the existing system? What boxes fit good, 1 ten enough, 2 tens, 2 eights, etc... Please let me know what you may have learned from expirence. I do have the Bose system and it sounds ok, but I need more.

Thanks,

AZCAC

camaudio · September 8, 2005

Also curious and got a CC

anyone know what works good behind the rear seats box wise. Any stock sub replacment that works well?

mmmikkke · September 9, 2005

Check out the Infinity Basslink.

After screwing around with underseat boxes, I found that I could not satisfy my audiophile tastes with what I had tried--two different sets of 10" woofers in 0.6 cubic foot boxes, downfiring. In both cases I had a resonance in the 80 hz range which I could compensate for with equalization, but when playing music I could still detect the ringing at 80 hz. Others in this forum (who have the equipment to measure) have noted the same 80hz resonance in their setups. I suspect there's something about the cab dimensions that makes this happen.

So I bought a Basslink as an experiment. I reasoned that the design of the Basslink, with a single 10" woofer and a 10" passive radiator, was likely more sophisticated than my simple placement of woofer-x into a box designed for "any 10-inch woofer." I figured I had little to loose, as I could always return the Basslink if I didn't like how it sounded. Every review that I could find on the net about the Basslink indicated surprise and amazement at the powerful bass it was capable of, and a few reviews even described placement of the Basslink into extended cab GM fullsize pickups. Those reviews were just as positive as the rest.

So I bought one, saved my receipt, and installed it provisionally, making sure to keep all the packing material and being careful to keep it in pristine condition to permit returning it if I didn't like how it sounded.

I dismantled my old subwoofer and amplifier setup, and set the Basslink up with the woofer upfiring (and the passive radiator pointed downward). I was truly surprised and pleased with the resulting sound. No resonance or ringing at any frequency. Just confident, delicious bass, with distinctly musical bass notes throughout the 30-100 hz range. There were no peaks, no predominant bass notes, and no ear fatigue. There was plenty of bass and listening to it was very satisfying.

I gingerly drove around for the next week with the Basslink set up provisionally, evaluating whether I felt I could do better by building another underseat box. I finally decided to quit while I was ahead. I'd found my subwoofer.

The back seat on the extended cab 2500HD has the same underseat height as the lighter duty 1500, but there is a difference in the transmission hump, so I can't be sure if the dimensions are identical, but here's how things worked on in my 2500HD.

The basslink will only fit one way: face-up. When installed this way, it could be placed either on the driver's side (as mine is) or on the passenger side, or both, if you need more bass.

The basslink has its own 200W (peak) amplifier. Despite downsizing from a 1300 W amplifier, which I was admittedly underutilizing, I didn't miss the headroom. One good thing is that with a more "right-sized" amplifier, I had less current drain. The basslink is fused at 20A. My 1300W amp was fused at 80A.

The basslink comes with mounting hardware (clamshell-like legs) to properly space the passive radiator away from the floor. But if you crawl under the cab, you can see that there are some deep ribs pushing upward about 1" all the way across the cab directly below the front edge of the back seat. The mounting of the basslink must straddle this ridge, so I recommend 1/2" spacers below the plastic mounting "legs" that Infinity provides for mounting.

With this arrangement, and partly because of the rib across the floor, I allowed the front edge of the basslink to extend about 2" into the legroom area of the driver's side rear seat passenger.

The back edge of the top of the basslink nearly touches the base of the rear seat when the seat's folded down into the seating position. There's about 1/2" of vertical gap at the rear, and since the seat angles upward towards its front, there's about 3" of clearance at the front of the seat. The passive radiator has about 1" of vertical clearance everywhere but where the floor rib is. This clearance situation is apparently sufficient to permit uncolored sound.

Cost: $200 on eBay. You'd have to spend at least $300 to do a generic woofer box plus amplifier plus halfway decent subwoofer drivers. I can't see how it could be any better, and this way you keep 80% of the underseat space available for other purposes.

Since I still had my parametric eq, I hooked it up to the basslink and extended the low end down another 10hz, and flattened a few very mild peaks out of its response. The peaks weren't any real problem, though, and you'd be hard press to notice them with normal music playing. But the eq didn't cost me anything, so I used it. If you wanted to do the same eq job, figure on another hundred bucks.

MrQuadrasteer · September 9, 2005

Well, cool. I appreciate your thorough description, Mike. I've looked at the Basslink a few times and figured it would be *okay*, but I think your testimonial here just convinced me.

I'm gonna get one.

BTW, how are you scanning your sound ?? Got a real time analyzer or what ??

lrymal · September 9, 2005

The Infinity Basslink won't fit a Crew Cab.... But it is easy with an extended cab half-ton. The photo below was for showing off a Pioneer satellite receiver on the back shelf, but the Infinity Basslink easily rests on the floor and allows the seat to fold to the sitting position. No special mountings, nothing. Sounds great. Wish I could do this with my Crew Cab.:

mmmikkke · September 9, 2005

The Infinity Basslink won't fit a Crew Cab...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I guess maybe the underseat space is different on the CC? Anyway, I did not know that.

But I wonder, Irymal,... Would it be possible to mount the basslink *on* the transmission hump in the back seat of a CC, with the woofer firing toward the driver's side and the passive radiator firing toward the passenger side?

2004GMC1500CC · September 9, 2005

I want to add some bass to my 2005 GMC 1500 CC and want some opinions. What is the best way to add some good deep bass to the existing system? What boxes fit good, 1 ten enough, 2 tens, 2 eights, etc... Please let me know what you may have learned from expirence. I do have the Bose system and it sounds ok, but I need more.

Thanks,

AZCAC

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I like the box in my sig. The only thing I had to do was move the tools and cut off the bolt that the tools bolted down to. The biggest problem is that the box is pretty thin, so your choice of subs is limited, but again I am happy with my MTX.

camaudio · September 9, 2005

Whats the port volume and length with that box, i cant find it on that site?

2004GMC1500CC · September 9, 2005

Whats the port volume and length with that box, i cant find it on that site?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Either call or email those guys, they are real helpful.

lrymal · September 10, 2005

The Infinity Basslink won't fit a Crew Cab...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I guess maybe the underseat space is different on the CC? Anyway, I did not know that.

But I wonder, Irymal,... Would it be possible to mount the basslink *on* the transmission hump in the back seat of a CC, with the woofer firing toward the driver's side and the passive radiator firing toward the passenger side?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

YUP, the crewcab rear seating is totally different than that of an extended cab. Nothing is remotely the same.

Regarding the humb, well.... yeah, you could get it there, but at the price of a middle passenger's leg room in the back. Two ways to look at this. You buy a crewcab for some certain reasons, and among these, one could be for hauling human cargo which is a bit awkward with an extended cab. I have an '03 extended cab and my '05 crewcab, so I know how the seating arrangements exist for both.

The second way of dealing with a crewcab is that it is just a junk catcher in the back, heck with any passengers. You are an audiophile and putting the Basslink on that hump is no biggie for you. But, my answer on that is to avoid the Basslink and install something even larger since the rear seat means little.

But, this is all very silly. The crewcab just can't realistically exist with the rather excellent Basslink. The extended cab easily can.

So, I have this suggestion for the crewcab. Let GOOGLE do the finger walking for you:

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari...=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Under the seat woofer: http://www.subbox.net/store/catalog/Custom...2004-p-101.html

There are also some behind-the-rear seat woofer kits, but you'll have to do some digging to find those.

6Burgh · September 11, 2005

After reading this thread and some research on goole I just decided to get one off ebay myself. I hate to spend this much money since I have a nice amp, one good sub and one not so lucky sub. Some music sounds ok most does not. I know it is not the amp nor the speakers as I used them in my old truck and they sounded really good in there. So that only leaves the box I have for the subs not being adequate. If it sounds as good as what I got now I guess I will be happy since I will gain some storage space under the seats.

SierraCrewGuy · September 17, 2005

Bear in mind that I'm not an electronics guru by any means. I'm just relaying what I was told. I have an '05 crew cab 2wd with the Bose. I think it sounds good but would like a little more volume and bass. I checked with the local radio / electronics store and was basically told that there was no way to add a little to my system. I'd pretty much have to replace everything because of the overall set-up of the Bose system. If someone knows something different that this, please post as I would be interested.

2004GMC1500CC · September 18, 2005

Bear in mind that I'm not an electronics guru by any means. I'm just relaying what I was told. I have an '05 crew cab 2wd with the Bose. I think it sounds good but would like a little more volume and bass. I checked with the local radio / electronics store and was basically told that there was no way to add a little to my system. I'd pretty much have to replace everything because of the overall set-up of the Bose system. If someone knows something different that this, please post as I would be interested.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thats a load of crap. On my TA (with a BOSE system) I used some line level converters off of the rear speakers into an amp and the MTX sub built for the TA. Sounded great.

6Burgh · September 18, 2005

Granted an aftermarket radio would probably sound better I wouldn't go back to them. They either are clueless or just are trying to make a sell. PAC sells the interfaces needed to hook new inputs (CD changers, ipods, etc..) and outputs (amps) up to your factory stereo.

http://www.pac-audio.com/products/oem1.htm

6Burgh · September 19, 2005

Got my basslink this evening. Put it in temporarily. It may take some time to get it adjusted for overall enjoyment. It seems it is missing something maybe cause the bass is coming from just one spot instead of the whole back. But I would say it hits alot harder then the 2 in my other box and has no distoration compared to the other box.

What gauge wire have people used to hook their basslinks up and do you have a cap on it? I used pretty heavy wire since I didnt know my future plans and I am having trouble trying to connect the heavy wires to the low end power connectors the basslink has.