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Thread: Subs...face front or back?

  1. #1
    LXi User jlaccord89lxi's Avatar
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    Subs...face front or back?

    my subs face the back of the car. Anyone have theirs facing the front of the car..............which puts out more bass?



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    From what i hear it is better to face the subs back towards the trunk with the magnet towards the interior. I once had then facing forward but didnt really notice much difference.

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    Vanilla Sky's Avatar
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    with them facing rearward, you hear the bass notes a mere nanosecond or so late... but making it seem louder... in reality, you lose volume... i personally think it's best for the cones to face the cabin, and the ports (obviously in a ported enclosure) facing rearward... that makes that batch of waves even farther behind the rust, drawing out the note, and lowers the resonant frequency of your setup...

    to cap it off... subs front-facing, ports opposite

    Derick

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    shepherd79's Avatar
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    i a facing away from the cabin, it sounds alot better this way.
    Alex.

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    you can face them into the trunk and it will sound louder because all the bass will hit the back and bounce to the front of the car but another thing you should find out first is if your subs can be put in the box backwards so the subs are facing into the box, because if you do that you can cut out 3 port holes the size of tennis balls and have them face into the interior of the car so all the bass is knocked around inside the box and forced into the interior or cabin as it was called and if you do that it will defently make your subs 7-10 times louder

  6. #6

    Vanilla Sky's Avatar
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    that muddies up yer bass... makes it sound shitty... causes too much air turbulance, making it sound like the subs are under water

    Derick

  7. #7
    3Geez Veteran 87AccordsterLx's Avatar
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    if you face the subs twards the back you'll feel more vibration.... if you face them twards the front you'll get more sound... I personally have ported a 1ft x 6in hole in the armrest so when the armrest is down the hole is exposed... because of that I faced my 12's twards the back.... just sit in your car with the bass up and bumping... and switch it around... just leave it where you think it sounds the best... if you cant tell the difference... then just face it twards the front so nothing scratches the face of the subs... I personally think that they will give you the best performance facing back... have fun...
    ~Nathan~

    "There's always something waiting at the end of the road. If you are not willing to see what it is, you probably shouldn't be out there in the first place."
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  8. #8
    LXi User jlaccord89lxi's Avatar
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    i have them facing the back now and that's kinda how they haveto stay cause of the box i made................it wont fit far enough in to the trunk to be able to face them inwards.....i'll try it wometime, but i won't be able to leave it that way.

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    I have faced mine towards the taillights as well as towards the backseat and to me, they hit harder when they are facing the backseats. I like it that way because I don't want my trunk vibrating and I want to be the one who can tell the difference in my bass when i turn it up.
    Canman. Reppin for the VI till the day I die.

  10. #10
    SEi User jigga225's Avatar
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    if you have that real KNOCK your trunk is gonna rattle either way.
    I have 2 coats of dynamat, and the trunk doesnt really rattle.. it kinda knocks.

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    Ok. they guy talking about seeing if you can put your subs in backwards and then cut holes out in the back of the box...Yeah, then why dont' you stand on one leg with your your tongue sticking out and see if it sounds better. Surely he was kidding. There is a science to this and cutting holes in the back of your box is not science. Secondly, anyone who is in the know on enclosure building will tell you to put the ports on the same plane as the woofer ie. on the same side. The ports job, whether on the front or back of the enclosure is to in essence "control" your subwoofer. The resonant frequecny will not be affected by which side of your enclosure it is on. Thirdly the sound of your subs DOES NOT COME OUT OF THE PORTS, so the tennis ball size holes with bass coming out of them mentioned by someone on here is a figment of someones imagination. If you are getting anything out of your ports or "holes" it is just air turbulance and not music. Here is the deal, in most situations facing the subs toward the rear will be louder to the ear. SPL I dont know what the difference would be. To get your subs to perform correctly facing the cabin of your vehicle, The front of your subs should be completey sealed from the trunk area. Meaning there should be no way for sound to travel back into the trunk, only into the cabin. Have you ever heard a system that sounded louder with the trunk open then when it is closed. That is usually the reason. They didn't have the front of the enclosure separated from the rear of the enclosure in a forward firing situation.
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  12. #12
    3Geez Veteran 87AccordsterLx's Avatar
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    my subs sound louder when the trunk is open no matter which way they are facing... how should I correct this... they are 2 12's in a sealed custom made rockford fosgate box....???? Right now they are facing twards the back....
    ~Nathan~

    "There's always something waiting at the end of the road. If you are not willing to see what it is, you probably shouldn't be out there in the first place."
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  13. #13
    3Geez Veteran 87AccordsterLx's Avatar
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    by the way... if you were talking about my post earlier in regards to the port in the armrest... I didnt mean that the sub box was ported into the hole and thus into the cabin of the car... I have a sealed box.... I meant that I cut a hole in the metal of the back of the seat.. now there is a hole exposed to the trunk....
    ~Nathan~

    "There's always something waiting at the end of the road. If you are not willing to see what it is, you probably shouldn't be out there in the first place."
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    for some reason that just doesn't seem very smart

  15. #15

    Vanilla Sky's Avatar
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    Originally posted by 86LX-ihatch
    Ok. they guy talking about seeing if you can put your subs in backwards and then cut holes out in the back of the box...Yeah, then why dont' you stand on one leg with your your tongue sticking out and see if it sounds better. Surely he was kidding. There is a science to this and cutting holes in the back of your box is not science. Secondly, anyone who is in the know on enclosure building will tell you to put the ports on the same plane as the woofer ie. on the same side. The ports job, whether on the front or back of the enclosure is to in essence "control" your subwoofer. The resonant frequecny will not be affected by which side of your enclosure it is on. Thirdly the sound of your subs DOES NOT COME OUT OF THE PORTS, so the tennis ball size holes with bass coming out of them mentioned by someone on here is a figment of someones imagination. If you are getting anything out of your ports or "holes" it is just air turbulance and not music. Here is the deal, in most situations facing the subs toward the rear will be louder to the ear. SPL I dont know what the difference would be. To get your subs to perform correctly facing the cabin of your vehicle, The front of your subs should be completey sealed from the trunk area. Meaning there should be no way for sound to travel back into the trunk, only into the cabin. Have you ever heard a system that sounded louder with the trunk open then when it is closed. That is usually the reason. They didn't have the front of the enclosure separated from the rear of the enclosure in a forward firing situation.

    i know the sound isn't fom the ports... you would do that to delay the time it takes for the sound waves being put out by the front of the cone, allowing the rear of the cone's soundwaves to get there first... this would offset the time it takes to reach your ears more... thus making your ears think the bass is a lower, more drawn out note... this would make it sound louder...

    and you know it all about boxes??? you need to learn more about physics

    Derick

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    As a matter of fact I do know about enclosures. I don't know it all, but I have plenty of outlaw spl trophies to prove I know enough from the mid 1990s before I had a family and had to spend money on more important things. Secondly how does the frequency of the note have to do with the loudness? If the lower the frequency the louder the sound why would most spl vehicles be tuned high? And if you know sound does not come from the ports why are you waiting on soundwave to come from the rear of the cone? If you ears are hearing soundwaves from the rear of the cone the sound can only come from a vent (port). So either you are contradicting yourself or don't know what you are talking about.
    Trust in God but lock your car

  17. #17

    Vanilla Sky's Avatar
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    ok... the lower the note, the louder it sounds... it's not louder, it just sounds louder... now if you delay the waves from meeting, then you can draw the note out and make it sound lower, and thus making it sound louder... i never did say it would be louder, just sound louder

    Derick

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    Ok, lets drop it before it gets out of hand. I extend my hand as a 3gee brother and let's not get in a pi@@ing contest. We may not agree but i apologize if I came across a little harsh. There is just so much misinformation on here that alot of people can do alot of damage but when it is something as simple as port placement it really doesn't amount to much on a "street" system. you have to admit the guy wanting him to drill holes "the size of tennis balls" was giving horrible advice. Now that guy can cause someone to make a huge mistake. If cutting holes in your enclosure made it sound seven to ten times louder everybody would be doing it. Again, although we don't agree i respect your opinion but old tennis ball hole boy just takes the cake
    Trust in God but lock your car

  19. #19

    Vanilla Sky's Avatar
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    lol at the tennis ball thing... this is just my experience in smal enclosures coming out...(10's and less) but it seems that if your ports are placed in a good position relative to the cones of the subwoofers, it can make the system at least sound louder, if not really make it louder... tennis ball sized holes don't do shit other than cut off frequencies that just happen to be the ones where most boxes tuned for SPL are tuned to... 35-70... doing that may make them sound "woody" and not really worth the drain on your system...

    but anyway, it's a truce... i was just pointing out the importance of port placement

    Derick

    EDIT: my spelling sucks, so i fixed it
    Last edited by Vanilla Sky; 10-02-2002 at 03:31 AM.

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