How to buy the right Car Subwoofer

While the level of quality of standard OEM sound gear has improved through the years, you still require some sort of car subwoofers in the system to make that rich sounding bass that most people are partial to when listening to our home hifi systems.

If you prefer rap music, popular music or just about any music in which you want deep bass which often can shake the windows, then you will probably want to go with separate components. Years back a buyer would need to go with either a subwoofer created for SPL (loudness) or SQ (musical sound quality) which typically linked to size, but today there are numerous subs offered which are well-known for the two.

Hence the first place to start when researching a subwoofer system is almost always to decide just how much room you would like to devote for your subwoofer enclosure and amplifier. You can do this by beginning with smaller subs such as 8 inch. Examine their specs and see which kind and size box your selected sub calls for. There are two fundamental kinds of sub boxes which are sealed and vented. The small sealed custom subwoofer boxes will be smaller sized then any vented or ported enclosure in most circumstances. Therefore if you start looking at sealed boxes you'll get a good idea of the minimum volume of area needed. Generally, the bigger the subwoofer, the more air is moved so the more bass is generated.

The second consideration would be to see the power needs of the chosen subwoofer. Simply just match the suggested power and match it to a power amplifier. Check out outside measurements of the amplifier and understand you'll need a little more room for air flow and electrical wiring and that should enable you to estimate the space required for your entire subwoofer setup.

Understandably, just a 12 inch sub and amp installation might eat up a lot of trunk area or hatch space in modern day vehicles. You'll find many different subwoofers from brands like Alpine, Boss, JL Audio, Kicker, Lanzar, MTX, Pioneer and Rockford Fosgate simply to mention a few. Several offer slim mount or shallow mount subs as well as standard subs. The shallow subs enable installation in smaller boxes which can be mounted behind or under a seat in many applications.

So you really should not be intimidated by your decision making process. There are additional choices to consider such as single or dual voice coil subs and the benefit for each. Generally speaking a dual voice coil model subwoofer will enable more flexible electrical wiring methods and this is especially important when running 2 or more subs.

From my experience throughout the years, ten inch subwoofers are definitely the most widely used and will definitely offer you a substantial assortment of factory built subwoofer boxes to pick from. In addition to the standard subwoofer boxes there are several special fit enclosures manufactured for certain vehicles. Anytime you find a custom-fit subwoofer enclosure you'll see you can save on area considering they are made to fit directly into areas of wasted space in cars or trucks.

Once again, if you follow the basic steps of calculating your permitted room for subwoofer and amplifier before purchasing, you will be much happier with the results.