Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 19:47:52 -0500
Reply-To: mrvolkswagen@HOTMAIL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Chris S <mrvolkswagen@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Vanagon Bass experiment
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Sorry, this post has nothing to do with fish.
Since I'm finally upgrading my Westie's sound system with a Sony CDX-M750
head unit, Infiniti 3.5-inch speakers since I am NOT cutting my priceless
door panels or hacking the A/C enclosure, and, in a few months, a subwoofer,
I decided to see what is the best location for a sub. I had two locations
in mind. One would be a Bazooka 10-inch sub behind the rear bench facing
the hatch. The Bazooka is easily portable and would make it easy for me to
move while sleeping and it's small enough not to take up too much space.
The Baooka's sound is very punchy and it would augment the door and rear
speakers nicely when crossed over at 100 or 150 Hz. The other location is
between the front seat with a custom built box and a 10-inch sub facing the
rear of the vehicle. This would not be in the way when traveling, but would
make crawling into the rear of the vehicle without stepping outside a bit
more of a chore.
To test my two locations I put my home JVC speakers in the proposed
locations and hooked them up to my vintage-yet-very-beefy Sansui 125
watt-per-channel reciever. I used the balance knob to fade the sound
between the speaker sitting in the rear and the one placed between the front
seats. After 15 minutes of annoying my neighbors with various types of
music I concluded that the rear location yields noticeably better low bass,
while the location between the seats makes for a punchier sound. The rear
speaker cranked at 50% of amp's output made the bass tingle my nostrils.
The one between the seats was great for Jazz and Classical. Sorry country
fans. I couldn't think of a single reason why you'd want to listen to your
music at 95 dB SPL. ;-)
So for me it will be the rear Bazooka with a 300 watt amp to compliment the
head unit's 50 watt-per-channel output. The whole shebang will be crossed
over at 100 or 150 Hz given the Infiniti's 90 Hz - 20 KHz frequency
response.
I'll conduct personal sound exhibitions at the next High Country Bus
Festival.
Chris S.
'85 Westy
www.knology.net/~vw/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wolfsburg_campers
