KaiserSoze
Member
- :
- 2008 Cosmic Blue MAZDASPEED3 Sport
Let me begin by saying that I had never intended to buy a new sub. I had a Kicker Comp VR 10 that I had in another car until the magic blue smoke escaped from my MTX amp. I never got around to buying another amp until I got the MS3. So I checked specs and prices and figured a Kicker ZX350.2 pushing 350W @ 4ohms bridged would fit the bill perfectly. I picked up a refurb model off eBay for right around $100-130ish (I don't remember exactly). I start my install and get new 4 gauge power wire to run to my distro block, buy a new box to replace the Walmart special I had before and get to installing.
I put the amp under the passenger seat and mounted it on some pieces of black-painted 2x4 to raise it above the floor vent. I get the Comp VR hooked up and turn everything on and then I get buzzzzzzzz and the amp turns off. I take the amp out and hook it up in my friend's truck and it slams his subs so that rules out the amp being bad. The Comp VR was only used for a couple months before my amp blew so I just knew there was nothing wrong with it. I hook up another sub (walmart special) that I had laying around and the same thing happened.
Now I'm getting pissed. I tear apart the dash again and redo all my connections to the wire harness and I'm still getting "buzzzzzzzz, shut off." After a couple more trips into and out of my friend's truck with the amp slamming his subs still I'm at a loss. Out of desperation, I grab one of my Bose house speakers and throw it in the hatch and hook it up. Well guess what? It plays fine. So I can figure only one of two things happened. Either sitting in my garage for a year ate the voice coils of both the Comp VR and said Walmart special, or when my amp blew it power surged and blew my speaker too.
So now I've got all this money invested in a new amp, new wiring, and the time spent to install all of it. My wife, being a wife, doesn't want me to spend any more money on my system. Luckily my friend with the truck helps me to convince my wife into letting me get a new sub and a properly sized box for it.
My sub choice was difficult. I wanted something that would take around 300-350W @ 4 ohms, but would also be inexpensive, not require a lot of airspace, and sound good. After much research and debating with myself I decided to go with the Elemental Designs 11Kv.2 for $90. It was very hard for me to buy a sub strictly off of recommendations without actually hearing the sub for myself, but I'm glad I did. I placed my order in late December. After a couple months on back order, I finally received my sub in mid February. It sounds amazing. It's a great sound quality sub.
Now for a box, I didn't want to just throw it in the walmart special box for a couple reasons. 1, it was grey. 2, it was ugly. And 3, I had no way of knowing what it's volume was b/c it was an odd shaped box. I searched around online and in stores and here's what I came up with. soni cele ctronix . com/item_7586_Sonic+Sub+Box-+1H10-0.7.h tm l (remove spaces). The color match is perfect with the interior carpet and it's sized pretty much perfectly for the 11Kv.2.
After having this setup installed for a couple weeks, it became evident pretty early on that I would need some type of anchoring system for my box. I really did not want to rely on my speaker wires to stop the box from hitting the back of the hatch or sliding clear to the other side of the car. I tossed around a few ideas in my head and initially was trying to find a strap to anchor through the LATCH anchor on the back of the seat. After a day or two I thought maybe a hook and latch would be the way to go instead of a strap. But the idea of metal on metal vibrations on the back of the seat turned me off a little bit. Not only that, but when my daughter is born I would probably have to unhook the box from that LATCH anchor anyway.
Then a bit of genius struck me. Anyone care to guess????
Velcro. Yep, velcro. I ran a strip of self-adhesive velcro across the four edges of the bottom of the box. Then I used my staple gun and put a staple at the end of each strip and every couple inches on both sides of each strip. I wasn't going to leave everything to some damn adhesive. That stuff really grabs the carpet. I haven't test driven it yet, but just trying to move it myself, I don't think it's going anywhere. And if it does at least I'll know about it b/c I'll hear the "rrrrrriiiiiiiiiiippppp".
p.s. I know that last pic looks like crap, but I had to turn my flash off to keep it from reflecting off everything and ruining the pic.
