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After having failed to produce good results by replacing the rear 6x9s (covered in this thread) I returned the car to stock and persisted to find another method of getting good bass in my wagon without a costly/time consuming fiberglass box yet completely stealth (I mean I own a wagon to transport bishes and car parts, aint gonna fill my cargo area up with subs! :lmao
Here is the recipe
If you are running an OEM Business cd player, like I am, acquire a nice 4 channel amp capable of taking a balance differential output straight into it's RCAs such as this guy (Alpine MRV-F540)
![]()
This thread covers a few more and I also heard that this guy can also do it. This is to negate the use of a LOC which often introduces noise into the system.
Once the amp is acquired, wire it in from the Head Unit output using this wiring diagram:
![]()
(not my work, I rehosted it- awesome chart btw)
And start splicing in your RCA wires into the factory harness (which can be found here)
For the rear I spliced directly into the rcas as such:
![]()
![]()
(double heat shrunk ftw)
and for the front I went ahead and just tapped into the signal (either method is fine - however I'm not using the fronts, it was just an accommodation for down the road)
![]()
At this point I wired in the 6x9s (as I knew from my previous experiment that they had more bass to offer than what the factory amp put out) and played them through a Low pass crossover set pretty high, maybe 1k, gains turned down all the way. This would fill in the "bass" gap left between the front speakers and the sub.
Now to the subwoofer part. I picked up a 12" Sosche Sub box from walmart to try out one of my roommate's spare pioneer sub
And started looking for a place to mount it, as it sounded great in the trunk, but looked horrible.
Then I noticed that this guy:
![]()
Is the same diameter as the pre-made hole for the speaker connections:
![]()
(I carved out a little cavity to allow my wiring to pass)
Once installed it fit beautifully and even allowed me to install the amp directly in front of it (had the amp out for tuning purposes in the picture)
![]()
Even though the cover does fit flush, it kills a good bit of bass when it's in, so I spaced it out until can get around to cutting some sort of port to allow the air (bass) to travel into the cabin
![]()
Still looks pretty clean
![]()
I also have the gains turned down all the way for the sub, low pass crossover set to 500hz or lower I forgot exactly (I hate noticing the moment the car speakers are inadequate and the sub takes over, I want it to be a seamless transition.)
Overall impressions.
Super happy with the outcome, not only does 2pac sound amazing, so does more classical music, such as the sound track for cirque du soleil or even Johnny Halliday (I can't help it, i'm belgian-lol). The great thing about this setup is I can just fade my stereo forward or backward if I want more or less bass.
In terms of not running a spare tire
I haven't had a flat I didn't fix myself in 10+ years, I bought a cheap air compressor and a tire patch kit.. might also pickup some fix-a-flat (which all fit nice a snug next to the sub). ALSO if you go on a road trip you can simply disconnect the sub, toss the spare back in and lay the amp on top of the spare (there is room).
This took about a weeks worth of work to get right, cheap and stealthy, hope y'all enjoy it :thumbup::thumbup:
Here is the recipe
If you are running an OEM Business cd player, like I am, acquire a nice 4 channel amp capable of taking a balance differential output straight into it's RCAs such as this guy (Alpine MRV-F540)
This thread covers a few more and I also heard that this guy can also do it. This is to negate the use of a LOC which often introduces noise into the system.
Once the amp is acquired, wire it in from the Head Unit output using this wiring diagram:
(not my work, I rehosted it- awesome chart btw)
And start splicing in your RCA wires into the factory harness (which can be found here)
For the rear I spliced directly into the rcas as such:
(double heat shrunk ftw)
and for the front I went ahead and just tapped into the signal (either method is fine - however I'm not using the fronts, it was just an accommodation for down the road)
At this point I wired in the 6x9s (as I knew from my previous experiment that they had more bass to offer than what the factory amp put out) and played them through a Low pass crossover set pretty high, maybe 1k, gains turned down all the way. This would fill in the "bass" gap left between the front speakers and the sub.
Now to the subwoofer part. I picked up a 12" Sosche Sub box from walmart to try out one of my roommate's spare pioneer sub
And started looking for a place to mount it, as it sounded great in the trunk, but looked horrible.
Then I noticed that this guy:
Is the same diameter as the pre-made hole for the speaker connections:
(I carved out a little cavity to allow my wiring to pass)
Once installed it fit beautifully and even allowed me to install the amp directly in front of it (had the amp out for tuning purposes in the picture)
Even though the cover does fit flush, it kills a good bit of bass when it's in, so I spaced it out until can get around to cutting some sort of port to allow the air (bass) to travel into the cabin
Still looks pretty clean
I also have the gains turned down all the way for the sub, low pass crossover set to 500hz or lower I forgot exactly (I hate noticing the moment the car speakers are inadequate and the sub takes over, I want it to be a seamless transition.)
Overall impressions.
Super happy with the outcome, not only does 2pac sound amazing, so does more classical music, such as the sound track for cirque du soleil or even Johnny Halliday (I can't help it, i'm belgian-lol). The great thing about this setup is I can just fade my stereo forward or backward if I want more or less bass.
In terms of not running a spare tire
I haven't had a flat I didn't fix myself in 10+ years, I bought a cheap air compressor and a tire patch kit.. might also pickup some fix-a-flat (which all fit nice a snug next to the sub). ALSO if you go on a road trip you can simply disconnect the sub, toss the spare back in and lay the amp on top of the spare (there is room).
This took about a weeks worth of work to get right, cheap and stealthy, hope y'all enjoy it :thumbup::thumbup:
