In the quest for hiding my subs as much as possible, I wonder if it is possible to face the subs out towards the body panels??

Essentially, the subs will be in enclosures against either side of a pick-up's rear bed (blazer). Instead of facing the drivers into the cabin, could I mount the boxes so that the subs are inside of them, and only the ports are visible to anyone inside the truck, or looking in the windows?


Would this cancel out signal? Would it vibrate the body panels horribly? Would it endanger the subs, if too little space was left for cone movement?
Is it totally irrational?

Like I said, the boxes would be ported, and I am planning them to be around 1.5 cubed feet each, while only being about 8 " deep. They will be fibreglass, like giant kickpanel pods.

 

just make grilles that blend in with the box...

 

if you wanted them to not be seen at all, you could recess the woofer into the box, ad just cover the whole thing.. would look like there wasnt even a woofer in there.

 

good idea, boys.
thanks for the tip

 

dave is right loading a sub is a great method of getting a woofer to raise it's spl output! Try this at home it's very easy! Take a square container such as a tupperware container! Fill it 3/4 of the way with water, drop an object in the center now take note of the waves and how they disperse. Now take the same object in the same container drop it in a corner now take note of how the waves are amplified, it's basically the same theory and works. It's becoming more popular in car audio but has been practiced in home audio for years! Good luck!

 

so basically as long as the 'waves' have a way to disperse, i suppose (such as a port, etc), is what you guys are getting at?

by the way...holy delayed reactions, lol

 

Boundary loading is a very old school trick. This was popular when the home speaker tweeters were very efficient and the woofers weren’t (50's). The speaker designer would simply design for boundary loading to produce linear results and place the speaker against the back wall of a room or in the corner. If you do this at home you will hear the bass of your home speakers real get powerful (but usually produce one note or boomy bass). This is why people put subwoofers in the corners of rooms. Some very respectable speakers used this Klipschorns, Snell A, Allison, I think old 'voice of the theaters' and EV used it too. Now this technique has a tricky catch phrase ‘waveguide’. This is a little hard to do in a car correctly, but hey every dB counts
Correct me if I am wrong but this isn’t too far theoretically from horn loading?

 

I knew of a guy who did that in his S-10. After a year the sheet metal it was firing against started showing signs of metal fatigue from the pounding. If you do it and give 'er lots of juice build an MDF baffle or reinforce the sheet metal.

 

Maltesechicken has the right idea. I have a ma10sy ma audio 10 which i have thought about trying a corner load with (spl only of course), i had thought of facing it straight back and building an mdf 90 degree directly in front of the woofer that expandes past both sides of the enclosure, just to try and see how it would work!