Big bass in a small-car world

How do you get decent bass in a small vehicle without taking up most of your precious cargo space? Two solutions have become increasingly popular in the last few years: vehicle-specific enclosures and shallow-mount subs.

Custom-fit subwoofer enclosures for your car

JL Audio, for example, makes a Stealthbox® enclosure for Subaru BRZ and Scion FR-S models that installs in your trunk, housing a high-performance 10" sub that handles up to 400 watts. AudioControl has created an enclosure for the Ford Bronco that mounts a 12" sub on the vehicle's swing gate.

Some vehicle-specific enclosures even come with a built-in amp, so you get space-saving, all-in-one bass solution. You'll find these enclosures available for a wide range of vehicles. If we don't have a custom-fit sub enclosure for your vehicle, consider an extremely small loaded sub, like JL Audio's MicroSub™ or a Bazooka tube.

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Shallow-mount subwoofers

For bass heads who are handy with tools, the shallow-mount sub opens up a whole new world of possibilities. For instance, the Kicker L7T 10" sub handles up to 500 watts RMS, yet its unusual design keeps its top-mount depth to less than 3-3/4" inches. That means an inventive box builder could construct an enclosure that would house this sub under the rear seat of many compact automobiles, and get monster bass with no loss of cargo area.

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Subs in your car, not in the trunk

Our Vehicle Research team has recorded factory sub dimensions for most vehicles. Identify your vehicle and check out our Replacement Subs group — we'll show you any subs that will fit in your vehicle's factory sub opening. If you're keeping the factory sub amplifier, you should keep in mind that many factory subs are often low-impedance or dual-voice-coil models. Our Advisors can help you pick the sub that'll work best with the factory amplifier. Or avoid the issue by installing a high-powered aftermarket amplifier that will deliver righteous bass.

Another cool option: you may be able to fit two smaller shallow-mount subs in your rear speaker openings if you're willing to make some modifications, like cutting a little bit of metal or building some brackets. For example, you might be able to fit 8" subs in the 6-1/2" openings in the rear of your vehicle.

The Pioneer TS-A2000LD2 8" sub is only a little over 2-1/2" deep, handles up to 250 watts, and works in "free-air" applications, which means it doesn't need an enclosure. You'll have to make a couple of adapters out of wood or plastic that allow the 8" sub to fit into the 6-1/2" hole by lifting it up a little, and you'll want to use a lot of Dynamat on the relatively thin metal around the speaker openings.

You won't get the earth-moving low-end boom that you'd get from a couple of 12" subs, but you will get strong, powerful bass and you won't take up any cargo space in your car. If you don't want to modify your 6-1/2" speaker openings, Kicker's CompRT 6-3/4" subwoofer will drop right in most cars; it handles up to 150 watts, it's only 2-3/4" deep, and it's also suitable for free-air use.

So, don't worry: you can downsize your vehicle and still satisfy your jones for great bass. And if you need any advice for finding a way to add bass without taking up a lot of space, contact our Advisors. They're full of great ideas!