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Sub Placement Question


wakebrdr94

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So my when I purchased my boat, it was a demo boat associated with Skylon. They had a Skylon 10" sub behind the behind the kick plate in front of the driven, totally hidden. I replaced it with a 10" Solobaric L7 in the same location. I had the same sub (just an older version) in my previous boat, but I had it in the storage compartment behind the passenger, along with the batteries. The sub seemed to sound better in my old boat, so here are the questions for the guru's. Will i get better bass if I put it back into the same storage compartment, or will it sound better if I just make a kickplate with a cut out so the sub is exposed like I see in many boats? Right now it is hidden and you wouldn't know it was there. It doesn't sound bad, just not as good as the previous boat with the same gear.

Thanks :dontknow:

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94,

By the numbers....you can lose 5 to 6 dB of output when the sub is concealed in the port locker behind a thick fiberglass shell and thick seat cushions. That works both the sub and amplifier inordinately hard. You stil can get lots of indiscriminant boom and rumble but subwoofers do not sound musical from that location. It's like you locked your home theater sub in the adjoining closet.

In contrast, if side-firing under the driver's console and provided you have plenty of open space for the sub to vent over the top of the kick plate you should have way more output and a far better sounding subwoofer too. The sub likes having the surrounding and reinforcing planes of the under-helm cavity, as long is the path is unobstructed. You might actually pick up several dB of 'extra' gain in this scenario. It should sound waaaay better.

I am going to suggest that something else is very different that you may have overlooked. Preamp voltage or crossover frequency or power or the enclosure or phasing or the voice coil configuration, etc.

David

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Thanks for the input. That is now on the things to do list as soon as my boat gets back into my possession. So why to people have it go through the kick plate? Do some subs just require that for airflow? Or is it purely for looks?

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94,

No set reason. Sometimes it is for cosmetics to show off a grill. Sometimes they want to maintain the kick panel angle. Sometimes a larger woofer and port must be oriented out the front.

The upper midbass and quick transients can be a little more evident when direct radiating while the low bass output can be enhanced when side-firing. But these are not major distinctions. If you have a bass-reflex 12 you are not too concerned about the extra side-firing output.

David

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