Amazing luck on subwoofer addition (99 Q45)

[bullittandy]

I have a Kenwood amped subwoofer leftover from another car. Its the rectangle 150 watt version with an active 6.5 sub and a passive 6.5-supposed to compete with the Infinity Basslink. I have a Basslink in my 97 and love it and bought this Kenwood for my Mustang but wasn't impressed with the sound in the hatchback-it sounded great but was not loud enough for the car and its character.

I just disovered that the Kenwood fits perfectly, and I mean perfectly in the cubby for the rear seat armrest!! I mean, it looks like it was designed to be there! I'll get some pics soon but this was a sweet break. I'm betting that with the sub firing into the closed cabin it will add just the right amount of bass to the stock system.

[carfrk666]

it must be a good thing u mounted ur sub in ur armrest i can bairly hear my subs in my truck and im running 2 12in kicker comps from a 1000RMS amp and its not that loud, it bumps but nothing amazing, ya the Q is a bit tricky in some areas to do the install on them, i just ended up deciding to replace the whole system, speakers wires and headunit the whole 9 yards, u got any pics??

[Skibane]

This one?



It's pretty thin - Almost looks like you could fold the center cushion up over it (to allow seating for a 5th person)...

[bullittandy]

Thats the one. It is thin and I was hoping to save the armrest folding uop but it won't. My initial plan was to use some velcro to hold it in place and make the wiring easily disconnected so that if needed I could fold the armrest up and carry five people. However, after lugging that thing around for testfitting the thought of it flying into my head in an accident made me reconsider.

I also covered the face/grille with black stretchy fabric and so it is essentially invisible in the armrest cubby-very slick.

[mcrews]

andy,how did you hook it up....to the sub woofer wires in the trunck?

Mark

[Qproject]

ok how about some pics and how does it sound ?

[bullittandy]

Pics soon...

I have to change my wiring setup as I took the input off the rear package subs into a lineoutput converter and then to RCA's into the Kenwood Sub.

However, there too much juice going into the line output converter (amplified from Bose amp) and even with adjustable settingson the line output converter it distorts on the Kenwood.

I'm going to pick up the preamplified signal tomorrow after looking at the FSM, I was lazy and didn't want to look for it today and instead came staright off the speaker.

{Pics and sound report soon.

[Qproject]

doesn't the kenwood sub have a speaker level input ?

use the speaker level inputs, that what it's used for.

and if I were you, try to leave the stock 6.5" functional by splicing the signal. This way you have both the oem subs and the kenwood subs rocking.

Pics soon...

I have to change my wiring setup as I took the input off the rear package subs into a lineoutput converter and then to RCA's into the Kenwood Sub.

However, there too much juice going into the line output converter (amplified from Bose amp) and even with adjustable settingson the line output converter it distorts on the Kenwood.

I'm going to pick up the preamplified signal tomorrow after looking at the FSM, I was lazy and didn't want to look for it today and instead came staright off the speaker.

{Pics and sound report soon.

[bullittandy]

doesn't the kenwood sub have a speaker level input ?

use the speaker level inputs, that what it's used for.

and if I were you, try to leave the stock 6.5" functional by splicing the signal. This way you have both the oem subs and the kenwood subs rocking.

Do you think that the speaker level inputs would work? I mean, I know they are supposed to take the high input of speakers but do you think that the sub can cut down the amplified signal from the stock speakers enough?

I have left the stock package self speakers intact for just that reason.

[mcrews]

I had purchased a similar subsystem about 6 months ago.It also fit in the armrest solt perfectly.It also had the adjustment knobs on a remote that I ran up into the front armrest.I had also purchased a slicer of some kind and ran it off the rear woofer.unfortunately, it just didnot produce the desired results.I am sorry I dont have any more exact info.I recently moved and have not unpacked the misc garage stuff!!!!

mark.

[Qproject]

YES THAT'S WHAT IT'S FOR.

SPEAKER LEVEL INPUTS ARE THE SAME AS HIGH LEVEL INPUTS.

keep the original 6.5" subs intact, splice only one of them into the kenwood.

Do you think that the speaker level inputs would work? I mean, I know they are supposed to take the high input of speakers but do you think that the sub can cut down the amplified signal from the stock speakers enough?

I have left the stock package self speakers intact for just that reason.

[Qproject]

please be more clear, WAS IT THE SAME SYSTEM OR A SIMILAR SYSTEM ?

the kenwood is a dual 6" system , one being a passive radiator set up, so there's a good chance it will out boom whatever u had.

I had purchased a similar subsystem about 6 months ago.It also fit in the armrest solt perfectly.It also had the adjustment knobs on a remote that I ran up into the front armrest.I had also purchased a slicer of some kind and ran it off the rear woofer.unfortunately, it just didnot produce the desired results.I am sorry I dont have any more exact info.I recently moved and have not unpacked the misc garage stuff!!!!

mark.

[mcrews]

please be more clear, WAS IT THE SAME SYSTEM OR A SIMILAR SYSTEM ?

the kenwood is a dual 6" system , one being a passive radiator set up, so there's a good chance it will out boom whatever u had.

IT WAS NOT THE KENWOOD. BUT it was a similar enclosed active/passive system with a remote that had 2 little knobs.

My 'quess' is that the 2 ohm q45 speaker system is not compatible with these off the shelf "bass systems"

but hey, what do I know ......I don't seem to use the word SIMILAR very well.

gezzzzz

mcrews

[Qproject]

hmm.......it doesn't matter if it's 2 ohm or what ever ohm, you TAP into the tiny amps that is built into the 6.5" oem sub.

OR you can tap into the signal before the 6.5" preamp, this would make it a low level input (RCA inputs).

[Skibane]

Quote »I had also purchased a slicer of some kind and ran it off the rear woofer.[/quote]Almost sounds like you ran into the same problem in using the 'slicer' that bullittandy did with his lineout converter - the signal was still too strong for the Kenwood's low-level RCA inputs.

Connecting the Q's rear speaker power amp outputs to the Kenwood's speaker-level inputs SHOULD work...

Since the factory design uses separate amps for each rear speaker, the signal is probably still in stereo (which means that BOTH speakers should be connected to the Kenwood's speaker-level inputs).

[Qproject]

why not just tell us what brand u tried so we can avoid it.

IT WAS NOT THE KENWOOD. BUT it was a similar enclosed active/passive system with a remote that had 2 little knobs.

My 'quess' is that the 2 ohm q45 speaker system is not compatible with these off the shelf "bass systems"

but hey, what do I know ......I don't seem to use the word SIMILAR very well.

gezzzzz

mcrews

[mcrews]

As I CLEARLY stated 'I had not unpacked the misc garage boxes yet'

but due to posters who can't clearly read "why"I took 20 minutes to rumage thru some boxes and found it.

Clarion SRV303 was the powered sub system.HOWEVER, I did not have a eletronic stereo person try to ck it.I was moving and did not have the time to figure out how to make it work.So you don't have to "avoid" it.Just have better skills than I do.

Mcrews

[bullittandy]

Follow up.

I hooked up the speaker level inputs and it sounds much improved-no more distortion.

It fits well but the sound is not what I wanted. I think that this Kenwood system would be perfect for someone like my wife who has no idea what bass is supposed to sound like but hates loud bass.

This subwoofer fills the cabin but distorts when you crank it so it will go back in the basement-and an Infinity Basslink will fill its place.