What subwwofers sound great in a EB Ford van?
What brands should be avoided?
Anyone have a power switch to turn it off when the engine is off, thus avoiding battery drain?
I think a 6 channel amp is needed to turn off the subwoofer, seperate from the other speakers.
there are many out there and almost any good name brand will suffice; JLAudio, JBL, Cerwin-Vega, etc.
The key to any subwoofer is placement, and the enclosure. Lot's of places to put one in an SMB, but gets harder if you want to preserve precious cargo space at the same time. 8" is ok, 10" is better, 12" would rock. 15", well ok....make it an earth-shaker. But tradeoffs as the bigger you go, the bigger the enclosure needs to be. You dont need a 6-channel amp necessarily unless you want more power for all of your speakers including the sub. But you do need at least a 1-ch or 2ch amp to power.
I've got a 2 channel amp for the 10" in my 63 beetle (and yes, it does shake the whole car) with an on-off switch for winter storage. Works fine for me.
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1963 VW rag sunroof, 130k orig. miles, slammed and quite cool
1996 Miata (If I have to get more mpg's it may as well be fun)
2 x 1999 Ranger 4x4s
Thanks BC and realbtl.
I may set up a 10' subwoofer.
So a 2 channel amp will be enough?
I want the option of turning the sub off, but using the remaining speakers.
zugg- I put the amp under the hood (rear engine) and just put a cheap toggle on the amp power line. The sub speaker is wired from the 2 channel amp so shutting off the sub leaves the other speakers operational. I've got 2 x 6" in the doors and 2 x 6"x9" behind the back seat with the sub and it sounds like The Who live, very loud. Of course a vw beetle is a fairly small space. Good luck.
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1963 VW rag sunroof, 130k orig. miles, slammed and quite cool
1996 Miata (If I have to get more mpg's it may as well be fun)
2 x 1999 Ranger 4x4s
Thanks for sharing your audio set up.
I will have two 4-D batteries for power, so powering the sub should not be a problem when the engine is off.
I will need to put in a (nice dash mounted toggle) switch to turn it off though.
I may also opt for a volume control knob mounted in the dashboard.
Otherwise, the other six speakers will still sound nice on their own.