Once again, I'm writing about a minor occurence before I've journaled last weekend's trip to Akron, or hey, what about Youth Camp? Anyway, I wanna talk about my new suboofer!
Steve found it for me at his neighbor's garage sale. After some brand checking and haggling we settled on $150 for the huge dual 12" sub and a 1000-watt Boss amp. Great price considering either one of those by themselves could cost $200 or $300. So he got it, and I bided my time to finally achieve the dream I'd had for about a year.
Last weekend Steve and I spent the last half of Saturday, and the first half hour of Sunday, installing the woofer in my car. I was quite miffed by the EIGHTY-FIVE dollars required to buy the wiring and converter needed to install it, but oh well--it's still way cheaper than buying it new. I gained a whole new view of my car as we pulled off interior panels, found speaker wiring, pulled out the glovebox, and jimmied wires behind panels and under carpets. It was cool to actually do stuff on my car, which till now has been an untouchable machine. The coolest part ended up coming out of my greatest fear: the mysterious blue wire. I couldn't find any wires from the back of my factory stereo, and you need a remote activation wire (the blue one) to tell the amp to turn on when you turn your stereo on. Bummer. But we talked to a guy at Best Buy and he said it was just a wire from the battery, so we looped the wire we'd already run through a SWITCH in the DASHBOARD. Yes: I can turn the sub on and off at will with a slick-looking, solidly-installed switch down by the hood release. Sweet!
My first day with my new booming friend was rather unsettling. It was woofier and muddier than I had remembered Steve's being, and I feared that the money I had invested would turn into a let-down. But I worked with the settings on the amp, and my expectations began to adjust. The point really isn't to have the hairs on your arms vibrating, though that's fun at times. The point is that you can get great representation of the bass end of the music you listen to. So I adjusted levels and crossover points, and I've got it now to where the balance is good, and it's basically sweetly-kicking low end. I'm enjoying it more and more with every mile I drive. Also, some songs work well with it, and others just have badly-mixed low ends that turn to car-rattling hum and mud. Other songs, though....mmmmm
So, I like it! It's sweet, and I'll keep tweaking it to get it perfect. It feels weird to pull up to a stoplight and realize that if I don't turn it down, I'll be one of those sub-thumping jerks in the eyes of everyone around me. Strange feeling. But when I'm rolling down the road, a song is starting up, and when the kick drum comes in the car is filled with a sweet thud, it's pretty delightful!
I'm happy with it :-)
==Clear A==
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2 comments:
Dude, we needed that for the rides to Switchfoot concerts in days past. Hey, does this mean we'll go to another one? :-P
That said, I hate the headache that comes when sitting next to a sub-thumping jerk at stoplights. I hope yours has a bit more moderation than those jerks.
Does this thing drain your battery like crazy? Some do.
Well, once SF gets their new album out (fall) I'm sure they'll tour again, and you know I'll be there. Rockin' at the concert, rockin' in the car. Woohoo!
Mmm, I definitely moderate mine to levels in balance with the mids and highs of my car speakers, but it's still pretty loud when I stop, 'cause it needs to be up more to compensate for road noise when I'm moving.
It killed my battery after a very few minutes of running when first installed. Since then I have idled the engine when using it, and my mileage dropped by 3mpg on the last tank :-)
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