CA-DMC Subwoofer question

[QuadcityDMC]

I was lucky enough to get a CA-DMC sub for X-mase. Question is what is inside the box, it weighs 20lbs. Do I have to install a amp for the sub, or just plug the wires in. I think I have a sub out on the back of my radio. Any one have this sub in their car?

[DMCMW Dave]

I was lucky enough to get a CA-DMC sub for X-mase. Question is what is inside the box, it weighs 20lbs. Do I have to install a amp for the sub, or just plug the wires in. I think I have a sub out on the back of my radio. Any one have this sub in their car?

It is just a speaker in a box. We use them here. You likely need to add a small one-channel amp to power it. The radio has a pre-amp level sub out to feed the amp, but I can't say that I've ever seen a radio head unit with a sub amp built-in to it.

[Totally 80s]

What do these look like?

[DMCMW Dave]

What do these look like?

Sorry - no photos handy. It looks like a sealed wooden MDF box the size of the cubbyhole with a 8" sub mounted in it. When installed you remove the cubby door and just push it in place. It's well worth the price as your installation time for the speaker is about 10 seconds.

[jfirios]

would have liked it better if it had a 10 in sub instead of the 8 in. I don't think the 8 has enough punch to really give a good sub sound. As to hookup of a small amp, take the rca pre amp wires from the radio and connect them to the amp. Then it is regular speaker wire from the amp to the sub. But you will need to run another power wire from the battery to the amp. There will be instructions on how to wire it when you get the amp.
Have fun with it.

[82DMC12]

I have an 8" kicker solo baric sub in my cubby with a 250 watt amp. Trust me, it sounds like a 'sub'.

[jfirios]

i am working on a full competition system made my paradigm. 10in solobaric 2 4" mids and 2 tweets in the rear wall, 2 6.5" rounds in the footwells, 2 4" mids in the dash and 2 tweets in the pillars. complete with a 1000 watt amp. though I think i am going to go with a soundstream amp. doing the initial design for the interior now, with placements for LED lighting and recessed space for the amp in the back deck. Should be nice when it is finished.

[DMCMW Dave]

What do these look like?

Finally found the pics. This is the one sold by DMC Cal.
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[AirmanPika]

Interesting, so they are making drop in sub kits that go in the cubby? Would have been a time saver considering I built my sub setup into the cubby from scratch. What do these cost? I ended up using a low cost amp since I wasn't trying to push for a hifi system. Sits on the shelf above. I imagine the advantage may be that the sub is in a sealed box, but with the limited space I dunno how much it helps. FYI to those who mentioned it, I don't think a 10" sub would fit into the cubby. At least not easily. It would certainly prohibit the sealed box option.

[DMCMW Dave]

You'll have to check with Danny at DMC Cal for sure but I think it's about $250.

[louielouie2000]

I have an 8" kicker solo baric sub in my cubby with a 250 watt amp. Trust me, it sounds like a 'sub'.

Agreed... my second DeLorean had an 8" bazooka tube subwoofer in it, and it was ideal for the tiny DeLorean cabin.

The only thing I don't really like about these cubby hole drop in subs is the fact the box has no depth to it. I have to wonder how badly that will effect the sound?

[AirmanPika]

I think a 10" would be overkill unless you are trying to win a pissing contest. I'm personally more inclined to prefer natural bass, which an 8" and handle with no issues.

[sdg3205]

I think a 10" would be overkill unless you are trying to win a pissing contest. I'm personally more inclined to prefer natural bass, which an 8" and handle with no issues.

+1

My 8 inch sub rattles and shakes my car like a rusty mid-eighties civic. At least I knew where I needed to tighten some nuts and bolts! Funny enough, it shakes my trailing arm deflectors and there's not a damn thing you can do for those other then remove them.

I wouldn't be surprised if original dashes cracked with massive subs. Large waveforms can do some serious damage.

[QuadcityDMC]

What amps are you guys using? Any links? Looking for a very small amp to hide in the car, I do t want anything sitting on the rear shelf.

[sdg3205]

What amps are you guys using? Any links? Looking for a very small amp to hide in the car, I do t want anything sitting on the rear shelf.

I used a mono Pioneer GM-D7500M. It's small, powerful and affordable (check amazon or ebay for the best deals).

If you search, you'll find pictures on how i hid it under the spare tire in the "frunk" (front trunk!). I ran all the cables through the hood release grommet.

I raised it 1/4 of an inch with washers so in the event a little water got in it wouldn't hit the sub. I ran the ground through the fuel access panel (using a spot where a broken rivnut once lived) to the radiator support bracket.

Let me know if you want pictures or if you can't find them.

I love this set up because it's so non-intrusive, and you've never know there was a sub in the car without looking closely.

[jfirios]

the thing about the 10in over the 8 is the lower frequency sound that is achieved. Not necessarily the big boom power blast from it. The music i mostly listen to and what i test soundsy stems with is full range classical and jazz. I find that at normal volumes the 10" will have richer and fuller deep sounds that the 8. So please don't missunderstand when I say I would rather put the 10" in. it isnt for the power but more for the fuller rounder bass sounds.

[jawn101]

The amp I plan to use to drive the DMC-CA sub is this one from JL audio:

http://www.jlaudio.com/xd200-2-car-audio-xd-amplifiers-98260

It's hard to tell from that picture, but there's another one that shows it next to a deck of cards. This thing is *tiny*, and based on the measurements Danny supplied me, it will fit into the locking compartment behind the sub enclosure with 0 issues. Seems like a perfect solution!

[jfirios]

The thing that would concern me about putting that amp in behind the woofer in the cubby hole would be the heat issue. How hot does that little amp actually get. Will there be enough air around it to keep it cool.

[jawn101]

The thing that would concern me about putting that amp in behind the woofer in the cubby hole would be the heat issue. How hot does that little amp actually get. Will there be enough air around it to keep it cool.

The very same question I asked when I looked at it the first time. The guy in the local pro audio shop assured me that it's pretty well suited to installations like that. It's a try it and see situation of course, but it's what I was told :)

Check out the section titled "Advanced Rollback Protection" at the bottom of that URL, that's the thermal management tech that is supposed to help save the day on this installation.

Edit: it's also not tremendously powerful, and I know in my situation it wouldn't be cranked. So your mileage may vary I guess depending on the user of the setup.

[The_Reverend]

I own a Honda del Sol and JL Audio makes this neat little product called the "Stealthbox" basically its a sub box that is designed to hide/blend into the car. (pics below) Basically it's two W3v3 8" 4-ohm subwoofers, wired to 2-ohm mono that downfire. They sound REALLY nice, and anything bigger than that is overkill for such a small cabin. If I was to build a box, I'd almost do the same thing, this way I'm feeling the bass, and not hearing it, ringing in my ears, beating on the back of my headrest... (headache) :disapprove:

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h159/Kabooki157/DSCN0002-1.jpg
http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj267/h4u2nv/Picture004.jpg

[Totally 80s]

Can someone please post a photo of this DMC sub box. Two pages and I still don't know what it looks like.

[The_Reverend]

Not trying to sound like an ass, but it was on page 1. Here I'll quote it for you. :tongue2:


Finally found the pics. This is the one sold by DMC Cal.
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[jawn101]

Not trying to sound like an ass, but it was on page 1. Here I'll quote it for you. :tongue2:

Best part is that Dave's post was in response to the same guy asking for pics....

[Totally 80s]

Thought i had seen all posts on first page. Thanks

[GS450-Junkie]

Can't you just cut a hole in the original carpeted cubby hole door for the sub?

[DMCMW Dave]

Can't you just cut a hole in the original carpeted cubby hole door for the sub?

Subs are supposed to be in a sealed box. The cubby is far from sealed. It will work, won't sound as good.

[Spittybug]

I have built many a speaker system in my life, and while Dave S. is correct that a proper sub woofer should be in a sealed compartment for the best effect, my JBL sub in my cubby is merely mounted in a replacement cubby door and the sound is MORE than adequate from a bass point of view. I get a back massage going down the road. If we were talking a pristine audio environment I'm sure I would think differently, but given the noisiness of our cockpits, the deep bass notes of the fiberglass tub and the generally piss poor acoustical environment, I wouldn't worry about an enclosure. I'm a bit of a perfectionist (ask my wife...) and I have no problem with mine the way it is.

[GS450-Junkie]

I have built many a speaker system in my life, and while Dave S. is correct that a proper sub woofer should be in a sealed compartment for the best effect, my JBL sub in my cubby is merely mounted in a replacement cubby door and the sound is MORE than adequate from a bass point of view. I get a back massage going down the road. If we were talking a pristine audio environment I'm sure I would think differently, but given the noisiness of our cockpits, the deep bass notes of the fiberglass tub and the generally piss poor acoustical environment, I wouldn't worry about an enclosure. I'm a bit of a perfectionist (ask my wife...) and I have no problem with mine the way it is.

Did you Dynamat yours at all? I figured a Dynamat filled cubby hole and a sub sticking out the original door would be more than adequate. Besides that.... I only had one original working speaker and a Craig that was on it's last leg already...just about anything else would sound better.

[Spittybug]

Hey, everything is relative right? In my nice quiet home I have a lovely, high quality sound system to blow my face off when I'm watching movies on the big screen or just listening to music. My Infiniti G35 came with an awesome sound system, but then again I can hear a mouse fart in that car it is so quiet. For the Delorean with its vibrations, rattles, deep bass resonance, engine noise, road noise, etc.... I don't need to get every ounce of performance out of the sound system. I have no dynamat or wadding in the cubby. I mistyped, I have a JL not JBL speaker; a significant error on my part!

Measure your door, pay attention to the plastic alignment feet (like biscuit joiners) and see how the lock mechanism is routered into the door. Use a good dense MDF from HomeDepot and recreate the door. Make sure it fits and locks in place (use the hardware off the old one) before you cut the hole for the speaker. I then sprayed mine with black truck bed liner. It's a nice plastic like speckled paint that give a matt finish with a texture to it. My JL has a metal cage over it. I don't seem to have a picture of it since I changed from my original design. I should take a couple.

Worst case scenario is that if you don't like the way it sounds you can line the interior of the cubby or stuff it with wadding. No harm, no foul, minimal cost, looks great.

[jfirios]

For the 10in sub i installed, I had dynamatted the whole car including the inside of the cubby hole. Then I removed the computer components and the metal bracket. Made a 1/2 in MDF piece to cover the hole in the top of the cubby, foam sealed the gaps, dynamatted the top part of the space and re mounted all the electronics. Then built a surround for the sub and then mounted that on the top overlapping the cubby hole space and sealed that up as well with foam. Here is what it all looked like.
The thing with my system is the multiple volume controls I have with it. The main HU has its volume control, then the EQ has both volume and sub volume control and the 1000 Watt amp has its own Sub power output control. So i can basically turn the sub down to almost nothing, and then when at car shows, turn it up and have TONS of sound. 10686106871068810689

[QuadcityDMC]

I posted this in another thread on my amp install.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k5dIVp0eic&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/QUOTE]

[jawn101]

Hey guys... I just started ordering parts to do this job this spring. Got the amp and remote bass control coming, and waiting to hear back from DMCCA on a sub. One question on wiring though- I have a battery kill switch installed in the car, behind the driver's seat. It is hooked to the + cable (whoever installed it didn't think that through fully - it works fine but I would have done it on the ground wire) and I plan to put the + connection for the amp right on that switch as well, so when I kill it the amp shuts off too. I do have a dedicated fuse and holder for the amp that came with the install kit, and will put it in a safe spot to protect the car from wire rubbing, etc...

Question is, where should the ground wire go? Should I run it right to the ground post on the battery? That would be very convenient for me, but will it create a ground loop or anything else I'm not thinking of?

[Totally 80s]

Hey guys... I just started ordering parts to do this job this spring. Got the amp and remote bass control coming, and waiting to hear back from DMCCA on a sub. One question on wiring though- I have a battery kill switch installed in the car, behind the driver's seat. It is hooked to the + cable (whoever installed it didn't think that through fully - it works fine but I would have done it on the ground wire) and I plan to put the + connection for the amp right on that switch as well, so when I kill it the amp shuts off too. I do have a dedicated fuse and holder for the amp that came with the install kit, and will put it in a safe spot to protect the car from wire rubbing, etc...

Question is, where should the ground wire go? Should I run it right to the ground post on the battery? That would be very convenient for me, but will it create a ground loop or anything else I'm not thinking of?

The battery disconnect is on the positive side because if you tried to put it on the negative side you would never be able to get your hand back in there. You would hae to slide the battery out everytime you wanted to connect/reconnect the battery. Or.. you would need to put longer ground cables on your battery. I have had a disconnect on my positive side for 5 years, no problems.

[jawn101]

The battery disconnect is on the positive side because if you tried to put it on the negative side you would never be able to get your hand back in there. You would hae to slide the battery out everytime you wanted to connect/reconnect the battery. Or.. you would need to put longer ground cables on your battery. I have had a disconnect on my positive side for 5 years, no problems.

Yeah, that's a good logistic reason. Electrically it's not ideal but yes, it works great anyway :)

Still wondering if it will be ok to run the + and - both right from the battery to the amp though

[jawn101]

Yeah, that's a good logistic reason. Electrically it's not ideal but yes, it works great anyway :)

Still wondering if it will be ok to run the + and - both right from the battery to the amp though

Anyone? Bueller?

[DMCMW Dave]

Anyone? Bueller?

Make sure you have a fuse right at the battery, and that the amp is really off when it's off or it will drain the battery.

[jawn101]

Make sure you have a fuse right at the battery, and that the amp is really off when it's off or it will drain the battery.

Yep that's the plan - run the + wire to the kill switch with a fuse as close to the switch as humanly possible. I will verify that the remote turn-on actually kills the amp once it's installed. But I don't know what to do with the ground wire - can I put it to the negative terminal on the battery directly or will that create a ground loop? Do I need to find somewhere on the frame to ground it instead?

[cybercusp]

Make sure you have a fuse right at the battery, and that the amp is really off when it's off or it will drain the battery.

Agreed. That's the setup I have with the amp keyed to the ignition. Best Buy sells a kit for wiring directly to the battery (I have the yellowtop) with posts that allow this set up.

[jawn101]

Agreed. That's the setup I have with the amp keyed to the ignition. Best Buy sells a kit for wiring directly to the battery (I have the yellowtop) with posts that allow this set up.

I'll have to put the fuse after the switch or else the whole car will be running on it. I have Hervey's ground cables and the way the battery post is set up for that it will be very easy to add a ring terminal there, so that's a piece of cake... as long as there's no reason not to ground there :)

[cybercusp]

I grounded mine directly to the battery, as I figured grounding to the frame may allow the other electrical components in the car to "see" the amp and vice versa which may invite electrical interference considering the grounding issues of this car already. I don't know if that's correct but that was my thought.

[jawn101]

I grounded mine directly to the battery, as I figured grounding to the frame may allow the other electrical components in the car to "see" the amp and vice versa which may invite electrical interference considering the grounding issues of this car already. I don't know if that's correct but that was my thought.

OK, that was what I thought as well. But you hit the nail on the head - every time you work with grounds on this car it seems like there's something special to consider, which is why I figured I'd ask first. You don't have any hum issues or anything through the speaker(s)?

[dmc6960]

Supplying the amp's power directly from the battery on both + and gnd is good. Just make sure you isolate the amp from any other grounds (should be fairly easy on our cars).

[cybercusp]

OK, that was what I thought as well. But you hit the nail on the head - every time you work with grounds on this car it seems like there's something special to consider, which is why I figured I'd ask first. You don't have any hum issues or anything through the speaker(s)?

No issues with him and you're going to love that sub..adds a lot to the bottom end, and I swear by the spatial adjustments on the Kenwood head unit. It's hard to describe but it allows for "separation" of the speakers to adjust for the small cabin.

[kings1527]

Supplying the amp's power directly from the battery on both + and gnd is good. Just make sure you isolate the amp from any other grounds (should be fairly easy on our cars).

So it would not be a good idea to ground the amp to the negative post behind the bulkhead connectors where all of the other things ground there, too? From what I'm seeing, it's sounding like a amp needs its own grounding point without anything else attached to it.

[DMCMW Dave]

The battery is the best filter on the car. On a huge amp I'd go right to it.

[kings1527]

The battery is the best filter on the car. On a huge amp I'd go right to it.

Ok, excellent. Thanks Dave.

[dmc6960]

So it would not be a good idea to ground the amp to the negative post behind the bulkhead connectors where all of the other things ground there, too? From what I'm seeing, it's sounding like a amp needs its own grounding point without anything else attached to it.

That post is connected to the chassis by an 8-gauge cable. Most high powered amps want their OWN 4-gauge cable, and the ones which can get away with 8 with want a dedicated one. You do not want to share that with every other system ground in the car (which all predominately go through that point).

[jawn101]

Awesome, thanks guys. For the record, this is far from a huge amp - I went with the JL XD300. Tiny little bugger, and I will not be cranking it at all. I hate loudness for the sake of hooliganism - I just want to try and compensate for the total lack of bass in the tiny speakers in the stock locations and remove the distortion that's generated by them trying to produce low frequencies.

My plan is to mount it either in the driver's side cubby behind the speaker, or in the battery compartment - so grounding straight to the battery is very convenient, easy and fully reversible.

[cybercusp]

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Couple shots of my install with the JL 300 amp. Even though it fits best at an angle it's hard mounted.

[kings1527]

That post is connected to the chassis by an 8-gauge cable. Most high powered amps want their OWN 4-gauge cable, and the ones which can get away with 8 with want a dedicated one. You do not want to share that with every other system ground in the car (which all predominately go through that point).

That's a great point. I never even thought about the 8 AWG on the other side of the post. I'm going to do a single ground wire directly to the frame. Thanks again.

[jawn101]

That's a great point. I never even thought about the 8 AWG on the other side of the post. I'm going to do a single ground wire directly to the frame. Thanks again.

Edit: Disregard this post. I thought this above post was referring to the battery terminal, not the bulkhead ground connector. Nothing to see here, carry on...

[jawn101]

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Couple shots of my install with the JL 300 amp. Even though it fits best at an angle it's hard mounted.

Thanks for the photos! I still think it will be possible to get a little creative in the cubby where the speaker is, but the battery compartment might be good too since there is (sort of) a vent in there, etc. I haven't got the amp in my hands yet, but one thing is for sure - given the size of it, it's the best amp out there to try and hide.

[GS450-Junkie]

Thanks for the photos! I still think it will be possible to get a little creative in the cubby where the speaker is, but the battery compartment might be good too since there is (sort of) a vent in there, etc. I haven't got the amp in my hands yet, but one thing is for sure - given the size of it, it's the best amp out there to try and hide.

I realize this thread is a bit old, but Jawn can you please post some pictures of your setup so I can have a better understanding what to do as I install mine?? :) Thanks!

[jawn101]

I realize this thread is a bit old, but Jawn can you please post some pictures of your setup so I can have a better understanding what to do as I install mine?? :) Thanks!

Sure!! It's probably easiest if you just check out my post here: http://www.8bitdmc.com/2013/03/subwoofer-install/ - there is a detailed description of what I did and tons of photos.

[GS450-Junkie]

Sure!! It's probably easiest if you just check out my post here: http://www.8bitdmc.com/2013/03/subwoofer-install/ - there is a detailed description of what I did and tons of photos.

Hey Thanks!!