Easiest / cheapest way to add a little bass to a stock setup ?

[Fishchris]

So my GF's car actually has a really decent sounding stock stereo system..... Just no bass :(

We are not going to add a DSP. And of course the stock system does not have a subwoofer RCA output :( About the most I am willing to do, is to run a 4 gage power wire back from the battery, to give a compact little amp some juice. Some little amps even have the "Power sense" thing, which means they don't even need a "remote power" wire.

It kills me that their are like 9000 full range bluetooth speakers available.... but almost ZERO bluetooth subwoofers ? I mean, wouldn't it be the same exact technology ? Heck, even if I were to bluetooth a full range signal to said amp, they still all have a crossover, to cut it off wherever I want to, right ?

I would just love to build a cute tiny little ported enclosure, tuned to like 40 hz, for one of these beefy little 6 1/2" subs available nowadays, and I hear they put out a surprising amount of bass. Certainly more than enough to fill in below my GF's stock stereo system... Plus, I could then turn the bass levels down from her door speakers, and that would make those sound better too ! But how to get a bass signal to a little amp ???

[tomzarbo]

I think the usual way to get signal to a trunk mounted subwoofer is to tap into the two rear speakers using the speaker level inputs.

I made a bandpass sub using the tang band 1139 subwoofwr several years back... made enough bass for me.

TomZ

[Fishchris]

TY Tom. Yea.... but that's a little bit of work.... which I would be willing to put in, but also, I have heard that using speaker level inputs is a good way to add alternator noise. Not sure how confident I am that this would work very well....

[djg]

Bigger and/or better speakers.

[fpitas]

That's old-fashioned thinking.

[wogg]

I did this in my Mazda CX-5, had a thread about it on here quite a wile back. I opted to use a Bazooka EL8 I had just sitting around. I used a line level converter into the Dayton DSP-LF unit. That let me tune delays and phase, + some EQ to balance with the OEM speakers. I dropped the bass control to flat on the OEM radio and raised the sub to suit my taste and adjusted the DSP by ear.

Alternator noise is almost always a ground loop, no added risk from a line conversion.

The EL8 also only draws 7.5A so I didn't bother running a primary line from the battery and instead tapped a 10A cigarette lighter plug in the trunk. It's plenty strong enough to augment the OEM radio, they just about run out of steam at the same time and can sustain 90 something dB in the car which is loud enough for me.

I would like to update the woofer though, that EL8 drops like a rock under 40Hz so when I hear a song that should have 30 something content it makes me sad.