Franko
Enthusiast
I haven't recieved my SRT 10 yet but am wondering what you guys have done as far as adding a subwoofer to the car?
I'd like to see pictures!
Frank
I'd like to see pictures!
Frank
A Subwoofer in a SRT 10?
- Thread starter Franko
- Start date
Ooomph
Enthusiast
You could add one but it does come with one stock. It's the lower speaker between the seats.
Franko
Enthusiast
It seems like most people aren't satisfied with upgrading the one between the seats? I'm curious if anybody has installed a sub in the trunk. I know there isn't to much room there so i'm guessing a custom box would have to be made.
Viperfreak2
Enthusiast
A custom box and then a way to get the sound into the passenger area. I don' think there's much room around and below the soft top well. The gas tank sits below it, and I'm not cutting into that area to find out! Let us know if you find a way.
SRTaj10
Enthusiast
I spent about 2 grand on a custom fiberglass box for my trunk in my SRT-10. I had 1 12" Phoenix Gold Tantrum back there with 2 Phoenix Gold Tantrum amps, one to power the high/lows inside the car and the other for the sub. It was a real clean job but when we wnt to turn it on the problems began. The stereo sounded amazing from outside the car but once you got in you could barely hear or feel any bass at all. The fire wall, gas tank and whatever else that sits between the trunk and cabin of the car is to dense for and bass to travel through. From there the stereo shop decided to leave the amps in the trunk but could not find any place to stick a 12" sub. Because I was getting annoyed I have them build me a custom 8" sub and box for the passenger side floor board. Yeah it takes up foot space but it is removeable and it hits real nice and sounds great. I am still looking around today to find a shop that canfigure out a way to give me 2 10"s inside the cabin.
VIPER D
Viper Owner
Can you please post some pics?
vd..
Skip White
Enthusiast
Much has been said about upgrading the SRT system. It's ok at best, but don't for a moment think improving it will be easy. As it is now the system lacks in the very low fr. responce, and right in the middle of the mids. The bass is in a very close range. Problem one is you sit to close to the sub. Problem two is enclosure space. As far as the mids, enclosure space, and speaker quality are at fault, not to mention the under powered amp. If you do anything to the bass system, chances are you will make it worse, maybe louder, but not better. I mean the imbalance to the rest of the system is what will be wrong here.
I can't say what should be done, but improve the flat response on the system is key to a better system. Most sound systems you see in cars with tons of speakers and amps are not worth listening to, because of the huge imbalance in overall response.
I'm all for improving this aspect of the sound system. One more limitation is the interior space. The best sounding car I ever put a system in was a 77 Buick Park Avenue. It's hard to produce sound like we want in such a small space, not to mention the space to build enclosures.
The Viper has a dirt cheap system in it, but they actually spent a good amount of time on the layout. That will be hard to improve on, without butchering the car, or burdening it with weight. So be carefull in what you do to this car.
Skip White
ps, SRT, I know why you keep the center sub down. It's due to the imbalance, but it only slightly improves it. I run mine at about 30% of max for most music. The door speakers are really a lower mid, or you could call them an upper bass speaker. I really don't even consider the center speaker a sub, but a bass speaker instead. Don't think eq's will help this system much, even an elaborate crossover will be limited.
I can't say what should be done, but improve the flat response on the system is key to a better system. Most sound systems you see in cars with tons of speakers and amps are not worth listening to, because of the huge imbalance in overall response.
I'm all for improving this aspect of the sound system. One more limitation is the interior space. The best sounding car I ever put a system in was a 77 Buick Park Avenue. It's hard to produce sound like we want in such a small space, not to mention the space to build enclosures.
The Viper has a dirt cheap system in it, but they actually spent a good amount of time on the layout. That will be hard to improve on, without butchering the car, or burdening it with weight. So be carefull in what you do to this car.
Skip White
ps, SRT, I know why you keep the center sub down. It's due to the imbalance, but it only slightly improves it. I run mine at about 30% of max for most music. The door speakers are really a lower mid, or you could call them an upper bass speaker. I really don't even consider the center speaker a sub, but a bass speaker instead. Don't think eq's will help this system much, even an elaborate crossover will be limited.
Yellow Fever
Enthusiast
Franko , my suggestion is pass on the sub and apply that Money toward's your TT Fund !! 
Cheers
Jeff
Cheers
Jeff
Jim Z
Enthusiast
as far as cost of components, it's quite expensive for a factory system.
CTViper
Enthusiast
I went to a audio store today. They basicly said the same things listed above. I'm thinking of just changing the 2 door speakers to infinity's. They said that XM radio is coming out with a add-on to the current stock radio thats hooks up to chrysler harness. Its around $200 and comes out in NOV.
Skip White
Enthusiast
What I meant by dirt cheap, is compared to some of the fine components on the market, but it's great compared to a non amplified system.
As for upgrading the door speakers, remember the factory has them firing off in the lower range, as they do handle much of the upper bass, and lower mids, so make sure and get a speaker that's made to work best in that range. Remember, flat response is the key.
Skip
As for upgrading the door speakers, remember the factory has them firing off in the lower range, as they do handle much of the upper bass, and lower mids, so make sure and get a speaker that's made to work best in that range. Remember, flat response is the key.
Skip
Jim Z
Enthusiast
Kind of hard to do once you stick the speaker in the door...
Franko
Enthusiast
I guess the only way to go is just to upgrade all the speakers (including the sub) and getting a very good amp? Where is the stock amp mounted?
Skip White
Enthusiast
Yes flat response is hard to achieve in a car. Bose has done very good in a couple of cars. Upgrading all the speakers would help, but most important is to choose speakers that operate best in the place they are in, and at what freq. that are being sent to them.
We really need to have an expert with pro. equipment to help us on this, but he must appreciate the idea of achieving flat response in the car. Since we can only take it so far in the car, cost should not be to great, and upgrade the amp for sure. I think I would want it in the trunk as it would be a bit heavy, and those e.m.f.'s generated by the amp freak me out. Upgrade the battery to the full size 41lb. Hawker Oddesey is a must to drive the bigger amp.
Anyone game for this project?
Skip White
We really need to have an expert with pro. equipment to help us on this, but he must appreciate the idea of achieving flat response in the car. Since we can only take it so far in the car, cost should not be to great, and upgrade the amp for sure. I think I would want it in the trunk as it would be a bit heavy, and those e.m.f.'s generated by the amp freak me out. Upgrade the battery to the full size 41lb. Hawker Oddesey is a must to drive the bigger amp.
Anyone game for this project?
Skip White
AllBlack
Enthusiast
Alright... I just spent about 10 grand Canadian on my sound system. Now what I did was first, replace all the stock 6 speakers, that is the 2 on the dash, the 2 in the doors, and the 2 beind the roll bars, with a Focal Kevlar (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!) component set. This was the easy part. Along with this came all the wiring to the trunk where the amps would be located, and the dynomatting to reduce rattling and unwanted vibrations. Now, the amps that I got were a set of Alpine V12s, I forget the exact model #, but they were 2 channels each, 170 watts on each channel. I had one amp hooked up to the front component speakers, with one channel going to the right, and the other, to the left side.
So in comes the woofers. The place that I went to for all this, audiolines (www.audiolines.com), does a lot of high end exotics (Ferraris, Mercedes 55s, Porsches, etc.) so they are quite experianced, plus they have done vipers before. They basically gave me three options. One, was what they did with one viper, is where they located the subs in the trunk, but because of this, you need some way to carry the sound to the cabin, or youre gonna hear no bass. So with this set up, you have to basically have a hole that goes from your trunk to your cabin to carry the sound. They said this was very difficult with the previous (gen 2 btw) viper, and it would be costly, lots of modifications involved, and the sound would still not be as great. Also because the gen 3 has so little space for this, it probably wouldnt have worked out. The second option was to have a single 10'' sub in the passanger footwell. Now this wouldnt be too costly, and it would produce good bass because of the location of the sub. However, with this, of course, you loose quite a bit of passanger footwell space that the car comes with, so I was leanin away from that. The last option, and the one I chose, was to get the whole middle plastic piece, where the speakers between the seats are located, redone in fiberglass (or carbon fiber in my case), that would be identical to the stock one, but it would be changed in the middle to be able to fit two 10'' subs. But, this is kinda expensive...just the labour for the custom piece is gonna cost me ~2000 Canadian. On top of that I have to pay for the materials, and of course the subs etc.
Because they said this would take a while, about 10 days to be exact, im doin it now while I am waiting for a new tire to arrive. So I should have my car back in a week or so, and I will post pics and results then, but I got a chance to drive it a bit with just the one amp, the component set, and a new deck, and it was simple amazing... just lacking bass. I'm sure the two tens will make up for that however...
So in comes the woofers. The place that I went to for all this, audiolines (www.audiolines.com), does a lot of high end exotics (Ferraris, Mercedes 55s, Porsches, etc.) so they are quite experianced, plus they have done vipers before. They basically gave me three options. One, was what they did with one viper, is where they located the subs in the trunk, but because of this, you need some way to carry the sound to the cabin, or youre gonna hear no bass. So with this set up, you have to basically have a hole that goes from your trunk to your cabin to carry the sound. They said this was very difficult with the previous (gen 2 btw) viper, and it would be costly, lots of modifications involved, and the sound would still not be as great. Also because the gen 3 has so little space for this, it probably wouldnt have worked out. The second option was to have a single 10'' sub in the passanger footwell. Now this wouldnt be too costly, and it would produce good bass because of the location of the sub. However, with this, of course, you loose quite a bit of passanger footwell space that the car comes with, so I was leanin away from that. The last option, and the one I chose, was to get the whole middle plastic piece, where the speakers between the seats are located, redone in fiberglass (or carbon fiber in my case), that would be identical to the stock one, but it would be changed in the middle to be able to fit two 10'' subs. But, this is kinda expensive...just the labour for the custom piece is gonna cost me ~2000 Canadian. On top of that I have to pay for the materials, and of course the subs etc.
Because they said this would take a while, about 10 days to be exact, im doin it now while I am waiting for a new tire to arrive. So I should have my car back in a week or so, and I will post pics and results then, but I got a chance to drive it a bit with just the one amp, the component set, and a new deck, and it was simple amazing... just lacking bass. I'm sure the two tens will make up for that however...
Franko
Enthusiast
Nice write up. Can't wait to see the pics.
Jim Z
Enthusiast
Most of all, you need a good bit of equalization capability. You can take a speaker with the flattest response possible, and once you put it in the door panel its response is wrecked. Not to mention the fact that you're almost always listening to it off-axis.
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