Bass In an Elise

[ant111s]

I had a 12" square sub in my previous car which sounded really nice, since ive had the elise ive really missed the bass on the audio, i find the standard speakers quite 'Tinny'

Seen a few posts on other forums where people have said about the pioneer bass tube that sits on the shelf behind the seats, and another one where someones taken up most of the passenger footwell which i find unpracticle.

Found this on ebay which i thought was pretty cool: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/lotus-elise-exige-c...

Anyone else done anything or heard of anything good that you can do with a bass installation in the elise?

[Janitor]

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...

[beak]

as above, highly recommended, have the same system (thanks Clive!!)

[piooly]

You must have had a Kicker Square sub... Be carefull of the ebay one as you will need to buy a very shallow bass speaker to fit. In the pic it shows the new JL audio subs which are only a few inches thick instead of around 5 or 6 inches deep for most 10" subs. There are very few shallow subs on the market and because of this they cost a lot.

I have a normal JL audio 10" sub in my S1 elise and it works very well. I built up a cabinet for it to fit. Only jut enough room. Ideally I would like to get one of the new flatter versions. These are quite expensive though, a few hundred quid for the 10" atleast so the cost will start mounting up. The little pioneer sub boxs you can get work quite well but if you are used to a stronger level of bass, then really you need to get either a 10" like mine or one of these flatter ones........

[bogie]

"Anyone else done anything or heard of anything good that you can do with a bass installation in the elise?"

yeah, its been done many times ...think I did mine back in 2002 when my car was a daily driver and I was in it for 25K miles a year

cheap option - just get one of the those powered subs and stick it in the footwell

more expensive - get a custom rear bulkhead moulding made up, trim it in leather, fit an 8" sub and 500wrms amp ...then feel your back thumping on every trip LOL

http://rides.webshots.com/album/57887221xRqcTQ

it actually had another upgrade from that 2 years later, when I picked up some 3 way Alpine components cheap - so had 1" tweeters and 4" mids up front, and 6.5" mid bass rear (as well as the 8" sub)

no point in having high frequencies coming from behind you - screw up the imaging, get a head unit with time alignment so you can adjust the delays all round and get a good stereo image on the dash in front of you, rather than getting blasted from behind your right ear

[ant111s]

thanks guys, with the advice i went to local audio shop and got a bass tube fitted on the shelf behind the drivers seat, it got a little 8" sub in it by alpine. Alpine SWE-1000. Really pleased with the result. Thanks for all that inputted. To buy it and get it fitted and with dynamat on the existing speakers was £230 from a shop called audio in motion in winton (bournemouth)

[Loudman]

I went for the Alpine 1600 sub and some dynamat in the footwell, fitted it myself (including routing power supply through bulkhead and down drivers sill and across underside of dash) and its very good, well pleased with it. I also changed the head for an Alpine 9886 with a bluetooth box and ipod connection, it allows me too control my pod from the head unit which means that I don't have to muck about with cd's etc, very easy to live with. Now, just need to sort out the rubbish radio reception.........

[ant111s]

Loudman said:

I went for the Alpine 1600 sub and some dynamat in the footwell, fitted it myself (including routing power supply through bulkhead and down drivers sill and across underside of dash) and its very good, well pleased with it. I also changed the head for an Alpine 9886 with a bluetooth box and ipod connection, it allows me too control my pod from the head unit which means that I don't have to muck about with cd's etc, very easy to live with. Now, just need to sort out the rubbish radio reception.........

Glad it isnt just me that has crap radio signal.. anyway to make it better?

[Loudman]

There's been a couple of threads on here about making a cap out of tin-foil with a spike on it and wearing it whilst driving.......no wait a minute, that was in the film 'Signs', apparently you can do some shielding of the aerial signal with a layer of metallic material, not tried it myself though.

[ant111s]

like the foil theory to be honest

[bogie]

tried everything over the years with the radio, but at best you end up with a few channels being better ...people have had better luck with a DAB install and seperate antenna

[miro]

I have a 56 Elise S and the radio reception is pretty good imho If i were going the audio upgrade route i think id get it fitted by someone else .. anyone know a reputable place in the south for this sort of thing .. new speakers headunit poss amp (would this be REALY expenisve to fit? )

[C43]

I have put the sub install in the passenger footwell. I am claiming it works well as you just replace the aluminimum kicker panel with a box. No loss in leg room for the passenger if done properly. In the box are a couple of Focal 5WS 5.25" subs. These are expensive new but I got mine on e bay for £80. I have put the amp behind the passenger seat (500W Genesis amp, should do the trick). If you go on Webshots and search Europa S and stereo install you will probably find it.

good luck

C43

[ant111s]

i was tempted to get it installed in the floorwell of the passenger side but for someone didnt fancy getting rid of that room also thought that i would be able to hear the air from the speakers with the bass notes with it just been in front of your face

[C43]

I am still claiming I have not lost any passenger leg room compared with standard aluminimum foot well. I can't hear any air from the sub and I think having them in front of you is better than behind as it puts the sound stage in the right place. Also if you angle the subs up as per the standard foot plate you get some corner loading on the subs which helps a bit.

cheers

C43

[ant111s]

ah thats cool.. just thought thats what would have happened with the sub going in and out would create an air wave in my face lol.

bad news though.. got the sub fitted thursday, fri the bass kept cutting out, went away to somerset over the weekend, was a really nice drive until the sub kept popping, then it just sounded crap as though the speaker had blown and the bass just had no punch and the bass notes just went lame..

gutted really was looking forward to having a nice drive there (about 2 and half hours) with the music on the go and the nice country roads..

O well will take it back to the shop i got it from 2moz to see what they have to say about it, on the plus, i turned the bass off and just listened to the elise at work while i was behind the wheel :-)

[ant111s]

Went to the shop this morning, aparently the reason why it keeps dropping the bass is because i have it too loud for the speaker as its only a tiny thing, so i turned the setting "loudness" off, and the bass just sounds lame with it off, but anyway thought id give it a go, now i notice a real low noise coming through the speaker even if im not playing anything through it, can be described as a 'wind' noise. AND STILL DROPS THE BASS, gutted really, typical though, when i took it to the shop this morning it wouldnt do what its been doing to me all weekend, it seemd fine, always the way. Just got off the phone to him, he said bring it back in the morning, will keep updated.

[bogie]

4" speakers dont do bass, technically impossible to hear real bass through them so you are pissing into the wind

you really want 5", 6.5" to get "mid bass" and 8" and up for real bass

hence most high end factory fit stereos have a small 8" sub hidden somewhere in the car

[ant111s]

bogie said:

4" speakers dont do bass, technically impossible to hear real bass through them so you are pissing into the wind

you really want 5", 6.5" to get "mid bass" and 8" and up for real bass

hence most high end factory fit stereos have a small 8" sub hidden somewhere in the car

yea i have an alpine active sub sw1000 i think it is.. thats whats blown i think or some prob with it as thats what the prob is with it keep dropping the bass out and the blowing noise.

[C43]

the Focal 5WS or 13WS are just 5.25" and give good base if put in a box. The box I put on the Europa in the passenger footwell is 13.5lt which seems a good size and fits in with Focal's recomendations.