filly
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I have a 2017 GT Premium vert with the 9 speaker system. I thought I would share my experience for anyone else interested in adding a subwoofer.
I'm satisfied with the highs and mids in the Shaker system, but the total lack of bottom end was disappointing. What little bit of bass there is seems to totally vanish once the top goes down. I'm not looking to rattle everyone's windows at the intersection (the exhaust already does that well enough
), just wanted to experience the full range of sound when enjoying my tunes. So I purchased a Focal BombA BP20 powered sub. It's not massive, only an 8", but is well built and packs some really nice clean and crisp sound.
I ran the power to a terminal in the under hood fuse box and the remote power on to the power window fuse in the passenger floor board fuse box. I sanded down the metal and connected the ground to one of the bolts holding the wiring harnesses to the body in the far right side of the trunk. And finally, I connected the high level inputs to the rear speaker lines. The result was pretty disappointing, the door speakers in the car were still pushing out more bass than the subwoofer.
Next up, I ordered an OBD connector so I could try the ForScan adjustment to the EQ. To my initial delight, changing the EQ settings resulted in much more range in the car speakers. But, I still had better bass range out of the cheapo walmart subwoofer that lives in my truck. I wanted some quantification, so I played a Bass range test and found I was barely getting down to 50hz and nothing below that. When I faded the speakers all the way front/back, I found there was still much better range from the front speakers. So my next effort was to connect to the front speaker signal instead - significantly better, but still had to crank the subwoofer way up and was missing the lowest part of the lows - Unfortunately, I didn't quantify this one before moving on to the final attempt.
Finally, I tapped into the low level rear speaker signal before the amp (far left in the driver side floor board) and tied into the low level inputs on the subwoofer. Fired it up and wow - finally! First thing I had to do was turn the subwoofer gain down because it was rattling my brain. After dialing it down a bit I got that rich full range of sound I was looking for. Still tweaking the crossover a bit, but currently about 60% gain, 120Hz on the LPF, and 0 bass boost.
So here's the summary of how I got nice sound from the subwoofer:
1. ForScan to dial down the EQ's bass reduction - makes the whole system sound better. ACM 727-01-02 00xx xx
2. ForScan to reduce the bass reduction upon opening the top. DSP 783-01-01 00xx xx
(IMO it doesn't eliminate it 100% but makes a significant difference)
3. Wire up power for your sub (there are some good youtube videos on how to run this) and connect to the low level rear speaker signal before the amp - wires are tiny and tight, so this can be a bit frustrating to splice in - I think someone on the forum was making wiring harnesses to make this easy, but I'm not that patient. There is a wiring diagram here, low levels are connected to the black plug.
4. Enjoy!
I'm satisfied with the highs and mids in the Shaker system, but the total lack of bottom end was disappointing. What little bit of bass there is seems to totally vanish once the top goes down. I'm not looking to rattle everyone's windows at the intersection (the exhaust already does that well enough
), just wanted to experience the full range of sound when enjoying my tunes. So I purchased a Focal BombA BP20 powered sub. It's not massive, only an 8", but is well built and packs some really nice clean and crisp sound.I ran the power to a terminal in the under hood fuse box and the remote power on to the power window fuse in the passenger floor board fuse box. I sanded down the metal and connected the ground to one of the bolts holding the wiring harnesses to the body in the far right side of the trunk. And finally, I connected the high level inputs to the rear speaker lines. The result was pretty disappointing, the door speakers in the car were still pushing out more bass than the subwoofer.
Next up, I ordered an OBD connector so I could try the ForScan adjustment to the EQ. To my initial delight, changing the EQ settings resulted in much more range in the car speakers. But, I still had better bass range out of the cheapo walmart subwoofer that lives in my truck. I wanted some quantification, so I played a Bass range test and found I was barely getting down to 50hz and nothing below that. When I faded the speakers all the way front/back, I found there was still much better range from the front speakers. So my next effort was to connect to the front speaker signal instead - significantly better, but still had to crank the subwoofer way up and was missing the lowest part of the lows - Unfortunately, I didn't quantify this one before moving on to the final attempt.
Finally, I tapped into the low level rear speaker signal before the amp (far left in the driver side floor board) and tied into the low level inputs on the subwoofer. Fired it up and wow - finally! First thing I had to do was turn the subwoofer gain down because it was rattling my brain. After dialing it down a bit I got that rich full range of sound I was looking for. Still tweaking the crossover a bit, but currently about 60% gain, 120Hz on the LPF, and 0 bass boost.
So here's the summary of how I got nice sound from the subwoofer:
1. ForScan to dial down the EQ's bass reduction - makes the whole system sound better. ACM 727-01-02 00xx xx
2. ForScan to reduce the bass reduction upon opening the top. DSP 783-01-01 00xx xx
(IMO it doesn't eliminate it 100% but makes a significant difference)
3. Wire up power for your sub (there are some good youtube videos on how to run this) and connect to the low level rear speaker signal before the amp - wires are tiny and tight, so this can be a bit frustrating to splice in - I think someone on the forum was making wiring harnesses to make this easy, but I'm not that patient. There is a wiring diagram here, low levels are connected to the black plug.
4. Enjoy!
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