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installing aftermarket subwoofer in P2?

26K views 79 replies 27 participants last post by  reneult 
#1 ·
has anyone installed an aftermarket subwoofer?
the standars soundsystem sounds pretty good, but as it lacks a sub so im considering installing one under the seat or something.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Just find the amp in the car and tap the high level outputs for the sub amp. Most aftermarket amps can take this high level input. Trunk is the best spot for a sub. I am sure you can set for auto on and the subs shouldn’t drain the battery. If anything the car shuts off if you aren’t in the seat. Your 12V should be fine.
If you want to be ambitious, build a fibreglass box for the under trunk cover for a more oem look.
 
#16 ·
Just installed the JBL Slim 8 and it was pretty easy, tapped power from the 12V cig lighter on lefthand rear boot, tapped remote (light blue) from the taillight just above that, I used the ground on the right boot and tapped the high level inputs right from the amp harness (rh boot). The speaker wires for rear speakers are purple/yellow and in the RH plug you can just tap those pairs to the high level input on the slim8.
 
#20 ·
I'd be interested in this as well. Did you have a HK system in your car? Did you disable the rear air woofer in that case (where is it located exactly, somewhere under the rear seat?). I wonder would tapping to the woofer signal make more sense, as there might be a lot of filtering done to the rear speakers....(high pass filter)
 
#21 ·
I had the HK system. I did not disable the air woofers; aside from turning them all the way down in the system. I also wasn't going to spend the time trying to guess which were which when it came to the wire cluster. Was easy with the splice kit to just tap into purple/yellow for the built in high pass filter, power and ground. Used the 12V lighter on the left hadn side to provide the signal for the remote; which so far sounds great on the JBL that I dropped in.
 
#23 ·
There are two "air woofers". One in the frank on the passenger side (right) and one in the left side panel behind the rear seats. The wires were not helpful as almost all dealers are that dame color, it's been a minute but I think yellow and purple. You could do a resistance check at the pin to those wires if you really want but the jbl has the auto sense and all that jazz so other than tapping into the included high level sense you shouldn't be worried about anything else. If you aren't going JBL you could do another high pass filter to rca, etc.
 
#24 · (Edited)
Great install. I also installed the same one, but I fit mine on the side next to the cigarette lighter connection. For power I am using a cigarette lighter plug in as testing. You can also tap into the power red wire from the amp using a postal and get the ground from the same place you got yours. I can still lift the trunk floor and access it. Instead of tapping into the high speaker wires. I tapped directly into the front air woofer wires (it has two cores, two negative and two positive wires). For some reason when I tapped into the front door speakers I lost speaker sound. I am not having any issues and the sub is turning on automatically no need to tap extra wires. I wire the subwoofer manual lever all the way to the front console. My car has the base audio system. I like your cleaner installation. This picture is from when I was doing the fitting on mine. I did not use the straps at the end, I screw it in into the wood bracket. There are two screws inside the elastic section so they are not visible if I remove the sub holder bracket. Al the wires are coming from the top section of the trim. I can take a picture later, I took it out because I was rear ended last week (cosmetic bumper damage) and I don't want the sub to be on the way of the shop to check on things, but I really like the sound now. My car only has one air woofer in the front dash. However, I already replaced all speakers and with the added sub I got a total new audio system.
Hood Automotive tire Vehicle Motor vehicle Gas
 

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#27 ·
Hey guys, I visited two car audio dealer/workshops today. The first one (Ryda) hadn't done an EV before so was giving me a lot of info to get out of doing an installation for me, it seems. Told them I was interested in the JBL Basspro SL2 or Kicker HS10. Some points they said:
  • can't replace any of the existing speakers only add on
  • an under seat sub is designed to have some airflow so putting it in the "tyre well" may cause it to overheat (what do you think?)
  • not advised to use the 12V lighter socket for power, it doesn't provide consistent power (?)
  • could probably install a powered sub but would have to test a lot of wires(!) and can't guarantee that it would sound any better.

I didn't hang around there for very long. Ten minutes down the road, I visited Strathfield Car Radios, who were more accommodating. Told them the two subs i'm interested in. They said:
  • the Kicker HS10 is great, the installer wasn't a fan of Kicker but was pleasantly surprised by the unit
  • hadn't done a Polestar before but a few Tesla's so it shouldn't be a problem
  • Price of Kicker HS10 $600AUD (I can get cheaper elsewhere)
  • Price of install would be $220AUD plus $40AUD for Stinger STK88 Gauge 2Ch Wiring Kit
  • checked the fit in the tyre well (see photo) I would need to build the riser

What do you guys think of the info provided by these two shops?

I am more interested in the Kicker HS10 over the JBL SL2 because it has a greater frequency response (25-120 vs 35-120) is 180W RMS vs 120 W RMS, and larger speaker so should move more air. Anything else I should consider?

Any tips on making the riser to fit in the curves of the boot space?

Hand Watch Finger Bumper Gas
 
#29 ·
I make it different , i check bassbrother kit (Polestar 2 basspakke - bassbrothers.no ) and make my own for a 10" , i just finished my box yesterday and will make the installation next weekend .
I choose a Hertz MP250 D4.3 Pro with Hertz HCP 1D with a sealed box
 

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#32 ·
Thanks to you all for blazing the trail. I have the base stereo and I'd rate it maybe a 5 out of 10. I'll start with adding a sub as that's lowest effort to address the biggest deficiency of the base system. I see the 12V rear outlet is good for 120W. I've always been a JL Audio guy, but I've been out of the game a loooooooooooong time. They have some pre-made sub boxes with built-in amps, but their 8" system pulls up to 250W. I'll research for a while to see what's new.
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#35 ·
Well, if a manufacturer advertises their sub as a 250W unit it probably means that the sub amp can deliver that power for a few milliseconds only even 120W of constant use would be one hell of a noise.... So I would not worry about that, if you exceed the power delivered by the outlet it'll blow a fuse.
 
#42 ·
I mentioned that JL Audio's smallest self-amplified 8" sub is 250W because there's no way it'd work :) So as much as I love JL Audio, I can't use their product.

It's 250W RMS and JL Audio always underrated there stuff; at least they did 25 years ago.

The fuse on the 12V rear socket is 15A, FYI.

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Not wanting to push the limits of anything and looking for ease of install, I'm actually leaning towards this smaller JBL BassPro Nano which uses a 6"x8" woofer. 100 watts RMS. The factory speakers are only so-so, so adding a bit more low-end with a so-so setup. I'm going for ease of install and max bang for the buck here.
 
#45 ·
I mentioned that JL Audio's smallest self-amplified 8" sub is 250W because there's no way it'd work :) So as much as I love JL Audio, I can't use their product.

It's 250W RMS and JL Audio always underrated there stuff; at least they did 25 years ago.

The fuse on the 12V rear socket is 15A, FYI.

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Not wanting to push the limits of anything and looking for ease of install, I'm actually leaning towards this smaller JBL BassPro Nano which uses a 6"x8" woofer. 100 watts RMS. The factory speakers are only so-so, so adding a bit more low-end with a so-so setup. I'm going for ease of install and max bang for the buck here.
This barely does anything if you have it in the boot of the car. Perhaps if you place one under each of the front seats you may get some improvements but even that is minimal. Personally, unless you have the plus system I'd start off off insulating and strengthening the car first. In order to get low end you'll have to have bigger speakers in a simplistic way that is it. Sure you can fill in some gaps from even worse other speakers but with so little power and so little reserve you'd actually end up running a device like that harder.

Don't get me wrong, I think it has its uses and perhaps for some older classic cars with less sorted seats and cabin spaces and little paper based 3" speakers you can get some improvement. But the Polestar isn't one.

PS. And even there the instruction manual suggests to run a cable to the battery...
 
#43 ·
Just pass a power cable , it s not so long and difficult on Polestar. Made on mine today, i need to adjust my amp this week .
 

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#51 ·
I'm sure it's been mentioned somewhere, be careful correlating Audio output to electrical power drawn. They can be vastly different numbers based on the efficiency of the amplifiers. Which most stuff today is class D and significantly more efficient than other Designs.
 
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