10" Blaupunkt Subwoofer (No loss of footspace!)

Joined
16 August 2003
Messages
160
Location
Rancho Cucamonga, CA
Hello everyone,

I installed a 10" Blaupunkt subwoofer in the passenger footwell of my 2005 Red Acura NSX http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64800. However, because I used an free air or infinite baffle(IB) setup my bass sound was not optimal. I went to the installer determined to have a fiberglass enclosure around the subwoofer. However, on examination the woofer was already touching the power steering unit at one point. If I added fiberglass behind the woofer it would then intrude into the footwell space.

The only solution I could come up with to improve the free air setup was to create a 2" wide skirt surrounding the wooden mounting plate made of 1/8" thick ABS plastic. Here are pictures of the modification. This would hopefully help isolate the rear sound wave from the front decreasing cancellation. It's almost a pseudo-enclosure.

I believe I noticed a considerable improvement in the quality of the bass with lower frequencies audible at higher volumes compared to the face plate without the ABS skirt.

Here are pictures of the procedure. These pictures show the 1/8" thick ABS strip being heated up to soften it allowing it to follow the contours of the wooden face plate which has the shape of the original metal plate covering the factory Bose subwoofer. After the ABS is contoured it is stapled to the wood plate to secure it. Once the ABS cools it becomes a rigid plastic skirt for the wooden plate.
 

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Here are more pictures showing the finished 10" Blaupunkt subwoofer. The ruler shows the thickness of the entire unit to be less than 3.5" which is the greatest thickness of the original Bose subwoofer. This allows mounting of the unit without loss of passenger footspace. The last picture shows the Blaupunkt speaker is rear mounted in a 3/8" recess in the 3/4" birch wooden plate.
 

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Here are more pictures showing the unit installed in the passenger footwell area. The unit sits on the reference line drawn on the floorboard which marks the original border of the metal plate covering the original Bose subwoofer. This assures us there is no real loss of footwell space.
 

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These pictures show the 10" Blaupunkt speaker mounted in the passenger footwell with the foam returned to its original position. Notice the speaker lies well in front of the foam assuring us there is no loss of passenger footwell space. The last few pictures show the carpet returned to its original position covering the new subwoofer speaker.
 

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Here are a few last pictures of the final appearance with the carpet returned to its original position covering the new 10" subwoofer.

I truly believe the ABS skirt helped the 10" Blaupunkt subwoofer achieve a better response. After the skirt placement I noticed the subwoofer imaging appeared to come out of the driver's side in addition to the passenger side. The Blaupunkt subwoofer hit lower frequencies with more volume than before the skirt.

I also added a 1/4" thick polyfill mat cut in the shape of the wooden plate over the subwoofer. This polyfill mat prevents the carpet from directly covering the subwoofer. Without the polyfill mat the carpet directly covered the subwoofer decreasing the subwoofer volume and causing a rattling noise of the carpet against the subwoofer.

In addition, Malibu Rapper was of great help in installing his harness which attaches to the Bose head unit and brings out the front channels (R and L) as RCA outputs. This allowed me to remove the high to low converter that was installed previously boosting my line output spectral range and signal magnitude significantly. This alone improved my audio quality tremendously. It solved my problem of low bass output which required me to turn up my subwoofer gain on the amplifier to maximum. After the removal of the high to low converter by Malibu Rapper, I only needed to turn up the subwoofer gain on the amplifier to 1/4 to achieve very strong bass.

Overall, I'm much more satisfied with this installation compared to the first attempt at the Blaupunkt installation. Thank you NSX prime for all your inputs encouraging me to improve the original free air install by at least going for a pseudo enclosure with the ABS skirt. Good luck to you all and a special thanks to Malibu Rapper for your direct involvement.
 

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At first I thought "No Way!". Then the idea started to grow on me. If it sounds good to you, then "Well Done". Also, you can't dis all that leg room.

Thanks for sharing.

Shaun
 
Last edited:
menuserve said:
I'm interested in knowing how much the speaker and all the fabrication ended up costing you?

The 10" Blaupunkt speaker was about $225 from a local reseller and the fabrication was about $200. I tried to buy the 10" Blaupunkt on Ebay twice up to $150 with delivery, but I was not successful. Good luck to you.
 
What you might also try John, for perhaps further improvement, is to add some sound deadening material around and under the edges of your skirts.
You will add additional isolation to the skirt itself & potentially create maybe even a pseudo 'sealed' box using the footwell itself as the remainder of the enclosure. Using a pliable foam type of material will allow it to form around the underlying components and prevent the sound waves from escaping through the open spaces. It won't create air seal obviously & still be essentially IB but the sound interference waves will be further limited. The object would be to try to fill the irregular spaces between the edge of the skirt & the floor, even accommodating the various electrical & mechanical components down there.
Check out some of the materials available here at Second Skin. (steps 2 & 3)
 


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