Adding subwoofers and amp(s)

Wow! Why so much bass? I have a single 8" sub in a ported box with a 400w MTX amp. Although, I have an aftermarket radio with preamp outputs. The 8" is plenty enough for the prius. I have to keep the bass knob no higher than 1/2 way up. It stays at ~1/4 though. Turned up and windows down, I can hear and feel the bass from 30ft away. I've tried not "advertise" my system to other motorists and I keep the cargo cover drawn to hide the sub.

 

to keep the car from rattling and buzzing like crazy, your gonna need about 200 lbs of dynamat. and that might not even help. I had 7" woofers in my back doors and a kenwood head unit and that was enough to make the rear view blurry. unless you just got to have painful volume levels, 1 sub should be more than enough. with a good head unit and good door speakers, I don't think you'll need an amp for the door speakers either. I'd swap the door speakers and head unit 1st, then see if you really need more. if you do, there are several folks here that added subs and most were well satisfied. I guy did 2 subs and put up a video, the hatch was rattling very bad when he turned it up.

 

I wonder if the hatch rattled bad enough, if the opener switch could be activated? That wouldn't be good if driving.

 

That setup will take about (or even bit more than) maximum power of Prius charging system on average when playing music at full volume. Even though nobody seems to know exact output current of charging system. But as long as you don’t play it at full volume most of the times I think you’re ok. You will need better battery but it’s in the boot so it’s easy even to replace it with bigger one.

 

you will need to modify the car to get a bigger battery in there, and the cable ends are smaller than normal too. honestly the cars not heavy-duty enough to install a huge stereo. when you say super loud, are you one of those clowns that blasts the stereo obnoxiously and wears ear plugs? I hope not cause its idiotic, rude and dangerous. but at least pedestrians and cyclists will hear you.

 

Why do you need 2 subs, unless it's to compete in a specific SPL format. Get a good single sub and spend more on enclosure and tuning and you'll get the results while not taxing the Prius power system.
If Audiopipe is still anything like it was when I was playing around in car audio, then give the brand a very wide berth.
Suggest you head over to somewhere like the Steve Meade forums

 

I have an image dynamics idmax12 , a cdt 12 500rms, and 2 8" jl audio 3v3 wich will be best for the prius? Ohh I have a velodyne 10 powered with the amp blown I emwant to use it as pasive just the speaker & box, I ordered an optima battery too just to,maje shure system can go with the wattage

 

Why go with the Optima battery when it has less capacity "not more" than the original Toyota battery.

John (Britprius)

 

Well it is known as deep cycle battery ,,,,Im I missing something? Theres somethingI didnt know?,,, I always considered optima as best,,, or shoukd try a kinetic? Who knows if can be atached a bigger battery on prius. About size not amp

 

It is a deep cycle battery, but it is not as large a capacity as the Toyota OEM battery for SKS -- 39 aH vs 45 aH, personally I'd choose the OEM over the Optima. Also, it seems of late that Optima's quality control is leaves a bit to be desired.

Yes, you can definitely find larger (not necessarily physically larger) in terms of aH. Research AGM batteries made for mobility scooters or wheelchairs with the same physical size. These can be rated at up to 65 aH and specifically designed for multiple deep cycles. These generally come with M8 flat terminals, but you can easily purchase post adapters in Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) size that just bolt on.

Here is a post where Britprius wrote up doing just that -- it has some good info.

YMMV.

 

For high power car amp those wheelchair or similar battery’s aren’t very good they normally have higher internal resistance and less cold cranking amps (somewhat same thing). For car amps you want deep cycle battery that could start normal car.

If you’re installing setup that has around 1000w of rms power (combined) you should install bigger battery. If it doesn’t fit in normal battery place its not hard to install it with amp(s).

 

If you check out the Figure for "mobility batteries" the internal resistance is lower than normal flooded batteries. The battery I am using is a mobility battery rated at over 60 AH capacity and is the same size as the OEM Prius battery fitting in the original space. It also has a higher discharge capability than the equivalent size Optima at 1000 amps for 15 seconds, and as I have already stated over 60 AH capacity against the Optima's 38 AH capacity.
They are also deep cycle batteries designed to be deep cycled on a daily basis without problems.

John (Britprius)

 

I'm running two POLK Audio amps which spec out at 800RMS each and I haven't had any issues with my Yellowtop doing just fine

 

hello Caleb. If you are happy with two 12s, you install two two 12s. You're the driver.If that makes you happy, I encourage you to do it. Dont worry about what others think. Just upgrade the battery and maybe install a dedicated battery for your car audio.

 

I just had an Alpine PDX-M6 mono block 600RMS? amp installed with a single Alpine R-12 Subwoofer in a ported Qbomb and now I can't hear the door speakers so I got another 4 ch amp that can put out a few 100 watts and a Pioneer AVH-50EX head unit. Can't wait! Think I'll go with Alpine's type R 6x9s for the front doors and 5.25" tyrp R for the rear doors and disconnect the factory tweeters.

 

Hi there,
interesting. how do you have the speaker or the speaker box install in the car? Is it stealth or in a box sitting behind the back seat.
I want to install a 2-8 subs or just 1-10 inch. I have a very good subwoofer amp that I have been using for years now in my other car which is just a perfect (medium power) 300 watts for me. I'm trying to figure out add it with the existing JBL system just to thump the bass bit more and that's it. I got the car used 2 months ago and the previous owner was grandma and the break in on the car and stereo was done moderately. I kind of prefer it that way. Anyways that being said, I want to add 1 sub mono amp and a subwoofer that I can stealth (hide) or maybe semi- stealth I can easily detach possibly the amp has a quick connector mounted on the sub box itself and the box is "latched" to the back side that I can easily take out if I need the space. I love this Rockford Fosgate amp and been using the same model on my other car for over 8 years now, No problem at all. Very quiet, it doesn't eat too much power, excellent grounding and it delivers! One time I left my car stereo on medium power with this setup and surprisingly it didn't drain the battery enough that I was able to start it no problem at all.