My Subwoofer Solution

Has anyone installed an amp under the passenger seat? I agree that placing an amp under the rear deck, covered over by carpeting can be a little too warm even if it has an inch or airflow underneath and above it. Any thoughts?

 

Plenty of room there for an amp. If you get a smaller one, you can even keep it to the side of the air vent. So far, my tiny Rockford Fosgate amp does fine and the Highlander storage area is smaller than the one in our Prius.

 

CPSDarren:
Would you mind telling me what size amp you went with? Sub? Location? I am considering many options which include conventional 4 channel and mono amp + a small 10 inch sub (which means part of my rear hatch would go to a small box) as well as getting an all in one unit like the Infinity Bass link or newer Boss or Cadence 8-10 amplified sub units that would fit under the front passenger seat. The one I really have my eye on is a Kicker zx400.1 mono amp that puts out 400 watts on a 2 ohm load or 200 watts on a 4 ohm load. This amp is a class D so the load would not be as much as an AB type I believe. I would like to combine that with a 4 channel amp of maybe 70-80 watts per channel on a 4 ohm load. Also considering this amp as far as what type. Another class D amp to lessen the load or conventional AB type? My question is what draw power-wise would it have on the Prius's electrical system. Thoughts? Ideas?


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Just read entire postings and see what you have as far as amp and small box. Please disregard my question above. So I assume the box fits under a seat on the Prius nicely saving you from a large sub in the cargo area? No strain on electrical of Prius?

 

The amp I purchased, Rockford Fosgate PBR300x1, is much lower power than what you are looking for. I got it because of the very small footprint. It is 75W into 4 Ohms, 150 into 2 ohms and 300 into 1 ohm. My setup went into my Highlander Hybrid, not my Prius. The under floor cargo area is smaller in the Highlander. Not sure how the battery compares offhand. I mostly posted for reference since I was looking for a smaller sub like the OP. The Kicker sub is small, but does not fit underseat. I have an underseat sub (Crutchfield Sound Ordnance) that I tried, also. I think if you are looking for any amount of low bass below 60Hz, you will not be very happy with one. For some midbass boom, they will work fine, though. The box volume is just too small. I've tried modeling even the priciest flat woofers in a box that small and it just doesn't work.

The main advantage of a Class D amp is that the amp itself wastes less power as heat. So, all else equal, it Class D should run cooler. Of course, all else is rarely equal as they tend to use this advantage to save money on the cooling system, putting it into a smaller chassis with less heatsink. Class D should tend to draw less current overall, but at high power levels, may not be large enough to make it a major consideration. That is because Class AB amplifiers tend to be most efficient at maximum power, over 75% in theory. Class D amplifiers vary, but usually around 80 to 90% efficient over a wider range of output power, depending a lot on the design. Bad designs are little better than a good Class AB design...

Unless you can find reviews that measure the actual current taken from the batter, one very rough way to compare is to look in the owners manuals and see what fuse rating is suggested. That may be the most practical way to limit how much current is drawn from your battery at peak power levels.