Reverse Subs

Okay here is a question my friend had about subs. What would happen if you mounted subs backwards in their boxes? That would have the magnet on the outside. Wouldn’t the subs be deeper since its going back into the box?

Okay here is a question my friend had about subs. What would happen if you mounted subs backwards in their boxes? That would have the magnet on the outside. Wouldn’t the subs be deeper since its going back into the box?

im not so sure there will be anything decent coming out, most subs aren't make for "open air" or "free air" enclosures, people do that in bandpass boxes and it still doesn't sound right, and most or all of the sound would be trapped resonating in the box

not a good idea unless it says "free air use" on the box..of course I always see people in car shows with my Audiobahn subs used in free air..guess its just for looks. Better to just stick with what you know works..or you could test it and see if you got the $$ to fix anything that would go wrong.

im not so sure there will be anything decent coming out, most subs aren't make for "open air" or "free air" enclosures, people do that in bandpass boxes and it still doesn't sound right, and most or all of the sound would be trapped resonating in the box



not a good idea unless it says "free air use" on the box..of course I always see people in car shows with my Audiobahn subs used in free air..guess its just for looks. Better to just stick with what you know works..or you could test it and see if you got the $$ to fix anything that would go wrong.

Hate to be mean, but neither one of you have a snowballs clue in hell what you are talking about. This is NOT a free air setup. I run my subs and suggest running subs inverted ever now and then if you have the space. Nothing will go wrong, all this does is remove the displacement of the subwoofer inside the box therefore increasing the internal size of the box and adding a little more low end, VERY little. This will not blow your subwoofer, you might want to run it 180 degrees out of phase, or positive on the amp to negative on the sub, and negative on the amp to positive on the sub.

this IS a common way to show off the back of the subwoofer

relize that all a woofer does is move air, so if the back of the cone is till moving, it puts out the exact same vibrations, but opposite. so as long as you don't have another woofer wire with the same polarity but fron facing, it will sound the same, in theory.

So what your telling me is...I can take my Audiobahn 12 and turn it around to where the cone is facing inside the sub box (which is ported) and I'll get a lower sound but nothing will go wrong? If yes..I'm doing that this minute.

well, in theory unless the cubic space of the box becomes to large and then it might sound muddy, but you could try it, just grab a new set of wires so that the old ones are still installed in the box incase it sucks and just wire it up real fast.

but wait for some one else to respond becasue I have only read about this stuff, I don't even have a cd deck yet.

make sure you have something to hold the box in, cause I had my box tilt before.

Should work just fine, it's the exact same as building a new box about .2cf bigger and mounting the sub normally.

cool..the box I have now is about 1.93 cuft. so I have about 1 cu.ft. until I reach the maximum size of the enclosure. What about dust and debree?

try and get something to get rid of the debree before you mount a sub. You mean inside the box right?

how do you plan on getting them to mount decently? What about speaker wires hanging out looking shady?

You can mount them just like normal, screws through the screw holes into the wood...

As for the wires, you can use wire ties to attach them to the sub's basket and run them cleanly away from the sub if you take your time.

cool..did it and it sounds alittle the same..alittle deeper. had to shave the hole to mount it b/c the rubber around the cone wouldn't fit completely in. Thanks for the advice and the new look.

could have taken rubber off and flipped it and replaced...

could have taken rubber off and flipped it and replaced...


Whats that mean?

dont worry about it. You'll get it tomorrow... ROFLMAO

i had a set of kicker L5's that i had inverted jsut remember that u need to reverse the polarity of the subs plus to negative if u wire them like u would in a sealed box the subs will wreck themselves buy pushing and pulling against itself and the air pressure inside the box u have them firing into. reverese to polarity and u'll most likely be ok i know my subs did actually sound better inverted because the whole trunk acted at a box. ne way dont got em any more cuz i got a killer new Ma audio set up 4400 rms 10,000 watts peak 5 farad cap

hmm..reverseing the polarity?..Anyone else think this is smart? BTW..The rubber I was talking about couldn't be taken off..I was talking about the cone itself. It was actually bigger than the cutout for the speaker to fit into the box. but newayz..what about this polarity thing..seems to me the speaker needs the correct polarity to operate..change the polarity hookup on the speaker you need to do the same with the amp..doesn't make much sense to me.

well if you only invert one sub, and keep the other sub the normal way in the box, you will need to make them both in phase with one another; so they both hit the same direction at the same time. The same way that if they are both the same way in the box, and one hits in while the other hits out, you need to check the wiring so that they both hit the same way.

no no no ! u need to run the wires normally from the amp but put the red on the black and black on the red of the sub. u want the speakers to be pushing and pulling opposite of a sub IN a box reversing the polarity will make ur whole trunk the box and the box there firing into will cut out some distortion but like the other guy said make sure ur hold is big enough especially with kicker so u dont wreck the surrounds trust me the polarity needs to be reversed if your going to run for sub with "free air" my kickers L5's worked better like this with less distortion but wire them like i said

i had a set of kicker L5's that i had inverted jsut remember that u need to reverse the polarity of the subs plus to negative if u wire them like u would in a sealed box the subs will wreck themselves buy pushing and pulling against itself and the air pressure inside the box u have them firing into. reverese to polarity and u'll most likely be ok i know my subs did actually sound better inverted because the whole trunk acted at a box. ne way dont got em any more cuz i got a killer new Ma audio set up 4400 rms 10,000 watts peak 5 farad cap


caps dont help your system they hurt it. and i doubt you are getting 10000 watts

no no no ! u need to run the wires normally from the amp but put the red on the black and black on the red of the sub. u want the speakers to be pushing and pulling opposite of a sub IN a box reversing the polarity will make ur whole trunk the box and the box there firing into will cut out some distortion but like the other guy said make sure ur hole is big enough especially with kicker so u dont wreck the surrounds trust me the polarity needs to be reversed if your going to run for sub with "free air" my kickers L5's worked better like this with less distortion but wire them like i said

You can switch either the wires on the amp or the sub.

PLEASE quit saying free air, it is not free air. all you are doing is taking tue sub out of the box and not in the box. Saying it is free air is like saying a sealed box with subs mounted normally is free air.

if your hole isn't big enough to start with, you have a problem there...

The whole trunk is a box either way... Your subs always fire out if they are both in polarity with each other and the sub with the cone inside is in phase.

How will the box cut out distortion? please elaborate

So if i mount one sub in the box like regular and then take and flip the other one i need to reverse the wires on the one i flipped?

So if i mount one sub in the box like regular and then take and flip the other one i need to reverse the wires on the one i flipped?

you need to reverse the wires on one of them, doesn't matter which one

you need to reverse the wires on one of them, doesn't matter which one

Technically though, if you reverse the wires on the sub not flipped it will hit inside and they will both be hitting into the box, so it might not sound as accurate

Technically though, if you reverse the wires on the sub not flipped it will hit inside and they will both be hitting into the box, so it might not sound as accurate

you're right, but it will sound just fine

Try it, you might be surprised. I have a feature on my HU that inverts the signal going to the sub, I can't hear a difference either way

Yeah, but all my sound mixing buddies seem to be able to. They get it in, "oh it is hitting in to the box, you should switch that"

ok ok..I reversed the polarity on the amp and it sounds like its a sucking bass rather than a punch. I'm trying to deal with a quad terminal dvc and it could get pretty confusing switching the wires around on the sub.
Will this hurt the sub firing into the box? It sounds better to me. Also...
Will sunlight hurt the subs? I'm thinking about putting my new box in and the box takes up all of my hatch..but if I flip the box vertically and reverse the subs and take off my hatch cover you will be able to see them hitting down from outside, but I don't have tint. Any comments?

hitting it into the box wont hurt it... Try to get at least a rear tint...

Thanks

I would if you invert your subs.Go out and get some good looking wire.Some StreetWire would work with the blue/silver twist in it.And to the dude who said he had a cap with his 4400rms.I will put my 200amp Alt up anytime VS you cap.Dude build you Alt up or get a new 1 not a cap pls.

Scoot