Hey all,

I've been doing some research on the subs in the rear deck of my 2005 X and I'm confused.

1. Some people seem to have a sub box in their X, while I have two free air subs. Has anyone heard the difference and can the box be installed in my 05?

2. I am reading conflicting impedance of the speakers. Some say they are 2 ohm while others have mentioned 4 ohms. This is pretty important since I'm looking at replacing them. Does anyone know for sure what they are?

I also read something about the newer cars having a much larger amp for the subs (something like 360 Watts vs 35 Watts). Has anyone tried to install that into an older X or is it even possible?

I'm looking at some improved sound from my car and I already have some Elemental Designs components for the front and I'm waiting to buy their 6.5" subs for the rear deck once I can get some more info on the impedance. They are on sale right now, BTW. You can get two of the m shipped for under $100!

Thanks a bunch!

Sam

 

Tougher question than I though! LOL!

 

The factory literature is a little sparse on this matter.

I was digging through the "electrical guide" for the 2002 model, and saw that the early subwoofer module apparently included a built-in amp and a single powered driver. At least, that's all that you could glean from the schematic.

Separately, I've read about early models coming with a passive radiator setup, which would typically include both a powered driver and a non-powered resonator cone, although I'd be hard pressed to find a reference that can validate this about the early models. Regardless, check wikipedia for a description of the concept of a "passive radiator." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive..._%28speaker%29

My 2004 model - with the US-spec Sport package, so it includes the 10-speaker, 320 watt Alpine setup - definitely includes two powered drivers and no subwoofer enclosure. I expect yours is the same, which you can confirm by looking at the bottoms of the subwoofer drivers from inside the trunk. You will probably see a pair of wires on each driver.

I only have experience with my own model, but there are plenty of references in product literature about some models with only six speakers. I would expect that they don't include the separate, trunk-mounted amplifier, and that may tie into the 35-watt specification that you found.

Finally, not knowing anything about that passive radiator setup in the early cars, I can only guess that those might, indeed, be a 2-ohm setup, but that was designed with a powered bass module/enclosure, so any low-impedance driver was electrically isolated from the main amp. If your setup is like mine, then you have one multi-channel amp feeding all of your speakers.

Outside of my own direct observations of my own car, everything I've said here is purely speculation about the earlier and later cars, and about the lower-end stereo in some models. Hopefully, other owners can chime in about the different stereo systems in their cars, and verify (or correct) some of what I've asserted here.