My factory subwoofer hasn't worked in months. It's not a big deal seeing as how i mostly listen to Jimmy Buffett and the Beatles and occasionally NPR. Anyways, when I do listen to dubstep on full blast, I'd like some beefiness to my sound system. I was wondering if I could replace my factory sub with something like a really nice 10" Memphis or rockford fosgate subwoofer. I know I'm going to have to remove the seat cushion and make the hole larger. My qusetions are as follows: 1.) What is the factory subwoofer size? 2.) What is the factory amp specs? 3.) Where is the amp located? 4.) Will an upgraded amp plug right in and work (granted I use a larger power cable of course)? 5.) Has anybody ever tried this before?
I had 2 12" subwoofers in my previous car (1997 Buick LeSabre) and it sonded like crap becaues it was in the highly sound-proofed trunk. I figure this setup of having the 10" subwoofer on the decklid should sound really clear and un-muffled. A stupid idea would be to put subs in the tiny trunk and have the sound waves blocked by the gas tank. Let me know what you guys think and thanks for reading this....

 

OK blood, I'll bite. Let's deal with your questions.
1.Factory sub size.....6x9 dual voice coil. Cardboard effort, Alpine's 20th century answer, crap by today's standards.
2. Amp specs, 4Ohm supply to each speaker 320w? not sure, (sounds like you've the premium system as the sub is part of that). From what I can glean, the amp supplies 10 speakers @ 30 odd Watts. I could be wrong.
3. Location is above the cd player, remove the carpet it's bolted to the top
4. No - Alpine Ai-net supplies information to the amp via the cd. To change amps means total sound system upgrade, (headunit/amp) no shortcuts from what I can tell, dumping the cd player for flash drive/mp3 headunit?
5. What? change the sub? or full system install?

I've changed my sub to an 8" Kicker solo-baric, out-performs most 10" subs. I had to make another parcel shelf insert to fit the grill, spacer and re-trimmed in leather.

Just to get at the sub can turn into an epic struggle, the parcel shelf and seat back sometimes feel as if they're part of the car, they can be a real pain to remove. You might be lucky and it all falls out, but I doubt it. Another thing, make sure the parcel shelf has it's little anti vibration pads fitted when it all goes back in or you'll have annoying vibes.

Finally, the outputs are supposedly crossed over within the amp - conflicting info on this as some say it's full range outputs, makes sense as the tweeters have hi pass caps to filter low end. So if buying components for the doors makes things interesting with regard to using the supplied x-overs.....

 

What kind of stereo setup do you have in your car Sean? any pics?

 

I'm have a harmon kardon system, not an alpine. I can't use a 10" subwoofer on the parcel shelf because it won't fit. What are the specs of the 8" sub and the amp you're running ( max power, how many ohms/voice coils, how many watts is the amp pushing, mono-amp?).