# jooonnn's rebuild - 2005 Corolla - Rear Deck IB Hertz HX300 Subwoofers - Thesis 2-Way



## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

My first build:
http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...-ce-3-way-active-tips-advice-appreciated.html

I decided to redo pretty much everything in my car after learning so much through trial and error and all the people who gave me tips from my first build! Big thanks to GouRiki (Lance) my roommate for helping me the whole way, couldn't have done it without him, wood and speakers are damn heavy.

Things I've Learned:
Fiberglass Stinks
Buy Rage Gold
Sand Sand Sand 
Grey is the hardest color in the world to mesh/match
Trunks get so hot
You never realize how heavy subwoofers are until you try to hold them up against a rear deck in a trunk
Vinyl is incredibly hard to do right on curves
3-ways are really hard to tune in my tiny corolla

I bought some rage gold after calling about 10 different auto stores around my university.


Pillars:

I decided to keep it tweeter ready in case i change my mind about the car again (who does that anyways ) 











Doors:

Wrapped it also in same black (cell camera color sucks). Was tired of the lame vinyl mismatch i had earlier.


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

I decided to do away with the w12gti :'( it was just too big and bulky in my trunk. I acquired a sweet new pair of Hertz HX300 subwoofers from the best audison/hertz dealer in the world, ryan slade! I've always liked the idea of a pair of subs and it kind of matches the Lrx amps a little better as well. I was really tired of never getting an e-mail back or a phone call back over the past YEAR from AE Speakers in terms of ordering a pair of IB's from them . I've been itching to experiment with IB for the longest time! I decided to mount the HX300s on my rear deck, but instead of cutting the current rear deck, i made my own with the router out of 3/4" birch.

Inverted Mount for the woofers









Woofer Cones









With Deck off 









Close Up of what woofers look like from overhead view to make sure nothing was touching the cones









I decided that the 3-way Thesis setup was a bit complicated in my tiny corolla so I decided to put the Thesis Midrange 3.0"'s for sale and possibly the Audison LRx 2.4 as well. I moved the tweeters to the kickpanel as I've always been a huge fan of kicks.


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

Deck Cutout









Deck Carpeted and Little Snazzy Audison logo made with some plexiglass









Top View of Deck to make sure woofers were seated correctly in mounting holes









bottom view of the deck with woofers invert mounted


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## GouRiki (Apr 9, 2010)

jooonnn said:


> I acquired a sweet new pair of Hertz HX300 subwoofers from the best audison/hertz dealer in the world, ryan slade!


+100000000x 


Nice setup, wish I could see it in person.

You do all this yourself?


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

The glue for the fabric kinda showed through on the door at the top of the black area so i bought some pvc border









Painted it black to match a little better, also you can see the redone kickpanels here!


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## moorezy (Feb 5, 2009)

How's the IB sound?


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

My first IB attempt with my w12gti literally sounded awful. You literally couldn't hear it very well at all. Once i got my HX300s last week I made the baffle as close to form fitting the roof of my trunk as possible and it just sounds _right_. IB really does require attention to detail for the install but it's no where near as hard as i thought. Sealing every little thing and deadening imho isn't really necessary as long as you get the big ones.

It's just that perfect mix between better extension than a sealed with the control and subjective quality over a ported box. Don't get me wrong I think correctly made ported boxes sound great, it's just every trunk is different, and I feel my trunk especially was not very forgiving for ported boxes to get the "detail" I wanted to the front of the cabin without a good amount of EQ'ing. Also my ported w12gti box was HUGE, and it prevented me being able to bring my guitar and amp to play at places in addition to it blocking sight of the rest of the trunk. The rear deck 12's sound great, if anything sound just as punchy and tight as any sealed box. The use of two woofers makes up for the bass to get plenty plenty loud for my tastes.

I listen to everything from the Eagles to Nicki Minaj. I had a whole 3.5 hour trip back home to fiddle around with the EQ and i couldn't be happier with not only the cool looks and added space, but also the ease to blend the the stage. I should have more pics up by tomorrow to show some more progress pics. I still need to finish making the new trunk floor and possibly a new amp rack.


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## Notloudenuf (Sep 14, 2008)

Looking good man. You need to make it to a future NC meet so I can hear this thing finally.


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## slade1274 (Mar 25, 2008)

Glad you are happy with the results!


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

Thanks again Ryan!

It looks like I have yet again missed another meet! I need some sort of e-mail or heads up next time there is one! I have one more semester at Clemson left so hopefully i can come again.


Did some carpet cushioning on the top to cushion against the trunk roof curves and nubs.










Deck back on









Deck mounted, still have to hide wires and build a different amp rack. I've got two wood blocks holding the rack right now up so I could slide the trunk floor off and on quickly as I made measurements. Also had to route out a little hole for the trunk light to show through as well on the baffle. 

























*Next steps:
new trunk floor, new amp rack*


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

After reading all this stuff about the alpine 8" i am incredibly INCREDIBLY tempted to buy one and try one in my back seat center floor. It's essentially the perfect size to fit a sealed 8" box there but it would be facing upward so I am wondering about how that comes in to play since it would be so close to the driver/facing upwards. I'm know it's probably overkill to the max but I just think it would look cool and be fun to build. I could run it as a 3-way then, thesis tweeters, thesis midbass, single alpine 8" and hertz ib subs. Does anyone have any advice?


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## 3cyltrbo (Apr 11, 2011)

I'm not an authority but here is my opinion

with the positive feedback the Alpine 8 is getting, why not just run those alone for sub?

personally I think its gonna be hard to blend them all (mids - tweets up front / "midbass sub" in centre / IB subs at rear) 

why not try a front sub or even make enlosure(s) that attach to the rear parcel shelf for a couple of the Alpines?


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

3cyltrbo said:


> I'm not an authority but here is my opinion
> 
> with the positive feedback the Alpine 8 is getting, why not just run those alone for sub?
> 
> ...


Well I do have a DEH-P01 4-way head unit so I don't think blending will be all that hard. I really like the way the Hertz subs look my rear deck so I kind of want to keep them there. I guess I can get my little brother to buy some of the 8s for his own car and I can see how they sound in person! I always a little weary about extension on an 8 that was my only thing that held me back from trying the 8s out as a sub bass alternative.


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## eviling (Apr 14, 2010)

jooonnn said:


> After reading all this stuff about the alpine 8" i am incredibly INCREDIBLY tempted to buy one and try one in my back seat center floor. It's essentially the perfect size to fit a sealed 8" box there but it would be facing upward so I am wondering about how that comes in to play since it would be so close to the driver/facing upwards. I'm know it's probably overkill to the max but I just think it would look cool and be fun to build. I could run it as a 3-way then, thesis tweeters, thesis midbass, single alpine 8" and hertz ib subs. Does anyone have any advice?


I say not worth it.


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## chefhow (Apr 29, 2007)

eviling said:


> I say not worth it.


How about why it's not worth it? Here is what I would suggest... Rather then adding them behind you how about adding a single 8 under the dash or behind the center console for some sub reinforcement. Have your Hertz play from 20-50hz and the upfront 8 from 50-80hz. Takes a bit of stress off the doors, doesn't pull it to the rear and brings some of the punch up front.


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

chefhow said:


> How about why it's not worth it? Here is what I would suggest... Rather then adding them behind you how about adding a single 8 under the dash or behind the center console for some sub reinforcement. Have your Hertz play from 20-50hz and the upfront 8 from 50-80hz. Takes a bit of stress off the doors, doesn't pull it to the rear and brings some of the punch up front.


Do you think it would be ok to mount the subwoofer upside down under the dash? What do you mean by behind the center console, as behind the AC controls?

Also I am fairly new to this IB tuning thing, currently i have my subsonic at 30hz with subs playing up to 80hz. Can anyone help suggest me what freq range i should play right now without the 8" so far? I'm just paranoid because of all the dangers i read about IB and the suspension stuff that I don't have a large understanding of yet. 

http://www.hertzaudiovideo.com/Doc/pdf_hx300.pdf

I have a pair of those drivers.


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## chefhow (Apr 29, 2007)

jooonnn said:


> Do you think it would be ok to mount the subwoofer upside down under the dash? What do you mean by behind the center console, as behind the AC controls?


Upside down firing into the floor would be fine. As to behind the center iirc you have a bunch of space behind the AC controls and down to the floor, utilize all that dead space with a pair or 6.5's or a single 8" sub.


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

I checked the center and it looks a bit difficult to shove something in there. Upon re-examination of my car however, i did find that i have quite a large amount of clearance underneath my front seats. (about 7.5" high and 14 inches wide and deep)

What do you think about adding an 8" alpine type-r underneath each of the front seats with the woofers facing up in a sealed box? Do you think only using one would mess with the imaging?


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

I decided to pickup an Alpine Type R 8" to put underneath my passenger seat. If it sounds good/blends good i'll add another underneath my driver's seat. Because height is such a huge constraint, I'm going to make the bottoms out of fiberglass. I'm wondering if two woofers would be bad if i can only do one time alignment for the woofers as a whole though even though they are slightly apart. Either way i'm sure it's overkill  

















Box is 12x12x5 (inches) The woofer barely adds any height above the box for those people worried about the cone slapping something. The cones are also slightly recessed below the gaskets as well. Please excuse my hole cutting, i just estimated it with a sharpie and jigsawed.


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

Also decided to mock up some kick panels to test them out myself (reason I wanted to get 8's to help with the lower midbassish whatever those things are called.

Jigsawed some holes









taping, the funnest part when it's 105 F in charleston, sc

























more random jigsawing


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## GouRiki (Apr 9, 2010)

I'm coming


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

Finished the box for underneath my driver's seat. It sounded GREAT. It also was basically invisible. The problem was the bass kept rumbling my butt......yep.....so I had to scrap the idea and now I'm working on a different enclosure for the box.


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

At first I had 2 holes, one for the tweeters and one for the midbasses but I end up sealing the tweeter hole back up and moving the tweeters back to the A-Pillars.


I know these kick panels don't look good but I wanted to take a stab at it to see how they would sound. Having mocked up this set I think I will never go doors again for a 2-way at least. That little bit of on axis aiming just changes everything about how the Thesis speakers sound. I will probably redo these once it isn't so hot outside but for now they will do.


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## mattyjman (Aug 6, 2009)

when you redo the mids, get them as far out to the sides of the car as possible. doing so will help you gain quite a bit of width in your stage. also play with speaker aiming and placement... it'll take most of the guesswork out of your 'glassin as well as your tuning when all is said and done.


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

mattyjman said:


> when you redo the mids, get them as far out to the sides of the car as possible. doing so will help you gain quite a bit of width in your stage. also play with speaker aiming and placement... it'll take most of the guesswork out of your 'glassin as well as your tuning when all is said and done.




Ya when i first built these molds I really wanted to focus on the aiming and not necessarily the flow/integration into the car. I spent a really long time making sure they were aimed the way i wanted. I always have liked my kicks aimed at my dome lights being fairly on axis as opposed to on-axis for the opposite passenger. I feel this way it makes that centered image much easier and also helps with stage width due to it being more on axis as well. Depth is also much improved. 

I really would like to get the mids a little farther to the sides though as you said. From my understanding each kick has about 3.5-4.5 liters sealed without any hummy problems in that 160-300hz range. Did you vent your kicks or AP them?


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

tried a little test box to mount the 8" behind the center console.







































Bass is incredibly louder than I thought it would be from just an 8. The only problem is sort of messes with the imaging when it is that close behind you so far. 

I just ordered a pair of JL Audio 6w3v3's to test out in the door panels. They should drop fit where my Thesis Midbasses sat. If it doesn't work out very well then I guess the next thing to test out is either sticking a pair of the alpine 8's IB in the doors after I remold the panel to fit them.


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## Notloudenuf (Sep 14, 2008)

jooonnn said:


> Bass is incredibly louder than I thought it would be from just an 8. The only problem is sort of messes with the imaging when it is that close behind you so far.


I believe delay will fix that. Are you running the 10s (12s?) in the rear deck still? If so are you able to delay them vs the 8 independently?


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## GouRiki (Apr 9, 2010)

The time delay helped it a lot but he's talking about the vibrations from the sub behind him messing with the imaging.


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## Notloudenuf (Sep 14, 2008)

GouRiki said:


> The time delay helped it a lot but he's talking about the vibrations from the sub behind him messing with the imaging.


I see. Stuff rattling is always a distraction. Hope you get this resolved Jon.


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## Complacent_One (Jul 2, 2009)

Looking really good.

Couple of things, seems you are over complicating the install a bit.

In an IB configuration, those Hertz should be able to play from 60 down...and you could get away with the subsonic being just below the F3 of the subs...I would imagine around 20-25hz. I would experiment with the Thesis mids running down to 55-60hz with a 24db/oct xover point. That will help pull some of the impact back up front.

For example, my set up is a bit different from yours, but I am currently running just 4 speakers... JL Audio 8IB4's in my front doors, and a set of Fountek FR88EX's on axis in custom dash pods(factory locations in Dodge Magnum) the 3" Widebands are playing from 175Hz up and the 8's from the same down with a 20hz subsonic. When I had a sub running (really unnecessary in my set up, plenty of low-end) it was a single 12" picking up from 43hz down w/ 18hz subsonic and I had the 8's from 43-175hz. 

Because of my driver selection and crossover points, i do not run into issues with stage height being pulled down or back during low freq engagement.

Just food for thought.


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

Complacent_One said:


> Looking really good.
> 
> Couple of things, seems you are over complicating the install a bit.
> 
> ...



Thanks for the advice! I tried the 63 hz lpf for the hertz subs sounded really good, I decided to try out some JL 6W3v3's in my doors that drop fit into my previous door setup i made, IB on my doors, from 63 - 100hz and they really helped bring the stage forward a lot despite rattles/vibrations from my rear deck. The doors don't really rattle at all either surprisingly. The Thesis midbasses in the door actually rattled the door much more than the subwoofers.


















my new bosch jigsaw


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

Decided to work on new kicks finally as well! The test kicks sounded really good and wanted to see how much of a difference volume would make on them. These kicks will have about 75% less volume than the previous ones.

Trimming the back molds









Aiming them at my dome light as opposed to the opposite passenger


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## Notloudenuf (Sep 14, 2008)

Good job Jon. Mark your calendar for 10/1/11 NC Fall meet.

That's plenty of time to have it ready


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

Did a little more work on the kicks, but have a question. Do you guys use any sort of weather stripping or gasket type material to put in between the woofer and the ring/fg kickpod you screw into?


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## Notloudenuf (Sep 14, 2008)

jooonnn said:


> Did a little more work on the kicks, but have a question. Do you guys use any sort of weather stripping or gasket type material to put in between the woofer and the ring/fg kickpod you screw into?


Yes. I usually use either the foam gasket that came with the speaker (if supplied) or some thin weather stripping you can pick up at Lowe's/Home Depot/random hardware store. If you have some butyl rope that works well too because you can roll out a very, very thin strip of it to go around the inside of the mounting flange.
1/8" X 1/2" Speaker Gasketing Tape, 50ft Roll


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## derickveliz (May 15, 2009)

Been a Corolla owner, I'm interested in your install, 

keep up the work!

D.


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## goodstuff (Jan 9, 2008)

Looks great. Where did you get the pvc door trim?


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## GouRiki (Apr 9, 2010)

Lowes. Where all the trim pieces are.


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## goodstuff (Jan 9, 2008)

GouRiki said:


> Lowes. Where all the trim pieces are.


That made me lol.


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## GouRiki (Apr 9, 2010)

Lol. Well it's true. I showed him the PVC one and we decided to go with it.


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

Getting ready to change out my rear deck subs to a front baffle behind the seats IB setup for testing purposes, so bye bye rear deck subs for now.










milkshaked the kicks a couple times and started body filling


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

the old steelies were rusting over and my hubcaps keep falling off (very embarassing) so I picked up a set of dealer take off OEM 2011 Prius wheels for $300 shipped (a steal!)






























New JL Audio 13w7AE I'm testing out IB behind the seats 









Baffle with neffy









Front baffle cover drawn out and jigsaw'ed


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

Spray Foamed









Details on how un-sealed this IB setup really is:

L-bracked on each side, as you can see the baffle overlaps the hole of the wheel well









Top of the baffle where it mounts to the rear deck baffle that the HX300 12" subs used to be, big holes









Jigsaw'ed some trunk pieces again










Finished trunk shots


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## strakele (Mar 2, 2009)

Jon, I really enjoyed getting to hear your car yesterday. I like how you've been doing all the work and tuning yourself. That W7 is a beast in IB, and the Thesis drivers sound great. Nothing I played from my CD could make it sound bad or harsh. Very smooth. For true SQ listening, people would probably want a bit more detail and a bit less low end, but for the kind of music we listen to, it's perfect. Great job.

Now just get some glue that'll hold your vinyl and grill cloth wraps through the heat, and it'll be even better!


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

strakele said:


> Jon, I really enjoyed getting to hear your car yesterday. I like how you've been doing all the work and tuning yourself. That W7 is a beast in IB, and the Thesis drivers sound great. Nothing I played from my CD could make it sound bad or harsh. Very smooth. For true SQ listening, people would probably want a bit more detail and a bit less low end, but for the kind of music we listen to, it's perfect. Great job.
> 
> Now just get some glue that'll hold your vinyl and grill cloth wraps through the heat, and it'll be even better!



Thanks buddy your car sounded great too, AND the the way it should sound when it's played at a NORMAL music level (loud). Music should always sound better with volume in my opinion, of course as long as it's not at an obnoxious level.


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## strakele (Mar 2, 2009)

Very true. If I can't feel the music along with hearing it, it's not loud enough!


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## tonesmith (Sep 8, 2011)

great work, do you have anymore detailed shots of the baffle installation?
The more the better, tackling mine as we speak.
How come you cut a piece from the baffle, then cut the middle out with a square, then filled it back in? Why not just one piece?
TIA


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## slade1274 (Mar 25, 2008)

Probably so he can try different driver combinations by swapping out the center of the baffle.... Jon has the DIYMA sickness


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## tonesmith (Sep 8, 2011)

slade1274 said:


> Probably so he can try different driver combinations by swapping out the center of the baffle.... Jon has the DIYMA sickness


What a fantastic idea!


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## GouRiki (Apr 9, 2010)

tonesmith said:


> great work, do you have anymore detailed shots of the baffle installation?
> The more the better, tackling mine as we speak.
> How come you cut a piece from the baffle, then cut the middle out with a square, then filled it back in? Why not just one piece?
> TIA


It's actually just a faceplate he cut out to fit on the baffle to give it some contrast with the neffy wrap on the actual baffle and the carpet on the faceplate.

What kind of questions do you have specifically? I helped Jon install his behind the seats and I did my own car like this a couple days prior to him.


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## GouRiki (Apr 9, 2010)

slade1274 said:


> Probably so he can try different driver combinations by swapping out the center of the baffle.... Jon has the DIYMA sickness


That is a sick idea.

Hope to see you again Ryan. I have Jon's HX 250d's and I'm thinking about getting two more later so that I can have 4 walled up IB behind my seats


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

tonesmith said:


> great work, do you have anymore detailed shots of the baffle installation?
> The more the better, tackling mine as we speak.
> How come you cut a piece from the baffle, then cut the middle out with a square, then filled it back in? Why not just one piece?
> TIA



I am not sure if I have more detailed shots but here's what I did:

1. measure out what is the most that can fit pretty snug in your trunk for a baffle via a rectangle, also making note of any trunk liner that might snag or get in the way of being flat for both the top and the bottom. Scrolling jigsaw blades do not cut through 1.5 inches so remember that too 

Also make note of trunk struts that may get in the way to close. Also decide whether you are going to bolt the top part of the baffle directly to a lateral ledge behind the back seats if you have one , or if you need L brackets to bolt to the roof of the trunk.

also an impact driver will make your world easy!

2. get two MDF boards of that length cut, sand the faces down and screw and glue them and clamp shut 

3. drill through the center point of the ring you are going to route out for the woofer, it is important to drill very straight and all the way through so you can put the jig swivel on both sides of the baffle since most routers will not go through the entire 1.5 inches

4. wrap it, then stick 6 or more BIG strong L brackets on top/bottom depending if you have any place to drill the baffle into the backseat trunk openings or not. If you don't you'll need to L bracket to the roof of the trunk.

5 (optional). Having another baffle on top of the rear deck to strengthen the sheet metal one REALLY can help especially with my rattles

6. screw the brackets in, remember many FUEL TANKS are located close to the underside back seats essentially TOUCHING the metal so always double check before you drill. Itll be a $1000 trip to the dealer to replace a plastic tank if you do 

7. spray foam liberally, tape it out tightly if you don't want the foam to touch your car on carpeted areas

8. put speaker in


if you need any more specific info feel free to ask, as GouRiki said it's actually a two piece baffle, a 1.5 inch baffle with a little .5 inch faceplate that gives it a two tone look and helps seal off the odd trunk hole on the right of my car. all these things i made note to highlight were probably mistakes i did myself :laugh:


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## TheHulk9er (Oct 28, 2010)

What made you try the Hertz IB? They do not list this as an option. Does your Hertz distributor discount and ship to other states? Inquiring minds want to know! Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks. Mike


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## GouRiki (Apr 9, 2010)

^ just to try them. He has a 13w7ae in IB right now and I think its not suppose to perform well but it does. 

Elettromedia dealers are not allowed to ship or advertise discounted prices. Your best bet would be to make friends with one near you or find someone on the forum who is a dealer.


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## fahrfrompuken (Apr 24, 2010)

I am interested in listening impressions of the W7 in an IB setup. What kind of music was listened to, i listen to a lot of music with real drums, not 808 bass generators. I have one i was about to sell because even the sealed box is friggin huge and has too much output for me (I thought i would never say that).


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## nicostatus (Dec 3, 2011)

Your w7 in IB was amazing. I miss this car sometimes.


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## fahrfrompuken (Apr 24, 2010)

You miss it? What happened? Do you not have the W7 any longer?


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## nicostatus (Dec 3, 2011)

No he definitely still does but it's in a new car and it's in a sealed enclosure


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## GouRiki (Apr 9, 2010)

fahrfrompuken said:


> You miss it? What happened? Do you not have the W7 any longer?


Yea he has a 2013 Genesis coupe now with the 13w7 in a slanted sealed enclosure. He's contemplating switching subs to a 10w7 ported or other things for trunk space and access to spare tire.


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