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Hey !
Help me out guys !
I have a sealed box wit 2 12's infinities, and want to see if there is much of a difference in a sound quality depending on a directions of the speakers ?
I'd like to mount them front firing, due to the reason, that subs may get damaged with grossiries, etc is the are rear firing ?
So, give me some details, PLZ !

Thanks !

 
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i had them facing the back of my seats and they sounded alright! but they will really knock if you turn them facing the trunk!

 
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If you can't spell groceries right I wouldn't be too concerned.

 
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bass takes 8 feet to reach its optimal clarity, and volume. so by putting the subs facing the rear of the trunk, it has more room to acheive full sound, by having them face the seat, it wont sound as good becasue theres not enough space.

 
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I actually heard it's 12 but someone can verify that. Facing backward creates reflection which increases pathlength.

 
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When the subs are firing toward the rear of the vehicle they directly excite all the standing waves created by the space between the subs, the back of the car, and the trunk lid. Because of this it will tend to sound louder when firing the subs toward the rear of the vehicle. Think of all the large nearly parallel surfaces in this setup. Trunk lid to trunk floor, sides of trunk, sub box to back of trunk. This adds up to a lot of easily excitable resonant frequencies which translates to more sound, ie louder bass.

There isn't anything inherently wrong in firing them forward or upward either. If the subs point forward, they play directly into either the car or the space between the subs and the rear seats. When playing directly into the car the sound is very dependent on the particular interior. The more standing waves present, the easier it is for sound to be heard over everything else in the car. When playing into the space between the rear seat and the box there's not really much room so the standing waves are of a much higher frequency than with the subs firing toward the rear.

Here's what’s important to understand. Even if they're firing forward or backward the subs will output about the same amount of energy. It's what happens after that which is important. More resonant frequencies equate to a more efficient use of energy, more is conserved and therefore more eventually reaches your ears.

Of course, there's also such a thing as too many standing waves but that's so difficult to even figure out in a vehicle. Leave stuff like that to home audio.

This is a very simplified way to look at it and completely theoretical. There's a simple way to figure out how this works for your vehicle. Grab some reference material you know well and go about a week with the subs one way and then turn them around and go another week. Do your best to pay close attention to the music especially large or deep bass notes. Try to think about which way sounds better. There isn't ever an absolute right way with this stuff, just generalities.



Also, regarding wavelength: the length of a sound wave is inversely proportional to frequency.
freq = speed of wave / wavelength
wavelength = speed of wave / freq

speed of sound = 344 m/s (give or take with regards to temperature, altitude, blah, blah)

example: 40Hz wave
wavelength = 344m/s / 40Hz = 8.6m = 28 feet

However, due to the sinusoidal shape of the waves (with hills and valleys if you will) it doesn't take nearly the entire 28 feet for the wave to be audible. This would get more into harmonics though and appears to be off topic.

I hope this doesn't add to the confusion.

 
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I never really did think of it that way, but now that i do, its the exact opposite of how you sound proof a room (having as no 2 walls parallel to another), so it really does make sense

 
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you can protect your subwoofers with grilles. I recommend waffle grilles because they tend to rattle less than mesh grilles. They also give you better coverage than the JL style bar grilles.

you could toss anything back there and let it bounce around and it wont interferre with the subwoofer.

 
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Firing up...

 
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doesnt it annoy you when you take your time to find the perfect carpet that matches perfectly, then a camera flash makes it look like you settled for second best?

that bugs the living daylights out of me.

 
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That's largely the result of direct light on axis with the lens. It maximizes differences in texture, fiber direction, etc. If you can't use another light source (overcast sky is very good, just a little cold) at least stuff some white cards out of sight to reflect light into the shadows and increase the apparent source size.

Painful, but the only way to get an image that will come close to what you see.

 
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Rufus.. your to hard on the guy
keep rear facing and get some grills for the speaker or something or a ported box..

 
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yes, it annoys me too.