Subwoofer

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	Subwoofer
.	Well, I'm a bit of an audiophile. I love the stock speakers that came with my D90, as far as the waterproof intrinsic they exhibit. Outside of that, they are pretty mediocre speakers especially in the bass range. I called Land Rover to see if they had a factory subwoofer. Sure enough they did. Well at the price Land Rover wanted for their Subwoofer for the D90 I decided to have one made for me. Well the custom deal was just as expensive. Bummer, I guess I'll have to build one. My design total cost just $80 Including speaker and amp. ( I wanted a cheap disposable design both for theft and water/dust/dirt/mud damage) There was three design criteria when I started designing. First, I wanted from a subwoofer was to add a bit of bass, the kind only heard inside the car,to round out the overall range of the audio. Second, I wanted the subwoofer out of plain sight. Lastly, I wanted to build it cheap so if it was stolen or damaged, I could just throw it away and start over. What Follows is what I came up with after about three or four basic designs.
.	My First problem right off the start was that I wanted to install a single 8" subwoofer and the only real placement was under the passenger seat. The compartment opening width is only 7.75" wide or so therefor a 8" woofer placement was going to be tough. I built a box which placed the subwoofer flush with the surface under the passenger seat. The speaker sits on top and hangs over the opening without touching. I had to modify the Stock Land Rover speaker plug which fits into the tape deck to accommodate the larger wires which go to the amp. Yet another bit for my Dremel. I bolted the amp to the rear of the box. Is a tight fit, but is out of sight completely. The company I work for resells Autodesk Products. I used Mechanical Desktop to design the Subwoofer Enclosure then used 3D Studio MAX to render these pictures. (pretty cool huh?)
	Want to see the Subwoofer in 3D? Its really neat... you can rotate it around it in a fully shaded mode.	First you need to have a VRML viewer. Here is one that works well. Click here to see the tank in 3D TIP: In Worldview, Right click on the screen and use Flat Shading and Study View for best results.
South-East Perspective	I used a 2" porting after playing with a couple different sizes and lengths.
North-West Perspective	The large notch in the back of the enclosure is a cutout for the ECU which resides under the passenger seat.
Left Side View	.
Rear View	Note how the speaker hangs over the sides of the enclosure. This is by design. The width of the opening in the compartment is just a tad skinnier than the speaker is wide.
Top View	A selfless plug for my Club - The Northern California Rover Club
The Initial Prototype	I know, Its ugly... The production model is quite a bit better looking....and doesn't have all those gaps between the sides. :)
.	When Building a speaker box, use a dense particle board. Particle Board does not absorb sound waves and tends not to warp when it gets wet.
.	I used good old Elmers Wood Glue to seal the box so all the sound waves are sent through the porting. The purpose for porting is to optimize the box to emit sound waves in a specific hertz range. On the inside there is a metal tube , like a paper towel spool, pointing towards the rear of the box. I adjusted the size and length to get a different sound which met my taste.
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