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What do you think about the sound system?

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61 - 80 of 485 Posts
#61 ·
avh said:
I received the Rockville SS8P active subwoofer today, and I did a dry test. It fits perfectly in the original subwoofer location with spare room around it. I'm planning on installing a wood board to support it.
I removed the old subwoofer driver and cut the wires close to the speaker. I soldered them to the wires that come with the subwoofer and used heat shrink insulation. I don't think I will be installing the old one back but if I need to I can solder the harness back to the driver. I needed the extra wire to reach the car connector. I will share pictures when I'm done in a few days.
As far as power goes, I'm using the utility cigarette stile socket on the driver side of the trunk that can provide up to 180w. If I ever need to use it, I can just unplug the subwoofer.
The good part is that the Rockville active subwoofer delivers, is not going to rock your neighbors house, but is on par with my factory Bose subwoofer I had on my Mazda 6 Grand Touring. I could see the rearview mirror vibrate a little bit at high volume. So far the only issue seem to be the cigarette plug that came with the 10 Amp fuse. I manage to blew it when I turned the Bass gain more than 50% lucky I have a spare fuse. 50% is enough for me. So far I'm happy with my $99 subwoofer.
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Looking forward to the pictures, regarding the fuse, I am not surprised as the Active Sub has a 15A fuse so would assume it will draw a little over 10 amps and why its blowing the fuse.
 
#62 ·
JK-KIAEV6 said:
Looking forward to the pictures, regarding the fuse, I am not surprised as the Active Sub has a 15A fuse so would assume it will draw a little over 10 amps and why its blowing the fuse.
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You are absolutely correct, the subwoofer fuse is15 A, I should of pay more attention, I ordered one of these that has a beefier cable Amazon.com: Carviya 12V 24V Heavy Duty 16 AWG 15A 20A Male Plug Cigarette Lighter Adapter Power Supply Cord with 1 Meter 3.3 Feet Cable Wire For Car Inverter,Air Pump, Electric Cup : Automotive
 
#63 ·
avh said:
You are absolutely correct, the subwoofer fuse is15 A, I should of pay more attention, I ordered one of these that has a beefier cable Amazon.com: Carviya 12V 24V Heavy Duty 16 AWG 15A 20A Male Plug Cigarette Lighter Adapter Power Supply Cord with 1 Meter 3.3 Feet Cable Wire For Car Inverter,Air Pump, Electric Cup : Automotive
Click to expand...
No worries, please pop up some images and let us all know how it goes.

My dealer came out to my car today as it was doing some strange thing like losing time and they were not aware of the stereo issue and said you need to all e-mail Kia customer support, the more people message Kia the more chance of it getting resolved quickly.
 
#64 ·
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I made some progress yesterday, I cut a 21-1/14 oak board and I've bent the subwoofer brackets 90 degrees to wrap around it. The board is 3/4 inch thick and 7-1/4 inch wide, that is 1/2 narrower that I need, might need to add a 1/2 inch strip on one side. If I push the subwoofer towards the rear of the car there is enough space to access the cables and the adjusting knobs on the unit. Sound quality is very good, comparable with a Bose subwoofer.
Some could argue there are better subwoofers, I wanted something that provides a decent sound, that would fit in the original car cavity for an affordable price.
I'm not sure if Kia can do anything to increase the subwoofer power, it's pretty small at 5 inch diameter to start with. I would be shocked if they don't know about it, anyone with one ear in good working condition can hear there is no bass in this car.
 
#65 ·
I ended up buying a wider poplar board from HD and made a custom board that is 8 inch wide and 21-1/4 inch long. I replaced the bolts with longer ones and I installed the board to test fitting. Poplar wood is very light and easy to work with.

Then I attached the speaker to the board using the screws provided with the subwoofer. As I mentioned before I bended the brackets to 90 degrees.

And finally installed the board with the subwoofer mounted on it in the trunk. I used blue Loctite on the bolts. I soldered the cable that came with the unit to the harness I removed from Meridian subwoofer. I used heat shrink insolation.

There is enough space to plug in the cables in the subwoofer and to adjust the bass, filters and volume knobs.
What I like about this subwoofer is that Rockville has the auto-on and auto-off feature, they said in the manual that it should turn on and off automatically when there is no signal on the high level input. I used the cigarettes plug in the trunk that shuts down when the car is turned off.

I've noted that at high volumes the wood board vibrates a bit, the subwoofer brackets are pretty flimsy. I'm considering adding silicone between the board and the active subwoofer to minimize distortions.
So far I'm pretty happy with the results, and the bass is strong enough that I could reduce the bass level in the infotainment system from 10 to 8.

I might add a few more pictures later, I finished the project past midnight and I just realized I don't have a picture with the subwoofer wired.
 

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#66 ·
AVH- you have done an amazing job coming up with a solution to the lack of low sound in the system. I love it! I am so going to be looking to your modification when/if my GTline arrives. I like the idea of using the rear plug and not having to wire up to the battery. I would probably put rubber isolation washers on the screws and velcro on the bottom of the subwoofer to give it an additional point of connection to the board and put some finish on the board. I am curious, size wise not power plug wise could you fit two of the Rockvilles side by side in the space?
 
#67 ·
camo said:
AVH- you have done an amazing job coming up with a solution to the lack of low sound in the system. I love it! I am so going to be looking to your modification when/if my GTline arrives. I like the idea of using the rear plug and not having to wire up to the battery. I would probably put rubber isolation washers on the screws and velcro on the bottom of the subwoofer to give it an additional point of connection to the board and put some finish on the board. I am curious, size wise not power plug wise could you fit two of the Rockvilles side by side in the space?
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Looking at the image i would say there is enough room to fit two, just be an issue with power requirement and you may then have to run the system from the car battery,
 
#68 ·
JK-KIAEV6 said:
Looking at the image i would say there is enough room to fit two, just be an issue with power requirement and you may then have to run the system from the car battery,
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I was just curious. I think If I went that route I would plug one into the 12v in the back and I believe there is a 12v in the front. if so not sure if you can have both working at the same time but again just a thought exercise, lol.
 
#69 ·
You
camo said:
I was just curious. I think If I went that route I would plug one into the 12v in the back and I believe there is a 12v in the front. if so not sure if you can have both working at the same time but again just a thought exercise, lol.
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Each subwoofer would take up to 15 Amps, battery drain could become a problem. People that install large subwoofers sometimes need to add a secondary or upgrade the 12v battery. I'm also not sure how you can wire the input, in parallel or in series for 2 units?

My plan was to order one subwoofer, install it temporarily and test. I really like the sound and for me one subwoofer is enough. I was also looking to buy more premium brands like Pioneer or Boss, and I was disappointed that all other brands would offer a plastic enclosure for more than twice the money, for this size.

I had a lot of fun listening to loseless waw files playing from a USB stick on my way to work and back today. I think I've heard some tunes that I missed before. I feel that the Meridian sound system is pretty good and I prefer the Surround mode. I just cannot explain how the sound engineers that designed it missed the obvious weak bass. I'm glad there is an easy fix.
 
#71 ·
avh said:
You



My plan was to order one subwoofer, install it temporarily and test. I really like the sound and for me one subwoofer is enough. I was also looking to buy more premium brands like Pioneer or Boss, and I was disappointed that all other brands would offer a plastic enclosure for more than twice the money, for this size.

I had a lot of fun listening to loseless waw files playing from a USB stick on my way to work and back today. I think I've heard some tunes that I missed before. I feel that the Meridian sound system is pretty good and I prefer the Surround mode. I just cannot explain how the sound engineers that designed it missed the obvious weak bass. I'm glad there is an easy fix.
Click to expand...
I was looking over stuff in my garage and found a new in the box Infinity BASSLINK-SM 8. I remember I bought it and a couple of speakers to install in a jeep I was fixing for my son since all the other stuff in it was Infinity. He is not really in love with the jeep as I told him he is going to have to work on it. I want to retire from fixing my kids cars, lol. Anyway, I wonder if the Infinity Basslink-sm 8 is comparable to the Rockville? Does anyone have experience with that powered subwoofer? Since I already have it, I guess I can give it a shot when I get my EV6.
 
#72 ·
camo said:
I was just curious. I think If I went that route I would plug one into the 12v in the back and I believe there is a 12v in the front. if so not sure if you can have both working at the same time but again just a thought exercise, lol.
Click to expand...
(y)
 
#74 ·
#78 ·
Anish88 said:
@avh Can you upload a picture of how you did the wiring maybe?

Also did you order it from prime?
Click to expand...
I removed the original speaker driver from the plastic enclosure and cut the wires close to it. The car cable is pretty short and you will need most of the speaker cable. Then I pulled the harness out of the Meridian subwoofer. I soldered the 4 wires to corresponding harness that comes with the Rockville active subwoofer. Then I bought a 15 Amp cigarette plug with a 3 ft wire and I soldered these to the the power input of the subwoofer cable. I used heat shrink insolation. Red wires go to + and the black wires go to -, these are clearly marked on the subwoofer.

Yes I do have Amazon prime and I dropped them a good review. The picture does not show much because all the cables are wrapped together.
 
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