AutoTuba - First build of many....

[T. Sharpe]

Facing forward, it was firing into foam, absorbing the sound. Facing to the rear, the sound is being reflected by metal.

...and then absorbed by the foam in the seatback.

Asad

+1. The difference would be the loading offered by the solid surface versus porous.

...Also maybe the difference in phasing by facing the horn mouth rearward too. Perhaps by facing the horn mouth forward, the lower wavelengths may have played a part in canceling what the front speakers were playing?... Or 'fighting' with them?

[AntonZ]

I think when facing forward, the mouth of the horn is too far away from the rear of the vehicle, causing cancelations at the low end. From the sub placement sticky: "40 to 100 Hz means less than 2.8 feet". An Autotuba in the trunk with the horn mouth facing forward is some 2.5-3 feet from the rear.

"Never place subs with their radiating planes between 2.5 feet and 8 feet of a boundary". You need quite a large vehicle to be more than 8 feet from a boundary, so better make sure to have the horn mouth less than 2.5 feet from the rear of the vehicle. Either firing backward, or sideways with the AT tied to the back end of the trunk.

[jcmbowman]

At long last!

The weather has been nice enough, and my schedule forgiving enough for me to finally paint and carpet the AT.

Behold:







(Click on the images to see a larger version)

I have to say - after a couple of months of getting used to this thing, I can never go back to a non-horn sub. It's just too clean, too tight, and too LOW to even think about those old direct rediator boxes I used to swear by.


And on another note - the 4 T36s I built are just plain CRAZY. I'll post a full review with pictures as soon as I get them painted.

[AntonZ]

I have to say - after a couple of months of getting used to this thing, I can never go back to a non-horn sub. It's just too clean, too tight, and too LOW to even think about those old direct rediator boxes I used to swear by.

+1 (big fat "plus one" - although no going back to non-horn sub for me since I never had a sub in my car before)

For me, the AT painfully pointed out other flaws in my car stereo. Not only did it lack real deep bass, I also don't have any real midbass. While the deep end is covered fine now, the flaws at higher frequencies are all the more apparent. The doors probably need better damping and an upgrade of door speakers.