Subwoofer Bass solution

[smistry007]

I don't consider myself an audio expert but I do expect to enjoy a great music experience while driving. Despite the hype of Dolby Atmos, Tidal and Lucid's Surreal Sound, I was disappointed, like a few others on the forum, about the lack of punch in the bass. Don't get me wrong, the highs, mids and spatial imaging are stellar indeed but the bass need attention, in my humble opinion.

Below is my novel solution: I purchased an enclosed self powered 12 inch JBL subwoofer from Amazon. I originally intended to place it in the frunk but ran into too much difficulty plumbing the wires from frunk to cabin so instead I placed it bottom enclosed part of rear trunk.

I took the power supply from the right sided 12v outlet. It is switched meaning power shuts off about 30 seconds after you lock the door and walk away from the car. To access it just pull the trunk liner straight up and take a parallel feed.

I removed the trunk liner just behind the rear seats to expose the Lucid subwoofer below rear package shelf- use screw driver to pry out plastic plugs

This gives access to subwoofer's wire leads. I used two aligator electric clips to take a parallel feed to the JBL subwoofer. I did not cut lead or disinstall native Lucid woofer. At some point I should probably go back and solder them...

Next I turned my attention to the trunk partition cover as is was now touching the JBL subwoofer below. I cut and installed plywood in the same pattern as the partition cover to clear the subwoofer's elevation and yet not have the partition cover slide around

With the modified partition hovering about the subwoofer, everything looks relatively factory stock

The sound is now truly phenomenal and bass notes, whether one is seated forward or aft, are exactly what you would expect of a car of this price. This was a low cost (<$300) endeavor and took me a day to complete. Hope others will find this of benefit,

Now if the weather will cooperate.....!

best

Sameer

 

[MHDave]

This looks like a fabulous post to move to the How To category. Congrats on your solution. Ask your friendly moderators if they'd consider relocating this from General Discussions to How To.

 

[Babyrocko1908]

I don't consider myself an audio expert but I do expect to enjoy a great music experience while driving. Despite the hype of Dolby Atmos, Tidal and Lucid's Surreal Sound, I was disappointed, like a few others on the forum, about the lack of punch in the bass. Don't get me wrong, the highs, mids and spatial imaging are stellar indeed but the bass need attention, in my humble opinion.

Below is my novel solution: I purchased an enclosed self powered 12 inch JBL subwoofer from Amazon. I originally intended to place it in the frunk but ran into too much difficulty plumbing the wires from frunk to cabin so instead I placed it bottom enclosed part of rear trunk.

View attachment 8588

I took the power supply from the right sided 12v outlet. It is switched meaning power shuts off about 30 seconds after you lock the door and walk away from the car. To access it just pull the trunk liner straight up and take a parallel feed.

View attachment 8589


I removed the trunk liner just behind the rear seats to expose the Lucid subwoofer below rear package shelf- use screw driver to pry out plastic plugs

View attachment 8590

View attachment 8591


This gives access to subwoofer's wire leads. I used two aligator electric clips to take a parallel feed to the JBL subwoofer. I did not cut lead or disinstall native Lucid woofer. At some point I should probably go back and solder them...

View attachment 8592


View attachment 8593

Next I turned my attention to the trunk partition cover as is was now touching the JBL subwoofer below. I cut and installed plywood in the same pattern as the partition cover to clear the subwoofer's elevation and yet not have the partition cover slide around

View attachment 8594

With the modified partition hovering about the subwoofer, everything looks relatively factory stock


View attachment 8595

The sound is now truly phenomenal and bass notes, whether one is seated forward or aft, are exactly what you would expect of a car of this price. This was a low cost (<$300) endeavor and took me a day to complete. Hope others will find this of benefit,

Now if the weather will cooperate.....!

best

Sameer



View attachment 8596

Nice. Also, I wonder if the bass issue is a fix with a software update?

 

[wklglider]

Congrats on your solution. But I mean do we have to do this if we care about audio?

 

[steveairgt]

This looks very interesting. So now you’re running two subwoofers. Have you tried just using your new JBL and not the original?

Do we know the size and power of the original subwoofer? Do you think the issue is the size of Lucid’s subwoofer or it’s power or possibly the cabinet it’s built into?

 

[copper]

Interesting setup. Why not disconnect the rear sub entirely and take the output from each voice coil? You’re running that JBL in parallel this way. I’m curious how this ends up sounding.

 

[Tâm]

...Hope others will find this of benefit,

Thanks for sharing the solution to the lack of vibrant bass!

 

[steveairgt]

Another thing I noticed is that you loose most or all of the rear trunk well. True ?

 

[Volund]

I've gone Sennheiser my entire life and love clean and neutral sounding audio with not exaggerated Bass, to me the Lucid is perfect and I agree with @copper assessment and tests.
But some people have a preference for extra bass, and that's exactly that, a preference.

But in no way shape or form would I ever say the Lucid sound system is lacking.

 

[joec]

I don't consider myself an audio expert but I do expect to enjoy a great music experience while driving. Despite the hype of Dolby Atmos, Tidal and Lucid's Surreal Sound, I was disappointed, like a few others on the forum, about the lack of punch in the bass. Don't get me wrong, the highs, mids and spatial imaging are stellar indeed but the bass need attention, in my humble opinion.

Below is my novel solution: I purchased an enclosed self powered 12 inch JBL subwoofer from Amazon. I originally intended to place it in the frunk but ran into too much difficulty plumbing the wires from frunk to cabin so instead I placed it bottom enclosed part of rear trunk.

View attachment 8588

I took the power supply from the right sided 12v outlet. It is switched meaning power shuts off about 30 seconds after you lock the door and walk away from the car. To access it just pull the trunk liner straight up and take a parallel feed.

View attachment 8589


I removed the trunk liner just behind the rear seats to expose the Lucid subwoofer below rear package shelf- use screw driver to pry out plastic plugs

View attachment 8590

View attachment 8591


This gives access to subwoofer's wire leads. I used two aligator electric clips to take a parallel feed to the JBL subwoofer. I did not cut lead or disinstall native Lucid woofer. At some point I should probably go back and solder them...

View attachment 8592


View attachment 8593

Next I turned my attention to the trunk partition cover as is was now touching the JBL subwoofer below. I cut and installed plywood in the same pattern as the partition cover to clear the subwoofer's elevation and yet not have the partition cover slide around

View attachment 8594

With the modified partition hovering about the subwoofer, everything looks relatively factory stock


View attachment 8595

The sound is now truly phenomenal and bass notes, whether one is seated forward or aft, are exactly what you would expect of a car of this price. This was a low cost (<$300) endeavor and took me a day to complete. Hope others will find this of benefit,

Now if the weather will cooperate.....!

best

Sameer



View attachment 8596

I admire the DIY solution, and it looks like the install required minimal disruption of the car, which is cool. Sure, you loose some trunk space, but that's a reasonable tradeoff, I imagine.

Hope you like the end result.

 

[MHDave]

Folks, this posting is about how to add a subwoofer, period. The subjective opinions about audio and bass in particular have been beat to death in other threads; may I recommend going there to discuss whether bass should be louder or softer? Posts in the How To section should be questions about the method, alternative method or product suggestions. Thanks

 

[joec]

Folks, this posting is about how to add a subwoofer, period. The subjective opinions about audio and bass in particular have been beat to death in other threads; may I recommend going there to discuss whether bass should be louder or softer? Posts in the How To section should be questions about the method, alternative method or product suggestions. Thanks

Agreed. Let's keep this thread on topic. I will be deleting anything that isn't a question about how to do this, or the general satisfaction from the OP of the result, or other related "how-to" comments or suggestions.

 

[CLTGT]

This is quite interesting. I have a JL Audio powered sub sitting in my garage, brand new, that I was going to put in my '73 Mustang. It's kind of a waste in a '73 Convertible Mustang though given the 400+ hp loud exhaust.

I might try this.

Can you show the power tap in.

 

[Tâm]

Can you show the power tap in.

@smistry007 already explained that the power tap is from the 12V cigarette lighter outlet (also see its picture above).

I guess you want continuous tap then if you lift that 12V outlet panel up (tray), you can see the 12V battery underneath.

 

[noobzilla]

Nice. Also, I wonder if the bass issue is a fix with a software update?

I doubt it's software issue. It's more of hardware limitation. Sort of like a 1080p projector won't be able to output a full 4k resolution

 

[Tâm]

Nice. Also, I wonder if the bass issue is a fix with a software update?

Although software cannot fix it. However, it can provide a richer equalizer app to enhance the bass and even make the bass more punchy, and thumpy but the software can only do so much.

You still need the hardware: A good subwoofer to move the air and rattle the car's frame so you can feel the vibrant bass.

 

[borski]

Although software cannot fix it. However, it can provide a richer equalizer app to enhance the bass and even make the bass more punchy, and thumpy but the software can only do so much.

You still need the hardware: A good subwoofer to move the air and rattle the car's frame so you can feel the vibrant bass.

…if rattling the car’s frame is what you want.

 

[smistry007]

This looks very interesting. So now you’re running two subwoofers. Have you tried just using your new JBL and not the original?

Do we know the size and power of the original subwoofer? Do you think the issue is the size of Lucid’s subwoofer or it’s power or possibly the cabinet it’s built into?

The native subwoofer has a tweeter/ midrange in the middle of the woofer baffle. I didn’t want to cut any wires nor did I want to disconnect the native speaker arrangement for fear of ruining the Dolby atmos spatial imaging.

 

[smistry007]

Another thing I noticed is that you loose most or all of the rear trunk well. True ?

You loose about have of the lowers trunk space- perhaps less if you buy a smaller subwoofer

 

[smistry007]

I doubt it's software issue. It's more of hardware limitation. Sort of like a 1080p projector won't be able to output a full 4k resolution

Perhaps another solution is to improve the enclose/ surround of the native woofer- my impression was that it was minimally enclosed other than the trunk liner