subwoofer box or bass tube?

J

JORGE

Guest
what would be better? a subwoofer box that goes behind the seat or a bass tube?also what size are the speakers that come from factory on my lightning? i have the am/fm cassette system.
 
I believe the stock speaker sizes are 5.25 in the front doors(I fit 6.5's in it though) and 5x7's in the back corner. To answer your question on sound quality, the speaker box will sound better than the bass tube. You can tune subs by how big the speaker enclosure is, with a bass tube you lose this ability. Go with a good set of speakers and a good 10" sub in a box, and you will be very pleased..Don't forget to amp them though!

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Curt
'93 Red Lightning #4232
 
It also depends on what kinda music you listen to, what kind of money you want to spend, and if you are going to do it yourself or let a shop do it for you.

I believe some shops will hook a bass tube up real quick and dirty to let you hear how it sounds.

If you really like to play music in the truck and want it loud, you will eventually want to get a real sub with a box. You can definitely pick up a sub + box + amp of decent quality for 300 bucks or under. This will add lots of oomph to your system. Of course if you listen to country music or something else without a lot of bass you will definitely want to go ahead and replace your separates before you get a sub.

Do some legwork and get into some of the custom sound shops in your area. Most of them will be happy to spend some time with you and let you listen in on the differences.

Just like going fast, you can always make it better with more money.

ps: when you buy more than $400 bucks worth of stereo equipment make SURE to get an alarm on your truck. I've had to learn this the hard way. Theives break the little vent glass, open the door, take all your stuff, and are gone in mere seconds. Anything you can do to discourage them is worthwhile.
 
If you aren't sick of listening to me yet...

I have a box with 2 12" subs behind my bench seat (94 reg cab lwb I6 F-150) that are amplified. It fits nicely, but I have to move the seat up a notch. If you are getting a box, make sure to test fit it before you pay any money for it.

My system never really had a chance to mature; if all goes well I will be moving it piecemeal into a 93 lightning next weekend (woohoo) and I'll post my results on what happens. I think I may need to get 2 boxes or maybe even get rid of my 12s and go with smaller subs.

Good luck.
 
One more thing and I'll leave you alone.

I had the door speakers replaced with 6.5" rockford fosgates in my 94. They said they had to cut the doors a little to get them to fit. Just a word of warning that you may want to stay with the stock size.

If anyone is still reading this - how is the stock Lightning sound system? Any different from a standard f-150 of that era? The speaker setup looks to be the same.
 
Uh,

My 95 has 6.5 up front. I just put in some Boston Acoutics myself.

Kevin Lewis
 
BLoG, If you do the system in your L yourself.... I just want to pass along a few pointers. I don't know if all of them do, but mine did, have the premium sound pkg. It has an external amp already in the truck. When I changed out the head unit and put in my alpine it would play very, very loud because of the other amp. It took some figuring out but if I remember correctly, I had to buy a second wiring harness that would plug into the plug out of the amp and splice it into the harness off the head unit to bypass the amp. All of my splices went in nicely behind the ash tray. The amp that came in the truck is under the dash in the middle.

In response to you wanting to put your current 12's in a Lightning. Some people have posted doing this but I can't imagine. I have 2 8" solo-barics and am short and my seats could go back a good bit more if it wasn't for the subs.

Good Luck!

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Sam Sells
White '95 #1325
 
jorge just like sam said you can use the amp that came with your stock raido if you use the right wiring harness. i used a alpine cd tuner like sam did.( think this make a difference with the wiring harness) i also added up front 6.5 jbl in the rear 5.25 jbl and two 10in solo barick polk audio subs that i have a mtx blue thunder bridged to 450 watts. the rear speaker's are powered by the stock amp. the front speakers are powered by and kenwood 746. unless you are 4ft 5in tall don't think you are going to put 12in subs behind the seat. you maybe able to put one in the center if you take out your console or center seat. i am 5ft 10 i fit pretty snug in my truck. i used a kenwood passive eq to tune my system. this helps to turn the sub's on and off and to adjust the hi's and mids. just my 2 cents.

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Five0 Drw
nolc# 354
#63 "n" 95
 
thanks for the input guys!!!

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Jorge R.
1995 lightning black #56
 
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