Jaycar Economy Active 12"

great with rock or 80s pop – I installed the sub in my Subaru Liberty sedan in the boot with a 8 gauge leads. Once installed i played dance and high beat music and felt distorted. I tried to adjust to fit but still the same outcome. I then played ACDC and it sounded alot better. I then tried other variety of music and found disco and 80s pop come to life with the bass.

Good start for more bass - especially for the price – This unit is a nice addition to fill the lack of bass in standard 2 front 2 rear speaker car audio systems, fits well in the boot, strapped in tight under the parcel shelf facing the bumper (much better frequency response). Get the 8 Gauge wiring kit for $50 as you will pay more for all wiring & main fuse separately. $90 for 4 gauge kit if you're upgrading to serious powered tunes in the future.

For the install, I will give an example of a standard older model Commodore for your wiring. This is at the BASE of this review for the uninitiated & may even help those who are!

Must run it in first for about a month or more at low to mid volumes to loosen up the spider surround & coil. Don't crank the boost, leave on just under half & set the gain to suit your stereo (tune it) as it is a level not a volume control.

Due to restrictions within the build, the heat-sink is unable to dissipate the heat generated by AMP at high & long amounts of operation.

There are limits to how long it runs before power protection safety cut-out enables for about 30-60secs. Strong & constant hard bass will sound great but only for an hour or so.

Consider mounting an accessory fan to create airflow in the boot, near the heat sink to allow for cooling & or better still, an air flow hose from the main cabin A/C to flow into the boot.

*All up, you will always get what you pay for when it comes to powered subs so don't stress out if it can't cope with high volume intense prolonged tunes.

If there is room in your boot & you like the response from this active sub & you apply the above solution of A/C & a fan, then get another one!

Purchase small distribution block (for main power cable spitting) & 2 RCA Gold double adapters + another metre of 8 or 4 gauge (depending on the wiring kit you purchased) power cable (2 x 50mm) [1 is for the extra power cable, other is for the second ground] + 50mm of 16 gauge wire & small spade type double adapters for remote wire to turn both units on & off when you operate your stereo.

With the grounding, avoid the OEM loom wire (black) from your car's accessory wires & ground your head units black wire directly to bare metal of the chassis or firewall under or behind the dash/centre console area. Bare metal (8 or 4 gauge depending on the kit you purchased) ground for your active sub amp in the boot also.

Grounding properly eliminates any engine noise through your system & you should have no need to buy noise filters or power line noise suppressors.

Don't forget to apply sound & vibration insulation! (Go to Clark Rubber, they sell good stuff at a great price)& make sure your boot is 100% water tight.

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FULL INSTALLATION

First of all run your power cable, go into your bonnet and judge the connection of the power cable to the battery.

The inline fuse is to be no more than 18 inches from the battery (disconnect the negative terminal before any work), then neatly run the cable around to the right of the bonnet.

Only connect your power cable & fuse AFTER completing the wire run (temporarily tape the cable near the fuse box area for now - remember to leave a bit of slack in the cable to place your fuse!).

Run it along with all the other cables where you will find there will be cable track with heavy duty clips in place. In the back corner of the bonnet (the front passenger side external recess of the firewall) is a large black grommet where the ECU wiring loom protrudes through to the engine bay from well behind the front dash.

Taking MASSIVE amounts of care not damage the ECU cables; locate a small area within the grommet for the power cable to run through.

There are several ways to get through the firewall grommet, normally removing it is recommended but this is not an easy proposition!

Best way is to remove glove box lid & the underside kick panel where you will be able to see the back side of the grommet by carefully pulling aside the heavy rubber firewall sound barrier matting.

A torch comes in handy & you will see the big grey clip that holds the grommet in place. The air conditioner ducts also have to be removed plus the lower side kick panel that conceals the main ECU.

Take some digital photos of the front passenger side external recess of the firewall & the back side of the grommet under the dash, take a break & check out the pics to know what you are able to do as it is the most crucial step in running your wiring.

Go back to the firewall grommet & mark the approximate areas to drill with a liquid paper pen, then be sure to thoroughly push aside the ECU wiring loom without damaging it (this is very important).

When you are comfortable with the position, slowly drill from the outside a very small hole & proceed to larger drill bit increments making the hole larger to around 4mm.

Check your progress on each drill pass with your torch & a thin paint brush handle pushed through & check from under the dash.

Push the power cable through the grommet from the front passenger side external recess of the firewall & check to see from the back side of the grommet under the dash, when you see it protruding use needle nose pliers to gently but firmly pull the power cable through an inch at a time.

Ensure you run the power cable through and down past the ECU & then run under the scuff panels which go right to the back (use patience & a trim removal tool to remove these items as impatience will cause snapped trim & a sad face). I have seen rushed jobs by pro installers with snapped pins & trim - not a good look!

Remove all of the back seat components except for the centre back rest, then run cable into the boot. (Use some spare formaplex or similar to shield the ECU from emitting EMI into the power cable)

For the RCA cable & remote wire, remove head unit then judge the connection of your RCA's & tape temporarily to the centre console. Connect all your wiring up ONLY when you have completed running them!

Run the RCA cables & remote wire down the RIGHT hand side of the air conditioner/heater controls and under the steering wheel, make sure you don’t lean the cables against the copper pipes behind the air con as they can get pretty hot in operation.

Once the cables have gone under the steering, do the same again as with the power cable, run them down behind where the side kick panel has been removed.

Then under the long scuff panel right through to the back & into the boot. Connect your ground to a decent bolt & bare metal chassis, then proceed to attach your active sub with the power, RCA's & remote wire.

Go to the head unit & connect your RCA's to the sub-out RCA jack & join your remote wire to the remote wire from you head unit with small spade type connectors. (Usually it is a dark blue colour in after market head units)

With the remote wire it is good practice to place a .5 amp fuse inline & close to the head unit as it is switched through a very small transistor within your stereo.

Check all your work properly after another break (believe me, breaks are good!) then proceed to assemble & place your big inline fuse on the power line close to the battery in the engine bay, connect your positive wire in place, then re-connect the negative battery terminal.

Test your enhanced audio system before re assembling any of the trim etc - make sure the car starts plus all accessories are working 100% as well! After all is good put your car back together again (throughout all of this installation, take digital pics so you can refer back to anything at will).

Get two Good 100kg Luggage straps ($20 from Repco or Supercheap) for securing your active sub under the parcel shelf as there are 2 metal chassis Luggage loops directly behind the centre seat for the perfect fit! There you go - happy days & phatt bass :-) remember .. "if something is worth doing, it's worth doing right"

I trust my installation guide has helped you lay some serious audio ground work for the future modifications & audio enhancements (you will need it, as once you get the car audio bug - its there for good!)

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*NB: If you need alot more power & earthquake, chest pounding bass, it will be literally :-

1) Up to 7 times more cash spent on mid range model Alpine Sub + separate Monoblock Alpine AMP + an Aerpro or similar sub enclosure.

2) Well over 10 times more cash to be spent on an Alpine 5 channel amp that can power 2x6" splits plus the type R series 12" sub at a nice & comfortable 94Db. Really good value for extra bass in your standard 2x2 speaker car stereo set up Heat sink not very efficient in boot of car, prolonged sustained bass will induce protection mode