Adding a subwoofer

[crestima]

That is so incredibly helpful to me, amazingly detailed, hopefully I can manage this - thank you so much @crestima !

Just wondering - speaker wires on RHD would be the same wouldn’t it?

Presume just wiring in an extra speaker wouldn’t invalidate the Lotus warranty in any way would it?

I'm not sure about the RHD, but I'm led to believe that yes, they should be the same since RHD vs LHD is just a driver's orientation/position difference. As for the warranty coverage, I'm sure that the manufacturer will find a reason to decline it if you give them the slightest reason to do so. I guess the the advantage of using the T-Tap connectors, is that the residual damage to the tapped wires is not even visible to the naked eye. Every thing else is reversible w/o traceable evidence, thereby covering your devious tracks .

 

[jp129]

Thanks for all the info from this thread and crestima's guide. Made my install very quick. I also installed the Kicker HS10 sub setup in the back similar to crestima.

I elected to power the sub by runnung the power wire to an unused power lug that was open on the left hand fuse box. This made things alot tidier in my opinion.

This provides 12V power from the battery and it's unused. I just found an m8 nut and secured the ring terminal there.

I mounted the sub lengthwise instead of right side up. I suspect orientation doesn't matter, but time will tell.

As most have said, the difference is night and day. The 10" Kicker sub provide way more bass than the rest of the system is balanced for, so it's a great configuration with the OEM speakers. I will also be adding tweeters in the A-pillars and re-assess the system, but I'm very happy with how things are progressing.

 

[Rapture]

As requested...

View attachment 60837View attachment 60838View attachment 60836

This looks very nice; I like the way it looks mounted vertically and saves some storage space.

It looks like you kept the factory sub plugged in also. Why not I guess.

 

[crestima]

This looks very nice; I like the way it looks mounted vertically and saves some storage space.

It looks like you kept the factory sub plugged in also. Why not I guess.

Aesthetically, It actually looks nicer on the shelf than my pictures suggest, since I took them at night and there's plenty of glare and shadow effect from the flash.
Keeping both subs working doesn't degrade the sound at all imo, although you get much more bass output from the Kicker than the OEM sub. Before the install, it was like "where's the bass in this system?" ; now, I have to dial the Kicker's Gain to about 1/4 its full potential and Bass Boost to only 1/2 to avoid blowing the windows out of the Emira. Alleluia

 

[crestima]

Thanks for all the info from this thread and crestima's guide. Made my install very quick. I also installed the Kicker HS10 sub setup in the back similar to crestima.

I elected to power the sub by runnung the power wire to an unused power lug that was open on the left hand fuse box. This made things alot tidier in my opinion.

View attachment 60904
View attachment 60905

This provides 12V power from the battery and it's unused. I just found an m8 nut and secured the ring terminal there.
View attachment 60910

I mounted the sub lengthwise instead of right side up. I suspect orientation doesn't matter, but time will tell.

View attachment 60906

As most have said, the difference is night and day. The 10" Kicker sub provide way more bass than the rest of the system is balanced for, so it's a great configuration with the OEM speakers. I will also be adding tweeters in the A-pillars and re-assess the system, but I'm very happy with how things are progressing.

Thanks for all the info from this thread and crestima's guide. Made my install very quick. I also installed the Kicker HS10 sub setup in the back similar to crestima.

I elected to power the sub by runnung the power wire to an unused power lug that was open on the left hand fuse box. This made things alot tidier in my opinion.

View attachment 60904
View attachment 60905

This provides 12V power from the battery and it's unused. I just found an m8 nut and secured the ring terminal there.
View attachment 60910

I mounted the sub lengthwise instead of right side up. I suspect orientation doesn't matter, but time will tell.

View attachment 60906

As most have said, the difference is night and day. The 10" Kicker sub provide way more bass than the rest of the system is balanced for, so it's a great configuration with the OEM speakers. I will also be adding tweeters in the A-pillars and re-assess the system, but I'm very happy with how things are progressing.

Great find that one of the rear fuse box unused power line. I wish I had known about that to have avoided snaking a dedicated line all the way to the battery. Nevertheless, for anyone else doing this mod, it will be a lot easier to connect the power wire there instead. The Kicker installation instruction, as is the case with generally all powered subs, recommends a direct line connection to the car's battery. From the look of that fuse box panel, one of the two bolts at the bottom seems to be securing a hot wire presumably coming directly from the car's battery and it's not fused, so it makes a lot of sense to use that as your power source as long as you continue to use the in-line fuse that comes with the Kicker kit.

 

[jp129]

Yea, I was really trying to avoid running the power all the way to the battery if at all possible. So I was studying the fuse box locations and seeing if they had battery powered lugs like that and miraculously there was. Even unused to boot. I mean it's no biggie to share that with the battery powered lug, but that just made things even easier.

You weren't kidding about how secure the velcro would be on the back shelf pile. I'm glad that worked out because now you can remove the sub if you needed space in a hurry. Admittedly, I used more velcro than you did, since I was a bit skeptical, but it's actually very hard to remove now . Should've done what you did. In any case, thank you for your shared experiences. I'll be adding tweeters next!

 

[Sjobing]

Yeah there are a few considerations (there are tons, but these are my most important):
1 - volume of air moved (cone diameter, excursion)
2 - low frequency range

I'm part owner of a headphone company (thinksound) and know a bit about audio, but that doesn't extend to car audio for the most part...some principle are consistent but the environment is completely different. The way I approach the above is:
1 - There's no way around this, the little guy is smaller. It does have a ton of excursion though, so pushes more air than other small subs. An 8" would move more though, no question. I'm not too concerned about this, since the cabin is so small - compare the Emira cabin size to a sedan, and it's pretty clear that the relative air being moved by a little sub is far greater than a big sub in a big car.
2 - This thing hits 35Hz! That's kind of perfect and you'd have to go 10" at least to get lower (in the Focal range for example). Below 30Hz would be great, but I'm more a fan a tight bass vs thumping bass, and I feel that tight controlled sound is more aligned with the spirit of a sports car: precision sound for a precision car. Also, since I'm going to run a DSP, I can extend the frequency range a bit lower than 35Hz.
3 - loudness. Everything will be loud enough, this is a non-issue.

I run an 8" sub under the seats of my old Defender 110 (so 2 total) and they are absolutely perfect: punchy, precise, and you feel it in your chest if the bass is turned up even a little. That experience changed how I plan out audio installs. Full transparency, if I can fit this instead, I probably will: https://www.crutchfield.com/p_091SUBP20S/Focal-P-20-FSE.html?tp=111

I mean, who knows what it will actually sound like...I'll have to install it and report back - car arrives in August...so be patient

I like your approach!
I'm also waiting for my Emira, and use to much time on thinking of audio upgrade.
What kind of DSP will you run?

My plan at the moment is to use Focal speekers as I have used this in previous cars and are happy with the sound.
I plan to use the K2 Power M series in the Emira;

FRAK tweeters on dash
6.5 KM in the doors
2 x 5" Sub KM

I will probably not use any rear speakers, as I think to much speakers tends to fuck up the sound.

I will use Helix M4 DSP to power the front ( one channel to each speaker) and Helix M1 X for the sub's. I've also used DSP from same producer in my MB E class dd, so I'm familiar with the software and pleased with the sound.

Have you idea if there is any signal cable into factory Amp that can be used for the DSP or do you plan on using the high level signals?