Custom Subwoofers Enclosure for Your Car or Truck

Many who are new to the subject of car audio are intimidated by the thought of installing a subwoofer in their car or truck. They are well aware that a good subwoofer will boost the sound quality of any car's audio system but get hung up on selection and installation of the sub.

The first question that arises is where will the subwoofer be installed? Any other speaker can easily be installed in any speaker location supplied by the manufacturer such as those usually located in a door or rear panel. But when you get to the point of adding bass, you quickly learn that there are very few vehicles with a ready-made subwoofer installation location since the subwoofer will require an enclosure to perform properly.  Most if not all subwoofers on the market today require either a sealed, ported or vented enclosure to perform properly.

For the very best possible sound quality, you cannot miss when installing custom subwoofer enclosures.  There are a few benefits to installing a custom fit subwoofer enclosure over a standard universal style sub box.  

The first question most ask is "what exactly is a custom subwoofer enclosure?"  When the term "custom" is used, many think of a very expensive hand made enclosure made specifically for your subwoofer.  In reality, the term really applies to any subwoofer enclosure made to fit in a specific location in your car or truck.  These custom enclosures are generally made by very large manufacturer's and they are made to be installed in locations which normally would only be wasted space.  For example many custom subwoofer enclosures for trucks are made to be installed under rear seats or behind seats.  Many cars have custom enclosures for installing on the sides of the trunk or hatchback in an out of the way location.

These custom subwoofer enclosures provide an added degree of security since your subwoofer will be installed out of the site of most passers by.  In many cases they will also have the same color or appearance as the vehicle's interior so the entire enclosure looks like a factory installation.  The best sounding custom subwoofer enclosure is made of fiberglass but these normally are also the most expensive on the market.  There are few mass producers of fibergalss subwoofer enclosures but Bassforms is one of the best known on the market.  There are companies like MTX, QLogic and JL Audio that are noted for their custom molded subwoofer enclosures.  They each have their own proprietary process of forming subwoofer enclosures made of their own composite materials.  These are excellent sounding boxes and provide a good variety of options.  Other companies such as Obcon and Atrend produce specific vehicle subwoofer enclosures made of MDF.  While these might produce a bit louder bass, they of course do not have the same custom OEM style appearance provided by the molded types.

Regardless of what brand custom subwoofer enclosure you might consider, the first step is to determine who makes one for your specific vehicle.  Of course in some cases where none is available, you only recourse is to go with a standard subwoofer box.