My favorite audio installer says there is a company that manufactures custom subwoofers for stealth installations. I would like to get one for the space on the driver side of the cargo area. This company will apparently make them if there is enough demand. How many here would be interested in such an installation? If we generate enough numbers, we could make it happen.
Any decent high-end audio shop could do it for you. The way we do it is to line the area or cubby being used for the subwoofer with plastic liner. Then we apply a thin layer of fiberglass over that area and allow it to dry. Once dried we pull it out and mate it to a wooden plate that will hold the subwoofer and apply more fiberglass to build a hard non-flexible housing or box if you will. You can then paint or cover the piece in whatever material suits your fancy. It's messy and time consuming (expensive) but most shops can do this kind of work or they shouldn't be in business. lol Be ready for a shocking price tag though. The custom box could cost $300 by itself and doesn't include a subwoofer which usually runs $100-$250 depending on size and power handling. Let me know what you find out. If the company will not build you one then I could always talk to my boss and have him use my car as a template and build you one. We've been in business with the same owner and head installer for 17yrs.
Isn't the passenger side better? I'd figure you use the left side compartment more often than accessing the 12V battery.
You can do either or both really but for people like me who never use the driverside cubby I htink it is the best option. I don't like the idea of blocking the 12v battery. If you wanted to use part of your understorage tray you could build a small enclosure that is completely stealth and sits in the small left-hand side storage cubby but you would be limited to an 8" sub instead of a 10". With the right sub and amp a single 10" is pretty loud in these cars. I usually have 2 10"s but I took one out for MPG reasons and I am amazed at how loud it is in a simple sealed box.
I'm sure 8" is plenty. I was looking at a 6" Bazooka Tube (BTA-6100 or sth like that. I hope I got the 3 letters right).
A 6" "sub" would easily fit in the driverside cubby under the floor. I wish there were more young people with Prius' in my area that wanted to do stereo upgrades like this. Our cars are an installers dream! We have excellent locations for everything and the car is easy to take apart.
lol... True a 6" would fit but a Bazooka is a tube so it's.. well sorta like a christmas log. LA Car fitted it behind the rear seats mounted traversely. Their sound experts supposedly said that orientation gives the best quality sound. The only problem is that it eats into the useable cargo space and you'll have to remove it (comes with velcro straps) if you're going to Home Depot and coming out with new lawn furniture. Also, it's cheaper. I'd like a cubby hole one but aren't those more expensive (esp. since you said a fibreglass box is already a few hundred dollars). The Bazooka model I'm looking at also has a built-in amp.
Building a small cubby box for a 6" sub would be work but doable by yourself if you didn't mind getting messy. You would still need an amplifier which you would likely mount in the storage area. The Bazooka may sound better since it is a specifically designed enclosure but the fiberglass idea takes up no real room. I may look into designing something. I'll let you know what I come up with.
I hated circuitry in Physics class so I doubt I'd wanna fiddle around with these. Secondly, a PS3 is higher up on my "want" list than a subwoofer
The emissions created making and playing the PS3 and GT5 are probably higher than your Prius puts out.
I'd be interested in a stealth enclosure. Depending on the price, it might be worthwhile to pay a little bit more than to have to make my own fiberglass enclosure. I'd want something built for the drivers side that would be fairly easy to remove. An 8" or 6.5" sub should fit nicely in there.
