[jyruiz]

I read on another site that if you fill the stock sub with polyfill, it would give better bass. Well, my cousin and I own Armadas and we put the polyfill theory to the test. I can honestly say that it works. The bass now is not as hallow and you can feel it better now. Now it is not better than going aftermarket, but it is better than having the stock with out the polyfill. I purchased a bag of polyfill at WalMart for a $1.57. so it is a great bang for the buck mod, worth doing in my opinion.

 

[EightmanVT]

I read on another site that if you fill the stock sub with polyfill, it would give better bass. Well, my cousin and I own Armadas and we put the polyfill theory to the test. I can honestly say that it works. The bass now is not as hallow and you can feel it better now. Now it is not better than going aftermarket, but it is better than having the stock with out the polyfill. I purchased a bag of polyfill at WalMart for a $1.57. so it is a great bang for the buck mod, worth doing in my opinion.

Hmmm...this is a new one on me....but interesting. I may give this one a try -- did you just stuff the polyfill behind the cone??

Speaking of aftermarket speakers -- is anything really available?? I was under the impression that Bose had used a common ground for everything which makes swapping out the speakers difficult unless you're willing to run other wires.

 

[jyruiz]

We put the polyfill all over the place except for on top of the speaker. You don't want to force it in there just lay it in there. I don't know about adding other speakers. My wife drives the Armada so I am going to leave it stock. I just wanted to improve the dead bass it had.

 

[m4ck]

Yes this is an old trick. It is a way to trick the sub into thinking it acutually has more room. This works well with subs in boxes that are not quite the size required.
M4ck

 

[MacFly]

this is interesting!

excuse my ignorance, but can someone tell me exactly where and how i can get into my sub?!

tia

 

[jyruiz]

The sub is under the driver seat, you have to take your seat out to get to it. It does not take long though.

 

[MacFly]

The sub is under the driver seat, you have to take your seat out to get to it. It does not take long though.

how many screws are there to the seat? and how difficult is it to take the seat out?

DIY?

 

[jyruiz]

It is cake to take the seat out, you don't even have to take the seat out of the car, just unbolt it, and then move it back far enough to give you access to the sub.

 

[kurt78]

It is cake to take the seat out, you don't even have to take the seat out of the car, just unbolt it, and then move it back far enough to give you access to the sub.

Just to piggy back on that don't unplug anything if possible because I had to go to the dealer and get my Airbag light to reset since it starting blinking after I unplugged it (but that might be different with the drivers seat, I did the passenger seat)

 

[adjmcloon]

I've done the aftermarket system and let me tell you, it was a bitch. I ran all new cabling for all 4 doors, as well as power, ground and remote for the amp, wired up the crossovers, wired up the head unit, and I still have to wire up my XM satellite tuner, antenna, and SWI-X steering wheel audio controller. Dynamatted all 4 doors too.

It was much, much harder than my old Tahoe. Not for the faint of heart or inexperienced installers, that's for sure.

I'd say stick with the polyfill fix unless you're a huge music nut like me. The upside is it sounds bad ass! Now if I can just get rid of these damn rattles in my rear gate and dash it'll be all good.

 

[jyruiz]

I've done the aftermarket system and let me tell you, it was a bitch. I ran all new cabling for all 4 doors, as well as power, ground and remote for the amp, wired up the crossovers, wired up the head unit, and I still have to wire up my XM satellite tuner, antenna, and SWI-X steering wheel audio controller. Dynamatted all 4 doors too.

It was much, much harder than my old Tahoe. Not for the faint of heart or inexperienced installers, that's for sure.

I'd say stick with the polyfill fix unless you're a huge music nut like me. The upside is it sounds bad ass! Now if I can just get rid of these damn rattles in my rear gate and dash it'll be all good.

That is why I am leaving it as is after this mod, plus my wife mostly drives it during the week. And on the weekends, we can't blast it when the kids are in the car so, I will just be happy with the AM system in my Silverado and the stock system in the Armada. I amd really glad they put an AUX port on the Armada though, nice going Nissan.

 

[ARMADAinSMOKE]

Are there any links to elaborate on this? I have never seen/heard about this so I would love more info.

 

[ARMADAinSMOKE]

Forget it, I found the info.

 

[jdelcas1]

Noob here...Could someone post a link for this with more info and where is the sub at again?

 

[hullio]

OK, i have a lot of polyfill right now. How can I access my Sub? By just moving the seat fowards as far as it goes? Where do I put the polyfill? Do I have to unscrew anything on the Sub box enclosure thingy? I think i see a cone or w/e you call it, do I stuff it with polyfill? aahhh please help lol! if someone could post pics and give step-by-step instructions, I'll REALLY, REALLY appreciate it! thanks!

 

[weezr17]

How about some info about what levels make the stock stereo sound the best. I know there is a post/thread on this somewhere...I've seen it before BUT I would like some others input.

How much Base, Treble, Mid combo for the BEST quality sound?

 

[masterwong]

The levels are really personal preference because what sounds good to you may not to me. The type of music and even teh qualtiy of the recordnign can make a difference with the levels. to me the stock stereo sounds like crap, but that is because I haev always had aftermarket stereo's and once you aquire a taste for a hi-fi sound system, the stock stuff doesn't satisfy.

 

[llajumpvid]

Noob here...Could someone post a link for this with more info and where is the sub at again?

Here is all the info you need I believe.

 

[92TripleBlack]

I installed for a living for 3 years at a high end shop. We did mostly custom stuff for Mercs, Bimmers, etc. Adding polyfill as asserted earlier will trick the sub into acting like it is in a larger box. Larger box makes louder bass, but it looses its tightness in the process. Next would be a tuned ported box. You add a tube of a certain length and depth into the box and it heightens bass of a certain wavelength. But the port will also dramatically loosen up the bass and it will fart more than punch. This trick is how BOSE is able to get a lot of bass out of little boxes using $3 speakers and charging $1000 for the setup.

More volume usually equals flappier bass. There is a balance you go for. Stock makers usually make bass tight with sealed boxes for two reasons: Cheaper and won't blow as easily. Custom installs will usually pick a type of box Sealed or ported and then build from there. Certain aftermarket subs are made to work in one type of box or another. Polyfilll will probably not hurt the sub.

Before you go to the trouble, you must ask yourself what kind of music do you listen to and would tight or loose bass make more sense. Bass heavy music like Rap, Hip Hop, Modern Rock, etc. would probably benefit from this. Older Classic Rock, Country, Jazz, classical, etc. would loose out. Higher quality stuff will increase the bass output regardless of what type of box you have. I prefer a sealed box with high quality drivers to get a large amount of tight bass. Something like a JL 12W7 or similar woofer would work for me.

 

[scr38]

I have been hesitant about posting anything about audio because I don't want to get in a lot of discussion about it. But I have done a lot of research over the years, have written a computer program to properly design speaker enclosures, and have designed and built a number of high end systems for home use. Never got into the car end too much, because quality is very important to me, and it is very hard to get a real quality car system. At least to my standards. I have been a judge in the past for car stereo contests, and my oldest son and I built a system for his car that won a lot of contests. He won first place in the Colorado Alpine state contest, and was supposed to go to the Nationals, but a job change got in the way of that.
I have attached some pictures of my music room in my house. When I built the house I built this room just for my audio system. I won't go into a lot of detail - the room is 13' X23'. The walls are 12" thick concrete. The shape of the room was selected to eliminate standing waves. The sub enclosure is 4'X8'X30". The angled ends cancel out standing waves inside. There are 9 12' drivers. I selected these drivers because the had the specs I wanted. I measure all specs on the bare drivers and put the data in my program to get the box design. This sub is a QB3 6th order ducted port design. The frequency response is flat to 17 Hz. I use my HP Function generator and my spectrum anaylizer to test the system. I won't go into the design of the other speakers, too much data to list here.
Amps are Soundcraftsmen Pro amps, CMOS-FET, 1600 watts.