Powering Nokia woofer box w aftermarket amp

[Durden]

I've seen it written a number of times now that the stock Nokia subs can be decent if given a decent power source (aka: NON-DSP POWER) and I'd like to give that a try. I understand that I can either grab the source audio pre-DSP amp (which means no volume control) or I can go post DSP amp (which means I get the full spectrum of sound) but since I don't have the interest in wiring a sub-volume knob I believe I'll go post.

My question is, does this seem like an appropriate amp?

https://www.amazon.com/Amplifers-BOS...%3A10155283011

I'm sure it's more power than needed and I'm sure that BOSS isn't anything along the lines of the a/d/s I'd love to have. I'm sure I chose it as much as anything because it's same-day delivery via Amazon Prime. For a quick and cheap implementation does this seem appropriate? Anyone have advice before I dive in?

Problem to be solved: get better bass without spending more than $100 and without spending more than an hour of time.

Feedback promised assuming I move forward with this.

[DennisCooper]

Hi,

Everyone's opinion on what 'decent' performance is varies. For me, the OEM Touring (and sedan) 'subwoofers' are woeful and I'd never spend any money on them. To others, they're happy with the output. The actual 'drivers' themselves are flimsy paper coned 5 inch dual voice coil items, with a RMS handling of perhaps 40W or so. Provided you lower the gain and the bass control on the amplifier you connect, you'll get more 'volume' of the lower end response the driver is capable of, it won't suddenly be able to reproduce lower frequencies all of a sudden.

So your goal of 'better' bass is similarly open to opinion. If you'd like more powerful, musical, tight, punchy 'actual' sub bass, then you'll be disappointed. If you just want a bit more volume of the bass the Touring driver/enclosure are capable of, then so long as you don't overheat those voice coils you'll get that. The amp you've linked to is 413W RMS into one channel. That's quite a hefty power output so I'd suspect even at minimum settings of the gain/bass control, you'll likely end up melting the voice coils. I'd say go for something that's 100-150W RMS and try that but with the caveat you might still overheat the voice coils.

One of these days, I'll have to ship my Touring over and drive over the USA to meet with all you Touring owners wanting to keep some or all aspects of the oem setup so you can listen to just how good a modest full aftermarket install sounds like in comparison !!

Cheers, Dennis!

[rjbaren]

One man's opinion is another man's..... Personally, I would wait and save up some more dough and get a new sub box like Gear Grinder got on ebay, put a good driver and amp together, and you will have all the testicle rattlin' bass you could ever want.

[geargrinder]

I understand that I can either grab the source audio pre-DSP amp (which means no volume control) or I can go post DSP amp (which means I get the full spectrum of sound) but since I don't have the interest in wiring a sub-volume knob I believe I'll go post.

I'm not sure that's true. If you grab the 2-channel analog feed the sub should still scale to the volume of speakers, no problem. Its really the best way to go.

Also however, the sub-volume knob is a really nice add if you start making any kind of signficant bass, due to the variations in 'program material' as we say in the audio biz. Some music and sources benefits from cranking the bass up some, but not too far (ex: classic rock can benefit from some boost but if you push it too hard it sounds unnatural and weird), other stuff thats' mixed to be bass-heavy you can let the bass really hang out, while other times you'll find (ex: bad radio stations and badly mastered tracks) there's TOO MUCH bass and you want to taper it down. Having the bass control is really nice, and you can tuck it into the little crap bin in the center con so your hand falls on it easily. Somewhere there should be a pic of my setup... To be clear this doesn't mean you have to always 'match the sub to the speaker volume', it just means you have some balancing control if & when you want it. Perhaps the only useful piece of information I ever got from "German Audio Systems" was a strong recommendation to wire that up.

My question is, does this seem like an appropriate amp?

Sure/maybe/whoknows. The drill on car audio stuff is that excepting the real super high end brands a ton of it is all made in the exact same Asian factories and is the same stuff with different names on the outside. Sometimes the brands are really the same parent company so the models are REALLY close to identical. Look at the 'brands' that these holding companies run... you just know the crap is identical in the different boxes just styled for different marketing purposes.

http://epsilonelectronicsinc.com/brands.html
https://maxxsonics.com/maxxsonics-brands/

I would not put BOSS up on my list of preferred brands but based on what I just said - who knows maybe that unit is perfectly fine.

My drill is to buy from SonicElectronix and one or two other places that have loads of discontinued/overstock sales, and usually buy discontinued/close-out models from 'decent midrange brands' at massive discounts. https://www.sonicelectronix.com/cat_...mplifiers.html

You want high-level stereo inputs, onboard low-pass-filter, etc. All of which are standard features now. The Nokia takes dual inputs so normally a stereo amp would be used where you use 2 outs. Alternatively you can parallel the 2 voice coils, as long as the amp is OK with low-impedance. I don't remember the nokia voice coils but I'm gonna guess they are 4ohm each meaning parallel for a mono amp they'd be 2ohm. I personally would prob go w/ a stereo amp myself but either should work.

So that unit looks "OK" from that point of view, but purely wattage wise thats way overkill and might make it too easy to blow up the Nokia. I blew mine up, and, while you can set the volume so you think there's no way you'll overload it, the issue is if you ever get some static or signal glitches, suddenly you've melted the voicecoils into nothingness.

Id go with something a bit smaller, both for size and power honestly. A Class A/B amp will be bulky and run hot. A Class D will be small and run cool but I can tell you from experience if you listen to FM radio, they can throw off some interference that hurts your reception. I've made Class D work OK in my setup but its something to be aware of.