Do Subs Need To Be Ported?

I am contemplating putting a sub-woofer into my 1990 Toyota pickup. There are 2 cubby hole compartments in the floor behind the seat in the extrcab that I was thinking of using to mount a sub and amp.

Should the area be ported?

Thanx,

Bud

Okay, here goes.

The cubby in question is approx. 1.25 cu/ft in area. Since this is part of the floor of the truck I wish to put a piece of Lexan over the top because it may be stepped on when accessing the back seat. I might even put the cubby door back on it to protect the speaker from damage. So, in essence, the cubby is fairly sealed. I am not looking to drive a big speaker. Maybe a dual-coil 8" speaker driven with a 2 channel, 300 watt sub amp. I am using the factory head unit so I will tap into the low-level RCA outs that I installed in the harness and run them through a passive crossover so I can get a clean, low thump. I do not want to hack up the floorboard of a cherry truck so that is way I am hoping to use a sealed sub.

Thanx in advance,

Bud

How would Kenwood KSC-SW1 self-powered woofer work if I put it in the cubby?

Two comments/ questions, whatever.  Did you build your own converter, or did you use an LOC?  And as for the passive for the sub, that would be a mistake, IMO.  Use an active lowpass filter instead.  Your sub amp will provide that.

Here's a source of info for reference:  http://sound.westhost.com/lr-passive.htm, which reads, in small part, "My recommendation is that all low frequency crossovers should be active, and if you must use a passive network, then it should be for the mid to high frequency section only."

I built the "converter" basically by splicing in 4 RCA cables to the low-level outs from the head unit before the factory amp. Is that not acceptable?

The only thing that the factory amp is doing for now is not powering a sub. I am not certain of the wattage of the factory Toyota amp but it is probably in the 20's range RMS.

I have Pioneer 6 1/2" in the rear and Infinity Kappa's with caps in the stock dash boxes. Doesn't sound too bad but it is definately lacking some punch. That is why I just want to put a subwoofer in the cubby. I might even parallel some dome tweeters into the "A" pilars. I will check out the link you provided.

Many thanks!