Pros and Cons of an Amp Under a Seat

So I Picked up my Memphis 500D and Im looking for a good mounting point in the Kia Sportage
I was thinking right under the passengers seat, theres a lot of room and I have a AC vent down there to keep it cool

Pro's: Harder to steal, Excellent cooling
Con's: Condensation could occur on amp, Pain in the but to make adjustments, longer speaker cable needed

Do these pros and cons sound about right to you, please add more if you have some
My biggest concern would be the condensation on the amp.. we all know how much electronics love water

Thanks all
Skold

Well I find that there is less condensation in the interior of my car as a opposed to the trunk. But there is usually more dirt that is brought in from peoples shoes. Depending on how you mount it, if the RCA's are facing out, they often times get stepped on and can either ruin the cable, amp or both. I have an amp under my seat currently and it is difficult to adjust. I also wonder if I drop coins down there if they will blow fuses.

I mounted an eq below the other seat later, but put it on some tracks from a desk, so I can slide it out and adjust it. You could probably do that to your amp in the first place, just leave some extra wiring zipped tied.   

auex]I wrote:

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wouldn't be worried about condesation as much as I would be about someone spilling a drink.

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Point well taken.. ok Im mounting the amp directly to the box then I wont have to worry about much, except for vibration

Thanks Guys

Oh, no, not on the box!  A whole new set of cons will arise.  But I wanted to add cons to underseat install, so I still will:

Hot, hot, hot....except when the air is on, which isn't all the time.  It's directly over the catalytic converter, exhaust pipes, transmission, etc.etc...

Dirty, dirty, dirty.  As much as some perceive trunks to be dirtier than the cabin, it ain't so if they get out there and clean it up one time good. Like dwarren mentioned, everytime someone gets into the car, new dirt arrives and old dust gets kicked up.  The open doors add to the dust getting into every crack and crevice in the cabin.

Tight, tight, tight.  Hard to breathe, hard to work on, hard to safeguard wiring.

Pros?  uh....hmmm.  Usually when someone jacks your stuff they already know where it's at and when the best time is to grab it.  No pro there....

Condensation won't occur unless moisture is allowed to get in the trunk.  How to stop moisture from getting in?  Need you ask? 

But on the box?  Please say it ain't so.

stevdart wrote:

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Oh, no, not on the box!  A whole new set of cons will arise. 

But on the box?  Please say it ain't so.

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Ok explain the cons about mounting it on the box,  Im not building a custom enclosure no way no how.. aint going to happen
last resort I can think of is the back of the rear seat but the sub would be facing it and then I would lose the ability to lower the back seat, which I do frequently

Ok now Im stumped.. help

Mounting to the box is just cheap looking to me...At my shop I am the one known for putting amps in odd places...

I like what I call the "Show Me Factor"....Example someone looks at your car and doesnt see a visible amp...Show me where it is...

Then you open where the Ash tray should go and there are the amp controls...or open the arm rest and there is a Memphis MC500D and a 30 band EQ....

I dont like visible components...Although most customers insist on having their equipment showed off...I actually put an amp on top of a mans pacage tray in the rear window the other day cuz he wanted everyone to see the Chrome Audiobahn amp he bought...Never understood some people....

Under the seat is ok...My rule is to look at the amount of trash and dirt you have to clean away before you decide where to put it...Also be careful when screwing it down..Gas Leaks are badd UmmKay...

skoldspuppy wrote:

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Ok explain the cons about mounting it on the box,  Im not building a custom enclosure no way no how.. aint going to happen

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Just like you, I want to save myself the time and trouble, so I'll just pass along this from Perry Babin at BCAE1.com:

"When the woofer(s) moves in or out, the box flexes and therefore causes the sides of the box to vibrate. This vibration is transferred to the amplifier mounted to the box. All of the electrical components in the amplifier have mass. Inertia (an object in motion tends to stay in motion, an object at rest tends to stay at rest) tells them to stay at rest, the box vibration is trying to make them move. The energy from the box's vibration is transferred to the components through the electrical leads which are soldered into the circuit board. All of this will cause the components to break loose and therefore cause the amplifier to fail prematurely. Basically, the amplifier will commit suicide! :-) I'm not telling you this because someone told me it was bad. I've been repairing amplifiers since ~1985. Virtually every amplifier that's come into my shop with parts rattling around inside them have been mounted on the speaker box. It causes the legs of the semiconductors to break (which causes amplifier failure). It causes the capacitors to break off of the board (which can cause catastrophic amplifier failure). It causes solder joints to break on the semiconductors mounted to the heat sink. It causes transformer windings to grind into one another (which causes lots of smoke to pour out of your amplifier). People who repeatedly tell others to mount their amps on the speaker box because they've never had a problem remind me of people who drink and drive and say there's nothing wrong with it because they've never crashed their vehicle. Eventually, in both cases, problems will arise.

NOTE:
Mounting the amplifier on the enclosure also allows someone to steal BOTH your amps and speakers at the same time with no extra effort. It's bad enough to have one or the other stolen but losing amps and speakers (and anything else mounted to your speaker box) is really gonna suck."

Ok Since I'll just run an extra 3 feet of wire for each wire to the amp an just mount it on the back of the seat, at least with the extra wire I can fold my seat down when needed to haul something

oonikfraleyoo
I also never had an amp die because its mounted directly to the box, but I guess theres a first for everything

Later
Skold

The only way to truly keep an amp from failing due to vibration would be to encase it in a force field or set it up to act as some sort of hover craft that only moves within an envelope of air and never bumps into anything. Regardless of where you mount an amp, it is going to be subjected to vibration. Your car vibrates with the engine running, doesn't it (I know this is minimal, but I'm trying to illustrate my point, so bear with me)? True, mounting it directly to the sub box may cause it to fail prematurely, but if that is one of the only spots you have to mount it, I'd say go for it. As someone mentioned previously in this thread, most newer amps (I would like to think) should be made stout enough to handle such vibration, except in extreme cases of the box flexing/vibrating. And of course, since most of you advocate building custom enclosures and bracing heavily to reduce/eliminate said vibrations, then you should be even safer. A prefab box - that would be a tougher case. But I really don't see a problem with mounting directly to the box otherwise (except for the theft part mentioned, that really would suck!).

Sorry for the double post - had to fix some things to make things clearer.

[QUOTE=oonikfraleyoo]....... AND I drive drunk all the time. ............

Are you a) kidding or b) and idiot?

customsuburb wrote:

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I vote for the back of the seat mounting. You can mount it low on the seat so that you don't have to have much extra slack in wire to fold the seat down. Kinda like this... https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=33362&KW=defective (look at the last pic)

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Yeah that looks nice, thats what Im going to do, now I just need to get me some MDF and screw it into the seat frame and Im good, you think 5/8 MDF would be good enough or kick it up to 1 inch

Thanks

--Skold