reverse mounting subs

What are the Pros and conns of reverse mountung your subs? Like when the magnet is facing out. Does it give more bass, or does it depend on the sub?

Pros: Some people think it looks cool; better motor cooling is possible; the enclosure can be somewhat smaller.

Cons: subwoofer much more vulnerable to damage; some people think it looks stupid.

If done properly, there is no difference in output levels from conventional mounting.

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But wouldnt that be something like free air? It kinda seems like the sub would be suffocating itself because its putting out to an enclosed air tight space

You're thinking of a sub as if there's a difference between the wave that is coming off of the front and the back. There isn't. The sub "puts out" in one direction just as much it does that other. The only difference between the sides of the cone is one side has the actual workings of the speaker stuck to it.

Every time the sub's cone goes down it pushes just as much air out with the bottom of the cone as it just did with the top of the cone when it was moving up. That's the whole point of putting speakers in enclosures, to isolate one side of the cone from the other so the speaker doesn't cancel itself out when it's playing. Some people just mount subs upside down, but it really doesn't make much of a difference.

Now, you can't go mounting your midranges upside down because those are playing higher frequencies than a sub, and having the cone upside down on them makes the sound waves come from the speaker at all kinds of weird angles, but it doesn't matter with a sub because it's only playing low frequencies, and humans can't tell where low frequency sound is coming from anyway. Really all I'm saying is that to really make things simple, there's no difference between the front and the back of a speaker. Only thing is make sure to keep things in phase with each other if you start reverse mounting subs (make sure one isn't on the stroke moving down into the enclosure while the other one is moving out, or you'll lose a ton of volume.)

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'96 Mazda Miata

Well, i just remounted my subs reversed in my trunk and i can tell a big difference. It doesnt thump anywhere near as loud with them reversed. I could hardly see my rearview and sideview mirrors shaking like they usually do. So, actually i think it makes a difference the way theyre mounted.

Well first unless you also switched the polarity to each sub you made the subs out of phase with everything else, that will hurt performance. I'm sure there are a lot of other factors at work too, but I'll let someone who knows more address that.

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'96 Mazda Miata

Wait, so your saying if i mount them backwards, i should also reverse the polarity?

ummm... yeah.

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

Yes. Think about it... If you flip the subs around, they're moving opposite of what they were. What made the cone move out away from the enclosure now makes it move into the enclosure. If you flip the wires around on each sub, it reverses things back to normal.

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'96 Mazda Miata

... or use the phase control on your sub amp.

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I've noticed that some HU's and amps have adjustable phase for 0-180*. Where could you apply, say, 90*?     * means degrees

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