So you want more bass from your existing after market amplifier and speaker setup? You are just in time. It does not matter whether your setup is in the car, matatu, or your own house. These tips will make sure you get real hardcore bass. First before anything you need a powerful amplifier and possibly a bridgeable one too.
Sufficient power to your Amplifier
Feed your amplifier with thicker cables directly from the car battery. Do not connect the negative cable to the car chassis; instead connect it directly to the car battery. Looping cables will give you unnecessary hum. If you use the amplifier in your house, make sure your transformer current rating is more than enough if not enough. A better method that I will tackle soon is using a computer power supply. As a good measure, the Power Amplifier should be as close as possible to the power supply as possible, if not then use much thicker wires or conductors.
The perfect subwoofer speaker
A good subwoofer speaker should have low impedance and the bigger the better. Impedance is the resistance to flow of current in conductors (current carrying your favourite music). If the resistance is too high it deducts your sound level. Most subwoofer speakers have an impedance of 4 ohms and quite a number have an impedance of 2 ohms like the one pictured above. Go on scroll up again and look at the image. Satisfied? okay. Lower impedance levels allow passage of more current. More current means more bass. Another feature of a good subwoofer speaker is the size, the bigger the better. Bigger subwoofers have a larger surface area, so they can displace a much higher volume of air. This means more bass. On the other hand smaller subwoofers displace a much lower volume of air thus producing lower sound levels even if connected to the same exact amplifier. Again as a good measure, the subwoofer (which by the way consumes much of the energy) should be placed as close as possible to the Power Amplifier connected to it. If not use even thicker cables.
Good size quality cables
A good cable connecting a subwoofer to a speaker should be thick and short. Thick cables again have less resistance to the flow of current unlike their thinner counterparts. Again the cable should be as short as possible, longer cables have high resistance values while shorter cables have less resistance values. The type of conductor also plays a role; the most common conductor is copper, but if you can get a copper and aluminum alloy, it is much better because aluminum has a good conductivity rate than copper.
Good size, sturdy Subwoofer cabinet
Your subwoofer cabinet should also be of sufficient volume. If your cabinet is a self made custom cabinet, make sure it is strong enough and that the subwoofer is mounted firmly. Loose subwoofers create unwanted vibrations which may seem like sound from a torn speaker. Create sufficient vent(s) to help the displaced air and subsequently the bass to escape more easily. To avoid all that you can just buy a factory assembled speaker cabinet. Also connect the (+) positive terminal of the speaker to the (+) positive terminal of the amplifier. Likewise with the (-) negative terminal. If you invert the cables you will damage the subwoofer speaker.
So what type of bass do you want?
There are two types of bass sounds; there is a boomy bass usually created by a vented speaker enclosure or cabinet. There is also a type of bass that is punchy, usually provided by a non vented sealed speaker cabinet. As an example a boomy bass goes like booooom booooom while a punchy bass goes like bup bup. If you have ever held a subwoofer speaker playing music, the bass it produces is similar to the punchy bass. But if you place it in a vented enclosure you will notice it provides a much deeper louder boomy bass. I prefer the boomy bass because I usually get the punchy bass from the midrange speakers.
To summarize, for real hardcore bass from you subwoofer you need:-
To provide sufficient power supply to the amplifier.
A bigger low impedance subwoofer speaker.
To use thicker cables.
And have a sturdy vented good size subwoofer cabinet.