Upgrading the XLT base audio system / door panel removal - finished with lots of pics.

[supersecretTB]

"Ford happy song"??? What is that???
[/QUOTE]

LOL that's the nick name we gave the ford door chime at my job. I work in Automotive. lol.
Its a good thing it stopped playing if you hunt back for one of my original replys. I was trying to make it shut up.

Also the amp is grounded behind the seat like in the OP photo same way. I have a ground loop between the LOC and the Amp. Like I said I' haven't had time this week to look at it yet. Just fishing for ideas of what others did.

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[Piterpi]

"Ford happy song"??? What is that???

LOL that's the nick name we gave the ford door chime at my job. I work in Automotive. lol.
Its a good thing it stopped playing if you hunt back for one of my original replys. I was trying to make it shut up.

Also the amp is grounded behind the seat like in the OP photo same way. I have a ground loop between the LOC and the Amp. Like I said I' haven't had time this week to look at it yet. Just fishing for ideas of what others did.
[/QUOTE]
what do you mean by a ground loop?

 

[supersecretTB]

LOL that's the nick name we gave the ford door chime at my job. I work in Automotive. lol.
Its a good thing it stopped playing if you hunt back for one of my original replys. I was trying to make it shut up.

Also the amp is grounded behind the seat like in the OP photo same way. I have a ground loop between the LOC and the Amp. Like I said I' haven't had time this week to look at it yet. Just fishing for ideas of what others did.

what do you mean by a ground loop?
[/QUOTE]

The Way I have mine set up I have an amp powering the door speakers and powering the subwoofer in the back. There is a Signal Converter I hid in the dashboard that is grounded and powered up there by the radio wiring. The Amp is in the back behind the back seat grounded to the factory bolt like pictured previously. There is a ground loop or some other interference between those two points. You can hear buzzes that match what the alternator is doing.

Not sure if you are asking about my setup or specifically what ground loops are, but ground loops in Audio implies there is a difference in potential voltage in the grounding points between two devices that causes hum, buzz etc. As I said I haven't had time since changing the converter that's in the dash. The old one had some noise but not as bad as this new Kicker LOC. Originally was planned to use LC2i. I didn't expect to have this issue all of a sudden so I didn't budget out enough time the last few days to take everything else apart will get to it this weekend.

I am 90% sure it is a ground loop causing the buzzing and other weird sounds as I've tested the RCS and components up front and that seems to be the culprit.

My planned other things to check is the grounding of the amp in the back maybe something metal on the amp is grounding to the vehicle chassis causing a ground loop that way, the other thing I plan on trying is running another wire from the same point where the amp is grounded up front to the converter and seeing if that resolves the issue.

I may even try a ground noise eliminator. Some vehicles just simply have noisy power and need something like that. I didn't know if the mav was like that.

Beyond that point I'll have to re-wire and re-work everything to either eliminate the converter from the signal flow which would be fine but time consuming.

Just leaving my issues here in case anyone else has the same ones to compare notes and maybe others have tried other solutions with success.

 

[Darnon]

2. The Ford Happy song eventually stopped playing all together only plays from the tinny little speaker behind the dash now.

That would possibly indicate your LOC isn't applying a simulated speaker load. I believe if it thinks there aren't speakers connected it 'failsafes' to a speaker in the BCM (?).

 

[BlueSnake77]

I'm 52 years old, so maybe it's just me... but after hearing about how crappie the stock XLT system is, I was astonished by how GOOD it is.

Radio is weak. But playing a good YouTube video through the system is more than sufficient for volume, bass, etc in my opinion.

Perhaps I don't understand what a real system is these days. All I know is... DAMN good enough for me!

I agree it's fine, but then I'm not one of those people that likes playing thier music super loud and with a lot of base. To me super loud music just becomes noise and isn't enjoyable. That being said, one problem with the (door) speakers is that there is a lot of vibration in the door panel because (I'm assuming) of the way the door panel is hollowed out for the water bottle storage. If I rest my knee against the door panel when the music is playing I feel vibrations coming through from the speakers.

 

[Piterpi]

what do you mean by a ground loop?

The Way I have mine set up I have an amp powering the door speakers and powering the subwoofer in the back. There is a Signal Converter I hid in the dashboard that is grounded and powered up there by the radio wiring. The Amp is in the back behind the back seat grounded to the factory bolt like pictured previously. There is a ground loop or some other interference between those two points. You can hear buzzes that match what the alternator is doing.

Not sure if you are asking about my setup or specifically what ground loops are, but ground loops in Audio implies there is a difference in potential voltage in the grounding points between two devices that causes hum, buzz etc. As I said I haven't had time since changing the converter that's in the dash. The old one had some noise but not as bad as this new Kicker LOC. Originally was planned to use LC2i. I didn't expect to have this issue all of a sudden so I didn't budget out enough time the last few days to take everything else apart will get to it this weekend.

I am 90% sure it is a ground loop causing the buzzing and other weird sounds as I've tested the RCS and components up front and that seems to be the culprit.

My planned other things to check is the grounding of the amp in the back maybe something metal on the amp is grounding to the vehicle chassis causing a ground loop that way, the other thing I plan on trying is running another wire from the same point where the amp is grounded up front to the converter and seeing if that resolves the issue.

I may even try a ground noise eliminator. Some vehicles just simply have noisy power and need something like that. I didn't know if the mav was like that.

Beyond that point I'll have to re-wire and re-work everything to either eliminate the converter from the signal flow which would be fine but time consuming.

Just leaving my issues here in case anyone else has the same ones to compare notes and maybe others have tried other solutions with success.
[/QUOTE]
Thank you for your detailed explanation regarding the ground loop...

By the way, did you check the speaker connectors? Where did you get the audio signal for the amp or LOC?
Maybe there you have a little contact with the chassis of the truck and that generates the loop...]
Or maybe a little piece of wire outside the connectors...

 

[supersecretTB]

That would possibly indicate your LOC isn't applying a simulated speaker load. I believe if it thinks there aren't speakers connected it 'failsafes' to a speaker in the BCM (?).

That would make sense. I was assuming something along those lines. In my original post I was tapping 12+ from the headunit until I realized it never powers off unless in deep sleep mode. Once I made all audio gear power off with the key the chimes went away. So that explanation checks out. Btw I didn't want it anyway lol. To me that is the most annoying chime of any car I've owned.

 

[supersecretTB]

Thank you for your detailed explanation regarding the ground loop...

By the way, did you check the speaker connectors? Where did you get the audio signal for the amp or LOC?
Maybe there you have a little contact with the chassis of the truck and that generates the loop...]
Or maybe a little piece of wire outside the connectors...

I'll keep an eye out for that. I'll inspect the wires for any potential contact.

 

[supersecretTB]

So to help others, I fixed my annoying extra noise issues by rewiring everything. The converter didn't like being grounded up front. Needed to be grounded in the same spot. My amp setup has a built in converter so ultimately I cut the extra converter out. The LC2i or Kicker or Scoche I bought were either incompatible with the design of my system or unnecessary. The left channel seemed to be causing the ground loop. One of the replies was right. A nick in the wire. So now I'm happy lol.

 

[Piterpi]

So to help others, I fixed my annoying extra noise issues by rewiring everything. The converter didn't like being grounded up front. Needed to be grounded in the same spot. My amp setup has a built in converter so ultimately I cut the extra converter out. The LC2i or Kicker or Scoche I bought were either incompatible with the design of my system or unnecessary. The left channel seemed to be causing the ground loop. One of the replies was right. A nick in the wire. So now I'm happy lol.

Yeah!!! Upload some pics of the final instalation...

 

[Piterpi]

Fader works as everything else in the factory radio. I looked for any harnesses available and did not find anything, so I had to cut the 2 front speakers wires, I tried to do in a way that I can make everything back to factory. I have 2 wires for the signal going back feeding the amp and sub and the 9 way to the front feeding the component system. I'm using the DC offset on both and it's working fine, but I have the remote that I could use in case I need. I could use the Key remote wire to turn the hideaway on and off, might be more reliable this way I think I'll give it a try.

For the signal feeding both the Key and the hideaway I simply cut the connector wire from both to the right length and made a simple Y connection and split the signal for both.

The only thing I'm not 100% happy in the hideaway, it's good for 90% of my listening but at higher volumes it starts making some weird noises. I'll keep it for now but will likely upgrade that in the future.

Hi! Where did you cut the speakers wires? Near the head unit? Could you upload some pics of that?

 

[rjvandoel]

With my pending 23 I plan on some audio upgrades. I always do with my vehicles.

I’ll Go with JL Audio’s C7 active component series with an audio control 6 channel dsp/amp. The C7s have a tweeter, midrange (4”) and a woofer. Eventually adding a moderately powered sub and amp later. The greatest time will likely be designing an enclosure that can fit in one of those storage bins under the seat. It seems that’s the best placement for centered bass

The only question is those damn 4” in the rear. I figure I’ll have to make some kind of bracket to secure the speaker up to the trim piece. I’m still working to determine depth of those rear speakers and what I’ll be working with. If those can work some JL c2 coaxial 4” two ways should do the trick.
I would usually pay someone to do this work but I’ve been doing this for awhile and I want to quality control the look of my install. I’ve used the same guy at Best Buy and he’s good but I know I could make it look neater and more professional based on what I’ve picked up over the years

 

[uh50]

With my pending 23 I plan on some audio upgrades. I always do with my vehicles.

I’ll Go with JL Audio’s C7 active component series with an audio control 6 channel dsp/amp. The C7s have a tweeter, midrange (4”) and a woofer. Eventually adding a moderately powered sub and amp later. The greatest time will likely be designing an enclosure that can fit in one of those storage bins under the seat. It seems that’s the best placement for centered bass

The only question is those damn 4” in the rear. I figure I’ll have to make some kind of bracket to secure the speaker up to the trim piece. I’m still working to determine depth of those rear speakers and what I’ll be working with. If those can work some JL c2 coaxial 4” two ways should do the trick.
I would usually pay someone to do this work but I’ve been doing this for awhile and I want to quality control the look of my install. I’ve used the same guy at Best Buy and he’s good but I know I could make it look neater and more professional based on what I’ve picked up over the years

I love the Audio Control DSP Amplifier, but man, the cost is prohibitive for me since I'm retired. I've found another DSP I'm thinking about. It's a Puzu PZ-C7 DSP at 45 Watts RMS which is plenty for me. I've always been intrigued about things in small packages and this amp is small and something I really like about it is that they also provide a T-harness for quick plug and play.

I almost pulled the trigger over the weekend, but given that I only drive 250 miles a month, I'm hesitant about buying something that is a big want and not a need.

I'm envious about the Audio Control DSP Amplifier and the JL components. I love JL speakers. Good luck with the install and let us know about the rear that you decide on and how they sound.

Great post to get us thinking about sound systems again. Thanks.

 

[flimay2k]

Hi! Where did you cut the speakers wires? Near the head unit? Could you upload some pics of that?

I don't have any pictures, but I unwrapped the Tesa tape, cut the speaker wires about 2-3 inches from the connector, soldered the necessary wires to make sure they would not give me trouble later, and wrapped everything back with tape. I would avoid that if I could, but I can't even tell anything was touched and I can easily get it back if I need to.

 

[rjvandoel]

I’m curious regarding tweeter writing. It’s been establish the standard audio has the front door woofers and tweeters wired in parallel.

in my previous audio experience with Toyota their tweeters typical have a clip with incoming and outgoing wires. One send audio to the tweeter and the other set send to the door. I see from images the tweeter in the Maverick has two so that means the parallel connection point on + and - has to be somewhere in the dash. Correct assumption?

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