My stereo upgrade process in Maverick XL

[DanielABuckley]

now for the box. This is my first box that I ever built. My 10” sundown called for .5 cu ft so in order to get the right volume I had to use 1/2” mdf.

had to cut out all the sides and the bottom of the plastic bin in Oder for the box to fit.

Now for the top trim piece to finish everything off. This is all 1/2” mdf

last the holes cut and cover piece covered in leather

Sweet!

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[MaverickVic]

Very nice and clean!

 

[thev8man]

Started to working on my stereo system and thought I would share the process here and also get some advice along the way. I’m no stereo expert and have only done one system probably 12 years ago that was in my previous truck. I have never hooked up amps to a factory radio so I’m still trying to figure out what route I’m going to go with but I’m looking for something not expensive and user friendly so I’m thinking lc7i. The amps I’m using are alpine mrp300 (4 channel) alpine mrp500 (mono amp) and a 10” sundown sd2 that I took out of my old f150. This is just a basic build that I’m not looking to spend a lot of money on it. I bought lower end morel 6.5” components and 4” rear speakers. I also have some 0 gauge power wire that I took out of my f150 that I might use.

here’s the sub, components, rear speakers and power wire.

getting an idea for the amp rack. This is just a scrap piece of mdf I had laying around so once I figure how I’m going to do the rack I’ll get a new piece of mdf.

Now that's nefty

 

[MikeyG]

Great work! That sub looks like it belongs there, and great choice on the mids/highs too! Can you tell us more about that harness you got, and where you got it from specifically? So it carries the signal to the amps, but I'm assuming you will have to run the speaker wires back to the front from the amp for the fronts, right? Where are you going to connect the amplified channels to for the fronts at? Don't get me wrong, I know how to make it all work, I'm just curious about how much trouble that harness is saving, and if it would be worth it for me to do. Currently, I plan to run a 9 conductor speed wire, and simply snip the front speaker wires at the harness and take it from there.

I bet it will sound so much better than stock now! I will say, a DSP before those amps will open up a whole new world to you though Once you go DSP, you never go back, haha. Having full control over the sound profile is awesome(a must even), and you can really dial it in to it's full potential. Either way, really nice work man!!

I got the harness from https://plugnplaykits.com/ it’s a loopback harness and it already taps into your factory speakers at the factory harness. It is 2 sets of stinger 9 conductor speed wire and has a t harness. You disconnect your factory plug from the radio and plug the t harness in between. You run both sets of speed wire from behind the radio to behind the seats if that’s where your putting your amps at. One of the speed wires brings the signal back the the amps from the radio and the other brings the amped signal back to the t harnes behind the radio. It also includes the audio control LGDs that are needed with the mavericks factory radio. They are $40 alone. The whole harness was $185 whaivk I think is a great deal to just plug and play and eliminates you having to tap into the speakers yourself.

A lot of people have said to go dsp but I hane no idea how to even tune a dsp and most of them are pretty expensive. I still haven’t gotten that far yet. I was just considering the lc7i. I still need to do the door speakers and rear speakers then maybe I’ll figure out if I want to do a dsp or lc7i.

 

[MikeyG]

Nice looking box. The vinyl was an excellent touch. How's the overall improvement in sound quality?

I haven't done anything audio related in probably almost 25 years, though adding some bass to this audio system would be a big plus -- it's definitely lacking a bit there. However, the factory audio isn't as bad as I was expecting, but still nowhere new the bass of my previous Ram.

It’s not hooked up yet. I still need to install the components, rear speakers, run wiring and then the amp rack. I also need to find time between work, kids sports and my wife having me redo rooms in my house

 

[rallyshark]

I got the harness from https://plugnplaykits.com/ it’s a loopback harness and it already taps into your factory speakers at the factory harness. It is 2 sets of stinger 9 conductor speed wire and has a t harness. You disconnect your factory plug from the radio and plug the t harness in between. You run both sets of speed wire from behind the radio to behind the seats if that’s where your putting your amps at. One of the speed wires brings the signal back the the amps from the radio and the other brings the amped signal back to the t harnes behind the radio. It also includes the audio control LGDs that are needed with the mavericks factory radio. They are $40 alone. The whole harness was $185 whaivk I think is a great deal to just plug and play and eliminates you having to tap into the speakers yourself.

A lot of people have said to go dsp but I hane no idea how to even tune a dsp and most of them are pretty expensive. I still haven’t gotten that far yet. I was just considering the lc7i. I still need to do the door speakers and rear speakers then maybe I’ll figure out if I want to do a dsp or lc7i.

Very cool man! The harness is great, if you don't want to be cutting up your factory wiring for sure. The DSP thing can be as easy or as hard as you want, haha. Your easiest bet would be something like the kicker key LOC. It basically just takes the radio signal and flattens the curve, and that would still be an improvement. The factory radio has some equalization to it, so the goal is to get rid of that with DSP. If you're wanting to stay DIY, the Key will be the simplest for sure. If you want to get greedy, then you can go with a DSP that lets you do time alignment and gives you a 31 band EQ for each channel, but that is a bit more involved and tedious. I have a Rockford Fosgate DSR1, and it works great for me, but some people have had connectivity issues while tuning them. When you get it right though, WOW There are a few options out there in the $300-400 range that do the same thing. That's still a good bit of money to me, but some are much more. I'm sure there's no shortage of people on here that could walk you through tuning a full blown DSP though.

 

[Hardening2753]

ordered a loopback harness from plug and play kits. This will tap into the speakers for me and bring the signal back to my amps.

Sound deadened the bins under the rear seats.

Was it just bare metal under the seat?

 

[Hardening2753]

now for the box. This is my first box that I ever built. My 10” sundown called for .5 cu ft so in order to get the right volume I had to use 1/2” mdf.

had to cut out all the sides and the bottom of the plastic bin in Oder for the box to fit.

Now for the top trim piece to finish everything off. This is all 1/2” mdf

last the holes cut and cover piece covered in leather

Cleanest install I have seen so far. Fantastic job matching the paint! If you had to do it again, would you change anything?

 

[Barksdale123]

Nice job. Really impressed with the wood working.

 

[MikeyG]

Very cool man! The harness is great, if you don't want to be cutting up your factory wiring for sure. The DSP thing can be as easy or as hard as you want, haha. Your easiest bet would be something like the kicker key LOC. It basically just takes the radio signal and flattens the curve, and that would still be an improvement. The factory radio has some equalization to it, so the goal is to get rid of that with DSP. If you're wanting to stay DIY, the Key will be the simplest for sure. If you want to get greedy, then you can go with a DSP that lets you do time alignment and gives you a 31 band EQ for each channel, but that is a bit more involved and tedious. I have a Rockford Fosgate DSR1, and it works great for me, but some people have had connectivity issues while tuning them. When you get it right though, WOW There are a few options out there in the $300-400 range that do the same thing. That's still a good bit of money to me, but some are much more. I'm sure there's no shortage of people on here that could walk you through tuning a full blown DSP though.

I was talking to someone on a audio forum that did a nice system on a maverick that used a dsp. I was asking him a few questions and he recommended a JL fix86 which also flattens the signal but then I would need a dsp to adjust the signal. He said if I never messed with a dsp before it’s not as easy as some people say and could take hours of adjustments. I also had someone mention the RF dsr1 but then there are so many mixed reviews about them lol. At this point I’m just looking for something that’s simple so I can get this stereo going lol. Still have to do all the speakers, wiring and amp rack but have limited time lol.

 

[MikeyG]

Was it just bare metal under the seat?

Yea it’s just the painted metal under there. So I had a bunch of sound deadening so just did that section too.

 

[MikeyG]

Cleanest install I have seen so far. Fantastic job matching the paint! If you had to do it again, would you change anything?

Thank you. Nope I wouldn’t change anything. I was pretty impressed with the final result lol. It’s not hooked up yet so hopefully it sounds as good as it looks lol

 

[Canuck in MI]

WOW! Thanks for sharing -that is super custom and a fantastic match for the plastic trim pieces. I love the covering you chose.

One recommendation - it appears that you have made use of a router. Once you finalize your amp backing plate, I'd suggest radiused/rounded corners and then using t-mold to finish the edges and then either paint or a similar covering to your amp backing plate to complete the look.

Looking forward to your update once you finalize the amp backing plate. Giving me ideas on what I'm goind to do in my XLT when I find some spare time (ETA -years... .. LOL)

Great job!

 

[RevNation]

This is really awesome. Have you tallied up how much you’ve spent on it?

 

[MikeyG]

This is really awesome. Have you tallied up how much you’ve spent on it?

Not really but here’s some numbers off the top of my head. The amps, sub and 0 gauge wiring I had.

2 small sheets of 1/2” mdf $50ish
Loopback harness $185
6.5” components $160
4” rear spekers $90
Sound deadening $50
In line power fuse $20
Leather upholstery $15
HF router $40
Router bits $20
HF staple gun $20
Wood glue $20

I think that might be it. I have a table saw, compressor and a bunch of other tools that I used. I still need to get a LOC, rcas and I’m sure a few other things. I’m still debating about getting some 4 gauge power wire and ditching my older 0 gauge but we’ll see.

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