Stealth DSP-Tuned Audio Upgrade with Before/After RTA

[snowkarver]

I love building completely stealth systems that maximize audio quality but only use stock controls, locations, or completely unused space in the vehicle. Commensurate with the economy nature of the Maverick, this one will have components that are definitely a league above OEM, but not outrageous:

• Audison Prima AP8.9-channel DSP amp
• Morel Tempo Ultra 602 Mk II component fronts
• Kicker KS 404 rear fills
• Kicker HS10 Hideaway 10” active sub
• PlugNPlay Kits custom loopback harness
• AudioControl AC-LGD input filters
• Kilmat 80mil deadener
• Frequency, decay, and resonance RTA with REW

First things first - RTA the OEM base system (non-B&O) to understand what we're up against:

Note that this isn't a dig at Ford's budget system - for the price point, it's actually not bad, and if you're happy with it, more power to you! But IYKYK, and then it's super helpful to know what it is you are trying to improve.

Measurements were taken at the driver's head position, the red curve is with tone settings at neutral and the factory sound mode set to "Driver Only" seating position, and the green curve is with the setting on "All Seats".

There's a bit of an art to reading frequency response (FR) graphs so I added a few notes for the forum. Sound quality can be very subjective, but there is a quantifiable standard of "better" used in the audio and entertainment industries, so that's what I use. My side gig is designing pro-level home theatres that have won national awards, so I hope that some of you might find this interesting.

More to come!

Sponsored

 

[colinl]

That's amazingly helpful for anyone to read. By any chance did you max out the tone controls so you can see the amplitude and Q?

B&O does not have driver focus and all speakers, it has stereo and surround. But like your all speaker mode, I find surround is garbage. Thinking it sucks and showing why it sucks are two different things though. Great post, looking forward to the rest of the story.

 

[NevergettinMaverick]

That amp is like $900 by itself...

 

[snowkarver]

That amp is like $900 by itself...

Purchased for $600 plus shipping from a really good seller on eBay.

I get that fancy audio isn’t for everyone, but if it’s your thing, this is an absolutely screaming deal for a PC-configurable powered DSP. An AudioControl D.6-1200 is $1300 and a JL Audio VXi would be $1600 for similar capabilities.

 

[snowkarver]

That's amazingly helpful for anyone to read. By any chance did you max out the tone controls so you can see the amplitude and Q?

Thanks!

Sorry, I just took a base measurement at defeat since I didn’t have the time or interest in trying to EQ anything with the factory head. In hindsight it would have been an interesting exercise though!

 

[rallyshark]

You're using a few of the components I was eying, should my Maverick ever get built. Huge props for going with the Audison and Morel, the only part I see that made me cringe a little is the kicker hideaway. I'm not saying they're garbage, but a custom sub enclosure with a different sub is what that system deserves. The hideaways are an easy way to add some bottom end, and are all most folks need. However, if you're going to put in the effort with Audison and Morel bits, don't phone it in with the sub is all I'm saying A high quality 8" sub with a proper enclosure will eat that hideaway for lunch in SQ and sound level. The build you are doing will still be a giant leap over the factory system, of course!

 

[snowkarver]

You're using a few of the components I was eying, should my Maverick ever get built. Huge props for going with the Audison and Morel, the only part I see that made me cringe a little is the kicker hideaway.

Haha, I get you and this reaction a lot! Totally understand - my home system is dual 12” SVS subs with an additional 10” in the opposite corner to fill in a resonance gap. Flat to 21Hz at THX reference dB.

That said, I simply have no room in the Maverick. This is a backcountry road trip vehicle for 2 adults, 2 kids and every cubic inch of storage is needed. Under the seat is our power bank, survival and recovery gear.

I’ve done the research and on a cubic inch basis, nothing fills out the low end like a Hideaway. Even a small custom enclosure with a low-profile 8” would be roughly 2-3x the volume before it really started to make a difference, and I just don’t have the space. With the Audison DSP EQ, I can tweak the input going into the Kicker and make it do exactly what I need it to - add just another 10Hz or so at -0dB and then just shut up.

At 3” of depth, nothing else even comes close. For what it is, and set up correctly by a professional, they accidentally built something amazing.

 

[rallyshark]

That's totally understandable! That explanation makes good sense to me for sure. I'm gathering your knowledge of audio is quite good, so you understand my reservations. I'm not a sub snob per say, but I'll take a musical sub over an spl sub all day long. I also want a sub that digs deep while staying in control. Are those kicker hideaways really that good? If I'm wrong, that is awesome! If it works, then I need to start paying more attention to those little subs for sure.

My general sub knowledge is telling me a sub in that enclosure just can't hold up on the 30hz and below range without getting ugly when the volume goes up. Doesn't it have a subsonic filter at 25hz as well? I do listen to a lot of different types of music, and some of it does have frequencies that are insanely low. Granted, I know a vast majority of music never has notes low enough to notice a sub 30hz falloff. Still, I completely appreciate why you made the decision you made, given your wanting to maintain all available space.

It's possible I'll end up making the same decision, IF I ever get my Maverick... First, I'll make every effort possible to build my own enclose that I can eek out .5 cubic feet somewhere. I know it's easy for me to make plans and assumptions when I don't have a truck yet. I can be pretty creative with sub enclosures, but it may prove to be beyond my abilities when the time comes. I can't wait to hear how it all sounds!

 

[snowkarver]

I'll take a musical sub over an spl sub all day long. I also want a sub that digs deep while staying in control. Are those kicker hideaways really that good?
…
Granted, I know a vast majority of music never has notes low enough to notice a sub 30hz falloff. Still, I completely appreciate why you made the decision you made, given your wanting to maintain all available space
…
It's possible I'll end up making the same decision, IF I ever get my Maverick... First, I'll make every effort possible to build my own enclose that I can eek out .5 cubic feet somewhere.

100% agree with you. As you said, due to their size, the Hideaways are useless for max SPL and deep subsonics, so they disappoint a lot of people and get that bad rap.

But to get decent-looking numbers on paper, Kicker had to overengineer the enclosure and amp. It can’t compensate for lack of volume, but it does make for an incredibly controlled, punchy, and musical sub in the 35Hz and up range.

To me, that’s what really matters. They take a massive load off your woofers and add back the key octave required for the initial attack transient of things like an 808 kick or bass drop. Doing that well adds incredible depth and dimension to music, and the Hideaway is very controlled in this range. Below 35Hz, meh, I don’t really care. I listen while driving, and most subsonics just get lost in road rumble and wind resonance anyway. Or it shakes the windows and trim. Especially in an XLT Maverick. So I use the Kicker for the upper sub range, with a tight 24dB slope off the woofers, and then slowly roll it off at 35Hz so it never gets rowdy.

On the other hand, lots of folks here have done awesome underseat enclosures with great results! It’s pretty much the only space available in the cabin. Just didn’t work for me.

Good luck getting your truck!

 

[MikeyG]

Looking forward to pics of your build. How will you be wiring up the component set and crossovers? I also have a set of morel 6.5 components that I will amp and also a 10” sub. Looking to do a JL fix 86 but unsure how to wire up the components and crossovers.

 

[snowkarver]

Looking forward to pics of your build. How will you be wiring up the component set and crossovers? I also have a set of morel 6.5 components that I will amp and also a 10” sub. Looking to do a JL fix 86 but unsure how to wire up the components and crossovers.

The Audison Prima is a 9-channel DSP so I have active amping - no passive crossovers and each driver is individually driven directly from the amp. I ran new lines from rear to dash for the tweeters.

With conventional crossovers, I think I’d put them in the dash, use the factory wiring to the doors, and then still run new lines to the tweeters. The stock tweeter harness is spliced to the same run as the woofer at some unknown location, and no one seems to know where that happens.

 

[colinl]

The Audison Prima is a 9-channel DSP so I have active amping - no passive crossovers and each driver is individually driven directly from the amp. I ran new lines from rear to dash for the tweeters.

With conventional crossovers, I think I’d put them in the dash, use the factory wiring to the doors, and then still run new lines to the tweeters. The stock tweeter harness is spliced to the same run as the woofer at some unknown location, and no one seems to know where that happens.

that amp isn't rated for a whole lot of power at 4 ohm - only 35wrms - but since you're bi-amping that's a reasonable amount of power for components.

how bad was it wiring new to the dash tweeter location? I've felt around in there and it seemed like the harness goes straight down, but I don't know how/if you have access from the footwell under-dash area.

 

[snowkarver]

that amp isn't rated for a whole lot of power at 4 ohm - only 35wrms - but since you're bi-amping that's a reasonable amount of power for components.

how bad was it wiring new to the dash tweeter location? I've felt around in there and it seemed like the harness goes straight down, but I don't know how/if you have access from the footwell under-dash area.

The Prima has a secret weapon - any given pair of channels is bridgeable to 130W/4 ohms continuous, which is what the woofers are getting. 35W is only going to the tweets and the rear fill running at -15dB, which is more than enough. The setup was super slick. Also, I’ve found lots of headroom in the design - it’s pushing almost 45W and 170W to the woofers before even getting close to 10% THD.

I was going to get the APF version which doubles the output power, but is of course larger and more $. When I dug into the specs, I thought Audison nailed the configurability with the bridging. The bigger box would have been a tight squeeze behind the rear seat with the Kicker.

No real problem with the dash wiring. Pop the access panels on the far sides of the instrument panel and go fishing.

 

[MikeyG]

The Audison Prima is a 9-channel DSP so I have active amping - no passive crossovers and each driver is individually driven directly from the amp. I ran new lines from rear to dash for the tweeters.

With conventional crossovers, I think I’d put them in the dash, use the factory wiring to the doors, and then still run new lines to the tweeters. The stock tweeter harness is spliced to the same run as the woofer at some unknown location, and no one seems to know where that happens.

Ok.. I never hooked up amps to a factory radio so I’m learning as I go lol.. I really wanted to do the loopback harness like you got from plugnplaykits but not sure if I can do that with having the crossovers. I know some people mount the crossovers right next to the amps but I’m not sure how they wire them up. I know there’s a company LLJ customs makes some type of loopback harness that has a crossover option that just has extra wiring for the crossover but I’m not sure how that works.

 

[colinl]

Ok.. I never hooked up amps to a factory radio so I’m learning as I go lol.. I really wanted to do the loopback harness like you got from plugnplaykits but not sure if I can do that with having the crossovers. I know some people mount the crossovers right next to the amps but I’m not sure how they wire them up. I know there’s a company LLJ customs makes some type of loopback harness that has a crossover option that just has extra wiring for the crossover but I’m not sure how that works.

If you leave the stock non-B&O speaker wiring all you can really do is put a bass blocker on the tweeter that is near the range the component crossover uses, since the split is presumably somewhere in/under the dash. typically it will be in the 2khz to 3.5khz range.

you can introduce some phase issues with a passive crossover on the tweeter (and not the midrange) but that's why the OP's amp, and other amps with integrated DSP, are so great. as an example, the Kicker Key 200.4 will automatically correct any issues, but you can't tweak it. you just get whatever the amp thinks is best. which honestly is a pro and a con. for most people, very little drawback.

Sponsored