Have a 2011 Expedition w/nav & while the audio sounds good it definetly runs out of gas long before hitting concert volume levels. Far as I can tell this system has 2 amps from the factory, 1 in the dash that powers the door speakers, and 1 on the sub box. Would like to upgrade these and the drivers. Problem is back in 1985 (last time I did more than just replace factory speakers) there was no bluetooth, nav, hard drives, sat radio, round tires etc.. so am hoping one of the Guru's whos posts i've been reading might help with a few general questions.

1. does the volume on the factory system "roll off" when things start getting loud because of a lack of amp power or is there something in the head unit that does this to protect the speakers? Have a VW that does the same thing but it has no external amps. Sounds strange but seems like you can actually go past max volume at about 4/5ths the way up the indicator & need to turn the **** back left to get max level. If it is the HU doing this guess would need some type of signal processor to eliminate it?

2. seems like i should try to tap the signal from the head unit before the factory amps to eliminate any possible distortion they are adding. Is it worth the trouble to do this or should I just tap at each speaker? Are the amps tied into the vehical computer somehow & need to be left in the loop?

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Things seem to have changed a bit since the last time i dug around behind a dash board & the wife wouldn't be too happy if i turned her new truck into a 3 ton paperweight because i cut the wrong wire.

 

I think it's the amps that handle the volume decrease to avoid clipping of the sub. The premium stereo in my '11 did this, the mids/highs would increase in volume but at a certain volume level, the sub level never increased. I couldn't hear the stereo with the windows down on the parkway (which is how I wind down from work!). Taking the factory amps out of the equation alleviated this symptom. Loud is loud.

The guys that did my stereo install tapped in the speaker wires right out of the factory head unit. In my case, it was all speaker wires but I know that some factory amps (not sure if Ford's are like this)are integrated with other features that require a data cable to the amps. If you Exp is setup this way, Audio Control's line output converter can handle a pretty significant amount of power, meaning you can leave the factory amp, connect the line output converter, then run to your aftermarket amp(s).

 

Thanks for the input. Been eying the LC6i, was hoping to avoid the added hassle of installing more than just a 5 channel amp & speakers. For such a big vehical there ain't much space for aftermarket goodies outside the "living area".