OK I have a few questions as I'm going to start designing my system.

My system is the 2017 Sony. My understanding is that the system has 10 speakers - 2 in the front A-pillar sail panels, 1 center channel on front dash, 6x9 in the front door, 6.5" in the rear door, and a sub behind the rear seat. Are there another set of tweeters in the front door, or are they just part of the front door coaxials?

Are the front A-pillar tweeters wired together with the front door speakers?

What size tweeter fits in the A-pillar? They look like they're pointed inward instead of towards the passengers. I'd really prefer not have to fab up my own pods there.

Thoughts? Am I crazy? Should I just keep it simple and go with the AMP PRO and forgo the DSP and just add amps and speakers/sub?

I want to maintain my door chimes, voice prompts, steering wheel controls, cell phone interface, navigation interface, fader control, etc. Am I stuck using the AMP PRO?

Can the AMP PRO outputs be fed into an outboard DSP such as the Mini C-DSP 6x8, Dayton 408, Helix, Focal, etc? If I do that do I lose any of the above prompts/controls?

The AMP PRO has a TOSLINK output. Is this usable to output into on of the aforementioned DSPs instead of using the RCA connectors? Is there an advantage of doing so?

So far my preliminary design would include Morel Tempo Ultra 692 6x9 mid-bass driver in the front door and the tweeters in the front sail panels. Rears doors would be for fill or could be eliminated.

I will build a sub box behind the rear seat a 12" shallow mount sub - Helix Esprit E12W, Stereo Integrity BM MK V, JL 12 TW3, etc.

I have an old BNIB JBL BP1200.1 mono sub amp. This monster puts out 1200 watts into 1 channel and has 3 30 amp fuses lol. I'm not sure if that thing will blow the subwoofer up.
I also have a JL 300/4v2. It would be simple to get another 4 channel amp to run the rear doors and front center channel. Speaking of center channel, I'm going to just do the 8ohm Dayton and use the DSP to turn that channel (and the rears) down a bit so I don't lose the staging.

Oh last thing. I also read that it's possible to flatten the EQ in FORSCAN and run the head unit sans stock amp, with the outputs acting as line level outs. That would feed the DSP which would then feed the amps, etc. Do I lose steering wheel control and all those other things above? Anyone successfully done this and retained all their integrated controls?

 

 

The front doors are components, 6x9 woofers and the tweeters in the A pillars are piggybacked off that.


I put 1" Infinity Kappa Perfect tweeters in the stock location. I removed the stock grilles and they fit perfectly in the hole.

You can use the AMP PRO by itself and just hook up some amps, or you can feed the AMP PRO output to a DSP and use both. I personally would start with the AMP PRO and see how it sounds to you. Adding a DSP after the fact is easy enough. It looks like you have some DSP features on the AMP PRO by being able to adjust sub level, bass, treble, etc. A DSP will obviously give you more control, and things like time alignment. You should keep all of your chimes and factory features with the AMP PRO.

That 1200w amp is a monster, but you rarely ever blow speakers from too big of an amp. Its usually when you turn it up and do not give it enough juice. Set your gains accordingly and you'll be fine. However....it sounds like that thing is massive and its definitely overkill for 1 x 12. I personally would get another 4 channel and run it in 3 channel mode. 2 x rears and a bridged 3rd channel for the 12. I would just ignore the center channel for now to be honest. Not many DSPs have a center channel provision either.

Those Morel's will sound awesome, great choice there, do you have an idea what tweeters you are going to use?

You can flatten the EQ with FORscan, I detailed the steps in a couple threads here. I know its in the FORscan thread. I didn't turn my output into low level because my amps accept highlevel inputs and the high level input coming from the Sync system is actually really clean. The AMP PRO has all the harnesses for you and it flattens the signal for you, so you dont have to change any of this if you go that route. You can add a DSP on top of that if you want, it would be easy enough to add down the road as you'd essentially just be plugging it into the AMP pro, between that and your amps.

You've got a great system planned, take some pics to share when you get to gettin on

 

Thanks for the detailed reply!

If the front door is 6x9 and the A-pillar is the tweeter, then if I use a DSP, does that mean I have to run new wires to the tweeter? Are the tweeter and mid-bass crossed over by the OEM amp/EQ or do they have their own crossover box? With a DSP the tweeter and mid-bass should have their own separate channels right?

Sounds like the AMP PRO is the perfect interface and it will allow me to keep all my chimes. If I then output it to a DSP, nothing changes as far as chimes correct?

Am I correct that I will have 8 channels total if I run a center channel, 2 A-pillar tweeters, 2 front mid-bass, 2 rear door co-axials, and 1 sub? So a 4 channel amp and a 5 channel amp combo would do it - run the 4 ch amp to the front tweets and mid-bass. Run the 5 ch to the rears, the 1 front speaker, and bridge two channels for the single sub.

The Morel Temp Ultra 692 set includes a 1.1" soft dome tweeter with a neodymium magnet.

 

The stock fronts, at least mine, were a midbass hooked up to Sync and the tweeter run off that same channel with a resistor to block lower frequencies. Its not an actual cross over like you'd get from a nice aftermarket system. I ran a new speaker wire to my tweeters, its the easiest run to do in the truck anyways.

If you run a DSP, you'll need an active channel for each speaker. I would honestly just get 2 4chan amps and leave the center out for now. If you amp it at all its going to screw up your sound stage. Leave it be or remove it. A DSP won't affect your chimes, since it will be altering the signal after the AMP Pro, and that says it will keep your chimes.

 

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I was going to replace the front speaker with the Dayton PS95 (8 ohms) and turn the gain down on that channel. So hopefully it won't mess up the staging too much. https://www.parts-express.com/dayton...5202af0a1c0e13

What did you do for connectors? I'd like to leave all the connectors stock. The PAC AmpPRO obviously has the interface and connectors. Did you cut the connectors off the stock drivers and reuse those?

 

No, I soldered everything. I'm sort of ****.

I'm the one that started recommending that center channel to everyone because it's the right ohm's and it's a quality speaker, but I still say if you're going all out on a dsp, you should disconnect or at least leave that channel un-amplified, well other than the HU amp.

 

Oh I didn't know leaving the center channel on just the stock amp/EQ was possible.

 

Well, you might be right, Im not sure how the AMP Pro handles the center channel. If it passes it on as a seprate channel then you can amp it if you want, just turn the gain way down. It might be bypassable. I haven't used an AMP Pro, so I'm not sure there.

 

I have a 2017 STX w/ non-amp'd 7 speaker system. A-pillar tweeters, 3.5"(?) center, 6x9(?) front doors, & 6.5" in rear doors.

I'm pretty happy with the stock speakers and actually surprised at how punchy the door speakers are. I usually have it cranked at 24-26 on long trips. Of course, I'd like to improve things without giving anything up. I want the same overall output, or louder, and ideally more bass output since I don't plan to run a sub.


For the front 6x9's, I'm looking at the following coaxials:

Polk db+ are most efficient @ 93db, but rated for 150W RMS. $90 (on sale)
Infinity Reference is 3 ohm, (to compensate for wiring impedance) 91-92db efficiency, and 100W RMS. $120
JL C1 are also 91-92db efficiency, but only 60W RMS. $160
Digital Designs EX Series @ only 90db efficiency, but 25W RMS rating. $100-$140 (I think they make the best subs you can buy)

With my lower power headunit, I'm not sure which would work best "on paper'", and I likely won't be able to compare them all in person with similar powering. Any advice? Do the doors get full range signal? Are mounting adapters required? Any experience with any of these models, particularly w/ non-amp'd stock system?


My center channel distorts a little at high volume, so I want to swap w/ the 3.5" Dayton PS95-8. Glad someone pointed out that it is an 8-ohm speaker. Do you have to drill screw holes for it? Bass-blocker recommended? I see you have to cut it to fit, no big deal.

 

I disconnected my center speaker. Might want to try that before buying a new center.

 

I'd recommend you start by adding the amp in the thread listed below before changing speakers. I went the speaker route first and returned them all. This amp with it's DSP was a great improvement IMO.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-with-dsp.html

 

Thanks h20, I'm trying to keep from getting carried away this time if at all possible. Just looking for a slight improvement. I have several vintage Class-D monoblocks that I have been trying to sell as well as a DD 9512 sub that I moved about a month ago to keep myself from tearing out a back seat and going all in. Thank for the info on that amp though man, I'll keep it in mind for sure if I cross over to the dark side. Would make good use of that hidden void behind the driver's side backseat.

 

Ok. Like mentioned, I went the just the speaker route and the sound was worse (Polk, Alpine, Rockford). The real issue is the head unit just doesn't drive the speakers and isn't well tuned. This amp should fit behind lower USB housing. Its an easy install with the harness I mentioned in the thread,

 

I'm sure you're probably right and I'm fighting an uphill battle, but curious which Polk speakers you tried?