2018 Sound Upgrade Problems

ss_raptor said:

I have a 2018 with a Stealth box and JL 600-1/V3 amp. I don’t have a PAC or LC2i - AudioControl its just the sub and amp somehow connecting to the stock B&O system. 2 days ago my amp went out, so i thought ok maybe its a fuse. I took it to the shop, and a fuse was indeed blown. They replaced the fuse and the amp wouldn't turn on. They tell me it looks like a bad amp. So the shop gives me a replacement amp until they can get me a new amp. They put the new replacement amp in and it turns out the sub in the stealth box also blew. So two of JL's top components blew up at the same time. The shop i took it to had no idea what the issue was, they just told me they need to have JL evaluate the bad component to find out why both failed at the same time. Can any experts here tell me what the root cause might be? To me, it looks like an installation problem. Is a PAC or LC2i needed to tap into the B&O system?

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sometimes a bad amp will fry the speakers too. an amp could send a dead short to the speakers. speakers are an ac current and any kind of dc current for more than a couple seconds will blow a speaker. so its possible the amp took out the speakers

The Car Stereo Company said:

sometimes a bad amp will fry the speakers too. an amp could send a dead short to the speakers. speakers are an ac current and any kind of dc current for more than a couple seconds will blow a speaker. so its possible the amp took out the speakers

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Or the other way around. Speaker went bad (read: short) and blew the amp from the low impedance.

I just bougt this one new on the market

ZEN-A2B audio interface for Ford

it´s made by NAV-TV

Erichsen said:

I just bougt this one new on the market

ZEN-A2B audio interface for Ford

it´s made by NAV-TV

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There's got to be a better solution than dropping $850 on this piece.... Should be possible basically for free using FORScan, just need to tinker a bit to track down the proper codes/wires for the 2018 B&O system.

Erichsen said:

I just bougt this one new on the market

ZEN-A2B audio interface for Ford

it´s made by NAV-TV

Click to expand...

BBLV said:

There's got to be a better solution than dropping $850 on this piece.... Should be possible basically for free using FORScan, just need to tinker a bit to track down the proper codes/wires for the 2018 B&O system.

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I just found this piece yesterday and called them. At present this is the only option for B&O amplified systems.

@BBLV yes and no. The new B&O amp uses serial USB to get digital audio from the sync 3 APIM to the amp. So, it would honestly be possible to harvest the audio. But someone is going to have to figure out what protocol/drivers is/are used to send the digital audio to the B&O amp. My guess is that NAV-TV paid a lot to figure this out, and the B&O amp is a DAC and Amplifier. So the NAV-TV piece is a USB DAC and pre-amp. Once it is sussed out, you could probably build a raspberry pi to decode the audio (from the USB), and output TOSLINK or RCA output. I wonder if you could plug a USB DAC in and get audio out. I have some USB DACs. But the NAV-TV piece is 12 channels out, that works with the sync's balance, fader, subwoofer, and mid/high/low EQ. So it might not work with my two channel DACs.

Alternatively, I keep asking if you could use ForSCAN (we already know the codes to control how audio is output from the APIM), and set the APIM back to the setting it used for the SONY amp, and then use the $250 PAC piece. I just don't have the time and disposable $250, to try it out. I will end up ordering this NAV-TV adapter in the next few weeks, so I can just have a shop do my stereo. If I keep waiting until I have the time to tinker with it, it will never get done.

I might catch a wild hair in the next couple of weeks and mess with the USB that is plugged into the B&O amp.

gijosh28 said:

I just found this piece yesterday and called them. At present this is the only option for B&O amplified systems.

@BBLV yes and no. The new B&O amp uses serial USB to get digital audio from the sync 3 APIM to the amp. So, it would honestly be possible to harvest the audio. But someone is going to have to figure out what protocol/drivers is/are used to send the digital audio to the B&O amp. My guess is that NAV-TV paid a lot to figure this out, and the B&O amp is a DAC and Amplifier. So the NAV-TV piece is a USB DAC and pre-amp. Once it is sussed out, you could probably build a raspberry pi to decode the audio (from the USB), and output TOSLINK or RCA output. I wonder if you could plug a USB DAC in and get audio out. I have some USB DACs. But the NAV-TV piece is 12 channels out, that works with the sync's balance, fader, subwoofer, and mid/high/low EQ. So it might not work with my two channel DACs.

Alternatively, I keep asking if you could use ForSCAN (we already know the codes to control how audio is output from the APIM), and set the APIM back to the setting it used for the SONY amp, and then use the $250 PAC piece. I just don't have the time and disposable $250, to try it out. I will end up ordering this NAV-TV adapter in the next few weeks, so I can just have a shop do my stereo. If I keep waiting until I have the time to tinker with it, it will never get done.

I might catch a wild hair in the next couple of weeks and mess with the USB that is plugged into the B&O amp.

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In another month or two I'll have the time and space to tinker with it, but not until then. I'm watching these threads daily for progress updates - hopefully someone beats me to it

I'm planning on using a high-end DSP unit between the SYNC3 headunit and my amps, so a flat, clean 2-channel 2-channel signal is all I need. I'd prefer digital, so I don't have any unnecessary D/A & A/D conversions in the signal chain.

BBLV said:

In another month or two I'll have the time and space to tinker with it, but not until then. I'm watching these threads daily for progress updates - hopefully someone beats me to it

I'm planning on using a high-end DSP unit between the SYNC3 headunit and my amps, so a flat, clean 2-channel 2-channel signal is all I need. I'd prefer digital, so I don't have any unnecessary D/A & A/D conversions in the signal chain.

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If you just use the two channel, you are going to lose balance/fader/sub control from the radio.

I'll keep updating as I discover stuff, but it is slow going from me. It took me like a month to complete the ambient lighting retrofit, and it should have taken an afternoon.

BBLV said:

There's got to be a better solution than dropping $850 on this piece.... Should be possible basically for free using FORScan, just need to tinker a bit to track down the proper codes/wires for the 2018 B&O system.

Click to expand...

It can be done. See here

http://www.fordraptorforum.com/f266/2018-b-o-stereo-forscan-breakthrough-60734/

Cross posted

https://www.f150forum.com/f30/2018-b-o-stereo-forscan-breakthrough-411268/

Some of the changes might not be necessary but if you match your Forscan settings to mine it works.