Headed down the Rabbit Hole - 2020 Non B&O upgrade

[RRitch]

I have been busy the past week or so but have been getting in some small odds and ends to complete the install. I am planning to start building the amp rack this coming weekend. Hopefully the next weekend weather will be good and I can get it all installed. The Raptor does not fit through the door into my little 1 car garage and my garage is actually my woodworking shop so I have to work on it outside.

 

[RRitch]

Started work on the amp rack today. This is the first test fit to make sure all of the components will fit cleanly on the rack. It is 13x32 to fit behind the back seat without having to modify the back interior panel or relocate the jack. Looks like it is going to work out. There are 2 seat mount bolts on the floor that I am going to have to take some measurements of to make sure that the Kicker and amp will clear. I am most worried about the kicker, I am pretty sure that the amp will fit without any problem but the kicker sticks out farther and there may not be enough room between the back of the cab and the bolt for it to fit. There is room to raise the kicker above it, but I would prefer that it be right at the bottom so it will sit on the floor as well as be mounted to the rack.

 

[RRitch]

It will be tight, but both seat bolts are located where they will fall in the gaps between the kicker and the amp.

 

[RRitch]

More progress made on the amp rack. Got all of the power and ground cable paths laid out and marked. Now I get to drill about 100 holes so I can tie wrap down all of the runs cleanly.




Also took a little time to get a set of backup lights mounted on the Raptor. The wiring harnesses from SPV Performance should be here Monday or Tuesday then I can get them wired up too.

 

[RRitch]

So the rabbit hole just keeps getting deeper. As I was going along and reading about best practices for the install, I started thinking about DSP and upgrading the tweeters as well. I ended up adding in a Dayton Audio DSP-408 And then added a pair of JBL tweetees for the A-pillars. I had not sent back the kenwood amp so I ended up using it to drive the rear door speakers and used the Pioneer 4 channel to drive the front door speakers and tweeters. I finally got it all installed this weekend and then discovered that 1 of the 4 channels on the Pioneer is bad. I was getting really bad distortion from the right from door speaker that sounded like the speaker was blown. After doing more checking, testing and swapping cables around to isolate the problem I narrowed it down to the amp. Fortunately I am going to be able to return the Pioneer for a refund and I just ordered a JL Audio JD400/4 to replace it. At least for now I am able to shut off the output from the DSP to the 1 bad channel so I can at least have audio until I get the replacement and get it installed.

 

[RRitch]

I have seen quite a few videos about different methods to install aftermarket tweeters to replace the factory tweeters in the A-pillars. I went with a set of JBL club series speakers That were the same diameter as the factory. When I started trying to figure out some sort of bracket to mount them, I started to think that IF I could figure out how to get the original tweeters out of the factory bracket that the JBL might fit into it. Turns out I was right. It was not very difficult to get them out, but it will destroy them factory tweeters so they will not be able to be reused. Once I get them out, there was a small ridge inside the ring that I had to file away, but once that was gone, the JBL pressed into the bracket and fit perfect. After that I just used a little foam tape around the perimeter of the tweeter to help steel it against the grill.

Here are a few pictures to show how they fit in the bracket and with them mounted.

 

[RRitch]

I finally have all of the system in and working. I swapped the Pioneer amp with the blown channel with the JL Audio JD400/4. Not only did that fix the issue with the blown channel, but the JLA sounds MUCH better and has significantly more volume compared to the Pioneer even though the RMS rating between the 2 is similar. I also disabled the factory EQ with ForScan and disabled the fake engine noise. The system already sounds really clean, but I still have to do all of the tuning because right now it is a bit flat in the mid range and has some spikes especially on the high end, right now the EQ on the DSP are still flat for each of the 8 output channels. I have a calibrated mic and an RTA app for my iPad, now I just have to do a little more reading on how to set a parametric EQ and find a couple hours to spend tuning it.

Don't tell my wife, but I am already considering replacing the Polk Audio 6x9 in the front door with either JL Audio or JBL 6.5" or 6.75" mid bass drivers. I am kind of leaning towards the JBL since I already installed JBL tweeters in the A pillars. JBL has a component system that includes the same tweeters I already have. I wish they sold just the mid bass driver since I already have the tweeters and I don't need the passive crossover since I am running the tweeters active off the DSP and JLA amp. Oh well. Maybe I can find someone that needs a couple 6x9, tweeters or crossover and recover some of that cost. It has been a long time since I messed with car audio so I forgot how slippery a slope it really is.