McIntosh Morel install phase 1

[mrpink]

My way of upgrading the factory SONY system

Started my complete audio makeover this week.

First I wanted to address the subwoofer. I've skipped filling the SONY sub-box will poly-fill (as the properties of that filler wouldn't have any effect on frequencies under 300hz).

So I've tried a JL Audio 8W1V3 driver in the SONY box:




It's a direct fit, and a great little subwoofer, articulate, tight, yet warm. Huge improvement, but not enough kick in the chest, so it was gifted to a friend.

Instead, I've purchased the EMPTY substage box from HifiSoundConnection:

https://www.hifisoundconnection.com...ustom-Molded-Sub-Box-Enclosure-SF150S09-EMPTY

Both the cutout and the bolt-pattern were a direct match for my choice of subwoofer driver, the Morel Elate SW-10.

The sub box was internally strengthened with fiberglass, braced with brazilian rosewood, lined with closed cell foam (which is what you need for low-frequencies), externally damped with focal BAM sheets. It was measured for internal liters and modified to precisely match the sealed volume requirement of the Morel SW-10. The sub was wired with Cardas Neutral Reference speaker cable, the lowest resistance litz wire known to mankind.



This turned out to be the tightest, deepest and cleanest sub I've ever heard, so this is staying.
The SW10 is very sensitive (easy to drive) at almost 94db. It is deep, warm, fast, articulate, and clean.
The SW10 goes down to 14Hz which is remarkable for its size. Here it is under the rear seat:



Next were the door and pillar speakers, which I've chosen very carefully.

For me, speakers have to be timber-accurate (sounding like the real instrument), warm, detailed and punchy. Tweeters must be smooth, non-bright and non-fatiguing even at high volumes. I chose the 5x7 Morel Ultra 572 components for the front doors/A-pillars, and the Ultra Integra 572 coaxials for the rear doors.

The INSIDE door cavities were completely lined with Focal BAM acoustic insulation sheets. Rear wave-breakers were installed as well as foam dispersion-rings for proper door-liner coupling. BAM was added to the mounting-side of the door panel (after these pictures were taken), and 1/4" spacers were installed cnc'd also from brazilian rosewood. The MTX and Dynamat were removed and thrown in the garbage.







---------- Post added at 05:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:20 PM ----------

While the fiberglass was drying inside the subwoofer-box, I thought I'd utilize the dash-top storage tray.




I had a dash-top housing custom-made for my McIntosh MPM4000 output meter. I was able to retain the factory center speaker by making a cutout in the top and bottom of the housing exactly over the factory center-speaker so that it can play "through" it.
(The MPM4000 is only 3.5" deep so there is another 2" of empty space behind it inside the housing for the factory center speaker to play through).






The purpose of the rectangular grille on top (and bottom) is to allow the center speaker to play "through".



The MPM4000 meters the wattage going to the (full-range) coaxials.

If I ever switch to dual (left & right) subwoofers, it will meter the subs instead.

 

[mrpink]

The improvement just by replacing the speakers and subwoofer is night and day.
I chose the Morels not only because they are a direct fit 5x7 and sound exactly the way I need car speakers to sound, but also because their impedances match the impedances of the factory speakers exactly. This allows the OEM amp to keep operating with the SAME efficiency and output. Actually even higher output as the Morels are more sensitive.

After the door speaker upgrades, the (6-ohm) oem center speaker quickly became the audible weak link (sounding brittle and bright) so it was replaced by a 3.5" Morel midrange.

Completely bypassing the factory Sony amp:

I'm NOT. Because:

If you carefully choose your replacement speakers, stay away from bright tweeters, treat your doors and pillars properly and observe the required impedances and sensitivity, you will find not much wrong with the oem Sony amp. Even if you measure it, the factory equalization is minimal (and actually makes sense). Although tapping into the signal BEFORE the amp is possible with a PAC Audio harness, the 2 people who I personally know to have done this, have had system freeze-up problems having to take the dash apart repeatedly to troubleshoot/return the PAC, which is a major hassle. I'm leaving the SONY amp to power the door speakers (only).

If you Absolutely Must disable the factory-programmed EQ settings in the Sony amp, this can be done by a Forscan scanner, the EQ-disable code is: 727-01-02 00xx.

The only (minor) weaknesses of the Sony amp's outputs are:

a: its (dual coil) subwoofer outputs have the tendency to clip.
b: it needs to sense a "load" (a kind of load a speaker would impose) otherwise it can "pop" on turn-on / turn-off.


Both issues are easily resolved by the Audio Control AC-LGD parallel devices, or the FOCAL Hi-Lo line level converter. They're made to address these very 2 issues. They simply parellel-tap into the Sony's output cables, and not only they present a load to the amp, but they also stabilize the output signal (which fixes the clipping subwoofer output issue).

-Audio Control AC-LGD = speaker level to speaker level load supplying signal stabilizer
-Focal HiLo = Speaker level to line level converter, signal stabilizer, load supplier.



I chose to go with the Focal since I also needed to convert the SONY's speaker level subwoofer outputs to line level signal (for the subwoofer amp).



Next, I have relieved the Sony amp from its most stressful load, which is driving the subwoofer.
This duty has been taken over by a Mcintosh MC425 amplifier in BRIDGED mode.

I chose this amp because of its Class A/B operation, REAL output power and current, high damping factor, and overall sound quality. It is also one of the few McIntosh amps that doesn't use cooling fans, therefore it's dead quiet. Its built in crossovers are turned off as the Sony amp supplies an already low-passed signal to its sub outputs. So the McIntosh is set as a clean full-range amplifier.



OEM SONY amp's subwoofer outputs ----> FOCAL HiLo line-level converter ----> McIntosh MC425 (set to bridged Mono) ---> Morel SW10 sub.

The amp has been mounted in place of the OEM Sony subwoofer under the passenger side rear seat. It is mounted in a custom platform made of 1" thick mdf, finished in black plasti-dip then clear-coated. The brackets that originally held the Sony subwoofer box to the floor were conveniently used to hold the custom platform in place.



Here it is mounted:



Since the oem SONY amp is of a power-sharing design, once it doesn't have to drive the dual-coil subwoofer off its output channels 8/9/10/11, channels 1/2/3/4/5/6/7 (front and rear doors, pillars and center) will have an increased output since the amp will assign the available power to them. This is a good thing. More available clean power (into highly sensitive speakers) = less distortion.

To further "assist" the Sony amp and take even more stress off it (-plus lower its distortion to near zero), I am installing a McIntosh 2-farad capacitor next to it so that it can draw extra current when demanded by the speakers:



Last step could have been to time-align and equalize the overall sound (for which I have a JBL MS8 on standby), but the Morels have adapted and behave so well that this won't be necessary. The factory 3-band EQ is more then adequate to fine-tune the curve to my liking, and there is no need to further "process" the system.

(Some people use RTAs and other frequency analyzers in their quest to set the response curve perfectly flat. This looks good on paper, but as you increase the volume, glass and other reflective surfaces will amplify and boost the 3kHz-8kHz range, especially if the tweeters are mounted in the A-pillars, close to glass. In my opinion car-cabin acoustics don't necessarily benefit from a flat curve. Frequencies in this mid-high region need to be cut (at least for my ears) for the sound to be pleasant, natural and non-fatiguing). I would also not bother with an RTA until a good* capacitor is installed in front of the amp. Without it, distortion is too high. Your RTA peak readings are actually distortion, not an actual frequency.

*Most capacitors (about 99% of what people are buying) are useless. They are carbon, paper, aluminum, ceramic or tantalum-based which makes them way too SLOW, and on top of that, their ACTUAL energy storing capacity is only 2-3% of their CLAIMED value! A good capacitor is going to be polypropylene based, FAST-recharging, FAST-serving, and true to its Farad rating. Most caps sold online or at car audio shops are slow paper or carbon caps (made to look pretty by graphics stickers and digital displays) -but are good for nothing.

For those that need to see what a GOOD capacitor does to an amp's output, here is a test:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9mlvbF0flM&t=637s

Some of the GOOD capacitors are:
Black Gate Rubycon
Mundorf Headcap
Bewith R-60a
Luxman XCP-1000
Phass CAP1000
MM Design CAP-5000
Mcintosh MAC-120



For source of music, I recommend Tidal Hifi (Masters) via bluetooth input. Bluetooth sounds better in the Raptor (with Sony 8" Sync) than any wired connection. (go figure...)

 

[Lumadar]

Extremely impressive stuff. I used to do work like this for my personal cars but haven't done anything in a few years. I will live vicariously through your build, haha.

 

[zyvin]

Mr. Pink, I know it has been a while since you posted this, but I had a couple of questions. Do you still use the focal line converter? I was thinking of doing the same, and wanted to see if you had any issues. Also, I noticed in another thread that you did the forscan eq mod. Did that effect the crossover slope on the sub wires, or does the crossover remain after disabling eq? And finally, are you still using a morel center? And did you put any type of cap on that like the factory center contained. Thanks for any information.

 

[mrpink]

Hi zyvin, the Focal line converter works flawlessly.
The flat EQ mod does not alter the sub-out crossover slope.
Even if it did, (and the sub signal became full-range), my McIntosh sub-amp has it's own crossover settings so i could have just applied those. (But there was no need).
The crossover is built into the speaker wire leading to the center channel. It's about 12" down from the speaker, you will see a "bulge" of heatshrink on the positive lead, that's your (very simple) crossover. (It is the same arrangement for the door tweeters as well). Yes, i'm still using the Morel 3" coaxial there.

 

[zyvin]

Good to know, I figured your amp had onboard xovers, but was curious as to the extent the Forscan mod manipulated the processing. I think I will give that Focal piece a try, it looks to be high quality.

I do have the in-line caps in the tweeter pigtails, but the one on the center channel is built into a little bracket on the driver magnet (different year probably 2013). I will just put one in-line with my new center at about the same xover point. I am going to match the center from the same line as my separates up front, and see if I like it or not. I do like a center presence partly because my Volvo has a Dynaudio system that has a center (best OEM stereo I have had), and I think it helps when I don't have the ability to set up my own time delays.

I fought with this system over the years with different processors, summing, cleaning, etc. Now that there are new products (pac, DSR1, Forscan method) etc. I thought about upgrading again, so started by taking everything out except the speakers (JL C5's). I just played them through the sony amp. I thought I'm 47, I can live with this, lol.

I do have to workout a sub, I currently have a stereo integrity MK IV. But I'm thinking of going smaller to a JL 10W3 or even an 8". Still thinking about those options, but at least all the wiring etc. is in place. I just need a sub/enclosure, and the Focal LOC.

Thanks again for the information and the detailed build log.

 

[mrpink]

My sub-box and woofer recommendation is in this writeup...

 

[zyvin]

Yours is awesome, but I have zero fiberglass skill, so the reinforcement. Unfortunately kicker doesn't sell the supercrew box unloaded, just the supercab. I am going to look into the actual sub though. I'd never heard of Morel til about a year ago, have heard nothing but good stuff.

 

[iateajeep78]

mrpink, are you still running this setup, anI am wanting to something similar, but might opt to go with Audison and their vehicle specific setup.