Is Audiocontrol LC7i necessary? 18' XLT 302a 8" nonSony
 

I recently had the following 3 installed w/ no amps:
1) kicker cs component speakers 43CSS694 in front
2) kicker cs coax 43CSC674 in rear doors
3) Kicker 3 1/2 for middle channel 43CSC354

...Now I'm on the 2nd stage of my project and just purchased
1) 4 channel kicker amp 43CXA3004 to power fronts and rears
2) Mono kicker amp 43CXA6001 for Sub
3) Pioneer shallow series 10" sub TSSWX2502
4) Parrot Harness FOR-11CK
5) Audiocontrol LC7i LOC

I'm on a strict budget so patiently purchased everything at huge discounts either through crutchfield or Best buy price match and am having everything installed by Best Buy through their total tech support all for $200.

My question is: I been seeing so much back and forth on these forums regarding the necessity of an LOC (Audiocontrol LC7i..or whatever one that's comparable). So if I'm going to install all of this to my factory head unit on a 2018' F150 XLT 302a 8" non-Sony is it necessary or not and why or why not?

Thanks for all your input dhmcfadin, who is is pretty sold on ditching it for the Dayton 408 dsp.

But can anyone else shed light on this subject and any other info I may need to explain to the Best Buy tech for the install to save a future headache would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Ok. Just did my 2015 XLT 8 in non sony. Speakers all the way, Infinity speakers. Added Infinity Basslink. Went with Rockville 5 channel amp and system did not sound that bad but had high tremble issue with high level inputs. Read and research and found that the head unit can be set to low levels and flatten acm eq with Forscan for RCA inputs. Did this and wow what an improvement in sound quality. Will install a DSP408 this weekend just to clean up the frequency.

Long story short and what I read, the LC7i LOC will line level your audio and clean up the frequency. You can get by with using Forscan but if you want cleaner frequency, can't go wrong with the LOC or a DSP.

There is a lot of info on the forum, just need to dig for it. Go the audio forum, every is there.