TechUser

I am in the process of building an Alpine amp rack that will fit behind the back seat. One amp will power the six speakers and the other Will power the downward firing 12 in subwoofers under rear seat. The amplifiers will get their signals from the AmpPro unit in the dash.

A couple of questions:


Installing seat risers so subwoofer will fit.

The 12 in Skar Audio speakers needed more space to move. Had to add rear seat riser to make it fit.

Position of amplifiers, prior to wiring. This will mount on rear wall behind second row seats.



1. Is it better to run power lines through the driver side bulkhead to the battery, and then signal lines through passenger side, or vise versa? How did you do it?

2. How exactly are the front door speakers (tweeters & mid-woofers) connected. Are they wired in parallel with the factory amp?

jdunk54nl

Easier to run power on passenger side through grommet right on firewall. I ran power on passenger and signal on drivers side.

The Sony system actually splits all speakers into separate wires, including the tweeters. This all happens under the center console on the Sony amp/dsp out.

Since you are doing all this awesome work, ever thought about adding a dsp? It makes a HUGE difference. Cheap side is Dayton dsp 408 then minidsp. Best currently is either the minidsp with Dirac or any of the helix with aco's.
I run a helix dsp.2 in my truck and a Dayton dsp 408 in the wife's suv.

TechUser

I was an installer for a few years in college, but things have changed SO much since then. The last audio system I installed in my old Yukon, used a non DSP system.

So that changes things knowing that there's separate channels for the tweeters. I guess I have to run all 4 channels coming from the AmpPro to the Dayton DSP-408 (or better) DSP, then run the low level outputs to amplifiers before being pushed to speakers. So it looks like I would need a separate amp to drive two of the six speakers; probably the rear door speakers. This is assuming I'd want the DSP to control every channel.
Does that thinking sound right? I have so much to re-learn.

jdunk54nl

DSP is the way to go.
This is how to wire it if using a dsp.

Pac amp pro front right and front left into dsp (you can use the rear and sub out if you really want but not needed). But front right and left out of the pac amp pro are full range and gives you everything you need.

DSP then splits this into all of the channels. SET APPROPRIATE CROSSOVERS BEFORE TURNING ON SPEAKERS!!!
DSP out 1 to amp channel 1 to front left tweeter
DSP out 2 to amp channel 2 to front right tweeter
DSP out 3 to amp channel 3 to front left woofer
DSP out 4 to amp channel 4 to front right woofer
DSP out 7 and 8 to sub amp out to subs

Rear speakers can stay powered by factory head unit if you really want, they don't really add much.

If you have the this : APH-FD01 then connect amp outputs to appropriate wires here for the speakers. The tweeters may just be easier to run new wire directly from amp up to the tweeter area, that is what I did. I did end up running new wire into my front doors too, but that was a molex audio plug issue reason, not because I wanted to.

You can see everything I did here (with all of the iterations this has gone through):
https://www.f150forum.com/f30/jdunk54nls-build-446724/

TechUser

Great thanks, much appreciated. I took a peak at your thread. Talk about day in the life of an installer... You've done a lot of mods to your truck: sound system, whole truck sound dampening & much more.
I have already purchased RoadKill fast rings and sound dampening material, just waiting to purchase speakers.
What do you think about these DSPs: JL Audio's TwK 88 (besides it being a little pricey)?
Because I'm using the AmpPro, the DSP I'll use will need low level inputs, and the TwK 88 has all that.
I found the Helix DSP.2 on Cruthfield.com, but w/o pricing. Can't find it on Amazon (prob because it's German?)
Any other DSP you'd recommend?

jdunk54nl

dayton dsp-408
mini dsp cdsp 6x8
helix is not sold online, only through dealer network. Msc America has a dealer locator as they are the North American importers for them. IF you don’t have a dealer in your area, they do have a couple that are able to sell to you and ship. I can give you that in a pm, but they won’t sell to you if you have someone local.

jl twk isn’t bad, but not really worth it.

TechUser

I made some calls to a local dealer (15 miles away) on the Helix, but in the end decided to go with the AudioControl DM-608. What's your thoughts on the DM-608?
Using this unit, I have enough DSP channels to control the rear door speakers, but as you said, I could just rely on the stock amp to power them. I'm really temped to just get a compact full range amp to drive the rear door speakers, so that I can include them on the DSP.

BTW, I have the APH-FD01 t-harness, so wiring at the head unit will be easier.
You're right, I'll have to run additional tweeter wires, and I'm not looking forward to diving under-dash to splice them in.
I can't wait to get out there and do some work, but can't do it in the high 90 temps.

jdunk54nl

Please cancel the audio control order. Literally go with any other dsp over that. It lacks major options to tune properly, like independent crossovers for speakers, you can only set it for speaker left/right pairs, this doesn’t work in cars.

jdunk54nl

Tweeter wires are easy, amp out to speaker wire run up the door wire channels, to a pillars. No need to dig into dash for this. Just pop the side covers off of the dash that sit between door and dash.

TechUser

I can send the unit back, no prob. But I want to understand what you mean. So it won’t allow you to set up unique filters (HP/LP/BP) for each output channel? Or that each filter freq setting can only be allocated to a pair of channels? In the above example, can’t the speaker levels be adjusted independently?