- First Name
- David
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2020
- Threads
- 19
- Messages
- 500
- Reaction score
- 934
- Location
- Wauwatosa, WI
- Vehicle(s)
- '23 Bronco, '19 GTI, '88 R100GS, HPN BMW G/S, 14 JK Rubicon
- Your Bronco Model
- Black Diamond
- Thread starter
- #1
When I first received my Bronco I almost immediately swapped out the dash and rear pod speakers for Polk DB 402 units. (As a side note, I like to taker my top off, and this means sometimes you get surprised and rained on. So I try to keep everything either water resistant or protected from rain.) I also put in a Kicker 6.5" sub to replace the dummy factory unit along with a Ford factory amplifier. This made a big improvement.
After finally sorting out rattle and wind noise issues I decided to upgrade the kick panel speakers and add an amplifier. I used the following, inspired by all of the posts here in the past five years:
Memphis MJP6 mid bass speakers: https://www.crutchfield.com/p_953MJP6/Memphis-Audio-MJP6.html
Wavtech Link 2 LOC (I originally tried a Kicker passive unit but had a ground loop hum the matter where I grounded it. The differentially balanced inputs on the Wavtech solved this.): https://www.crutchfield.com/p_241LINK2/Wamacr-vtech-link2-Line-Output-Converter.html
Stinger MT600.4M marine amplifier: https://stingerdrive.com/products/stinger-audio-mt6004m-amplifier?variant=45124389765287
Under the seat mount: https://stingerdrive.com/products/f...3&_sid=53709e406&_ss=r&variant=46350186938535
PAC harness: https://stingerdrive.com/products/audio-integration-bronco?variant=45103397732519
I ran Ancor marine grade 4 AWG from my @EOS SAPS I(very nice system) and ran a 4 AWG ground to the seatbelt bolt. The LOC was mounted with industrial Velcro on top of the plate under the steering column. I made my own harness from the PAC T-harness to the LOC with DT connectors and mils-spec tefzel 16 AWG wire.
I then ran RCA cables from the LOC to the amplifier, riving it in 2-channel mode. The LOC also took care of turn-on duties for the amplifier. I did a no-no and ran the amplifier power and RCA cables under the drivers side door sill together. However, I confirmed that this was NOT the source of the noise when using the passive LOC by testing the RCA cables routed well away from the power.
I ran NVX 16 AWG speaker wire from channels 1-2 back to the t-harness for the front speakers. I used the PAC wiring adapters for the kick panel, but cut off the wires to the kick panel speakers, using the adapters only to get signal to the dash speakers.
I ran another set of NVX wire from channels 3-4 for the mid-bass speakers. Originally I planned on a high pass filter for the dash speakers and low pass for the mid-bass, but ended up using high pass for both, with the dash speakers set at 200 Hz and the mid-bass at 100 Hz. Gain was adjusted at a volume of 23 so each set of speakers was just shy of distortion. In practice, I am typically running volume now from 10-16. Louder than 16 is too loud for me.
Some notes:
The end result is a great sounding system for around $1000 counting the initial upgrades. I strongly believe that bi-amping the front speaker signal driving the kick and dash speakers separately is the way to go, with a big improvement for the small extra hassle of not using a plug and play kit.
After finally sorting out rattle and wind noise issues I decided to upgrade the kick panel speakers and add an amplifier. I used the following, inspired by all of the posts here in the past five years:
Memphis MJP6 mid bass speakers: https://www.crutchfield.com/p_953MJP6/Memphis-Audio-MJP6.html
Wavtech Link 2 LOC (I originally tried a Kicker passive unit but had a ground loop hum the matter where I grounded it. The differentially balanced inputs on the Wavtech solved this.): https://www.crutchfield.com/p_241LINK2/Wamacr-vtech-link2-Line-Output-Converter.html
Stinger MT600.4M marine amplifier: https://stingerdrive.com/products/stinger-audio-mt6004m-amplifier?variant=45124389765287
Under the seat mount: https://stingerdrive.com/products/f...3&_sid=53709e406&_ss=r&variant=46350186938535
PAC harness: https://stingerdrive.com/products/audio-integration-bronco?variant=45103397732519
I ran Ancor marine grade 4 AWG from my @EOS SAPS I(very nice system) and ran a 4 AWG ground to the seatbelt bolt. The LOC was mounted with industrial Velcro on top of the plate under the steering column. I made my own harness from the PAC T-harness to the LOC with DT connectors and mils-spec tefzel 16 AWG wire.
I then ran RCA cables from the LOC to the amplifier, riving it in 2-channel mode. The LOC also took care of turn-on duties for the amplifier. I did a no-no and ran the amplifier power and RCA cables under the drivers side door sill together. However, I confirmed that this was NOT the source of the noise when using the passive LOC by testing the RCA cables routed well away from the power.
I ran NVX 16 AWG speaker wire from channels 1-2 back to the t-harness for the front speakers. I used the PAC wiring adapters for the kick panel, but cut off the wires to the kick panel speakers, using the adapters only to get signal to the dash speakers.
I ran another set of NVX wire from channels 3-4 for the mid-bass speakers. Originally I planned on a high pass filter for the dash speakers and low pass for the mid-bass, but ended up using high pass for both, with the dash speakers set at 200 Hz and the mid-bass at 100 Hz. Gain was adjusted at a volume of 23 so each set of speakers was just shy of distortion. In practice, I am typically running volume now from 10-16. Louder than 16 is too loud for me.
Some notes:
- I already have a Yaesu dual band radio mounted above the glovebox so I didn't have that nice protected area available for amplifier mounting. Hence, the marine rated amplifier.
- You need to drill your own holes for this amplifier in the under seat mount. I should have offset it about 1/16" towards the middle as the amplifier was pressing up on the plastic around the seat mount. I used a Dremel and elongated the hole where the seat bolt passes through rather than pulling everything apart.
- I used Recoil silicone baffles on the kick panel speakers and Boom Mat at the dash. I had to cut off the flange on the Boom Mat baffles.
- All crimps were done with Amp solderless crimps that crimp the insulation and the conductor. Hardware store connectors are horrid.
- Rear pods remain on the factory amplifier.
- The marine version of the amp I used only has line level inputs. The non-marine brother has speaker level inputs. I think under the seat mounting of the amplifier really screams for marine grade components.
- If I had an unlimited budget I would pick a marine grade amplifier that had band pass for the kick panel speakers bhut using the high pass filter seems to work just fine.
- At this time I see no reason to upgrade the subwoofer amp. The extra power and better speakers at the kick panels filled in bass extremely well.
The end result is a great sounding system for around $1000 counting the initial upgrades. I strongly believe that bi-amping the front speaker signal driving the kick and dash speakers separately is the way to go, with a big improvement for the small extra hassle of not using a plug and play kit.
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