Help, aftermarket setup sounds terrible.

[Retroflect]

I was monitoring the "planning stages audio thread", but I didn't follow the advice given there and now I regret it. I have a '15 with the Shaker Pro system. I had an aftermarket system installed consisting of an AudioControl LC7i processor, Focal 3ways in the front, Kenwood coaxials in the back, powered by a JL Audio XD400/4v2.

I ran into the exact sound processing issue others commented about, I don't know why I thought it wouldn't happen to me. A lot of distortion past ~75% volume or so, with some awful crackling at around max volume. I kept the factory sub and corresponding amp, however there is little bass coming from it now. (I know there wasn't much before, but still.)We had to turn the gain down for now.
I've reached out to OEMradio but haven't heard back yet. He probably has a busy work schedule.

What can I do to salvage this fiasco? I've read about an obdII programmer that removes the processing out of the head unit signal as a suggestion here.

The installation is done already, and I want to keep the factory head unit. But I'm wishing I hadn't even touched the system at this point. I know this new system can sound pleasing enough with some help from the more knowledgeable folks here. Any ideas of what avenue to take?:shrug:

Sponsored

 

[Ericc B]

Did you disconnect the noise cancelling microphone? It's located under the roof liner all the way in the rear near where the 3rd brake light is. The roof liner is held in place with two magnets in that area.

 

[SergeyMelnik]

75 percent volume is about where max volume should be set with your gains. Head units usually start clipping after that so thats maybe why you hear distortion. You can try lowering your gains more but it sounds like theyre fine.

Disconnect your low quality rear speakers. Youre ruining the beautiful sound of your Focals by muddying the sound with your Kenwoods. I recommend you remove them and replace them with the lighter factory speakers but leave those disconnected. Then reconnect the focals to the amp in bridged mode and you will be sending them 200 watts instead of 75. They will play much louder and sound better and you will hear music the way it was recorded, in front of you. Plus when you run all four speakers off an amp like that you lose the factory time alignment so you just made the sound coming from behind you even worse.

And yes, remove the factory processing asap.

 

[NewTekBuzz]

I agree with the above, no system will play at 100% volume. What focal's did you go with?

 

[mumbles]

[MENTION=26022]SergeyMelnik[/MENTION] offers some sound advice. You didn't mention crossovers, are you using any and if so, how did you set them up?

 

[Retroflect]

[MENTION=26022]SergeyMelnik[/MENTION] offers some sound advice. You didn't mention crossovers, are you using any and if so, how did you set them up?

As for the crossover question, I'd have to call and ask them the specifics. I know they're hooked up, I've seen one under the steering wheel area next to the processor.

The technician did show me the audio clipping from the head unit at above 75% which just got worse with volume increase. What would be the best way to remove the factory processing? Could it be as simple as uploading a file from a obdII programmer?

 

[Retroflect]

Did you disconnect the noise cancelling microphone? It's located under the roof liner all the way in the rear near where the 3rd brake light is. The roof liner is held in place with two magnets in that area.

They did indeed disconnect the noise cancelling microphone. The fronts are Focal Performance Access 165 AS3 3-way https://www.crutchfield.com/p_091165...c&awug=9027978.

 

[Retroflect]

Disconnect your low quality rear speakers. Youre ruining the beautiful sound of your Focals by muddying the sound with your Kenwoods. I recommend you remove them and replace them with the lighter factory speakers but leave those disconnected. Then reconnect the focals to the amp in bridged mode and you will be sending them 200 watts instead of 75.

And yes, remove the factory processing asap.

I added the shitty rear fill speakers in an attempt to keep the BLIS radar backup tones playing back there. I had read that was the thing to do to keep that. Do you guys disagree?
Could removing the factory processing really be as simple as uploading an odbII file? If so, that would be great.

 

[Retroflect]

Also, in what way could I go about fixing the little to no bass coming from the factory sub/amp combo that I kept from the shaker system?
Thank you very much for the replies by the way.

 

[mumbles]

I added the shitty rear fill speakers in an attempt to keep the BLIS radar backup tones playing back there. I had read that was the thing to do to keep that. Do you guys disagree?
Could removing the factory processing really be as simple as uploading an odbII file? If so, that would be great.

I'd leave the rear speakers if the backup radar works through them...

As far as removing the factory processing, shoot OEMRadio a pm and discuss what the options are.

 

[Racemaster]

What you need to do is ditch the factory amp.Running into that lc7i is not the way to go.If you have the shaker pro system in the car,the factory amp is in the drivers kick panel.The black plug contains the wires needed for l/r and f/r amp connections.I think it is pins 1-8.It is in the sticky at the top of this section.Those are low-level outputs that NEVER clip even at full volume.OEM radio can take the rest of the processing out of the head unit with a ACM flash.What is going wrong is the both the head unit and the amp are adding processing that you are just pumping down the line to your new amp.Here is OEM's video.

http://www.mustang6g.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48275

If you can post more info on how the shop wired everything up,including speakers,we can direct you further.I have a jl600/6 and hertz component speakers up front with a pair of jbl's in the back,and it sounds fantastic.

Don't give up just yet.It might just need a few things moved around to sound good.

 

[Retroflect]

What you need to do is ditch the factory amp.Running into that lc7i is not the way to go.If you have the shaker pro system in the car,the factory amp is in the drivers kick panel.The black plug contains the wires needed for l/r and f/r amp connections.I think it is pins 1-8.It is in the sticky at the top of this section.Those are low-level outputs that NEVER clip even at full volume.OEM radio can take the rest of the processing out of the head unit with a ACM flash.What is going wrong is the both the head unit and the amp are adding processing that you are just pumping down the line to your new amp.Here is OEM's video.

http://www.mustang6g.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48275

If you can post more info on how the shop wired everything up,including speakers,we can direct you further.I have a jl600/6 and hertz component speakers up front with a pair of jbl's in the back,and it sounds fantastic.

Thanks for the info, I will get the lowdown on how the steps they took for the install for you guys, and also reread the sticky about low level output. When you say to ditch the factory amp, do you mean replace it with another, or just bypass it to get the low level outputs? Hard to believe they wouldn't have known to do that, but he even showed me in the shop the clipping that was happening. So I think ya'll are definitely correct there.

I won't give up, I'm gonna get it fixed for sure it will just take some more research and help from the mustang6g crew. I really do appreciate ya'lls time and input. Thank you.

 

[Retroflect]

I was able to find the diagrams from the sticky using the wayback machine. https://web.archive.org/web/20150629131747/http://www.mustang6g.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25501
Is that what you were referring to, Racemaster, when you said it might possibly be pins 1-8 for low-level output?

 

[Retroflect]

I also noticed today that the backup tones for the BLIS backup system were being played through some sort of aux speaker in the front. I don't think it was the center, defininately not the 3ways. And keeping that was the only reason I even did a rear install.

The sticky also mentions "The sub signal also seems to be artificially created as I see no wiring to suggest it comes directly from the head unit." I already don't have much bass coming from the factory sub anymore since the install. Obviously a direct result of the install, but not sure how to fix that.

 

[Racemaster]

You said that they installed a jl400/4 driving the front 3 ways and the rears,correct?The black plug down by the factory amp in the kick panel has the low level preouts you want.

Ask OEM radio if he has the harness finished yet for this plug.Or I can show you how I did it with a project box,breadboard and some rca cables.Connect that right into your new amp,and you should be rocking.You will need to burn a 1000hz test tone at 0db,put it in the cd player on repeat,and set your gains.At about 80-90% volume on the head unit,you set a volt meter to AC voltage and turn the gain controls to around 17 volts AC with the speakers disconnected.

Give us some more info as to where the amp is mounted,and how they wired the speakers to the crossovers.We will get this sorted out,promise.

Sponsored