Has anyone installed a Rockford Fosgate DSR1?

[Jbs350]

I just installed the AR-FO3 harness two weeks ago. I originally ordered the DSR1, but after realizing that the AR-F03 hardness doesn't allow you to keep the factory amp (I was only interested in adding a sub/amp in the back with clean line level inputs), I went with a Kenwood XR600-6DSP instead of the DSR1. It's a 75w x 6 channel amp & DSP combo that works with the Maestro AR. I ordered a refurbished model for $500 (cheaper than a DSR1 & amp). The only downside here is the Meastro AR is not built into the Kenwood, you have to purchase it separately.

When I installed the harness, the videos that I watched led me to think that the tweeter and mid-range speakers were Y'd to the same LF/RF TWEETER outputs of the harness and were split somewhere behind the door inside the factory wire loom (possibly with a bass blocker on the tweeter). And the 'woofers' in the door were actually the wires labeled LF/RF SPEAKER on the harness.

Back to your question: since the Kenwood has 6 channels, I'm able to use all of my front speakers except the center channel. For you, since you may only have a 4 channel amp, you could wire all of the front speakers, minus center, to just two channels like you're thinking and run the rears on the other two channels. The only issue here is you won't have individual control over the tweeter/mid & woofer front speakers. I had to reduce the volume on the tweeters/mids by 1DB, they were way too hot compared to the front woofers. Snares and midrange sounds were very sharp and annoying before doing that.

Regarding the center channel: missing it hasn't made that much of a difference. You can bring back most of the center sound stage via the DSP timing settings. I think it simulates a type of surround and brings the sound back into the cabin as opposed to hearing the sound coming from the speakers. That's exactly what it sounded like before I fixed all of the timing. I could hear

I just installed the AR-FO3 harness two weeks ago. I originally ordered the DSR1, but after realizing that the AR-F03 hardness doesn't allow you to keep the factory amp (I was only interested in adding a sub/amp in the back with clean line level inputs), I went with a Kenwood XR600-6DSP instead of the DSR1. It's a 75w x 6 channel amp & DSP combo that works with the Maestro AR. I ordered a refurbished model for $500 (cheaper than a DSR1 & amp). The only downside here is the Meastro AR is not built into the Kenwood, you have to purchase it separately.

When I installed the harness, the videos that I watched led me to think that the tweeter and mid-range speakers were Y'd to the same LF/RF TWEETER outputs of the harness and were split somewhere behind the door inside the factory wire loom (possibly with a bass blocker on the tweeter). And the 'woofers' in the door were actually the wires labeled LF/RF SPEAKER on the harness.

Back to your question: since the Kenwood has 6 channels, I'm able to use all of my front speakers except the center channel. For you, since you may only have a 4 channel amp, you could wire all of the front speakers, minus center, to just two channels like you're thinking and run the rears on the other two channels. The only issue here is you won't have individual control over the tweeter/mid & woofer front speakers. I had to reduce the volume on the tweeters/mids by 1DB, they were way too hot compared to the front woofers. Snares and midrange sounds were very sharp and annoying before doing that.

Regarding the center channel: missing it hasn't made that much of a difference. You can bring back most of the center sound stage via the DSP timing settings. I think it simulates a type of surround and brings the sound back into the cabin as opposed to hearing the sound coming from the speakers. That's exactly what it sounded like before I fixed all of the timing. I could hear the sound coming from each individual speaker and it sounded terrible. After dialing in the settings, you feel like you're immersed in the sound again, much like the factory setup, just MUCH louder.

Simul - I'm considering the same set up. Where did you mount the amp and do you mind sharing any pictures of the install?

Thanks

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[SiMuL]

Simul - I'm considering the same set up. Where did you mount the amp and do you mind sharing any pictures of the install?

Thanks

I had to mount the Kenwood under the driver seat. I tried making it fit where the factory amp is (driver kick panel), but it's too long. Instead, I installed the Maestro-AR there since that's where the factory harness leads are. The Kenwood comes with a Maestro extension cable, so you only have to splice in longer wires for the speaker leads between the Kenwood and the Maestro harness. You'll see what I mean once you have it all in front of you.

I don't have any pictures and my dad has the car for a few weeks while he's in town... I might have it tomorrow, so I'll try to take a few pics.

 

[Cathul]

When you flash the DSR1 with the Mustang specific firmware for the HRN-AR-FO3 harness, what does it show in the device info for the Maestro part, i.e. firmware version and stuff? When i flash mine with the weblink updater it still shows universal firmware afterwards and with universal the pinout on the input connector of the harness to the DSR1 is wrong as the rear channels are then pinned to the rear input and fronts to the AUX input.

Reply as information to all who might have the same "problem". After flashing the most recent firmware version 1.3 for the Maestro harness this behavior is gone.
Maestro firmware is correctly shown in the device information and when configured for the Maestro harness it stays through power cycles of the device and there is no longer the fallback to the universal firmware with mixed up inputs into Main and AUX input.
So all is good now.

 

[NotMarc]

I'm more interested in the T-harness than the DSR1. Wondering if its connectors can be removed and wires run into a different DSP.

Did you end up going this route? I had the same thought as you.

 

[Canoman]

Did you end up going this route? I had the same thought as you.

No, not yet. I'm slooooowwww on projects. Just too much going on. Still considering it, though. If you go that route, please let us know how well it works.

 

[Dalamar]

Did you end up going this route? I had the same thought as you.

I did this just last week. I was having an incredibly frustrating time with the DSR1 and ended up returning it. I kept the A03 harness and picked up an Audison Bit Nove. Right from the get go I was happier with the result. I have the four inputs from the head unit set to low level using forscan and have them going into the Bit Nove. From there, I have the 9 RCA outputs feeding a couple of amplifiers for the front 6 speakers (2 tweeters, 2 mids and 2 lows in the doors), the two rears and the center. I have also tapped into the low level front signals and have those fed into a third amplifier to drive the subwoofer. It was a lot of work, but I'm very happy with the results.

 

[Cathul]

Of you had the same behavior as i had, i.e. split inputs between AUX and Main input due to the firmware of the Maestro part not sticking, let me tell you that this was fixed with a new firmware last friday.

 

[NotMarc]

I did this just last week. I was having an incredibly frustrating time with the DSR1 and ended up returning it. I kept the A03 harness and picked up an Audison Bit Nove. Right from the get go I was happier with the result. I have the four inputs from the head unit set to low level using forscan and have them going into the Bit Nove. From there, I have the 9 RCA outputs feeding a couple of amplifiers for the front 6 speakers (2 tweeters, 2 mids and 2 lows in the doors), the two rears and the center. I have also tapped into the low level front signals and have those fed into a third amplifier to drive the subwoofer. It was a lot of work, but I'm very happy with the results.

So you snipped off the DSR-1 specific connectors and soldered on your own stuff from there? I just ordered mine yesterday 5 minutes after I posted direct from Crutchfield's website.

 

[Dalamar]

So you snipped off the DSR-1 specific connectors and soldered on your own stuff from there? I just ordered mine yesterday 5 minutes after I posted direct from Crutchfield's website.

The A03 harness has three plugs (black, brown and grey I think they were). 12v and ground were there plus the four low level inputs. The grey connector on the harness has the four 'main' speakers, FR/L and RR/L. In my setup, these go to the two woofers in the lower front door and the two speakers in the rear deck. The harness has labels for all the speaker connections, minus the separation of the tweeter (in the A-pillar) and the mid-range woofers (in the top of the doors. I guess it's clear that I have the 9 speaker system from Ford at this point. Probably should have mentioned that earlier.

I replaced all the speakers in the car and wired things up using the built-in wiring in the car. The one exception to this was the tweeters. For those, I have them disconnected from the plug in the A-pillar and connected directly to my amp output for those channels. This allows me to run the front left and right setups (3 speakers in each side) from my amp and the Bit Nove gives me control over things like crossover for each each channel.

 

[Canoman]

The A03 harness has three plugs (black, brown and grey I think they were). 12v and ground were there plus the four low level inputs. The grey connector on the harness has the four 'main' speakers, FR/L and RR/L. In my setup, these go to the two woofers in the lower front door and the two speakers in the rear deck. The harness has labels for all the speaker connections, minus the separation of the tweeter (in the A-pillar) and the mid-range woofers (in the top of the doors. I guess it's clear that I have the 9 speaker system from Ford at this point. Probably should have mentioned that earlier.

I replaced all the speakers in the car and wired things up using the built-in wiring in the car. The one exception to this was the tweeters. For those, I have them disconnected from the plug in the A-pillar and connected directly to my amp output for those channels. This allows me to run the front left and right setups (3 speakers in each side) from my amp and the Bit Nove gives me control over things like crossover for each each channel.

Great to hear that this harness works for the 9-speaker system!

 

[Captdistraction]

I have a semi-base system:

2016 GT350 with nav acm, and 7 speaker system ( door woofer, pillar tweeter, center, rear deck). I don't believe its amplified. I just bought the powerbass speaker sets, an alpine amp for the mains and powered sub kit, along with the T harness for the ACM to speakers. I'll be flashing the ACM to output a flat EQ as well as defeating the ANC and synthetic engine noise stuff.

That said, would the DSR1 still benefit me? I imagine it would help take the flat output and clean it up for the actual setup of the car (which is what the oem curves are for), but wasn't sure if there was another DSP in that price range. Given I have a T harness, adding one would be simple work for the "entry" setup I'm building.

 

[Dalamar]

I have a semi-base system:

2016 GT350 with nav acm, and 7 speaker system ( door woofer, pillar tweeter, center, rear deck). I don't believe its amplified. I just bought the powerbass speaker sets, an alpine amp for the mains and powered sub kit, along with the T harness for the ACM to speakers. I'll be flashing the ACM to output a flat EQ as well as defeating the ANC and synthetic engine noise stuff.

That said, would the DSR1 still benefit me? I imagine it would help take the flat output and clean it up for the actual setup of the car (which is what the oem curves are for), but wasn't sure if there was another DSP in that price range. Given I have a T harness, adding one would be simple work for the "entry" setup I'm building.

I can't speak with complete accuracy around the 2016 7 speaker setups, but I would find it hard to believe you wouldn't have an amplifier in there for it. If there is indeed an amplifier, then the DSR1 would be something you would want to look at for sure. The DSR1 and Maestro AR units remove the processing done, giving you a flat low-level output (or at least that's what I've been able to understand based on everything I've read and seen when playing with these in the 2018 GT350.

If you look at the drivers side foot rest (on the left of the car behind the cover where your hood release is), you should be able to see if there are three connections into an aluminum colored unit. That unit would be the amplifier, and you would simply unplug the three connections from that, plug those ends into the T-harness and then plug the harness into your DSR1. The DSR1 gives you 4 sets of RCAs that you can then feed into your amplifiers. Typically it would be one set for the fronts, one set for the rears and one set for the subwoofer(s). The remaining set of RCAs would be for your center channel, but only one of the plugs is used. These are configurable with the DSR1 app you install on your phone/tablet.

Like I stated earlier, I was having no end of issues with this when I was doing it, but it sounds like the latest firmware update fixes at least some of what I was seeing.

 

[Captdistraction]

for the 2016 there's no off-board amplifier in the kickwell (nor are there the 3.5's in the doors ala the 9 speaker system). Its basically the base audio system with the nav ACM swapped in. It can have its output flattened via forscan. in 2017 they basically made the tech package the shaker 9 speaker system (and gave everyone the coolers for trans and diff, grumble).

That said, is there still value in the time correction/EQ correction of the DSR1?

 

[Dalamar]

for the 2016 there's no off-board amplifier in the kickwell (nor are there the 3.5's in the doors ala the 9 speaker system). Its basically the base audio system with the nav ACM swapped in. It can have its output flattened via forscan. in 2017 they basically made the tech package the shaker 9 speaker system (and gave everyone the coolers for trans and diff, grumble).

That said, is there still value in the time correction/EQ correction of the DSR1?

There would probably be some value but difficult to say how much. I wasn't able to get much going with the DSR1 and ended up returning it. The options in the app looked interesting for the time correction and whatnot, but it was very unreliable for me prior to the 1.3 firmware.

 

[Cathul]

Without the factory amp you can use the DSR1 in universal mode which completely bypasses the Maestro Part. In this mode you also do not use the Maestro harness as you simply don’t have connectors in your car.

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