Brigadir
Active Member
- Thread starter
- #1
I think it's worth to share my audio setup to the public, since it's not expensive and as far as I can assess it, the outcome is pretty good for the money.
I've done it in four steps and results after each of them were noticeable:
1. Get rid of factory speakers (9 channel A401) and put Focal 165AS3 kit
2. Sound deadening
3. Install aftermarket amplifier. In my case JBL DSP4086
(bonus) Cast magic on Sync 3 electronics with some radio components and solder
As all we know the factory premium audio is a regular shit and nothing more. So, replacing it with anything will result in better sound. Focal has pretty good and not expensive 165AS3 kit with basses, mids and twitters.
Installing them is pretty straightforward. We'll need custom podiums for the basses, I made them from heavy solid polyurethane plates. The mids fit into the factory podiums. For the twitters we'll need to pass separate cord. We want to toss the factory center speaker to trash since it makes sound worse, not better. The rear speakers are discussable, I disconnected them as well.
Sound deadening is also pretty straightforward - the most important is to cover large plain surfaces (doors, floor under front seats, right and left sides of the back seats behind the doors). Also it's worth to put sound isolation mats in the doors carts from the inner side. Interesting that Ford engineers tried to do something in this area - there are some pieces of sound deadening silicon across the car body, but their approach rises more questions than answers
Ok, next is more interesting. There are tons of options regarding amplifier/DSP in a wide range of prices. After considering many of them JBL DSP4086 appeared to be the best choice for me. It provides good quality, has rich configuration features (per-channel EQ and delays), isn't very powerful (for example to drive a sub) and costs reasonable money. Also it fits into the factory place for amplifier. There is a steel plate that holds the amplifier bolted to the left side near the brake pedal. With minimal drilling this plate will hold JBL DSP4086. We'll need to pack the harness and hide it behind the DSP. Connecting the harness is pretty easy if we also buy appropriate connectors (iDatalink HRN-AR-FO3 Harness). What's great with this setup - we don't need additional cords axcept those for twitters, and one more to ground the DSP. After setting up all the hardware don't forget to disable APIM EQ with Forscan before configuring the DSP.
There is one solid disadvantage of JBL DSP4086 - it's software. It doesn't work on majority of laptops. In my case it was working only on 1 pretty old laptop and didn't on 4 others which I borrowed from my friends. The issue is known for years and JBL doesn't care about it. So, be ready to pass this quest.
At this step when we have aftermarket speakers, sound deadening and DSP, the sound is really good - not loud, but clear. Since this moment you will stop listening to radio, Spotify or other streaming services - you'll be forced to listen to FLAC only By the way, it's also noticeable that bluetooth audio isn't so good as wired one from USB stick or Carplay.
At the and, if you are still reading this post, let me share some really valuable info which I didn't find across audio setups but is the most beneficial in cost/result terms. It's about replacing some electronic components in Sync 3 unit - and this will make the sound perfect (not absolutely of course, but in context of our inexpensive setup). And it costs just $15.
What we have to do - to replace the shitty factory operational amplifier chip with a good one. There are two kinds of PCB in Sync 3 depending on it's revision, so the chip may be marked and placed differently. We replace it with Texas Instruments OPA1664 (SOP-14 package).
Then we find two capacitors on the output routes of the chip, which correspond to right and left audio channels, and replace them with high quality electrolytic ones of 4.7uF (I chose SILMIC II from ELNA).
Here is the result:
Now it's all. At this moment you will stop listening to counterfeit FLAC that is converted from mp3, but will be forced to search genuine FLAC tracks.
Hope this info will make someone's ears happier
Update after 1 year of usage:
In general everything works good except the following notes:
- connections of the speakers with wires inside the doors rot. It started at one speaker (I described this issue in the latest post in the thread), but then all other speakers have rotten as well. The solution is to cover the exposed connection points with silicon
- JBL DSP4086 heats too much, even if no music is playing. At some temperature it starts reducing the volume. The solution is to move it from that legs area to open place in the saloon - in my case to the legs room of rear seats (I need to extend the harness for this)
- one more downside of JBL DSP4086 - the software doesn't work on majority of laptops. There are many complains about it but no software update so far. It's weird that the DSP is still selling and there are a lot of 5 stars reviews without mentioning this issue
I've done it in four steps and results after each of them were noticeable:
1. Get rid of factory speakers (9 channel A401) and put Focal 165AS3 kit
2. Sound deadening
3. Install aftermarket amplifier. In my case JBL DSP4086
(bonus) Cast magic on Sync 3 electronics with some radio components and solder
As all we know the factory premium audio is a regular shit and nothing more. So, replacing it with anything will result in better sound. Focal has pretty good and not expensive 165AS3 kit with basses, mids and twitters.
Installing them is pretty straightforward. We'll need custom podiums for the basses, I made them from heavy solid polyurethane plates. The mids fit into the factory podiums. For the twitters we'll need to pass separate cord. We want to toss the factory center speaker to trash since it makes sound worse, not better. The rear speakers are discussable, I disconnected them as well.
Sound deadening is also pretty straightforward - the most important is to cover large plain surfaces (doors, floor under front seats, right and left sides of the back seats behind the doors). Also it's worth to put sound isolation mats in the doors carts from the inner side. Interesting that Ford engineers tried to do something in this area - there are some pieces of sound deadening silicon across the car body, but their approach rises more questions than answers
Ok, next is more interesting. There are tons of options regarding amplifier/DSP in a wide range of prices. After considering many of them JBL DSP4086 appeared to be the best choice for me. It provides good quality, has rich configuration features (per-channel EQ and delays), isn't very powerful (for example to drive a sub) and costs reasonable money. Also it fits into the factory place for amplifier. There is a steel plate that holds the amplifier bolted to the left side near the brake pedal. With minimal drilling this plate will hold JBL DSP4086. We'll need to pack the harness and hide it behind the DSP. Connecting the harness is pretty easy if we also buy appropriate connectors (iDatalink HRN-AR-FO3 Harness). What's great with this setup - we don't need additional cords axcept those for twitters, and one more to ground the DSP. After setting up all the hardware don't forget to disable APIM EQ with Forscan before configuring the DSP.
There is one solid disadvantage of JBL DSP4086 - it's software. It doesn't work on majority of laptops. In my case it was working only on 1 pretty old laptop and didn't on 4 others which I borrowed from my friends. The issue is known for years and JBL doesn't care about it. So, be ready to pass this quest.
At this step when we have aftermarket speakers, sound deadening and DSP, the sound is really good - not loud, but clear. Since this moment you will stop listening to radio, Spotify or other streaming services - you'll be forced to listen to FLAC only
By the way, it's also noticeable that bluetooth audio isn't so good as wired one from USB stick or Carplay.At the and, if you are still reading this post, let me share some really valuable info which I didn't find across audio setups but is the most beneficial in cost/result terms. It's about replacing some electronic components in Sync 3 unit - and this will make the sound perfect (not absolutely of course, but in context of our inexpensive setup). And it costs just $15.
What we have to do - to replace the shitty factory operational amplifier chip with a good one. There are two kinds of PCB in Sync 3 depending on it's revision, so the chip may be marked and placed differently. We replace it with Texas Instruments OPA1664 (SOP-14 package).
Then we find two capacitors on the output routes of the chip, which correspond to right and left audio channels, and replace them with high quality electrolytic ones of 4.7uF (I chose SILMIC II from ELNA).
Here is the result:
Now it's all. At this moment you will stop listening to counterfeit FLAC that is converted from mp3, but will be forced to search genuine FLAC tracks.
Hope this info will make someone's ears happier
Update after 1 year of usage:
In general everything works good except the following notes:
- connections of the speakers with wires inside the doors rot. It started at one speaker (I described this issue in the latest post in the thread), but then all other speakers have rotten as well. The solution is to cover the exposed connection points with silicon
- JBL DSP4086 heats too much, even if no music is playing. At some temperature it starts reducing the volume. The solution is to move it from that legs area to open place in the saloon - in my case to the legs room of rear seats (I need to extend the harness for this)
- one more downside of JBL DSP4086 - the software doesn't work on majority of laptops. There are many complains about it but no software update so far. It's weird that the DSP is still selling and there are a lot of 5 stars reviews without mentioning this issue
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but Iāve seen the pros do a fair bit of the tuning process and they all at some point sit there and just try random things on the end.
