speaker and amp upgrades - 1SS Convertible
 

So finally decided after 4 years that I wanted better audio in my 2016 SS Convertible. We take road trips with the top open quite a bit and I drive it top down most of the time and the base audio system just doesn't quite cut it.

What I ended up with was a MTX 4 channel amp 60W/ch and using the front channel to drive a pair of Focal PS 165V components with 6.5" in the doors and tweeters in the stock dash location, both running off the crossovers that come with the speakers. This is a good set to leverage factory wiring because each speaker gets it's own crossover - high pass and low pass.

I used Metra adapters for the door speakers and harness adapters.

For the speaker signals - I used a harness off the main amp run and pulled speaker level inputs for the fronts to the MTX amp and used the 2 crossovers to drive the front Focals plus a sub box in the trunk.

Sub box is running in bridged mode which delivers 180W into a 4ohm load - so not massive power, but hopefully is adequate for my needs.

I ordered a kicker 10" solo-baric thin box that us under 7" tall to fit under the folded top in the trunk - but seems these are backordered, been waiting 2 months so far. So for now I grabbed an old POS kicker base tube thingy I had sitting around. It sounds surprisingly good even with the cheap sub.

I added some thin dyna-mat type stuff - I think the Noico brand - had it left over from doing the entire trunk on this car to cut down on road noise and exhaust noise from the Magnaflow exhaust.

I left the rear fill stock speakers, which in the vert are just 4" pillar speakers - they don't do too much but they do add some ambiance and it sounds better with them than without them.

So far did a bit of test drive with XM which sounded very good then played a few songs from my phone - Rush Red Barchetta and a Jeff Lorber tune off the first album. Both sounded really good - so far I am running the EQ pretty flat. I haven't really dialed in the amp crossovers or gain - I figure not much point until I get the real sub in place. Not like I'm really driving the car much this time of year anyway - it has been pouring like crazy in CA this week and cold. OK - cold for here!!

I wasn't sure if I needed a sound processing unit like the audiocontrol LC7i - but so far seems pretty good to me. I'm not looking to win any car stereo competitions - it's a vert - I just wanted a bit more than stock because we do enjoy listening to music on highway drives with the top down and the stock system is not adequate at higher volume levels and has no bass.

There is no middle dash speaker in the 1SS btw.

Anyway - a few pictures.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...f3482d7e_c.jpgUntitled by C4RACER, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...51083894_c.jpgUntitled by C4RACER, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...0378c256_c.jpgUntitled by C4RACER, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...92120ac5_c.jpgUntitled by C4RACER, on Flickr

nice, thanks. Keep updating as you go

Looks like you have a nice setup for your audio. Keeps us posted.

tested again today w/ top down - track from Master of Puppets came on. Plenty of volume and bass even at speed and top down. Will get even better with the better sub too.

Nice job.. looks great

thanks! Did my first wife test over the weekend - didn't mention the upgrade yet, we took a drive on Saturday because the weather was amazing - upper 60's and sunny, so took advantage of that for some top down time. Listening at normal volumes to facilitate conversation and so forth - you don't even notice a difference. There is a slight hint of added bass on some songs, but I have the setting tuned for higher volumes - so it's not intrusive at all. The Focals add some clarity even at lower volume, but in general all seems rather normal in low-key listening mode.

I got tired of waiting for the Kicker 10" truck box that seems to never be available and ordered up a JL Audio 10" sub and a 8" tall box to mount it which seems to be within the window of staying under the top when open. I'll get that mounted this week and do some additional testing and tuning and report back with some photos of the sub install.

Here is the box I picked up - .58CF sealed, so should match the shallow mount JL I picked well. Fits nicely in the corner just under the top. I think you have about 8.5-9" or clearance depending and this box is 8" tall at the back corner. Cycled the top a few times and all seems good.

I will put some mounting brackets on the floor which is the carpeted removable section to hold this in place in this location and all should be good to go. Won't impact trunk space when top is down at all - which is just the portion behind the divider.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b20a1f0e_c.jpgUntitled by C4RACER, on Flickr

I decided to add one of these:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_161LC2...-LC2i-PRO.html

I am still waiting on the sub for that box so not running a very good sub, but I still think the bass is impacted especially at higher volumes. I also wonder if the stock amp might also EQ the signal to compensate for cheap speakers. I seem to be hearing too much lower mid-range to upper bass boost. So I will likely also have to add a EQ to tweak that back. What's interesting however is it changes with the top down - it sounds a bit muddy with too much lower mid-range / upper bass frequencies with the top up - but when I drop the top that goes away and it sounds pretty good.

I figured in terms of tuning it to sound really good the first step was cleaning up the input voltages and giving a flat bass level to the amp. Hence the LC2i.

I'll get that installed and the JL Audio 10" sub and see where I'm at - if necessary add the AudioControl 13 band EQ as well.

Some songs sound really really good but then some of the old benchmarks I used to use for previous stereo builds don't sound as good as I would like them to. Needs some tweaking for sure to get where I want it. Really hard to do that without the final sub because I still haven't really dialed in the crossovers and sub levels at all yet either.

I remember someone noting that the frequency response modulates between top up and top down. Don’t know who mentioned it, or when that was posted.

hmm - on a bose system or on a base system or both I wonder?

I might need to get one of these:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_136981....html?tp=70736

problem is - looks like a one time calibration, so either need to optimize it for top up or down.

How annoying if the EQ is changing from the amp - makes it pretty hard to do a good system in a convertible that is consistent top up or down.

Honestly, I think it was a Bose and not a Base system.

I did a small upgrade when I had my 1SS and noticed the same top up and down frequency anomaly. I’m sure it wasn’t caused by my upgrade. Rather,
I had a couple better speakers with more power, that made it a bit more noticeable.

Sounds to me like with top up it's a pretty severe boost of lower mid and upper bass frequencies. I will have to explore this more once I get the line converter in place and will probably start with no sub to see where it's at.

I can just optimize for top down, but I hate having a compromised sound with the top up - even if it only accounts for 20% or less of my driving.

came a day early - installed.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...18ede28e_c.jpgUntitled by C4RACER, on Flickr

Played around with it a little bit still with the old Kicker tube sub station.

Doesn't seem to clip - so getting a clean output from the factory amp which is good.

Source material makes a big difference too - I had been using XM mostly, but went to my phone and streamed some Rush A Farewell to Kings tracks and - wow - even with top up it sounds pretty fantastic right now. Needs a bit more bass impact which I hope to get with the JL-A sub which will be going in soon.

Yes indeed. XM is not very good quality, especially on their rock stations. It seems to me like their jazz and symphony stations are better. I'm not sure why they'd do it like that, though. But anyway, bluetooth is a little bit better, depending on the recording quality; and USB sources with good recordings are quite a bit better.