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Kicker upgrade for b&o unleashed?

Spiffy

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I'd be happy with tighter bass. I'm a hard-core audiophile and spent countless on my home 2 channel. Big booming bass is awful. This current bose is exactly that.. I'm happy with the mids and highs. But the base is a dog..
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This one just barely fits behind the rear seat on the driver’s side of my crew cab. You will need to cut out a bit of the cardboard panel on the rear wall or you will probably dent the grille. Ask me how I know…

https://www.jlaudio.com/collections...-powerwedge-amplified-subwoofer-systems-93334

It delivers powerful bass and very tight as it’s a sealed enclosure. It won’t shake your mirrors, just like anything that will fit in that space.

I am using a low level signal from one of the Mobridge A2B DACs but you should be able to drive it directly from the high level leads to the stock B&O sub.

(Will start a thread on my audio build soon)
Nice! I am surprised that this one is the same dimensions as the micro+ 8. Maybe the W3 in the 8 is too deep to make the depth less.
 

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Nice! I am surprised that this one is the same dimensions as the micro+ 8. Maybe the W3 in the 8 is too deep to make the depth less.
The mounting depth on the 8 is a little higher but not a huge difference: 4.63" vs 4.36" on the 10. The difference is the Micro+ are ported and the PowerWedge+ are sealed. The W3 is specced at 0.35 cubic feet for a ported enclosure, which matches the 10TW1 spec for sealed. The 10TW1 wants 0.625 cubic feet for a ported enclosure.
 

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The mounting depth on the 8 is a little higher but not a huge difference: 4.63" vs 4.36" on the 10. The difference is the Micro+ are ported and the PowerWedge+ are sealed. The W3 is specced at 0.35 cubic feet for a ported enclosure, which matches the 10TW1 spec for sealed. The 10TW1 wants 0.625 cubic feet for a ported enclosure.
Yea that makes sense. I had the dual 8 micro (unpowered) enclosure in my old 2013, and it was awesome, but it was the only ported enclosure I have ever used. As most aren't really my taste.

Then I did 2 JL 6.5" subs in my own built boxes in my 2014 single cab Tremor, just to see if I could pull it off; and it was incredible (dsp was a big help). The sealed 10 is intriguing and IMO the perfect sub for a crew cab, but I promised I wouldn't upgrade this stereo, lol.
 

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Have any of you noticed any issues with the active noise cancelation system... okay to keep it running when adding a sub?

I disconnected the sub last night and can't hear any exhaust noise... so I don't think it is used in the ANC.
 

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hideaways are suitable for sedans/coupes. they are too small for crew cab trucks imo.
I am a 70 year old that doesn't turn it past 16 and listens to classic rock and country. I think some added bump to help the existing B&O unleashed sub will probably be all I need. I just hope it isn't muddy/boomy sounding. I am wondering if a resistor added to center channel speaker in series would drop volume so it isn't dominating the soundstage.....or change out speaker for a different impedance speaker that will have less volume.
Some on here mentioned disconnecting center dash speaker altogether. If Pink Floyd and Imagine Dragons as well as Toby Keith sounds full spectrum, I am golden. Don't need to rattle the license plate bolts loose.......lol
 

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I am a 70 year old that doesn't turn it past 16 and listens to classic rock and country. I think some added bump to help the existing B&O unleashed sub will probably be all I need. I just hope it isn't muddy/boomy sounding. I am wondering if a resistor added to center channel speaker in series would drop volume so it isn't dominating the soundstage.....or change out speaker for a different impedance speaker that will have less volume.
Some on here mentioned disconnecting center dash speaker altogether. If Pink Floyd and Imagine Dragons as well as Toby Keith sounds full spectrum, I am golden. Don't need to rattle the license plate bolts loose.......lol
you can try enabling and disabling the “surround sound” option to see if that’ll solve your issue.
 

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you can try enabling and disabling the “surround sound” option to see if that’ll solve your issue.
I have played around with that setting and seems more immersive in "surround sound" but if the front to back balance **isn't** set to rear floor area almost to forward edge of backseat and slightly toward passenger side, the ceiling and headrest speakers are almost silent. It also seems to reduce subwoofer response even though it quiets the center dash speaker relationship to others for a better immersive feeling. So I figured adding some sub help might be the answer. The "bass" equalizer slide on center stack seems to add muddiness instead of bringing up clean bass bump. Thanks for your input. At least the Kicker 10" Hideaway comes with some settings to customize as well as a volume potentiometer mounted up at dash to play with.
 

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I'm hooking up the 8 channel DSP amp tomorrow to test (full EQ and timing controls). 8 channel B&O stock, w/ alpine X 6x9 woofer w/ JL C3 tweeters, C2 coaxials in rear doors, stock center channel, A2B interface box. Primarily playing, I have several DSP amps and 2 10tw3s are going in box eventually w/ a different amp. Just trying to see what the little amp can do swapping door speakers only. It's only rated 40x8 at 4ohms, but in my testing against a D5.1300, it drove the highs equally as well setup in a test room, free air, ears were hurting after ~1hr and it wasn't clipping.

See what the factory sub can do with a little more power and better speakers. If it blends okay, I'll replace the IPC center for a fill. The stock wiring is hilariously tiny. I'm destined to try and get the center as a mid fill, but if it sounds like shit it'll be abandoned.

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Spiffy

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I'm following this thread. While I'm 90% happy with the magnum B&O. I'm very disappointed in the sub response. I don't need it louder by any means. Frequency response 20hz to 50 is really nice. But as it moves up to 100 to 200hz it becomes terribly muddy. Booming. Pretty disappointed in the tone controls.
I'm leaning on using a Minidsp with Room Eq Wizard .
But b4 I tear into this truck maybe you guys can tell me the basics of the unleashed system. I know there is 18 speakers, I know the sub is open enclosure utilizing the cab as it's enclosure and I know it's over thousand watts. For what ever they mean. 1000w means nothing to me.
What I want to know is how many channels are output. If there is a separate sub channel or us the sub self powered. If it is then is the input line level or low voltage.
Right now I'm only intrested in bass control.
I want to gain tighter control of the subs frequency response timing in relation to the mid to higher frequency.
At low levels the sub is superb but at even a slight increase is where it falls apart. Makes me think the sub is line level and shares its headroom with the rest of the system.
I use an expensive NAD processor in my home 2 channels system controlled with microphone measuring. I gain superb leanarity across the intire frequency range. The software measures bounce, timing, distortion and phase, the processor then calculates a frequency curve bases on my room measuments. All resulting in super tight base and excellent imaging.
The miniDSP with room correction comes in 2x2 or 4x4.
I don't know how many output channels the b&o has. I know there is separate speaker wires but how many actual amp channels?
I'm absolutely sure I can gain control of just the sub level. I just don't know if the current open sub system ford uses is going to work.
I hear the booming because of the resonate cabin.
 

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I'm following this thread. While I'm 90% happy with the magnum B&O. I'm very disappointed in the sub response. I don't need it louder by any means. Frequency response 20hz to 50 is really nice. But as it moves up to 100 to 200hz it becomes terribly muddy. Booming. Pretty disappointed in the tone controls.
I'm leaning on using a Minidsp with Room Eq Wizard .
But b4 I tear into this truck maybe you guys can tell me the basics of the unleashed system. I know there is 18 speakers, I know the sub is open enclosure utilizing the cab as it's enclosure and I know it's over thousand watts. For what ever they mean. 1000w means nothing to me.
What I want to know is how many channels are output. If there is a separate sub channel or us the sub self powered. If it is then is the input line level or low voltage.
Right now I'm only intrested in bass control.
I want to gain tighter control of the subs frequency response timing in relation to the mid to higher frequency.
At low levels the sub is superb but at even a slight increase is where it falls apart. Makes me think the sub is line level and shares its headroom with the rest of the system.
I use an expensive NAD processor in my home 2 channels system controlled with microphone measuring. I gain superb leanarity across the intire frequency range. The software measures bounce, timing, distortion and phase, the processor then calculates a frequency curve bases on my room measuments. All resulting in super tight base and excellent imaging.
The miniDSP with room correction comes in 2x2 or 4x4.
I don't know how many output channels the b&o has. I know there is separate speaker wires but how many actual amp channels?
I'm absolutely sure I can gain control of just the sub level. I just don't know if the current open sub system ford uses is going to work.
I hear the booming because of the resonate cabin.
In 18 speaker system, the ACM (radio) powers the A pillar tweeters and rear door speakers (rear are coax and counted as 2 speakers per side).

The rest of the system is powered by the dsp module (amp) and gets its signal via a A2B network twisted pair from the ACM. The subwoofer enclosure is vented, but to the outside of the cabin.

Therefore, the subs connector is already the amped signal from the dsp.
 

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They use the term DSP loosely don't they?
I'm my world dsp means constant monitoring.
Ok that helps. So what you discribed is other than pillar and rear door coaxs the rest of the audio is piped via can bus or a2b to the rear dsp. The data is decoded, signal, volume, balance, tone and any other injected auto into the dsp.
Inside the dsp.. how many channels? Is there just two primary? Left right?
Looking at some aftermarket car audio devices there are inline devices that can strip out certain data like audio that allows for independent speaker control.
I would prefer to tap into the audio pre of the sub then into a minidsp then separate amp then speaker.
While it's doable to take the line level out to the sub it's not ideal.
Are the rear doors the only coaxial speaker?
Other than the Pilar and rear door (6) speakers there are 2 front doors, 3 more across the dash , 2 in ceiling, 2 in head rest. And sub.
Thats a total 16. What 2 am I missing? Or is the front doors also coaxial?
I have observed that unless I set to surround mode the head rest, three across dash and ceiling are not being used.
So it stands to reason that the dsp has only 2 channels running the rest if the system? And the sub is combined L R full with xover? If the dsp had a dedicated amp for the sub that would be tremendous. I could tap into the pre thus bypassing the internal amp. There is a ton of aftermarket processors that can be used for bass control.
 

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Will update with more notes. The headrests have 4 speakers, they're tied together in that the left speakers in each = 1 channel paralleled, and the rights are one (basically each headrest has its own stereo feed that's shared).

The rear doors and C pillar tweeters are the same channel. So 8 speakers are 4 channels.
 
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Sonnie

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I'm following this thread. While I'm 90% happy with the magnum B&O. I'm very disappointed in the sub response. I don't need it louder by any means. Frequency response 20hz to 50 is really nice. But as it moves up to 100 to 200hz it becomes terribly muddy. Booming. Pretty disappointed in the tone controls.
I'm leaning on using a Minidsp with Room Eq Wizard .
But b4 I tear into this truck maybe you guys can tell me the basics of the unleashed system. I know there is 18 speakers, I know the sub is open enclosure utilizing the cab as it's enclosure and I know it's over thousand watts. For what ever they mean. 1000w means nothing to me.
What I want to know is how many channels are output. If there is a separate sub channel or us the sub self powered. If it is then is the input line level or low voltage.
Right now I'm only intrested in bass control.
I want to gain tighter control of the subs frequency response timing in relation to the mid to higher frequency.
At low levels the sub is superb but at even a slight increase is where it falls apart. Makes me think the sub is line level and shares its headroom with the rest of the system.
I use an expensive NAD processor in my home 2 channels system controlled with microphone measuring. I gain superb leanarity across the intire frequency range. The software measures bounce, timing, distortion and phase, the processor then calculates a frequency curve bases on my room measuments. All resulting in super tight base and excellent imaging.
The miniDSP with room correction comes in 2x2 or 4x4.
I don't know how many output channels the b&o has. I know there is separate speaker wires but how many actual amp channels?
I'm absolutely sure I can gain control of just the sub level. I just don't know if the current open sub system ford uses is going to work.
I hear the booming because of the resonate cabin.
If you simply want to have control of the bass, it is relatively straight forward. You can disconnect the factory sub and come out of factory sub output into the Audio Control LC2i which will do a couple of things for you. It will reduce the signal to line level for an aftermarket amp, and it will compensate for the rolloff of the sub signal once the volume reaches 10-11. You would connect the outputs of the LC2i to the miniDSP, then to your sub amp.

I disconnected the sub, and the rest of the B&O is very respectable in my opinion. The sub at higher volumes is where the distortions starts to become more noticeable, but without the sub, I was able to crank it on up fairly well. The doors do need to be dampened and sealed, which will help considerably. Granted, it won't be anything like replacing the entire system, but with the right aftermarket amp/sub combo and doors treated/sealed better, it can make the factory system sound very respectable.
 

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ACM = front head unit
DSP Module = rear amp

As for power, it's fed by a 30a fuse. Takes a lot of magic to get even 600w off a 30a fuse (such as the 8 speaker is rated for). Wiring to speakers is a mix of 20 and 22 gauge, even the "sub" is very tiny.

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And no, the DSP isn't as you're thinking a DSP to be. I mean, it's got some really basic processing, but typically DSPs are timed as you'd want them. This is basically all audio to the front 2 seats. No special timing going on in those regards. It's dumb overall. It's got balance and fade, stereo mode or 'surround' which just seems to bias more highs to the center speaker (on dash firing off windshield).
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