Your Raptors Audio System

i am going to try to explain why our audio system in our trucks sound so bad. hopefully this will give you all some insight as to how it works.

if you can all be so kind as to not post in here until i finish adding the pictures and posts, i would appreciate it. that way it can be available for everyone in one spot and not thrown throughout the thread. im going to start with the 2010-2012 truck and then after, i will go into the 2013-14 truck

2010-2012

the RTA used to test these speaker outputs are from a unit from audio control. its is the model number SA-3050A time spectrum analyzer. it has been calibrated from audio control 3 months ago. this was used for both style audio systems. pink noise was used for this test on both vehicles.

now on to the good stuff here are a few pictures of the speaker outputs

i forgot to mention, the connection used, is directly into the rta using the input wired to the speaker wires coming from the amp. there is no microphone involved therefore removing the possibility of ambient noise entering the system. also, these were tested at half volume (approximately 50-60%) and not full volume. and volume was not changed throughout the whole process. but i will go into that later

the first pic is of the front tweeter. as you can see, directly from the amp it is crossed over. if you look on the left side, the frequency drops off at right at 6,000hz. and disappears at 4,000hz. and on the right side, it drops off at 16,000hz.

now in the second pic, it shows the front door woofer on the left side, it drops off at 160hz and completely disappears at 40hz. the audible threshold for humans is roughly 20hz. meaning we are missing 40-20 hz. if you look at the high end of the spectrum, you will notice that it keeps going into the tweeter range. this is the cause of not hearing bass in our trucks. as we get higher into the volume level the oem eq will cut even more bass, but due to the the large overlap of frequencies from the door woofer and the tweeter, the mid presence is a bit extreme to say the least.

the rear speakers. as you can see, the boosted the bass to the rear speakers, with very little in the higher frequency range. this is why i say to tap into the rear speakers for adding just an amp and sub. you get the most bass output from the rear speakers allowing a little better output than using the oem subwoofer wires.

i forgot to take a pic of the sub wires when i had this apart, but it is not much different than the 2013-14 sub so that will be explained later

2013-2014

here are the pics of the newer mft system

as you can see, there is a difference between the mft and the sync systems

look at the tweeter. it peaks at 16,000hz, and steadily declines to 2,000hz and disappears at 1,600hz.

the front door woofer has a huge drop off at 63hz and as you notice, has another drop off in the midbass level. then raises again at the midrange level and finally dropping off at 16,000hz. once again, combined with the tweeter, too much sound in that frequency of our sound system

the rear doors are pretty much a full range signal with the bass once again being dropped off at around 50hz.

and finally the sub. this is the most affected signal throughout our sound system. it pretty much dead ends at 125hz and peaks around 63hz. but dont be fooled by the picture. the higher up in volume, the more the bass roll off comes into effect and you will notice that the frequency on the low end drops quicker. unfortunately i didnt take a pick at 75% and max volume.

---------- Post added at 12:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:37 PM ----------

in conclusion. the 2010-12 guys have it a little easier with tuning due to the more level frequencies. however, it is still a task to get good sound out of the system. the mft on the newer trucks is a little more affected by the oem eq compared to the sync trucks. so when tuning a processor, requires a little more work. the only way to eliminate (i use this term loosely) is with a sound processor. here we recommend the mosconi 6to8 as our processor of choice. when connected, it provides us with the ability to reduce and raise specific frequencies as necessary as we see on out rta. regardless of what system you have, we are all affected by frequency cut offs.

for those of you that have disassembled your trucks will have noticed caps inline with the tweeters. they also filter out frequencies. i will get some shots up with the rta microphone a little later on. but that will reduce the frequency heard from the tweeter as well. no matter what system you have, there is an abundance of midrange in the system. so when you turn the volume up, you are essentially just turning up the midrange. the bass gets filtered out and the highs roll off as well, although not quite as much as the bass.

auto manufacturers put certain restrictions in place to protect the system from destroying itself. these restrictions are what i call an oem auto leveling eq. it automatically levels the eq as the volume changes to keep from blowing out speakers. but, with the right equipment, this can be (almost) removed from the system. no matter what processor you run, you will never completely eliminate the oem eq. however, my truck for example, the oem eq presence is so minimal, you cant tell its there. the volume is linear all the way up with no frequency drops at all.

so when replacing the speakers, the first thing you will notice, is the the sound stage is brighter. this is because the factory cap has been removed when you replaced your tweeter. however, the midbass driver in the door and the rear speakers are still subject to the oem eq. aftermarket speakers may provide you with the ability to handle more frequency and at a louder volume, but it can only play the signal it is getting.

im sure there will be some questions, so fire away. feel free to ask or post

Maybe you can't post sequentially. Try posting pics after this post.

Have the mods delete this post then, so yours can be sequential.

wiring info

here are a list of the speaker wires in our truck. all of these wires are located at the factory amp under the center console. this is common for all years of the raptor with the exception of the note for the 2010 subwoofer

front left tweeter

green/orange (+)
grey/orange (-)

note.... this changes color at the tweeter connection behind the dash. on both the left and right side, there is a connection that is wrapped in orange heatshrink. the wire colors there are a brown (+) and a green (-) you can also verify the colors if you pull the other side of the connector off. there you will find the same wires that are at the factory amp.

front left woofer

white (+)
white/brown (-)

front right tweeter

purple/orange (+)
yellow/orange (-)

front right woofer

white/purple (+)
white/orange(-)

left rear speaker

white/green (+)
brown/yellow (-)

note.... since the rears are a coax speaker, meaning the woofer and tweeter are combined into one unit, there is no tweeter wire. the tweeter gets its signal from the same input as the woofer. it just runs through a cap inline to filter out bass

right rear speaker

brown/white (+)
brown/blue (-)

center channel speaker

green (+)
grey/yellow (-)

subwoofer

voice coil 1
purple/green (+)
green/white (-)

voice coil 2
green/purple (+)
grey (-)

note... on the 2010 model year, there is a second amp attached to the factory sub. this is the only year truck that has the secondary sub amp.

when upgrading the audio system, i do not use the rear, center channel, or the subwoofer wires as an input to my sound processor. i dont know why, but with the multiple sound processors i have tried, anytime the rear or the sub signal was introduced into the inputs, it created a distorted sound. my inputs used are the front tweeters (left and right) and the front door woofers (left and right). it took me quite a while to figure out why the sound was distorted. i had multiple trucks in for systems and they all ended up the same. front inputs only. i would highly recommend you do the same

Are you going to explain what all the pink dots mean in English? Reading your review of the speakers is like reading Greek.

Killjohnathan said:

Are you going to explain what all the pink dots mean in English? Reading your review of the speakers is like reading Greek.

Click to expand...

the dots represent the frequency being played through the system with pink noise. the higher the dots, the more that particular frequency is present. the lower the dots, the less the frequency is present. no dots means no frequency

Well, you asked!


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