Your Raptors Audio System

[The Car Stereo Company]

for a drop in fit, the speaker sizes are a 5x7 or 6x8. either one of those sizes will fit. however the more common size is a 5x7. the front tweeters are 1 inch in diameter. the center speaker is a 4 inch. i disregard the center speaker when upgrading the audio system.

you have a component setup in front meaning that the front door woofer and the front tweeter act as 1 complete speaker on each side. for the more advanced systems, a 6 1/2 inch speaker can be used. in this case the front door woofer (6 1/2") can be spaced out 3/4" to accommodate a higher end speaker that has a larger magnet, and will still clear the door panel. keep in mind you may need to do a little additional modification. the tweeter should pose no problem replacing and is for the most parts, self explanatory when the panel and tweeter are removed.

the rears are a coax setup meaning that it plays a full range signal with a cap inline on the tweeter to filter out the bass going to it. it can be swapped for another coax with no other mods necessary. if you wish to run a 6 1/2" speaker instead, it can be spaced out 1/2" from the door. wires can easily be ran in the rear door boots of both the crew and supercabs for those of you that want to run a component setup in the rear.

for a subwoofer, the oem is an 8" but can easily hold a larger speaker. for the supercabs, certain 12" shallow mount subwoofers will fit under the seat without sticking out, and some will not. due to height issues, supercab owners are limited to shallow mount woofers. however, certain manufacturers have built some pretty darn good shallow subs. for the crewcabs, only a 10" or smaller speaker will fit under the rear seat without sticking out. but due to the extra height, some full size woofers will fit. and you are not "stuck" with having to go with a shallow mount woofer like the supercab owners.

against popular belief, the oem speaker wire is plenty adequate to run your system. here are my thoughts

auto manufacturers can skimp on certain parts of a vehicle but wires are not one of them. copper is the second most conductive metal on the planet next to silver. however we all know the cost of silver is exponentially greater than copper. so copper is the best choice by default. the reason for copper wire is that since its conductivity is so great, there is less resistance in the transfer of current. resistance means heat. and heat equals nothing good. if an auto manufacturer decided to skimp on wire, then there would be a lot more heat generated in the wires that conduct higher current. this could allow for more wiring issues, melted wires, and worse case scenario, a vehicle fire. there are some auto companies that are starting to use an aluminum clad copper wire for some of the low current electronics that power nothing but relays, but when it counts, i guarantee theres copper involved.

so based on my testing, i have found that the copper wire used for our existing audio system can handle quite a bit of current. about 25amps before the wire insulation started to melt. (duration was not tested, just to the melting point) do the math, and thats 350 watts. 150watts more than what my speakers are seeing right now. so the oem wire is fine. besides the fact you cant really run wires in the front doors without major modification, there is no need to upgrade the wire. but your choice in wire for an amp wiring kit should be made knowing the facts about wire. real power kits that use real wire are going to cost a lot more than the cheap power kits. the cheap power kits are the aluminum clad copper, where as the high end power kits are pure copper. there is a happy medium where there is an aluminum clad copper (also known as copper clad aluminum), but the aluminum content is much lower than the super cheap kits you will find. so when deciding on a power kit for your amplifiers, make sure you stick with a name brand. some for example are kicker, stinger, rockford, jl audio, wirez, etc.

 

[The Car Stereo Company]

updated, and reserved

 

[Taxman]

Thanks for the wonderful explanation. How about an amplifier? Where is the stock amplifier(s) located and can a decent-quality aftermarket multi-channel amplifier be placed in the same location with minimal or no modification? If there's no space, what other locations are best suited for an upgraded multi-channel amplifier? Is there a wiring kit (harness) that would connect to an after-market amplifier without having to strip wires or run new ones? At what point (amplifier power) do you recommend (or require) that a new power lead is run to the battery directly - 200W, 300W, 500W?

Thanks again. As a new Raptor owner, I think this is great information and should probably be made a sticky.

 

[Backinblack]

I upgraded my audio and spent about what Busa gave for a ballpark. He didn't supply or install as I am in Canada. This seems like a lot of dough and it could be used for other mods, I agree.
It's up to the individual, and I have no regrets. A kick ass audio system is just part of the Raptor package.

 

[The Car Stereo Company]

any amplifier should have its own power direct from the battery. wattage depends on what type of speakers you are using. the crewcabs can have equipment mounted on the back wall behind the rear seats. the supercab guys are not so lucky, and usually require some underseat space be taken up. it is not recommended to put equipment in the factory amp location for 2 reasons. 1) it is not easily accessible 2) it will over heat. the oem amp needs to be kept in place to retain all oem functions. removing the oem amp will give you issues regarding the navigation and some sync/mft services. the factory amp is located under the center console below the shifter. as for a wire harness, thats a negative. there is nothing available to use. you will need to cut and connect each individual wire as needed for your system.

i will try to gather (and complete) some videos i have and try to put them all in once spot for reference.

 

[The Car Stereo Company]

SOUND PROCESSORS

sound processors are a necessary component in upgrading our audio system. they can range from basic, to extreme. i am going to list 2 examples of the processors we use here in our shop

JLAUDIO cleansweep and summing device. this processor is a basic setup. its function is to sum the signals and auto recalibrate the eq to maximize sound. however it has its downfalls as well. when people ask if a sound processor is really necessary all we need to do is point them to the pictures posted with the rta. you can see how the signal is too much in some frequency ranges, and not enough in others. the summing device takes the front tweeter and woofer signal and converts or "sums" them into a full range signal which then go out to the cleansweep. the cleansweep then does the auto calibration (note that this is done once at the time of install) and then passes the newly modified signal to your aftermarket amplifiers. the nice thing about this particular setup is that you dont need to do much tuning. just put in the disc and hit the calibrate button. as long as everything is wired up correctly, it should work fine and calibrate. the downfall of this unit is that there is no tuning adjustments you can make. you are stuck with what someone else thinks it should sound like. however, using this piece is a HUGE upgrade over the oem. you get much more clarity and output from this. this is the recommended unit(s) if you are looking to put together a more budget friendly setup. this setup generally runs about $400 for both parts. unfortunately, i dont have pics of the unit available

MOSCONI 6to8. this is the high end processor designed for not just the audiophile, but for someone who enjoys a good clean sound. i personally run this unit in my truck. this is an advanced system and requires the use of a laptop and an rta. this unit has an almost infinite amount of tuning capabilities. although this is also the downfall of the unit. you need an rta and a laptop to tune this, and you will spend hours tuning your system. (trust me on this, we have spent hours tuning my truck). however the pros exponentially outweigh the cons of this unit. you have multiple adjustment to tune specifically how YOU want it.

now there are other units similar but since we are a focal/mosconi dealer i am going to explain using the 6to8.

 

[The Car Stereo Company]

other processors out there that are similar will most likely have generally the same setup. although a different layout and format, they will have a lot in common with each other. and now here is good stuff on the 6to8

these steps may not be in order due to the camera and computer setting things in chronological order, so i will explain by each picture in order. the first picture is of the mixer. here is where you sum signals and send them where you want it to go. the 6to8 is called that for a reason. it accepts 6 channels in, and has 8 channels out. in my case, i used the front inputs only (these are a blank shot of the software. my truck is not connected) and used all 8 outputs. remember the screen shots of the front tweeter and door woofer? this is where we make them one signal and decide where the signal is sent. so you can send the door woofer signal to all 8 outputs if you wanted to.

the second and 3rd pics are of the crossover type. here you can select which type of crossover system you want to use and once selected, you can determine the frequency and if you want different for left and right side speakers

 

[The Car Stereo Company]

in this first and second pic, you see the para graphic eq. you have multiple bands. channels 5,6,7, and 8 are only 9 band, but it really doesnt matter if you dont have 30 bands like channel 1 and 2. and i will explain. why.

i bi amped my system meaning that i have dedicated channels 1 and 2 for my front tweeters and channels 3 and 4 for my front door woofers. instead of using the supplied crossovers that came with my focal 165wr-c speakers, i am using the processor as the crossover. this gives me a LOT more tuning capabilities. with this processor, i can make virtually any adjustment i want. look at pic 1 and if you notice, it goes from 1600hz to 2000hz. lets say i have a spike at 1800hz, what do you do? turn down 1600 and 2000hz to reduce the spike? nope. i can select either 1600hz or 2000hz and change the frequency. meaning that i can now have 1600hz and 1800hz (or 1250hz to 1800hz) and then turn down the 1800hz to remove the spike. you are not stuck with the frequencies they provide. you can adjust it however you want. this is why you dont need to worry about the other channels having less eq bands.

now in pic 3 it shows time delay. this is a very important step in tuning your system. what this does, is we can electronically move speakers. how this works is like this..... without time delay if you stick your head in the middle of the cab, you will hear all the speakers at the same time. and it will sound much better than if you are sitting in your seat. so by using time delay we can push the drivers speaker away to a distance matching that of the distance of your right front speaker. this raises your soundstage and now puts the drivers location as the center of the sound stage. whne bi amping your system, you can push the left woofer and tweeter away to different distances. since the tweeter is closer to you than the woofer, you can push it farther away individually. when you are not bi amping your system, then you will push both the tweeter and woofer together. this alone will enhance your system greatly since now where you sit will be like you are in the middle table at a concert.

since the majority of your sound comes from the front speakers, you generally want to make sure you have good speakers there. the rears are not as important as the fronts. thats why the other channels dont have as many eq bands as the first four channels. it is not necessary. output channels 5 and 6 are generally reserved for your rear speakers. i describe the rear speakers as the backup singers in a band. you dont really focus on them, however you do notice when they are gone. so a lot of eq bands are not necessary. 7 and 8 are usually reserved for the sub, and that doesnt need much adjustment since its frequency range is so small.

 

[The Car Stereo Company]

one thing i forgot to mention with the eq adjustments. you can adjust them in pairs meaning left and right, or you can make separate adjustments to just one side. lets say my front door woofers needed adjustment. i could change just the frequency of the left woofer without making any changes to the right woofer, or i can make the adjustment to both at the same time.

now onto these last 2 pics.

the first one is gain adjustment. this means i can adjust the output of an individual speaker. lets say i needed to make the right tweeter louder. i can do that to that specific speaker and not make any other adjustments. the left rear door is the perfect example. in the drivers seat, it is the least heard speaker. instead of turning up the gain on the amplifier and turning the rears up together, i can turn up (or down) the gain to just that speaker allowing me to adjust the soundstage for my listening preferences.

phase inversion. this is for the extreme audiophile who wants nothing less than perfection. this can electronically flip a speaker out of phase. an out of phase speaker on a normal system is not good. it throws off the timing of the sound. when a speaker is out of phase, you will notice there is no bass when you are centered between the speakers. this is because when one speaker is moving outward, the other is moving inward causing cancellation of the soundwaves. when speakers are in phase (normally correct) all the speakers move the same difection at the same time. a speaker signal is an ac current so you generally want them to all move outward and inward at the same time. however, using time delay and phase inversion, you can flip a speaker out of phase and then push it out a certain distance so by the time the sound hits your ear, it is back in phase with rest of the system. this allows for a wider and deeper sound stage. but making this adjustment is an art and if done incorrectly can really make your system sound terrible.

so to sum up, YES a processor is necessary in our trucks to get the most from our system. NO you do not need to go to the extremes. the JL audio is a great piece to start if you think you are not going to want to go with sq setup. i recommend these more advanced processors whenever someone is looking to make an sq build. you dont have to be an audiophile to have these advanced processors. i have given many demos in my truck and the average person can definitely hear the difference. whether the difference is worth the amount of time and money is only up to you to decide. i just provide the info. the biggest thing is that you dont know what you are missing until you have actually been able to experience it. once you hear it,it will open you up to a whole new level of audio systems. i get many phone calls and customers all saying the same thing. "i dont need a big booming system. i just want something that sounds good" my response is always the same. well........ a good system can always go good boom. just because you dont want a big loud system, doesnt mean you dont need this equipment. it allows you to safely turn up your music when you want, but also give you the sound quality you want

 

[Spyders03]

I see a lot of variation from the factory head unit and amplifier going to the speakers for what should be a flat signal, however have you taken an RTA reading of in vehicle response at the drivers headrest?