Subaru & Harman Kardon amp sub speaker install issues, please help.

[ChillyWilly72]

2022 Subaru WRX Limited w/ the Harman Kardon stereo
Autoharnesshouse 7881 30 pin
Audio Control LC2i Pro
Stinger MT15001
Kicker 44DCWC102 Dual 10" Comp C Woofer Box
Infinity Reference Ref-933ix 6x9s
Infinity Reference Ref-3032cfx 3.5s

The HK system as it came was okay, enough for me I thought initially. Then I noticed I would hear the rear 10" sub fart w/volume set above 26-28 outta 35 so I started looking into swapping out the sub, nothing would fit. I then decided to add a woofer box and amp. Wired up the amp, got a loc (lc2i pro), unplugged the old woofer and pulled signal from the sub which turned out to be way low in volume. Ended up buying a harness from autoharnesshouse which had tapped the front door speakers and ended up producing much better results, but now the subs were way too much for the rest of the stereo. Solution for this was to add new speakers, which are still not enough so now I plan on adding a 4 channel amp. I have a couple of items to fix before delving into that.

After adding the speakers I now have two new issues
1. when i turn my volume up to 24-28 of 35 depending on the music, audio cuts out completely and my LC2i turns off. (this turned out to be my fault, stock amp does not like the lower ohmage of the infinity speakers)
2. the red light on my starlink is now on and I am getting reports of error in the app (red light gone after replacing 3 ohm 3.5 speaker with 4 ohms speaker and putting stock 6x9 back in)

A little background on the subaru system:
This is what I have learned but still don't completely understand...in the harman kardon systems the head unit passes its signal (only 2 L&R fullrange) to the DCM (the link between hu, starlink, amp, etc) which then goes to the HK amp that splits and processes the signal and finally to the speakers.

The DCM, because it is linked to the cars safety services (starlink), powers and monitors the front 3.5s (you get into a crash, starlink csr comes on and the audio is played through those speakers). When the voltage drops below a certain amount, the DCM errors out (confirmed in the cars audio diagnostics screen - hold <> temp & press tuning knob 6x) and mutes everything.

Can anyone confirm that I am understanding what happens correctly and would the solution to this issue then be to place inline a 1ohm 25w resister (3ohm speaker plus 1ohm resister wired in series) so that the dcm sees the 4 ohms it wants or am i on the wrong track, I don't really know how resistance and voltage works I just want the stereo to stop having issues so I can work on adding an amp for the doors.

Thanks in advance

Jerry

Click to read more...

 

[Doxquzme Premium Member]

There may be a better solution, not familiar with the issue as it pertains to this configuration. I rarely, almost never advise this as I am apposed to putting resistors in the signal path for this purpose. If you're going to do it, use a high wattage resister.

Amazon product ASIN B077ZMFZM6
Some additional information:

How To Add A Resistor To A Speaker To Change Impedance - Sound Certified

Find out how to use resistors to change the speaker impedance seen by an amp, radio, or crossover. My helpful diagrams and info will tell you how to - easily!

soundcertified.com

 

[ChillyWilly72]

This whole system is not working out how I intended so I am opening a new can of worms...I am gonna go with an LC7i to sum the channels bc I don't like the processing going on and that will go out to 2 amps, 1 for the door speakers and 1 for the sub.

 

[1aespinoza 10+ year member]

This whole system is not working out how I intended so I am opening a new can of worms...I am gonna go with an LC7i to sum the channels bc I don't like the processing going on and that will go out to 2 amps, 1 for the door speakers and 1 for the sub.

Are you going to get the signal from each "corner" or just the 2 front speakers?

 

[ChillyWilly72]

I'm gonna tap the front corners and front doors since I am 100% certain the front doors give me all the low range for the sub and the front dash 3.5s give me all the highs which the doors do not...I'll sum the signals using the LC7i and send 1 & 2 RCAs to the front amp and output 3 of the LC7i to the sub amp, leaving the 3.5s to be amped by the cars stock system so that I don't get the starlink red light or burn the DCM.

 

[ChillyWilly72]

Got it all in and the sound *****, I really hate what harman kardon did to this sound signal...everything is out of whack, even with the summed signal the sound is compromised somewhere and I do not have the gear to check it, swapped the main signal into the main of the LC7i and things did improve but I need to figure out what is missing (sounds like midrange signal).

 

[1aespinoza 10+ year member]

Got it all in and the sound *****, I really hate what harman kardon did to this sound signal...everything is out of whack, even with the summed signal the sound is compromised somewhere and I do not have the gear to check it, swapped the main signal into the main of the LC7i and things did improve but I need to figure out what is missing (sounds like midrange signal).

Just took a quick glance at the LC7i specs. It should be the only thing needed. You may have a reversed polarity at one of the high level inputs. How did you verify the polarity of each speaker harness?

 

[ChillyWilly72]

I actually have everything in and am working on trying to figure out which signal to use...because of what I decided to do to pull signal I actually have a tap off of the dash 3.5s, HK amplified signal from the 6x9s & 6.5s and the signal from the factory sub.

I am working on figuring out which of the 4 I should use (there are only 3 inputs for the LC7i). As for checking polarity, I only checked visually but you are right I need to verity everything.

I also want to see what bandwidth comes out of each but I a don't know how to do that, gonna be youtubing and reading tonight.

 

[SmartSolutionsLLC]

2022 Subaru WRX Limited w/ the Harman Kardon stereo
Autoharnesshouse 7881 30 pin
Audio Control LC2i Pro
Stinger MT15001
Kicker 44DCWC102 Dual 10" Comp C Woofer Box
Infinity Reference Ref-933ix 6x9s
Infinity Reference Ref-3032cfx 3.5s

The HK system as it came was okay, enough for me I thought initially. Then I noticed I would hear the rear 10" sub fart w/volume set above 26-28 outta 35 so I started looking into swapping out the sub, nothing would fit. I then decided to add a woofer box and amp. Wired up the amp, got a loc (lc2i pro), unplugged the old woofer and pulled signal from the sub which turned out to be way low in volume. Ended up buying a harness from autoharnesshouse which had tapped the front door speakers and ended up producing much better results, but now the subs were way too much for the rest of the stereo. Solution for this was to add new speakers, which are still not enough so now I plan on adding a 4 channel amp. I have a couple of items to fix before delving into that.

After adding the speakers I now have two new issues
1. when i turn my volume up to 24-28 of 35 depending on the music, audio cuts out completely and my LC2i turns off. (this turned out to be my fault, stock amp does not like the lower ohmage of the infinity speakers)
2. the red light on my starlink is now on and I am getting reports of error in the app (red light gone after replacing 3 ohm 3.5 speaker with 4 ohms speaker and putting stock 6x9 back in)

A little background on the subaru system:
This is what I have learned but still don't completely understand...in the harman kardon systems the head unit passes its signal (only 2 L&R fullrange) to the DCM (the link between hu, starlink, amp, etc) which then goes to the HK amp that splits and processes the signal and finally to the speakers.

The DCM, because it is linked to the cars safety services (starlink), powers and monitors the front 3.5s (you get into a crash, starlink csr comes on and the audio is played through those speakers). When the voltage drops below a certain amount, the DCM errors out (confirmed in the cars audio diagnostics screen - hold <> temp & press tuning knob 6x) and mutes everything.

Can anyone confirm that I am understanding what happens correctly and would the solution to this issue then be to place inline a 1ohm 25w resister (3ohm speaker plus 1ohm resister wired in series) so that the dcm sees the 4 ohms it wants or am i on the wrong track, I don't really know how resistance and voltage works I just want the stereo to stop having issues so I can work on adding an amp for the doors.

Thanks in advance

Jerry

Harmon Kardon are the hardest systems to upgrade. i had a saab 9-5 turbo that came with a 16 speaker harmon kardon system i think it was. Maybe even more than that. I looked up the vin to see the exact build and the guy that ordered it spent like $9,000 or something ridiculous on it. The way it was integrated into the main computers in the car tho nobody would touch it and I didnt wanna tear it apart and have no car for a month while i figured it out since it wouldnt work at all once i tore into it so I never did anything. I just wanted to connect my phone to it with something decent fidelity and even that was not possible without paying a saab guru to tear the car apart and help do it. I know some tech's that have a spot near me that do huge projects on $300,000 cars all the time brand new and do a lot of high end work and they won't even touch anything with harmon kardon integrated into the factory electrical.

 

[ChillyWilly72]

Your 100% correct, my car interior has been pulled apart and the passenger seat out for a month at least...but with the autoharnesshouse.com harness I pulled all three signals (HK in a Subi has two inputs to the HK amp which then splits the signal for each speaker location) coming OUT of the HK amp (dash & F+R doors) to create a full range signal to an AC LC7i. This gives me what I need for the fonts to sound good and for a nice pounding sub (sub outputs are too low). My issue RN is setting my levels but everything sounds complete (at least to my ears). I also had to use a 4 Ohm 3.5 speaker in the dash locations to keep the red light off on Subi Starlink as well as a AC LGD on the dash and fronts (not sure if I had to do this last part with the LGD but I dont wanna rip everything apart and test to see if the red light comes back on).

 

[ChillyWilly72]

I guess I can only Edit once as I was gonna show the new components of my system so here goes

replaced the LC2i with an LC7i (Had the LC7i otherwise I would have bought the LC7i Pro)
replace the 3 Ohm Infinity 3.5s with 4 Ohm 3.5s
put in Infinity 6.5s in the rear doors
Added an Alpine amp I had laying around for the door speakers (Alpine MRP-F240)

 

[Doxquzme Premium Member]

Pretty sure one of the significant differences in the LC7i Pro and non pro is the fixed subsonic filter in the pro is 20hz and the other is 33 hz. Probably more stuff than just that, but that is what sticks out in my memory.

 

[Doxquzme Premium Member]

These can also be used if you don't care to use that center channel.

https://www.sonicelectronix.com/item-192015-AudioControl-AC-LGD-20.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=PLA&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaignid=20151879588&utm_matchtype=&utm_keyword=&utm_device=c&utm_content=&utm_devicemodel=&utm_network=x&utm_loc_physical_ms=9029596&utm_loc_interest_ms=&utm_placement=&utm_adposition=&gclid=CjwKCAiA1-6sBhAoEiwArqlGPvJlA7r4Jyg7fQjibW0Hh5hBuSYR8aeGdh1yq7c2q1RlH9tRStz6cRoCZSAQAvD_BwE

 

[ChillyWilly72]

Ahhh...one other issue...I gotta figure out which wire on the harness I can use as a remote turn on as with the HK system doing things other than just audio my amps turn on early and are left turned on until the system goes to sleep)

 

[ChillyWilly72]

Thanks Dox, that is what I did and it seems to be working great (no red light from Starlink)