Fighting with ford factory DSP, possible junk sub.

stones
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I have a 2017 Mustang with the base audio system.

It ****** so I made some changes.

Based on it's glowing reviews on Sonicelec' I added an Earthquake DBXi 12" dual 4ohm in a 1.8cft tuned to 34hz (tried 1.3 sealed as well both recommended by manufacturer) powered with a monoblock class D delivering 700 Watts rms clean.

Bass *****, whole stereo ***** in general but this bass is criminal.

Added epicenter

Kinda neat effect but not musically accurate, annoying after time, no response under 40hz.

Took out epicenter added LC2i

Massive peak at 50hz, can only play 40hz to 60hz, checking voltage on amp outputs show a terrible bell curve.

So.. time to throw some money at it (Canadian money so prices higher)..

I can buy a Kenwood DDX25BT Double Din CD DVD Player Bluetooth XM Radio Install Package for a thousand bucks.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Kenwood-DDX25BT-Double-Din-CD-DVD-Player-Bluetooth-XM-Radio-Install-Package/391896160542?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

or

I can buy a

Metra AX-DSP Digital Signal Processor With AX-DSP-FD2 2013-18 Ford, for $450 bucks

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Metra-AX-DSP-Digital-Signal-Processor-With-AX-DSP-FD2-2013-18-Ford-F150-Mustang/122681450426?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

$450 bucks is a much easier hit to the wallet, would the Metra work well?.

The Earthquake sub, lots of hype in the reviews for this sub, my impression is that it sounds like someone glued a brick to the cone.

Does this sub have terrible SQ?, it's loud but seems really sloppy and insensitive.

Would the NVX XQW12 give me good sealed box performance?, I want rich, accurate bass preferably in a small sealed enclosure to save trunk space and weight.

I have already picked up some replacements for the front door speakers and an amp to power them, perfect imaging not important to me just needs to be decent, my first priority is fixing Fords 70hz to 9000hz frequency response from the HU.

I appreciate your help thanks.

 
I have a 2017 Mustang with the base audio system.It ****** so I made some changes.

Based on it's glowing reviews on Sonicelec' I added an Earthquake DBXi 12" dual 4ohm in a 1.8cft tuned to 34hz (tried 1.3 sealed as well both recommended by manufacturer) powered with a monoblock class D delivering 700 Watts rms clean.

Bass *****, whole stereo ***** in general but this bass is criminal.

Added epicenter

Kinda neat effect but not musically accurate, annoying after time, no response under 40hz.

Took out epicenter added LC2i

Massive peak at 50hz, can only play 40hz to 60hz, checking voltage on amp outputs show a terrible bell curve.

So.. time to throw some money at it (Canadian money so prices higher)..

I can buy a Kenwood DDX25BT Double Din CD DVD Player Bluetooth XM Radio Install Package for a thousand bucks.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Kenwood-DDX25BT-Double-Din-CD-DVD-Player-Bluetooth-XM-Radio-Install-Package/391896160542?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

or

I can buy a

Metra AX-DSP Digital Signal Processor With AX-DSP-FD2 2013-18 Ford, for $450 bucks

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Metra-AX-DSP-Digital-Signal-Processor-With-AX-DSP-FD2-2013-18-Ford-F150-Mustang/122681450426?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

$450 bucks is a much easier hit to the wallet, would the Metra work well?.

The Earthquake sub, lots of hype in the reviews for this sub, my impression is that it sounds like someone glued a brick to the cone.

Does this sub have terrible SQ?, it's loud but seems really sloppy and insensitive.

Would the NVX XQW12 give me good sealed box performance?, I want rich, accurate bass preferably in a small sealed enclosure to save trunk space and weight.

I have already picked up some replacements for the front door speakers and an amp to power them, perfect imaging not important to me just needs to be decent, my first priority is fixing Fords 70hz to 9000hz frequency response from the HU.

I appreciate your help thanks.
Best to get rid of the factory crap ..my factory system didn’t last a week in my Saleen mustang I bought off the showroom floor ...nothing but low quality crap

 
Louisiana_CRX

I would love to rip the factory HU out and obliterate it, I'm a blue collar family man and a 1000+ dollars just for the HU would be extremely difficult to explain to my wife so it is a last resort (I recently spent 1200 on tuning so I need to tread carefully).

Popwarhomie

The Rockford DSR1 looks very attractive at 350 bucks, there is no T-harness available for the non-amplified base systems but it is well within my skill set to splice and solder and few wires and I have a laptop and several retired smart phones for tuning. If it is working well in your 2016 Focus then it should work well in my Mustang so I'll give it a shot, thank you.

I noticed no mention of the Earthquake sub which is a bit of a relief, I am hoping my sq issues with it are entirely signal related, the %$# thing cost me 350 bucks to import up North (Very few car audio distributors up here and prices are terrible unless you settle for Walmart).

 
Louisiana_CRXI would love to rip the factory HU out and obliterate it, I'm a blue collar family man and a 1000+ dollars just for the HU would be extremely difficult to explain to my wife so it is a last resort (I recently spent 1200 on tuning so I need to tread carefully).

Popwarhomie

The Rockford DSR1 looks very attractive at 350 bucks, there is no T-harness available for the non-amplified base systems but it is well within my skill set to splice and solder and few wires and I have a laptop and several retired smart phones for tuning. If it is working well in your 2016 Focus then it should work well in my Mustang so I'll give it a shot, thank you.

I noticed no mention of the Earthquake sub which is a bit of a relief, I am hoping my sq issues with it are entirely signal related, the %$# thing cost me 350 bucks to import up North (Very few car audio distributors up here and prices are terrible unless you settle for Walmart).
What enclosure is the Earthquake sub in ? I have two ported 8s in my Mustang ..I use to run two Critical Mass UL12s in it years ago

 
What enclosure is the Earthquake sub in ? I have two ported 8s in my Mustang ..I use to run two Critical Mass UL12s in it years ago
I have tried a sealed 1.3 and have moved it into a 1.8 tuned to 34hz, sensitivity did not increase as much as I expected and it sounds basically the same as the sealed box so I suspect the audio signal is the main cause for my issues.

To evaluate the signal I ran a tone generator app on my phone then played various tones through the stereos bluetooth connection. I connected multimeter leads to the amps outputs leaving the sub disconnected.

All equalization set to flat, ford volume compensation off, crossovers wide open, just pure unmolested signal.

The AC output from the amp terminals through the varied tones show that the amp is getting a bizarre signal to work with, voltage drops sharply below 40hz, barely registering a single volt at 20hz but climbing to 37v at 50hz.

Even with the LC2i the voltages are all over the place from 20hz to 100hz in a sharp bell shaped curve centered in the 50-60hz range.

Its hard to give blame to the sub when it is being fed such a terrible signal but right now it sounds awful.

here are a few reviews of the sub-

https://www.sonicelectronix.com/i38107_Earthquake-Sound-DBXI-12D-Product-Reviews.html

here is the install manual-

http://www.earthquakeeurope.com/Products/Car-Audio/Subwoofers/DBXi/DBXi-12D/Pdf/US/DBXi-12D_manual_US.pdf

 
Don’t judge the sub until after you fix the bass. Don’t know about the metra. If I didn’t have the MS-8 I’d get the Hertz H8. It has input EQ.
I agree, I found an image of the Ford factory radio output response.

jl2d10g.jpg


This is the actual output at the speaker lead, goes into the head unit flat and comes out hacked up, different volume levels shown. Any volume over 20 results in the jagged mess at the top.

Doing some reading on the Rockford DSP in various forums, it doesn't look good, many angry owners claiming serious issues some as new as one day ago. The Metra AX-DSP manual looks more promising than the Rockford, better phone interface, better EQ, proper chime control, connects to Canbus, t-harness for my car, 5v outputs, just cant find any reviews other than the 10 reviews of the android app, 7 are a full 5 stars with no comment and 3 complain of the app not working with their phone.

Manual here- https://assets.sonicelectronix.com/manuals/axxess/INSTAX-DSP.pdf

 
I used a JL FIX 86 to integrate with the Ford factory radio. It will automatically undo the factory EQ and time alignment to give your amplifiers a clean signal to work with. You may need the seperate volume knob from JL though because the fix can’t factor in changing EQ with the factory volume knob. With my Ford I use the factory volume knob within a certain range and use the JL Fix volume knob in conjunction where I know the factory bass roll off is greatest. They also have a JL FIX 82 with a digital input but I think it’s meant to work in conjunction with its DSP counterpart the Twk 88, which is also great. You can try the JL software for these units for free by downloading it (called tuN 2.0) from their website.

I especially had big issues with the bass on that Ford radio until I got the Fix and now it’s clean and sounds like it should as if it was on a aftermarket radio.

Also I tried a DSR1 and I like the JL Twk88 and Fix 86 better.

(Yes I cut and pasted this from the other similar thread but it’s the same issue.)

 
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