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How to install 2way components with standard audio? Looking to install an AudioControl DSP/amp (D-4.800).

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To install the DSP/amp, I know I need to grab the signal from the tweeters and woofers located in the kick panels. Aside from taking apart the entire dash, how do I grab the signal wires from the center channel since it provides all the noise for the door chimes, phone calls, etc?
 

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I don't think you need to do anything to get the chimes/prompts/calls other than tap the wires going to the front doors. In fact I think those sounds normally come out of the left front channel, not the center. I have an amp/DSP in my car as well and I don't think the installer used the center channel at all. I even recommend disconnecting the center channel completely as I found it interferes with the new components' sound and tuning.
 
I don't think you need to do anything to get the chimes/prompts/calls other than tap the wires going to the front doors. In fact I think those sounds normally come out of the left front channel, not the center. I have an amp/DSP in my car as well and I don't think the installer used the center channel at all. I even recommend disconnecting the center channel completely as I found it interferes with the new components' sound and tuning.
Interesting. I was told by someone on another forum that all the chimes and cell phone calls go through the center channel. He said he made this mistake and eventually took apart the dash to grab the signal from the center channel and then unplug it.

To be clear, did your installer take apart the dash to unplug the center channel?
 
I'm not really sure what they took signal from. They did have to take the dash pad off to install the mids, however. (I highly recommend getting nice midrange drivers.)
Sounds like you did a 3 way? 6.5" woofer in the door, 3.5" mid on the dash, and then 1" tweeter in the pillars.

I am avoiding pulling out my dash like the black plague so I think I really have 2 options.

Option 1
Use the DSP/amp to run a 2way active for the 6.5" door woofer and 1" tweeter in the pillar. Leave the center channel alone and stock rear fill.

Option 2
Use the DSP/amp to run all (4) door woofers. Leave the center channel and tweeter alone.

Equipment list
stock tweeters
Light Harmonics 6.5" front woofers
stock rear door speakers
AudioControl D-4.800
AudioControl LC-1.800 to power NVX subwoofer
 
Yes, 3-way Audiofrog GS components. I pulled the dash pad off to do the midranges and disconnect the center channel. It really wasn't that bad. Just make sure you unbolt the passenger side airbag, and most everything else is clips. I still left the wiring to a shop, however, and I consider that money well spent. I did opt to do my own sound deadening though (also highly recommended).

The midbass speakers honestly make the least difference in the sound. The rears are not worth touching at all as they contribute so little to the soundstage. Midrange is where it's at. :D If you are only running new midbass speakers, I would not spend money on an amp/dsp.
 
Have you considered just getting a pair of good two way components for the front? That would likely sound much better then the LH midbass/stock tweeter combo.

I opted to leave both my center channel and rear speakers alone and just concentrate on the front speakers and a subwoofer.
 
I'll probably upgrade the tweeter once I find one that matches the LH woofer. But honesty, your 3 way separates your midrange using a dedicated woofer. In a 2way, the 6.5" woofer has both midrange and midbass duties. In a 3way, the biggest difference I could hear was the dedicated midbass! And now that I think about it, most bookshelf audiophile speakers are 2way, not 3way. And for midrange/midbass they use 5" woofers.

Either way, we all need hobbies, right? The most intriguing HW to me is the amp/DSP, and if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't be doing this hobby. :)
 
Have you considered just getting a pair of good two way components for the front? That would likely sound much better then the LH midbass/stock tweeter combo.

I opted to leave both my center channel and rear speakers alone and just concentrate on the front speakers and a subwoofer.
For simplicity sake, I don't see why a good 2way component set fed with some decent power wouldn't work but I've never tried.

I would imagine that an amp/DSP powering and eq'ing the LH woofers and stock tweeters would easily sound just as good tho.
 
For simplicity sake, I don't see why a good 2way component set fed with some decent power wouldn't work but I've never tried.

I would imagine that an amp/DSP powering and eq'ing the LH woofers and stock tweeters would easily sound just as good tho.
Round 1 of my audio upgrade was close to that actually. At first I had my amp/DSP powering the OEM speakers plus a subwoofer. That held me over for a few months and was 10x better then stock, but I couldn’t get the tweeters to sound right no matter how much I messed with the EQ. My personal preference is for clear, bright highs. It wasn’t until I upgraded to a pair of Hertz components up front that things really started sounding better to me.

Having said that, Ive heard that Reus manages to make great sounding systems using OEM speakers so maybe my tuning skills just aren’t good.
 
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Round 1 of my audio upgrade was close to that actually. At first I had my amp/DSP powering the OEM speakers plus a subwoofer. That held me over for a few months and was 10x better then stock, but I couldn’t get the tweeters to sound right no matter how much I messed with the EQ. My personal preference is for clear, bright highs. It wasn’t until I upgraded to a pair of Hertz components up front that things really started sounding better to me.

Having said that, Ive heard that Reus manages to make great sounding systems using OEM speakers so maybe my tuning skills just aren’t good.
Good info man... Appreciate it a lot. The LH woofer is super beefy and runs at 2ohms so I am excited to feed it more power from an amp. As for the tweeters, Hertz sells them separately so I'll have the opportunity to upgrade that when I get bored. Nice.

What amp/DSP did you go with? And, did you wire yourself?

I was thinking about using a 9 conductor speedwire from the amp to tap the signal from the door speaker, and then use another pair of wire to power the same door speaker. Am I Frankenstein'ing my install or is this quite normal?

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I have an Audiocontrol d6.1200. I had an installer do the wiring for round 1 in which he tapped the front inputs from the foot well but he ran the outputs back through a separate speedwire.

When I installed the hertz component set up front I had to rewire it since the tweeter and woofer are now run off a single channel with a separate crossover. I ended up using the two remaining channels for the rear speakers but that ended up being kind of a waste of time.

If you’re asking whether it’s Frankensteinish to wire it all up in the footwell vs running new wires directly to the door speakers and tweeters I would say no and that’s it quite normal. In fact, it makes for a nice tidy install and makes it easy to put everything back to stock.
 
I finally finished my system and am very happy with how it turned out. The xt25 tweeter and LH mid in a 2 way play very nicely with each other. The xt25 tweeter plays insanely low and is HP'd at 2500 Hz. :)

DSP'd channels
Tweeters - HP'd at 2500 Hz up
LH Mids - bandpassed from 70Hz to 2500Hz
NVX subwoofer - LP'd from 70Hz down
Stock - center channel and rear fill

The only thing I'm not a fan of is the NVX subwoofer but I'm going to replace it with an Image Dynamics IDQ 10 in the NVX enclosure.

I'll post up some of pics/info just in case this might help someone else out. One thing I learned was Sentry mode turns the car on all the time so you have to wire a manual toggle switch to turn off your amps after you park. A bit weird but not sure how anyone else is getting around that.

Tips:
1) wire an on/off toggle switch for your amps. The cigarette 12v fuse is located at the passenger kickpanel. Use a micro2 add-a-fuse here.
2) I had a really hard time trying to take out the A pillar. I ended up pulling them half way out and reaching to remove/add the tweeter.
3) There's a factory grounding point for the amps on the passenger side trunk.
4) Getting an amp/DSP is so worth it IMO.
5) I think I used about 30 ft of 4 AWG OFC cable for (2) amps.
6) I used Stinger 9 conductor wire on each side of the car. I used 4 pairs to grab the tweeter/mid signal and then another 4 pairs for speaker wire. On the right side, I used the 9th wire for remote wire.






tesla audio.PNG
 
First thing I built was the amp rack and wired everything up on my work table. Once everything was zipped tied (both 9 conductor speedwires, ground, power, remote, etc.) in the amp rack, I cabled everything from the amp and going forward to the car. Never done this before but I was watching a lot of 5Star Dean and Fernando videos on Youtube and this made things a lot easier/neater.
 

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For the tweeter, I did not cut the factory harness and used posi taps.
 

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That’s a nice clean install. Probably a good call replacing the tweeters too. I remember the drivers side A-pillar was difficult for me as well. I ended up just getting really annoyed and yanking it off with a quick pull. I was to the point where it was either going to release the clip or just break off.
 
Nice install.

I didn't find any significant shortcomings with the NVX sub. However, I needed a lot of correction at the low end as the factory signal rolls off pretty heavily. I also need to re-EQ everything now that I have MCU2.

I also didn't need a manual on/off switch for the amps. They only power on when detecting material from the factory speakers. Those don't come on unless someone is in the car or you open the door. Your amp/dsp looks to have a similar feature. I don't have sentry mode, but that shouldn't activate speakers which is the catalyst to starting the amps.

And yes, the pillars are annoying to work with. I'm guessing at least one had apparently been taken off at some point as the clip near the bottom was not even fastened when I took delivery of my car in October 2019. When I replaced the tweeters I got them almost all the way off and just snapped the tweeter into the stock mount. The XT25 looks like a great value that can play so low. A low-playing tweeter is definitely needed IMO if running 2-way. How was that white mounting ring made?
 
Nice install.

I didn't find any significant shortcomings with the NVX sub. However, I needed a lot of correction at the low end as the factory signal rolls off pretty heavily. I also need to re-EQ everything now that I have MCU2.

I also didn't need a manual on/off switch for the amps. They only power on when detecting material from the factory speakers. Those don't come on unless someone is in the car or you open the door. Your amp/dsp looks to have a similar feature. I don't have sentry mode, but that shouldn't activate speakers which is the catalyst to starting the amps.

And yes, the pillars are annoying to work with. I'm guessing at least one had apparently been taken off at some point as the clip near the bottom was not even fastened when I took delivery of my car in October 2019. When I replaced the tweeters I got them almost all the way off and just snapped the tweeter into the stock mount. The XT25 looks like a great value that can play so low. A low-playing tweeter is definitely needed IMO if running 2-way. How was that white mounting ring made?
Thanks.

Now that you mention it, I'm going to play with the Accubass feature since you say there's factory roll off. Another thing to play with.

Sentry mode does activate the speakers. I tested it many times and it became obvious that was the culprit. When installed an add-a-fuse, I even used the 12v cigarette socket fuse which should turn off but remains on during sentry mode all the time.

As for the tweeter rings, I used 1.5" PVC conduit from Home Depot and cut the rings with a chop saw to the identical thickness of the stock tweeter. I believe the 1.5" conduit was 1mm bigger than the factory so it snapped in just like stock. I then painted the white PVC black and used liquid nails that is shown in the back.
 
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