After doing allot of research I decided to go with a Audio Control L7i, Kenwood Excelon 5 channel amp, JL 10W3 power wedge box, and Jl audio components. I decided to go this route because adding a sub to factory has few challenges. .. Using the L7i eliminates the bass signal dropping as you reach higher volumes. The L7i restores it and the pre out voltage is over twice as powerful as many high end head units but you get to keep factory look with many improvements.

Audio control lc7 volume **** mounted below gauge cluster.





Jl audio 10w3 shallow powerwedge

 

I installed Infinity Kappa 693.11i about two weeks ago in the front doors. The clarity is so much better with them but I did have to turn down the treble on the head unit to offset the increase in response in the higher frequencies. I pretty much expected this, I had added kappas to my last F150 with the factory head unit before switching to an aftermarket one and experienced the same thing.

All that being said I really like the improvement of the kappas and there is more than enough volume with the factory head unit for them. I might eventually get something to clean up the signal since I really prefer the look and function of the factory head unit. But I am very happy with it right now so I may just stay with what I got. I probably will swap out the rear doors and center channel at some point.

 

I may have missed it in the thread but did you ever consider just cutting that ledge out and fiberglassing over that and the hole in the back?

 

What wires did you tie the RCAis into and what colours? Also what did you end up setting your input sensitivity to and what crossover frequency setting?

Thanks.

 

Not really, the melting and hole cover up took all of about 15 minutes to do. No way it will ever be seen unless the box is removed and it works just fine.

I unplugged the wire that ran from the factory amp to the sub and connected it to the rca's. Then the rca's were plugged into the new amp input and wire run from the new amp output to the sub.

Both wires are white. I believe the negative has a stripe but just pay attention when you disconnect from the factory sub, it should be obvious.

The sub is rated 300 watts RMS and so is the amp. Sensitivity is near max. I set the crossover at 100hz.

 

Thanks for help.

One last thing, how did you connect the rca's to the wire that ran from the factory amp to the factory sub? Did you use some sort of line level converter?

Thanks.

 

No, I just bought speaker wire to RCA adapters. You just attach the speaker wire to the RCA leads, it remains full speaker level. The Kenwood amp's RCA input accepts speaker level also.

 

Kenwood KAC-M3001

 

Thanks Scott, I recently finished my upgrades and decided to go with the Kicker set up. Installed their sub conversion (new enclosure/amp/200W sub). Sounds better and also replaced the front door speakers with Kicker 6x9 co-axial and the rear with Kicker 6 1/2" co-axial. Replaced the center channel with the Kicker 3.5" co-ax as well. Sounds much better now and the door speakers do pretty well off of the stock head unit...still though, the lack of "clarity" bugs me and I may eventually figure out a way to install a more powerful amp for the door and center dash speakers. Sounds pretty good on most classic rock tunes, but for the most part the system is louder now, new sub is "louder/tighter" but the system still lacks clarity...more to come I'm sure. By the way I'm sure you know this but Metra sells a speaker mounting bracket that perfectly fit in place of the Ford/Sony proprietary speaker mounting brackets that are integral to the speakers...meaning I didn't have to tear apart the OEM speaker housings to reuse them, simply discarded and used the Metras...they were pretty inexpensive as well...

 

Hi Scott

Can you tell me how you connected or tapped in to the yellow/red stripe power wire of the inverter to get power to the Kenwood amp? Did you disconnect from the inverter totally?

Also did you wire the Kicker sub in series for a total 2ohm load or in parallel for a total 0.5ohm load?

Thanks.

 

I just used one of the plastic wire tap connector for 10 gauge like you get at autozone. Worked like a charm and the wire is still connected to the inverter. I will say that I don't listen to a lot of bass heavy music like rap or hip hop. I just want the bottom end filled out. If you listen to music with a lot of bass that will pull a pretty heavy constant draw from the amp then you might want to run a power wire directly to the battery.

It's wired 2 ohm, the Kenwood amp puts out 300 watts RMS at 2 ohm and the sub is rated 300 watts RMS.

 

Hi Scott

Did your Kicker sub take long to break in? My sounds ok but was expecting a lot more!

I'm pretty all is wired correctly. I've heard that there is a break in period for the Kicker subs? Hope this is true and it gets stronger.

 

Yeah it took a month or so the best I can remember but that was on the stock system. The recent amp upgrade has made a big difference though.

 

So I'm kinda dumb when it comes to stereo wiring/terminology- can you explain how you wired the sub to get it running at 2ohms? I'm probably going to do this exact set-up in lieu of the Kicker upgrade kit as it seems a bit cheaper and better sounding.

 

The sub has two voice coils that each have a 1 ohm load. I wired them in series to achieve 2 ohms.

If you don't know the difference between series and parallel wiring then it would be easy to just google it. There are many references with pics that can explain it better than I can type it out. It's not that difficult once you see it.