Hello! I've been lurking for quite a while and decided to finally join and post....yadda yadda yadda.....


I'll be starting an audio build in my '12 F150 Supercrew XLT. A little background about me: I previously had an audison bitone, alpine amped, HAT imagine front stage and Image Dynamics 12" sub ran active in my old Jeep XJ. It sounded great but took a TON of tinkering. I'm an Electrical engineer and I design high end conference room, sound reinforcement, auditorium and church A/V systems. Needless to say I'm not satisfied with stock audio.

The stock system is the non-sony, non-nav, sync system. Sync is....okay.....but I haven't found enough I like about it to justify keeping it. The stock system is downright terrible. Also, the fact that it won't automatically start up on the bluetooth input after turned off on the bluetooth input is incredibly annoying.

So, here's what I have on order, hopefully I'll start receiving stuff tomorrow:

Head Unit: Pioneer AVH-4500BT in-dash DVD
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PU...rs/AVH-X4500BT
Will allow the add-on of navigation and rear camera in the future. Front/Rear/Sub 2V preouts is a better solution in my opinion than a channel summing, bass boosting line out converter. I also considered the Rockford 3sixty.3 DSP, but I hate having two volume controls. If I feel like I'm missing anything with this unit, I can always add the 3sixty.3 and won't have to deal with input summing, speaker level inputs, or a continuously changing EQ based on the position of the volume ****.

Amplifier: Rockford P1000x5 5 channel amp
http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/produ...?itemid=338193
5 channel amp. Will run fronts and rears at 75w @ 4ohm plus 500w at 2 ohm on the sub channel. This has gotten great reviews and is pretty well known to be under rated by rockford.

Front Speakers: Hybrid Audio Technologies Imagine i61 6.5" components.
http://hybrid-audio.com/imagine/
Pulled from my jeep XJ. Will try mounting the tweeters in the a-pillars, but if they don't fit i'll use them as coax's and disconnect the factory tweeters.

Rear Speakers: Stock (just for now) I will upgrade these whenever I come across a killer deal, since I don't NEED them now.

Subs: 2x Alpine SWR-823D
http://www.alpine-usa.com/product/view/swr-823d/
Dual voice coil 2 ohm 8" type R's. These have gotten great reviews, I'm really looking forward to trying them out. Going to attempt a front-firing ported setup, but fitment is going to be tight in this orientation.

Other items:
Dash Kit: Scosche
http://www.scosche.com/car-audio/ins...-or-double-din

Wiring Harness: PAC C2R-FRD1
http://pac-audio.com/productDetails....&CategoryID=26

Steering Wheel Control Interface: PAC SWI-PS
http://pac-audio.com/productDetails....&CategoryID=29

Antenna adapter: Scosche CRAB
http://www.scosche.com/car-audio/ins...jp-ant-adapter


I'll post pictures along the way. Please give me any input or advice you all have as well!

 

Well heres the first update.

First item that really upset me was that the SWI-PS steering wheel interface DOES NOT WORK with the C2R-FRD1 wiring harness. Yes, after looking again at PAC's website, it says that the C2R-FRD1 will not communicate with any steering wheel interface, and that I need to use a different $100 interface harness that includes the steering wheel controls. Why list the SWI-PS as a compatible interface on your website if it is not compatible with any harness, other than the one that comes with the steering wheel interface?????? UGH.

So for the time being, I won't have steering wheel controls since I don't want to hassle with the return/exchange process and switch out the head unit again with the OEM.

In better news, I started building the Sub box/amp rack. I'm really excited about how well this is going to fit and look.

Here are some crappy cell phone pics:

 

Sucks about the steering wheel controls.

Your box progress looks great though! What subs and box specs?

 

Two Alpine swr-823d's in a 1.5 cu ft ported enclosure tuned to 30 hz.

 

One other one I forgot to post, the color scheme for the box and accents:

 

sweet!

 

More progress tonight...








Close up with trim piece on:




With amp cover off:




With trim piece off, just enough room to route wiring.





Also, apparently somehow my first post was deleted. If a mod is reading this, anyway to get it back before I go back and re-type it?