Upgraded my sound from the base six speaker system to something better. I managed to fit a Rockford Fosgate 750-1D and a RF R2-500X4, plus an AudioControl LC2i Pro, all under the front driver seat. My goal was to keep the new audio gear together, and with as short a run for electrical wiring as possible. Clearance is narrow, but still good at the lowest seat position. Total length of power wire is less than 7.5 feet; ground wires are about 6 inches. Only the speaker wire for the sub runs to the back, nothing mounted to the back wall (I need that for other things). Sub volume control knob and remote line run under the center console.
Removing the ANC module / bracket left a pocket area to conceal wiring under the amp locations, while also providing a 10mm frame stud on each side for the amplifier grounds. Front Speakers are REF-9633ix 6x9 & Kappa 300m 3.5 W/blockers at 2ohm for 125 watts, with 75 watts at 4ohm for the rear 96333ix’s. I used hi-level inputs front and rear to the R2-500X4 via a clipped iDatalink bCH3 bypass.
I originally ran an RCA line out from the R2-500X4 pass through to the sub amp. However, this caused some low feedback in the line (the RF amp was likely not designed for hi-input to low RCA output). So, I tapped the rear speaker lines to add the LC2i Pro to fix the issue (the Pro has a ground selectable circuit).
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I transport gear in the cab when traveling so I did not want to install an under seat sub box that I would have to move or pull for trips. Instead I built a custom box for a Kicker 10” L7T to replace the folding center armrest. To make sure the box has the correct sized cubic footprint, I ended up having to relocate the entire rear seat group forward 1.35 inches at the frame mounts. I still need to steam heat and work out some leather wrinkles from the Katzkin covers, and I haven’t had a chance to fine-tune the sound system yet, but it is definitely improved.
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I’ve nearly finished my silver interior trim delete.
For the life of me I can’t figure out why RAM would leave all that silver trim in a “Night Edition” truck.
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Also reupholstered the sun visors to match the Katzkin seats (an absolute time consuming nightmare), after my failed airbag safety decal removal attempt.
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Update: So I still had feedback using the hi-pass head unit output for the four 6x9’s when feeding directly to the RF amp. I think this might be based on the same issue some are writing about concerning the left front driver side speaker acting up when using apple car play. I swapped the front dash Kappa Perfect 3.5’s with References series. I originally bought all Kappa speakers, but could not get the 6x9’s Kappa’s to fit the doors properly (Kappa’s are very wide and deep). So now all of the speakers are Infinity Reference series. Since the Reference line requires less power, I ran the dash speakers directly from the head unit front speaker output using the BCH3 (just as others have suggested), and kept the rear output feeding the LC2i Pro.
From the LC2i I used the sub out for the low amp, and used the other output for the front and rear 6x9’s, selecting 2 channel mode on the RF. So the Sub, front, and rear speakers, all get the same signal from the rear output of the head unit. Technically eliminating radio controllable fade, aside form 3.5’s dash speakers vs. everything else.
Not something I wanted to do, I considered upgrading to the 6 channel AudioControl converter. However, what is odd is how well the LC2i balanced out the sound when only using the rear line input for everything amplified. Dialing in the front and rear output was much easier, and now no weird bass shortfall, feedback, or out of sync volume drop that I was having before. Apple Carplay still lowers all of the speakers when I use Siri, but now Siri only speaks through the front driver dash speaker, not the entire driver front side, and not at some crazy high volume as it did before. Everything is playing exactly as it should.
On an additional note, for those considering a four channel amp, the RF R2-500x4 I bought for the Kappa line is a lot of amp for the reference speakers. I have the gain set all the way down and it pushes the speakers hard and clean. The R2-300x4 would easily do the job for less.
zroadz.com
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5thgenrams.com
