Factory sub questions

[pablo94sc]

Two questions I can't seem to find answers to. First, what's the factory crossover point for the sub? Second, is the factory setup cutting low frequencies to the door speakers, or are low frequencies going to both doors and sub?

Sponsored

 

[hand-filer]

Two questions I can't seem to find answers to. First, what's the factory crossover point for the sub? Second, is the factory setup cutting low frequencies to the door speakers, or are low frequencies going to both doors and sub?

I can't provide definitive answers but maybe my personal observations can help somewhat.
To my ears, the sound improved noticeably when I disconnected the subwoofer. Midrange frequencies became more defined. I'm pretty sure the lows are rolled off on the door speakers.
The factory sub doesn't roll off soon enough, hence the distortion that is added to the mids.
I removed the factory sub yesterday and am currently installing the new sub and amp.
Some people leave the factory sub in place when upgrading. I think that's a mistake, it sounds terrible.
It was your comment some time ago about turning down the base to achieve a better overall sound that lead to my experimenting with disconnecting the sub. That's when I discovered just how bad it was. It's been relegated to the attic in my garage.

 

[pablo94sc]

I can't provide definitive answers but maybe my personal observations can help somewhat.
To my ears, the sound improved noticeably when I disconnected the subwoofer. Midrange frequencies became more defined. I'm pretty sure the lows are rolled off on the door speakers.
The factory sub doesn't roll off soon enough, hence the distortion that is added to the mids.
I removed the factory sub yesterday and am currently installing the new sub and amp.
Some people leave the factory sub in place when upgrading. I think that's a mistake, it sounds terrible.
It was your comment some time ago about turning down the base to achieve a better overall sound that lead to my experimenting with disconnecting the sub. That's when I discovered just how bad it was. It's been relegated to the attic in my garage.

Thanks for the reply. I'm going to give that a try. I can live without low bass for a while if it improves overall SQ.

 

[pablo94sc]

I just unplugged the sub and yup, made everything better. I'm currently EQ'd at +1, -1, -3, and am experimenting with the center channel disconnected. How did you EQ your ride?

 

[hand-filer]

I'm currently at 0, 0, -3. Once I'm done with the sub install, I'll dial in the tone settings.
Glad to hear that disconnecting the distortion box brought some clarity to the audio.

 

[pablo94sc]

Thank you for moving this, mods.

 

[Oval6G]

I can't provide definitive answers but maybe my personal observations can help somewhat.
To my ears, the sound improved noticeably when I disconnected the subwoofer. Midrange frequencies became more defined. I'm pretty sure the lows are rolled off on the door speakers.
The factory sub doesn't roll off soon enough, hence the distortion that is added to the mids.
I removed the factory sub yesterday and am currently installing the new sub and amp.
Some people leave the factory sub in place when upgrading. I think that's a mistake, it sounds terrible.
It was your comment some time ago about turning down the base to achieve a better overall sound that lead to my experimenting with disconnecting the sub. That's when I discovered just how bad it was. It's been relegated to the attic in my garage.

What sub are you installing?

 

[snowman3]

To my ears, the sound improved noticeably when I disconnected the subwoofer. Midrange frequencies became more defined. I'm pretty sure the lows are rolled off on the door speakers.

oh wow. Is it easy to disconnect? I don't plan on adding a new sub. But would be interested in hearing it both ways. Aside from sound, is there any drawback to disconnecting factory sub? Does radio give a warning or cause some kind of error code? Can it damage the amp or original circuits?

Thanks!

 

[sweeks888]

Following...

 

[hand-filer]

What sub are you installing?

Hertz MPS 250 S2 shallow subwoofer and Hertz DIECI POWER DP 1.500 Mono Amp

 

[hand-filer]

oh wow. Is it easy to disconnect? I don't plan on adding a new sub. But would be interested in hearing it both ways. Aside from sound, is there any drawback to disconnecting factory sub? Does radio give a warning or cause some kind of error code? Can it damage the amp or original circuits?

Thanks!

Very easy. Just disconnect the harness to the subwoofer.

 

[pablo94sc]

It took me more time to remember the seat back release was on the passenger side than disconnecting the sub. No errors at all. Disconnecting the center dash speaker took maybe 10 minutes to disconnect and screw back in.

Low end definitely suffers, but it gets rid of the bloated bass from pumping it through both the doors and sub simultaneously. Definitely a poor crossover setup, if Ford even used one. Now I understand why a DSP is recommended! Still too rich for my tastes, though.

Disconnecting the center really opened up the sound stage. It's quieter overall, and the stage is perceived lower on the dash, but it's no longer a wall-of-sound. The center speaker really smears the imaging.

I'm still playing with the EQ, but bass is a lot more forgiving.

 

[pablo94sc]

Here's another question. Does anyone know the specs of the sub? I'm specifically looking for the freq range of the driver, and if there is a low pass, what's it set to. Maybe some high pass filters on the door speakers would allow us to run the sub again.

 

[MeBEEF]

Two questions I can't seem to find answers to. First, what's the factory crossover point for the sub? Second, is the factory setup cutting low frequencies to the door speakers, or are low frequencies going to both doors and sub?

You might be able to use an app (or two), do this:
- Find a tone generator app and connect to bluetooth
- Play 10 different tones: 60, 80, 100, 120, 160Hz etc. etc.
- use another phone/app: sound level measure. note the dB level.
- you should see a -3dB (half-power) point around 120Hz - 200Hz.
- a typical sub cut-off is somewhere between 80-200Hz, it can vary a lot, and depends on the freq response of your other speakers in the system.
- there might be an app that does all of this for you, I wouldn't be surprised.
- The phone mic will have it's own freq response, but I think this will work to give you a good idea.

If I had to take a guess: The stock sub is likely supporting more than less low-freq, and it is smaller ...I'd say 160Hz - 240Hz.

Sponsored