So after a little over a year of owning my Passport, I decided that even the premium audio system was not up to my music snob standards. Last summer I tried to find a compromise that didn’t involve all the work of installing a new amp, so I upgraded the front speakers to Focals and replaced the stock sub with an Alpine Type R, in the factory enclosure. Additionally, I sound deadened the front doors thoroughly. It got me through the winter. But this spring, I finally decided to bite the bullet, and do mostly full install of a new system, with the exception of upgrading the infotainment system. I knew that would be way over my head. I can’t say it’s been an easy road. I had done a full upgrade to my Honda Element in the past. But with the bells and whistles of a modern car, it’s made for a much longer journey than expected. After 2 months of adding more gear, re-running power, and figuring out all the quirks of the car, I can happily say that it’s all in and sounding great.
This forum has provided a wealth of information that helped me through this project. But there are some things I’ve done to troubleshoot, which I have not seen mentioned here. So WARNING, long post to follow. But hopefully it might help others who feel brave enough to self install.
To start with the gear I installed:
Audio Control AC LGD 60 - these are adapters that help the factory system think that there is still the load of a stock speaker connected. Some cars have major issues if you just disconnect the stock speakers and leave no load on the stock speaker wire. I don’t think our Passports have this issue, but I aired on the side of caution.
Audio Control LCQ1 - this was used to adapt to the factory system from the stock amplifier. I went with this unit because I wanted additional EQ control. This also has a remote on function when it detects a signal, and a remote out to trigger my other gear. It’s a little annoying that I get a small power down “thump” when it stops detecting a signal well after the car has been turned off. And it does power up the system whenever I open a door. But I figure it’s not drawing too much current. I may find another way to trigger everything down the line though.
Audio Control Matrix Plus - I needed a unit to bump up the line voltage from the LCQ1. My amp is capable of 6.5v, so I wanted to get as close to that as possible. And the line out of the LcQ1 wasn’t cutting the mustard for some reason. More on that later.
Pioneer GM-D9605 - this is a 5 channel amp that I previously had in my Element. I reused it because it was a perfect match for the wattage of the speakers I upgraded to, and it’s always been a reliable amp. I did not want to install a separate amp for my door speakers and my sub. Been there, done that. Hated the extra space I lost.
Focal 165AS - I used these for my front doors due to the overwhelming recommendations of others on this forum. They have turned out to be incredible speakers for the money.
Focal 165AC - I used these for my back doors. I didn’t care about running a separate tweeter and woofer back there. I knew I would be running these at a much lower volume than the fronts. But I still wanted to stick with Focal for the closest tonal match. I figured the power of an upgraded system will drown out most of the stock tweeters back in the trunk anyway.
Focal P25 FE - 10” subwoofer that I put in a moderate, but appropriately sized Skar ported box. I didn’t want to go too big here, because I didn’t want to give up too much trunk space. I had hoped to install this in the location of the factory sub, but I could not work it out with the limited amount of space. This sub is awesome though. Powered right, with the enclosure I bought, even at 10” it provides more than enough low end. And I really like low end.
To grab the signal off the stock amp, I used posi-taps and ran some speedwire over to the stock sub location, which is where I ended up building the rack for The amp and other gear. I was able to mount the rack I built right to a couple of the bolt down locations for the stock sub. I used the wiring for the stock front tweeter, front doors, and subwoofer. Then I summed those signals with the Audio Control LCQ1. I’ve lost fader control, but it seemed like this was the best option for being confident that I have a full range signal. I just use my amp gains to fade the rear speakers lower then the front ones.
Running the power wire was standard stuff. But I initially ran it down the passenger side and then realized the error of my ways when I heard the sound it introduced into the wiring that fed the stock amp. So I spent an afternoon re-running that down the drivers side. I accessed the interior through the one visible boot you can see on the passenger side of the engine bay. Getting it fed through from the passenger side foot area to the drivers side was tough, but I found a spot. The wire is fused just after the battery (duh), and then fused again at a distribution block back by the amp. I grounded to one of the bolts for the factory sub, after grinding the metal down a bit. I’ve confirmed this was a good grounding point using a multimeter.
I should also mention that I disconnected the ANC as soon as a bought this car and read what it does. Fake exhaust and noise reduction via phase reversal? Screw that. Plus I obviously needed to do it to put in an aftermarket sub and amp.
This is where the learning began. And I have a few tips to offer after much trial and error.
Firstly, you do not have to remove all of the trunk trim to access the stock sub and wiring harness. With the cargo tray, spare tire, and the other little plastic cubby behind the passenger side wheel well pulled out, I was able to pry the carpeted trim back enough to get my massive hands to the harness, and tap the wires. I bought 14 gauge posi-taps, and made it work. But I feel like a smaller gauge would have worked better, and still been able to accept the gauge of the speedwire too. To keep the clutter down, I tapped the wiring to the stock subwoofer at the end closer to the harness that connects to the enclosure.
For our factory wiring speaker color diagrams, use the ones offered here on the forum. They are 100% correct. I made the mistake of using the ones that Crutchfield sent me, and they are dead wrong. I spent too long trying to figure out why the subwoofer would go dead when I tapped both sets of wires for the stock dual coil sub. Crutchfields diagram has the entire passenger side of the car wired backwards. Every speaker has the + and - reversed. Use the ones here and you’ll be golden.
I was able to mount the focal crossovers in the drivers and passengers floor area, but be careful on the passenger side. There was something in there that was adding noise to the front speaker if I got the crossover positioned too close to it. I recommend giving yourself some slack in the wiring and mounting the crossover after you’ve wired everything up and you have all the power connected. If you move the crossover unit around in that area, you’ll be able to hear the spots that the noise starts getting introduced.
Now on to these tricky Audio Control units. First thing I should mention is that they will absolutely introduce a little white noise into your system. It’s there in the noise floor of the car. We just can’t hear it from our stock systems. But as soon as you start bumping up that stock signal, it will be there. When you start to tune the system, you will have to find a delicate balance between the Audio Control levels and your amps gain. Initially I was just using the LCQ1 to adapt to the stock wiring, EQ, and provide adequate RCA voltage to the amp. But then things got tricky. The LCQ1 is supposed to be able to provide 8v out to an amp. Way more than most can handle. But the signal off our stock harness is so low that I could pull a maximum of 2v, even with everything maxed. I should note that I was tuning our system with the volume set to around 34. Anyway, in order to get the RCA voltage pushed close to the 6.5v that my amp ideally runs at, I had to add the Audio Control Matrix Plus. That unit is basically a line level amplifier. With it in place, I was able to get the appropriate voltage to my amp. However, with both these units running, in came a nasty grounding issue. I resolved this by using the handy grounding jumpers that the Audio Control units have. They ship with the ground isolated. Undoing this resulted in the grounding issue going away, which was much appreciated.
I tuned the system using a multimeter and found the Audio Control “maximized” lights to be pretty accurate. I did find that the signal to the stock tweeter being matched to the signal from the doors via the LCQ1 to be way too harsh. So I was able to take those by using the independent output levels on the Audio Control unit. We also seem to have our factory EQing set to bump the 500hz range, so I used the EQ on that unit to dial that back. Accubass is set to around 12 o’clock on both knobs.
So with all that now out of the way, I have to say that this is all sounding incredible. I have a marginal hiss that I can hear because of that noise floor issue, but it’s barely there and can only be heard with the volume turned way down. Otherwise this thing slams. I’m a rock and roll/heavy metal guy. But I’ve tested it with some hip hop, some pop, some funk and some synth wave, and everything sounds amazing. If you feel up to the challenge, and you appreciate a good sounding stereo, you won’t be disappointed with a system similar to what I’ve done here. This probably turned into around a $3000 install for me. Initially I was going to keep it more modest and pay an installer to do the work. But after getting blown off by the local shop in town, I decided to use the labor fees to invest in more gear and do it myself. It’s cost me a lot of time. But hopefully with the tips I’ve offered here, it will save time for others.
Anyway, thanks for sticking it out if your still reading. Happy driving and listening, everyone!
This forum has provided a wealth of information that helped me through this project. But there are some things I’ve done to troubleshoot, which I have not seen mentioned here. So WARNING, long post to follow. But hopefully it might help others who feel brave enough to self install.
To start with the gear I installed:
Audio Control AC LGD 60 - these are adapters that help the factory system think that there is still the load of a stock speaker connected. Some cars have major issues if you just disconnect the stock speakers and leave no load on the stock speaker wire. I don’t think our Passports have this issue, but I aired on the side of caution.
Audio Control LCQ1 - this was used to adapt to the factory system from the stock amplifier. I went with this unit because I wanted additional EQ control. This also has a remote on function when it detects a signal, and a remote out to trigger my other gear. It’s a little annoying that I get a small power down “thump” when it stops detecting a signal well after the car has been turned off. And it does power up the system whenever I open a door. But I figure it’s not drawing too much current. I may find another way to trigger everything down the line though.
Audio Control Matrix Plus - I needed a unit to bump up the line voltage from the LCQ1. My amp is capable of 6.5v, so I wanted to get as close to that as possible. And the line out of the LcQ1 wasn’t cutting the mustard for some reason. More on that later.
Pioneer GM-D9605 - this is a 5 channel amp that I previously had in my Element. I reused it because it was a perfect match for the wattage of the speakers I upgraded to, and it’s always been a reliable amp. I did not want to install a separate amp for my door speakers and my sub. Been there, done that. Hated the extra space I lost.
Focal 165AS - I used these for my front doors due to the overwhelming recommendations of others on this forum. They have turned out to be incredible speakers for the money.
Focal 165AC - I used these for my back doors. I didn’t care about running a separate tweeter and woofer back there. I knew I would be running these at a much lower volume than the fronts. But I still wanted to stick with Focal for the closest tonal match. I figured the power of an upgraded system will drown out most of the stock tweeters back in the trunk anyway.
Focal P25 FE - 10” subwoofer that I put in a moderate, but appropriately sized Skar ported box. I didn’t want to go too big here, because I didn’t want to give up too much trunk space. I had hoped to install this in the location of the factory sub, but I could not work it out with the limited amount of space. This sub is awesome though. Powered right, with the enclosure I bought, even at 10” it provides more than enough low end. And I really like low end.
To grab the signal off the stock amp, I used posi-taps and ran some speedwire over to the stock sub location, which is where I ended up building the rack for The amp and other gear. I was able to mount the rack I built right to a couple of the bolt down locations for the stock sub. I used the wiring for the stock front tweeter, front doors, and subwoofer. Then I summed those signals with the Audio Control LCQ1. I’ve lost fader control, but it seemed like this was the best option for being confident that I have a full range signal. I just use my amp gains to fade the rear speakers lower then the front ones.
Running the power wire was standard stuff. But I initially ran it down the passenger side and then realized the error of my ways when I heard the sound it introduced into the wiring that fed the stock amp. So I spent an afternoon re-running that down the drivers side. I accessed the interior through the one visible boot you can see on the passenger side of the engine bay. Getting it fed through from the passenger side foot area to the drivers side was tough, but I found a spot. The wire is fused just after the battery (duh), and then fused again at a distribution block back by the amp. I grounded to one of the bolts for the factory sub, after grinding the metal down a bit. I’ve confirmed this was a good grounding point using a multimeter.
I should also mention that I disconnected the ANC as soon as a bought this car and read what it does. Fake exhaust and noise reduction via phase reversal? Screw that. Plus I obviously needed to do it to put in an aftermarket sub and amp.
This is where the learning began. And I have a few tips to offer after much trial and error.
Firstly, you do not have to remove all of the trunk trim to access the stock sub and wiring harness. With the cargo tray, spare tire, and the other little plastic cubby behind the passenger side wheel well pulled out, I was able to pry the carpeted trim back enough to get my massive hands to the harness, and tap the wires. I bought 14 gauge posi-taps, and made it work. But I feel like a smaller gauge would have worked better, and still been able to accept the gauge of the speedwire too. To keep the clutter down, I tapped the wiring to the stock subwoofer at the end closer to the harness that connects to the enclosure.
For our factory wiring speaker color diagrams, use the ones offered here on the forum. They are 100% correct. I made the mistake of using the ones that Crutchfield sent me, and they are dead wrong. I spent too long trying to figure out why the subwoofer would go dead when I tapped both sets of wires for the stock dual coil sub. Crutchfields diagram has the entire passenger side of the car wired backwards. Every speaker has the + and - reversed. Use the ones here and you’ll be golden.
I was able to mount the focal crossovers in the drivers and passengers floor area, but be careful on the passenger side. There was something in there that was adding noise to the front speaker if I got the crossover positioned too close to it. I recommend giving yourself some slack in the wiring and mounting the crossover after you’ve wired everything up and you have all the power connected. If you move the crossover unit around in that area, you’ll be able to hear the spots that the noise starts getting introduced.
Now on to these tricky Audio Control units. First thing I should mention is that they will absolutely introduce a little white noise into your system. It’s there in the noise floor of the car. We just can’t hear it from our stock systems. But as soon as you start bumping up that stock signal, it will be there. When you start to tune the system, you will have to find a delicate balance between the Audio Control levels and your amps gain. Initially I was just using the LCQ1 to adapt to the stock wiring, EQ, and provide adequate RCA voltage to the amp. But then things got tricky. The LCQ1 is supposed to be able to provide 8v out to an amp. Way more than most can handle. But the signal off our stock harness is so low that I could pull a maximum of 2v, even with everything maxed. I should note that I was tuning our system with the volume set to around 34. Anyway, in order to get the RCA voltage pushed close to the 6.5v that my amp ideally runs at, I had to add the Audio Control Matrix Plus. That unit is basically a line level amplifier. With it in place, I was able to get the appropriate voltage to my amp. However, with both these units running, in came a nasty grounding issue. I resolved this by using the handy grounding jumpers that the Audio Control units have. They ship with the ground isolated. Undoing this resulted in the grounding issue going away, which was much appreciated.
I tuned the system using a multimeter and found the Audio Control “maximized” lights to be pretty accurate. I did find that the signal to the stock tweeter being matched to the signal from the doors via the LCQ1 to be way too harsh. So I was able to take those by using the independent output levels on the Audio Control unit. We also seem to have our factory EQing set to bump the 500hz range, so I used the EQ on that unit to dial that back. Accubass is set to around 12 o’clock on both knobs.
So with all that now out of the way, I have to say that this is all sounding incredible. I have a marginal hiss that I can hear because of that noise floor issue, but it’s barely there and can only be heard with the volume turned way down. Otherwise this thing slams. I’m a rock and roll/heavy metal guy. But I’ve tested it with some hip hop, some pop, some funk and some synth wave, and everything sounds amazing. If you feel up to the challenge, and you appreciate a good sounding stereo, you won’t be disappointed with a system similar to what I’ve done here. This probably turned into around a $3000 install for me. Initially I was going to keep it more modest and pay an installer to do the work. But after getting blown off by the local shop in town, I decided to use the labor fees to invest in more gear and do it myself. It’s cost me a lot of time. But hopefully with the tips I’ve offered here, it will save time for others.
Anyway, thanks for sticking it out if your still reading. Happy driving and listening, everyone!
