As I stated in an earlier post to this Passport Forum, I was very unhappy with the "upgrade" stereo in the my Passport Touring. For the first few months of owning my Passport, I tried my best to get used to this compromised listening experience. To me, although not awful, this so-called "premium" audio system was mediocre & very disappointing to the ears of someone who greatly appreciates the nuances of quality sound reproduction.
I started out thinking to replace only the front & rear speakers but this led to the issue of the original low performance 2 ohm OEM speakers & the problem that most higher-end aftermarket speakers are most typically 4 ohm & would cut the OEM 525 watt amplifier power substantially (50%?). So, unfortunately, if I wanted to truly upgrade my Passport's sound I needed to not only replace the speakers I also needed new amplifiers to power them.
A number of months ago I received a small amount of inheritance money so I decided to proceed with a full speaker & amplifier sound system upgrade.
Being an "older" guy with significant back & hip problems, this upgrade is not something that I could physically do myself. So I worked with a custom sound aftermarket company located in my area that I had previously used for 3 different car sound system upgrades.
The front component speakers were replaced with Hertz Mille Pro MPK 165.3 that I had removed from a previous vehicle. These Hertz Mille's are 4 ohm component speakers with a 1" tweeter & a 6.5" midrange/woofer. They reproduce excellent upper range highs with fantastic mid-bass. Dynamat was used around the 6.5" speaker in the lower door.
The rear lower door speakers were also replaced by speakers that I had removed from a previous vehicle. They are 6.5" Hertz Cento Pro CPX 165 coaxial speaker that provide very nice rear "fill" sound for the main Mille Pro's being used upfront. Dynamat was also used.
Powering these new 4 ohm replacement speakers with the Passport's stock OEM amplifier was not the best upgrade option so we used an Audio Control D-6-1200 (a 6 channel Digital Sound Processing Matrix Amplilier) to power the six (6) speakers in the doors. The front tweeters were disconnected from the 6.5" front lower door speakers & power from the DSP amp was wired directly to the tweeters. This 6 channel DSP amp provides 125 watts per channel at 4 ohms for a total of 750 watts (2 tweeters & 4 - 6.5" door speakers). The Audio Control was located underheath the front passenger seat.
We also replaced the stock rear 8" subwoofer with a Kenwood [model KFC-XW800F) 4 ohm "slim" subwoofer powered by its own Audio Control Micro Amplifier ACM-1.300 (175 watts at 4 ohms). This sub Amp is located in the right back wheel well near the rear hatch. So as not to give up any of the rear trunk storage area, the plastic subwoofer housing of the original OEM sub was used but was reinforced as much as possible & additionally with some Dynamat. This bass setup does NOT provide the deep bass "kick" in the chest that my big-ass home subwoofer does, but you can certainly feel some nice lower level "thump". Unfortunately, this sub setup caused some "resonance" issues that required some additional after installation tinkering to correct. Dynamat needed to be installed around my rear driver side tailight & around some other trunk areas that were also vibrating.
The front center dashboard speaker is not wired into this system but had to be left active thru the Passport's original amp to provide sound for phone & GPS navigation. The 3" speakers in the rear trunk columns were left in place but are not connected to the new system. There are not a lot of 3" replacement speakers available that are 4 ohm & I didn't have the money to replace them. Sinse the Audio Control's 6 channels of power were directly wired to the 2 front tweeters, to the 2 front 6.5" mid/woofers & to the 2 rear door 6.5" door speakers nothing was available to power the 2 rear column speakers.
Overall cost was approximately $2100 not including the 2 sets of speakers that were used from a previous vehicle's system (add $700 for speakers).
Once removed, it was easy to see that the the original stock 2 ohm OEM speakers were an insult to the concept of quality sound reproduction. The magnets in these OEM speakers were a featherweight embarrasment. Installation was about 3 months ago.
After some tuning by my installer to match my personal listening preferences & to adjust to vehicle acoustical challenges, this new upgrade system system sound is AWESOME with a legitimate 925 watts of power available (at 4 ohms RMS)!!