Lovin this write up. I am looking to do a similar setup in the future.

What did you do with your sub? I am hoping to pull off something as complete as your write up and also manage to reuse the stock sub box, possibly with an alpine type R slim.

 

At the moment, my sub box is just in the cargo area. I'll be removing the stock sub from its enclosure, and repurposing the enclosure for something else. The stock enclosure isn't really designed for 'accoustic properties', so instead of trying to mod it or work with it with a new sub, I'm using a ported enclosure.

 

great writeup and thanks for sharing. I suspect I'll be down a similar path, soon.

 

AWESOME write up! And that link to the mopar pinout stuff is a great find, too! Thanks a ton!

 

I've been kicking this around in my head; it sounds like swapping out the stock speakers for better ones only yields minimal improvement. I'm most interested in how the front stage would work if swapping out the stock drivers for a set of matched components with outboard crossover. I pulled the tweeters and there's a capacitor soldered inline, leading me to think they run on the same channels as the front speakers. Thoughts on that?

 

To start, you are correct. Changing the stock speakers for even the most expensive aftermarkets, be it 3 ways or components, won't yield much difference. Your still pushing the factory signals, where your soundstage is modelled by the "Infinity" amp. Same unbalanced and undertoned soundstage.

The tweeters, believe it or not, are fed their own signal. (Unlike many aftermarkets, which piggyback off the fronts feed). In reality, they 'are' piggybacking off the front signal, infinity simply ran the wiring for them right from the input adapter on the amp, instead of linking off the fronts. Easier to build wiring harness that way.
When I isolate the tweeter signal with my processor, it's definitely a thin signal. I would suspect the resistors (they were on mine as well) are there to prevent overdriving the little POS at high volume.

Oh yeah. Once the OEM signal is processed and sent through the amp, with properly set gains.... ooh my. Its like going from listening to a faint AM radio signal, and then changing to a 7.1 Dolby theatre room.

Good Stuff!!!!!

 

Ok so I'm confused...correct me if I'm wrong.

Being the stock Infinity tweeters are fed their own signal and they have these resistors in line - if I am swapping out my front speakers the crossovers aren't needed as they would already be crossed over? If I remove the resistor at the stock tweeters, this will give them a touch more from the stock amp?

I'm not looking to use a summing device or a different amp right now, just upgrade what's there.

 

Not sure if you've seen this but curious if it doesn't do all of this for you already? PAC C2A-CHY23
Pac-Audio.com Product Details | iPod Integration for your car and More by Pac-Audio - Connecting you to the future

I was thinking of picking that up but the only thing I haven't though about is the sub output. I don't know why PAC wouldn't include that with the adapter since it shouldn't be any more difficult than the rest. Anyway, like the writeup and details as I'm always wanting more info than is available myself

 

The tweeters get their own signal, but the resistor inline may just be there to reduce the power received in order to stop them from sounding like crap / being over driven. They are crap. By removing the resistor, your not going to get "more" out of them, they will likely just introduce distortion to your sound from being supplied with more than it's specified tolerance.

As for the inline crossover with aftermarket components, they are specifically tuned / designed to allow the tweeter to properly compliment the mids. Leaving it out and attaching it (stand alone) to the stock tweeter signal may very well work, but will most likely sound like crap.

Not to mention, you need to properly pair the resistance of the speakers to match that of the OEM system. (3 Ohm vs 4 Ohm, etc)

 

It's all in the details of the product claims, or the details of what it doesn't do.
"Does not retain factory radio's bass, mid-range & treble adjustments" - Really? WTF is the point then?
"Reads CAN bus signals and provides analog audio signal" - Really? the only thing controlled by the CAN bus system is the on/off signal, and the factory head unit "settings for the audio adjustments - bass, treble, etc" (which it claims not to retain in previous info).

The audio is output from the head unit, and input into the amp. The CAN bus signals from the OEM H/U instruct the OEM amp how to process the signal. the amp outputs high level speaker input connections, which connect to your speakers.

So, for a ridiculous $145, you get a plastic box, on octopus of a connector, a set of RCA outputs (which BTW are the same as many of the ones included with many amps... for free... to tap into a speaker level line and input into an aftermarket amp RCA input), all of which acts as a LOC.
At the same time, you lose your OEM units control of the EQ, AND there are no sub outputs. just a 4 channel RCA output. On top of that, there is no way for you to boost or control the audio signal to adjust your soundstage prior to reaching your aftermarket amp. All you get... is a louder version of the OEM audio signal, all while retaining the OEM amps limitations.

Adjust your fader to full front. Feel the bass, and hear a somewhat good signal? Yup, not bad. Now fade all of the way to the rears. Pretty ridiculous sound I think.

The sound processor was only $200, and does a hell of a lot more than the PAC POS adapter. All they are doing is taking advantage of ill informed consumers, and providing them with a crappy output in return, all while reducing your control over your OEM stereo, which is why your buying it in the first place, right?