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Completed custom subwoofer/amp/speaker install with pics and diagrams for 2015 Sport LOTS OF PICS


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Hey Guys, Just figured I would start a new post to show my completed install on my 2015 Edge Sport. I was not able to find ANYTHING on the 2015 so hopefully this will help some.

First things first:

No 6x8's in this beast, doors are not even cut for them. Factory 6.5 with extended mounting surround, didn't even measure the hole.

No undo, lift and pull on the door panels, undo and pop off.

Old factory harness's don't work all harnesses I saw were 4 conductor

Here is what's going in.

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Keep in mind this is for Sony Premium sound and touchscreen Nav

 

So here it is.

Wiring Diagrams - Tap in after factory amp. I left factory Rear Quarter Panel and Sub hooked up hoping to put some load on the amp.

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Speaker wiring out.

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Next is the sub box, amp, LC7i, and crossover install. I knew I wouldn't be happy just swapping the factory sub so I built my first fiberglass box. Turned out great for the JL shallow mount 12.

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Hole for amp wiring. The hole most people used for earlier Edges seemed impossible for me to get to, even with no battery in. Luckily after some investigating I found a perforated cut out in the carpet just below the other main grommet. Under it was a new unused plug, drilled and added a grommet and bingo. Saved my sanity!

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Mounted the LC7i under the factory amp plate, crossovers under

 

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Next was about 2 hours of trying to figure out how to get the door panels off. Finally just popped out the bottom and looked in there. Remove larger bolts, 2 smaller ones at the bottom, then pop everything out.

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Remove sail panel (just pops out)

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Pop out panel behind handle, starting at the front - Bolt there

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Pop out switch cover from the outside/back - Bolt there

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Unclip switches/ambient lighting/yada yada to remove panel - Handle assembly is held onto door panel by 3 - star bit screws, must be removed to take panel off. Tweeter is in this assembly. Handle assembly stays attached to the door. Other shown panels just snap up, pull from the inside for sill panels, mind electrical connections.

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Soldered all connections since I didn't want to trace any issues later. Glad I had lots of shrinkwrap and wire cover.

Finished taping into the factory amp for signal, then factory wiring for distribution. Used Front Tweeter and Front Midbass signals for channels 1 and 2 on the LC7i, summed 1 and 2, left 3 separate for subwoofer output.

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Sound deaden what I could.

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Install door speaker, had to make my own baffles to fit the JL C2-650's. Don't bother buying any adapters. Cut mine in 10 minutes with what I had. Spent 2 hours working on adapters I thought would work, but no 6x8's for me.

Used some spare RC battery connections for tweeter quick connect/disconnect.

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Cut some foam surrounds to bring the speaker up to the factory height, direct the sound through the door instead of inside of it.

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SO here is the finished install,

The only thing you can see, if you look hard.

Pro Tip, that little seat tray is held on by 3 star screws on the front, and 4 on the rear. Kinda a pain.

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Finished amp

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Finished Sub - You can see the risers I made to keep the floor about an inch above the sub. Have plenty of clearance for extension.

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Together

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Seat down

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And this is what you get when you try to go on your first trip to listen to it. Between this and forgetting to tighten the amp bolts I told myself, "You can't forget that" I only had to take 2 panels off again!

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SO all in all, it sounds amazing and I am super happy with it. I may try and find some Focal's and move the JL's to the rear (still stock there), because I love my Focals in the F150

 

Hope this helps someone with a 15!!!

 

 

 

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Nice Job. I wish they would give an option of getting higher end audio in the Ford vehicles like they do in the Lincolns. I heard the Revel System in the MKX was awesome.

 

On a side note, I added some bass to my 13 Fusion that will be removed and reinstalled in the Edge when I get it. JL Audio shallow mount 12", JL amp with bass control knob and wiring harness. Makes the Fusion sound way better with more authority. If I get a chance I will post a picture. The sub looks similar to what you have.

 

Again very nicely done!!! :worship:

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  • 3 weeks later...

Alright, Lots has been changing in my system lately! Ended up cooking a JL sub some how. Crutchfield was quick to replace it with no issues. I ended up getting spoiled by the Focal's in my F150 and decided I needed them in the Edge also.

I put in the PS165 component set in and love them. I really feel they are totally worth the extra. JL components will now be put into the rear.

 

But here is the pain. Since installing everything and taking most of the load off of the factory amp, I get a high pitched whine (not ground loop noise) and some odd characteristics out of the setup, making me not to happy. After some research I found this thread.

http://www.focusst.org/forum/focus-st-electronics/28810-must-read-if-you-upgrade-you-2014-s-stereo-avoid-damage.html

 

It all seemed to fit my issues. So I made this.

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It is a set of 10 ohm, 10watt resistors used to place load on the Sony class D amp. This is setup for 8 channels, 4 front, 2 rear, 2 sub. This should take away all of my noise and turn on pops. Upgrading to the Focal's really made my noise apparent and forced me to remedy it. Here is how it went together.

 

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Ready to be wired in.

 

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Edited by HappyHourSport
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Excellent posts, glad to see the system continuing to evolve.

 

I have a set of PS165 components from a previous install and am glad to see the same ones going into your edge.

A few questions about your current set of upgrades:

 

Did the Focal tweeters mount up well in the OEM location? When I had them in my Subaru I had to get pretty creative to get them into the OEM A-pillar /door-panel sails. I was running PS165s at about 60w ea off of an older 4-channel Kicker. My guess is they sound even better off of that newer 100w Alpine.

 

Are you leaving the center channel speaker in?

 

Did your resistor set-up fix the low-load noise issue?

Edited by redlancer
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Thanks Red, evolving is a good word for it. Lol Loving the new Focals. The PS165 were totally worth the little extra. Now I have the JL components in the rear and Focals up front. The tweeters did not fit well at all! Lol. I had to cut through the front plastic grill area and flush mount them in the door. Pretty sketchy install on a brand new car and made a slip with a dremel that hopefully only I notice lol. Turned out great though. I am keeping the center and rear pillars on the factory amp.

Unfortunately my resistor setup did not resolve my noise or slight pop issue at all, even somehow forced my LC7i on all the time, with the same hiss. I am now returning my LC7i and ordered a Massive Core-1 DSP so I can crossover the high noise out. I am assuming I will still add the load bank to the factory amp before the Core-1 to alleviate any issues with the Sony amp getting hot or frying filters. Pulled the fuse on my system until I get the DSP in because I couldn't take the low volume noise. Wow, a center and back speakers only sounds like Shiot.

Story of my life that I should have spent a little more in the beginning to save my self the pain.

 

Eight:

The manual I got on eBay is a body service manual. I bought it for like 60 bucks in the hopes of getting some back when I sell it. Anything under 2015 you can usually get a disc for 9 bucks on eBay.

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Now I have my mind going crazy with the Core-1 on the way. I was going to just do the 4 channels to the front and rear components, but now I am thinking of some other options to really use the Core-1 and my 5 channel amp.

 

Option 1. As described above - 100x4 to components - 500 to sub

 

Option 2. Go active on front Focals, 100x4 to front doors, rear components on factory amp, 500 to sub

 

Option 3. Channels 1 and 2 to front Focals, rear components off factory amp, channels 3 and 4 running a 6.5 or 8 inch bass driver in the factory box/location, then 500 to sub.

 

I wouldn't mind taking some of the work load off of the components. And with the crossover options of the Core-1 I think I cold pull it off. Any thoughts guys?

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I'd go option 2, those Focals on separate active channels would be interesting to hear with essentially infinite control over the levels and frequency control.

 

I noticed over on that Focus forum thread that there were some complaints of the front channels on the factory amp seeming to be overly signal processed/eq'd. Looked like a lot of those guys were using the summed rear channels and getting a flatter frequency to play with. I would imagine that core-1 could remove any weirdness in the signal coming in.

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Im not to familiar with the factory Sony system... How is the signal processed from factory? How clean would it be going to focals? I wouldn't worry so much about rms to front ... I have 75 going to my components through pdx5 and they could not be any more crisp... Unless they were focals. Lol. I think u need as much tuning control as you can get.

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Well my plan is to still tap into front mids, and rear, then sum them at the Core, as I am doing with the LC7i, That way I get voice commands still from the fronts. I am kind of leaning toward option 3 and adding a small sub crossed over from 80 to 120 or so. Mainly to alleviate some load from the Focals and cause less front door panel movement. So fronts would be summed signal Focals, rear would be JL components fed by the Sony amp that would also be taped for signal to the Core, that would leave channels 3 and 4 for the extra sub. I am really happy with the sound from the Focals so I am not sure I really need to go active. Oh decisions decisions.

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I need to hear these focals. I want to see how far ahead of mine they are. So one of us is making a drive. You still have the factory enclosure with the 8 right? Either you take my old factory enclosure (it fits a shallow mount ten) which I have one I'm not using. It's a kicker comp shallow mount 2 ohm DVC. Or we just build u a fiberglass enclosure like mine.... I just switched out my head unit. I was at the end of my tuning capabilities with having the factory head unit. So I took my lc7i out and now I have a lot cleaner signal from the kenwood. You should listen to this before you start adding a bunch of other components . You definitely at least need to use my old factory enclosure... It is a 100% improvement over the 8 that u have now.

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lol Give me some time to get the Focals really singing. The enclosure on the 2015 is way different then earlier years. This is what my factory enclosure looks like. And I believe its actually a 6.5 in there.

 

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I am dead set on keeping my factory head unit so I can keep all of my functions. The Core-1 should fix all of my critical (to me) issues plus give me plenty options for later. My 12 is plenty of low end. I guess doing some REW work will help my decision.

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  • 1 month later...

Shout out to you for posting this thread HappyHour! It saved my installer a lot of time & I now have focal 165s in the front & back doors. They're a world of difference better compared to the mud that was coming out of the sony speakers. I kept the stock sub as it is sufficient for me, at least for the time being.

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Can you provide more detail on exactly what you changed and how it sounds now? Also, what was the total cost?

 

Shout out to you for posting this thread HappyHour! It saved my installer a lot of time & I now have focal 165s in the front & back doors. They're a world of difference better compared to the mud that was coming out of the sony speakers. I kept the stock sub as it is sufficient for me, at least for the time being.

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  • 4 weeks later...

what did you do to make the tweeters fit in the front door? I am looking to get some Focal's also. Thanks.

 

I drilled out the center of the factory part, then used a dremel with a drum sander attachment to open it up to the same size as the tweeter hole. Then I used some foam seal tape to snug up the tweeter into the factory hole, then did a dab or 2 of epoxy on the back to secure it to the plastic. I will take a pic tomorrow

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