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bill valley

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  1. Yes, at first I replaced only the fronts. This makes enough of a difference to the driver and front passenger. The rear door speakers are mostly fill, but I decided to replace them anyhow.
  2. Focal Integration IS165 for the rear doors and Focal Performance 165AS for the fronts. Focal have a reputation for doing well with stock power or amplified.
  3. I replaced the front and rear door tweeters and woofers. I disabled the useless (IMHO) surround sound feature. The system was sloppy, but my current setup sounds pretty good. I have not replaced the sub yet, but it is on my to do list. My rear set has built in crossovers. The fronts are crossed over from the OEM amp. I like it a lot.
  4. My system sounds fantastic. I picked the Focals in part because they were reported to sound good with low power levels. Not sure what we are getting from the amp, but I know it is not a lot. The system now has decent balance where the Sony speakers were impossible to get them sounding good. Highs are crisp, midrange is clear, and the door woofers pound pretty well.
  5. Nice idea! How was it? I have a Kicker Comp VR12 and an Alpine amp sitting around from a previous vehicle. I will be putting that in this weekend.
  6. Getting a little antsy with my audio upgrade and decided to reach out to JL Audio. Submitted the question via their website on Sunday and received a response today. Here is the response: Mike West (JL Audio) Apr 11, 11:31 Hello. Unfortunately, we do not have a Stealthbox solution for the new Ford Edge, nor is one currently being developed. That may change in the near future, however. Our research and development team is finishing up some new powersports products before revisiting our target list of vehicles for Stealthbox. I know there are a few GM trucks and SUVs that need to come in, and I wouldn't be surprised to see the Edge get added to the list. Feel free to check back in a couple of months for an update. We should have an idea by then. Mike West Technical Department Manager 954-443-1100 ext. 2268 Shop the JL Audio Website Get more answers in the Help Center
  7. I use Klasse AOI and SG on all of my vehicles and the Edge will be no exception. Great synthetic that will give you 6 months of protection. I am sure you could use this on the roof, but you may find it is so easy to work with that you will end up doing the whole car.
  8. I did a lot of online research on various forums over the years with my black cars. Some "experts" say swirls are unavoidable, other swear by the 2 bucket wash. I rarely run my cars through automatic car washes. I use spray wash bays in the winter. I tried my best to prevent, but still swirls would return. My wife bought me a Porter Cable 7424 dual action polisher several years back as a Bday gift. Using that and good product will get your paint looking brand new. My old X5 would take an entire weekend. I would mask off the trim with painter's tape and use the clay bar on Friday night, polish with Menzerna and Klasse AIO in Saturday, and seal with Klasse SG on Sunday. The results were amazing. The BMW Jet Black is NOTORIOUSLY difficult. Swapped out to Sapphire Metallic Black on the next one and did not have near the amount of labor to maintain it.
  9. Thought I would share some of my learnings from replacing the factory Sony speakers in my 2015 Edge Sport. This post is not intended as a how to, rather it is meant to relate stock sizes. I did hours of research and pulled the door panels several times in order to determine speaker sizes. Hopefully a google search for Ford Edge Sony Speaker Size will connect here and save some of you guys all of the trouble. The door speakers are 6.5" mids with 1" tweeters. The front doors are wired individually, or active, and may be crossed over at the DSP/amp. Although, you can see some sort of built in capacitors in the pictures below. The rear doors are wired to the mid which then extends to the tweeter. Stock Mid Rear Stock Mid Front Stock Tweeter Caliper (good investment) Stock Opening Size Stock Tweeter Size New Focal Tweeter (AS165) New Focal Mid w/ Scosche Intall Ring I was psyched to get speaker install rings, my wife was psyched I was finally using New Parent Power. I mounted the mid in the ring and soldered wires to the terminals. Took out the car to mount them in and discovered the speaker rings are the wrong size. These came free with the speakers from Crutchfield. For anyone who has looked on Crutchfield, you have probably seen that they have not investigated the 15 and newer Edge. This trim ring may fit a 13 Fusion, but does not fit our Edges. I destroyed the factory mids to create my mounting rings per this video: He suggests using dykes, I used a Dremel. This worked very well. Pull the stock speakers out, trim up the housing, and drop in your selected mids. Flip it over, solder it together, and there you have it. Factory harness plugs right back in. IMHO any 6 1/2" or 6 3/4" should fit fine, however you need to be careful with the tweeters. Anything larger than 41.5 mm or 1.67" will not fit in the stock location without modification. I purchased two sets of Focals after discovering the first set came with tweeters mounted into a housing that would not fit.
  10. Nothing quite like black when it is clean. Unfortunately, my better half objected to "another black car". Would have been 4 in a row for me. I won't miss the damn swirl marks though.
  11. I tried the NXT 2.0 and was not impressed...it was not bad, but not as good as my usual. I will stick with the Klasse twins. My 2 previous rides were both black including a jet black X5. To get that one to look right it took clay bar, Menzerna compound, and then Klasse AIO. Klasse is sooo easy and does not stain trim. Not to mention it lasts for 6 months.
  12. Ok, here is the latest. Ordered another set of Focals. This time opted for the Performance 165AS. Tweeters have a removable cover and snapped right in to the stock location. I moved my Integration series to the rears (mids only...not sure if I will cut in the tweets yet). Happily, the muddiness and lack of clarity is gone. Bass is still solid, mids and highs are GREATLY improved. My go to system test is old school Rush (pre 1985). Neil Peart's various array of bells, chimes, gongs, roto toms, etc. now sound fantastic. Highs are crisp. Alex Lifeson solos shred although Geddy Lee high notes can be a bit too shrill. I was also able to play a little bit of some other music and noticed the highs may be a bit too bright..nothing the crossovers won't be able to fix. I did not install the crossovers, so the Focals are currently running at whatever frequencies are coming from the Sony amp. According to the amp diagram the fronts are run "active" so the frequency filters should be built in. My plan is to install the crossovers under the load floor near the amp. This will allow for simpler wiring and access to change the tweeter attenuation. The rears are off of one channel, but the Focal Integration series has simple crossovers built in to the mids and tweets so I will more than likely leave those as is. I took plenty of pics. I will do a more detailed write up once the crossovers are installed. All in all I am very satisfied with this upgrade.
  13. I have thought about that. Yes, it would work. Not sure how it would look.
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