[vulcan_classic]

Amps piggy-backed and velcroed together, had to remove the factory amp bracket to achieve clearance under the seat. Still waiting on the damn speed wire

Harness in the middle with the wire lume is the seat harness, it normally clips the the top of amp bracket but I’m leaving it free for purposes of seat travel.

Seat in place, all the way back

Rear view, seat all the way forward

There’s no damn way HK is getting 432 Watts of power out of that little thing, fed with two 18AWG wires each for power and ground!! More marketing BS (8-speakers?)
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[vulcan_classic]

ok I ordered speakers ccasion14: now will eagerly await your biased review on if the rest is worth it :smile:

Well after all my research and seeing what the HK system actually is comprised of, I can confidently say we are all getting ripped off, LOL!
MSRP $2350 for HK /NAV / and moonroof. Moonroof by itself is $1000. So that’s $1350 for NAV and HK system. I just dropped $750 for my upgrades so yes I would’ve been better off ordering a Limited with moonroof and all the acccessories I did get. So I figure I overpaid about $600 for the car and options I wanted.


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[xconverge]

Well after all my research and seeing what the HK system actually is comprised of, I can confidently say we are all getting ripped off, LOL!
MSRP $2350 for HK /NAV / and moonroof. Moonroof by itself is $1000. So that’s $1350 for NAV and HK system. I just dropped $750 for my upgrades so yes I would’ve been better off ordering a Limited with moonroof and all the acccessories I did get. So I figure I overpaid about $600 for the car and options I wanted.


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Yes, hindsight, I agree, all we can do is provide our thoughts like in that other thread so that others can make the choice

 

[vulcan_classic]

Yes, hindsight, I agree, all we can do is provide our thoughts like in that other thread so that others can make the choice

Not too disappointed since we got the car with trim and color and accessories we wanted only 30 miles from home; would’ve been just as happy without NAV and HK system, and where no cell signal is available we still got GPS built in.
When it comes to car audio I have one simple rule, it has to sound just as good at 70 miles an hour as it does in my driveway, lol!

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[vulcan_classic]

Well my 18/9 speed wire finally showed up and I was finally able to fab up some breakout harnesses for the LC4 amps inputs and outputs. After powering up the system and fiddling around some with the amps controls things are sounding very good! I played with the signal summing but decided to keep the front and rears separate, since the factory amp DSP seems to cause the system to sound a bit muddy. Likely some timing/delay processing going on in the factory amp. By adding more power to the rears it actually sounds better since the built in cross over is still applied on the rears, very clean down to about 125Hz.

Meanwhile, the efficiency of these Infinity 6x9's up front is amazing, especially with added power. I'm finding Bass settings from the factory HU EQ set at -3 to -5dB more than adequate, and overall the 3-band EQ settings and fade controls can actually do something now with the added power to all four corners, and the stronger mid highs from the rears blend nicely with the dash speakers.

Need to play a little bit more with the amp turn-on circuit. Im trying to use the LC4's GTO turn-on feature but im not sure its shutting down when the vehicle is turned off. If I have to i can use the remote turn on input and tap into the factory amp ACC wire on the 24-pin connector. Ill play some more with it after my ears recover, LOL!

I'm running the LC4 rear channel HP crossover setting at full range since the factory amp's crossover is doing its thing, while the front channel is set to HP around 75-80Hz.
As good as it sounds, I still cant seem to overcome the road noise from my BFG AT KO's, at highway speeds they are loud! I may throw my stock 18's back on just for shits and giggles (wife hates the AT tires LOL!)

 

[xconverge]

Yea I definitely do not want AT tires. I love the way the look as does everyone else but for a daily driver it just doesn't make sense to me

 

[vulcan_classic]

Played some more with the amp settings and was able to "lighten" the bass a little on the front channel since it was slightly overpowering. Bumped up the HP setting on the LC4 to about 125Hz. Now I'm getting good bass levels right around 0 dB EQ setting. One minor annoying issue is the GTO sense is not shutting the amp off once the vehicle is turned off. I noticed the amp LED power light was staying on and I could here the fan running long after the HU was shut off. I'm guessing there is some DC bias on the factory amp speaker outputs causing the LC4 to remain "On".

So I switched/wired it to remote turn-on mode by wiring it to the ACC wire on the factory amp. Now the amp shuts off immediately when the car is turned off, but the HU stays on and the dash speakers keep playing until I open the driver door, or until the HU shuts off after the factory delay. Not sure if there's a way to defeat the off-delay from the HU, kind of annoying! I also don't like how the HU automatically switches back to FM or SXM radio mode from carplay when you turn it off.

 

[xconverge]

Yea, regarding the carplay, those USB ports lose power when the car is shut off I believe....silly but understandable.

Is there another wire somewhere that you can use instead of ACC?

 

[vulcan_classic]

Whats really strange is the HU and factory amp both have a constant 12V/battery and an Accessory wire; in fact the ACC wire i tapped at the amp input is the same fused ACC circuit as the HU according to the schematics. I'm guessing the HU is held on with software from the constant 12V even after the ACCessory circuit is turned off with the vehicle Power button, until the three minute delay ends or door is opened, then it shuts off.

Meanwhile, I went back and installed the bass blocker capacitors (270uF) that came with the Infinity 3.5's and it made the front sound a bit cleaner.

 

[vulcan_classic]

We’ll scratch the bass blocker idea! It causes the Starlink system to disable, LOL! I even got an email warning and it flags the MySubaru app.

After a little research and consulting a “Subaru” guy, I determined that the problem was the bass blocker capacitors I installed on my dash speakers! Took them out and the Starlink light went from red back to green. Apparently the Telematics module can sense faulty speaker impedance and sends a red flag to the Starlink system.


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[xconverge]

Oof, installed the new 6x9 in the front and infinity reference 6.5 in the rear on one side. The 6.5 definitely sounds worse than oem.

Not sure what direction I want to go now, I might HAVE to do an amp

Haven't swapped out the dash mid/tweeter yet but now I am a bit concerned

Edit: Just did the dash mid/tweeter and that sounds A LOT better

Will do a bit of messing around tomorrow with the right side of my car (upgraded today) vs left side (OEM HK)

 

[xconverge]

Are you sure the cap on the dash speaker is what triggered the light? I am thinking about adding the bass blockers on my dash speakers.

I did trigger the starlink light/email by unplugging the speaker temporarily while the car was on, but after a car restart the warning went away

 

[vulcan_classic]

Are you sure the cap on the dash speaker is what triggered the light? I am thinking about adding the bass blockers on my dash speakers.

I did trigger the starlink light/email by unplugging the speaker temporarily while the car was on, but after a car restart the warning went away

Pretty sure; I went back and uninstalled the BB caps and the starlink light went back to green (was red with caps installed) and the flag cleared in the mysubaru app. Seems the DCM can detect speaker impedence or lack thereof with the cap in series with the + terminal.

I have no idea how Premium model owners are installing aftermarket amps since both the dash and front doors (wired in parallel) are connected from the DCM, after the HU.

I sure miss the old days when it comes to car audio!!

 

[xconverge]

I confirmed carefully adding a bass blocker (I think a 270 micro farad cap) on the Lh mid/tweeter immediately flags that change in MySubaru and says starlink is disabled, as soon as it was removed, it went back to normal. Agh

 

[vulcan_classic]

I confirmed carefully adding a bass blocker (I think a 270 micro farad cap) on the Lh mid/tweeter immediately flags that change in MySubaru and says starlink is disabled, as soon as it was removed, it went back to normal. Agh

Yeah we’ll keep you safe and follow ya around wherever ya go , but ya can’t listen to quality music son
Big brother is long over due for a beat down !!

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[xconverge]

This looks familiar:

"Turns out those DTC (Diagnostic Trouble Codes in Subaru-speak) show up when the data control module sees an impedance >10 Kohms for more than 100 ms (It thinks there's no speaker connected)."

 

[vulcan_classic]

Admittedly I got the cart before the horse popping these 3.5” midrange speakers without knowledge of the Telematics, assumed it was similar to my ‘17 Chevy ZR2 with similar speaker configuration. May have to go back to the stock tweeters, I’m hearing a little too much midrange from the Infinity set. Maybe a coupling transformer would work ?


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[xconverge]

Let me try a lower microfarad capacitor, I should have one around. Should have a different time constant and might not trigger the light.

Edit: Don't have anything non polarized :/

 

[vulcan_classic]

Well got some good news and bad news !

As I mentioned I went ahead and ran line level signals directly to my LC4 from iPhone (headphone out jack), streaming pandora over WiFi and immediately noticed major SQ improvement. With full signal to all four doors the Infinity speakers really sing! I set the crossover HP to full range and bass was amazing even with just flat signals (no EQ to play with in pandora) especially stuff like Lee Rittenour, Fourplay etc.

The factory amp DSP is all over the place. Definitely robbing signal all around.

Next , I temporarily ran the HU line level outputs ( which are fixed level) to the LC4, and as expected the volume is uncontrollable without the factory amp, including the EQ settings, so looks like all of it is sent over CANBUS to amp.

I haven’t tried the accessory remote volume control yet since I didn’t by one with the amp and they’re limited availability. Also the line level signal from HU are really low and I have to crank the amp gains nearly full to get good and loud.

At this point I would advise keeping HK system stock, as replacing speakers only is of no benefit unless adding aftermarket amp and bypassing the HK factory amp and DSP. If you decide to run both you will have increased power and volume and maintain the factory integration with the trade off of slightly less SQ.
Right now I’m jealous of people with the base model sound system as they have the easiest path to upgrading.
It’s obviously a subjective thing but IMO I’m not impressed with the HK system considering the cost and difficulty in eliminating it!


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[xconverge]

Well got some good news and bad news !

As I mentioned I went ahead and ran line level signals directly to my LC4 from iPhone (headphone out jack), streaming pandora over WiFi and immediately noticed major SQ improvement. With full signal to all four doors the Infinity speakers really sing! I set the crossover HP to full range and bass was amazing even with just flat signals (no EQ to play with in pandora) especially stuff like Lee Rittenour, Fourplay etc.

The factory amp DSP is all over the place. Definitely robbing signal all around.

Next , I temporarily ran the HU line level outputs ( which are fixed level) to the LC4, and as expected the volume is uncontrollable without the factory amp, including the EQ settings, so looks like all of it is sent over CANBUS to amp.

I haven’t tried the accessory remote volume control yet since I didn’t by one with the amp and they’re limited availability. Also the line level signal from HU are really low and I have to crank the amp gains nearly full to get good and loud.

At this point I would advise keeping HK system stock, as replacing speakers only is of no benefit unless adding aftermarket amp and bypassing the HK factory amp and DSP. If you decide to run both you will have increased power and volume and maintain the factory integration with the trade off of slightly less SQ.
Right now I’m jealous of people with the base model sound system as they have the easiest path to upgrading.
It’s obviously a subjective thing but IMO I’m not impressed with the HK system considering the cost and difficulty in eliminating it!


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Agreed! I would add though, that I noticed a major improvement from sound deadening the doors, really tightened up the 6x9's on the front doors