Recommendations or help with MB Sprinter van stereo upgrade/installation
- Thread starter Rogers
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A Potted Plant
Honorary Sod
Just order from crutch field I think for an extra bit they send pre merged harnesses just pay attention what you might lose from your stock system.
It’s for a Winnebago Revel RV. I would like to keep the stock head unit and replace the door speakers and add a subwoofer at minimum. I’m not sure if I should or could add speakers behind the front seats. I may need an amp but I’m not sure. The stereo in there now is garbage. Last stereo install I did was over 20 years ago so I’m just looking for someone who can help me brainstorm ideas and then help with the install. I’m near Allaire but wouldn’t mind traveling if the person really knows what they are doing.
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A Potted Plant
Honorary Sod
You could keep the head unit upgrade the speakers and get an alpine power pack if you're looking for a little more umph.
Not sure how needed a sub is or if you're sure of paying the price for a box. You could simply get the under seat subs and tickle your prostate lol.
What is you're end goal are you trying to go bass boxing in dover or add a little gravitas to brian lehrer's voice?
Haha. I would like it to sound crisp and clean with just the right amount of bass. I guess where I need help is deciding what speakers and then how much power is needed to run them and then what amp to get because I’m assuming the stock head unit will not be enough and then how do I wire all this in. I’m thinking JL Audio type quality. Also the stock head unit does not have any adjustments other than volume. I can’t adjust the bass or anything. I think I’ll call Crutchfield this week and see what they suggest. I just don’t want to waste money trying to get it right and have it sound like poop.
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A Potted Plant
Honorary Sod
A Potted Plant
Honorary Sod
What's your budget Just Lousy Audio isn't cheap they have to pay for all that marketing some how.
There has to be at least a little bit of adjustment, I'm sure your head unit is shit but still. I'm not sure you want to dive into a DSP or other shenanigans
johnbryanpeters
Well-Known Member
Following. My Sprinter (2019 Freightliner F2CA4X) has plenty of volume and almost nonexistent bass, even after twiddling adjustments (mine has bass and treble adjustments).
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Did you disconnect your center channel speaker? I haven't yet but I heard that helps. I'll have to check again what adjustments there are. Its at the dealer getting some things taken care of so I don't have it right now.
qclabrat
Well-Known Member
Timely topic, I just started looking for some setups as well. Have a box some where of old pieces which I plan to scavenge from. For speakers, amps and x-overs has much changed in the last 20 years? For a while there was a discussion of pure digital amplification but seems, abcd car amps are still the majority. Hope the Audiocontrol equipment is not obsolete
I just upgraded my Transit with a Kenwood head unit. Replaced the side door speakers with JBLs + tweeters on a-frame. Added 6x9 JBL coaxial speakers on headliner. These 4 speakers are powered by a Rockford Fosgate 600watt 4-channel amp. 2 JBL 12" subs powered by an Alpine 500 watt mono amp.
I will be adding 4 more speakers to the house and all of these will just be hooked up to the speaker outputs on the head unit. This is so I can listen to things while I'm doing things in the back of the van with just the head unit turned on.
I went into all of this w/o knowing anything about car install and took my time doing it and I'd say it took about a month, but I was also trying to get all of my electrical wiring done to the dashboard area all at the same time. There was also a lot of the time I was waiting for parts and tools to come in. I winged it all w/o making any kind of wiring and layout plans so I had to pause a lot to think about things as I was working. Adding time was that I decided not to get an aftermarket harness, but directly soldered each wire to the van dash console. I guess you can say I took things 1 wire at a time.
Off the bat, the problem you will face w/o buying a new head unit is that most likely the factory head unit will only have wires that go out the 2 speakers. So the only upgrade you can do is replace the factory speakers. You need a head unit that has a separate output for the sub.
I will take that back and say that technically speaking, you could just wire a sub to one of your door speakers with the option of throwing crossover in between (so your sub doesn't sound too crappy and doesn't get damaged), but the factory head unit probably was not designed to handle that kind of load.
Better, you could hook up the sub(s) to the rear speakers outputs on your factory unit (assuming rear speaker outs exists on your factory unit and you are currently not powering any rear speakers). You could theoretically wire sub(s) to one or both of those rear speaker outputs. But you'll probably want a crossover in between so you're not sending high frequencies to the sub. Mostly likely you are under-powering the sub but should be somewhat ok as long as you are not too crazy with the volume knob. Some of the deep deep frequencies also may not be present because I don't know if your factory unit speaker outputs are filtering them out. I think it's kind of a hack job, but could work.
Most of the aftermarket head units these days I think have 4 speaker outs (for stock front and rear speakers). 4 audio outs (to power speakers with amps). 2 audio sub outs (to power sub(s) with amp(s)). The problem is replacing the head unit adds a whole new level of install complexity and adding an amp adds some complexity as well.
@qclabrat I don't think sound tech has changed much, but stuff like power management, navigation, backup camera, steering wheel control, etc.. has or has been added. On my car the 12v switched power (i.e. power when car is started) was non-existent because it is handled by some kind of a bus system. So to start, I had my head unit hooked up to one of the cigarette sockets which has a 20 minute timer on it. Now, I have everything powered by my house battery instead of the car battery and a separate switch system under my cup holders to turn all my sound things on and off.
@cdrmtbiker @johnbryanpeters You're free to come over to discuss or work on van things with me, but I live pretty far away, at least from Allaire, in Sparta.
I will be adding 4 more speakers to the house and all of these will just be hooked up to the speaker outputs on the head unit. This is so I can listen to things while I'm doing things in the back of the van with just the head unit turned on.
I went into all of this w/o knowing anything about car install and took my time doing it and I'd say it took about a month, but I was also trying to get all of my electrical wiring done to the dashboard area all at the same time. There was also a lot of the time I was waiting for parts and tools to come in. I winged it all w/o making any kind of wiring and layout plans so I had to pause a lot to think about things as I was working. Adding time was that I decided not to get an aftermarket harness, but directly soldered each wire to the van dash console. I guess you can say I took things 1 wire at a time.
Off the bat, the problem you will face w/o buying a new head unit is that most likely the factory head unit will only have wires that go out the 2 speakers. So the only upgrade you can do is replace the factory speakers. You need a head unit that has a separate output for the sub.
I will take that back and say that technically speaking, you could just wire a sub to one of your door speakers with the option of throwing crossover in between (so your sub doesn't sound too crappy and doesn't get damaged), but the factory head unit probably was not designed to handle that kind of load.
Better, you could hook up the sub(s) to the rear speakers outputs on your factory unit (assuming rear speaker outs exists on your factory unit and you are currently not powering any rear speakers). You could theoretically wire sub(s) to one or both of those rear speaker outputs. But you'll probably want a crossover in between so you're not sending high frequencies to the sub. Mostly likely you are under-powering the sub but should be somewhat ok as long as you are not too crazy with the volume knob. Some of the deep deep frequencies also may not be present because I don't know if your factory unit speaker outputs are filtering them out. I think it's kind of a hack job, but could work.
Most of the aftermarket head units these days I think have 4 speaker outs (for stock front and rear speakers). 4 audio outs (to power speakers with amps). 2 audio sub outs (to power sub(s) with amp(s)). The problem is replacing the head unit adds a whole new level of install complexity and adding an amp adds some complexity as well.
@qclabrat I don't think sound tech has changed much, but stuff like power management, navigation, backup camera, steering wheel control, etc.. has or has been added. On my car the 12v switched power (i.e. power when car is started) was non-existent because it is handled by some kind of a bus system. So to start, I had my head unit hooked up to one of the cigarette sockets which has a 20 minute timer on it. Now, I have everything powered by my house battery instead of the car battery and a separate switch system under my cup holders to turn all my sound things on and off.
@cdrmtbiker @johnbryanpeters You're free to come over to discuss or work on van things with me, but I live pretty far away, at least from Allaire, in Sparta.
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These guides helped a lot:
faroutride.com
faroutride.com
faroutride.com
Ford Transit DIY Aftermarket Radio Installation (Pioneer Android/CarPlay) - FarOutRide
We upgraded the radio of our Ford Transit for a Pioneer Multimedia Receiver (Android/CarPlay/Bluetooth/DVD). Follow these simple steps to install YOURS!
faroutride.com
Speakers Upgrade - FarOutRide
After upgrading to an Android Radio Unit, the next smart move was to upgrade to JBL GT7-6C speakers system. Here is the full installation write-up!
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Ford Transit: Adding Speakers To The Headliner - FarOutRide
Last step of our quest for the perfect sound: adding Rockford Fosgate speakers to the headliner of our the Ford Transit... success! Follow the guide!
faroutride.com
@soundz thanks for all the information. This is very helpful. I totally forgot about faroutride.com. I have spent a lot of time on their site when I originally thought about building out my own van.
I have done some more digging online and after reading your post I have a bunch of questions I need to figure out.
1. I originally thought that I want to get the best sound I can using the factory head unit. Reason being is because everything on this van is electronic and even to check my oil I have to use the onboard computer. No dipstick. I also have a rear camera and sensors. I don't know if the head unit is just a display or if there is a computer in there gathering data. This is where newer technology has confused. 20 years ago it was rip out the old stereo and put a new one in. I have to figure out if an aftermarket head unit gives me all the features of the factory one. I also like the clean look of the factory unit. With that said I'm going to try to use the factory head unit first.
2. I have considered adding tweeters to the pillar but there are airbags in there so I hesitate here. I'm sure it can be done though.
3. One good thing I have discovered...I believe the van is pre-wired for rear speakers so that I can hook up a sub to them.
4. I'm not sure if just upgrading 2 door speakers, adding a sub, amp, cross-over if needed, and disconnecting the center channel will provide the sound that makes me happy. I'm not sure how clear the sound coming out of the head unit is regardless of speaker quality. This gets me thinking is there a way to improve the factory head unit sound or am I now just wasting money. Maybe I upgrade the speakers first and then I could always upgrade the head unit later. So will good speakers and an amp alone make a difference?
5. I have seen people mount subs behind the seats on these vans so I think I have a location for this.
6. I have to figure out where to mount the amp and how to wire the amp and speakers.
I'm going to spend some time today on the Revel 4x4 FB group. There are a few people on there who have upgraded the stereo.
I have done some more digging online and after reading your post I have a bunch of questions I need to figure out.
1. I originally thought that I want to get the best sound I can using the factory head unit. Reason being is because everything on this van is electronic and even to check my oil I have to use the onboard computer. No dipstick. I also have a rear camera and sensors. I don't know if the head unit is just a display or if there is a computer in there gathering data. This is where newer technology has confused. 20 years ago it was rip out the old stereo and put a new one in. I have to figure out if an aftermarket head unit gives me all the features of the factory one. I also like the clean look of the factory unit. With that said I'm going to try to use the factory head unit first.
2. I have considered adding tweeters to the pillar but there are airbags in there so I hesitate here. I'm sure it can be done though.
3. One good thing I have discovered...I believe the van is pre-wired for rear speakers so that I can hook up a sub to them.
4. I'm not sure if just upgrading 2 door speakers, adding a sub, amp, cross-over if needed, and disconnecting the center channel will provide the sound that makes me happy. I'm not sure how clear the sound coming out of the head unit is regardless of speaker quality. This gets me thinking is there a way to improve the factory head unit sound or am I now just wasting money. Maybe I upgrade the speakers first and then I could always upgrade the head unit later. So will good speakers and an amp alone make a difference?
5. I have seen people mount subs behind the seats on these vans so I think I have a location for this.
6. I have to figure out where to mount the amp and how to wire the amp and speakers.
I'm going to spend some time today on the Revel 4x4 FB group. There are a few people on there who have upgraded the stereo.