Alpine Audio Upgrade Installation

MOTORZ shows you how to upgrade the stock speakers on a Ford F-150, replacing them with speakers, amps and a subwoofer from Alpine Electronics, a subwoofer enclosure from SuperCrewSound.com, and a deep cycle battery from OPTIMA.

A few episodes ago we showed you how to install Alpine's awesome IVAW 505 head unit on our project truck. This thing has everything it has got iPhone integration, iPod integration, satellite radio, GPS navigation and a big touch screen. The problem is that with our F1 50 XLT the audio system in it is just absolutely horrible. I mean nothing sounds good in this thing listening to a clock radio is the idea of good sound. So the day on Motorz we are going to show you how to solve that problem with a complete audio upgrade from Alpine Electronics that compliments that head unit and show you what makes this system so super cool. We are going to use a sub woofer enclosure provided by supercruisesound.com and since this system is going to require a lot more juice from our battery we are also going to upgrade that using a yellow top deep cycle battery from Optima batteries. Now we have added so many after market products to our project truck here that are stock F150s battery just cant keep up with the load that we need. Plus it's just a mess we have got all these wires that are going to the battery and the terminals are all full, we cant add anything more at this point. So to solve that problem Optima batteries hook this up with this yellow top deep cycle battery right here which is going to give us a higher more consistent voltage under load which is perfect for mobile audio application just like the one that we are about to install. It comes with a bunch of adapters right out of the box so this battery will fit most vehicles. Now to solve out spaghetti problem we have got these monster cable terminals right here which will go right on the battery and give us three additional pose took up of our cables. Now I went ahead and remove one of the stock F150 XLT speakers to show you how crappy these things are, they are flimsy, they have got paper cones, they just don't sound good, it's just horrible. So part of our upgrade that we have got is this sub woofer enclosure to 10 inch from supercruisesound.com which is going to go inside there is this S10 10 inch sub woofer from Alpine. To connect all of this we have got this four gauge wire and that's going to go from our battery to both of the amps, we have got 2 sets for those, we have got some 12 gauge wiring that's going to be used for the subwoofer and we have got some 16 gauge wire that's going to be used for all the components speaker and twitters. Now right here we have got our mono amplifier this is going to be used for our sub woofer, I have got a four channel amplifier right here, that's going to be used for all of our component speakers and the great thing about these amps is not only are they are small they look great, but they also stack really well, so they can fit in really tight situations. We have got the type X top of the line Alpine component system here it comes with these two crossovers which are really small, these woofers and these two twitters right here that we are going to mount in the doors. Now while you can install all over this in your vehicle and it's going to sound really good, Alpine is taking it to the next level with this imprint audio process right here which basically is going to calibri via computer SL microphone right here. All of the audio within the vehicle itself to give you that home audio sound and it's going to take in a consideration all the obstacles such as the seats that you have got all the materials that absorb and reflect sound and it' just going to sound incredible. So we are looking forward to put in all of this in there and see what it does. Now for this installation you are going to need some plastic door panel removal tools a ratchet with an extension, various sockets, some wire strippers and some wire cutters, I recommend you get some rarely large ones because you are going to have to cut those big fore gauge wires that go with the battery, you are going to need some wire crimpers, some dikes, some butt connectors for some of the wiring you are going to need a dremel tool a Philip screw driver and a para-drill. So the sub woofer enclosure from supercuisesound.com comes with just about everything you need including these speaker terminal down here, but you need to connect up your wire inside the box, we are going to use this 12 gauge wire right here, I am going to strip it and crimp it with these connectors which will go on inside and then connect the other end to the speaker. So once you have got this connected inside the box connected at a speaker itself just by pushing down these terminals pushing in a cable just like that. Then mount your speaker in the enclosure, and drill you pilot holes. And ten screw it on down. Then wrap up the installation of your sub woofer in the enclosure by putting on the screw cover right here. Now we already spend about a day doing all the pre wirings for the amplifier and speakers and we recommend you do the same, take your time when you are doing these things. Now we have already got the sub woofer enclosure all put together, it's now we are going to hit door speakers and install those in the stock location here at the twitter up in here. In order to remove the stock speaker we are going to need to remove this door grill here and the switch panel, but in order to do that I recommend that you get some of these plastic trim removal tools that you don't scratch your door, you can get them online for about 20 bucks. As you can see our pre wiring is right here I have 16 gauge wire for the twitter as well as the mid range. Now the stock wiring harness for that speaker that we just removed, we are not going o use that anymore so we want to zip tie that down inside. So it stays away from the window. Now this twitter here is going to go in a factory location unfortunately this twitter is a little bit too big, so what we need to do is we need to dremel that whole lot a little bit. So use one of the rings that they gave you and trace an outline. I am going to take a dremel now margin that hole a little bit. To install the mid range in the door Alpine has provided a bunch of adapter rings and they fit most vehicles this one is perfect for this F150 because if this speaker would go in there just like that, there is going to be all these gaps. So the speaker sits inside this adapter ring and then goes inside of the door. But notice for that to happen we got a couple of these little black taps here I am going to need to cut off so just grab some dikes or something, just cut those guys off like that and then we are going to mount that right into the door next. Using a 732 socket put the stock screws into the adapter ring. So now we have got that mount in, go ahead and wire up speaker here. Now to connect this twitter, I have got to cut these ends off and I am going to use these butt connectors to connect these two wires. Now we have got the twitter in the mid range hooked up, I am going to put them in the door and then you can pop a paneling back on. So as you can see we have got this big hot mess of wires here we have got our three speaker cables here, we have got two four gauge cables, it come from the battery. Now we have got our cables that come from the head unit. Next thing we need to use, is we need to get our mid range into this door here and in order to do that we have got to popup this panel there is going to be a bolt there got to pop off this piece, there is going to two bolts there, this got to come off because there is one bolt in there and way down here from the bottom of the door, there is two bolts, we got to get those off as well. Now there is a tab in the back of the door handle here, it's going to release it from the door panel. The mid range speakers on the door I am going to put the door panel back on once I am done with that I am going to head and do the other side. All the door speakers are now hooked up, it's now time for the sub woofer. That's your negative and your positive terminals here. This guys is just going to lie down right underneath the seat like that. You now that big hot mess down here I keep talking about this is only half the battle the other half is down here on the floor. Now we got to hook all that up to these amps the imprint of audio processor and these two crossovers. So I am going to get that down and I will show you what we got next. Now Jason and I just spend a last hour hooking up all these cables for the speakers and the amps and the crossovers and it just all down here on the floor just kind of really loose, we are not going to secure these to the floor and hide all these cables until we have tested everything out. So for now we are going to move up to the head unit and we are going to hook up some cables to the head unit and now we have got two four gauge cables that are going to go to the battery. Now once we have got all that tested then we will secure this down and hopefully wrap things up. Now if you are a freak out viewer of Motorz TV you are familiar with this whole process which is on an F150 removing the surround or the radius pretty easy, just pop up from the bottom, this one is been taken off so many time that comes off really easy. So remove this air bag sensor back here. What we need to do now is we need to remove this Alpine head unit, we need to connect the couple of the cables that we really wired down here at the bottom, instead of the couple of switches on the bottom, so that it knows that the imprint was going to be control in the audio. Now I have got the head unit removed, it's time to hook everything up to it and there is two switches on the bottom here, they need to be changed to the EQ DIV setting on both of these. Then the next thing is, is that the imprint cable it's just cable right here would normally come and go right into the head unit, but since I have got the serious satellite radio interface box, it's got to go into that. Next thing we have to do is we need to get audio from the head unit from a blackbird to back to the imprint and that's done through the RCA cable that at least snaked up the side and plugged into this box that we got and then finally we need a remote wire here, that goes all the way back to the amplifiers, so the head unit tells the amplifiers when they power up and power down. Now we have got everything wired up, I am going to go ahead and turn it on, see if the lights come on. Here we go, now let's see if we get some audios through this system. Oh! Yeah that sounds good. Get everything to the floor now, this mono amplifier is going to go down first and since these things can stack remove these little top pieces here. And then knock this down before, now the four channel amp is going to sit on top of that and screw right down into those, so it kind of look like that when it's all done. So once you got the first amp screwed down to the floor need to put in this plastic adapter rings that you can piggy bag these amps on top of each other, so once you have got that on there. Now the second amp on top then you can screw those down and now this will cap right on top and tighten with the ornaments that they give you. All good to go. So with the amps finally mounted with the floor of the truck we tucked all of these wired beneath the back seats once we close it actually it's look nice and clean installation from upside here. Alpine Imprints sound managers software runs on Windows XP and it connects to the Imprint interface box via a many USB cable. Once the software is loaded and you selected an area to be measured or test for sound, it will instruct you where to place the supplied microphone. Be sure the vehicle is in quite area with the windows rolled up and the engine turned off. In order for the test to complete successfully their must be no outside sound. Once the test began you will heard a wobble tone powdering from each speaker sequentially. Which gradually gets louder be sure not to open the doors or make any noise until the software indicate the measurement is complete. Now that sounds awesome now even though the installation is pretty straight forward some things can get a little bit tricky specially with the imprint audio processor tuning at all the gain levels on the amplifiers and the crossovers. So if you are not familiar with those kinds of things take it to an authorized Alpine dealer and have them install the whole setup for you. For more information on Alpine electronics, go to alpine-usa.com and Optima batteries, go to optimabatteries.com. Now if you are looking for a sub woofer enclosure for your pick up truck, go to supercruisesound.com. That does it for this episode for more of our installation videos, go to www.motorz.tv and please be sure to subscribe our podcast on Apple iTunes. Be ready Jason because I don't believe you are. Wrap up the installation of the sub woofer in the enclosure with this rangy thing. A dremel tool, a Philip screw driver, push them out of the way and then you are going to stand their and just take you like a man. I am Chris Duke and you are going to get ahead with a bunch of Alpine boxes. I am Chris Duke. I am Chris Duke. I am Chris Duke. I am Duke and you are not getting hit with boxes. For more of our videos go to motorz.tv bla-bla-bla screwed up okay.