Revel Standard to Ultima Upgrade

[Tr357]

While browsing the idea, I came across your post to see if you completed this task. I’m and audiophile myself and would like to add a little extra clarity to all ranges and plan to have my 2 10” woofers installed to fit the trunk so I dont lose all of my storage space.

 

2018 Lincoln MKZ Reserve AWD

[Izzy3906]

1 hour ago, Tr357 said:

While browsing the idea, I came across your post to see if you completed this task. I’m and audiophile myself and would like to add a little extra clarity to all ranges and plan to have my 2 10” woofers installed to fit the trunk so I dont lose all of my storage space.

 

2018 Lincoln MKZ Reserve AWD

Something like this.  But these are 12's.

 

[Tr357]

I wanted to put my box against the seats and place custom engraved grills but this setup looks more practical.

[Izzy3906]

15 minutes ago, Tr357 said:

I wanted to put my box against the seats and place custom engraved grills but this setup looks more practical.

Feel free to checkout some pics in my showroom just in case some pics can give you some ideas.

 

By the way great looking MKZ.

Edited May 19, 2021 by Izzy3906

[Tr357]

8 minutes ago, Izzy3906 said:

Feel free to checkout some pics in my showroom just in case some pics can give you some ideas.

 

By the way great looking MKZ.

Thank you!

[djcwardog]

On 4/13/2021 at 1:00 PM, djcwardog said:

… I am considering buying a new (yes, new) 2020 MKZ with the Revel 14-speaker system.  I really want the Revel Ultima but I’ve done similar projects on other brands so this could work for me.  Do you have the final wiring diagrams and pin outs that you used to accomplish this retrofit?  Thanks!

 

So, fast forward a year and a half and I have bought my Lincoln MKZ.  It’s a 2017 MKZ Black Label so it has the Revel Ultima system.  It sounds wonderful!  However, the very deepest bass could be augmented just a touch for full enjoyment of the deep bass from the King of Instruments - pipe organ!  I had the parts on hand to add a small 10” sub box driven by a JBL Club A600 amp.  This accepts high-level (speaker wires) signals for both the source and to turn itself on.  I tapped into the pair of 6x9 factory subs in the rear deck and mounted the small amp to the side of the sub cabinet.

 

Not yet seeing a factory wiring diagram and pinout for the electronics and speakers of this system, I made the wires closest to the connector tab my “positive” wires.  I can listen and switch the sub amp polarity if I got it backwards.  help?  Simply adding a tasteful sub can help with any sound system if done with knowledge and care.  Tune it with white noise and fine tune to taste.  I’ll start with minimal sub output and go up to just get that last bit of lowest octave extension in this otherwise superb car and audio system!  As the photos show it is quite a simple add-on for me.  Run a heavy power cable from battery to trunk (not this 8-ga, but a 4-ga I have on hand), use same-size wire to ground amp near its mounting location (factory ground points are nearby - behind left-side trunk panel adjacent to the telematics modem), tap into two stereo pairs of speaker wires and send the sub output speaker wire to the sub itself.  With enough slack, I can unhook the sub when necessary (careful to avoid shorting out the speaker wires though while it’s out) to regain full use of the trunk.

 

Some subwoofer geekery:  The Alpine 10W3 wants ~0.625 ft3 of box volume.  Its 12” bigger brother wants about twice that.  Problem is that many off the shelf sub boxes have 1.2 ft3 (or larger) volumes for a sealed box.  Shop carefully or build/modify your own.  SubThump offer a twin sub box for the Ford Fusion 20016-2020.  Although they will cut one or two holes in it, 10” or 12”, your choice, that box is only suitable for a pair of 12” Alpine 123W3 subs.  Now, if you go with a ported box, the allowed volumes roughly double.  But I want pure bass without any peaks near the tuned port frequency.  So I stick with sealed boxes.  The box in my photo was a SubThump built for the trunk, forward-firing, flush into the seat backs of the 2015-2022 Ford Mustang.  It offers a single 10” hole and a 0.711 ft3 (I calculated it) volume.  I cut the ears off of of it and used the fabric to hide what I did.  Good enough for the trunk!  I’ll put it up against the seat back in this car as well.  Although just a bit too big in volume I’l bet it works great!  If I must, I can cut down the left side after peeling back the fabric and remove a linear inch (draw a line vertically and move the left wall rightward a bit closer to where the speaker rests now) or so to reduce the volume.  Doubt I’ll need to do that though.

 

Many silver speaker grilles.  I’d prefer them in black, as Tom V did!

 

What a gorgeous wine red color.

 

 

I’ll snap the amp cover back on once I’m sure I’ve tweaked the sub amp settings to suit me.

 

Unplug those 6x9 speaker connectors and tap in your wiring to feed the sub amp its signal.  When done, use some fabric taped to tie both your wires together at the middle area under the deck.  Zip tie your bundle there and then run it down and to the left side where the amp waits.

 

Rear seat down shows the 21st speaker in my car.

 

Be sure you are running the latest version of Forscan (3.49 when I did this) and look for the DACMC module.  Choose the “configure” option rather than the “as-built” option.  Do that and run the procedure.  You’ll see just two things you change.  Choose “Disabled” for both ANC and ESE.

 

Here’s the menu for ESE

 

Here’s the first screen you see when you run the “configure” procedure for the DACMC module.

Edited November 9, 2022 by djcwardog
Adding photos and details