Please explain factory "premium" systems to me
 

I'm still trying to get my head around the so called premium systems that come from the factory.

In my case, I have a premium Infinity system in my Jeep. Normally it's not something I would put the extra money in to, but I got the Jeep used, and it came along with it. I also have the MyGig headunit with navigation. It's a 7 speaker system, 6.5" mids and 1" tweets up front, 6.5" mids in the soundbar, and an 8" sub in the back. The amp puts out 50wrms to the front components, 50wrms to the rear speakers, and 100wrms (2 channels x 50 watts) to the sub.

Now to my (untrained) ears, the system actually sounds pretty decent, nice and clear except for a general lack of subbass. I went from two 12's to a single 8 so I expected to find myself wanting more, there's no surprise here.

My biggest issue though, is that once you get past around 25 on the volume, the sub just doesn't get any louder. I realize this is done intentionally to keep you from damaging the speakers, but still, it's weaksauce. It just sounds very out of balance and really quite horrible. Right now it's not an issue because I don't need it to be cranked past 25, but as soon as it's nice out again and I can open up the top, I'll be doing so, and with the top open/off I lose a lot of sound, so of course I want to crank it up.

I'm planning on adding some sort of temporary sub soon until I can get a custom enclosure and shallow mount under the rear seat. One of the things I was wondering is if when the volume is raised and the sub drops down, is it just the sub that is affected, or does it lower the bass on all the speakers? I'm wondering where I should grab my input signal from. I know some people on the JK forum have added subs and tapped into the soundbar speakers with very inexpensive LOC's that wouldn't normalize the signal and they seemed okay, but right now nobody over there has been able to give me a solid answer.

Also, what about tapping into an amplified signal with a LOC? Any issues? Is there anything special I'd need?

I'd appreciate any info anybody can add about the "premium" systems in general as I'm really just trying to get my head around how they work. I also apologize for the long post...congrats to everybody who reads through it all!

You have to wonder.....if the vehicle makers are trying to kill the aftermarket audio biz, why are they putting crap like that in and calling it "premium"?? Because the sad truth is to Joe Average, the fact that it goes louder and has more speakers than the standard factory crap makes it better.......:bs:

Funny how improving the "premium" system seems to cost so much more tho....:ohwell: Either you get the expensive "do-it-all-correctly" solution like the Audio Control Clean Sweep or one of the other companies making similar units, or you get a LOC, tap into the sub outs and spend a lot of time tweaking your remote bass amp gain control every time you turn the volume up or down......:ohwell:

I would love to find out were all that EQing actually takes place...if it's in the head unit thats a drag, if it's done in the amp itself it might be an easier problem to fix......:dunno:

I still don't agree with amplifying an amped signal in the first place but the alternative is taking all of the factory stuff out and starting your new signal path from the start.....:eek:

Once you have the LOC and your new sub and amp, you can try tapping into the sub signal first, if that sucks try the soundbar....I would wonder if the soundbar speakers are HPd to keep sub-bass out of them, but the only way to find out may be to try it out or find a parts guy at a Jeep dealer who knows his stuff and will share it for coffee and a doughnut.....:D

Not much help I guess but it's the best I could come up with on a Saturday night.....:dunno: :D

As far as I know, the actual EQing is done by the CANbus, which is another thing I don't know squat about :ohwell:

I'm also curious, how does it know at what point to cut the gain to the sub? It seems like if I crank the bass up, it cuts out sooner than if I have it set flat.

Doesn't Greyhound run Canbus's on the Trans-Canada Highway??....:laugh:

I would imagine there is a circuit that prevents the sub from getting more than X amount of volts, you reach it faster when you have the sub cranked.....:dunno:

Maybe...I had one person tell me that if I was to upgrade to a beefier sub, leaving everything else as it is, I'll be able to push it farther before it cuts out.

Whether or not this is true I do not know.

I would love to hear the explanation for that one....if it's done electronically what difference would the sub make?? If it was a higher impedance it might hold the circuit back a bit, but it would need to be more sensitive to get any louder first.....:dunno:

Not sure about jeep, but on the GM premium system the deck outputs line level to the amp. If yours is the same, you can just solder some RCAs in between and use some real amps and a bigger sub. If the reduced sub effect is from the deck though, you might as well rip it all out and do it right.

Believe me, I'd like nothing more than to toss the factory head unit, but in the summer I plan on running the soft top/no top so I would like to keep the factory appearance.

Plus it seems like such a waste to toss a perfectly good MyGig headunit that somebody paid quite a bit of money for :ohwell:

yah but it wasnt ur money. just ebay it.....u never know. and probably will sell it.

I've had some experience with these the EQ' is done by the deck it self not the amp. What year is the jeep though because the newer ones the deck is only two channels the fading is controlled by data(canbus). Infact the amplifier turn on, acc, and just about everything else is controlled by data. The SLOC's don't work well at all because of the roll off and the amplification(most sloc's will only handle between 12-18 watts). Your best bet is to change everything, but if you do that you will need expensive wiring harness to take care of all the data turn ons and fading.