How to give full power to rear pod speakers (B&O)?

[clos.hndz10]

Good Afternoon,

I was wondering if there was a solution to giving full power to the rear speaker pods on the B&O sound system. I know there was a post a while ago on replacing the amp and DSP but was pretty pricey to do so. Any help is appreciated. Thank you

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[RagnarKon]

I know there was a post a while ago on replacing the amp and DSP but was pretty pricey to do so.

That unfortunately is the answer.

On the base audio system, the factory EQ setting only impacts the rear pod speakers. So by disabling the EQ using Forscan, you see a big improvement on the rear pod speakers and don't impact the other speakers much at all. On the B&O system, the EQ setting is applied to ALL of the speakers in the vehicle. So if you disable the EQ setting, it impacts all of the speakers, not just the rear pod speakers.

So the solution is either to add an analog DSP to fight against the factory EQ settings, or replace your B&O DSP unit with an aftermarket unit that gives you more control over the EQ settings (like those made by @mObridge).

 

[clos.hndz10]

What analog dsp do you recommend and is there any forums on how to install? Thank you

 

[DJ1]

What analog dsp do you recommend and is there any forums on how to install? Thank you

I have found the 2 easiest to start with are Audio Control and JL Audio. You can get standalone DSP or integrated into an amplifier. I went with Audio Control:
https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/thre...-dsp-speakers-and-sub-lots-of-pictures.43856/

 

[clos.hndz10]

I have found the 2 easiest to start with are Audio Control and JL Audio. You can get standalone DSP or integrated into an amplifier. I went with Audio Control:
https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/thre...-dsp-speakers-and-sub-lots-of-pictures.43856/

So would I be able to just get a DSP to give full sound to the rear speakers? Does it just replace the dsp that’s OEM?

 

[DJ1]

So would I be able to just get a DSP to give full sound to the rear speakers? Does it just replace the dsp that’s OEM?

I have the base system, so it does not have the built-in processing that your B&O has. So yes, it does give me a full range signal to wherever I tell it to. However, the need for a full range signal to the rear that people seem so obsessed over on this forum is not that big a deal. 4" speakers can only use the high-mid to high frequencies. Even if you upgrade the rear pods and put in 6.5" speakers, you only effectively use mids and highs. So I have a full range signal to my rear speakers, but I run a high pass filter on my DSP to match the speakers I installed.

For your application, yes you can just grab speaker level inputs and send them into a DSP. Not ideal, but it will work. The best scenario would be to use an A2B digital connection from your B&O DSP to a new DSP/amp. mObridge is the one that I know of and some people here have gone with that option.

 

[mObridge]

I have found the 2 easiest to start with are Audio Control and JL Audio. You can get standalone DSP or integrated into an amplifier. I went with Audio Control:
https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/thre...-dsp-speakers-and-sub-lots-of-pictures.43856/

The only issue with doing this is that unless you remove the factory filtering from the output to those channels you will never be able to properly restore the frequencies that have been removed by a high pass filter. For example, the factory B&O amplifier has a high pass at around 300hz for those rear pods. A signal below 300hz simply does not exist on those channels so you can amplify it with as much power as you like and you still wont get any bass out of it.

If you grab the signal directly off A2B it is before any of these crossovers are applied and you can send those rear pods 20hz if you'd like.

If you want to do this cheaply, you can grab our A2B pre-amp interface, we then convert the A2B signal to a clean RCA out that you could then feed into whatever amp you want. This means your amp no longer has to De-equalizes anything or try and restore signals that don't exist the full range signal is not available. Not to mention there will be an improvement in clarity because you are getting a line level input and not a high level input.

 

[kevin.gt]

If you want to do this cheaply, you can grab our A2B pre-amp interface, we then convert the A2B signal to a clean RCA out that you could then feed into whatever amp you want. This means your amp no longer has to De-equalizes anything or try and restore signals that don't exist the full range signal is not available. Not to mention there will be an improvement in clarity because you are getting a line level input and not a high level input.

For us base stereo folks, am I right in thinking we have a different acm that lacks the hardware needed to get A2B out?

 

[mObridge]

For us base stereo folks, am I right in thinking we have a different acm that lacks the hardware needed to get A2B out?

This is correct. That being said, a conversion to A2B is not that difficult and @BlarneyStoned is in the process of doing exactly that! You just need to acquire an A2B ACM (ebay), run a few wires and spent some time playing around with forscan.

We actually did exactly this conversion on our development mustang back in Australia before the B&O system was available. It is possible!

 

[MKZoom]

one thing i would note is that because these speakers are "floating" in the air you will likely not get as much bass as you would expect from the location regardless of what speaker is there. most woofers in cars work on the principle of "corner loading" to aid in the low frequency. if placed in the corner of 3 walls the correlates to ~12-18db improvement of efficiency compared to the "floating" condition.

 

[BlarneyStoned]

This is correct. That being said, a conversion to A2B is not that difficult and @BlarneyStoned is in the process of doing exactly that! You just need to acquire an A2B ACM (ebay), run a few wires and spent some time playing around with forscan.

I'm currently preparing for Blue Ridge Rock Festival and should be receiving the final pieces I've been waiting for to get started right before I leave. I'm hoping that I can start doing my install the week after I get back from BRRF and make a post about it all by the end of the month.

 

[clos.hndz10]

I’m really just trying to get more sound “loudness” out of them. I switched them to the 6.5’s but I feel would provide what I need if I were able to get full sound to them.

 

[Stevoid]

@mObridge is the answer to what you’re looking for. I went deep down the rabbit hole and decided to go with then. Aftermarket speakers and the MoBridge amp really changed the listening experience. I did Morel all the way around and a JL Stealthbox to keep the factory look.

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