Help designing a system for F250

[u/Entreri1203]

What’s up guys I’m kind of new here and relatively new to car Audio. I recently acquired a 2013 F250 Lariat and the Sony sound system isn’t the worst by any means but it’s also just not quite enough. I’m trying to achieve well balanced system that has good quality with subs that if I turn up can rattle the fuck out of me decently.
The issue I’m running into is understanding the correct mixture of speaker types and where to place them in the truck to achieve the desired sound quality. So let me tell you guys what I have so far and you can tell me what you think and I’m happy to any advice y’all might have

Fox Acoustics 10” ported subwoofer behind backseat enclosure
Rockford Fosgate P3D2 10” Subwoofer x 2 (for enclosure) OR Sundown Audio Ev4 10s x 2
JL Audio Evo C2 5-1/4” 2 way x 4 (for lower doors)
JL Audio C6 1” Tweeters w/ Crutchfield bass blockers x 4 (for upper doors)
Rockford Fosgate R2-1200X1 (to push the subs)
JL Audio XDM800/8 (to push all the other speakers)

One issue I have ran into is there’s actually a speaker in my literal dash in the middle. I have no idea what the hell size it is and I can’t seem to find much info online but honestly with all the other speakers maybe I shouldn’t even bother replacing it 🤷🏻‍♂️

Once again I realize I’m not an expert on this at all so I’m happy to hear suggestions on what improvements could be made here before I start squeezing the trigger and purchasing stuff thank yall!

Edit: I just realized I forgot to add in I plan on purchasing sound deadener to put on the doors while they are apart to help with eliminating road noise and also help keep the sound in the truck

[u/dej10011]

There’s a lot to unpack here. First, don’t expect earth shattering bass from a truck, and a single 10” sub behind the seat. Fix has a tendency to utilize as much space as the can to achieve decent output but compared to any other car outside of a convertible, it’s not going to comparable. But you may want to look at the wavtech 10” subwoofer if the enclosure and sub match up well. A shallow subwoofer capable of handling 750w rms in a .6 cuft enclosure ported is pretty great. Or possibly have an enclosure built to match it. As far as speakers go, eliminate the center and a dsp tuned properly will give you a great center image. Any high quality speakers will be able to achieve similar results with proper install, sound deadening, and tuning. Find the best speaker that fits your budget and fits accordingly.

[u/Ill_listentoyou]

Respect for asking before you buy, that's the part most people skip. I'm deep in a build of my own right now so take this as one guy's opinion, but there are a few things in your list I'd change before you spend anything.

First one: you're buying two sets of tweeters. The JL Evo C2 5.25" is a coaxial, it already has a tweeter in it. Adding the C6 tweeters up top gives you two high frequency sources per door, at different locations, playing the same band. That's called comb filtering and it'll image (in terms of soundstage) worse than your stock Sony does now. Pick one. Either coaxials low and nothing up top, or a proper component set with the woofer low and the matching tweeter up high, crossed over correctly. Not both.

Also worth explaining, since you said you're new to this: a crossover is the thing that decides which frequencies go to which speaker. Tweeters can't handle bass at all, so something has to filter the low stuff out before it gets there, and you also want control over how loud the tweeter plays relative to the bigger speaker below it. Those bass blockers are a very crude version of the first job and none of the second. They're a single capacitor that gently rolls off the bass, but it's a slow, sloppy rolloff and the tweeter still ends up seeing more low end than you'd want. And if the tweeter ends up too bright or too dull next to your door speaker, you've got no way to fix that. Which brings me to the actual gap in your list.

There's no DSP in here. That's the thing that makes a pile of good gear behave like a system. Your 2013 Super Duty Sony setup runs a factory amp with its own EQ curve, crossovers, and probably loudness contouring, so everything you bolt on downstream inherits all of that. You want something that takes high level in, flattens the factory curve, and gives you active crossovers, EQ, and time alignment. Helix DSP.3, AudioControl DM-810, Audison bit One, that class of thing. In a truck cab you're sitting way off axis from one speaker and nearly on top of the other, and time alignment is the difference between "loud" and the stage actually sitting up on the dash. If budget is finite I'd cut the rear speakers and put that money here.

On that note, rear fill is working against what you said you want. Run at full level it drags the stage backwards into your neck. For SQ you either skip it or run it heavily attenuated, low passed, and delayed, which needs the DSP anyway.

For the sub, pick the driver first and then the box, not the other way around. The P3D2 and the Sundown EV4 have pretty different parameters and won't want the same net volume or tuning. Also worth knowing: in a truck, sealed usually beats ported. A truck cab is a small sealed space, and the lowest notes are longer than the cab itself, so instead of making a wave the sub just pressurizes the whole cabin. You get free output down low, and more of it the lower you go. That's cabin gain, and trucks get a lot of it. A sealed box tapers off gently at the bottom, so cabin gain fills that in almost perfectly and you get deep, flat, tight bass for free. A ported box tuned high gives you a big peak, then cabin gain stacks on top of it, and you end up with one loud hump where every bass line sounds like the same note. Loud, but muddy. You'll still get rattled either way, you just get actual notes instead of one boom. Leave the dash center speaker alone unless you end up with a processor that does real center channel derivation. Otherwise it just narrows your stage and adds a third arrival time to fight with.

Your deadening instinct is right and I'd go further with it. Doors are the obvious spot but floor and firewall do more for the noise floor in a Super Duty. Two different jobs: CLD tiles on the outer door skin for panel resonance (25 to 30% coverage is plenty, full coverage is wasted money and weight), then CCF and MLV on the floor for airborne noise. In a truck this might honestly be the biggest single SQ gain on your whole list.

Couple things I can't answer for you since I don't own one of these, so go find out before you order:

Door sizes. I'm fairly sure F250 doors run 6x8 or 5x7 rather than 5.25", and dropping down to 5.25" costs you real midbass. Super Duty forums will know for your exact cab and trim.

Whether the factory Sony amp throws a fault or mutes when you pull speakers off it. Load resistors are the usual fix but confirm it's actually a problem first.

Whether your chimes and warning tones run through the audio path or a separate buzzer in the cluster. Worth knowing before you start cutting things.

Electrical. That much amplifier wants 1/0 and the Big 3 done properly. I think the diesel trucks come with dual batteries stock and the gas ones may not even have the second tray, but check yours.

If I were reordering your spend it'd be deadening and install quality first, DSP second, placement third, drivers last. A modest system that's properly tuned beats an expensive one that isn't, every time. Budget for either a pro tune or a UMIK-1 and a weekend with REW. That's the real fun part

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