Stereo upgrade is finally done

[Cromin8tor]

So how’s everything going now that you’ve moved to Missoula?

Me, my engine blew up and the factory is replacing the whole thing including the supercharger. Bearing in the supercharger came loose supercharger chewed up the pieces but it down into the intake manifold and just went downhill from there was only 6000 miles on it but, they gave me a big horn to drive until six like three months it’s not the stuff doesn’t feel it’s how you step up to the plate and fix it but they have!

Anyway absolutely wonderful job and all your stereo stuff, very impressive!

 

[The_Sko]

Really nice install, may have to give those guy a call, not very far away from me

If you are tell Mike, the installer there, that Mike with the TRX sent you. He will know exactly who I am. Good luck and let me know if you want to hear it or anything.

 

[The_Sko]

So how’s everything going now that you’ve moved to Missoula?

Me, my engine blew up and the factory is replacing the whole thing including the supercharger. Bearing in the supercharger came loose supercharger chewed up the pieces but it down into the intake manifold and just went downhill from there was only 6000 miles on it but, they gave me a big horn to drive until six like three months it’s not the stuff doesn’t feel it’s how you step up to the plate and fix it but they have!

Anyway absolutely wonderful job and all your stereo stuff, very impressive!

I'm just north of there in Kalispell, but close enough

Oh man that really sucks and sorry to hear that. Hopefully, it won't keep you down too long. That is way too soon to have a catastrophic failure, wishing it was only a fluke!

 

[Cromin8tor]

Send your kids to community college and duplicate https://www.ram-trx.com/members/the_sko.6115/ stereo build, nothing but the best!

 

[The_Sko]

HA, the budget works out better when you do it that way

 

[DSRT_33]

Well we are in Montana still and frankly, I haven't seen a lot of those vehicles rolling around but if they are going anywhere, they are coming to my man Mike @ Rudy's!

Funny side note, I was thinking about getting a custom license plate and my good friend told me to get "MTLAMBO" which made me chuckle a bit, still debating it.

You asked what's next, here's what is next. The pursuit of the highest quality of music to play in the theater I had built. Sure you can plug in your iPhone, listen to satellite radio or pop on your favorite radio station, but all pretty limited and compressed. Cutting off a large amount of the true audio frequencies available and capped by bandwidth constraints that lossless audio contains.

We have a few ways to insert audio into our head units, Bluetooth, 3.5' audio port, or USB/lightning. Bluetooth being the lowest bandwidth of them all and USB providing the highest.

Now being a person who likes convenient things I wanted the best quality in the simplest form. This left two routes, copy my data to a USB stick and leave it plugged in or find something on the iPhone and plug it in via the lightning->USB cable. I chose the latter and enter Tidal Master audio. This provides some pretty high-quality audio and a massive library to choose from that I can rent, download on my phone and enjoy deep in the woods out of cell range.

For those curious about what I mean by quality please read this article, it does a great job of breaking down the details and those differences. And for those who REALLY want to go down the rabbit hole read this. And lastly, if you want some tech specs this is another great read.

The long and short of this is you need something externally to get full fidelity. The iPhone, though convenient, is very delimiting in the quality if used in its native form. More details here.

Tidal + MQA + iPhone = 24/96? No, sir.
Tidal + MQA + iPhone + external DAC = 24/96 (and beyond). Yessir.

With all that now read, and I'm sure I have put a few of you to sleep now, I went ahead and order this external DAC. $110 in what should give me the BEST quality available, short of coping music to a USB drive, and still give me a library of millions of songs to choose from. Now I can make a playlist, download it to the phone and enjoy it without lag at maximum quality.

Are you connecting one end to the phone and the other to a AUX? Did you ever get it configured?

 

[The_Sko]

Are you connecting one end to the phone and the other to a AUX? Did you ever get it configured?

I was, but after further testing I found this to be almost a decent solution but still wasn't hitting the mark as I was expecting it too.

This forced me to shift gears and think bigger. In talking with Mike @Rudy's we landed on a two fold solution that would hit the mark of what I was truly trying to accomplish. High fidelity and ease of use. This would include leveraging BlueTooth 5.0 Technology and aptX™ HD, which is native in the amps via this Bluetooth module.

Now that we a path to input audio directly into the amps we need a medium to send it, enter Astell & Kern MAXX. These are not a normal MP3 player and the price reflects it. With this device you have the ability to load raw music files natively but it also has a number of applications that are able to be ran on it's operating system. I had used Tidal initially but after a number of trial and errors I decided to part ways with it due to performance issues with the app and in it's final update removing high definition audio via Bluetooth, which was the entire point of the app in the first place.

Qobuz, this is plan B. The app is native in the device and all the performance issues I had with Tidal are resolved. It provided an easy path to migrate the music, including all the albums, playlist, and tracks.

I have been running like this for months and am very pleased. I also did a number of tests of audio quality with the AUX vs. the MAXX and it is night and day, the only drawbacks are managing playback is done with the handheld instead of the head unit and I have to pre-download the music before jumping in the truck. Easy to solve and honestly I don't use it every time but for road trips this cannot be beat.

Hope this answers your questions.

 

[trxmanusa]

Did installing the deadener on the inside of the rear driver door outer sheet metal eliminate the thin metal vibration sound it makes when closed semi hard?

 

[That Guy]

You're serious

 

[The_Sko]

Did installing the deadener on the inside of the rear driver door outer sheet metal eliminate the thin metal vibration sound it makes when closed semi hard?

My doors were done on the paneling everywhere plus the metal was covered pretty much on any exposed metal. Inside and out.

My doors close and sound like they weight 200 pounds.

 

[The_Sko]

You're serious

I’m part of the I don’t F around club.

Full send! Haha

 

[trxmanusa]

My doors were done on the paneling everywhere plus the metal was covered pretty much on any exposed metal. Inside and out.

My doors close and sound like they weight 200 pounds.

Mine sound like a hollow tin can, it's embarrassing. I can actually see the door skin shake when it's closed.

 

[The_Sko]

Mine sound like a hollow tin can, it's embarrassing. I can actually see the door skin shake when it's closed.

Easy fix. And honestly this upgrade alone will improve audio sound.

 

[BigDawg TRX]

I believe it was a combo of using this PAC with this DSR1 to talk to the factory amps. I can ask if you want, but I have a '22 and it's rocking with the factory head unit.

Hey sko does the system still sound good? have you had any issues? I’m on the fence about doing a full sound system install because I’ve never done it before and I don’t know how long they last

 

[The_Sko]

Hey sko does the system still sound good? have you had any issues? I’m on the fence about doing a full sound system install because I’ve never done it before and I don’t know how long they last

Good question. I'll start with the simple answer, yes. I travel a lot for work, rent a ton of vehicles and often times cringe just how bad they sound and nothing brings me more joy then doing a remote start of the engine with the double-click of the remote, jumping in and cranking up the tunes in the truck. Puts a serious smile on my face and reminds me why I spent so bloody much doing it .

The only issue I have had, besides trying to find an audio source to feed the beast, was a speaker cone had some loose while hunting last season. I was moving (70+mph) along the dirt roads here in Montana getting from spot to spot chasing game and my buddy was laughing as he was telling me his Toyota's tires would have clearly fallen off by now if we were in his truck due to the pot holes in the road and such. I recall a rattle showing up and mind you this thing does NOT rattle at all inside and just going huh that's odd. I initially though it was the running boards on the truck had come loose but then it just went away. Over the next couple of days I heard what I thought was a blown front mid in the door, I could hear a definite rattle/buzz coming from it at volume.

So of course I bring it in to Mike and explain what happened, he listens and agrees something isn't right. Speaker comes in, I drop the truck off and in 5 minutes he calls me back and states that the dust cover on the mid had come completely off and was pinned against the speaker and the door panel. This is why it was rattling at first then just jammed in there and sounded like it was blown.

In reality the speaker never blew had just come apart. They replaced it free of charge of course and been fine ever since. I told them what I had done to cause this so they knew what to make better or if it was just a one off. Not sure but that has been the only issue to date.

I hope this helps you make your decision, but just remember you get what you pay for. You already bought a $100k truck or damn near it, don't skimp out now

 

[BigDawg TRX]

Good question. I'll start with the simple answer, yes. I travel a lot for work, rent a ton of vehicles and often times cringe just how bad they sound and nothing brings me more joy then doing a remote start of the engine with the double-click of the remote, jumping in and cranking up the tunes in the truck. Puts a serious smile on my face and reminds me why I spent so bloody much doing it .

The only issue I have had, besides trying to find an audio source to feed the beast, was a speaker cone had some loose while hunting last season. I was moving (70+mph) along the dirt roads here in Montana getting from spot to spot chasing game and my buddy was laughing as he was telling me his Toyota's tires would have clearly fallen off by now if we were in his truck due to the pot holes in the road and such. I recall a rattle showing up and mind you this thing does NOT rattle at all inside and just going huh that's odd. I initially though it was the running boards on the truck had come loose but then it just went away. Over the next couple of days I heard what I thought was a blown front mid in the door, I could hear a definite rattle/buzz coming from it at volume.

So of course I bring it in to Mike and explain what happened, he listens and agrees something isn't right. Speaker comes in, I drop the truck off and in 5 minutes he calls me back and states that the dust cover on the mid had come completely off and was pinned against the speaker and the door panel. This is why it was rattling at first then just jammed in there and sounded like it was blown.

In reality the speaker never blew had just come apart. They replaced it free of charge of course and been fine ever since. I told them what I had done to cause this so they knew what to make better or if it was just a one off. Not sure but that has been the only issue to date.

I hope this helps you make your decision, but just remember you get what you pay for. You already bought a $100k truck or damn near it, don't skimp out now

Now I’m fired up thanks a bunch brother!!!