Adding a real subwoofer w/amp to your Mach-E

[markboris]

I'm a little late to the party, but I just picked myself up the JL audio 10" power wedge and bass control knob!

I already prepped the trunk last year with dynamat in anticipation for the sub. Can't wait for the weather to get nicer so I can work on this project.

Question for Mark and anyone else who has added the kicker keyloc device-- is it worth the $150?

That is a tough one. If you are looking at getting that last 10% of it being as good as it can get then I would say yes. While I had one in my '21, when I got my '24 I did not add the KeyLoc and don't miss it. Install the sub and if you are happy then I'd do without it.

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[McSquashy]

That is a tough one. If you are looking at getting that last 10% of it being as good as it can get then I would say yes. While I had one in my '21, when I got my '24 I did not add the KeyLoc and don't miss it. Install the sub and if you are happy then I'd do without it.

Hey Mark, thanks for the quick reply! That sounds reasonable.

I've never really considered myself an audiophile, but if the KeyLoc makes a noticable difference then I figured I'd just install it at the same time as the sub.

Admittedly I have zero experience hooking up or tuning car audio system so this should be an interesting project LOL.

 

[Ostate24]

First off thank you for this thread it has been a awesome read. I got only one question cause it seems to be a grey area. I have the Select without B&O so I would have to tap into the rear door speakers which thats fine no big deal, did it in my Model 3 when I did my dual 10's. Seems like the signal might not be the greatest though cause of roll off if I read all this correctly. Will it still sound good going to the amp or is there a different solution to this? Thank you once again, the information has been fantastic so far!

 

[markboris]

First off thank you for this thread it has been a awesome read. I got only one question cause it seems to be a grey area. I have the Select without B&O so I would have to tap into the rear door speakers which thats fine no big deal, did it in my Model 3 when I did my dual 10's. Seems like the signal might not be the greatest though cause of roll off if I read all this correctly. Will it still sound good going to the amp or is there a different solution to this? Thank you once again, the information has been fantastic so far!

Hi Chad! My personal opinion would first be to just tap off the front or rear speakers and see how you like it. You will definitely have a lot more bass and normally the sub you purchase will have frequency and gain controls that can compensate some for the loss of the lower end. If you aren't happy with it, then installing and configuring a Kicker 47KeyLoc would be the way to go to correct the factory EQ/Rolloff.

 

[Ostate24]

Hi Chad! My personal opinion would first be to just tap off the front or rear speakers and see how you like it. You will definitely have a lot more bass and normally the sub you purchase will have frequency and gain controls that can compensate some for the loss of the lower end. If you aren't happy with it, then installing and configuring a Kicker 47KeyLoc would be the way to go to correct the factory EQ/Rolloff.

Thank you for the quick reply Mark.......i'll try tapping the rear speakers first and see how that sounds!

 

[scott_77]

Stupid question(s).... any unique steps needed with our EV when disconnecting/connecting to -/+ terminals of this 12V battery to run + line to battery terminal when compared to working on ICE?

• I can just disconnect the negative terminal, then positive, run the added + line and reverse reconnect with no further action, correct?
• Any expected loss of settings/etc. when disconnecting from the 12V for long durations?
• Any tips on prying the right side panel in trunk to access the sub wiring - or just grab and pull like removing panels in frunk to access battery?

Having not accessed the battery yet since purchase, wanted to be sure. After removing the panels in frunk, and perhaps battery tie down, I think i saw there is some type of sensor plug to negative terminal that perhaps is to be unplugged first before removing negative terminal, then positive. Not sure if that matters. Thanks in advance!

 

[markboris]

Stupid question(s).... any unique steps needed with our EV when disconnecting/connecting to -/+ terminals of this 12V battery to run + line to battery terminal when compared to working on ICE?

• I can just disconnect the negative terminal, then positive, run the added + line and reverse reconnect with no further action, correct?
• Any expected loss of settings/etc. when disconnecting from the 12V for long durations?
• Any tips on prying the right side panel in trunk to access the sub wiring - or just grab and pull like removing panels in frunk to access battery?

Having not accessed the battery yet since purchase, wanted to be sure. After removing the panels in frunk, and perhaps battery tie down, I think i saw there is some type of sensor plug to negative terminal that perhaps is to be unplugged first before removing negative terminal, then positive. Not sure if that matters. Thanks in advance!

Hi Scott,
No unique steps. No loss of settings/etc. As long as your car is UNLOCKED prior to disconnecting the battery, you can still open the doors by pushing the door button on the outside twice. You cannot open the liftgate when the battery is disconnected so make sure that is open before you do.

No battery tie down to remove just the panels in the frunk. You only need to run a wire from the positive side of the battery back to the cargo area. For the negative (ground) wire, pick that up back in the cargo area. There is a good negative grounded wire/bolt for the B&O amp back there you can use or connect to any body bolts back there.

 

[iexiak]

Seems like the signal might not be the greatest though cause of roll off if I read all this correctly. Will it still sound good going to the amp or is there a different solution to this? Thank you once again, the information has been fantastic so far!

On the Select the rear door signal is very flat. More information in my post here - https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...nd-base-select-model-audio-information.33647/

 

[Ostate24]

On the Select the rear door signal is very flat. More information in my post here - https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...nd-base-select-model-audio-information.33647/

Awesome thank you. I was just reading about your system and man that is awesome to say the least!

 

[greatSpacer]

Late to this thread but i see its still a active. After replacing my stock door speakers, I just picked up a a Rockford Fosgate Punch P300-12 Single 12 powered sub. I planned to use Posi Taps to tap into my Stock sub signal lines, and disconnect the stock sub since it blew. I thought about tapping the rear doors but I decided to stay with the sub signal line.
I just came here to double check my wiring because this is my first time installing a powered sub. From my research, I decided to do

Positive Side: Twist the White (Left +) and Gray (Right +) wires from the Rockford harness together and insert them into the Posi-Tap on the factory Green/Violet wire.

Negative Side: Twist the White/Black (Left -) and Gray/Black (Right -) wires from the Rockford harness together and insert them into the Posi-Tap on the factory Gray wire.

Does this sound about right? Also thanks for reading if you've made it this far!

 

[Ostate24]

Well after a little project over the weekend and really just a proof of concept to myself, I got my 2 Kicker CompR 12's installed. Its pair with a Taramps Bass 1200 watt amp at 2ohms. Doors and tweeters I went with Hertz all around. For me sounds amazing and slams damn well. Next week or 2 it'll be 4 gauge power and ground, CT Sounds LOC, and amp rack to finish it all off.

 

[Chrollonati]

For my '21, it woke up the speakers. The system volume and dynamics were missing and after adding the little JL amp, it took care of both issues. Now, my '24 does not need this at all. I mentioned when I got this car two months ago that I instantly noticed the system played a bit louder and sounded more punchy. Won't be adding an amp to this one.

My recommendation would be to first tap off of the OEM sub wires and use that for your audio input to your sub. I say this because most everyone finds this to be all they need to do. It is such a huge leap in bass quality and volume that you may not want to go the extra steps with the Keyloc to get that little bit extra. Setting up the Keyloc was a pain and while it put the finishing touches on touches on the bass output, it is not something I recommend unless you really are after the best. I did not install it in my '24. I just used the OEM sub wires for my JL input and disconnected the OEM sub. I really feel they changed the amp for the better in the newer models. I stated this before but the B&O amp is physically larger and while that may not mean anything, the system does play louder and the OEM bass plays deeper.

Sounds like you really want to add an amp but again, for starters I would disconnect the OEM sub and add your own and then see what you want to do next. Just adding the sub makes a huge difference and many have just stopped there.

Hey Mark, as usual this is an excellent helpful thread you’ve started! I have a Kicker HS10 self powered sub en route and I plan on running that under the rear floorboard in the lowest position. I was thinking I may as well just bite the bullet and install the Keyloc as well to eliminate that rolloff above 14 volume but you stating that it’s a pain to tune makes me have second thoughts. I want this setup to be as simple as humanly possible with the least amount of components that have to be tuned, programmed or dialed in. I know you said you have a 2024 which is the same year as mine and didn’t bother with it this time. Do you think the rolloff may be less in the 2024s or is it still there but it’s not as big of an issue sound wise that I’m thinking it is?

 

[markboris]

Hey Mark, as usual this is an excellent helpful thread you’ve started! I have a Kicker HS10 self powered sub en route and I plan on running that under the rear floorboard in the lowest position. I was thinking I may as well just bite the bullet and install the Keyloc as well to eliminate that rolloff above 14 volume but you stating that it’s a pain to tune makes me have second thoughts. I want this setup to be as simple as humanly possible with the least amount of components that have to be tuned, programmed or dialed in. I know you said you have a 2024 which is the same year as mine and didn’t bother with it this time. Do you think the rolloff may be less in the 2024s or is it still there but it’s not as big of an issue sound wise that I’m thinking it is?

Good question. I don’t notice the roll off as much in this car and they did change the the amp to an updated version. Personally I would not install the Keyloc to keep it simple. Definitely install a remote volume for the sub and if you need a bit more low end, just crank it up. Let us know how it sounds when you are done.

 

[TCast11]

Hey George, sorry I didn't know what you were looking for. I just saw you wanted the pinout of the plug for the APIM. You want to use the ACM (Audio Control Module) which is also in the same area as the APIM. Below is a wiring diagram for your 6 speaker ACM and the plug pin out.

Awesome, ty markboris!

 

[Wallie]

WARNING: This is a long winded write up of my very simple, easy and fairly inexpensive upgrade for the sub bass of the Mach-E audio system. Once I started typing, I figured I would explain also why I did it not just how I did it.

A couple of days ago, I had no intentions on upgrading the lack of low end bass in the Mach-E. The sound inside this car is decent. Not great and not bad. I have upgraded many, many cars and trucks in the last 51 years I have been driving. I currently have three other vehicles that have much better sound systems that I have upgraded and I drive all of them about equally, except the GT500.

I was finishing up my sound deadening project on the Mach-E (one on of the first things I do to any vehicle besides changing wheels and tires) and in the last trim panel I removed, came across the pathetic, cheap, 6x9 paper cone subwoofer, if you can call it that. I thought to myself, this has got to go. Some cars I revamp the entire system and limit myself to between $5000-$8000 and others I just change out the sub and call it a day. The Mach-E is one of those. I’ve had all the door panels off and even the dash soundbar cover and the speakers in this car are not of the highest quality but they sound decent and get the job done especially if you don’t need to turn it up too loud. Speaking of volume, the amp in this car measures about 5”x5” and powers all the speakers. I am pretty sure it isn’t very powerful so the speakers are obviously very efficient.

My go to sub and sub amp manufacturer is JL Audio. I have been installing their equipment since the early 90’s. No, I have no affiliation with them but I’ve just been a happy customer for all these years. There are many good subs out there and JL is not the only one for sure but they have never let me down and make a quality product here in the US. I also use their subs for my home theaters. They start at $900 and go up to $16,500!!

Back to the Mach-E sub install, I could have gone all different routes. Small 8” with built in amp all the way up to dual 12” subs with a separate amp. This car does not warrant or need that much volume as it would certainly overpower the rest of the system and you are just wasting money. As it is, even the 8” lower powered sub JL makes would be 10x louder and have a lower range than the OEM sub.

While I had a lot of options, I also had a few requirements. 1. Wanted to be able to continue to use the cargo floor in both the upper and lower position in case I needed the extra space. I normally keep the cargo floor in the upper position so it is easier for me to take things in and out and it gives me the room under the floor to have quite a bit of air space for the bass sound to come out thorough the back seats. I can still store the charge cords, electrical air pump, portable battery charger/starter, rags, cleaners, polish, etc. 2. Ease of install. Really no need to install a sub and separate amp as there is more mounting and wiring to do and not really necessary for this system. 3. Cost. While I have no problem spending any amount of money on this project, again unless I were to revamp the entire system, it is not worth it.

JL makes all kinds and sizes of subs and you can usually find something that fits your application. I prefer a sub with a sealed enclosure because I like tight, accurate bass. While sealed enclosures are not as efficient, it will have more than enough volume for this system. Ported enclosures are much more efficient but at the expense of being a boomy and less accurate. This also depends on the type of music you listen to. Classical, Rock and Pop, you probably want a sealed enclosure. Rap and electronic music you might want the ported enclosure. I listen to mainly Rock, Pop and Country.

My sub of choice for the Mach-E was the JL Audio ACS110LG-TW1 Single 10” PowerWedge+ with built in 400 watt RMS amp. I chose this because of the requirements above. Height is only 5” so fits with the cargo floor to the lower position. It has a built in amp so all wiring (only four wires plus volume control cable) terminate at the sub. Cost is $520 for the sub/amp. I did buy the optional remote volume control which I always do with their subs so I can adjust the volume depending on the music I’m listening to. The RBC-1 remote volume control is $45. Total cost including wiring and power fuse was around $610.

Before I removed the OEM sub, I wanted to test the loudness and frequency that it added to the rest of the system. I was sure it was not much but it actually does add some, just not as much as I would like in the lower frequencies which is what the job of a SUBWOOFER is supposed to do. Adjusting the bass setting in the sound settings of the Mach-E actually is controlling more mid-bass and it is centered around 125 Hz. Now after the install I have two controls, the Mach-E mid bass setting and the JL sub bass setting which is centered around 50 Hz.

I set the volume at 15, all three eq settings flat and pumped some pink noise through the system via an app on my iPhone. The analyzer was set to 80db. I was surprised to see how nice and flat the midrange was and the high end looked good too (it is supposed to have a roll off like it shows). In the first two photos of the spectrum analyzer, the first one is without the OEM sub, second one with it. There is only a 2.5 db difference with and without. While it is something, that is not much. As I suspected, most of the bass in this system is coming from the four door speakers. Adding in the OEM sub, just adds a bit more volume to the bass and doesn’t add any more to the low frequencies. The third analyzer photo is after adding the JL sub. Now of course I have the remote volume control and can vary the output but what is more important is the low end frequency. 31.5 Hz is now much higher than it was before and there is also a little more at 63 Hz all with very little effect on the higher bass frequencies. The final analyzer photo is what I ended up with after setting the bass eq of the car up +2 to remove the dip at 250 Hz.

In the past I’ve taken many photos while doing mods on my cars but in the last few years have gotten lazy but mostly forget to do it. Below are a few photos I did take while working on this. Removed the panels and storage bin in the frunk to gain access to the 12V+ terminal of the battery. Ran the blue 8 gauge wire from the terminal to a fuse that I zip tied to the negative battery wire. It was a good location for the fuse and if I ever need to access it I only have to remove the one panel across the back. In one of the large rubber boots in the firewall with a large bundle of wiring going into the interior, there was an area that looked like it was intended for more wires but closed off. I made a small cut in that rubber area and again made another one on the inside of the firewall under the dash to allow the wire to come through (it is a double wall boot). Ran the 12V+ wire down behind the left side kick panel, under both front and rear kick plates and to the rear cargo area.

The audio signal needed for my JL sub amp has to come from the OEM sub. To get to that, I pulled away (did not remove completely) the right trim panel in the cargo area in front of the OEM sub and disconnected the plug going into the OEM sub. I used wire taps and 18 gauge speaker wire on the two wires that were going to the OEM sub for my audio input to the JL amp. Green/Violet + and Gray -.

While I was back behind this trim panel, I found a good point for my 12V- needed for the JL Audio sub amp. There is a grounding point used for the B&O amp which sits right above the OEM sub. I removed the bolt going into the wheel well and attached my 8ga wire with lug to that bolt and tightened it back down.

Next was mounting the remote bass volume control. There are several places in the Mach-E to do this but I generally like to mount the control where I can easily adjust it without reaching to the dash or taking my eyes off the road. I found the perfect spot at the front of the console. The console cover that has the shifter dial and parking brake switch just unsnaps and lifts up. I drilled a 3/8” hole and mounted the control. It is easily adjustable using just one finger and you cannot see the control while seated unless you move the seat all the way forward. Ran the 18' cable along under the left side of the console then under the driver’s carpet then along the underside of the kick panels to the back and popped through the hole I had made for the other wires in corner of the padded floor.

The sub box fits nicely in the area that was occupied by the styrofoam container that housed the air pump and charging cords. I did not bolt down the sub box as being 20 lbs. it is decently heavy and does not slide at all because of the carpeted box on top of the padded floor. The two materials together are like Velcro. It’s not going anywhere especially since there is a cargo floor and a very heavy Lloyds custom fitted carpet above it. I still have room for all the stuff I had below the floor and now there is a real subwoofer too. If I want to drop the cargo floor down to the lower level, I do have to remove the charge cords and roll of paper towels. On the lower level, the cargo floor actually sits on the grill of the subwoofer which sticks up about 3/4". I can remove the grill and then the floor would be flat as it was before but I'd rather keep the grill on the woofer.

How I have the levels and controls set up: The car’s EQ is set to plus 3 on the treble (I like it a bit brighter on the top end), left the midrange alone and bumped up the bass +2 to bring up the 250 Hz that was lacking a bit. On the sub amp I have the input level set half way, crossover frequency set at 50 Hz. The remote sub volume is set around ½ way which sounds about right for most tracks I listened to . That means since I have the input level on the amp 1/2 way up and the remote volume 1/2 way up, I am using about 1/4 of the volume the sub can put out to match the audio of the OEM system. Tons of volume in reserve if I wanted to produce some rap bass for everyone to hear down the block. The turn on power for the amp is set when it sees an audio signal. I may have to change this if it drains the battery. Have had that happen in the RS if the car supplies signal to the sub for various reasons even when the car isn’t on. I can pull and ignition wire from the B&O amp for the turn on if that is the case.

Ok, done boring everyone with something that could have probably been written in two paragraphs. ?

UPDATE 05/10/21: I posted if using the 12" JL Audio PowerWedge+ sub amp on this post. #14

UPDATE 05/19/22: Instructions from Ford repair manual on removing the rear load space trim panel. You don't have to remove it but do have to get behind it so the photos in this post might help. #175

UPDATE 04/07/24: Added Kicker KeyLoc DSP/LOC to restore low end bass that the B&O system's EQ rolls off from 35Hz and down. #510

Would it be possible to find a male plug (I assume male) to unplug the 12v accessory jack and connect to the plug in the car. I don't need the rear accessory jack.

Maybe a stupid question but is the B&O equalizer located in the Sync4 unit or in the B&O amplifier?

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