Audio System

[daplumbr]

For those interested in good sound, I thought I'd write up what I did with the sound system in our 16TBS. My goal was to be able to shake the camper off the stabilizer jacks without distorting the sound and, with the windows open, allow everyone for a couple miles around to enjoy our taste in music.

There are many ways to go about this, but I decided to replace the 4 ceiling speakers, add an amplifier, and make all the necessary connections so that the television, iPhone, iPad, and factory radio were all integrated. The factory Jensen radio has an ok signal out for everything but the DVD. That output is a very low quality video signal. If playing DVDs is important to you, either get a television with an integrated DVD player, or plan on adding a separate DVD player. Replacing the speakers and adding an amplifier sounds really nice with all the signals, including broadcast TV, streaming video, streaming audio, Bluetooth, FM, AM, and CD.

The basic process was to remove the 4 original ASA Electronics (Jensen) 2-way speakers and replace them with Infinity Kappa 62.11 2-way speakers.  All the speakers, both old and new, are 6.5 inch. To adequately power the new ones, I'm adding a Clarion 300 watt (total) 4-channel amplifier with speaker-level inputs/outputs. The speakers don't achieve my original goals stated above, but it sounds nice and we've not been asked to leave a campsite yet (at least not due to the sound system).  

The Infinity speakers have several significant advantages over the factory speakers in both engineering and construction. The sound quality is outstanding; they are by far my favorite speakers for any mobile audio, with great range, clarity, and imaging.

When removing the original speakers, I vacuumed up piles of Styrofoam insulation and metal shavings in the housing from their factory installation. Those of you that have removed a flickering ceiling light fixture and found that junk too----think 10 times the amount! I found no insulation in the gap between the speaker and the roof, so I added foam insulation (Fatmat) in that area.

I also found the factory speakers wired incorrectly. When installing multiple speakers, it's critical to keep the polarity (+ and -) the same. That way the woofers are all going in the same direction. In our Camplite, the speakers were somewhat randomly wired with respect to polarity, which meant the speakers were out of phase and therefore cancelled each other out in the low-mid frequencies. That contributed to the lousy factory sound that led me to work on the sound system in the first place. There simply was no bass. I would have done the conversion anyway, but had I known the original wiring was screwed up, I would have fixed that first to see what it sounded like. The new speakers came with all the adapters and grills to make it an easy replacement.

The Clarion amp fits directly beneath the factory radio and is wired in parallel with the speaker outputs of the factory radio. It's a straightforward, one wire at a time, kind of thing. But it's not for the faint of heart when it comes to wiring. There are a minimum of 18 connections to make (8 in, 8 out, plus power). In fact, just looking at the rat's nest of wiring in the radio cabinet done by the factory is daunting. In addition, I'm adding a separate on-off switch for the amp so it doesn't draw power when idle. All connections were done with crimp-type heat-shrink connectors, not the clamp connectors the factory used. Clamp connectors are usually ok in dry environments, but moisture can cause those clamp connectors to corrode and become bad electrically over time.

I ran a new stereo audio wire from the television to the radio so that we can listen to anything playing on the television using the good speakers. I also added a Command tray next to the radio for an iPhone so that we can connect the two with Bluetooth easily and play anything on the iPhone using the good speakers.  I left the video from the DVD player in the radio connected to the television, but the video quality (think 1990's ) is so poor by modern standards (HDMI) that we'll likely never use it.

Several photos follow, for those interested in what various things look like. The original ASA speakers. The new Infinity speakers. The empty speaker area showing the ceiling construction.





[attachment id="1074" thumbnail="1"][attachment id="1075" thumbnail="1"][attachment id="1076" thumbnail="1"]

[peislander]

[quote source="/post/17614/thread" timestamp="1452388688" author="@sandroad"]My goal was to be able to shake the camper off the stabilizer jacks without distorting the sound and, with the windows open, allow everyone for a couple miles around to enjoy our taste in music.
[/quote]  P-)  You have pirate blood!

[rwc]

I love the goal and the attitude. I'm now waiting for your write up on adding out side speakers.

[purdytj]

Good call on the upgrades. I have enjoyed audio upgrades in home and in car for many years. Our CampLite didn't even have cables connecting the TV to the DVD player - seriously?!? I have noticed the speakers are quite cheap and 'pingy' and I also wonder about the output of the head unit / DVD player. I have many other upgrades I'd like to do to the camper first, but the audio system is certainly on my mind.

I also ran cables from the TV output to the radio/DVD/headunit input. The signal is very weak and I have to turn up the headunit to 30 out of 39 to make it audible, therefore hurting the sound quality. Maybe your amp handles it better.

I'm inferring you didn't need to upgrade the wiring. That would be tricky. Hopefully there is enough of an improvement with the amp and speakers.

I have two 15" Rockford Fosgate subwoofers sitting in the garage... I think there is space under the queen bed, maybe under the cabinets under the sink, maybe under the bunk beds... oh, the possibilities!

[thedusty]

Would you be willing to add some additional pictures of the amp placement and wiring?  I would like to mimic this at some point but am curious how you ended up doing the power, wiring and on/off switch.  

[daplumbr]

I'll see what I can do for photos. On my 16TBS, the head unit is mounted in a fairly small cabinet high over the sink and facing rear. Getting good photos is tricky because access to that space is through the main cabinet over the sink and it's pretty confined; closeups only! I'm going to take the access panel off anyway to drill some ventilation holes, so I'll post pics soon. 

[daplumbr]

Finally got around to removing the panel in the cabinet and taking a couple of pics of the amp and switch. The Clarion amp sits just below the factory head unit (radio) and is held in with velcro. There are 8 wires out of each end of the amp (4 speakers "in" and "out" with + and - each), plus the 2 power wires that tap into the wires already going to the head unit. I installed a switch for the amp on the cabinet just below the head unit and the leads for that go into the amp (it came with remote turn-on leads for that purpose). The Infinity label just to the right of the amp switch is just something I stuck on there for fun, since the speakers are Infinity. I'm getting some distortion that I think is from the amp over-driving the output of the head unit. It's not bad, but it bothers me enough to continue to work on the sound system. What I really need is a full HD DVD player with a surround sound receiver and HDMI outputs to our HD TV. That won't happen soon, but I can always dream. 

[attachment id="1292" thumbnail="1"][attachment id="1293" thumbnail="1"]

[daplumbr]

Good call on the upgrades. I have enjoyed audio upgrades in home and in car for many years. Our CampLite didn't even have cables connecting the TV to the DVD player - seriously?!? I have noticed the speakers are quite cheap and 'pingy' and I also wonder about the output of the head unit / DVD player. I have many other upgrades I'd like to do to the camper first, but the audio system is certainly on my mind.

I also ran cables from the TV output to the radio/DVD/headunit input. The signal is very weak and I have to turn up the headunit to 30 out of 39 to make it audible, therefore hurting the sound quality. Maybe your amp handles it better.

I'm inferring you didn't need to upgrade the wiring. That would be tricky. Hopefully there is enough of an improvement with the amp and speakers.

I have two 15" Rockford Fosgate subwoofers sitting in the garage... I think there is space under the queen bed, maybe under the cabinets under the sink, maybe under the bunk beds... oh, the possibilities!

I forgot to respond to this last winter. By all means, install those 15 inchers under the bunk beds firing up. Run a good signal to them and you'll have a nice massage. 

[thedusty]

Thank you for posting the pics.  

I just bought this and haven't installed it yet:
[a href="http://www.amazon.com/HomeSpot-Wireless-Bluetooth-Transmitter-supported/dp/B00QV77YIC?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00"]
http://www.amazon.com/HomeSpot-Wireless-Bluetooth-Transmitter-supported/dp/B00QV77YIC?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00

[/a]To explain, in the cabinet overtop the bed, I just put a Playstation 3 that has the ability to play BluRay and of course some games with my son should we get stuck inside from rain.  So the PS3 has a HDMI connection running to the TV.  Now, on the back of my Samsung TV there is an Optical/Toslink output.  I went on Amazon and found that device above.  I should be able to connect either bluetooth headphones to it OR even the built-in Jensen via bluetooth.  We will see how it works.  Not sure if latency will make it terrible.  But it's worth a try.  If it works, I'll be able to play BluRay on the TV and have digital quality audio over the interior speakers without having to run more cable.  It won't be surround of course but it's irrelevant based on the speaker setup anyway.  

[gbpack]

The audio system installed in our trailer doesn't play the TV sound over the interior ceiling speakers. The interior speakers are only connected to the radio and the DVD player. I would have to take off the back access panel off of the main stereo unit and split the audio cables and attach them into the AUX connection in order to get the TV sound over the interior speakers. We should have had the dealer do this the last time that we had the trailer in, because I don't have the right screwdriver to get that back panel off. Dusty - Does your TV sound play over the ceiling speakers?

[daplumbr]

The panel screws take a #2 square drive bit. 

Our Samsung TV has stereo audio out jacks and the Jensen head unit has stereo audio in jacks so having the TV sound from the ceiling speakers was simply a matter of pulling an audio cable from the TV location to the radio location. Fairly easy on the 16TBS. 

[purdytj]

[quote timestamp="1459949526" author="@gbpack" source="/post/20270/thread"]The audio system installed in our trailer doesn't play the TV sound over the interior ceiling speakers. The interior speakers are only connected to the radio and the DVD player. I would have to take off the back access panel off of the main stereo unit and split the audio cables and attach them into the AUX connection in order to get the TV sound over the interior speakers. We should have had the dealer do this the last time that we had the trailer in, because I don't have the right screwdriver to get that back panel off. Dusty - Does your TV sound play over the ceiling speakers?[/quote]
I agree with Merlin - that is how I rigged up TV sound to my ceiling (head-unit powered) speakers. Honestly, I'd leave the dealer out of it. They may know less about it and screw it up more. Unless they have a car audio person on staff, I can see them putting things in the wrong place and frying the head unit or TV audio jacks.

[thedusty]

The audio system installed in our trailer doesn't play the TV sound over the interior ceiling speakers. The interior speakers are only connected to the radio and the DVD player. I would have to take off the back access panel off of the main stereo unit and split the audio cables and attach them into the AUX connection in order to get the TV sound over the interior speakers. We should have had the dealer do this the last time that we had the trailer in, because I don't have the right screwdriver to get that back panel off. Dusty - Does your TV sound play over the ceiling speakers?

I don't know if it does.  I've not tried.

However, with the bluetooth device I linked to I SHOULD be able to send a bluetooth audio signal to the Jensen unit since the Jensen unit allows for a bluetooth connection.  It will end up being a workaround of sorts and allow me to keep a digital signal all the way through.

[gbpack]

I don't know if it does.  I've not tried.

However, with the bluetooth device I linked to I SHOULD be able to send a bluetooth audio signal to the Jensen unit since the Jensen unit allows for a bluetooth connection.  It will end up being a workaround of sorts and allow me to keep a digital signal all the way through.[/quote]


Good point. I forgot that the main unit has Bluetooth capabilities. So your new decibe should do the trick!! Thanks!

[whoofit]

Nice upgrade! I envy you guys with the full size radio space. Mine is equipped with the single DIN over the sink.

Had to replace it with a Kenwood Excelon 998 in order to get full control with two USB's, Sat Radio, the TV//DVD player and Hand-Free Bluetooth comms. The wiring and routing was terribly tight. And with only two OEM speakers mounted (where, again, most screws were only into the Azdel...(thanks, LL)....) was forced to add enclosed home stereo speakers for fuller sound.