Review: Pioneer AVH-X4700BS, Morel Primo 602, Morel Tempo 5, Arc 1200.6, JL 10T3 X2
05-12-2015, 09:36 AM
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St. Jude Donor '23
Review: Pioneer AVH-X4700BS, Morel Primo 602, Morel Tempo 5, Arc 1200.6, JL 10T3 X2
Hi all,
I recently performed a full audio install of the following equipment and wanted to share my experiences. My car is a (new to me) 3K mile Inferno Orange 1LT 2011 Grand sport convertible that is mechanically stock other than a M2W swtich. (So far)
Equipment:
Pioneer AVH-X4700BS head unit
RP5-GM11 'All in one' harness w/ SWC and Onstar retention, Metra dash kit
Morel Tempo 602 6.5 Components speakers w/ Double D mods MDF adapter plates
Morel Tempo 5 5.25" coax speakers
Arc Audio 1200.6 6 channel amplifier
Double D mods custom convertible box loaded with 2 X JL Audio Shallow Mount subwoofers
Knukonceptz 4 gauge wiring kit
Stinger 6 channel interconnects 4000 series
Esky EC170 Backup camera
Sound deadening/treatment:
Vette nuts insulation kit
Raam Audio Door stiffening panels and filler plates
20 pieces of Raam Mat for vibration control
Additional Ensolite on doors
My Background: I’ve been playing with audio actively for the past 20 years and have used experienced hundreds (if not thosuands) of different home/mobile/DJ setups. I wouldn’t quite call me an ‘audiophile’ but I have been known to chase perfection. I’ve a huge home theater enthusiast and spend quite a bit of time playing with building theaters and helping others design their own. I’m actively involved in the DIY community over at AVS forum and have hosted several GTGs (get togethers) at my home in Thornton, PA. To give you some perspective to my obsession, my basement theater is home to 14 X 18” subwoofers and upwards of 20,000 watts of power on tap.
OK – onto the gear!
Overall budget for install equipment and gear was roughly 2000-2500.
Note: The head unit and harness I picked up prior to discovering Dennis and Double D mods – I highly recommend him and will likely use him for any future purchases.
Pioneer AVH-X4700BS – It’s been quite a while since I’ve installed any aftermarket audio in a car and I spent a few months researching with what seemed to fit for me. I liked the feature set and didn’t want/need HD radio so I saved the 50.00 premium from the 5700. I also didn’t want/need NAV for this car so that put me into this category. After spending a few weeks playing with this unit, I really the EQ features, crossover settings, Bluetooth audio quality, and the touchscreen. I’m not using the internal amp so I can’t comment on that, but the preamps seem to supply plenty of clean voltage to my Arc Audio amp. The Bluetooth connection via my iphone is quick to respond and very clear. I’m using the included external mic which is mounted right near the factory onstar mic. The one downside to the unit is that the screen gets washed out easily with the top down even after playing with brightness settings. I’ll continue to experiment, but I’ll have to live with that for now.
RP5-GM11 harness – This thing is great. The one downside is the price (100ish online), but it’s really an all in one solution that gave me every wire I needed in one place including reverse signal, power/switched, ground, etc. It has a very easy to configure steering wheel interface and even let me keep my seldom used Onstar. Would definitely buy/use this again if need be.
Morel Tempo 602 Components – These are mounted in the stock locations for midbass/twiddler in the doors using the DD mods MDF adapter plates. I’m powering these with 150 watts to each side which is shared by woof/tweet and fed passively through the stock Morel crossover for now using 12 gauge wire for the midbass and 16 for the tweet. With the doors sealed nicely they have some really nice midbass. Don’t expect them to dig too deep (I high pass them at 60hz) but they get the job done. The build quality seems about average for this price range from what I’ve seen in the past. My one main gripe with them is the connectors used on the midbass driver – they are tiny terminals that are difficult to use any standard crimp connector with reliability. After having one set come off I wound up soldering the wire directly to the terminals which seems to work well for now. If I had one suggestion for improvement it would be to use spring terminals or at least larger binding posts. Overall sound quality is good though and doesn’t leave me wanting for much more in the clarity department – they play loud and clean which is just what I wanted. As for the adapter plates – I wound up sealing them with shellac should any moisture make it’s way into the doors. I also covered both sides in ensolite. I had some trouble with the plates with alignment one a couple of the factory holes but quickly remedied by drilling one of my own holes. It would be cool if we could order a precision fit made to snugly fit a specific driver. I do own my own CNC so I suppose I’m being overly picky but I like a good snug fit. Dennis pretty much through them in for free so I shouldn’t complain!
Morel Tempo 5 Coaxes – I have these mounted in the factory position and they installed/fit quite easily in the stock locations. Overall I’m impressed with these guys and very glad I went with Dennis’s suggestion to use a fill speaker. I’ve tried shutting them off several times leaving just the fronts and always felt like something was ‘missing.’ I know this is hugely personal preference but for me I’d much rather have the rear fills in place. These also play loud but since they are being fed 150 watts each from 2 channels of the Arc 1200.6 as well I had to up the high pass to 100hz for these guys to keep them out of trouble excursion wise. I also have the gain a bit down to keep them in control. Overall a great sounding speaker and a good value IMO.
Arc Audio 1200.6 – First impression when I unboxed: Very solid, well built amplifier that has tons of built in protection and crossover settings. I’m of the opinion (after many years of blind testing) that all amps provided they are played within their limits sound very similar. Objective notes: This amp does have ample power for both the main 4 channels and the single subwoofer channel. It would be interesting to see some bench numbers of this vs. the JL HD900. The downside: The wait for me was long one this one (over a month) since Arc Audio seemed to have an issue they were trying to stomp before shipping them out. While waiting for my amp to come in I purchased a small Kicker 40x4 watt amp from best buy to play with. The kicker tapped out ~6db earlier when attempting max level drives, but overall they sounded pretty similar sonically (on the main channels) when played within their limits. The kicker also ran very hot while the Arc amp stays much cooler.
JL Audio TW3-10 shallow mount subwoofers (2) in a ~0.9 cubic foot DD mods custom sealed enclosure – Dennis does a great job with enclosure construction and even matching the factory carpet. I CNC build Home theater enclosures for many of the AVS guys and would not be able sell these for what he does. Driven by the 600 watts of the Arc audio amp, this provides a bit of balance to the sound. It’s not ‘blow your hair back’ loud, but it provides clean thump for most music genres. Given the size of the enclosure and restrictions of the trunk size in the vert, naturally it will not extend as deep as a larger enclosure of course. I’ve not measured native Frequency response in cabin but I will shortly with my omnimic. I may experiment building something a bit larger using more trunk space in the future but for now it works great.
Esky EC170 Backup camera - This was one of those last minute 'why not' decisions. I certainly didn't 'need' a camera, but it's certainly cool to have now that it's installed and up and running. I picked this up on amazon just before I put my car back together and I've been very happy with it. Easy to install and clarity is quite decent!
Vettenuts insulation – I’ve not yet driven on 100 degree days, but I did take a 50 minute cruise the other day in mid 80s temps and noticed the console was quite cool. I can’t say this alone contributed to significant noise reduction in the cabin but it was easy to install and relatively inexpensive.
Raam audio mat and panels – I spoke with Rick @ Raam for quite some time over the phone. He was very helpful and friendly and it was quite obvious his passion for this hobby is strong. The mat was easy to cut, install, and apply, and certainly added some nice thud to the panels preventing vibrations which they are intended to do. The panels were also an easy install so I figured “why not.” With the ensolite one has to be careful to apply to the door’s contours and not block any holes. I had some trouble getting the door panels back on but once cutting some ‘reliefs” in the ensolite they went ok OK.
Dennis @ Double D Mods – Dennis fielded probably 10 calls before my purchase (happily) and another 10 after my purchase. He’s a friendly, knowledgeable guy with great service and pricing. Being an IT guy myself, my one suggestion would be to add order/shipment tracking on the web site. Highly recommend and will/would buy again.
Hope you all enjoy,
Andrew
I recently performed a full audio install of the following equipment and wanted to share my experiences. My car is a (new to me) 3K mile Inferno Orange 1LT 2011 Grand sport convertible that is mechanically stock other than a M2W swtich. (So far)
Equipment:
Pioneer AVH-X4700BS head unit
RP5-GM11 'All in one' harness w/ SWC and Onstar retention, Metra dash kit
Morel Tempo 602 6.5 Components speakers w/ Double D mods MDF adapter plates
Morel Tempo 5 5.25" coax speakers
Arc Audio 1200.6 6 channel amplifier
Double D mods custom convertible box loaded with 2 X JL Audio Shallow Mount subwoofers
Knukonceptz 4 gauge wiring kit
Stinger 6 channel interconnects 4000 series
Esky EC170 Backup camera
Sound deadening/treatment:
Vette nuts insulation kit
Raam Audio Door stiffening panels and filler plates
20 pieces of Raam Mat for vibration control
Additional Ensolite on doors
My Background: I’ve been playing with audio actively for the past 20 years and have used experienced hundreds (if not thosuands) of different home/mobile/DJ setups. I wouldn’t quite call me an ‘audiophile’ but I have been known to chase perfection. I’ve a huge home theater enthusiast and spend quite a bit of time playing with building theaters and helping others design their own. I’m actively involved in the DIY community over at AVS forum and have hosted several GTGs (get togethers) at my home in Thornton, PA. To give you some perspective to my obsession, my basement theater is home to 14 X 18” subwoofers and upwards of 20,000 watts of power on tap.
OK – onto the gear!
Overall budget for install equipment and gear was roughly 2000-2500.
Note: The head unit and harness I picked up prior to discovering Dennis and Double D mods – I highly recommend him and will likely use him for any future purchases.
Pioneer AVH-X4700BS – It’s been quite a while since I’ve installed any aftermarket audio in a car and I spent a few months researching with what seemed to fit for me. I liked the feature set and didn’t want/need HD radio so I saved the 50.00 premium from the 5700. I also didn’t want/need NAV for this car so that put me into this category. After spending a few weeks playing with this unit, I really the EQ features, crossover settings, Bluetooth audio quality, and the touchscreen. I’m not using the internal amp so I can’t comment on that, but the preamps seem to supply plenty of clean voltage to my Arc Audio amp. The Bluetooth connection via my iphone is quick to respond and very clear. I’m using the included external mic which is mounted right near the factory onstar mic. The one downside to the unit is that the screen gets washed out easily with the top down even after playing with brightness settings. I’ll continue to experiment, but I’ll have to live with that for now.
RP5-GM11 harness – This thing is great. The one downside is the price (100ish online), but it’s really an all in one solution that gave me every wire I needed in one place including reverse signal, power/switched, ground, etc. It has a very easy to configure steering wheel interface and even let me keep my seldom used Onstar. Would definitely buy/use this again if need be.
Morel Tempo 602 Components – These are mounted in the stock locations for midbass/twiddler in the doors using the DD mods MDF adapter plates. I’m powering these with 150 watts to each side which is shared by woof/tweet and fed passively through the stock Morel crossover for now using 12 gauge wire for the midbass and 16 for the tweet. With the doors sealed nicely they have some really nice midbass. Don’t expect them to dig too deep (I high pass them at 60hz) but they get the job done. The build quality seems about average for this price range from what I’ve seen in the past. My one main gripe with them is the connectors used on the midbass driver – they are tiny terminals that are difficult to use any standard crimp connector with reliability. After having one set come off I wound up soldering the wire directly to the terminals which seems to work well for now. If I had one suggestion for improvement it would be to use spring terminals or at least larger binding posts. Overall sound quality is good though and doesn’t leave me wanting for much more in the clarity department – they play loud and clean which is just what I wanted. As for the adapter plates – I wound up sealing them with shellac should any moisture make it’s way into the doors. I also covered both sides in ensolite. I had some trouble with the plates with alignment one a couple of the factory holes but quickly remedied by drilling one of my own holes. It would be cool if we could order a precision fit made to snugly fit a specific driver. I do own my own CNC so I suppose I’m being overly picky but I like a good snug fit. Dennis pretty much through them in for free so I shouldn’t complain!
Morel Tempo 5 Coaxes – I have these mounted in the factory position and they installed/fit quite easily in the stock locations. Overall I’m impressed with these guys and very glad I went with Dennis’s suggestion to use a fill speaker. I’ve tried shutting them off several times leaving just the fronts and always felt like something was ‘missing.’ I know this is hugely personal preference but for me I’d much rather have the rear fills in place. These also play loud but since they are being fed 150 watts each from 2 channels of the Arc 1200.6 as well I had to up the high pass to 100hz for these guys to keep them out of trouble excursion wise. I also have the gain a bit down to keep them in control. Overall a great sounding speaker and a good value IMO.
Arc Audio 1200.6 – First impression when I unboxed: Very solid, well built amplifier that has tons of built in protection and crossover settings. I’m of the opinion (after many years of blind testing) that all amps provided they are played within their limits sound very similar. Objective notes: This amp does have ample power for both the main 4 channels and the single subwoofer channel. It would be interesting to see some bench numbers of this vs. the JL HD900. The downside: The wait for me was long one this one (over a month) since Arc Audio seemed to have an issue they were trying to stomp before shipping them out. While waiting for my amp to come in I purchased a small Kicker 40x4 watt amp from best buy to play with. The kicker tapped out ~6db earlier when attempting max level drives, but overall they sounded pretty similar sonically (on the main channels) when played within their limits. The kicker also ran very hot while the Arc amp stays much cooler.
JL Audio TW3-10 shallow mount subwoofers (2) in a ~0.9 cubic foot DD mods custom sealed enclosure – Dennis does a great job with enclosure construction and even matching the factory carpet. I CNC build Home theater enclosures for many of the AVS guys and would not be able sell these for what he does. Driven by the 600 watts of the Arc audio amp, this provides a bit of balance to the sound. It’s not ‘blow your hair back’ loud, but it provides clean thump for most music genres. Given the size of the enclosure and restrictions of the trunk size in the vert, naturally it will not extend as deep as a larger enclosure of course. I’ve not measured native Frequency response in cabin but I will shortly with my omnimic. I may experiment building something a bit larger using more trunk space in the future but for now it works great.
Esky EC170 Backup camera - This was one of those last minute 'why not' decisions. I certainly didn't 'need' a camera, but it's certainly cool to have now that it's installed and up and running. I picked this up on amazon just before I put my car back together and I've been very happy with it. Easy to install and clarity is quite decent!
Vettenuts insulation – I’ve not yet driven on 100 degree days, but I did take a 50 minute cruise the other day in mid 80s temps and noticed the console was quite cool. I can’t say this alone contributed to significant noise reduction in the cabin but it was easy to install and relatively inexpensive.
Raam audio mat and panels – I spoke with Rick @ Raam for quite some time over the phone. He was very helpful and friendly and it was quite obvious his passion for this hobby is strong. The mat was easy to cut, install, and apply, and certainly added some nice thud to the panels preventing vibrations which they are intended to do. The panels were also an easy install so I figured “why not.” With the ensolite one has to be careful to apply to the door’s contours and not block any holes. I had some trouble getting the door panels back on but once cutting some ‘reliefs” in the ensolite they went ok OK.
Dennis @ Double D Mods – Dennis fielded probably 10 calls before my purchase (happily) and another 10 after my purchase. He’s a friendly, knowledgeable guy with great service and pricing. Being an IT guy myself, my one suggestion would be to add order/shipment tracking on the web site. Highly recommend and will/would buy again.
Hope you all enjoy,
Andrew
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