# Quick SQ Build Log: 2014 Ford Focus ST: Morel, Mosconi, Arc, AM EVO 8"



## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

The Ford Focus ST has always been one of my favorite cars...whats not to love about a turbo charged hot hatch?  Oddly enough, we have never worked on a current general Focus before, let alone a ST. So i was pretty excited to put this brand new 2014 model down on the schedule. 

This ranks as perhaps the most basic of our SQ system, the goals were pretty straightforward:

1. achieve a nice level of sound quality while maintaining a 100 percent OEM appearance (including headunit)

2. maintain all cargo space

3. retain spare tire and tools

first up, lets check out the car, which is bone stock but still very neat:



















The customer was pretty specific that he wanted the interior to look very stock, so much so a lot of discussion was place on where to locate the remote bass knob for the arc amplifier. in the end, Jesse came up with a very cool idea, it is housed under the parking brake handle, out of the way and out of view, but still easily reached:



















as for most of our entry level active SQ builds, the new Morel Tempo Ultra 6.5" two way component set is the weapon of choice. the midbass was installed in the stock lower door location. 

first, the door panel received a coupla blackhole tiles on the outter skin, and a liberal dosage of Focal BAM XXXL on the inner skin, while a set of new speaker wires were run into the door:










then i fabricated a set of spacer baffles that matched the oems speaker frame and coated it with several layers of truck bedliner to protect them against the elements:



















then the baffles were secured using oem hardware and mounting holes, and hte tempo ultra midbass wired up and secured:




























the inside of the outer door skin also got some CLD dampers to help with resonance:










the same process was then repeated on the driver side:





































the morel tweeters were installed into the stock sail panel housings:










so thats pretty much for the interior, being that this was a pretty quick job, we (read: jesse lol) forgot t take pictures of the wiring bundles as it traveled down the car, but it is done to the same standard as we always do.

moving to the hatch area...and of course the goal was to maintain an 100 percent oem look, so here it is:










lift up the stock cargo floor and here is what you see. one of the stock foam trays have been replaced by a combination sub enclosure/amp rack that mimics the stock shape and dimensions of foam tray precisely. it is anchored in the floor and houses an arc audio xdiv2 1100.5 amplifier, a mosconi 4to6DSP beneath it, and a pretty cool Audiomobile EVO 8" subwoofer.

the amp powers the front stage actively wtih 150 watts x 4, while sending 500 watts rms to the AM EVO8. it is finished in durable black carpet:














































a few build pics of this combo rack/enclosure:

first, using a flush trim bit, i duplicated the shape of the stock foam tra, and then figured out how much room i needed for the amp, and then using stacks of match routered mdf, i created a sealed enclosure of about .4 cubic ft:



















because depth was at such a premium, the bottom of the enclosure directly under the sub was cut out and molded to the floor with fiberglass, to gain me an additional half an inch of clearance:



















three rivetnuts were installed into the floor which ultimate secures the whole structure:










here is the box with the top secured before carpeting:




























and here it is after carpeting:










this is the 2nd tier board that the amp sits on before and after carpeting:



















and here, lets pause and take a quick look at this new Audiomobile sub, the EVO 8. previously, we have always used the Elite 2208 subwoofer, and found it to be a great little all around performer in the 8" class. this EVO sub is even more installer friendly by being shallower, and comes in a dual 4ohm configuration. overall, the shape and build quality mimics the bigger Elite sub. here is the EVO on the left and the Elite 2208 on the right:




























more on how it performed later.

back to the build pics, here is the mosconi 4to6dsp that sits below the amp, all wired and secured:










here is the view of the whole thing in place but without the spare tire, which can be removed and reinstalled just like stock:



















and a quick at the dsp nestled below the amp:










so thats it, very straightforward 

how does it sound?

for one, with any stock signal source, i am always prepared for a higher noise floor. so imagine my shock when for some reason, this car had almost ZERO noise floor, i mean it so quite that i would says its lower than some cars with aftermarket systems. So i guess Ford did something really right with this base model headunit? 

but as many of our other entry level builds with the Morel Tempo Ultra system run actively, it is really friggin good. I know i sound like a broken record but each time, i am still amazed that this set is so low on the morel food chain. 

midbass is very snappy, full of authority, the midrange and highs are just natural, nothing unpolite about them and easy to fine tune. center is quite good with the stock location, width is super, and height is a few inches off the dash with okay depth. 

The Audiomobile EVO 8, impressed me quite a bit being that this is our first experience with it. i would say despite its more diminutive frame, it easily performed as well as the Elite 2208. with some 8" subs, you can really feel that the bottom end is lacking...this sub of course, is no low freq monster, but it extended down very naturally, and unless you play the lowest of the low, its hard to tell that its an 8" sub. on the RTA, it was well behaved and extended all the way down to 30hz with very little dip, and it reacted great to the enclosure that i put it in. It worked well with a wide variety of music and never felt close to being over driven by the 500 watts from the xdiv2 1100.5. Pretty psyched about having an even shallower 8" available in a broader VC configuration 

I know this is really basic for what we do, but i have a special place in my heard for these entry level sq builds. As is in the case with this customer, most people who go for this type of builds are first timers, either into the SQ active side or car audio in general, and this combination of gear imo performs great and gives them a great entry into the wonderful world of car audio 

cheers,

Bing


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## Kevin K (Feb 11, 2013)

Very nice work


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## miniSQ (Aug 4, 2009)

So simple, yet so awesome. This gives me two ideas for my elantra GT hatch in the spring. I love the way you wrapped the sup box around the tire. And i love the idea of placing the dsp under the amp.


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## audiophile25 (Oct 5, 2008)

Great job sir! How did you get the extra speaker wire in the doors though the Molex plugs?


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## Rolow (Nov 7, 2014)

Dose this car have the my ford touch with sync 8" screen? How did you pull signal out of the head unit? LOC or line driver? And where does the factory head unit start to distort? I'm getting ready to start an install in a 2013 Escape so any help would be great.


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## Rolow (Nov 7, 2014)

A few more questions! Sorry having a pro doing and install and willing to answer questions about an almost identical car to mine is like gold. 

Where did you pull the remote from? Its my understanding that with can-bus that can be a problem.

I noticed only one input on the Mosconi is that the front right and front left out of the factory head unit?


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

audiophile25 said:


> Great job sir! How did you get the extra speaker wire in the doors though the Molex plugs?


i gotta ask Jesse on that one.


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

Rolow said:


> Dose this car have the my ford touch with sync 8" screen? How did you pull signal out of the head unit? LOC or line driver? And where does the factory head unit start to distort? I'm getting ready to start an install in a 2013 Escape so any help would be great.


this had the base system, no big screen. we simply soldered onto the front left and right outputs, and fed them directly into the dsp after soldering on rca ends.

sorry i cant be of more help regarding the more advanced system.


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

Rolow said:


> A few more questions! Sorry having a pro doing and install and willing to answer questions about an almost identical car to mine is like gold.
> 
> Where did you pull the remote from? Its my understanding that with can-bus that can be a problem.
> 
> I noticed only one input on the Mosconi is that the front right and front left out of the factory head unit?


the dsp is signal sensing turn on,and in turn sends power through its remote terminal and powers on the amp 

yeah only tapped front left and right full range, as this is the base system.


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## [email protected] (Nov 7, 2010)

I think the other thing to mention about the evo 8's is that they are purposed for small sealed enclosures. The Elite 8's are more of a sealed/vented/ib sub...


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## upgrayedd (Apr 19, 2011)

spectacular use of space.


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## Rolow (Nov 7, 2014)

simplicityinsound said:


> this had the base system, no big screen. we simply soldered onto the front left and right outputs, and fed them directly into the dsp after soldering on rca ends.
> 
> sorry i cant be of more help regarding the more advanced system.





simplicityinsound said:


> the dsp is signal sensing turn on,and in turn sends power through its remote terminal and powers on the amp
> 
> yeah only tapped front left and right full range, as this is the base system.


thanks for the help 

great build


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## HondAudio (Oct 19, 2006)

Another bulls-eye 

Does building the enclosure out of "match-routered MDF" make it exceptionally heavy?


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## medwards (Oct 19, 2015)

I am upgrading 2013 Focus ST mkII with upgraded (?) Sony System / Microsoft Sync.

Is DSP necessary in this car? Can i get a good sound without one?

all i have is a very bsic aerpro unit -》 aerpro.com/aphl4

i bought an audiocontrol LC6i but my installer told me i wont need it so i took it back.

sorry i typed this on the train and probably could have included more info.

upgrading stock sony sytem in 2013 focus ST mkII
installing-
Focal 165KR2 front splits
2x 200w Rockford Fosgate to power Splits
12" Type R Alpine Sub (wonb't be minimalising sub at this point though I LOVE what you have done above. it's already boxed and happy to just have it in the boot space for now as don't want to spend any more money at this stage)
400w monoblock Alpine powering sub
1x 4 channel Aerpro Line Out Converter with dash bass control knob
Stinger Power distro blocks
Quality amp wiring kit for running speaker / power cables
also have an old pair of Boston Acoustic SR50 was going to install in rear doors but they are missing the crossovers. thinking i will probably just do away with rear door speakers and focus on good quality front splits and sub.

Can I get good SQL happening with all the above or do I need a DSP thrown in the mix?

To give you an idea of what I consider good SQ 
for my car: I was happy with my old system in my old car - alpine CDA-117e hooked up to ipod classic streaming lossless music files converted to apple lossless powered by same rock fos / alpine amps and same sub pretty much moving to the new car but swapping Boston Splits for Focal Splits with added sound deadening and required converters and new power blocks and cables.
at home: I run B&W Nautilus 803s hooked up to Bryston 4BST power amp / BP 20 preamp combo with digital signal input via cambridge audio DACmagic Plus.

I've just heard DSP is necessary due to sony system / microsft SYNC issues but my audio installer disagrees.


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## helmetface00 (May 29, 2011)

Killer work! Seriously!

If you're looking for a little more zoom to compensate for all that weight, head on over to Freektune - Freektune and get a tune! I know the owner personally and he is doing some seriously awesome things with that platform.


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## PorkCereal (Nov 24, 2009)

medwards said:


> Is DSP necessary in this car. Can i get a good sound without one?
> 
> all i have is a very bsic aerpro unit -》 aerpro.com/aphl4
> 
> ...


Build path is dependent on if you have the upgraded sony systems or not. 
But a good sound is subjective if you like what you have, then be happy. If you want it better and are willing to spend more $$$ and time, then a dsp is needed. the mini c dsp is the option im wanting to explore


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## medwards (Oct 19, 2015)

thanks for pointing that out. original post updated slightly.
I did point out previously-
upgrading stock sony sytem in 2013 focus ST mkII
what i meant by that is I have the upgraded sony system which I believe cames stock in this model but I could be wrong.


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## medwards (Oct 19, 2015)

started my own thread if you can help we can move the discussion there but it won't allow me to link the thread so search the below if you have input or can share any knowledge / experience. much appreciated if you can.

Car Stereo Forum » DIY Audio Discussion » System Design - Help Me Choose Equipment For My Car > Focus ST 2013 - Do I need a DSP?


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## Ordie (Aug 21, 2010)

Rolow said:


> Dose this car have the my ford touch with sync 8" screen? How did you pull signal out of the head unit? LOC or line driver? And where does the factory head unit start to distort? I'm getting ready to start an install in a 2013 Escape so any help would be great.



late to this but most pull signal from the output of the factory amp. 

Heres the wiring diagram of it


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## ejeffrey (Oct 8, 2015)

That sub/amp rack is a brilliant use of space. Sometimes the best solutions are the most simple.


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