2019 Subaru Forester Car Audio Upgrades
Improving the car audio in a 2019 Subaru Forester after the original sound was already replaced at a branded service station? Easy! A fresh 2019 Subaru Forester drove into our garage, in which some modifications had already been made at a branded service station before us. There, all the doors were soundproofed and the factory acoustics were replaced with a Morel Tempo Ultra kit. But this upgrade was not enough for the owner, and he decided to contact us. He wanted us to do something with minimal effort that would make the existing sound significantly better.
What we suggested to improve the car audio of Subaru Forester
Based on the available input data (we listened to this Subaru play beforehand), we decided to add only two devices – a processor with an amplifier and a subwoofer. The processor with an eight-channel amplifier Audison AP F8.9, the subwoofer is also from the Audison Prima series – Audison APBX 8R, very compact, very practical and quite bassy (running ahead, I can say that a subwoofer with a larger speaker or with better characteristics should not have been offered in this car, and all because of the characteristics of the factory radio – but more on that below)
Surprisingly, the soundproofing of all four doors was done well (as for a branded service station), the speakers were also well installed in their regular places:
I would like to separately note that the standard places in the new 2019 Subaru Forester at the front are 6×9 ovals in the doors and tweeters in the dashboard under the windshield, and ideally it is better to install oval midbass speakers (for example, Audison AP 690) and a tweeter in these cars, but here it turned out to be interesting.
The Benefits of Installing a Full-Range Speaker Instead of a Tweeter in a Subaru Forester
In this 2019 Subaru Forester, we decided to test the new Audison AP2 midrange, which can reproduce frequencies from 150Hz to 20kHz!!! The manufacturer recommends using this speaker mainly in new Toyota and Subaru, where the standard tweeter space allows you to install a slightly larger speaker. Like our Audison AP2. Now imagine the advantage of such a midrange/tweeter compared to a regular tweeter and midrange separately. In general, this baby allows you to build a two-component system with minimal effort with the capabilities of a three-component system!
This is what the baby Audison AP2 looks like:
We listened to the audio system in the Subaru Forester in the same composition with a tweeter from the Morel Tempo Ultra kit and with an Audison AP2 midrange speaker. Considering that the system was processor-based, both times the system was configured for specific components. Was there a difference in sound, and if so, in whose favor?
There was a difference! Definitely in favor of Audison AP2. The stage is higher, the midbass plays cleaner, the overall tonality is better, the feeling from the overall sound picture is excellent! In general, if you are changing the factory sound in a Subaru or Toyota, with a processor with a channel or with a banal replacement of speakers – feel free to take the midrange speaker Audison AP2 for installation in the dashboard.
Upgrading car audio in Subaru Forester – what is the process?
But let’s get back to our Subaru. We install the Audison AP F8.9 processor, having first removed the factory radio (all the main connections are made at the back). At the same time, we extend the power copper cable:
The processor installation is standard. The subwoofer was installed in a case, very compact, musical and with a good bass. In Subaru Forester, the Audison APBX 8R subwoofer was chosen (a case with a phase reflex with a 20 cm speaker with a nominal power of 250 W).
Subwoofer for Subaru Forester
This is how this sub looks in the trunk of a Subaru:
Setting up the audio processor in Subaru Forester
Well, the most important part of building a processor audio system is setting up the processor. First, we take out our suitcase with the Audison Bit Tune complex, first, we study the signal that comes from the factory Subaru radio. We see a sad picture in the form of stifled low frequencies somewhere around 70Hz and an equalized frequency response:
We de-equalized the signal and proceeded to setup, having previously configured the system (in our case, a per-channel setup with four channels to the front, two channels to the rear, and two channels bridged to the subwoofer):
The overall result of the car audio improvement in the 2019 Subaru Forester is that we added a processor and a subwoofer, it did its job. Bass appeared, the amplifier paired with it added richness to the entire system, the processor allowed us to adjust the time delays and this allowed us to get the right beautiful high stage. Everyone was happy with the result!
