Does anyone have the AudioControl LC6i?

[CaptainMcFunk]

Hey guys,

 

I know we have an audio section, but it's generic for all vehicle models, and it's basically dead, so i'm posting here to get a little more specific help. My equipment list is here, and my question is below the list, for reference. I'd greatly appreciate the help!

 

2015 GMC Sierra non-bose

 

Installed:

RF R1200-1D amp - 2 ohm, 800w RMS

2x RF P3SD212 subwoofers

subthump box

digital line output converter wired into rear speaker signals in the B-pillars

 

On the way:

Hertz Audio DSK 165.3 6.5" component system for the front doors

adapters for the front doors

RF R150x2 amp for the front speakers

AudioControl LC6i (for expansion to change rear speakers in the future if desired)

 

 

My Question:

I've read that it's hard to get speaker wire into/out of the door grommet, so i'm going to use the wiring that's already present in the door to connect the Hertz Audio component speakers. I understand that the LC6i needs to go between the factory head unit and the aftermarket amplifier, so, if i'm understanding correctly, my order would look like this:

 

Factory head unit --> LC6i --> RF R150X2 amplifier --> hertz Audio components

 

Is this correct? I'm just trying to verify that I need to run speaker wire from the front all the way to the rear to the LC6i, then connect it via rcas to the amp, then speaker wire back up to the doors?

 

I'm also in the process of building/mounting my first amp rack, and boy has it been fun, but i'll have a write-up when i'm finished with it all.

 

Thanks for any help!

 

Captain

[WhineyTTwins]

Yes, your order is correct. You can use speedwire to run from the HU to the LC6i. You don't need anything bigger than 18g wire to grab the signal from HU and send to LC6i. From there, the LC6i will have RCA outputs that you connect to your amp and then send the speaker wires to your speakers. The thing is, you will most likely need to grab the full front and full rear signal to use it or you would have to grab two sets of full rear signals (8 wires total) to connect to the channels.

[CaptainMcFunk]

Yes, your order is correct. You can use speedwire to run from the HU to the LC6i. You don't need anything bigger than 18g wire to grab the signal from HU and send to LC6i. From there, the LC6i will have RCA outputs that you connect to your amp and then send the speaker wires to your speakers. The thing is, you will most likely need to grab the full front and full rear signal to use it or you would have to grab two sets of full rear signals (8 wires total) to connect to the channels.

Thanks so much! Can you explain in more detail the last part you mentioned? If i'm pulling the front open, i'm going to go ahead and grab the rear signals as well, for a total of 8 wires coming back to the LC6i, so i'll have them already ran when i buy my rear door speakers -- Will this be okay?

[WhineyTTwins]

Behind the head unit, you will have 8 wires in which you can grab the signal; 4 for the front (Front Left + - and Front Right + -) and 4 for the rear (Rear Left + - and Rear Right + -). You will need to grab all those and send it back to the LC6i. If you are bypassing the front signals in order to avoid chimes, you would need to take the rear signal twice so all 8 wires would be the rear signal that you can connect to the "main channel" and "Channel 2" on the LC6i. Makes sense?

[CaptainMcFunk]

Behind the head unit, you will have 8 wires in which you can grab the signal; 4 for the front (Front Left + - and Front Right + -) and 4 for the rear (Rear Left + - and Rear Right + -). You will need to grab all those and send it back to the LC6i. If you are bypassing the front signals in order to avoid chimes, you would need to take the rear signal twice so all 8 wires would be the rear signal that you can connect to the "main channel" and "Channel 2" on the LC6i. Makes sense?

interesting, so technically, the front signals dont need to be pulled from the head unit if you're avoiding the chimes? i was going to ask if my door chimes or turn signals were going to be "too loud" when I do this upgrade -- Is the signal that goes to the rear speakers different than the signal that goes to the front speakers? Also, if its the same, can't I just pull the signal from the b-pillars for the rear speakers like i have already done for my subwoofer LOC? or is that not an option? Thank you again!

[WhineyTTwins]

interesting, so technically, the front signals dont need to be pulled from the head unit if you're avoiding the chimes? i was going to ask if my door chimes or turn signals were going to be "too loud" when I do this upgrade -- Is the signal that goes to the rear speakers different than the signal that goes to the front speakers? Also, if its the same, can't I just pull the signal from the b-pillars for the rear speakers like i have already done for my subwoofer LOC? or is that not an option? Thank you again!

I will test it when I get home tonight and get back to you. Every application is different but it could be a full signal. Taking only the rear will surely cancel out the chime but it may also mess with your Bluetooth/handsfree (not 100% sure but I can check that this evening aswell). As of now, my chime makes my ears bleed. An amp turn on delay is a good option but any other time the chime goes off, I have to cover my tweeter and dash to avoid hearing damage. The blinkers are loud as hell too.

 

As for your current setup, yes you could use that signal but remember, you would need either the front signal aswell or two sets of rear signals so you would have to tap them again.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

[CaptainMcFunk]

I will test it when I get home tonight and get back to you. Every application is different but it could be a full signal. Taking only the rear will surely cancel out the chime but it may also mess with your Bluetooth/handsfree (not 100% sure but I can check that this evening aswell). As of now, my chime makes my ears bleed. An amp turn on delay is a good option but any other time the chime goes off, I have to cover my tweeter and dash to avoid hearing damage. The blinkers are loud as hell too.

 

As for your current setup, yes you could use that signal but remember, you would need either the front signal aswell or two sets of rear signals so you would have to tap them again.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

If you dont mind checking tonight, I would GREATLY appreciate it! my amp, wiring kit, and speakers will be coming in tomorrow and i'd like to get a jump on it before the weekend. On a side note, can't I just hook up 2 inputs into the LC6i for the time being, until I get my aftermarket rear speakers? from our earlier conversation, i was avoiding tapping the front speakers to prevent the chimes/blinkers from being too loud, so i was literally going to go from the rear speaker +- in the b-pillars back to the LC6i main input, then out of there via RCA to the amp, then from the amp all the way up to the front doors, so the only thing i'd have going into the lC6i right now is the component speaker leads?

[WhineyTTwins]

 

Sorry bud, I can't figure out why my Helix isn't letting me use anything but channel A and B. Need to email manufacturer to see what they say.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

[WhineyTTwins]

If you dont mind checking tonight, I would GREATLY appreciate it! my amp, wiring kit, and speakers will be coming in tomorrow and i'd like to get a jump on it before the weekend. On a side note, can't I just hook up 2 inputs into the LC6i for the time being, until I get my aftermarket rear speakers? from our earlier conversation, i was avoiding tapping the front speakers to prevent the chimes/blinkers from being too loud, so i was literally going to go from the rear speaker +- in the b-pillars back to the LC6i main input, then out of there via RCA to the amp, then from the amp all the way up to the front doors, so the only thing i'd have going into the lC6i right now is the component speaker leads?

You can but only using two channels means you need to choose if you want it to go to the subs or the front doors. From the manual "Sometimes in life (and car audio) we need more outputs than inputs. Therefore we have equipped your LC6i with AutoMode inputs that take the Channel 2 signal and automatically feeds it to the Channel 3 outputs, provided there is no signal present on the Channel 3 inputs. This means your LC6i will accept two input channels and give you four output channels. Or it can accept four input channels and give you six output channels.".

 

So what that means is that you need at least 4 channels going into it and it will automatically sum channel 3 output. So you would have (from main channel to channel 3 input) front left full, front right full, rear left full, rear right full, empty, empty OR we can do only the rear and do (from main channel to channel 3) rear left full, rear right full, rear left full, rear right full, empty, empty. So you need a minimum of 4 inputs to use 4 or more outputs. Otherwise, it will not sum up main channel and channel 2 to give you that 3rd channel.

[GRN69CHV]

If you are not changing the dash speakers (and quite frankly even if you were) I would not amplify them. I'd tap the factory wiring in the kick panels to get the signal to feed amp, then run speaker wires right back to where you cut them. Simple splice job. Leaving the dash non-amplified will help with the chime volume which is mostly a midrange signal. With the components signal will still be amplified, but mids will be down lower and not blaring loud off the windshield. Given the low amount of amplification you are adding, I'd think you would just use the speaker level inputs on the RF150, that's all I am doing with the Alpine 445U powering my doors. Regarding chime volume, what I have found is, you run the gain all the way down and run the head unit volume a little higher, regardless of gain setting, the amp will still boost the signal a lot. With the 445U (45x4) , 50% volume it gets pretty loud. The other thing is, as you run a HPF (60-80hz) it takes a lot less power to get clear sound at higher volumes.

[CaptainMcFunk]

You can but only using two channels means you need to choose if you want it to go to the subs or the front doors. From the manual "Sometimes in life (and car audio) we need more outputs than inputs. Therefore we have equipped your LC6i with AutoMode inputs that take the Channel 2 signal and automatically feeds it to the Channel 3 outputs, provided there is no signal present on the Channel 3 inputs. This means your LC6i will accept two input channels and give you four output channels. Or it can accept four input channels and give you six output channels.".

 

So what that means is that you need at least 4 channels going into it and it will automatically sum channel 3 output. So you would have (from main channel to channel 3 input) front left full, front right full, rear left full, rear right full, empty, empty OR we can do only the rear and do (from main channel to channel 3) rear left full, rear right full, rear left full, rear right full, empty, empty. So you need a minimum of 4 inputs to use 4 or more outputs. Otherwise, it will not sum up main channel and channel 2 to give you that 3rd channel.

So i found this image on audiocontrol's website -- Will this not do the same thing you're stating above? This would be the rear speakers input into channel 2 of the lc6i, and it would output the rear speaker signal to both the subwoofer's amp, and the front component amp? You would just plug RCAs into Main Output for R150X2 amp and Channel 2 Output for the R1200-1D amp, or am I misunderstanding? Sorry all this summing stuff is really throwing me off....it's all new to me:

 

[CaptainMcFunk]

If you are not changing the dash speakers (and quite frankly even if you were) I would not amplify them. I'd tap the factory wiring in the kick panels to get the signal to feed amp, then run speaker wires right back to where you cut them. Simple splice job. Leaving the dash non-amplified will help with the chime volume which is mostly a midrange signal. With the components signal will still be amplified, but mids will be down lower and not blaring loud off the windshield. Given the low amount of amplification you are adding, I'd think you would just use the speaker level inputs on the RF150, that's all I am doing with the Alpine 445U powering my doors. Regarding chime volume, what I have found is, you run the gain all the way down and run the head unit volume a little higher, regardless of gain setting, the amp will still boost the signal a lot. With the 445U (45x4) , 50% volume it gets pretty loud. The other thing is, as you run a HPF (60-80hz) it takes a lot less power to get clear sound at higher volumes.

 

I'm not changing the dash speakers at all, so are you saying i could tap the factory wiring to the front door speakers, rear door speakers, or dash speakers in the kick panels to get the signal to feed the amp? If i get the signal from anywhere other than the rear door speakers, wont my chime volumes be amplified/loud?

[WhineyTTwins]

The headunit has 8 wires going out, 4 for front and 4 for rear. Somewhere in the dash, the dash speakers are crossed over to act as a component system. So your 4 front signal wires split to send 4 to the front door speakers and 4 to the dash speakers. If you tap the dash speakers, you won't get a full signal and if you tap the front door speakers anywhere else besides behind the headunit, you MAY not get a full range signal. When I did only door speakers, I tapped at the headunit and my front door speaker would play an amplified chime. With this said, if you tap the front speakers you will get an amplified chime unless you can match the gain correctly to where the amplification is minimal yet you still get volume.

 

As for the diagram, that is for an lc7i and I cannot confirm if that will work. You can give them a call to confirm, they usually answer right away and are rather helpful.

[CaptainMcFunk]

The headunit has 8 wires going out, 4 for front and 4 for rear. Somewhere in the dash, the dash speakers are crossed over to act as a component system. So your 4 front signal wires split to send 4 to the front door speakers and 4 to the dash speakers. If you tap the dash speakers, you won't get a full signal and if you tap the front door speakers anywhere else besides behind the headunit, you MAY not get a full range signal. When I did only door speakers, I tapped at the headunit and my front door speaker would play an amplified chime. With this said, if you tap the front speakers you will get an amplified chime unless you can match the gain correctly to where the amplification is minimal yet you still get volume.

 

As for the diagram, that is for an lc7i and I cannot confirm if that will work. You can give them a call to confirm, they usually answer right away and are rather helpful.

yes they at least stated it was the same for the lc6i and one other model, the lc8i, from what i understand, has a few diagrams they provide and more options -- If this does work, then does my theory hold true where i'd literally just take my connections from my rear speakers that are tied to my current LOC for the subwoofer, move it over the Channel 2 Input on the lc6i, and boom, I have signal for the new front speakers and the subwoofer? in theory?

[WhineyTTwins]

yes they at least stated it was the same for the lc6i and one other model, the lc8i, from what i understand, has a few diagrams they provide and more options -- If this does work, then does my theory hold true where i'd literally just take my connections from my rear speakers that are tied to my current LOC for the subwoofer, move it over the Channel 2 Input on the lc6i, and boom, I have signal for the new front speakers and the subwoofer? in theory?

Yep, should work. I haven't gotten a response from Audiotec Fischer so you may be the guinea pig here to determine how it affects the handsfree functionalities.