DSR1 compatibility

I'm looking for responses from those who have used the DSR1 to add a system behind a JBL HU. I've seen info on what is retained using the DSR1, but I haven't seen much along the lines of what no longer works when using this product to replace the factory amp. What's been your experience?

Asking because I thought I had a good idea of what wouldn't work using a Maestro RR and I was mistaken.

 

I used the Rockford fosgate DSR-1 with an aftermarket amp.

Everything still works on factory HU, I didn’t lose any factory functions.

 

@dochanson thank you! Do you have any issues with noise after the swap?

 

Very little. If I’m at a standstill with motor off I hear a little hum. Definitely a non issue for me. I think hum is mostly dependent on amp. I used a Cadence 4.1 amp (not expensive) and it’s fine. I also don’t have gain levels maxed on amp...the higher the gain levels the louder the hum

 

I finished installing the DSR 1 today, and it has not gone well. Sound to FR, RR, RL doors is muddled, and the highs are not going through (Kappa 60 csx in both front and rear doors). Flashed the DSR 1 the other day, and will try again tomorrow, but this has not been a plug and play solution for a 2018 1794 (w. JBL) if you want to keep the head unit. I'll update if I get better results tomorrow.

 

Replacement DSR1 expected to arrive today. Will need to re-flash, but should be plug-and-play to see if issue resolved. Fingers crossed.

If you have issues with flashing DSR1, customer support with iDatalink was great. Could not explain why flashing issues were occurring, but fixed it quickly. Problem is, they're only in on weekdays.

I will write-up install and challenges when completed (hopefully by tomorrow if DSR 1 works). If DSR 1 does not work, I'll be shifting to AudioControl LCQ-1.

Please let me know how you liked the JL 10" sub, and which model/box you used. Brackets on rear seat really limit box space behind seats. Thanks!

 

I have been running the DSR1 since may/june in my 1974 with JBL entune. I have 2 JL amps after it. I have not had an issue with the DSR1. It replaced the JL fix86 i had previously. Getting rid of the factory amp got rid of all the noise i had when running the fix86. Make sure you configure you amp gain to match your speaker impedance rating using a controlled test tone on a CD and a volt meter. My JL RD amd has a clipping light to make setup super easy, i verified the setting with the volt meter too and it was spot on.

 

DSR1 replaced last night. Working better, but something is still not right. I still need to adjust gain and tune the system (see more remarks and questions below on DSR1 setup). Thanks for feedback, Cfincke - appreciate any help you can offer on DSR1 questions below (have exhausted Crutchfield's tech support info on DSR1).

System details: Went from Stock HU => iDatalink TO3 harness (removed factory amp) => Infinity Kappa Five amp => Infinity Kappa 60 csx component sets in front and rear doors + 10" Kicker Comp RT (w/ passive radiator). Pushed all signals for tuning through DSR1. Ran all new 14-gauge oxygen-free wire to all speakers (no stock wire used to run speakers). All items are new. This is probably my 10th system install, so I don't do it for a living, but I've done it well before and always been very satisfied with results.

Sound Concerns while testing off CD last night:
- FL door (driver) gets a really clean sound, but the rest of the doors sound different.
- FR door (passenger) has no highs pushing from tweeters.
- Rear doors get a little highs, but mostly mids. Mids also sound muddled.
- Bass from Kicker is almost non-existent. Heavy bass still pushed to component sets but, like I said, I still have to setup/tweak the system today.

Could be it just needs to be tweaked, could be amp issue, could be DSR1, could be crap Stock HU (I've read the posts on the Stock HU, but trying to keep it for stock look and functional simplicity...if that works).

Questions for those who've used the DSR1:
- Did you use the iDatalink TO3 harness?
- When you connected former JBL amp wires to DSR 1, did you do that just using the plug-and-play wires for all speaker connections (no high-level inputs), or did you run high-level inputs/solder connections? I used the remote turn-on from DSR1 to remote the Kappa amp, but that's the only wire that was soldered. All else was plug-and-play. Perhaps others have obtained better results using another setup.
- Any other specifics you could offer on DSR1 would be helpful.

Thanks for the help, and will continue to update when more is known. Will do full write-up and links to some items that really helped install when finished.

 

Re-flashed and updated bluetooth on DSR1 three times yesterday, along with programming the Fosgate DSR1 update. Re-flashed three times because, twice, DSR1 randomly stopped working. Stereo keeps playing (CDs, FM, XM, BT), time ticks along on track, but no sound comes out of system. Amp shuts off (not going into protection mode - not even warm), then DSR1 starts flashing a green light about 6 times, followed by 1 white light. It went out last night for the last time at about 7 PM. This is the second DSR1 unit (Crutchfield already replaced the first one). I can't trust the DSR1 and will now just replace HU or try AudioControl LCQ-1 to process signal from HU and distribute to Kappa 5 amp.

Problem with FR tweeter was a bad Kappa crossover. Crutchfield replacing that. 10 minute fix.

Rear right doors sounded great with new, re-flashed DSR1 - until it quit (see 1st paragraph above).

This will be my last post on the DSR1 unless something miraculous happens. Will update if I go with LCQ-1 and have better success. As always, Crutchfield has been fantastic backing its products.

 

I have the DSR1 installed with a JL RD900/5 and it sounds flipping amazing. Sorry to hear you are having troubles.

 

Well, it works. After much more troubleshooting, we determined it was the TO3 harness wires and not the DSR1 that was the problem. To keep it short, the "plug and play" TO3 harness had lose wire connections in the harness and after securing them better, the system has worked flawlessly for 5 days. Crutchfield sent me a new TO3 harness, and I've had zero issues since. System sounds excellent, especially since I replaced the crossover on the FR door, which got the tweeter firing. For comparison purposes, I did a very similar install on a 2006 Sequoia several years back, replacing the head unit with Pioneer that had 3, 24-bit DACs, Kappa components, Kappa sub, etc. The two systems sound equally good and that should tell you that the DSR1 did a good job converting the 2018 1794 (JBL) stock HU signals and cleaning them up before distributing to the amp.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions over the last couple weeks. Has not been fun, but I've learned a lot about the 2018 1794. I'll do a full write-up in the coming weeks, but I need a little detox from discussing car audio. (and then I decided to ramble the following info, hoping it helps someone avoid the challenges I encountered).

System configuration for anyone who's interested: Stock Head Unit (JBL) => Fosgate DSR1 => Infinity Kappa 5 amp => (4 channels) Infinity Kappa 60 csx in front and rear doors (crossovers secured center console) => (5th channel) Kicker CompRT 10" Loaded Enclosure (with radiator), and new speaker wire to all speakers (left stock wiring in place and zip tied it).

Some interesting information about the install: Crutchfield tells you the Kappa 60 CSX do not fit in front or rear with the problem being the mounting height. They fit fine in both with a very slight modification. On the front and rear doors, Toyota puts a goofy, thick plastic ring on the door to cover the speakers on the inside of the door panel. Makes no sense to me. Once you trim that plastic ring off with a Dremel tool or Roto-Zip (used disc cutting wheel on Roto-Zip), you don't have mounting height issues any more that Crutchfield talks about. Without cutting off this ring, the ring will hit the speakers and prevent the door from snugging up against the metal. I also sanded down the remaining inside panel after cutting off the ring (80 then 200 grit), just so there were no sharp, plastic areas inside the door. Since this plastic ring is on the inside of the door, you cannot see any mods from the cab. You'd never know there was a mod to the door or that the speakers are different. Just the way I wanted it.

Now, on the front door, the speaker brackets provided by Crutchfield suck and were cheap. You had to use them with the stock speaker bracket to make it work. ********* has a bracket that is better and "plug and play" with the Kappa 60 csx (they said it was plug and play - I did not verify). For about $80 for those brackets, I probably would have saved 3 hours of time and looking back, would have been worth it. Otherwise you spend time cutting the plastic ring off the inside of the door, and then figuring out how to make clean, sturdy connections with the stock bracket and crappy bracket provided by Crutchfield.

One of the hardest parts of the install, and most risky, was installing the new speaker wire to all speakers. Pretty easy on the front doors once you remove the rubber grommets between the door and cab. ********* also had a nice video on this where the guy did a great job walking you through this exact process on the front and rear doors (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RjiqacMOdo). For the rear doors, you have to drill through a bracket while the wires are in the bracket. Not fun stuff when you think "I just paid $40K+ for this truck and am within a 1/4-inch of making my rear doors unusable." That being said, I was very careful and held a piece of metal between the drill and existing wires to ensure I did not hit the existing wires. Still was tight to get the new wire through, but we made it work.

More to come later. Thanks again for all the help and good MOJO.

 

I used the basic tuning features on the DSR1 EQ. I just wanted to make sure I had a good baseline sound, and then figured I would start tweaking a couple weeks down the line. I disabled using the EQ in the head unit to force the dsr1 and my amp to do all the processing. Sorry I don't have any tips for you. Please let me know if you discover anything interesting regarding time alignments or anything else.

 

It's been set to T Harness and I can use Basic. Don't know.

You getting a hiss at low volume? Want to get rid of that and the engine whine. Engine whine was in stock system before mods and think it's coming from right dash speaker.

 

The Perfect Tune app will not open on my iPad Pro 12.9. Has anyone else ran into this? It’s the newest 12.9. The app will show full screen for about a half a second then go back to the iPad screen.

 

I have the same set up minus the C1’s in the dash. What are you running those off of? How’d you wire them up? Center channel and dash speakers?

 

Hmm. The JBL HU doesn’t have speaker outputs, only the non-JBL does. With the JBL HU, the output is from the stock or aftermarket amp. Now I’m really curious.

 

The speakers are powered by the amp in a JBL system. You can see the pinout at the amp in the following post: https://www.tundras.com/threads/how-to-add-a-new-amp-to-your-3rd-gen-tundra-jbl-entune-system.22527/

 

Hey did you try the dsr1 without changing the amp to see what it sounded like?

 

I did not change my amps when I replaced the Fix86 and factory amp with the DSR1.

Fix setup
Headunit -->factory amp -->fix86-->JL Amps-->speakers

Dsr1 setup
Headunit -->DSR1-->JL Amps-->speakers

 

Cool man. What made the most difference when you upgraded? Speakers or amp or whatever

 

The DSR1 got rid of the frustration I had when running the fix86 and factory amp. The fix86 cannot decode the signal from the JBL headunit, so it grabs the output from the factory amp, but the factory amp add a ton of noise. The fix86 could clean up a lot of the noise, but not all of it. I had my gains and master volume turn to 50% or less to reduce the noise.

The dsr1 can decode the signal from the JBL headunit, so no need for the factory amp. I was able to set the gains on the amps to just below the point when clipping occurs.

Before I did amps and speakers, I did full dynamatting throughout the truck, that actually improved the sound of the factory setup a lot more than I expected.

My 1st gen was fully dynamatted, mainly because the exhaust was droning bad. To hear the audio difference of dynamatting was impressive

 

Hey thanks for this man!
Question tho, when you said the dsr1 removes the need for the factory amp, does that mean that the dsr1 is taking over the signal processing completely and the amp is strictly for power output to the speakers?

The dsr1 doesn’t have any powering capability right?

 

Correct, the dsr1 decodes the headunit signal and is also a sound processor. It has RCA outputs that connect to an aftermarket amp

 

I think I’m going to try the drsr1 first and see what that does. Thanks for the help

 

Have you added any amps or speakers yet? I do not believe you can use the factory amp with the dsr1.
Fyi - I ordered everything from James at tech12volts, super easy and top notch customer service and great pricing

 

Oh man I didn’t know that. Nah I haven’t done anything yet. I’m looking for a starting point.

 

Start with speakers and add sound deadener if you want, I would recommend.
I am note sure if the speaker group buy that @Pudge put together is still running or not.

 

Yea I didn’t jump in cause I stil have the factory amp but I did like the k170 speakers. Tons of great reviews.

 

Several members jumped on the speaker deal and are running them with the factory amp.

 

Hmm. Yea. I’ve been doing all kinds of research on what I need to do but I guess I need to let the pros handle all the r&d.