Step 3 - Upgrade the HK Amp with the Match UP DSP:
I added the Match UP 10DSP Amplifier. This gets a bit confusing, because you need more than the Amp. You need the Amp, the additional MEC Card because we need 1 extra input channel for our system, and the BMW specific wiring harness to wire it into the HK Amp and RAM module. This is what I ordered:
Match UP 10 DSP:
https://www.audiotec-fischer.de/en/m...fiers/up-10dsp
Match PP-BMW 1.9RAM-HK:
https://www.audiotec-fischer.de/en/m...-bmw-1-9ram-hk
Match MEC Analog In for UP 10DSP:
https://www.audiotec-fischer.de/en/m.../mec-analog-in
The MEC Card install into the AMP is pretty straightforward, remove 3 screws from the side and then you can remove the side panel and slide out the bottom panel of the amp, then pop in the MEC card, slide bottom back on, and install new side plate that came with the MEC with the same 3 screws. DO NOT change the jumpers on the MEC card, there is some verbiage on it in the instructions with warnings but the default settings are what we need, so don’t change anything.
The wiring harness is very easy, plugs to the amp only fit in one spot so easy enough. The main HK Amp plug and RAM Module plug are labeled so you can tell what is what. In the pic, what you see is the HK Amp, but stacked behind the amp there are 2 other things…. The RAM module is the one at the back of the stack….. hard to see it in pictures. Both Plugs are on the left hand side so they are easy to get to. The access panel seems small, but that’s really all you need.
Power wires do not come with the Amp so you need those. I purchased this kit below, even though I only needed the power and ground wires. I actually ordered the 4 Gauge kit, but 4 gauge doesn’t really fit the inputs on the amp, so I would recommend the 8 gauge kit. Battery is in the back under the floor, power wire doesn’t hook directly to the battery, it goes to the little red box beside the battery. Plenty of youtube videos out there showing how to wire these…. Easy peasy. This kit comes with an inline 50 Amp fuse which is what the Amp manual states we need.
https://www.amazon.com/SCOSCHE-ICAK8...47&sr=8-3&th=1
So that was the install of everything, next is the setup and tuning of the integrated DSP in the Match Amp. This is not a hard process, but there is a lot to learn. I knew nothing, and after a few days of research while I was waiting on the Amp I felt comfortable enough to do it myself. This tuning involves setting the amp inputs and outputs, setting crossover points, setting speaker delays, and tuning the sound curves for each output, and some other things.
You can download a basic setup from the link below to install as your starting point, but this basically only sets the inputs and outputs which is nice, but that’s just the starting point.
https://www.audiotec-fischer.de/en/m...ase/soundIndex
I would not run this amp without tuning it, so either tune yourself or you can find a place that does DSP tuning and they can do it for you. Before I tuned I had peaks and valleys all over the place, so without tuning it will be louder for sure, but it probably won’t sound very good.
Lot’s of good docs and youtube videos about dsp tuning out there and there is no right or wrong way, but here’s what I used. Windows laptop running the DSP PC-Tool from Audiotec Fischer to tune the amp/DSP, an iPad Air running AudioContol MobileTools App hooked to a minidsp UMIK-1 microphone to read the sound generated from the pink noise, and I played the pink noise from my iphone over carplay. Used a few pink noise files, but mainly used this 20 min one.
https://www.kicker.com/test-tones
I’m no expert on tuning, but I can try to answer any questions you have. I still need to finish my tuning, so I’ll try to get some pics of the process when I do it and add them to this thread. So far though, the difference is night and day between the Match and stock HK amp. In my limited testing time, it gets extremely loud and overall sound quality is very very good. Subs are still very loud, but you can tune those down in the SW. I love the fact that you can tune each speaker to sound exactly the way you want it to and set the sound stage to be centered to exactly where you're sitting. I currently have a fairly flat curve, but I like a little more treble so I need to tune in just a little bit more and adjust the levels of each speaker.
So overall, very happy with this mod so far. All together I'm probably in about $3000 which is a lot (add another $700 for the B&W grills), but if you're a crazy music person like me I feel it's money well spent... the stock HK system pissed me off every time I turned it on.
NOTES:
If you get a message in the SW about the MEC card voltage, you need to adjust the Voltage setting in the DSP PC-Tool to be "max. 11 / 3,5 Volts". Screenshot below of that setting. This MEC card input maps to the center channel, you can adjust the gain slider up some if you want more volume out of the center channel.
In the last screenshot, the box labeled #4 is where the amp power cable goes. For ground, there's a few good choices over to the left side of the battery pretty close to the amp.