OEM Audio Plus Reference 500Q install with dual subs

had some of the same issues when I installed mine but it went smoothly for most of it, although trying to fish the wires behind the steering column and those white clips for the wire harness details, that is what I struggled with most..took about 6-8 hours to complete...but man is the sound great...

 

UPDATE: It turns out my non-functioning gain control knob was due to some settings not being applied to the sub amp before it was sent from the factory. Daniel with O+ walked me through how to get everything set up properly, and DAMN it sounds good now. I thought it kicked pretty hard before but now it's awesome. And, of course, my knob works now so I decided to do a proper permanent knob installation, which I will share below momentarily.

I still don't have the second sub enclosure installed. O+ has been in constant contact with me about it though and they should have an update for me soon. But the system sounds so good with one sub that I'm not sweating the delay.

 

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, my goal was to mount the gain control knob on a blank switch plate. I started by removing the screws on the O+ gain control knob bracket.



There is some glue on the inside, so you may need to take a flathead screwdriver and insert it between the two metal pieces to get them to come apart.



You will also need to pry the plastic knob itself off.



If you look at the back of the blank switch plate (this is an OEM one I removed) you will see a plastic cylinder at the center. I used this as a guide for a drill bit to punch out a center hole.



Don't worry about the plastic which is sticking out. This is just a pilot hole to make sure we are centered.



From this side CAREFULLY drill back down the other way into the switch plate, widening the hole with progressively larger and larger bits, until it's wide enough to accommodate the knob.



I stopped at a 5/16ths bit, which is just big enough to accommodate the knob and obliterate the plastic cylinder on the back side.



There was still a bit too much friction, however, so a little dremeling was in order to just allow the knob to turn smoothly.

 

Now to get the rest of the knob hardware out of the old bracket. There is some glue holding it into place, but it's not too tough. Just pry it away.



Remove the hardware from the bracket. It should look like this.



Now carefully bend the LED back to the opposite direction. I suspect it can be removed if you prefer, but I just left it like this.



Then take your trusty Dremel and cut some grooves along the side to accommodate the PCB which is too wide to fit wholly inside the switch plate. You'll want to make them as deep as you can without tearing up the front face.



You may need to shave down some of the tabs on the inside as well to accommodate the RJ11 connector.



Then slide the gain control knob hardware into its new home.



If all goes well your metal knob will sit forward enough for you to reinstall the plastic knob to it.



You may want to glue the hardware into place, but I didn't. In may case there was enough friction in the switch body and the knob to keep everything in place. Here it is, installed in the truck. Working great! Happy modding.

 

I'm pretty happy with the system. Previously I'd be rolling down the road and straining to hear details in songs I knew were there, but couldn't hear well due to road noise and the factory system's lack of clarity. It was almost stressful. Especially with a passenger because you know they're only hearing half the song and you want them to hear the whole thing.

With the new system I can relax because all those details come through like they should. Previously I was considering installing some kind of noise reduction material as a part of this effort. Now I don't really feel like I have to. Sure, there's still road noise and it still compromises the sound, but not to the degree it did before. Everything is clear and balanced. And that's where I think you'd benefit the most by going the O+ route.

If you're the kind of person who can tune and balance it all yourself, then you may not need to go this route, but I found it worthwhile to have all of that taken care of.

 

Now you're talking. Nice write up.

I'm concerned about being able to fit speed wire, two 4-gauge power wires and speaker wire down the driver side. How much room was there without the white clips in place?

 

Everything closed up fine once I tore the white clips away. It's not like they do much anyway. But there's not much extra room in there for anything of consequence. I was still able to run one additional small-gauge wire for a rear-facing camera in the same channel, so it's not it's not completely packed. It's just that the loom around the O+ wires makes it hard to flatten down to make optimum use of the existing space. And a lot really depends on whether you have other accessories already using the channel.

 

Nice , Custom work with that bass level knob.

 

Did you ever get a resolution with the second sub? Tried to install mine today and ran into the same problem. It doesn't fit.

 

Nope. Not yet.
Last I heard from O+ they were waiting for a new batch of enclosures (from whoever they contract out the fiberglass work) to see if it's a systemic issue or if they just got some bad ones.

 

UPDATE: I got my replacement sub enclosure last week and it fits just fine. Yay! So you can order your 2nd subs with confidence that the fitment issues have been worked out.

After using only a single sub for several months, I'm in a good position to comment on the difference having the second one makes.
One of the main things I noticed was the bass is more... unidirectional for lack of a better term. Maybe it was only in my mind, but I felt like with only one sub I could "hear" its position in the cab - from behind me. Now (again, possibly a product of my imagination) it's difficult to tell where the bass is coming from. It's a subtle difference, but a nice one.

The other primary difference is only evident when you crank the bass up. Before, at the higher levels it felt a little stretched to its limit. This system was never made for thumping the neighborhood awake, but now it hits harder much more cleanly and effortlessly. Hard enough to make your average person *think* you're thumping the neighborhood awake.

To be honest, I don't turn the bass up to those levels on a regular basis, which is where the 2nd sub really shines. So honestly one sub is probably going to be adequate for your average commute to work. Thus, this purchase likely falls into the "nice to have" category. But with that said, I don't regret my purchase one bit.

 

Very nice. They've been in contact with me as of recent. Should have my replacement on the way soon.

 

I know this thread is 3 years old, but wanted to mention how invaluable it was with my the install of this system I just did, helped immensely especially with running the power wires.

 

Outstanding post - thank you for taking the time to do it. Much like most of us I did a fair amount of online and in person research on upgrading the non-JBL system in my 17 Toy… and I also settled on EOM Audio R 500 Dual. The cost to do it piece by piece was a blur for someone not into this stuff, AND way more expensive in most cases.

So my question is - so you still have the truck, how has it been over time, did you change it out, and are you still happy?

hopefully you see this question given the time since this post was created.

have a good day

 

Thanks for the affirmation. I’m glad it has been helpful.
To answer your questions, I’m absolutely still loving the system. Two issues have popped up over time:

1) My driver’s side door speaker seems to be going out. I’m not sure if it’s a connection issue (intermittent grainy / poppy signal) or if the actual hardware is going bad. I need to open up the door and check all the connections, but I haven’t yet.
2) I only noticed recently that my steering wheel microphone doesn’t work. I don’t know if it’s always been this way because it’s a feature I never use.

In any case, for those wondering if it’s still a good investment years later, my answer is yes definitely.

 

Wow. I've been going through an issue with this system (after ~4 years of ownership) that has almost made me post here in frustration multiple times and lo and behold you post that you're having what sounds like the same problem. I suppose it's time to spill the beans.

My passenger side speaker is "going out" too. I was convinced it was just a blown speaker so I contacted O+ for a replacement. Unlike all my experiences in the past, they took days to respond. In their response, they were quick to point out that my system was out of the 3 year warranty period but offered to sell me a replacement 6x9 woofer for $100. They did suggest I inspect the speaker first but I chose not to and ordered the replacement anyway. Replacement comes and it's the new smaller neodymium magnet. I expected that and didn't have a problem with it as long as it was a suitable replacement but it's not. Furthermore, it didn't fix the problem at all. The new speaker exhibited the same buzz/crackling noise most noticeable in the 100-300 Hz range. The original speaker is fine. The reason the neodymium magnet speaker is not a suitable replacement is because it's output is roughly half the "larger magnet" woofer. I'm not saying the speaker is lesser, it could be better but it doesn't match the output of the other speakers in my system when plugged into the same wires. I'm not sure how O+ handled this in development, perhaps the amp is adjusted for the systems that came with neo speakers or perhaps those systems just aren't as loud at a given headunit volume, I don't know and to some extent I don't care.

After figuring out the above, I reached back out to O+ for additional trouble shooting tips and asked to return or exchange the speaker because it wasn't a suitable replacement. Heard nothing back for over two weeks and had to file a PayPal claim. Eventually, they responded and asked if I would like a "larger magnet" non-neo speaker if they can "find one". I said I would prefer to just return for a refund at this point as I know the speaker is not the problem but I did say if they would prefer to exchange for the correct speaker I would not reject the solution because I did purchase the replacement at my own risk. They found one, lol, and it's on the way. No suggestions on how to figure out what the actual problem is.

As for the actual issue, I'm not sure. Haven't had time to dig into it beyond replacing/checking the speaker. At this point it pretty much has to be a wire or amp issue I figure. Hopefully the former. If anyone has suggestions or thoughts let me know. Needless to say my opinion of O+ has degraded somewhat. All of the above has not been pleasant and the issue remains unresolved.

Here is a video that may or may not demonstrate the issue. Sharing audio across the interwebs is obviously tricky.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wniJ96C8u3sBL7OBfuK-ScLPreMIk7r1/view?usp=drivesdk