Teardown: R1S Audio Unit under drivers seat and speaker harness pinnout.

[SeaRivianR1s]

Nicely Done!

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[Willyspu]

During the tear down were you able to find where the FM antenna attaches to the Infotainment system?

 

[redantpile]

During the tear down were you able to fine where the FM antenna attaches to the Infotainment system?

No I don't know for sure but I have a guess. In front of the factory subwoofer there is a communication(transmission?) module where various coax feed into the box. Best guess the FM terminates there and becomes a digital signal that feeds back into the network and flows thru to whatever from there. Just a guess though.

 

[Willyspu]

No I don't know for sure but I have a guess. In front of the factory subwoofer there is a communication(transmission?) module where various coax feed into the box. Best guess the FM terminates there and becomes a digital signal that feeds back into the network and flows thru to whatever from there. Just a guess though.

Thank you for the reply. The reason I ask is there is an option to connect a FM module in between the antenna and Infotaiment center to recieve a clear and decent quality signal from a Sirius XM satellite receiver. I don't want to high jack this thread so I will just leave that here.

If people are interested in adding Sirius XM satellite receivers to their system they should contact: Vaistec who builds custom satellite radio kits for various makes and leave a note on their chat bot saying they want a solution to get Sirius XM in their Rivian.

 

[redantpile]

Interesting. If anyone makes a high bit rate device for providing a line in to the factory audio, I'm all in. Have to wait for USB audio for now unless some aftermarket solution pops up. The audio unit has a spare unused port. I'm just guessing it's for daisy chaining other audio units and could be used to pull line level input/output if someone could make an adapter for it. Probably not going to happen with a low number of vehicles produced, like compared to a Corolla etc...

I wonder if the factory antennas can receive Sirius and they could just design/approve an app for it. Stuck with using a phone and Bluetooth for now. Boo.

 

[redantpile]

My last modification hopefully. I added a high pass filter to the 4 door speakers. They produce frequencies down to 35-ish hertz from the factory. I need to listen to a lot more albums, but so far it's an improvement. Now letting the subwoofer do what it does best. I would say the bass is smoother, more even. I went with starting the cut-off at 80 hz. I think 100-120 hz would have been a better choice. It does seem to eliminate the 30 hz range but still plays 40's and above. So far the door rattle has been reduced. Not much to see but this is what the capacitor harness looks like.

This system is actually getting roughly close to my last system, that I built from scratch. I think I can live with this considering the other good tradeoffs a R1 has.

 

[SeaGeo]

I owe you a beer!!! Thanks to your pictures, I retracted my driver seat all the way back and up, and I was able to lift up the plastic cover just enough to see the cables. Turns out that my issue of only having sound from the front dash speaker was due to someone in the factory not plugging one of the cables all the way in. I pushed it in and now I have awesome audio!
Now it's time to fix the rattles that came up with the availability of sub

Thank you!!!!!!!!! You saved me a SC visit!!!!!

I'm really suspicious that's what I have going on...

 

[Mr8ce]

Thanks for this amazing breakdown! Are you using the sub signal to a LOC? If so do you find that it’s heavily eq’d as certain songs bass sound better than others?

 

[vandy1981]

Did you find the port for the XM satellite antenna? /s

 

[SeaRivianR1s]

So, I did an unconventional sub, but pretty happy with results so far, been two weeks now. Great foundation below 60hz now, esp above volumes of 15, really keeps up and the low end doesn’t get lost or distort.

I plugged in an Svs 3000micro, right to the aux 110v, tapped into the subwoofer speaker levels at the rear and converted them to line level with a passive loc and fed to sub. So minimal intrusion into vehicle Electricals and I really didn’t want to touch the 12v circuit as a primary goal. The upside is 110v is powered by main battery bank in car so it is endless for my needs, downside with current software is that I do need to remember to turn on the aux 110v outlet every three days, as that is the longest you can turn it on. That hasn’t bothered me much as if Iever forget to turn it on, the lack of low end is obvious to me so I flip it on.

I secured the sub down with a custom wood panel with speaker carpeting and two fake 8” speaker grills to let the air move from the sub to the cabin.

I went with Svs micro as it is tiny for 800w rms, and the Svs app has endless equalization options and customization that allowed me to really dial in the blending to rest of system and flatten the response, while sitting in the drivers seat.

Overall very happy with the results.

 

[redantpile]

Thanks for this amazing breakdown! Are you using the sub signal to a LOC? If so do you find that it’s heavily eq’d as certain songs bass sound better than others?

I'm using a JL JD250/1 that has speaker level inputs. To me the bass is clean, as if taken from a line level input. It's been the same as my previous total system builds. Some albums have more/less bass and I adjust with the remote. My EQ is fairly flat and I don't use the enhanced setting(what ever it's called). So the varied bass is because of the source, not the truck, is what I think. The door speakers do still add some bass so the factory system still has some say in how the bass sounds.

 

[redantpile]

Did you find the port for the XM satellite antenna? /s

No I never looked for that. Not sure it it even exists.

 

[k9ltd3]

I might be modifying some of the speakers so here is the harness layout if anyone needs it. I unbolted the drivers seat but did not need to remove it or even unplug it's harness. Torque wrench showed about 45-50 ft-lbs to break the 15 mm bolts loose. The seat feet have lineup pins pointing down so I would put some lumber down to protect the carpet.

I thinks it's a A2B type audio setup, but that's just a guess. I thought I remember years back Rivian had job listings with A2B experience.

I'm stumped on the center channel is setup. It sounds and meters like two speakers right next to each other. If anyone has seen that center speaker setup or knows, that would be great.

Also you can put the seat back without the plastic cover. Then you can still access all of the wires from the front, and put the cover & seat back again on until you are finished.

******Harness drawing updated 7/16/22*******
******edit 8/11/2023. After testing the subwoofer pins with a meter and tone generator, I can only make one conclusion. Both the center channel speaker and subwoofer are dual voice coil, and both have a mono signal playing over each pair of wires. ********

For the 4 wires you have for the sub on the diagram, which ones are the input to the amp, vs. output? I am trying to connect pre-amp to remove the cross-over and amplified signal.

 

[redantpile]

For the 4 wires you have for the sub on the diagram, which ones are the input to the amp, vs. output? I am trying to connect pre-amp to remove the cross-over and amplified signal.

The sub is dual voice coil so both pairs are speaker level out. I think they are mono but I used all four as input to my amp.

 

[k9ltd3]

The sub is dual voice coil so both pairs are speaker level out. I think they are mono but I used all four as input to my amp.

Hmm, ok then where are the inputs prior to the amp?

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