fairlane292

If you don't have to have MP3 and 6 disc; the std system sounds great; plenty of base; you still get speed sensitive volume; and of course the sweet clean door panels. Can always upgrade to aftermarket later if you wish and probably save yourself some money and end up with a system better than factory. JMO

Philostang

+1 to Scrappy and CrazyAl.

The last time this issue came up most folks basically said they were happy with what they had in the car. A lot of folks didn't pick either, they picked a car and it had what it had...and that was just fine. If you're really into bass, then as Al says, get a real system and don't waste your time with an overpriced option. (Also, BIG +1 on staying away from BestBuy type stuff--Sony sucks and is for the ill-informed, aka "Suckers.") $1,200 of well thought out components makes for a mighty fine system (esp. if you do the install yourself).

But really, that's only if you're big into bass or you're an audiophile (in which case, do as fairlane suggests and just build your system from the ground up). Otherwise, you'll quite likely be happy with either system installed in your car or with the 500 if you should order it that way.

Best,
-j

SonicStanGirl

I COMPLETELY agree with Scaught! I love the shaker1000 and I don't listen to thump thump stuff. It sounds totally awesome when playing rock CDs. I also love that you can turn OFF the sub in the trunk if you want. I wouldn't have chosen the 1000 if I had ordered the car because I figured I never listen to rap.....but then this car had it in it already at the dealer and I am totally thrilled that I have it now.

Scaught

Thanks sonicstangirl. I didn't ask for the Shake N bake 1000 either, it was in the car already. The car was everything else I wanted. taking the 1200$ and doing your own idea is still the best idea. Don't order the shaker1000, get the plain jane stero and do your own mod. It would be better.

The thing for me is, I already paid 1200$ more for the Shake1000 and it is good enough for now. Better to spend the rest of my money on preformance...

Next up~ Suspension!!!

one_focused_svt

I've got the shaker 1000, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Its simple, looks clean, and the fact I got a bigger alternator and upgraded battery with it is a plus to boot! Also most people say its $1200 bux which is the equivelent of what $18/mo, chump change. I like it and recommend it, but I'm also the type that would rather dump 2 grand in aftermarket stuff under my hood, not my trunk.

lmunz22

I always thought that the Shaker 100 was 2x the power of the 500.

MikeVistaBlue06

Actually I goofed this morning; this is what happens when you approach 45 years of age..... I too am an EE (Clemson University 1987) and I also have a physics degree.

The average rms power would be 1/2 of the peak power. So the "Shaker 1000" would be truly 500 watts rms, which is plenty of power for anyone who doesn't want to go deaf.

Power = (Vrms)^2/R = (Vrms)(Irms)

Vrms = Vp/SQRT(2)

Irms = Ip/SQRT(2)

Prms = Vp/SQRT(2) * Ip/SQRT(2) = VpIp/2 = Pp/2

Everyone needs to remember that 1 watt rms will give you at least 90db of sound pressure 1 meter away, and that is describing an inefficient speaker; most speakers are at least 95% efficient. More power is needed to maintain clarity of the sound and keep the amplifier from clipping the signal if you drive it too hard. Such times can occur when there is a big lick of bass or a crash of a symbal in the music. Large peak transients need the extra power.

If you are trying to make it louder, doubling the power gives you a whopping 3db increase in sound pressure; you need at least 10X power to make a difference sound pressure wise.

Regardless of all the numbers, the main question is: does it sound ok to you? If it does, then you will be happy!

Hope this helps.

Mike

Skrappy

See the link below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_power

It is a faily easy to understand way to look at audio power.

You can see that you can pretty much call a stereo amplifier output whatever you want, it just depends on how you measure it. The key thing that I think Mike may be missing is that a "Peak-to-Peak" (most likely what ford is using) uses both the top and bottom (positive & negatice) power swings (music is AC power, hence if you plug a speaker into a wall outlet at your house, you will get a 60Hz hum) PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS!!!! So you have to take the "Peak-to-Peak" number and devide it by half, since we only care about the power in one direction. This is probably where Mike is getting the 500 Watt calculation. That is correct for a "Peak" measurement, but RMS (Root Mean Squared) power is the Average Area under the curve, not the total area caluclated as if the "Peak" continued on forever (that would be a DC signal). This is where the .707 comes in. the .707 number is the shortcut (like using Pie 3.14 when you calculate dimensons of a circle) for the area under the curve of the wave. That is what brings us to the:

Shaker 1000 - 1000 P-PW / 2 = 500 PW x .707 = 353.5 WRMS

Shaker 500 - 500 P-PW / 2 = 250 PW x .707 = 176.75 WRMS

To defend Mike as well as anyone else who sees there being more power in the system, they may be right. I am basing this off of the numbers being "Peak-to-Peak" they may be using some other calculation. I refferenced the P-t-P numbers because they seem the most likely given the size of the amplifiers, speakers, and the wiring between them and the battery.

A thumbrule to think about when shopping for speakers. Mike is correct about the calculations for SPL and efficiency. The factory speakers may have an efficiency as high as 100dB, but most aftermarket speakers of any quality will hover around the 91dB mark. If you do some reasearch you will find that the most expensive speakers you can buy for your car or house will have a very low efficiency rating maybe even down below 85dB. This is because high efficiency speakers are "looser" meaning that the high efficiency usually results in more distortion due to less control and less sound quality, and this makes sense for the factory systems because the components (Speakers & Amps) are cheaper and they can use smaller wires all around due to less current flow. High end speakers however are very power hungry. Likewise they demand alot of power to make them move, this results in a "tighter" sound that results in a much higher quality sound production. Go to a site like "Crutchfield" yourself and you will see an average that shows that speakers will tend to decrease in efficiency as the price and sound quality go up. This is a generalization for all speakers and is not a perfect science, but the best place to see this displayed is in Subwoofers. I will stop now before I ramble on any further.

Hope some of this helps.

Skrappy

Skrappy

And as Mike ended with:

If you like it, that is all that matters!

Skrappy

CrazyAl

As a hardcore Audiophile, I'm going to have to weigh back in here. On my previous vehicles I had put together some very nice systems. In my old S-10 I had $5,000 in equipment alone, not even considering install costs. Even though it sounded damn good, eventually I gave up on trying to get perfect sound out of my vehicles. There are just too many distractions to fully enjoying the music (driving anyone?) and it becomes too difficult to get a clean background. Dynamat is only so good, and there's nothing you can do about sounds from other cars. I'm concentrating on my home system instead...for what I've put into that, I could buy three new GTs!


To me, the Shaker 500 is close to ideal. It has a lot of nice features (the changer and the MP3 compatibility) and it sounds very good. No, it's not perfect, but it's good enough that upgrading it for the Shaker 1000 or for an aftermarket system just isn't worth the money and the effort, in my opinion. The Shaker 1000 is a very nice system. I just don't think it's worth the extra $1200. As I said above, if you want a nicer system than the 500, just upgrade the factory speakers for a couple hundred $$$ and you're done. If you don't mind dropping the $1200, then get a REAL aftermarket system rather than the 1000.


Skrappy's latest post seems correct to me as far as the mathematics goes. (I have an ME background). But it isn't so simple. A reputable amplifier company will rate their equipment (generally RMS) under standarized operating conditions, while playing actual music into actual speakers--continuously--without clipping or distorting beyond a certain threshold.

On the other hand, companies that are only looking for a high power output number might do the following.....put the amp on a test bench. Jack up the input voltage, and stick a big fan blowing on the case. We'll hook it up to a dummy load that's purely resistive rather than an actual speaker. (resistive loads are easier to drive than inductive ones, such as a speaker) Rather than playing music, we'll "play" a test tone from a function generator...and we'll only play it for a second or two. They don't care if the output is distorted or it clips. As long as the amp didn't blow up, it "worked" at that ouput. By doing all of these little "tricks" they can get the equipment to deliver a much higher output than you could ever get in a real-world installation.

1000 watts playing real music, continuously, into speakers is very different than 1000 watts for a short time on a test bench...and we don't know precisely how Ford got their numbers. You can measure 1000 watts peak while playing music in a real install, or you can measure 1000 watts in some kind of short-duration "faked" bench test....or you can do something in between. They're not the same thing even though they're all "peak" values.

...though, ya'll are right in the end. The only thing that really matters is does it sound good to you?