CrazyAl

In my opinion, the weak links in the 500/1000 are the same:

#1. Lack of midrange, especially in the rear. (Mainly this is becasue the rear deck speakers are crap)

Solution: Upgrade rear speakers to aftermarket. Buy a set of 5x7 aftermarkets that you like and they drop right in. The Inifinity CF6812 is popular and works great. If you really want to do a good job, get a second pair and do the front door speakers as well. The Inifinitys can be had brand new on Ebay for $50/pair, shipped to your door, maybe less.

#2. Road Noise.

Solution: Dynamat or equivalent product. Apply everywhere you can. The more the better, but as a bare minimum get the sheet metal inside the trunk, the inside of the doors, and the rear deck area. Cost: $50 and up for materials. (I did my ENTIRE car and the material cost was $300) This is worth five times it's cost in sound quality improvement.

#3: Shoddy Head unit.

Solution: Replace with aftermarket unit of your choice.

#4: Lack of low Bass (not so much in the 1000, but IMHO it could still use an upgrade)

Solution: Buy a good quality sub or two, and get a box professionally made to match the sub's specs. Install sub & amp. You can design this however you like. For rock music (but not shaking your neighbor's windows) I suggest 1 JL 10". If you guys want to rattle your fillings, then you can slap in two Kicker 12", etc....

S.SubZero

It's OK if you want a decent stereo that's part of the package that you don't need to screw with or install. It's like getting the supersize at the fast food place; you get more food, but it's still just fast food. OEM pales in comparison to aftermarket, but it's better than the Shaker500, which is the whole point.

backinblack06

Listen, If your anyone who wants good quality sound when you here it, this is not the product !!!!! I have the shaker 1000 it was already in the car so wasnt my choice but, If I turn it up like 3/4 of the way it gets all crackly and distorted. I have a convertible and doing 50 mph and listening to good sounding music is impossible. That thing sucks and I'm in the process of ripping every last piece of garbage audio equipment out of there and putting in stuff that sounds good when played loud. Save the 1200 bucks and buy something you will be happy with !!!!!

[sm=smiley7.gif][:@][:@][:@]

Black06stang

Does the shaker 500 really have 8 speakers? I know there are 1 speaker in each door and 1 sub in each door plus the rear speakers which totals 6. Where are the other 2, are they in the doors also?

CrazyAl

In the shaker 500 system there are actually two speakers in each front door. There is a seperate tweeter and midrange, PLUS the door subwoofers. That's three in each door, plus the two in the rear deck = 8.

What's ironic is that the front door speakers (5x7 plate mount seperates) aren't bad, whereas the rear deck ones are crap...but they are interchangeable. Why couldn't Ford have just got two sets of the Front 5x7s and put the extra set in the back in place of those junk ones they are using??

Anyway, I think we all agree that the Shaker 1000 is simply not worth the additional cost compared to the 500.

alumacomp

How much weight does the 1000 add over the 500?

SonicStanGirl

Has anyone who purchased the car with the Shaker 1000 already in it....taken OUT the trunk sub box?

I wouldn't have ordered the 1000 if I had ordered the car...it had it already... so I have one. Personally I don't run the shaker subs all the time...but do turn them on from time to time depending on the music and how loud I want it to be. In the fairly near future I will be going to Massage Therapy school and will need more room in my trunk/car for my table.

I'm wonderin' if you just pull the sub box completely outof the car if it will mess up the head unit???? (pardon me, I'm not great at electronics, mechanics yeah, electronics no) Can you just pull the dang thing out?

I do concur with the previous post about heat and skipping CDs. Mine only skips after long CD play and on the 14-16th tracks and I notice when I eject the culprit CD it is wicked hot!

CrazyAl

What does it weigh? I'm not sure. It depends on how well designed the sub box is. My guess? It's probably not that solid of a box, so maybe 40 lbs?


Yes, you can remove the sub unit if you need the space or want to save weight. In doing so, you're basically converting your car from a Shaker 1000 to a Shaker 500. (The sub box is the difference between the two). No harm will come to anything, just unplug the wires.

2006RedGT

The 1000 comes with two 10" subs correct? So is it already wired? Could you just take out the old ones and put in the new ones?

CrazyAl

I'm assuming you're asking if you could remove the factory subs and add new ones?

Maybe. Or should I say, you can, but will it sound good?

The single biggest factor in the performance of a subwoofer is how well the speaker is matched to the box it is put in. I will take a "junk" Chinese sub in the proper size box over a "Kicker" in a random "off the shelf" box any day of the week. If you're asking can you remove the factory subs and replace them with different ones, it may be possible, but there are two hurdles to overcome:

First, how well do the new subs suit the box?
Second, will the factory amp drive the new subs?

...the latter would take some research too. I don't know about the "rear subs" but I know that the front (door) subs are a strange configuration that is not easily matched with off-the-shelf speakers. It could be that the rear sub amp isn't really compatible with aftermarket speakers, but I don't know.


You could remove the box altogether, replace it with aftermarket subs in a custom-built box (or simply do some reasearch and find aftermarket subs that are a good match for the stock box) and then you'd eliminate problem #1....but you'd still have to see if the amp would be compatible or not.