After lots of reading I concluded the only way to un**** the mach 460 setup is to completely replace it. Here's what I want to do:

component speakers up front with tweeters in stock location - how can I fit the tweeters there and will the crossovers easily fit in the doors?

??? god knows what for rear fill, possibly nothing in the deck and just a 10" sub in a sealed box.

4 channel amp (probably in the trunk?) would bridge 2 chans for sub if I go that route.

Will I have to rewire the entire car? I saw somewhere that the mach 460 uses a "data cable" to send audio to the amps in the rear deck instead of RCA cables so I'm assuming that answer is yes. How do I run power to an amp? I'm completely new to car audio so don't flame too hard

 

I would start with the deck if you have not already, then work your way back. I explain how to put a deck into the mach and with a little tweeking it can really sound better then stock.

 

I honestly have no idea what you did by looking at your cardomain page other than it involved lots of wiring harnesses. Changing the headunit is like sweeping the trash under the rug. Everything about the mach 460 is garbage and I would like to get it all replaced at once and do it right.

 

rip everything out. thats what I did.
My setup entails.
Kenwood X991 Headunit
Feeding two amps in the trunk
Component MB Quart 6.5" in custom fiberglass kick panels
12" sub in the rear

Forget rear fill you dont need it, waste of time and money.

You can mount in the door if you want, it will be a pain to run all new wiring through the door though hence why i built some custom kicks for my car.

Good luck

 

it was a challenging install with 3 hrns's and 4 capacitors needed to completely bypass/integrate into the factory system. I ran it like this for almost 6 months and it sounded much better then the stock head unit did. There is no reason to gut the system unless you have the means to replace everything at once but telling everyone to rip everything out is kind of a few steps backwards here. Do you want the 5.0 section to tell you nothing more then pull it and swap in a supercharged 4.6L?

 

I find it hilarious that stang2004 tells everyone you HAVE to replace everything in all the mach 460 threads and you parade around saying that replacing the headunit works fine.

Bottom line is the mach 460 setup is crap and a headunit will not fix that problem.

If rear fill is 100% a waste then I'll pass.

Still not sure if I can get away with tweeters in stock location, stock wiring, and toss the crossovers in the doors. I guess I'll find out once I buy everything.

 

I have been installing for almost 15 yrs and done literally hundreds of mustangs, I bet he is 16 and got all of his info from a video salesman at best buy.... The worst part about the mach system is the head unit as the sound quality is almost as bad as the reliability. The amps are matched for the speakers and if you can send them a clean signal you would be suprised what that system can do. I installed my alpine and ran it on the stock speakers for almost a year before I finally pulled the trigger and yanked everything.

You can easily fit a 6.5 or 5 x 7 compnonants and x-overs in the doors. The tweeter mount will take a little creativity but it is not impossible.

 

There you go again with the Best Buy stuff. If you get your glasses out, he said he been doing alot of reading.

But I mean damn he has no idea about car audio. Im having a hard time figuring out what he wanting to do. "data cable" where the hell is he reading this? It just like a rca cable ran back there from the deck just in a harness form. I guess it could be called a "data cable" but never heard it called that before.

 

data cable is from mustangworld.com. I was so confused by that as well when i first started doing my install work.

A head unit swap is the best place to start, i wish i would have done that first. If you just take the time to ask and look at what ttocs did you'll get it done. I will say that gutting and doing the whole thing at once was a relief(just did it in June, DLS MS6A's, Alpine W200, had 2 eD 13Ov.2's, but in the middle of doing my dual 13Av.2 build). It is quite easy, and no harnesses are needed if you go that route, just some splicing.

But i would listen to ttocs. he knows what's up, and does it the right way (unlike me splicing and dicing!)

 

Yep, mustangworld is where I got "data cable" from. And yeah I have no idea about car audio. I get my info from a Bestbuy video salesman? Is that a joke? I've been in audio for years, just not car audio. The lack of AC outlets and ability to toss wires wherever I want is kind of throwing me for a loop here I'll just replace everything at once and wire it as I go.