Probably the worst part of my 2006 V6 is the stereo system (the bag of bones behind the wheel isn't good enough to say the engine is too weak yet). The head unit works with maybe half of the mp3s that I try to play on CDRs, the buttons on the head unit are wearing out (not to mention the display not changing color with the rest of the dials), the sound isn't great with FM, I can't connect an iPod/iPhone or anything via Bluetooth (I won't blame 2006 Ford for no Bluetooth, but no aux in?!) and bass through the 8" 'subs' seems to cause the doors to rattle/distort sound.

Rather than just complain, I want to do something about it.

The last head unit I bought was an Alpine CDA-9812RB (the link is actually where I bought it from back in the UK). It was an excellent head unit at the time, 60w RMS for each speaker and full speed iPod control, which meant it could properly control my old iPod. With some better co-ax spekers in the doors and a Vibe active sub in the boot (trunk), it sounded great for my late teen/early 20s. Only problem was the sub took up half of my space, but was fairly indestructible, taking a Jag S-Type to it and only bending the grill slightly.

Anyway, I want to do this properly in my Mustang. No short cuts (I used to be very good friends with electrical tape, to my discredit), so I'd like your advice if possible...

1) Is Crutchfield that great? Are their dash kits good or should I buy that elsewhere?
2) When I ask for a Bluetooth (streaming and handsfree) enabled with USB inputs on the back (nothing on the front), am I asking too much? I really don't care about CDs, they're a dead medium to me.
3) What would be good replacements for the stock speakers? 6x8s or some kind of components?
4) Would it be worth replacing the 8" subs or replacing them with a sub in the trunk? What would I do with the empty space in the doors? Could I take them out and just leave the grilles in place?

 

Answers are in Blue, hope that helps. Feel free to ask me more questions

 

I like the idea of the 6.5 components, it sounds like the tweeters would be in an ideal position from the mids too if they're in the 6x8 spot, did you need to make adapters for the 6.5s to mount in the sub spots or are they available? Also, did you run them off of an amp or just through your head unit? With Crutchfield, I do like the idea of them including the dash adapter and cabling...

 

Well, the distortion was likely caused by clipping or reaching the mechanical limits of the subs. If the volume was above 70% of its max, then either of those are a highly probable explanation.

1) Crutchfield is great for everything but price. Their customer service is top notch, and their website is nice. I'd say it's best to only use them for their website unless you NEED the best customer support. Other sites will almost always offer the same product you want for much less. I always buy from legit sites that sell a given product for the cheapest, and I have never bought from Crutchfield, which tells me that they never offer the best deals.

2) Take a look at Sony's new GS series headunits. They have the best bluetooth chips in the industry, and are a big departure from the Xplod of yore. They have the GS series in single DIN and double DIN.

3) Your best option given your level of experience would be to utilize the stock subs and sub amps and get some 6.5" or 5.25" components, and mount the woofers in the stock 5"x7" location and the tweeters on the dash/in the a-pillars. Separately amplifying the speakers will make the biggest difference in the sound quality and output, it will sound MUCH better than amplifying them from the headunit. I myself plan on going 3-way active, with 8" midbass, up to 5" midrange, and tweeters mounted on the dash with velcro (non-permanent solution). I will take care of the sub stage later, the midbass from my 3-way setup will be better than the stock subs. Active means that I'm not using a passive crossover (the kind that you screw the speakers into, and run wire from that unit to your amp), rather I'm crossing the speakers over through my amp or deck and thus selecting the frequency that I want them crossed over at. That's a little advance for someone without much experience, so I suggest you just keep the stock subs and get some components.

4) I think that if you plan on throwing a sub in the trunk, you should utilize the 8" space in the doors because they have their own enclosures and would make for some killer midbass. Not many cars have stock 8" cutouts, let alone enclosures for them. Best thing is, you can make baffles as thick as you want if mounting depth is an issue, because the grilles are separate from the door panels (unlike my last car, where I ran the chance of the speaker slapping the grille since it was integral with the door panel).


Best of luck, let me know if you have any more questions! Not to be arrogant, but I have a LOT of experience with car (and home) audio, and I need to meet my post count to upgrade my membership here, so "use me" while you can haha

 

Thanks! So really I should go about it in a couple of stages.

1st, get a headunit (I'm pretty underwhelmed by CES for the new headunits, they aren't particularly impressive for tech) and 5.25 components, keep the factory subs in place.
2nd, get 8" woofers, amplify the fronts and a sub in the trunk.

The 2nd stage opens up a bunch of questions (more posts for you )

-What kind of amplification are you using for the 3 different types of speaker? Would a 4 channel amp work or are you using an equalizer going to separate amps for each type of speaker?
-Would it be ok to keep the 5.25 components (taking away the passive crossover for the tweeter).

 

Yeah, CES as a whole was pretty underwhelming lol...But the Sony GS series headunits are perfect for your application. First time I've been able to recommend a post-millenium Sony product!

That sounds like a good plan, I like the dual-stage idea.

-I actually prefer to cross everything over at the headunit if it is capable, but I'm probably not going to have a 3-way capable headunit for my next install. Thus, I'll be using a combination of the crossovers on the amp and in the headunit. I have a 4-channel amp, but I'll have to add in one of my 2-channel amps when I go 3-way active.

-When you add the 8" midbass in the doors, your best option would be to keep the 5.25 components and remove the passive crossovers, and run the whole set active like I plan to do.

One other thing...whatever headunit you get, it's in your best interest to make sure that it is at least 2-way active capable, and has time alignment. Time alignment, or t/a for short, is when you delay the drivers that are closest to you so that the sound from all of them arrives to your ears at the same time. It gives you the ability to "center" the sound stage, without the need for a center channel. With my last system, you could have sworn I had a center channel, the voices were dead center. Once you use t/a, you'll hate to listen to a system without it

 

Well the Shaker (didn't) play it's final CD this week. I got mad and ordered the Alpine UTE-42BT from Crutchfield and installed it yesterday.

No new speakers just yet, but I will probably stick with Alpine for those.

With the factory speakers, the sound quality is a little... underwhelming. Sure, it's better than the stock headunit, but I don't know. It just isn't a patch on that 8 or 10 year old headunit that I loved.

Bluetooth is great, the mic is really good (I need to see if there's a way to lower the volume for calls though) and the install was incredibly easy (the worst part being that I couldn't disconnect one of the heater control harnesses).

As the kit included a Double Din mount too, I might work on a Nexus 7/Android tablet install.