I am looking at sound systems for my truck and was wondering if there was anyone here who had spent some time/cash on designing a high-end sound system for their truck. I used to know a little bit about sound systems but to be honest the technology has passed me by. I am sure that the basics still apply...head unit/tuner, amp(s), bass/mids/tweeters, and crossovers but I would like to get a head start on my system by seeing what others have done. If you have a sound system that you are proud of then let's see it!

 

All 289 cubes make music to my ears!

 

My 351W will be making sweet music but I still got to ROCK!

I'm not up on all the current products but I plan on having a small system in my truck. It's been over 10 years since I bought a new head unit.

My plan is a single hidden 8" sub in a custom center console, a couple speakers behind the seats in the corners of the cab, a couple in the doors and maybe a pair up in the roof area. My head unit is going to be mounted in an overhead console I'm going to build. I don't want to cut up my dash anymore then I already have.

I'm not looking at anything fancy for my head unit. Right now I'm just looking at a Kenwood KDC-X595. It's less then $200 and has the USB inputs.

I'm leaning towards a JL Audio sub.

Still not decided on the rest of the speakers or the amp/s. So I'm curious to see what others have done too. Of coarse by the time my trucks ready for the sound system everything I'm looking at will be obsolete.

 

I was just funnin...

I plan to install a 4-ch. amp under the seat and run my Zune directly into it. There will be 2 5X8's down low by the toe boards up front, 2 more right behind the seats about chest high. No subs or tweeters...however it would be my thought that a 4-ch amp pushed to some mid drivers and tweeters up front, split through a crossover mounted under the dash. Same in rear with a small mono or 2-ch amp pushing a few 10's would do the trick. Nothing super high wattage...it is a truck after all. If you put the gas tank under the bed, you would have plenty of room to mount a small sub box behind the seat, mount your amps in the middle, mount a head unit in the stock location...and the only way you could tell anything was done would be if you flipped your seat forward or looked down by the floor or saw where your tweeters were mounted.

Not much has changed in the past 30 years of speaker technology...it is still a very crude way to produce sound that is very inefficient and dated. I am sure the knowledge you have from days gone by is still effective.

 

you mean to say you don't like the classic look of a transistor radio swingin from the inside rear view mirror??

 

Or the tube type radio, where you have to wait for them to warm up and once you get the dumb thing to play you go insane trying to find music on AM, and then find the perfect station and hear your engine in the radio because you dont have enough (or the correct) condensers on your engine??

I have been looking around at head units, and so far I have not found what I want. I am clueless about wattage and all the other goodies and how to match them up with speakers, but I want a very powerful/good sounding radio. Does any have a link to a website that explains about certain speakers, subs, head units, and tweeters? What is a tweeter by the way?

 

About a year ago I installed a Sony unit in my daily driver and I have been very happy with it so far. One of the features that I needed was the MP3 capability, this unit plays MP3s both off the CD and from a memory stick. I liked it so well that I bought another for my truck, the model # is CDX-GT640UI. It also has a remote and the unit costs less than $125 online.
I have also been a fan of Boston Accoustics speakers ever since I installed a set in my wife's car about 20 years ago. I bought a set of Pro 60 SE speakers that came with crossovers and they have seperate mountings for the tweeters if you choose to move them away from the bass/mid speaker. The wife's car had the tweeters up high off the dash and the bass/mids down low in the door. The system sounded great and I would be happy to get the same sound in the truck. I am not looking to rattle the windows in oncoming traffic but a tight bass sure sounds good especially when you can control the bass seperately from the high end. As it stands right now I will probably have a better system than most of the trucks in our club but I realize that I am not a professional audio guy and thought that there just might be someone on this forum that coughed up the bucks to have a system designed for them by one of these pros.

 

I bought an entire Sony system including speakers on clearance from Wal-Mart for about $70 a couple of years ago and it's been on the shelf ever since. I might buy an amp and build a sub-woofer into the back of my center console. I'll probably mount the 4 x 6 speakers in the side kick boards and the 6 x 9's in the rear above the cab corners. That's all months away though.

 

i going to hide an mp3 player in my panel.

 

I'm looking at using an Alpine CDA-105 Headunit, a PDX-5 amp, a 5-1/4" midrange / 1" tweeter in each corner, moving fuel tank and installing a custom box with 2 ~ 10" subs.

 

Last Xmas my dad gave me a Sony Xplod system-in-a-box that he bought on a clearance sale a couple years ago. He was going to put it into his '64 C-10 but decided to sell the truck. When I told him how terrible my "Road Gear" tape deck was, he said "hey I forgot about this whole setup I have in the garage, you can have it". It's a head unit, and 4 speakers.

So when I got home, I installed the head unit (AM/FM/CD/MP3/iPod) I yanked the speakers that the PO put in the kick panels and to my surprise they were Pioneers. I installed the 6.5" mid ranges in the kick panels. I've been running around like that only because I plan on doing a custom interior in the near future so I figured the two speaker system will get me by for now. It came with some 6x9's but they are still in the box. It sounds great, but doesn't have that kick that I like. I plugged the 6x9's in and put them next to the seat brackets and drove around...wow what a difference. It's loud as hell, and nice & clear when AC/DC is blasting. But that was just temporary.

I'll eventually re-do my interior, and when I do, I'll install the entire sound system, with some other goodies. I'll install the 6x9's either in the cab corners or under the seat. I've got a small R-F amp and truck box with a R-F 12" sub that might go in, but I like having the room behind the seat. I also have an Infiniti Basslink powered subwoofer that I need to repair a capacitor in. That can go under the seat and supply some thump. I've also go a pair of the Aura Bass Shakers that work pretty darn good for being cheap. I'll be relocating the head unit to inside the dash, behind a hinged radio delete plate. Since I'm going for a "traditional 50's custom" look, everything modern will be hidden away from plain sight.

I'm not current on sound system stuff, but this is just stuff that I got at swap meets and had in previous vehicles so I try to re-use what I can and save the money. I don't need the neighbors to hear me.

 

Well I just jumped off the deep end...I am in the process of designing my interior, specifically the console, and I wanted a GPS nav system. Got to looking at all the units with all the bells and whistles and finally opted for a Kenwood DNX-9960. Now I need to find the room for the 7 inch screen...hopefully I can get it placed in such a way that it is not too obtrusive but still usable. So much for ol' skool.

 

While we are on the subject, I WILL not cut my scratch built dash for a radio head. What I will do is hide some speakers and I would like to know if anyone knows of a MP3 unit that I can mount in a fold down armrest in the center of the seat. I would like to wire it up with a plug so that the unit could be removed. Is this too simple or am I just naive?

 

carnut122, would you be interested in passing your sony off to a deserving person that still has a stock 95' am/fm Ford radio(factory installed) with some rattle speakers? If so let me know. Doog

 

A guy in our club has his head unit remotely mounted (not sure where but it's someplace out of sight) and he has the faceplate mounted in the sun visor...just flips the visor down and instead of a mirror there's the stereo controls.