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I hit a deer in my Excursion last week. Until then I was perfectly fine with the stereo. Had to drive a Hyundia Sante Fe for 4 days (how embarrasing) but the stock stereo kicked *** (to my feeble ears), and upon getting my Excursion back, the stock sound is no longer acceptable.

I've been reading and researching for a few days. I've come up with a few ideas, but I know at least one of them is probably a bad idea. Please, humor me for a moment.

1. Step one will be to upgrade the (4) door speakers. Probably going to use Infinity Reference 6832 / 6822's. Yes, I have heard them before.
1a. For the immediate future, I will not be installing an amp, and run the factory head unit.

2. Bass? I will want a "little" more I am sure. Here is where I start to get confused, and will propose one idea which is probably no good.
2a. JL makes a 6x8 sub that should fit the stock location in the rear quarters. I could mount two of them. Yes, I know I would need an amp for them. First, in that location, how would they sound? Second, not being in a box, would it even work at all? http://www.crutchfield.com/S-bCagyg2...-C5-570cw.html.
2b. If I go with an amp, should I use a 5 channel that can power the door speakers and a sub.

3. Bass coninued. Thinking of going with an underseat sub, such as the Kenwood wOOx, or maybe an infinity basslink. Would really like the underseat install of the Kenwood. Of course, the JL stealth box would be great, but its a bit more than I want to spend. Anybody have experience with this Kenwood Unit? Kenwood KSC-WA62RC — The wOOx Powered Enclosed Subwoofer at Crutchfield.com

Thanks in advance,

Airslot

 

There is a guy who made a post he mounted some subs in his rear doors looked good. Do a search

 

Upgrade your door speakers first. The factory one's suck. If you want more, get a 4 or 5 channel amp. You want at least 50W RMS to each door speaker(ignore peak power ratings). There are a lot of options for adding bass when it comes time for that.

 

I installed 2 10" subs in the rear doors. Here's a quick link to my install thread:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...tallation.html

The free air 6x9 subs will provide some good mid-range fill, but if your looking for more low end response you will want to go with actual subs. The 10's in the doors provide a good level of bass but it's not the same level of sound as a good sealed or ported box will give. I didn't want to give up any space so went with the rear doors. In the thread above you'll see someone added subs to the spare tire location which is a great idea but I didn't want to lose the spare either. I haven't replaced my factory speakers yet since I've just adjusted the cross over in the head unit to not send them anything below 120hz and they sound good enough for now.

 

If you upgrade your speaker definatly get a amp they will sound way better radios just provide enough power to get them to produce sound, an amp will make it produce the highs, mids, and lows like its spose to. Get a good radio with Preamp Rcas for front, rear, and subs. Crutchfield gives you good customer service but high prices, SonicElectronix.com they'll give you a better deal thats where I get all my stuf from. If you want give me how much your willing to spend on a system and I could make you a kick *** system.

 

I have seen used JL audio stealthboxes go for $150-200 on ebay...if you're patient you can really score! your plan will work. I will say you need a decent amp to run your speakers. Check this out http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SOUND...AudioQ5fVideo:
Rarely do I see blown speakers from over power, its almost always UNDERpowered.

 

[quote=tdappleman;9866518]I installed 2 10" subs in the rear doors. Here's a quick link to my install thread:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...tallation.html

Thank for the help all. On the rear door install, did you just mount the speaker into the factory door panel? I suppose I may go that route, as I don't have to give up any space. The Kenwood WooX will not fit under the passenger seat as I thought it may. I don't need a ton of bass, but would like to have some. With the stock system at 11 years old, I have non.

Anybody have any comments on wiring an amp into the stock head unit. Or, I should say, is their an adapter that will go between the stock output and speaker inputs?

Thanks,

 

Swap out the stock head unit. Get one with a USB slot where you can plug in a flash drive with MP3s and you'll never go back. To power all 6 channels, I'd recommend getting a 6 channel amp. I have this and I'm very happy with it: http://mobile.jlaudio.com/pdfs/A_Ser.../A6450_MAN.pdf - except for that it blew up a pair of old rockford fosgates...

Bass in the excursion doesn't go a long way because of the size and open-ness of the thing. A little bass will go a very little way. The 10s in the rear doors are also a good option, way better than the wOOx or infinity basslink.

The other option, a big heavy box that you won't have to anchor down. Yes, you will give up some space normally; but with a non fixed sub box, you can easily take it and the rear seat out when you need to. If you do get a good 6ch amp, a wOOx will seem very inadequate, and the sound won't be much better than what you have now in terms of bass feel, it'll just be louder and clearer. There is plenty of room for a subwoofer amp under the passenger side mid row of seats, and plenty of room for the 6ch amp under the driver side.

You don't have to do it all at once either. Get some higher quality coax speakers first. Then get a head unit. Then add a sub. Then when you feel like rewiring everything, add the 6ch amp.

 

Okay. Sense I intend to do this in phases, the rcccomended course of action looks like this.

1. Replace stock speakers.
2. Upgrade head unit, which I'm not in a hurry to do.
3. Add sub to rear door w/ amp
4. Amp for stock speakers.

I have a feeling that some will reccomend step 2 to be amp the door speakers?

Thanks all,

 

Running the factory deck with an amp isn't as easy as you'd think... you'd have to work with an amp with speaker level inputs or run line converters to get rca outputs from your stock deck, and will generally be a wiring nightmare. You're much better off to swap the head unit before the speaker amp.

 

Thanks Fosters. I realize that now. I blame it all on the deer. I was perfectly content with what I had until driving a Hyundia with stock stereo? My wife thinks I'm nuts.

 

They make a High to low (soeaker lines to RCA plugs) level converter which makes it easy to hook up to the back speakers for the amp instead of swapping the deck and running rca's all the way back. A good set of high end 6x9's can do wonders you would be surprised. I had a set of MB Quartz 6x9's in a caravan and my buddy bet me it was a single 12 in a bandpass box. Start with high end good quality replacments for the factory and work from there.

 

Just save up and get everything you want at one time

 

Life is short...............ask the deer. Get what you want you will be happy.

 

The line converters I've used in the past have worked well but took quite a bit of time to get the level adjusted. Some of the cheaper models can introduce engine whine to the system so if you go this route get decent ones. I'd recommend a head unit and amps if you decide to go that route.