I would love to buy anyone's audiophile head unit and sub just drop me an email. cvinch@comcast.net

 

I have done some audiophile mods on my Lariat. First, the fronts are around a 5" component set....noticed I said 5", not 5.25". I have a set of 5.25" Infinity Kappa Components that I attempted to replace the stock speakers with. I was able to replace the tweeters with a little modification, but the driver is too large to directly replace the factory unit. Ford uses a 5x7/6x8 plate that has the seperate crossover on the back and the driver on the other side. It uses a 3 bolt pattern that isn't compatible with other speakers. The only upgrade option would be a 5x7/6x8 component set that a few companies like Kicker are making. By just adding the Kappa tweeters up front, the sound improvement was very impressive. In the rear, the speakers are just regular POS ford 6x8s. I replaced them with Infinity Kappas and again, gained clarity. The mids and highs in the audiofile system have a filter, probably in the head unit, to cut out low frequencies. You cannot distort the mids and highs with too much bass.

On another note, the stock sub is about an 8.5". Again, I tried replacing it, but the diameter is just over a standard 8" sub. Plus, you only have 3.5" of speaker depth to fit in the box. The stock sub is a dual voice coil BTW and doesn't look too crappy.

 

Robert....I am not an expert, but have had decent luck using Crutchfield with their installation instructions for past vehicles. Do you think the speaker adapter that they throw in for the F150 will work? I like using them because they always include instructions and necessary adapters. I am looking specifically at the Kappa 50.5cs...according to Crutchfield, it is an "Easy Fit"

 

It should just be a plate like the factory ford Audiophile has, just designed to fit the standard 5.25" driver. Is that a component set? If so, you'll have a little bit of a difficult time just bolting in the Kappa tweeter in place of the stock one. To remove the driver, it's as simple as 4 screws and popping the speaker grill. To get to the tweeter, you have to remove the door panel like you would on most Fords. It's pretty simple to do though. The problem is the cutout diameter is a tad too small for the kappa tweeter, so I had to enlarge the hole slightly. Then, the dome shape of the tweeter and grill, interfered with the factory door panel's speaker grill. I had to basically thin the plastic stock grill with a carbide bit where the tweeter was interfering. This took a little patience not to screw it up, but the grill fits fine now. There's a great sound improvement with the tweeters, but you may be better off just installing a set of tweeters with a small diameter and not as much "dome" as the Kappas. The driver gets very little low frequencies sent to it, so you'll not get a big improvement from that swap. You can get a pair of quality tweeters for $50-100.

 

HawaiianStyle,

Hi! I'm new to the board. Just picked up my 04 Lariat today and would be interested in your stock Audiophile System if you still have it and would like to sell. Please post or email me with you reply.

Thanks,
Low Life

 

I was looking to buy a head unit not sell one.

 

Cvinch let me know if you are still looking for an audiophile headunit.

daorte

 

I got a set of Kenwood 6x8 components (separate tweeters) in my doors. I got them on ebay for around $85 shipped. They sound pretty good.

VATruckman: Those adapters should work. I just got some at Best Buy for my truck, and I'm pretty sure they were 1998-up Ford adapters, so it's the same for many years including our new trucks.

 

oh, and if you guys are looking for the Audiophile head unit, it's not really worth it unless you can hook up the sub too. The head unit has built-in crossovers, so your door speakers don't play any low freq (bass) at all. I bought one before and tried it out, but without the bass from my door speakers, it didn't sound that great. My Kenwoods components sound alot better from my regular factory radio. So I sold my Audiophile on ebay for a huge profit!

 

A quick question. Does the audiophile have seperate sets of speaker outputs for both teh tweeter and midrange in each door? I'm about to convert mine to an audiophile head unit and sub I purchased.