Ok I am trying to plan the system for my F150 and have come up with the following, I don't have a huge budget, but want to be able to upgrade/add to in the future, and am more interested in quality than ability to shake pedestrians insides with bass.......... so at the moment I have:

Eclipse CD8455 (I like Alpine head units, but have heard that the "glide touch" on the new ones is a pile of crap. Had thought about getting a touch screen, all singing, all dancing, DVD/Navigation type thing, but then realized I will probably almost never watch a DVD in the car, and so can't justify the cost for one. The Eclipse has "Area Shot" and a GPS module available so can add that if I decide to, ok its not as good as full color sat nav, but will probably do the trick)
Alpine SPR-57LS (Front)
Alpine SPR-57LP (Rear, although might just get SPS-570A as its only for rear fill)
Alpine MRP-F240 4 x 40amp

Will this set up be any good? I have never owned an Eclipse HU before, but have heard a lot of good things about them, and like the look of this one for various reasons. Are the amp and speakers a good match? I am guessing 40w RMS to the 4 speakers is a pretty decent volume.

Eventually I would like to add a JL stealthbox into the centre console, but for now am just looking at head unit and speakers. If anyone has any better recommendations than the above (for a similar price) then let me know. I like to listen to all types of music, so want something that will cope with anything.

This all of course depends on if I can persuade my wife to let me do away with the standard Ford head unit/CD changer........ which will not be easy because of the CD changer. Thanks.

 

For the speakers, you could also get JL Audio, I haven't heard the Alpine's and don't know how they sound, but I like JL Audio, Eclipse, the high end stuff that you can't find at Best Buy or Circuit City. The HU is a really good choice, it has 8V pre-amp outputs which I believe is the highest you can find. Only problem with this is that you can't utilize that full 8V, you can only utilize 5V, which will still sound great. Personally I would go with a bigger amp, because you will find that over time, it won't be enough. It will be loud and clear, but a good rule of thumb is to go over what your speakers recommended RMS power is by about 15%. That way the amp isn't clipping but the speakers are still getting enough power. You can always turn down the volume, but you can only turn it up to a certain point.

 

Thanks for the reply, you are not the first person to recommend JL Audio speakers, I was looking at the XR150 (I think) 5x7 components. Will have to head to a store and listen to both JL and Alpine (and any others that I come across)

I think what I will plan to do is upgrade HU and speakers, temporarily run the speakers off the HU while I save up for a decent sized amp. Are there any particular amps I should look at? I have never amped speakers, only a sub and so don't know who makes a good 4 channel amp.

 

listen to romer he knows what he is talking about. good advice.

 

If you're wanting to add a sub I'd go with a 5-channel amp, it would power your door speakers with enough power then also be able to power the sub, and sometimes it's cheaper to get a 5-channel amp than it is to get a 4-channel and a mono amp.

If you want to go with the 5-channel amp the Eclipse PA5532 it would be enough to power the whole system. For a regular 4-channel amp the Eclipse EA4000 is pretty good, it's new but has a ton of features. That's just Eclipse, JL Audio has good stuff too, it really just depends on preference.