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I'm looking to add an amp to the existing system and possible a sub. any suggestions from you guys who have already done this?? I have an 05 CC with the 6disk indash that I want to keep. Tks
I have in my truck a alpine head unit, (4) MB Quart components in the doors, JL Audio stealth box, 5 channel JL AUDIO Slash amp, completely upgraded heavier guage wire and all new RCA connectors.
The head unit was $399 installed, and MB Quarts were $500 installed, and JL Sub was $575 installed, and the amp was $925 installed. My point is if you are going to add a sub and a amp, you really should do the head unit also. In my last truck I thought as you. They never could really tune the amp properly due the the poor quality of factory radio's. That lasted 2 weeks before I upgraded that also. You dont have to buy a very expensive head unit to maximize performance.
Unfortunately, no one builds a 6-disc in-dash CD changer, and some of us want to keep that functionality (I don't have any place to install an external CD changer).
There was a mention that later 6-disc changers did have preamp outputs available somewhere in the harness. Maybe we need to get a guru on truck electronics (PSD?) to take a look!
I have a (2) 8" Bazooka Powered subs behind my rear seat. Looks like there is room for the 10" ones. Polk Audio in the front doors and rear. Alpine MP3 as a head unit. It's alot eaiser to burn a 100 or so songs to one disc then having 6 disc. You can also get a in-dash DVD which would hold a 1000 songs or go big and get a Harddrive to hold more music than you would have time to listen to. CD's are probley going to fad away and digital is the new wave. Now need a 4-channel amp for the door speakers. Never have liked a stock unit just becasue it is so limited for expension.
i personally changed all the the speakers to JL audio 5x7 coaxial in my 06 350 KR. went with the JL audio 300 watt 4 channel amp. i kept the factory headunit since i want to keep the factory look but added the JL audio clean sweep.
dont have a sub yet as i am not sure what i am going to do. i am a little hesitant about the stealth box. does anybody have any pictures of it installed and how bad does it rattle?
I don't think a picture will show you much, the only visible change is a 1-2" space between the bottom of the console and the floor, which for me works out as now I can comfortably rest my arm on the console top. (does anyone's arm actually fit on the captains chair armrest? What was Ford thinking?) Mine does not rattle but does shake a little, if this was really a problem I think it could be easily fixed but adding some gussets to the JL brackets.
I have an Alpine head unit, stock speakers in the doors & rear, and on1 JL Audio 12W3 in a ported enclosure behind the seat in my regular cab. The sub is powered by a crossfire VR302 amp. Sound good with amything from hip hop, to rock, to country. I'm considering swapping in my JL Audio XR 5.25 out of my car to the doors.
As to the origional question, ther are some companies that make adapters to convert normal speaker level to pre amp level out puts so you can hook up an aftermarket amp. Som factory Head units can be finicky, and not like to have their outputs tapped.
Check it out. The audio shop managed to build a box for a 10" Treo Sub. The back of the subwoofer box is made out of fiberglass, the front,sides are MDF.
I have some pictures in my photo gallery of my upgraded system. I raised rear seat about 6" to accomodate sub box, and replaced rear carpet/fiber with carpeted panel to mount amps onto.