My 9-year-old speakers are going/gone. The fronts are completely blown, due to age and high heat and humidity, and the rears are close behind. I was fairly satisfied with the sound of the stock AM/FM Cassette, but I wished that I had a CD player too, so I am looking at putting in a completely new system. I want a unit that is simple to operate and that I don’t have to chop my dash up to install. I don’t want to go the sub-woofer route, and I want speakers that fit where the originals are - I believe they are 4” and 5-1/4”. I am not afraid to spend a little $ for quality sound as I hope to get 9 years out of this system, too! I am heading to Circuit City this weekend, but before I hear the sales pitches would anyone like to weigh in with their experiences? What worked out well, what didn’t, installation hassles, regrets? Oh, and I am considering getting an XM-radio ready unit – any thoughts on that.

 

Depends on your budget. If you are looking for good sound quality unit, I will go with the Nakamichi C400, check it out on ebay, should normally run around $265. Infinity make some good speaker such as Kappa series. Make sure you know that you have to pay monthly fees for the XM radio. You can also consider Pioneer, Alpine, and Eclipse for some good headunit too.

 

For some reason I hadn't thought of ebay, but maybe I'll look at the units in person at Circuit City and then go home and do more research on the net. I was focusing on Alpine and Pioneer, names I'm familiar with . . . names I couldn't afford the last time I put in a car stereo . . . let's see, that would be the JVC I installed in my '78 Oldsmobile!

 

When I had my Corolla, I went the Best Buy route to get a system installed and I regretted it. They are there simply to make money and that is it. It took about an hour to install everything. How does that work and it still be a quality install? It doesn't. Circuit City is the same way. The faster they install it, the faster they get the next person, the faster they make money. My advice to you is to go to a good, quality stereo store. I did and am very glad I did. There were a few tweaks and such that I needed, and I just went there and they dropped what they were doing and fixed them. Do you think that CC would do that, I sure don't. My advice is to try a good audio store. You might even pay alittle less, they will work with you. I personally have a Pioneer unit and love it. I am favorable to them as well as Alpines, which I have seen and heard are very good and reliable. Get some good speakers and you'll be happy. Another thing to consider is satellite radio. Howard Stern recently announced that he will be joining Sirius satellite radio, which may or may not hurt XM. Just consider that before you choose them as your satellite radio. Goodluck and let us know what you decide. :fireman:

 

I manage an independent car audio store and let me tell you, what BTOWN4RUNNER said about CC and other places is true. They will sell you stuff you don't need, alot of times the buy one get 1 free deals seem awesome but is usually cheap crap. I would always opt for a small town audio shop or even an independent shop because customer service is much better, it feels more down to earth and most times yes you can move some on the price. Before I worked at an audio shop I saw what it was like going to a big corp. place and a small place... I know at our shop we take our time and get the job done right. The last thing we want is for the same car to come back over and over again because we rushed the install and didn't take time to make sure everything was good the first time!

 

I have strong reservations about having Circuit City install a system for those very reasons. That’s why I am thinking of doing it myself. Of course, it was a lot easier to bend and twist myself to do in and under dash stuff 20 some years ago.
Where I live there is only one car stereo store. They showed me some quality stuff and their install fee is very reasonable, but the markup on the equipment is steep. With regard to satellite radio, maybe I’d be better off getting the unit that plugs into an existing system. I’ll look around some more. I never rush into these things!

 

You do not want an to pay the 100 dollar activation fee with 3 months free and then have to pay a monthy fee if your XM is FM modulated. FM modulation is basically where one of the units in the package recieves the XM and introduces it into the antenna in of the head unit. While this works great, it doea have severely negative impact on the sound... Definately get an XM ready unit.

On to speakers. You arent going to get 'good' full range sound out of a 4" coaxial. From about 20kHz down to about 150hz they will work fine but below 150hz (all bass and most midbass) will be severely lacking. I had been running Alpine sps 1029's up front and finally one day I got pissed at not having midbass, and built a set of kickpanels to house some 6.5" coaxials. HUGE difference. Also the sound stage is now in the engine bay and behind the AC vents height wise.

(Kicks were easy to make, just use some tripled up plumber's tape to anchor an mdf speaker ring to the OEM panel, then stretch fleece over the whole deal, then glass away and sand and sand and sand and sand....basically just like glassing and bondoing a car after rust repair....lol)

With either route consider getting a small amp to power the speakers. A head units internal amp is useless for anything other than introducing noise and distortion to the system. If you can help it, buy a HU that has only RCA outs and run amps... Your ears will thank you. A 25w x 2 amp will destroy any internal HU amp rated for that power in EVERY catagory. I've tested it myself and the difference is staggering.

Head units, this you can go super cheap or have mad bling-blau-bling. A Nakamichi 35z will afford you excellent sound quality (rivaling eskips i mean eclipse...lol) at a cheap price. Even a 45z shouldn't be too pricey. Eclipse middle line are also fairly cheap as well. Again avoid the internal amp if you can help it. Stupid expensive that will work in your dash? Eclipse touch screen double din. She plays DVDs and CD as the same time too. That sucker will cost a good 1000 on ebay...

Install, even though you will get it "professionally" done, I feel that you should know the proper procedure in advance....

MAKE SURE THEY USE A HARNESS AND DONT CUT THE OEM PLUG!!!! In gainesville I saw a bunch of installs where they cut the plug off to save 8 bux....totally idiotic.

Installing on the 2nd gen bites azz. To get the deck in you don't have to be upside down but for about 2 minutes to disconnect the hood latch and gas door latch, so it's not bad, but you must be patient.

First you have to pull the 4 screws and 1 10mm bolt on the right hand side were the glove box is. Disconnect the 2 electrical harnesses (One for glove box light the other for the speaker.)

Then pull your center console thingy that touches the tranny hump under the cigarrete tray and lighter. (there are two push button tabs on the outsdie of this. Push the tiny thing in the center in about 3/4cm, when you do this the 4 external retaining arms can fall back away from the hole allowing you to then pull the tab out.)

Next pull off the Ignition switch trim piece - just pops off.

Next remove the 2 screws that anchor the gas door release and move it out of the way. Then just disconnect the pull cord from the hood release. Now remove the 4 screws and 1 10mm bolt holding on the driver's side lower dash piece. It will pop out with some work just like the glove box did. Disconnect the one electrical harness going to the drivers side speaker.

Next pull all 4 buttons that control the AC off.
Next pull out the AC switch. The AC switch is about 3" long - so just be patient
Next pull off the AC controls panel. As you face the dash sitting on the console, the control panel's right side pops loose. On the left there is a tab that goes under the clock's trim peice...

Next remove the 4 retaining screws for the whole dash trim piece and carefully pull the bottom of it out toward you. The lower retaining clips will let go then you just pull the unit down about 2cm to gut the trim tab out from under the upper dash. Now disconnect the clock's harness, the cigarrette lighter's harness, and the cigarrette tray light's harness and carefully remove.

NOW YOU CAN SEE the HUs!!

Remove the 4 gold colored retaining screws holding in the double din bracket. (Bottom 2 first, then the top 2) Then pull both factory HU's toward you and unplug the various harnesses. The OEM HU's are held in by 2 or 4 screws each. Remove those screws and the OEM stuff just slides out. Install new HU in it's place and use a metra pocket if your new HU is a single din size. If double din, you have nothing to worry about.

Silver solder the connector harness you can buy at Wally World to the HU's harness according to its directions. Red is ACC power, Black is ground, Yellow is full time battery power, Orange is usually the illumination dimmer. Now electrical tape over each connection that's been silver soldered. finally use some 3/4" shring wrap to cover the whole insulated thing.

Plug in OEM harness to your finished harness, plug the other end into your new HU. Reattach the FM plug in, attach RCAs and extend the REM + (blue or blue white) (Assuming you run an amp.)

Asseble in reverse direction. Should take you about 3 hrs the first time. I can do mine in under 30 minutes as I've done it about 20 odd times.

Finally run wires undercarpet to amps and wire amps up with proper gauge wire, etc....

 

HOLY COW!
You must have done it 20 times to know it that well! You just saved me so much "guess time" that it's unbelievable. While I will take all your system advice and try to digest it, I now feel like I can go ahead and tackle this install myself. Just have to decide on the right system and combination. Thanks!

 

Not really, I know I've only done it twice, but its such a pain that after the first time you are sure to remember how to do it.

 

i just started fixing up my car system. found this site. Check out their car audio section. they can save you a fortune. I bought my head unit and speakers after using this site. they price shop for you. I will shop here from now on.
http://www.pricegrabber.com/home_catpage.php/catzero=31
i got this head unit for only $120 shipped.

 

 

I recomend Infinity speakers for your upgrade but you will have to modify your driver side dash speaker enclosure to accomidate the larger magnet. I did this with a drill, a knife, and some sound proofing material (like dynamat). Check my page for more detail:




Rear enclosure:

my afttermarket speaker locations:



The componant kit blends well with the dash speakers if you want to really upgrade your mid bass and treble.

 

Some really good info above. One thing I see a lot of is people paying good money for good speakers and not getting good sound. Watch the SPL numbers, if you aren't going to put in some power then don't buy $500 speakers that need lots of power. My last 3 setups I bought Pioneer speakers (SPLs of 91-92) and they sound terrific with only deck power. They also put out amazingly good lows. (I'd rather find budget components that sound good and spend the money saved on other things - my stuff sounds 80% as good as they guy who spent $2000, the only real difference is my neighbors don't get to enjoy it too while by ears bleed...) Also, run bigger wires - don't use the factory hair thin stuff. I've had some higher end stuff that didn't sound half as good, even with an amp I had to crank it up before it sounded good. The Pioneers really woke up the girlfriends factory stereo, and I used them in my F150 and my Yota with Sony decks and run them off deck power. In each truck I added inexpensive sub, under the jumpseat in the Yota and in the side storage compt in the Ford. A cheap bridgeable amp drives them and they really added some punch and make the systems sound more expensive than they really are. Here's how it broke down: Sony decks $179 & $119, Pioneers (get the ones with the Supertweeters) $90 for all 4, Sub $29, amp $40, RCA cable to amp $8, 14 gauge speaker wire $4 at Home Depot. You do NOT need Oxidized Polybathroomfloorine coated Monster cables, you CANNOT hear the difference - but you definitely can hear the difference between regular thin wire and regular thick wire. I install my own stuff, it's really easy. Pretty darn cheap for a really nice sound. Oh, and I added a remote on the steering column, we have that in the car and love it, I now have it in both trucks and love it. $19 off ebay. Amp - one from Dealznet.com, one off ebay, and I bought the speakers ($89 a pair at CC) through dealznet, the stereos ($329 and $189 at CC) from etronics.com and the subs (good for 1 cu ft box and high SPL #) from good ol' Walmart. I picked most of what I wanted from the Crutchfield catalog and then went to the net for prices.
Pics of the F150
Yota Stereo pic Remote install Yota Sub

Edited: Updated the links

Bike4miles: Nice install!

 

Great info, everybody -- thanks a lot!

 

Updated the bad links, I had changed some of my pics...

 

UPDATE - I just wanted to let you all know that the new system is in and it's great! I ended up going with the local shop installing it. I drove by every day for 2 weeks and took note of all the really nice cars and SUVs that were there having systems installed. I figured these guys must be good. I went with the Alpine CDA-9820XM, and replaced the blown front speakers with Kenwood KFC-4679IEs. Oh yeah, and the rear speakers weren't blown -- except for the tweeters up in the top! The shop told me that what is in the rear are actually subwoofers, and that they were fine. All I had to do is listen to know that he was right. The system sounds awesome! I listened to Celine Dion sing God Bless America on the way to work this morning. As I passed a little schoolhouse where folks had lined up to vote I let them all have a listen!

Vote Early And Vote Often!

 

Celine......
Dion.......

Try Hendricks version of the National Anthem. <grin>

 

I know, I know . . . but when she sings it I get goosebumps. Just call me an ol' fart.