Has anyone upgraded their stereo?

MUSThavaSTANG · Mar 1, 2015

So my base Ecoboost is sitting on my dealer's lot while I wait for the weather to improve before I take delivery. I was listening to the stereo today, and while it's not terrible, it could definitely stand some improvement. Im thinking a much better pair of rear speakers and an amplifier of some sort.

My question is has anyone has done something similar? And if there are any special issues upgrading the new model because of the engine sound enhancement thingy. Thanks.

ThirtyThreePointThree · Mar 1, 2015

Did you search around on the forums yet? there's a fair amount of info out there of what people have done, and with the ecoboost in particular because of the active noise cancellation.

Ecosnake was the first to do some audio stuff in the ecoboost iirc. Heinoceros has some great threads to address a lot of the big questions (wiring diagram, firewall power cable routing, etc.), and I have a build thread as well.

A better pair of rear speakers would be the absolute last thing I would do btw. Rear speakers ideally should be used as filler if needed. I'm currently not even running rear speakers in my set-up, and I'm not missing them. If anything, upgrade your front door woofers and tweeters and get some nice, clean amplified power to them. You'll notice that wayy more than replacing rears. The stock paper woofers are sh!t imho, and so are the tweeters. They have some peaky responses and can't handle any power above about 25W rms without distorting. Then just add a sub in the trunk to fill out the lower spectrum and you should be good :-). I'd re-evaluate to see if you really need new rears after that.

SeventhWard · Mar 1, 2015

To answer your question - yes.

-SeventhWard

MUSThavaSTANG · Mar 2, 2015

ThirtyThreePointThree said:
Did you search around on the forums yet? there's a fair amount of info out there of what people have done, and with the ecoboost in particular because of the active noise cancellation.

Ecosnake was the first to do some audio stuff in the ecoboost iirc. Heinoceros has some great threads to address a lot of the big questions (wiring diagram, firewall power cable routing, etc.), and I have a build thread as well.

A better pair of rear speakers would be the absolute last thing I would do btw. Rear speakers ideally should be used as filler if needed. I'm currently not even running rear speakers in my set-up, and I'm not missing them. If anything, upgrade your front door woofers and tweeters and get some nice, clean amplified power to them. You'll notice that wayy more than replacing rears. The stock paper woofers are sh!t imho, and so are the tweeters. They have some peaky responses and can't handle any power above about 25W rms without distorting. Then just add a sub in the trunk to fill out the lower spectrum and you should be good :-). I'd re-evaluate to see if you really need new rears after that.

Thanks. I guess I'm thinking back to the days when all I had were rear speakers. I prefer having front and back so I can balance them to give a surround sound effect. I may be able to live with what's in the front, but I agree they need some better amplification. Of course, once you start improving the sound system it's hard to just do it half way.

jackrook · Mar 2, 2015

I'm also interested in upgrading to some bass without breaking the bank. Just picked up my car last night so I haven't had the chance to see what the stock steep does but I'm sure it's not impressive LOL

slowest member of WCPR

IzVenomous · Mar 2, 2015

jackrook said:
I'm also interested in upgrading to some bass without breaking the bank. Just picked up my car last night so I haven't had the chance to see what the stock steep does but I'm sure it's not impressive LOL

slowest member of WCPR

It definitely leaves a lot to be desired lol

I want to do a touch screen in mine since sync halfway works

jackrook · Mar 2, 2015

IzVenomous said:
It definitely leaves a lot to be desired lol I want to do a touch screen in mine since sync halfway works

I had MFT in my Raptor. It was a little glitchy. I've reached this sort of inner peace lately and my desire for big and flashy has went way down. I'm ok keeping my stock head unit just adding an amp and a sub LOL. Maybe some speakers.

slowest member of WCPR

oilfieldtrash · Mar 2, 2015

Got the shaker sound system. Very pleased.

Has anyone upgraded their stereo?

MUSThavaSTANG

Well-Known Member

ThirtyThreePointThree

Well-Known Member

SeventhWard

Well-Known Member

MUSThavaSTANG

Well-Known Member

jackrook

Well-Known Member

IzVenomous

Well-Known Member

jackrook

Well-Known Member

oilfieldtrash

likes mustangs