question on Stereo...Stereo pro's in here please

[GI Joe]

I want to put a sub in my sons 08 GT. We have a REALLY nice SUB and AMP already that we salvaged from the LX when it was totalled.
I have no idea where to start though because I understand that this car has amp on the door speakers already and I dont know about the rears. Its not the system with the big subs in the trunck...The next one down. What shaker 1000 I think) Anyway my question is do the door speakers need replacing and the head unit. If the door speakers remain it seems that I'd need a head unit that has non powered out put for the fronts ( assuming I need a new head unit because I dont guess the head unit has a pre amp out put for the sub)
Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Hawgman]

If it doesn't have the subs in the trunk it is most likely the Shaker 500. Does the existing system have the 8" door subs already? If so, that is what it is. Actually it should say on the face of the head unit what series it is. IF it is the Shaker 500 setup it will be powering the four door speakers and two rear deck speakers from the head unit, and the two 8" door subs will have two amps up in the drivers floor board area on the left side up under the dash.

You didn't say what size sub you have. But if it is a 12" sub, Scosche makes a really nice single 12" sub enclosure that fits right where the factory Shaker 1000 sub box mounts. Only thing is, I haven't seen them sold without the sub already included. I bought one and replaced the sub with an Infinity Pro 12". Not saying the sub that comes with it is bad, just saying I haven't seen just the box for sale.

As for hooking it up. If it is the Shaker 500 it will be a little more involved than if it was the 1000 and swapping subs out. For the sake of conversation I am going to assume you have the 500 system. You asked about replacing the head unit with something that has low power outputs. Not sure what that has to do with adding a sub. If you want to just add a sub to the existing unit then you could just take one of the outputs from the head unit to the door subs and use that as audio feed to the rear sub, as well as the amp on trigger wire from the head unit that already goes to the existing amps. Or to make things a little bit easier, your amp should have high and low power inputs. You could splice off the input wires from one of your rear speakers and go in to the high power input of the amp. Little less wiring to run that way. But since you would still need to run the amp on signal wire might as well run the output from the head unit at the same time.

 

[Lee's05GT]

i have two kicker 12's in mine and for a while i didnt change the head unit out (shaker 500) and it worked fine. Then i went for the 7' clarion in dash. If your just putting in a sub you dont need to change any door speakers. You would only have to worry about the door speakers and amps if you were to replace them. Its a little bit harder to change the door speakers since they each have there own amp kinda like the mach speaker system they had in the 00-04 stangs or like the bose just a pain in the ass to deal with. And if you dont change the head unit all you would have to do is link into your crossovers and connect them up with the head unit and amp if you were running one with the sub.

 

[GI Joe]

Thnks guys. So did i misunderstand. One of you say use a crossover and one says just unhook door amped speaker and use that source to power my sub
Hawgman that box is disontinued. Too bad looks nice

So did i understand correct? If so which is best. Seems to me that tying in to the crossovers would leave the fronts working and they might be masked by the rear and they could get blown
Btw hawgman the sub is 12" Treo SS12. And amp is mtx D class 800 watt
The system is the 500 as you suspected

 

[Hawgman]

Yea, I think you got a little bit side tracked with our responses somehow.

Qksixx's response about a crossover is assuming that you had crossovers. But there are none in the factory system. The crossover is done internal in the head unit. While I completely agree that you want to filter the frequencies going to the amp so that you are not amplifying unwanted or unnecessary tones, the amp should have frequency adjustments on it (in other words, it's own built in user adjustable crossovers).

What I was suggesting is pick up an audio out line (preferably one that goes to one of the 8" door subs) at the back of the head unit. That way it will already be "crossed over" for low frequency and you can get a clean "pre amp" volume controlled signal and you don't lose any of your existing speakers. You could also pick it up right at the amps on the input side. It has been a LONG time since I have looked at one, but if I remember correctly the positive wires were brown/orange and the negative were red/black.

What I don't remember though is which wire was the trigger wire for amp on. You can go to a local radio shop and find a Metra 70-5521 adaptor harness and look at the pinout on the package and it will tell you.
ONE THING TO REMEMBER THOUGH. Normally amplifiers look for +5v as a signal on. Ford in their infinite wisdom decided to use +12v as a signal on. So that means you will get a NASTY amp pop when you turn the radio on. But it is easy enough to fix. Go to Radio Shack and buy a 5v voltage regulator such as a LM7805. It will be a package style transistor. you will have three legs.One leg will be marked base, one leg marked collector ( also the metal backing might be marked collector) and one leg marked emitter. Your base leg will be input voltage, the collector will be ground ( or in some cases neutral ) and the emitter will be output voltage. So that means take the amp on lead from the head unit and put it to base, run ground to the collector, and run a wire from the emitter to the amp on at the amp. That will eliminate the amp pop.

 

[Lee's05GT]

yeah i had that noise or the "pop" your talking about everytime i would turn it off and like 5 seconds later the subs would just quake like it was about to blow. And those wire colors are correct btw. Now that you restated about the crossovers i dont think when the first time the ppl that hooked it up they didnt go into the crossovers they spliced into the rear speakers somehow idk some getto ass shit. Idk how they did it. I wont name any names *cough* *cough* circuit city......

 

[Freaknazty]

i have a " trunk-loc " kit its the kit to tie into the rear speakers and adds a patchcord hookup for the amp and picks up the signal from the speaker to use as a " remote " on the amp

http://www.mysimplecity.com/catalog...-with-Remote-Trigger/p73968/product_info.html

if your not in a real big rush i'll give you this 1 i bought it to hook up a system in the ride but changed my mine so it's just sitting up with the other 50 million audio hook ups , power-wires ,ect. i have from when i used to do audio installs ..... just pay shipping which should be like 5 bucks or so

 

[KIMMER]

I want to put a sub in my sons 08 GT. We have a REALLY nice SUB and AMP already that we salvaged from the LX when it was totalled.
I have no idea where to start though because I understand that this car has amp on the door speakers already and I dont know about the rears. Its not the system with the big subs in the trunck...The next one down. What shaker 1000 I think) Anyway my question is do the door speakers need replacing and the head unit. If the door speakers remain it seems that I'd need a head unit that has non powered out put for the fronts ( assuming I need a new head unit because I dont guess the head unit has a pre amp out put for the sub)
Any advice would be appreciated.

You have a few options. You can keep the stock amps/speakers and use a PAC interface which plugs into the factory harness and converts the high power output of the aftermarket deck speaker wires to the level you need for the factory system and the aftermarket deck will give you a sub output (rca) to run to the subs and the amp switch wire. You could also install amp bypass harnesses and skip the PAC interface to use the aftermarket deck to power the speakers. I prefer the PAC Mack interface personally if you want to keep the stock system and just add a sub/deck. Also, replace the factory speakers with the audiophile speakers that come in the F150 if you can get ahold of some for cheap. Sometimes they are on ebay for $10-15 a set and sound damn good compared to the stockers already in the mustang. If the sub/amp is high powered, make sure to use the right gauge wire and a farad cap to keep the power to the amp at the right voltage and the farad cap also minimizes headlight pulsing (diming when the bass hits).

http://www.pac-audio.com/products/productsDetail.asp?mmSearch=Replace-a-Radio

 

[GI Joe]

holy ciiizzzzz guys...Ya'll sound like you know what the heck you are doing. I really appreciate the help...now let me let this all sink in and see if I can figure out the best way to do it...CONFUSED...I'm an engine guy...not a sterio guy...MY HEAD HURTS.
I really do appreciate it guys.
Dave

 

[KIMMER]

holy ciiizzzzz guys...Ya'll sound like you know what the heck you are doing. I really appreciate the help...now let me let this all sink in and see if I can figure out the best way to do it...CONFUSED...I'm an engine guy...not a sterio guy...MY HEAD HURTS.
I really do appreciate it guys.
Dave

I did installs for a long time...lol. Check out that link I sent you and some of their other products. I think they have an item to add an amp to a factory system too, which would probably solve your problem for adding an amp/sub while keeping everything else stock.

 

[GI Joe]

I did installs for a long time...lol. Check out that link I sent you and some of their other products. I think they have an item to add an amp to a factory system too, which would probably solve your problem for adding an amp/sub while keeping everything else stock.

thanks bro

 

[Freaknazty]

...I'm an engine guy...not a sterio guy...MY HEAD HURTS.

Dave

lol im the exact oppisite i know stereos but this whole motor thing is new to me