I have been slowly improving my audio system one piece at a time. Just installed kicker speakers in the front, and wired up pioneers for my rears. I have the oem single cd player at the moment, and was pretty happy with everything until today. I drove a friends new Nissan Murano to the store this afternoon, and that sound system bumped! It was all stock , made by Bose (i think) and it sounds so much better than mine its ridiculous. I wish Ford would put something this nice in our trucks from the factory. So now I absolutley need to make mine better!
First thing, I'm going to do is change the headunit out. Probably going with a pioneer 1300 or 3300 model. But before I spend the money, I'm just wondering if these Pioneer headunits will make a big difference over the stock OEM unit?? I know the oem unit is made by pioneer, so I don't want to spend a bunch of cash on something and have it sound exactly the same. I'm looking for mainly cleaner and louder sound. So if anybody has one of these lower end headunits from pioneer, was there a noticable difference in sound quality over stock??

 

what OE head unit do you have now...i have the MACH head unit and it sounds damn good

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/04-05...fAudioQ5fVideo


I've got this one, just the basic cd player. Don't get me wrong it sounds good, but the grass is always greener...

Whats the Mach?? Is that an oem headunit?

 

yes it is an OEM headunit...it is one of the higher end units

 

I recently bought one of these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Pioneer-AVH-P230...item19c7c10216

Hasn't gotten here yet but I'll let you know if there's much improvement over my stock head unit.

In my experience, however, stock radios almost always suck, and any swap to an aftermarket deck made by a reputable brand is an upgrade.

 

yep. The aftermarket will give your speakers a little bit more power, and you will have better adjustablilty with the sound settings

 

I also still have the OEM unit + OEM Speakers, the whole think sucks... but I´m not planning replacing the unit for an aftermarket. Many areas where I park my ride are potentially danger (auto-theft), so I´m planning something different.

- Subwoofer (Hidden behind the bench seat)
- Amp (for Sub and speakers) Also hidden behind the seat
- OEM Speakers replacement for 2way Pioneers (on doors and back panels)
- Input audio cable from amp to the glove box to connect an ipod or any other sound source.

With this option I will have the sound quality and power from a great sound, but with the OEM unit still in the dash (No one will ever want to break in my truck).

Anyway I can Still have the main unit wired to the amp to listen Radio or Traffic alerts.

hope can help.

 

X2, I have a Kenwood Deck, that has adjustments for midrange as well as the bass and treble, along with a bunch of other adjustments, and even though I put Kenwood excelon seperates in the front, my rear speakers are still stock, and they sound much better with the new deck, but eventually I will replace those rear stockers as well.

 

thanks for the input. I ordered a pioneer HU, with the built in mosfet 50w 4 channel amps. it has all sorts of cool things w/ it and im pumped to get it installed. Everyone gave it great reviews, so I'm sure it'll sound good. I listen to music constantly, so I had to bite the bullet and drop the cash. Now all I've got to do is put the OEM cd player on craigslist and I can offset some of this cost lol.

Also when looking at wiring adapters, my choice is between the metra or scoshce. Anybody have a preference in the brands? Same thing with the dash install kit, which is better quality? They are like the same price where I live...

 

What model did you get?

Also, I prefer scoshce.

 

It was an older one off of ebay. I think its deh-6800, I got it for under $50 shipped so I'm pretty happy with it. Was surprised at how heavy this thing is compared to the oem one. Also, I'm having trouble with the wiring adapters. I found locally the scoshce #f23 2003 and up ford models. But I've read online that this one does not fit rangers without modification. Would you happen to know the model number you used for the adapter? I'd like it to be plug and play. Otherwise I'd just chop the oem one off, splice it and get it installed right now!

 

I got a 1998 and up wiring adapter, model: FD16B Should be a direct connection to the stock wiring harness.

Your dash kit MAY require modification though.

 

did the new HU require any mods to the dash or were you able to do a direct replacement? I've looked at a few similar to this and they said something about cutting brackets in the dash. Not sure if I wanna do that

 

Any double DIN head unit will require slight trimming of your radio bezel. Doesnt harm anything and once everything is installed you'll never be able to see it.