Adding Sirius to Shaker 500 / Speakers

See this link:

http://oem-auto-accessory.com/visteon_sirius_kit_for_new_style_ford_radios_with_aux_button.html

Hope this helps...

I know you didn't want to hear it, but that's pretty expensive.
Can replace head unit with satelite and ipod connector for less.

A new head unit will work with existing speakers and sound much better than stock. You could replace those later.
I replaced my Shaker 500 with an Alpine (I am not an Alpine salesperson. I was accused of that once). Sound is much better, ipod controls are really nice. I have not changed speakers. Sound is much better even without a change. You can find head units less than $200 that will control ipods and offer satellite.

stanmckinney said:

A new head unit will work with existing speakers and sound much better than stock. You could replace those later.
I replaced my Shaker 500 with an Alpine (I am not an Alpine salesperson. I was accused of that once). Sound is much better, ipod controls are really nice. I have not changed speakers. Sound is much better even without a change. You can find head units less than $200 that will control ipods and offer satellite.

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Sorry dude, but I gotta call BS on this one.

It's the speakers that make the sound, not the source. Sure, if you have a REALLY bad source unit that for some reason was constraining the range of frequencies that it was sending to your speakers, it could make a difference. But I don't really see this happening. Maybe if the new head unit put out MUCH more power than the Shaker, it could sound better, simply because it is louder, but you would need at least twice as much power to hear an audible difference.

You sound like those guys that swear they can hear the difference between a Yamaha or Denon receiver. I think you're just hearing what you want to hear.

I can only tell you that my local audio specialist, who has installed many, many systems, insists that a better head unit will produce better sound with the same speakers. I will admit I am a novice and can't necessarily hear all he might. But my personal opinion is that is does sound better. Certainly it sounds as good and the ipod controls are better.
I would like to install the new factory sync and navigation in my 2007. That's probably impossible and would be cost prohibitive, but it is what I would like to do.

stanmckinney said:

I can only tell you that my local audio specialist, who has installed many, many systems, insists that a better head unit will produce better sound with the same speakers. I will admit I am a novice and can't necessarily hear all he might. But my personal opinion is that is does sound better. Certainly it sounds as good and the ipod controls are better.
I would like to install the new factory sync and navigation in my 2007. That's probably impossible and would be cost prohibitive, but it is what I would like to do.

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I supposed that it's possible that if we're talking about switching from the factory stereo to a high quality unit, like a Pioneer Premier or Eclipse deck. If you had a deck with very high quality DAC's, it could make a MARGINAL difference. But you would have to have extremely good ears to hear the difference. It's very hard to make a truly subjective comparison between something new and something old. The "placebo effect" kicks in and you tend to think the new one sounds better just because it is new.

Plus, it's been proven that the human brain cannot accurately store sound information for more than 10 seconds or so. So if you are trying to compare something you heard now to something that you heard more than 10 seconds ago, you can't make a valid comparison. So it's really not accurate to compare the deck you had yesterday to the deck you have today.

The bottom line is that it's all just 1's and 0's and any DAC should be able to convert the data to sound just as well as any other. I GUARANTEE you, that you will get a much higher quality difference by swapping out the stock speakers for aftermarket ones and keeping the stock deck than you would get by installing an aftermarket deck and keeping the stock speakers.

But you're right, the convenience and amount of features you get with an aftermarket deck alone make one worth the cost.

XM

2007Vert said:

See this link:

Visteon Sirius Kit for New style Ford Radios with Aux Button

Hope this helps...

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I did a simular kit on my 08 GT with Shaker 500 but for XM. It was a bit pricey. But if you want XM and the OEM audio. My problem with the aftermarket systems is they just don't look right.

cusp said:

I did a simular kit on my 08 GT with Shaker 500 but for XM. It was a bit pricey. But if you want XM and the OEM audio. My problem with the aftermarket systems is they just don't look right.

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This is my issue. I am pretty underwhelmed with the Shaker 500 head unit. It skips, takes a long time to load, and doesn't have many features. However, when looking at my buddy's stang with aftermarket head units, I'd rather deal with the crap performance than making the inside of my car look cheap. No offense to those with them, but I dig what Ford did with the interior of the car, and I have a hard time putting something in there that just doesn't gel...

I have seen a couple double din, touch screen units that look really nice.

Kenwood DDX514 DVD receiver at Crutchfield.com

This is my current dream deck. Optional navigation, Bluetooth, Ipod control through touch screen, XM compatible. It also looks really nice when installed. It doesn't have a flip down face, so it works well with our specific car, and with the harness it will use the Shaker amp and all 8 speakers. Now if I could only find the cash to do it after putting my damn car back together. lol