Aftermarket stereo question

jchittick · Jun 28, 2005

I was looking into getting an aftermarket stereo because the 6 disc is junk (as blksgrl said in a previous post). I was looking on a reputable website and it said that the MACH sound system is a "special" system, that you would have to replace the amps if you replace the head unit. Has anyone had to do this?

OrangeStang04 · Jun 28, 2005

yeah rip all that crap out...don't get me wrong the mach 460 is ok but still inferior to anything from the aftermarket....and well the mach 1000 is a little bit better but still crap

98slowbra · Jun 28, 2005

well I have replaced my mach 460 system with
Pioneer 8200 CD
Pioneer 7600 DSP digital sound processer
2 6" JL's in the doors
2 6" JL's in pods
2 Boston Pro tweeters in Pods
2 12" kicker comp subs
2-PPI 2300.2 amps
1 5 farud cap
comustar alarm system
all in my 1998 chrome yellow cobra
#4539

the mach 460 system is gone

drtc · Jun 28, 2005

nice sounding system 98slowbra

MyEarsHurt · Jun 28, 2005

If you are gonna replace the Mach system, its a good idea to replace the whole thing. You will eventually want to replace everything, but start with the head unit. Get something decent, but something that will handle what you want to do. Then get some good speakers for up front and back. You can power the speakers with the head unit if you want to, or you can buy a 4 channel amp to power the speakers. It would be a little more involved to buy a 4 channel amp, but it would be worth it in the end and sound so much better. Good luck.

GDawg · Jun 28, 2005

You don't have to replace everything if you just replace the Head Unit. You can buy an adaptor from Crutchfield that will let you adjust the outputs to your amps. I did that and it works perfectly. And Crutchfield gives you instructions with it. I'm running an Alpine CDA-9855 with the rest of my stock Mach 460 system and it sounds great.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-3NjZU3JrAFl/cgi-bin/prodview.asp?i=142C4FDK5

This before I "plug" the lower hole in my car from the '98 Mach 460. I'm more than willing to help anyone with the wiring I had to go through. If you post and I don't reply, PM me cause I'm don't always frequent this forum.

green_fow_six · Jun 29, 2005

You don't need that massive adapter from crutchfield if you get a headunit with enough preouts, You can just get a ford premium wiring harness and solder some rca's jacks to it and plug it into your preouts. I think there is a harness out there with the rca's already prewired but I can't remember the make and model. Plus, this way you will get a purer signal bypassing the distorted head unit's amp. I've had mine hooked up this way since 97. do a search, this has been posted a few times.

Scorcher2005 · Jun 29, 2005

green_fow_six said:
You don't need that massive adapter from crutchfield if you get a headunit with enough preouts, You can just get a ford premium wiring harness and solder some rca's jacks to it and plug it into your preouts. I think there is a harness out there with the rca's already prewired but I can't remember the make and model. Plus, this way you will get a purer signal bypassing the distorted head unit's amp. I've had mine hooked up this way since 97. do a search, this has been posted a few times.

you cant connect speakers to preouts. and the "solution" that you offer sounds a bit complicated. Why would anyone want to do it the hardway when they can just get the crutchfield harness?

GDawg · Jun 29, 2005

green_fow_six said:
You don't need that massive adapter from crutchfield if you get a headunit with enough preouts, You can just get a ford premium wiring harness and solder some rca's jacks to it and plug it into your preouts. I think there is a harness out there with the rca's already prewired but I can't remember the make and model. Plus, this way you will get a purer signal bypassing the distorted head unit's amp. I've had mine hooked up this way since 97. do a search, this has been posted a few times.

Unless you're going to bypass your amps you'll most likely over drive them with the method you're suggesting. That's why this isn't just a harness it's a set of potentiometers so that you can adjust your head units output to best match your amps. Plus, no soldering and rca fittings required. Just my $0.02...

stock 92 gt · Jun 29, 2005

pioneer or panasonic

green_fow_six · Jun 29, 2005

GDawg said:
Unless you're going to bypass your amps you'll most likely over drive them with the method you're suggesting. That's why this isn't just a harness it's a set of potentiometers so that you can adjust your head units output to best match your amps. Plus, no soldering and rca fittings required. Just my $0.02...

nope, Never had a problem. The output levels seem to work perfect. like I said I have been using this setup with Hi voltage preouts since 97 with different head units (clarion, kenwood, jvc, rockford) with not one problem using the factory amps. If you get the harness with the rca's, you wouldn't need to solder or crimp, just plug in the rcas from the back of your headunit. Gdawgs method works fine also but I would rather use the cleaner signal from the headunit's preouts.

green_fow_six · Jun 29, 2005

Scorcher2005 said:
you cant connect speakers to preouts. and the "solution" that you offer sounds a bit complicated. Why would anyone want to do it the hardway when they can just get the crutchfield harness?

you aren't connecting it to the speakers, you are connecting it to the factory mach amps. anyone who has a decent knowledge with electronics can solder 2 pairs of rca's to a harness. nothing hard about it. I choose this method because I prefer the cleaner signal from the preouts rather than using the generic head unit's amp's signal which feeds to another amp amplifying more distortion. Just my opinion though

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