I had been doing all sorts of research about putting a subwoofer in my FX4 SuperCrew, and I went ahead and bought an Audiophile headunit and subwoofer, although I don't have the factory subwoofer wiring harness. Here's my dilemma: I have a Rockford Fosgate Power bd500.1 (500w X 1 RMS) sitting around, and I am tempted to sell the Audiophile subwoofer and buy a 10" sub box instead.

Anyone have any suggestions? It will be a pain to handwire the Audiophile subwoofer...but it's doable and won't cost too much money. However, I have a good amp collecting dust and I could make some money selling my Audiophile sub... What would you guys do? Also, I'm 90% sure I can keep my current Audiophile HU and run the sub off of the subwoofer harness output, correct?

Thanks so much guys

 

The weakest link to any factory radio is the head unit.

I would ditch the head unit and sub. Neither piece is worth righting home to brag about.

For a head unit I would go with Eclipse. Sure Alpine used to make decent units but never anything as kickin as an Eclipse. A CD5435 does MP3/WMA and can be found for around $300. A CD5435 for closer to $200 but no WMA.

Do a google search for supercrewsound. They sell boxes for pretty cheap if you don't want to build your own.

Depends on how much you want to spend but I would chunk the front door speakers for some component speakers. I would stay away from Infinity because of poor sound quality. If you want to commit the cash I would start off with a pair of Focal 165V2's for the front. Look at spending over $400 but the sound is worth it.

If you are ever in the Dallas area I will let you listen to my setup and you will understand what I am talking about.

Disclaimer ... go to a car audio shop like car toys (best buy/circuit city don't count) and have them demo some speakers and head units. They have designed their sound room for maximum sound but you get an idea of what a crap speaker Infinity and a decent speak Focal sound like.

 

Well, I used to be an amateur audiophile, but I'm not a big fan of screwing up the "flow" of the 04+ dashboard. I would spring for one of those Kenwood double DIN in-dash DVD players, but thats a lot of money. I used to have an eclipse unit in my 2000 F-150, and believe me, the clarity was great.

I guess its just personal preference to keep the dash clean...I might go for some amped components in the front and some amped new speakers in the rear in addition to the audiophile sub for now...Not 100% sure though.

Anyone else have any input?

 

I dissagree with this the weakest link is the speakers.
But I just built a Custom enclosure that runs under the full lenght of my screws rear seat. I have 2 10" Polk audios in there and it is absolutly amazing. I also ditched my front speakers and put in som niche audios. sounds great. cant wait to change the rear door speakers. I will have pics posted soon i still need to carpet the box.

 

Me personally i would take out all stock audio. Throw in some boston acoustics or mb quart components in the front, a fill speaker for the back be sure its a circle in the back not just oval. Amp front and rear speakers with a memphis amp there cheap and good amps and can be installed under the seats which is why i went with them! For a head unit it you want a clean look you can go with a pioneer avic-d1 or like mentioned earlier about the kenwood! Personally i would go pioneer! If you just want a head unit that can maybe play ipod or something i would stick with alpine or eclipse. Im more of a fan of alpine since they are a bit easier to navigate although they dont look the best! And for subs go with a pair of 10w0 jl audios 99 bucks or so and you can use ur rockford fosgate amp. they produce good bump, little airspace, great sound. Very important dont slack on the wiring! the sound can only be as good as the wire it takes to get there! But this is just what i would do.

 

I have the audiophile system and made a custom box to hold a single 10". I am currently in the process of building up my own audio system and installing it. There are diagrams out there with the wiring coming from the stock audiophile subwoofer. I have had difficulty making my new sub work. Apparently the signal strength coming from the stock sub wiring is very low in voltage. I tried both a rockford and a MTX and could get them to only barely work. I even tried one of those little devices to boost the signal and it didn't work well.

At this point in time I think either an JL audio cleen sweep or a new head unit would be the best. If you can afford something with 24 bit processing that would probably be the best.

 

Id keep your stock HU. In fact I wouldnt even worry bout the clean sweep. Currently im running a JL Stealthbox powered by a e1200. At first I was going to keep the factory door speakers, but changed that thought after a week or so after the stealthbox was installed and went with the JL XR570CSi components in front and JL XR570CXi in the rear. The doors are powered by an e4300. Just to imput my 2 cents, but even with the factory door speakers, they handled pretty dang good.
As for utilizing the Ford harness, id ditch that thought and go with some stinger products.
I know everyone is big on the Dynamat stuff, but I liked the SoundProof stuff. Just put that in the doors around the speakers.
Most of your factory HU are pretty decent now. This is just my opinion, but I think my system sounds pretty darn good. As with anything though.... 'To each their own'
Opie