I am not crazy into sound systems like some people, but i have to be honest as the system really sucks.

If I want to do a basic cheap upgrade, what would be best?

Door Speakers? A head unit? what?

 

Decent front door speakers, will make a huge difference. that's all i did, and it's good enough

 

I like Alpine HU, I just bought an Alpine 5 channel amp and a thunderform , Not sure what I am going to do about door speakers , I want to do the Polk DX7 but they seem to be going fast.


Also I used to goto a place off of I-75 N at the Monroe Exit , a little ex gas station building , but they had the stuff. may not still be there but they were there over 6 years. They also had another store up in Miamisburg. It was called the Radio Outlet.

 

I plan on upgrading my door speakers to something like Polk or Infinity. Also, I hear that you can swap the factory tape/CD controller for another factory unit that has a CD instead of a tape, and still control your changer!

 

We put a pair of Infinity Componets in the door, a pair of Kenwood Coaxials in the back, and a self powered 6" Bazooka tube in our L. A nice sounding system, but nothing like I have in my daily driver.

 

I agree with Walker the Alpines are great. The one I have used to be in my 99 and it is still cranking. JL Audio also makes a good set of 5x7 speakes that fit our trucks.

 

the stock head unit is only like 7 watts so anything you do untill you get more power will be limited either a head unit or an amp is needed,i replaced all speakers and put in an amp hooked to the factory head unit and i think it is perfect,i dont like the boomin sound but i do like to crank it up alot.I found that with the factory speakers while cruising on the highway i couldnt hear the stereo,with the changes ive made it is now perfect,i have enough volume that i can hear it but i also have great sound as well

 

I only changed out the four stock speakers and it made a huge difference.

 

I added an alpine headunit with no built in amp, so i had to add one, and its cranking out 100 watts to each of the front stock speakers until this weekend, didnt hook up the backs, but its freakin loud and its clean

 

http://www.blaupunktusa.com/speakers...ers_index.html

PCXI573 graphite coaxials

 

injected coaxials sorry

 

I replaced my stock speakers with Polk dx7s two weeks ago.
Honesty I cant tell much differance. maybe a little more bass but all in all there wasnt much differance. I think the crappy stock speakers are pretty well matched to the crappy stock stereo.

My vote would be for the head unit. I plan on doing that myself before long.

Andy G

 

My advice - if you're not a complete sound junky start out small and take it one step at a time. Since you said your not 'crazy into sound systems' I'll take it that it's safe to assume you don't want to do any custom work. With that I would suggest the following one at a time and progress until your satisfied.:

1. replace door speakers with Polk dx7 or the pioneer 6x8 2-way with compression horn tweeter
2. replace rear speakers w/ any 6x8's that have decent lows or mids, since they're back there you won't hear the highs.
3 replace the headunit, do it yourself. All you need is the head unit, a mounting kit, the wiring harness and either a bunch of wire connectors or shrink tubing/soldering iron/solder and about 2 hours if you don't rush

 

I have a set of really nice Eclipse 6x9 sitting in my room. Is there anyway they can fit in my Dad's Lightning w/o much modification?

 

This is my fourth F150, and I have done sound different on them all.

The basic thing about factory head units is that if you keep it and amp it, you're amplfying distortion becasue they are not great units. On the plus, they do OK with cds, and cut down on theft.
As others have posted, changing out even just the front speakers makes a HUGE difference. The stock ones are crap.
For less than a $200.00 you can amp it (with speaker level inputs) and swap even just the fronts. OR, for about $375.00 you can get a very servicable headunit with decent wattage and change out the speakers to some decent 2 or 3 ways. That way you have cleaner sound and don't have to pull over every time you want to change out the discs
my two cents worth...