2022 GT convertible stereo upgrade options…..Add power? speakers? Both?

[Jxp1962]

So i have had my 22 gt vert for about a year now, prior to that i had a 17 ecoboost pp with a shaker stereo. My only gripe on my gt is the stereo.



Im not particularly handy or knowledgeable about amps/ohms/watts ect. and will have the stereo upgraded professionally.



Ive gone to a few competent stereo places….



The first place felt i just needed more power. His suggestion was adding a rockford 5 channel amp to increase power to my system. Price around 3300 -3500$



Ive read here from lots of guys, and from my understanding, with more power, i would find that the speakers are also junk so i feel i would need my speakers replaced along with the power addition - correct me if i am wrong please





2nd place suggested a replace of speakers and added amp and sub - alpine optim 8 amp and alpine components. Price a whopping 4500-5000k. Way over what i had hoped/planned to spend. They later reworked it with a smaller amp at a lower 3600$ price.



The 3rd place quoted me an audison 1000w, 12 channel amp, initial quote was just the amp, saying we could see how it sounded and if the stock speakers were crap with the extra power, we replace the speakers and add an audison subwoofer. Again, i said we would just want to plan on replacing the speakers and adding the sub. This revised price quote was around 6200$ - crazy expensive and way, way over my initial expectations of cost, but i heard a similar setup at his shop and sound was incredible.

We talked about cheaper solution, a smaller amp for 600-1000 less but he strongly felt its better to be too powerful than not loud enough with the smaller amp. He stressed sound quality with the roof down we would want the power…

For the most part, stereo is OK, but when the top is down - and i drop it every chance i can, the audio is lacking, often times i have it pinned, with my shaker ecoboost, i dont think i ever had the volume pinned full. My ecoboost was not a vert, and way quieter exhaust.

Sorry, this has been so long!

My question…



How much powered/channel amp is suggested with the 12 speakers? (Pulling the front one)



Is power all that is needed? Or with the added power would i need to upgrade the speakers for optimal sound?

Oh and while the speakers would be done i would have them add some noise dampening material around the speakers.







So is power enough or should i plan for power AND speaker upgrades?



Prices are way more than i had expected, i priced the audison amp and its around 2k, crazy, but the sound was fantastic…



Of the 3 i liked the 3rd vendor, he has great reviews, seemed maniacal about his work and really took the time to explain the what and whys to me… price is insane but if i am going to do it, id rather do it right…
My 2nd choice was the alpine vendor… but the amp they offered was 300w which i believe is how much power i currently have… i dont want to spend all this money and not be “wow’d”




Rockford

Alpine

Audison



Just power? Or power and speakers?




thanks for any suggestions!

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[MiamiGT350]

Preface: I have an audiophile installation in my vehicle, and I installed everything myself.

Attempting to answer your questions, and having upgraded a few S550s, here's my (somewhat) concise suggestions:

1. If stereo shops are quoting you those prices for just an amp, I'd run. There is no way the factory speakers will support an decent upgraded amp, so they're just stringing you along knowing you need speakers. Any decent amp is going to overpower them.
2. disconnect the front center channel speaker. It is just the right and left merged into one line, so it's simulated and not needed in an aftermarket setup.
3. disconnect the rear speakers. You'll barely hear them and they won't add much of anything to the experience. Save yourself $ with 2 less channels and speakers needed.
4. I'd skip full bass speakers. Dynamat, the speaker cost, the amp cost, and the loss of trunk space will be annoying and cost additonal $$. You can always add it later.
5. Get a 6 channel amp, 4 ohms. Get 6 aftermarket speakers - 2 tweeters to replace a-pillar factory tweeters, two front door mids, and 2 front door mid-base. Crutchfield.com is a great site to see what fits in the vehicle, and you can even test how the speakers would sound.
6. You'll want an aftermarket equalizer. Audio Control is a great brand, or you can roll with EQ integrated amps like the JL Audio VX600/6i.
7. I have a JL Audio Fix86 to correct any factory imperfections coming from the Sync output to the aftermarket amp. You don't need it or any line-output correction as it does little to nothing.
8. You need good, shielded RCA cables to run from the front to the rear of the car, assuming the amp will be in the trunk. I know the Skar audio cable works well and is little $. You can also run them through a computer cat6 network cable, terminating it using RJ45 plugs

Useful threads:

• https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/th...at-install-long-post-heavy-pic-warning.78694/
• https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/th...premium-audio-systems-no-loc-required.159271/

Custom speaker adapters for the doors: https://store.audiodesignscg.com/product/2015-2019-ford-mustang-speaker-adapters/

Factory to aftermarket wiring harness: https://www.crutchfield.com/S-X1hpNHmuk7V/p_794HARFO3/iDatalink-HRN-AR-FO3-Harness.html

P.S. Rockford, Alpine, Audison, JL Audio, etc are all good brands. Just do our research & watch some youtube videos to make sure you're buying something of quality and decent reviews.

 

[Evolvd]

I’m with MiamiGT350. At least half the price of every pro shop is labor and wiring/fuses/taps. But 3K for just an amp install is highway robbery. It takes 4-6 hours to properly install an amp by any competent person. Even at an ungodly hourly rate this is less than $1000 in labor/accessories.
Don’t waste time with just a speaker swap as the stock amp won’t be able to push them efficiently and it’ll sound worse than stock. Same with just an amp, the stock speakers are trash and won’t handle the extra power.
My recommendation, save up some money and do it all at once by replacing the amp and front 3-way speakers.
Disconnect the rears or don’t bother wiring them up and leave the stock set in the holes. Disconnect the center channel.
I did my own install as well. YouTube is a great resource for DIYers.

 

[Jxp1962]

Thanks guys, and great idea, i had not even considered skipping the rears. I planned to pull the crappy dash speaker, and excluding the rears,
Ii can get a cheaper amp for just the front door/pillar speakers. I do like the bass and wouldnt mind the subwoofer in the trunk even at a loss of space…
the audison amp has a dsp knob, i dont think this would be the aftermarket equalizer miamigt referred to, would it? But it does allow adjusting the amp…

dynamat will be included in the door speaker setup….

thanks for the suggestions, i appreciate it.

 

[Evolvd]

Thanks guys, and great idea, i had not even considered skipping the rears. I planned to pull the crappy dash speaker, and excluding the rears,
Ii can get a cheaper amp for just the front door/pillar speakers. I do like the bass and wouldnt mind the subwoofer in the trunk even at a loss of space…
the audison amp has a dsp knob, i dont think this would be the aftermarket equalizer miamigt referred to, would it? But it does allow adjusting the amp…

dynamat will be included in the door speaker setup….

thanks for the suggestions, i appreciate it.

I’m not familiar with audison amps but typically a remote knob for a DSP amp can be set up to control any specific factor of the EQ. My JL knob has two dials which can be programmed for any desire. One ring controls sub volume and the other is for tweeter volume.

 

[Jxp1962]

So the stereo guy questioned sound volume with disconnecting the rear speakers in a convertible with the top down…

I notice both you guys have coupes… , i am wondering if anyone with a gt convertible active exhaust has done the rear speaker deletes and still are ok with volume when the top is down?

thanks!

 

[Bassackwards]

I have one and left my rears in. It definitely helps with volume on the interstate. I also built my own sub enclosure. If you were closer you could check it out. I have about $2k in equipment and maybe 20 hours of install time in it. Building the sub enclosure was not difficult but does require 24 hrs dry time between layers so start to finish was about a week total.

My amp is an Alpine R-A90S with 75x4 plus a mono bridged sub output of 500W. You can't stand full volume for very long.

 

[MiamiGT350]

So the stereo guy questioned sound volume with disconnecting the rear speakers in a convertible with the top down…

I definitely agree with asking other convertible owners, and getting opinions outside of my own.

As a general rule, every doubling of the same exact speakers adds 3 decibels in loudness. This has to do with the power requirements. For example, going from 10db to 20db requires 10x the power. Going from 10db to 30db requires 100x the power.

So if I have one speaker at 40db, and add a second, that makes 43db. But I need to jump to 4 speakers to make it 46db.

Perhaps unplug the rears now and see how you feel after turning the volume knob up a bit?

 

[joe603]

I'll chime in...First, I'd check out some install threads. There are a few good ones with tons of pics. It seems the same 4-5 guys always chime in to help out (Evolved, you're the man!).

Now a stereo is a fairly personal deal...some want huge bass...some want competition sound quality...rarely can you do both. For me, I just wanted to be able to hear something with the windows down, I cant imagine with the top down! To do that, you're going to need new speakers and amps to push them. Then everything that goes along with that...power wires, adapters to the OEM deck, wire harness adapters, subwoofer enclosure, amp rack....it's a project for sure!

In most of my past cars, I've been able to get away with adding a subwoofer enclosure/sub amp, high/low converter and use the stock speakers for a decent system. Not the B&O crap in the GT. Probably the worst stereo in a car I've heard. So you're going to need to bite the bullet and either pay a shop to do all the work, or do it yourself. We're here to help!!

 

[Canadian Crimson]

I have one and left my rears in. It definitely helps with volume on the interstate. I also built my own sub enclosure. If you were closer you could check it out. I have about $2k in equipment and maybe 20 hours of install time in it. Building the sub enclosure was not difficult but does require 24 hrs dry time between layers so start to finish was about a week total.

My amp is an Alpine R-A90S with 75x4 plus a mono bridged sub output of 500W. You can't stand full volume for very long.

do you have any pictures of your sub enclosure?

 

[Jxp1962]

It seems the same 4-5 guys always chime in to help out (Evolved, you're the man!).

Id like to echo that…. Thanks!

So you're going to need to bite the bullet and either pay a shop to do all the work, or do it yourself. We're here to help!!

And honestly, i might be able to do this myself, but id feel better having a pro do it… i understand it will cost - when i first got the car i posted about a stereo upgrade, i was figuring 1500-2500$

after shopping around having the work done i had some serious sticker shock…

that said, i did bite the bullit, i put a deposit on the audison system…. I went back and forth with the owner discussing delete of the rears or not… he was fairly adamant that id be disappointed without the rears, but would do whatever i said since i was paying…
I did not pull the rears to test it, , but did put the fade up to mostly the front, with the volume loud and the top down i found it sounded a little more full with the rears on….
so i really bit the bullit got the rears, the 1000 watt amp and im doing the noise baffling…

im scheduled to have it installed next month… they are building a aub enclosure in the trunk… so yes, ill lose a little trunk space but it should sound considerably better than now…. Being a vert, i try to drop the top every chance i can. In maine this morning it was a balmy 64 degrees at 530 am so i got to enjoy tge top down to and from work….

I do not recall ever pinning my 2017 ecoboost but with this gt its full blast a lot and really not that loud… im looking forward to better sound quality…[/QUOTE]

 

[Bassackwards]

do you have any pictures of your sub enclosure?

https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/my-sub-enclosure.193627/

 

[joe603]

I love my rear speakers! Not just fill in my opinion. My focal amp is pretty beefy at 150RMS x4 so I have some power going to mids/highs for the front and the rear. Of course the fade is biased to the front, but I love hearing the rear...especially with a good song that has dynamic sound. I was just listening to Santana yesterday and the drums on Black Magic Woman really put you there.

For my rear setup, I included baffles to help keep the subs from muddying the sound. I even ported the rear deck with a sound tube to help keep the rattles down at high volume.

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