What would give the most sonic improvement, upgraded speakers or an aftermarket head unit?

 

I think the first step is speakers. New speakers will sound better with the factory unit than the stock speakers would sound with a new head unit. IMHO

 

I dunno about that.. It's a tough call really. They both make quite a difference. Stepping up to an aftermarket head unit made a huge difference in sound quality. I've been asked before if I have a subwoofer. The clarity is much improved as well as the bass. Pioneer and Alpine, from my experience, seem to do great with stock speakers. Stay far away from Sony on stock speakers.

 

I'd say speakers first. When I replaced the stock speakers with Infinity speakers my Shaker 500 system really woke up. In fact I was so impressed by how good the Shaker sounded with the new speakers I decided to keep it and and an amp and sub and am still amazed and get compliments on how good my system sounds.

Wayne

 

I'm pretty torn between the two. Speaker upgrades would be cheap but labor intensive, while a new HU could give me tone, Ipod and nav capability. Decisions, decisions...

 

I was torn too. But iPod/iPhone integration was most important to me, so that's why I went with the deck. Never did change the speakers. The difference was enough to not need to, for me.

 

new speaker wont play dvd's.

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Very cool, but if I could find one w/a radar detector, I'd buy it in a heartbeat...

 

I did the same then decided I needed more ummph so I got a 1600 watt Infinity amp and a couple kappa subs for the trunk and and happier with it !

 

Shaker 500 upper door speakers are the main culprit to the poor sound. They sound horrible. I've heard people having great results by replacing them and leaving the rest of the system alone. This is on my shortlist.

 

The correct answer, everyone, is "Yes."

 

that's YES to head unit and speakers then eh ?

 

I replaced my shaker 1000 with the avh p3200dvd and the sound is greatly improved. I can actually feel the bass from the door subs now, and the overall sound is much cleaner. Hit up some car shows and see what people have. Most guys are more than willing to show off their ride. Don't think you can go wrong either way, but I wanted more connectivity so I went HU first. Thought about spearkers because I diddnt want to lose the six disc, but now I can pop in a 16 gig SD card with WAY more songs. Speakers fell down pretty far on the mod list now.

 

Agreed!!!

 

Some mixed opinions here. I'm sure it depends on the head unit, as well as what's most important to you. But the stock speakers in the Shaker 500 are enough to rattle everything in my dash with my Pioneer head unit. Plenty of treble and mids too. For stock + aftermarket HU I'm quite happy.

 

this.

 

I debated on this decision myself, and I think I made the right one going with the F900BT first. I have the shaker 1000 stock and it really made the entire car sound quite a bit better. Next step is to sound deaden the car and then I'll worry about speakers. IMO until that is in place you really are going against a sinking ship replacing the speakers.

This is also my first aftermarket system though so take it FWIW.

https://themustangsource.com/showthread.php?t=481120

 

The correct answer is again "Yes." But I'll add, perhaps amps to get it niiice.

/One or the other can do ok, but all three is teh win.
//of the two, choices, I still go "yes."

 

Youngins

 

Kept the truck bone stock for a reason