To Be Quite Honest, Who Is Better To Design And Engineer A Stereo System For A Car Than It's Manufacturer? Ford, As Well As All Of The Other Manufacturers Spend Hundreds to Thousands Of Hours Making Sure That The Quality Of Sound And It's Sequencing And Spacial Positioning Is Perfectly Tuned To Each Vehicles Interior Accoustics.

That's Why Even Though The Speakers Are At The Bottom Of The Door Panels Lets Say, It Sounds As If The Music/Voice Of The Singer Is Right At Your Ear Level. Even In The Standard Units. If You Go With The High End Factory Stereo, That Will Probably Set You Back An Extra $300-500, It's Probably Going To Sound Better Than Almost Anything You Could Buy Aftermarket.

This Isn't The 70's or The 80's. It's Not Just As Simple As Rip Out The Old Stuff And Slap In Something You Bought At The Local Stereo Shop. In Those Days Almost Anything You Did Would Improve Your Stereo System.
But In Those Days The Car Manufacturers Didn't Spend The Time And Money On Tuning The System To Each Individual Car. They Just Stamped A Hole, And Installed Universal Stereos And Speakers.

As Far As Adding Wattage And Bass, Yeah You Can Replace And Add Speakers, Add Amp's To Power Them Etc. I'm Not Trying To Upset Anyone, If That's Your Thing Have At It, But Honestly That Really Is Just A "Mine Is Bigger Than Yours" Or "Mine Is Better Than Yours" Mentality, I Just Don't Understand.

 

Wow.

 

What does that have to do with car audio?

 

It's a quality of components issue really. I don't see anything scientific about ford sticking a pair of cheap paper cone speakers in the door panel and in the rear deck. Have you seen the S197 factory speakers? Then there is the head unit. I guess signal to noise ratio and everything else means nothing. How about the frequency range of the factory amps? The distortion at mid volume. I couldn't pull my factory Shaker 500 out fast enough. But really to each his own on this one. I've got a truck that's still 100% factory and it works great for listening to talk radio to and from work.

And Hollywood, you know what I meant. Quality of the seperate components. It's like you are personally trying to irritate me now.

 

Not at all. You are comparing apples to oranges.

First up: I agree that a cheap stock system will never compare to a quality aftermarket system.

But let's assume that the premium system in the 2010 Stang is significantly better than the Shakers we now have, which I suspect it will be. If it's half as good as some of the stock high end systems out there (like the Mark Levinson audio systems we see in Lexus, for example, or Acura's DVD audio system), then it should be pretty **** good. There is no way some hack in an aftermarket shop is going to be able to tune your "system" to the acoustic parameters of your car's interior, no matter HOW good the components are. There is no way he/she is going to know what the ambient decibel level is at certain speed and RPM levels, which a properly calibrated, high-end stock system will be.

Add to that the new 8" TFT NAV and control screen interface (better than any aftermarket system, I'll wager), and I simply see no reason to hack up one's dash when one has a good looking, good performing system.

There is a trend now to provide better quality in-car audio systems straight from the factory...and Ford seems to be adopting that trend.

 

Hollywood is the most personable person on this board. equally willing to personally irrate each of us!

 

It's a skill.

 

There is definitely a trend towards upgrading the head unit. And they have tried with the addition of amps and speakers, and it is a very welcomed improvement. Really. They have miade light year leaps forward. My wife is thoroughly atisfied with her Expeditions premium factory satellite radio and it even has component speakers in the doors.

But the quality of speakers is sourly lacking. And as for the head unit in the '07 Shaker 500, I upgraded it. I don't know what the '10 will have exactly. But never to this day have I ever seen a factory stereo that I personally wouldn't be happier replacing with a GOOD aftermarket unit. That's just me. I'm an audiophile and a techy.

 

It's almost like you follow my posts Hollywood and then just post the opposite of me just to see what I'll say.

Now I'm getting paranoid.

I love how we can use the or the and its all good.

 

Hey! Go screw yourself!

 

So wait, you mean you guys actually listen to the radio? My sound system is the V8!

 

Congrats on 6,000 Chris!!! Who knew your 6,000th post would be telling me to go screw myself!

 

actually that was my 5999th post. refer to coast to coast for the real celebration...please leave a message after the beep.

 

It is a tossup. I must admit I have LT headers and Stingers and I do listen to those alot. Its about 50/50.

 

As I Said I Am Not Trying To Upset Anyone. If Your Thing Is Upgrading Your Stereo, Then To Each His Own, But I Also Read Somewhere That Ford Is Using Sony Now, Or In The Near Future For All Their Audio Systems. Also, Something I Didn't Mention Is The Ability To Use Things Like The Steering Wheel Mounted Audio Controls, Sync, Etc That Aftermarket Units Usually Disable Or Bypass.

BTW, I Agree Paper Cone and Foam Speakers Do Suck! As For Distortion, Personally I Don't Listen To My Stereo Loud Enuff To Hear Any Distortion. But I'm more Than Satisfied With The Factory Unit.

 

Totally not upset TampaBear. It's cool. I was just giving my reasoning. Ford's improvement is nice, believe me. And I look forward to the day that I can sit in a Ford car, or any car for that matter, and say that I will definitely not have to replace this stereo. And as for listening loud, I really can't do that kind of thing anymore. I've had enough of those days. Moderate volume, but very clear and crisp is what I'm after.

 

Hey Nate I still have a Craig 8 track if your interested I'll even toss a few tapes in too. Hows dat for priemium sound huh !

 

Shweet. How about a white belt and some white shoes too.