Originally Posted by figit

Hmmm, the point was to not fiddle with the stock head-unit and besides you'd still have to run RCAs through the length of the vehicle and since you have 4 lines, your talking another $30 for a pair of RCA cables, one of which you may never use. I certainly see your point though, the scalability would be nice and you would avoid tapping but as long as your not using those b/s crimp taps, the tap is fine no?

Originally Posted by RobDis

Tapping is fine. I personally have had no issues with taps coming loose if they are done correctly and for someone that hasn't done a lot of Car Audio installs it can be difficult to know what is good and what isn't. This device also has a 12 Volt remote on it as well. And it has gain controls giving you another point of adjustment to get the gain just right. I just figured someone may see the benefit of a plug an play solution. I personally hate the factory system in the Mustang. The bass roll off is terrible. Thankfully I got my hands on an Audiocontrol LC2i and cured most of it. But I love the Sync system. Plus to get the good aftermarket kit out there you have to spend almost $1000. So until the stock radio goes out I will deal with it.

Excellent choices on speakers. I had a Alpine Type R 10 in mine originally as well. Needed a little more so I pulled that out and installed a Alpine Type R 12.

Originally Posted by Mach1Maniac

Door speakers are hooked to the mach amps and not sure how to tell if I can hook up certains ones... For example... If I can just clip out the factory door speakers and just reconnect the new speaker... Does it just need to match the 8 ohms?

Originally Posted by figit

The ohm/load presentation doesn't need to match, you can toss in 4-ohm speakers however they will draw more power. This is typically no problem when talking about speakers with minimal requirements such as these kickers. If you go throwing in a high-end/high-power speaker looking for 4-ohms though, you'll get clipping and blow the speaker in no time. This is what happens when you go spend $300+ on door speakers yet they blow on the stock deck.

Originally Posted by figit

Hey guys, I just wanted to post a build that I just wrapped up and I gotta say, for the amount of money I spent, it sounds incredible. I've been hugely into car audio since I started driving and have always leaned towards focal/JL/image dynamics and other high-end gear with full interior pulls for sound deadening/re-wiring but with this car, I didn't want to dump a ton into audio since I'm routing so much money into the performance side of things so I decided to turn it into a challenge for myself. I wanted to spend less than $500. I opted to keep the deck because from a functionality standpoint, it covers me, and I suspected that the muddy distortion was coming from the stock speakers and not because of poor processing on the deck itself. It was a challenge to find great sounding speakers when only working with 15 to 20 rms. I've seen a lot of folks throwing in infinity, jl, alpine, etc. component speakers while leaving the stock deck in place and that is a disaster waiting to happen. It's far worse to under-power a speaker than to over-power it. I cringe when I see stuff like "I upgraded my speakers but now I have to crank the volume higher to reach the same levels as before". If your running the stock deck with high-end speakers google up clipping. Anyhow I had a chance to hear these $50 kickers in best-buy and they sounded great. I found them at walmart for wicked cheap so I grabbed 2 pairs. I've been a fan of alpine type-r subs for mid-level builds and at $139 they are hard to beat. I'm usually not a fan of crutchfield at all since they are notoriously over-priced but I happened to find a nicely matching amp (w/ load is @ 2ohm) also by alpine for $129. This particular amp has speaker level inputs so no need for a line-out converter, I just tapped the signals going to the newly mounted rear speakers. I also picked up a wiring kit which blew my budget BUT then I decided that wiring didn't count : o ). I usually build my own boxes but I've heard good things about zenclosures and decided to give them a shot. I couldn't have been happier, just make sure to provide the exact cutout dimension you need for your specific sub to ensure a perfect fit. I opted for black because I felt like black would be better than "close to matching" charcoal. The whole build took a little less than a day, it was slow due to the weather around here plus I like to take my time. Build list: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 pairs of Kicker CS68 - $116 (Walmart) Kenwood Alpine MRP-M500 - $129 (Crutchfield) Alpine Alpine SWR-10D4 - $139 (Sonic Electronix) Zenclosures 10” trunk enclosure - $115 (zenclosures.com) EFX 8-awg wiring kit - $49 (Crutchfield) Anyhow, for those looking to upgrade without spending a lot, the above worked quite nicely for me. Here is a pic of the zenclosure with the alpine amp mounted on top. I go to track events so I wanted this setup to be easily removed on track days. Also, the amp's end-caps are off so I can tweak things over the next few days, otherwise you'd see zero wires. -m

Originally Posted by CubAndy

I did it...used the Kicker speakers you recommended, but I bought an 8" amplified box from Crutchfield for $150. It had great reviews and the price was right. It even has speaker level inputs. Holy cow does it sound good in my stang now!! For under $400 with amp kit and everything, I think I have you beat on price bro!!! Thanks for the write-up!!