ACBlessing
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- April 25, 2001
- Messages
- 275
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- City, State
- Spokane, WA (eastern Washington state)
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2000 Mercury Mountaineer
For whom it may help on a tight budget but wanting better sound:
I replaced my 5X7 speakers last night on my '00 X with factory Mach sound system and here's what I noticed.
The front door speakers on my '00 were very nice factory speakers: appear to be 5.25 mid and seperate 1" soft dome tweeter both encased in a sealed, hard case which also sat on an angled (toward front seats) trim piece...really surprising for Ford. Easily removed speakers and installed new Kenwoods.
Rear door 5X7s were, as expected, the worst, cheapest speakers I've ever seen. Thinking I might save money, I replaced the cheap back-door speakers with the nice factory, front-door speakers (since they had tweeters) and tested.
Result: The Kenwoods sounded better, crisper and even gave me some mid base up front. Was going to get seperate tweets but the Kenwood tweets nested in their 5X7s sounded so good, my eyes squinted when they accurately played highs...especially using the factory angled trim piece.
Problem. The new front Kenwoods for so efficient , in fact, that I couldn't even hear the rear speakers, even with a lot of rear fading (remember I moved the nice factory front speakers to the back doors).
Factory front speakers, (now sitting in back doors) even though they were nice, weren't as efficient as the Kenwoods and might as well not even be installed in the back since you won't hear them anyway...so tonight, I'll remove them and install the other two Kenwoods in the back doors (forget about saving that money).
Also, I thought I'd either paint or cover the stock speaker grills in black for a nice touch BUT all four were "melted" to the door panel itself and with my Dremmel and time I could've removed them and painted but I didn't last night (that'll be another day when I upgrade my speakers with seperates...who knows).
As per the factory 8" sub: The little panel that sits in front of the sub really IS removable despite what stereo shops say, however, don't mess with it since you'll have to remove the whole quarter panel anyway and that is pretty easy. The sub itself sits in a sealed, hard plastic enclosure via screws in the front AND a single bolt from behind (which is why you'll have to take the whole quarter panel off, dammit).
I replaced the factory 8" with a Rockford Fosgate 8 DVC" (on sale for $65) and noticed immediate improvement in bass response from the factory amp..and an end to the cheap 'thuding' sound from the stock sub). If you replace the factory sub with ANY decent aftermarket sub (especially with an efficiency of 90db or beyond) you'll notice immediate improvement too.
Incidentally, the stereo shop wants to Dremmel off the face of the box and install (with wood and fiberglass) a new front which will accomodate a 10" sub. Bass response to cost ratio is prohibitive as this is only a mediocre but expensive upgrade.
Aftermarket also offers a custom fit box, sub and amp for Xplorers around $450) but... better to get a 10 (or 12, 15 or pairs, etc) in it's own box and amp where the bass response is DRAMATICALLY more powerful. (I personally just wanted a little improvement in response from the 8" and I'm very happy with what I got from just replacing the factory 8 with the RF 8).
Hope this helps anyone doing this
I replaced my 5X7 speakers last night on my '00 X with factory Mach sound system and here's what I noticed.
The front door speakers on my '00 were very nice factory speakers: appear to be 5.25 mid and seperate 1" soft dome tweeter both encased in a sealed, hard case which also sat on an angled (toward front seats) trim piece...really surprising for Ford. Easily removed speakers and installed new Kenwoods.
Rear door 5X7s were, as expected, the worst, cheapest speakers I've ever seen. Thinking I might save money, I replaced the cheap back-door speakers with the nice factory, front-door speakers (since they had tweeters) and tested.
Result: The Kenwoods sounded better, crisper and even gave me some mid base up front. Was going to get seperate tweets but the Kenwood tweets nested in their 5X7s sounded so good, my eyes squinted when they accurately played highs...especially using the factory angled trim piece.
Problem. The new front Kenwoods for so efficient , in fact, that I couldn't even hear the rear speakers, even with a lot of rear fading (remember I moved the nice factory front speakers to the back doors).
Factory front speakers, (now sitting in back doors) even though they were nice, weren't as efficient as the Kenwoods and might as well not even be installed in the back since you won't hear them anyway...so tonight, I'll remove them and install the other two Kenwoods in the back doors (forget about saving that money).
Also, I thought I'd either paint or cover the stock speaker grills in black for a nice touch BUT all four were "melted" to the door panel itself and with my Dremmel and time I could've removed them and painted but I didn't last night (that'll be another day when I upgrade my speakers with seperates...who knows).
As per the factory 8" sub: The little panel that sits in front of the sub really IS removable despite what stereo shops say, however, don't mess with it since you'll have to remove the whole quarter panel anyway and that is pretty easy. The sub itself sits in a sealed, hard plastic enclosure via screws in the front AND a single bolt from behind (which is why you'll have to take the whole quarter panel off, dammit).
I replaced the factory 8" with a Rockford Fosgate 8 DVC" (on sale for $65) and noticed immediate improvement in bass response from the factory amp..and an end to the cheap 'thuding' sound from the stock sub). If you replace the factory sub with ANY decent aftermarket sub (especially with an efficiency of 90db or beyond) you'll notice immediate improvement too.
Incidentally, the stereo shop wants to Dremmel off the face of the box and install (with wood and fiberglass) a new front which will accomodate a 10" sub. Bass response to cost ratio is prohibitive as this is only a mediocre but expensive upgrade.
Aftermarket also offers a custom fit box, sub and amp for Xplorers around $450) but... better to get a 10 (or 12, 15 or pairs, etc) in it's own box and amp where the bass response is DRAMATICALLY more powerful. (I personally just wanted a little improvement in response from the 8" and I'm very happy with what I got from just replacing the factory 8 with the RF 8).
Hope this helps anyone doing this
