off road stereo ( first gen)

[Mudboy]

Hi everyone, I have a 91 X 4 door and am looking to upgrade my stereo. It curently has a sony headunit probably from the 90s and has stock 21 year old door speakers. i'm not looking for a thumping stereo, but something for when I'm cruising I can crank it and it will sound good. So what I'm looking at is replacing the head unit and door speakers and maybe throwing an amp to them. keep in mind this explorer sees alot of dusty conditions and it's not uncommon to get a couple of inches of water on the floors. What would you reccomend for a relatively cheap but decent sounding stereo. Remember this is a woods toy I'm not looking to enter shows or pick up puss at the local car meets with my stereo lol.

 

[jaydez]

I would skip the amp since once it gets wet it's done and usually they get mounted to the floors. Just find a good heat unit with decent output and the features you want (never hurts to have bluetoth). As for speakers I've always used the Pioneer 6x8s in my Fords. They sound good but won't win your any competitions.

 

[Mudboy]

I was thinking with the amp, to mount it on the back of the seats?

 

[jrford]

What about Marine Radios? They sound a little tougher than normal. . .crutchfield had a few.

 

[Mudboy]

I have thought about that route before. My main concern would be the amp., If i'm to my head unit in water I have more things to worry about than my system lol.

 

[jtbuck92]

Hmm, I would just look into a decent head unit and some low powered after market door speakers.

 

[Jason94sport]

You can mount the amp on the back of the rear seat. That should make it high enough. Maybe suspend a small piece of tarp over it in case it gets splashed. For power you can run the power wire up the a pillar & then the upper door trim to the rear.
Or maybe take the rear side panel off & mount the amp behind that. There's plenty of room on the drivers side.

 

[Joe Dirt]

I think the only difference in a Marine vs. Car stereo is a coated circuit board.

 

[joecrna]

Would definitly use Marine speakers on the doors. They are usually fairly efficient so you will not need too much power. Choose a quality head unit with the features you want and it will probably have plenty of power for the speakers. A Marine head unit, as with the speakers, will be much more resistant to corrosion and shorting. Even if the water never reaches the head unit there will be a lot of moisture in the truck and thus condensation. The price may be comperable to a car unit.

If you don't plan on running a sub, why even bother with an amp. This system won't be audiophile (my personal choice) quality. You said you don't want it to thump. No SPL contests? Remember, it takes 10x the power to double the Volume (SPL). If that head unit puts out a true 25 watts RMS, you couldn't possibly need more without a Sub. Behind the rear cargo area side panel is an excellent location for the amp. Its as high as the dash and as mentioned, if water is that high you've got all kinds of other problems. There are a few marine amps available but price/quality is not usually acceptable.

 

[97EDB]

in my boat the kid gets water on my jl audio marine amp and it still goes all day and its over 3 years old

 

[Mudboy]

Thanks guys. This pay I may be investing in some marine speakers and a head unit. I;'ll probably just skip the amp as suggested