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Stand alone aftermarket stereo.

9K views 47 replies 7 participants last post by  jlcustomz 
#1 ·
Recently switched to a 2019 transit as company work truck, which is mine to drive, but I don't own. Also for budget reasons, I want to reuse most of my aftermarket stereo I had in a sprinter & leave factory unit untouched.. I got my reasons. Also I can fabricate by the way.
Have a reasonably new pioneer single din head unit, Clarion active eq with volume control on it. Kicker 4 x 75 amp for main speakers &500w amp for my pioneer 12's. Mostly listen to add on xm unit, which I have to factory stereo aux for now.
Have pioneer 4 way 6 x 9's in carpeted boxes, which will likely mount up high on my carpeted bulkhead, as in last truck. Easy enough .
Need to figure something for front. Considering making something to drop in large lower side cupholders to hold from a 4" to 5 1/4 component speaker. Previously had 4"pioneer dash speakers in sprinter.
Previously had twin box of 12's behind sprinter seat in bulkhead cutout. Could feel the hair on your arms move sometimes .Need all my rear room for business, so considering making 2 custom sealed waterproof boxes to fit under drivers side body & port sound inside.
several options for amp mounting locations.
Deciding where to mount single din reciever & 1/2 din eq with volume control. Bunches of rca cables will play into this decision. May make holder right behind center console?? Pretty sure CD players operate upright?? May Also sacrifice main center cupholder area??
Lastly not over familiar with transits electrical yet, did track down odd front dome light issue with these wierd new fuses. I just need easy way to tap in for low amp full time signal & switched (10 amp?)for reciever & eq. Haven't yet accessed battery under seat for hookups, but should be easy enough.
Probably won't get to for a few more weeks, but planning.
Any suggestions appreciated. One way or another, I always get it done, but help wouldn't hurt.:unsure:
 
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#31 ·
Looks like my 19 year old Sony 12 inch car stereo Woofers are holding up better then yours, They are in near mint condition because they have never been in a car. < Home made Subwoofers made for use at home, Hooked to a 300 watts per channel/speaker at 4 ohms Commercial power amp.
Five sided aluminum Cones with rubber surrounds, $100 dollars each in 2001
 
#32 ·
Getting things situated & hooked up In a trial & error fashion. Gave setup a quick try without front speakers. It was a trial aiming my rear 6 x 9's mostly downward, that was an error in this small cab space.:( Looked cool though. Will remount mostly forward, slightly down, as in previous sprinter & panel trucks. Was too close to ears to hear much of right channel.
Thanks to these hardened steel door pillars, had to go through bulkhead to get a grounding spot for amps . Will tuck in wiring better later.
Gonna try out 2 silk dome tweeters per front speaker. Cut a selection of angled round blocks to mount & aim tweeters towards ears. Will use screws & 3-m mounting tape.
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#33 ·
Got my upper rear 6 x 9 boxes remounted firing more forwards, sounds a little better. Tucked most wires.
Got my tweeters & mounts initially setup, trying to aim towards driver's ears. Going for sound, not stealth here.
Shame on me for taking a friends advice & mounting sub box on back of bulkhead wall firing backwards. NEVER mount a sub box on the back of a thick plywood padded & carpeted wall. Can't hear (or feel) over full range speakers with truck shut. Everyone else hears it though, not the effect I wanted. I'll probably flip box around forwards with spacers & cut some of the wood & padding out. Previous truck had these same speakers firing into cab through wall & sounded much better.
Sounds like it's supposed to from a distance with doors open.😈
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#35 ·
Time to work on has been scarce as usual, but got my plastic kick panel boxes trimmed & backside enlarged for new larger front speakers .Sounds better, makes rear speakers sound dull now.
Still not close to happy with sound though. I notice it sounds better if I move my head to center. Looks like once again the odd shaping of these vans has screwed me. If you look at the alignment of the rear speakers to seat center, your left ear is to the left of the speaker, not the right. Front kick panel speaker is almost as bad.

i thought about making custom rear boxes anyways, I need to get speakers over into the corners. Would involve trimming the controvercial foam corner blocks.

On front, i may have to consider making door inserts to house speakers in doors.
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#36 ·
Figuring for making speaker insert pods into doors. new speaker in back of factory speaker would be easiest, would place speaker even with front of seat. Option 2 would be to have speaker over factory speaker angling back & forwards with pod built out. Other options would be to cut factory speaker grille to let speaker sit deeper in door or remove factory speaker from it's hole to make a deep pod..Dn't have much door speaker install experience as to how placement affects sound.
Tech said air space of box best to be from .35 to .5 cu ft for 8"midrange, any larger gives diminishing returns.
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#38 ·
Ok, 8's. read your other post first. I'll be fiddling with redoing my full range speaker first before getting back to subs. These DS18 6 x9's i stuck in my tiny kickpanel pods sounded like they could have fair midbass in a proper box. Will be putting them in far corners of overhead with boxes behind wall, so subs between could be step 2 of it.
 
#39 ·
Was checking out the Skar Audio 8" speakers. Said to be as strong or stronger than many older 12" with a tighter sound.
Starting trimming back my upper corner foam blocks to fit speakers in corners.
Designing my sealed door pods for my 8" speakers will slip into cutout in door panel & will have between .35 to .5 cf airspace. Will likely cover with a fine grey fur type fabric I've used to hide kick pods before. Factory speakers will remain in place. Need to figure for running my new speaker wires.
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#40 ·
Got front speaker box pods ready for assembly. Keeping factory speakers intact. a 1" tall section of 6"pipe coupler fits over factory speaker. Has slot to front side & slot in door panel for factory speaker to be able to play if needed. Cover screws over coupler with a mild sealant.
If I was not keeping in the theme of leaving stock system alone,factory speaker could simply be removed & back of box be flat.
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#43 ·
As I said , all factory stuff is intact & functional. If I was removing factory speakers & wanted to use doors as box, could have just done spacers to mount 8's. I'll have to leave my pod boxes if changing vans later.
Yea, doing more than necessary, but 1500 watts over your head isn't necessary either.at least not for normal people. Normal sucks.
May be doing stereo upgrades for bosses vans later.;)
 
#45 ·
Finally got time to get new speaker wire snaked through the front doors. Ended up putting a small hole in the lower dip of the loom, which was full of water.:mad: FYI. Ran the wire through loom into door & up the backside through the center of upper plug in column into the inside using wire to snake it.

Added a little butyl tape sound deadening & padding to doors, screwed in place, & mounted my 8" speakers .Also removed the 4 tweeters from dash & mounted 1 each to door pods. Need to make more angle spacers to point better at my ears.
Building the floor Kick panel pod boxes was a learning experience A lot of wasted time & taught me a hard lesson. Small boxes choke the output of a high output speaker SEVERELY. Had the gain on my front am channel approx 1/3 up, it's back at a little past 1/2, which gives still gives extra room for no audible distortion at full volume on eq knob. I've always read that kick panel boxes are superior for sound staging due to closest equal path to ears. Never read until recently they could choke a high output speaker, as the ones in my personal vehicle also sound like. They also have the soundstage too low & blocked in some applications, such as ours. Almost worst of all in the transit, they are past your outside ear.
I rarely see kick panel speakers anymore, other than the classic car world where they sell a lot of crap to people that don't know any better. See more larger, like 8", speakers in doors, as I recently help a friend make fit. I see why now.

Finally sounding better, New front speakers now make the old rear 6 x 9's in prefabbed boxes sound dull & chocked. Now for my new custom rear boxes.:) I think a larger amp for these front speakers will be in order soon. The ole kicker 4 ch is rated@ 60 w rms @ 1% distortion, pretty weak next to my former Orion amp ages ago.

Learned a little from reading between all the outdated crap on the internet written mostly by people selling stuff (they all suck), & have gotten some schooling from joefromga here(y), so I should be a better updated stereo installer when done with this project. Been leaning towards his thoughts of just a single 10" sub with matching amp, in overhead, in a properly custom built ported box, of course. I'm one of those people others always look to advise from, so I'll as usual return any favors receiving help to helping others.

One way to tell when your setup is sounding better, when you sit outside for an hour listening to it like you're still a teenager.
Joe from N Fla.
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#47 · (Edited)
Got rear boxes assembled & trying tweeter mounting on boxes before fixing carpet & finishing wiring. Also re aimed front tweeters better to driver's ears. Sounding much better now, but rears don't sound as good as front. Making boxes to move speakers into corners was more difficult, but worth it. Not sure if more downward angle would help any. Not sure how much sound difference is location & how much is difference between 8" & 6 x 9 speakers. Could swap rear to 8" later.
Want a really strong clean amp to go with these speakers. Considering the Skar skv2-2004d ($369 ) or the Ds18 s3000.

Definitely needing better bass to compete now. Leaning towards single scar svr10 powered by rp 1200 scar amp in custom box. Seems like a popular sound quality choice & cheaper than a jl sub. Just not sure about correct aeroport tube diameter & length to go with specified 1.55 to 1.65 cf area of box. I can calculate displacement.
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#48 ·
Haven't updated this thread since last year. Picked up an in stock jl audio 10"w-3 speaker & kicker 800w amp to go with. While building box, found out they gave me a lesser w-1 speaker and to date they still haven't got any jl audio stuff in yet.
Hooked up the kicker amp to my old pioneer 12's & it woke them back up.
Later got a Sundown sa10 v-3 speaker & built a ported spec box for it & mounted through my plywood partition wall at floor far to side as possible with sound firing to side & left bottom of drivers seat. Not as efficient as larger multiple subs, but best sounding bass I ever had, could use a bigger amp. These things are actually under rated. Pounds harder & clearer than 2 old 12's did.
Swapped old kicker 60w x 4channel amp for a jl audio rd400 model, picked up a little hiss & low engine noise due to amp type, but it sounds really great.
Next put in 2 ds18 super tweeters on rear channel just over my ears screwing directly to carpeted wood I have there. Lowered to higher eq settings & really added to sound. Later got 2 more & built plastic pods to install near factory a-pillar tweeters. Figured 2 tweeters near my ears would be too much, but as distributor told me, not so. Silk dome tweeters are weak next to volume of DS18 pro's.
Got a 2nd Sundown SA10 v-3 sub to put in overhead box I made for jl audio w-3 sub. Thankfully box spec is close & I only test fit together with a few screws. Will break in with a small amp, then will need to buy a good amp, such as jbl club 1000, which local shop has for 100 less than online last I looked.
Need a few hours of outdoor time away from more important stuff to finish stuff, may be a while.
At the moment, this is the best sounding setup I've ever owned, very good clarity & my 7 band eq is set near flat , as is the receiver's internal eq. A sign of a good setup. Everyone that sits in the struck smiles ,another good sign.
 
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