Let's talk about the Mach 460 stereo system

[Adam01Snake]

In my car is the stock Mach 460, the CD player appears to be going out and some of the speakers are either blow or just plain tired. I was wondering how difficult would it be if I picked up an aftermarket head unit and some 5X7 or 6X8 speakers to replace the stock ones? Let me rephrase this better....Will an aftermarket head unit work with the stock amps if I get the correct wiring harness? The speakers are pretty much plug and play I would imagine. Its the head unit that I wonder about since the Mach 460 has some built in amps and crap right?

Anyone thats done this please share your experience and maybe what brand/size speakers did you go with. The good thing about the 99 is, it has the two slots, one with the head unit and a sperate CD player, I was thinking, that CD player slot would make a great place for a 2-3 gauge pod eventually :banana:

Whats my best route on replacing just the head unit and speakers?

 

[01svtdude]

the door speakers are a lil tricky cause of the ohms the factory amps put out and i think its 8 ohms and i had bought 4 ohms infinity speakers and it sounds great but i have less bass and cuts out at higher volumes so i have the bass all the way off. so i installed a single 10 with amp to make up but my high's are great mids are ok but i would buy a factory head unit simply cause i love the 6 disc indash

 

[bigjohn2289]

You can replace the stock head unit and leave the rest of the system alone and it will work ok, there is a harness, the problem comes when you replace the door speakers and leave the mach amps in there. Coaxial speakers handle low and mid range frequencies and you use tweeters to handle the high frequencies, but the amps from the mach sound system use filters to send low range frequencies to the big speaker in the door and the mid and high range frequencies to the little speaker at the top. there aren't a whole lot of options for a 2 and a half inch midrange speaker to fit in the top, a tweeter would be about the only thing to fit. Any good tweeter is going to have filters to filter out all the low and mid range frequencies, and the coaxial that you would put in the door would only be receiving the low range frequencies. Bottom line, If you replace the speakers and use the mach amps, you will be missing the mid range frequencies.

I replaced my sound system and used a new amp in the trunk and used that to power all of my speakers and tweeters and a seperate amp to power the subwoofer. I yanked all of the mach system out including the box in the rear and all of the amps, it took out a good bit of weight, however I wound up putting it back in in the form of a subwoofer

 

[01svtdude]

so you gutted out the mach set up and put a 4 chan and mono amp

 

[bigjohn2289]

Yes sir, and ran all new wires from the 4 channel out to all of the coaxial door speakers and the tweeters. I gutted the interior to make it easier, I had the seats, carpet and console out. It made it really easy to hide all of the wires. While I had everything out, I went ahead and put down sound deadener too, no more annoying little rattles and such a nicer ride quality now, it was totally worth it.

 

[01yellercobra]

How hard was it to rip out the Mach harness? That's something I want to do one of these days.

 

[Adam01Snake]

Well here is the situation, The door speakers 6X8's are the ones that appear to be tired/blow and have the crappy sound, as well as one or maybe both of the deck lid speakers in the back, The little door tweeters seem to work fine as the high freq sound fine in the car its the lows and bass drum kicks that distort and sound like garbage. Would my best bet be to find some used or new replacement Mach 460 door/deck lid speakers and just replace, and get any aftermarket head unit?

Thanks,

Adam

 

[Adam01Snake]

Ok did some google searching and came across a very informative website here that explains all about the Mach460/Mach1000 systems...figured I would share!

Mach 460 Information

-Adam

 

[Bizarro]

So, let me understand this before I jump into this...

I have four Pioneer 5x7s that I had in my truck that I took out and just have sitting around. I should be able to just install these with out much issue, correct?

And the the old head unit that I have sitting from the garage, as long as I pick up an adapter, I can use that too?

I don't have to gut the Mach 460 completely...

 

[Adam01Snake]

Ok I've been doing alot reading about this issue and here is what I've come up with...

You can use an aftermarket Radio/CD Head unit and still retain your factory amps by installing Vehicle Fit Guide particular wiring harness and a 1.5K Ohm resistor wired in-line with the remote amp power wire.

The Speakers are from what I've read alittle more difficult since the factory door and deck lid 5X7 speakers are more like subs than actual coaxial speakers, using component speakers appear to be the way to achieve this, something similar to this Kicker DS680.2 (07ds6802) 6" x 8" Component Systems Car Speakers Car Audio Car Audio, Video, & GPS Navigation - Sonic Electronix Also from what I read stay with a speaker made for 4 ohms such as the one linked, since that is what the amps are putting out.

I beleive this will work, at least from what I've read on some of the crutchfield forums, and other mustang forums with guys replaicng their Mach 460's. I plan on checking with a local audio shop to confirm all my options.

If I could find a new or hardly used head unit/cd player and some speakers I'd probably do that, Heck I even looked at that option over at EBay, the problem I face is my 99 has the two smaller opening for the head unit and the seperate CD player. Ford switched to the double decker stereo set up in 2001 so any unit I find is going to be at least 8+ years old at this point....and probably fried or wore out. If I knew for certain that the double decker wiring would work with what I have in my 99, I could just buy a new AC Vent/Radio Bezzle piece made for a 2001+ over at Mustang Parts & Accessories at 50resto and pick up a nice used setup on ebay for a grand total of $225.

-Adam

 

[01svtdude]

good info adam, the other thing keeping me from getting a nice lil indash nav is im a vert and im sure it would be easy for someone to get inside even with my alarm.

 

[carnut726]

ah dont worry about theft... you only live once. If you want a nave system but dont want people to see it get one with a roll out screen, i have the avic n-1. ive had it for 5 years and it is great still, but i replaced all my speakers and put in 2 amps.

 

[01yellercobra]

So, let me understand this before I jump into this...

I have four Pioneer 5x7s that I had in my truck that I took out and just have sitting around. I should be able to just install these with out much issue, correct?

And the the old head unit that I have sitting from the garage, as long as I pick up an adapter, I can use that too?

I don't have to gut the Mach 460 completely...

The speakers I don't know about, but I'm running a Pioneer head unit. I picked up the harness from Audio Express (or Express Audio, I can't remember back that far). And it works fine for me.

 

[Bizarro]

The speakers I don't know about, but I'm running a Pioneer head unit. I picked up the harness from Audio Express (or Express Audio, I can't remember back that far). And it works fine for me.

OK, I'll admit...when it comes sound systems, I don't know squat (or very much anyways)
This is what I have.
Pioneer TS-A6880R
6x8
240 watts/max
4 ovoies coaxa

Opinions?

If these will work for the door and the rear deck, I'll probably use this time to paint the interior door handles as well....

I dunno...I either need to install them if they'll work or sell em.... :shrug:

 

[01yellercobra]

OK, I'll admit...when it comes sound systems, I don't know squat (or very much anyways)
This is what I have.
Pioneer TS-A6880R
6x8
240 watts/max
4 ovoies coaxa

Opinions?

If these will work for the door and the rear deck, I'll probably use this time to paint the interior door handles as well....

I dunno...I either need to install them if they'll work or sell em.... :shrug:

They will work. I think the deal is that the speakers won't work to their full pontential because of the stock amps. But they'll still sound better then stock.

 

[Bizarro]

They will work. I think the deal is that the speakers won't work to their full pontential because of the stock amps. But they'll still sound better then stock.

Cool...what I wanted to know....
Thanks

 

[Adam01Snake]

Cool...what I wanted to know....
Thanks

I had read that full range type speakers end up blowing the tweeters because of the low end signal thats factory wired from the amp. Apparently the amp only sends the lows to the door speaker and the highs to the tweeters as it has a built in X over, I had also read where people said they didn't sound very good which was why alot of people that swap the head units out went ahead and rewired the door and deck lid speakers completely bypassing the amps because of the way the amps were really specially designed for the type of speakers ford put in them from the factory. I don't buy some of that, I think if a good component speaker is used it should work as long as the ohms match. Which in this case, 4 Ohm speakers.

I hope that helps,

Adam

 

[01yellercobra]

I have all the stock speakers with an aftermarket head unit. I think it sounds pretty good. I have all the bass turned off to the speakers and use a 10" sub for the bass.

 

[Dale99SVT]

Check out Crutchfield. You can use a search called outfit my car. It will list the audio equipment that will fit your car.( Radio, Speakers, Amps, etc.)

 

[IUP99snake]

I had read that full range type speakers end up blowing the tweeters because of the low end signal thats factory wired from the amp. Apparently the amp only sends the lows to the door speaker and the highs to the tweeters as it has a built in X over, I had also read where people said they didn't sound very good which was why alot of people that swap the head units out went ahead and rewired the door and deck lid speakers completely bypassing the amps because of the way the amps were really specially designed for the type of speakers ford put in them from the factory. I don't buy some of that, I think if a good component speaker is used it should work as long as the ohms match. Which in this case, 4 Ohm speakers.

I hope that helps,

Adam

Good point, the door and deck 5x7"speakers handle lower frequencies than most aftermarket speakers of that size. The tweeters also handle lower frequencies than most aftermarket tweeters.

If you are going to upgrade, you can bypass all the amps and run aftermarket components in the doors and deck, and put new tweeters up in the top.

The thing is, ford did a really great job designing that midbass enclosure in the rear deck, and it would be a shame to not take advantage of it. Most 5x7 components wont sound any better with that large of an enclosure, so you might as well just throw it out and save the weight, just as long as you dynamat the deck surface. BUT!! There are other options if you want to take advantage of that enclosure.

JL Audio makes a 6.5" midbass woofer that can be made to fit into the 6x8" opening with some minor modifications. You could try to run them with the factory amp, but you'll get the most out of them if you get an aftermarket amp that has more power and the ability to tune the frequency. I installed a set of them in a mustang with the mach 460 system. They sounded like crap with the factory amp, but when we installed a JL amplifier, they really came to life.

We used a JL 300/4 4 Channel amplifier to run the rear midbass drivers, and a set of full range front speakers in the doors. Because you can tune the frequencies on the amp for both the front and rear channels, the speakers are being powered exactly as they are designed. Don't try to run the midbass drivers in the doors because the door itself isn't a good enough enclosure. We ran the tweeters from the front channels using the head unit's internal amplifier.

Of course, the JL midbass drivers are no substitute for a good 8" or 10" subwoofer if you want real tight clean bass. JL makes a "stealthbox" that fits in the corner of the trunk that holds a 10" sub. It looks factory. The only thing is that you have to ditch the deck enclosure that holds the factory rear speakers and amps. It's worth the sacrifice, and you're not gaining much weight because of the weight removed from the factory box and amps.

Go to a good car audio shop. (the mom and pop kind, not a chain store), and ask for their advice. Ask them about the JL midbass drivers. They're sweet.

Homer