Stereo upgrade keeping stock Head unit

[Yupster Dog]

Hello Forum I am a new member long time reader of this forum 02 EB 5.4 4x4. Most particularly I was watching the stereo upgrade threads because I am interested in upgrading the sound and keeping the stock head unit. (I do have the premier system with the sub) Here is where I am at if you have a min to read....
I got my truck in 2014 (because someone ran me off the road in my old 02 XLT 4.6 2wd but that is a story for another time) the old truck had stock system with a blapunk head unit without subwoofer. So with the new truck I was happy to have the stock everything including the head unit. after I had time to dig in, I found the sub speaker cone was non-existent. ( I have had all the big audio systems in the past and that is not what I am looking for now) I still have a lot of that old system packed in mothballs so I got an idea and pulled out one of my 8" bazooka tubes and extended the speaker wire from the stock sub and hooked it up. I don't know if it was because I was without a sub since 2007 or what but it really sounded good even with the stock door speakers. Because I haven't had the time to mess with it I ran with this for a few years. I could just move the Bazooka to the front or back when I needed the room and it really fit good in front of the third row behind the 2nd row captain.
well my luck ran out one day when the radio would not come on. the fuse was blown and every time I put a new one in the second you turn on the radio it blew. I found out the problem was the sub amp. I disconnected the sub amp input and the radio worked fine, no more blown fuses and that is where I sit right now.
I am ready to upgrade the door speakers and put a small amp in for the sub and get the mtx sub box like aeorn got. I would like to do this all at once. that being said I still need more info about a few things.such as the mysterious 2nd amp does it really exist or it actually part of the head unit? is it in danger of going bad like the sub amp did? and isn't there a speaker in the dash? when I change the sound between front seats, back seats, all seats and driver seat, when it is on driver seat it sounds like there is a speaker in the dash. do you know about it and how big it is? any and all help with any of these questions is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your time,
YD

 

[Yupster Dog]

Well the upgrade is done.
First off no dash speaker and they want way to much money for the sub box that fits in the stock location. Also to get the sub signal thru the stock wire (pre sub amp) you need a really expensive amp that takes the unbalanced signal. All this can be done cheaper just by replacing the head unit which I am not willing to do.
I like the rear controls and the CD changer besides the stock system sounds good with the stock speakers so with new speakers it should sound great. I recently picked up a used (1100w) amp, 10 inch pioneer sub W/box and four 5X8 3way Kenwood speakers and was on a mission to make it work.

Highly recommend Harness kit for door speakers. (on the bench) I soldered the harness to the wire that comes with the speakers and heat shrink to finish. this was a huge help as it took less than 30 minutes to install all 4 door speakers.(doors back together and all)
Speakers fit perfectly in the stock positions used same holes and screws on new speakers no drilling required.

install note front door speakers: Make sure to pull the extra speaker wire out and (wire tie/tape) to wire harness on outside to keep out of the way of the window operation.

install note rear door speakers: While I was installing the rear door speakers I took note of the wire colors on the truck's speaker wire. found those same wires in the pillar in between front and rear doors. Spliced into and ran wires back to the stock subwoofer location. (Did this on driver side and passenger side)
The only other wire I had to run was the power to the battery for the amp. Everything else I just used what was at the stock sub location.(the ground for amp I used the bolt that held in the stock subwoofer box.(Note: scrape paint/ have bare metal where wire is touching for good ground)

The spliced speaker wires are for getting signal. You need a LOC (line out converter) to make a useable signal for your new amp Make sure you don't buy the cheap ones because they sound like crap. I bought the (Audio Control LC2i) W/accubass, subwoofer control and dash remote to have subwoofer control up front. The other important thing is where you get your power for the LOC because it could make even the expensive ones sound bad. I will be utilizing the stock sub pre amp wire harness for this as Ford/Mach already cleaned up the power for audio.
The pre sub amp wire harness for 02 Expy
Light green/violet stripe 12v power (hot at all times)
Black/light green stripe Ground
Red/black stripe subwoofer high audio (+)
Brown/orange stripe subwoofer high audio (-)
Dark green/violet stripe subwoofer high audio mute

From the harness I hooked up the 12v (all the time) and ground to power the LOC. hooked up the speaker wire I ran back from the door pillar. To cut the LOC and amp on and off, the LOC has a Remote in (needs 12v that cuts off with stereo) and remote out (hooked to amp) or the LOC has a sensor that when the speakers are sending it will cut the LOC on and send 12v thru remote out to cut on amp.
Right now I am using the sensor to turn LOC and amp on. I do not like the using the sensor for a number of reasons but it was useful to get the system up and running to see if everything was working properly.
And work properly it does! No humming or engine whining no unwanted noise at all. It just sounds great!

Couple things I am fixing:
The audio mute on the pre sub amp harness is 6v when the radio is on and nothing when you cut the radio off which would make it perfect for a remote wire I just need to make it 12v. I have ordered a 3a 6v to 12v step up converter to make it work for the remote in so I don't have to use the sensor.

The front stock speakers are composite smaller speakers in bigger casing.(that's why the 5x8 fits in the same spot) The problem is when you put the door back together the grill is only open over half the 5x8 speaker.(rear door speakers fine just the front door speakers have this problem) You have the tweeter and half the rest of the speaker exposed under the grill so it blocks out some of the mids and lows and makes the highs a little overpowering. I am looking to put 3 way 6.5's in sometime in the future. I will just treble down until then.

Also on order is a Bluetooth cassette W/microphone so I can have wireless streaming music and hands free phone
​

 

[ManUpOrShutUp]

Just curious, but why don't you want to replace the headunit? On the newer models, it can get pricey quickly to keep the steering wheel controls, etc. as you need Maestro, but on an '02 it should be pretty easy I would think?? I had all the factory controls on my '00 truck with a cheap aftermarket headunit.

 

[Yupster Dog]

Just curious, but why don't you want to replace the headunit? On the newer models, it can get pricey quickly to keep the steering wheel controls, etc. as you need Maestro, but on an '02 it should be pretty easy I would think?? I had all the factory controls on my '00 truck with a cheap aftermarket headunit.

So You are using the rear audio controls (back of center console) and 6 CD changer (in the center console) with a aftermarket head unit?

 

[1955moose]

Couple of comments. 1, on first edition 97-02 with the 6 disc in console changer, an aftermarket head unit won't make it play. I think the reason is the new head unit has a CD player in it, and no way to switch modes, like the factory cassette unit can. And 2, I too have used the 8 inch bazooka tube in other vehicles. Its very punchy for such a small speaker, the 10 inch ones even better. My question for you is when you extended wires from subwoofer wiring, your factory sub amp wasn't tied in with the bazookas amp? If so, I can see why the head unit overloaded. And yes, their is no external door speaker amp under head unit, like a true pre-amp only high end unit would have, just the built in 14x4 watt unit, even with the top Mach system. Sony makes a top shelf single din unit that doesn't have a CD, only mp3 and other digital formats. It's possible that maybe Crutchfield can make up a special adapter plug that will let you interface it into your 6 CD changer. RSX- GX9 is the model, not cheap but trick at $1499.00. pre amp out only, so get your amps out of moth balls.

Sent from my N9131 using Tapatalk

 

[ManUpOrShutUp]

So You are using the rear audio controls (back of center console) and 6 CD changer (in the center console) with a aftermarket head unit?

In my '00 Mountaineer I had all factory controls with an aftermarket headunit. In my '11 Expedition it would require a Maestro, which is expensive and more than I am willing to spend on audio at my age. If you would need a Maestro to retain the factory controls, then I totally get why you wouldn't want to do it. I didn't think it would be necessary on an '02, but I wasn't sure which is why I asked.

 

[Yupster Dog]

Couple of comments. 1, on first edition 97-02 with the 6 disc in console changer, an aftermarket head unit won't make it play. I think the reason is the new head unit has a CD player in it, and no way to switch modes, like the factory cassette unit can. And 2, I too have used the 8 inch bazooka tube in other vehicles. Its very punchy for such a small speaker, the 10 inch ones even better. My question for you is when you extended wires from subwoofer wiring, your factory sub amp wasn't tied in with the bazookas amp? If so, I can see why the head unit overloaded. And yes, their is no external door speaker amp under head unit, like a true pre-amp only high end unit would have, just the built in 14x4 watt unit, even with the top Mach system. Sony makes a top shelf single din unit that doesn't have a CD, only mp3 and other digital formats. It's possible that maybe Crutchfield can make up a special adapter plug that will let you interface it into your 6 CD changer. RSX- GX9 is the model, not cheap but trick at $1499.00. pre amp out only, so get your amps out of moth balls.

Sent from my N9131 using Tapatalk

Yes I already knew the Cd changer (and for sure the rear audio controls) would not work with aftermarket head units. I have truly done my homework. Including you on another thread here stating that you called Crutchfield and they do not have an adapter for the Cd changer and that it was not possible.

Bazooka: When I first got the truck I checked the subwoofer and the speaker had no cone at all it had totally disintegrated. So I unhooked the wire from the stock (no cone)subwoofer speaker and extended it with some monster speaker wire and hooked it up to one 8 inch bazooka tube that I put in front of the 3rd row and behind the 2nd row captains. It worked like that for over 2 years (and sounded really good to me) then the stock sub amp went out. So I started checking into it and evidently this is a common thing and happens a lot to the stock sub amp.

Out of mothballs: The Line out converter that I installed has 2 outputs 1 for bass and 1 normal. I was thinking about hooking up 2nd amp to the normal output and hooking it to a pair of self contained 6x9's I had in my Jeep. I could just put them on the 3rd row seat and just take them out if I need the room.

 

[Yupster Dog]

In my '00 Mountaineer I had all factory controls with an aftermarket headunit. In my '11 Expedition it would require a Maestro, which is expensive and more than I am willing to spend on audio at my age. If you would need a Maestro to retain the factory controls, then I totally get why you wouldn't want to do it. I didn't think it would be necessary on an '02, but I wasn't sure which is why I asked.

Dang, you got me exited that you knew something Moose and I didn't. You never know with technology today they could be building that adapter as we speak.

Besides saving money using stuff I had and the easiness of this project (never touched the dash) I have 5 different ways to play media and have the hands free for my phone. Bluetooth cassette just came in and sounds phenomenal.

The only thing I am missing is the big display and back-up camera. I live in rural area so big display would hinder night driving and if you truly need a back-up camera you need not be driving.

 

[1955moose]

Never judge a moose by it's antler's. Don't know how old you are, but I was building subwoofer boxes, and putting in amps in car's, long before any companies were making this stuff. I used home speakers for the subs, passive crossover components. Back in the day, head units didn't have Rca outputs like nowadays. Amazing the setups sounded as good as they did, considering what we had to work with. The Factory stereo's were so bad, you had no choice. These days they are quantum leaps above the crap that came with cars/trucks.

Sent from my N9131 using Tapatalk

 

[Yupster Dog]

Never judge a moose by it's antler's. Don't know how old you are, but I was building subwoofer boxes, and putting in amps in car's, long before any companies were making this stuff. I used home speakers for the subs, passive crossover components. Back in the day, head units didn't have Rca outputs like nowadays. Amazing the setups sounded as good as they did, considering what we had to work with. The Factory stereo's were so bad, you had no choice. These days they are quantum leaps above the crap that came with cars/trucks.

Sent from my N9131 using Tapatalk

I have no doubt that those antlers are more experienced than my K-9's.
One of your post I read when I first came here to this forum you were talking about a simple upgrade on your stereo without changing head unit.
Did you do this upgrade?
If you did, what vehicle did you do it on and what did you do?