I have come to appreciate nice sounding audio but pretty much all my experience with audio is with headphones. I want to upgrade the quite frankly terrible system in the single cab Ranger I just got. The head unit has an electrical problem. I just ordered a single DIN kit off Amazon. My plan is to order a head unit and replace the four speakers plus add some Dynomat on the door panels and in the area around the rear speakers. Given the limited space I wasn't sure about adding an amplifier or a powered sub. I love suggestions on speakers and a head unit to get or anything else really. I will basically be playing music off a portable player I have. I'd like to keep the budget under $500-$600.
Go-to brands for me:
Head units:
-Kenwood. Awesome units with fair user interface. FM sensitivity pretty good. Excellent bluetooth reliability, stable amps
- JVC. Very good all around. Good bluetooth reliability (takes a bit longer to connect
- Pioneer. Good bang for buck
- Alpine still does some good stuff, but I never liked their user interfaces.
Speakers:
- CDT. Some of the finest drivers on the planet. woofersetc.com has closeouts and remans for cheap.
- JBL. Good bang for the buck
- JL. Good bang for the buck
- MBQuart. Cream of the crop 10 years ago, but they have been surpassed by others.
Amplifiers: (suggested since most head units drop low frequencies as you turn up the volume. Low-wattage dash units don't have the stability and oomph to drive bass very well)
- Kenwood. Bang for buck
- Kicker. Great amps, but you pay a bit more
- Rockford Fosgate. Pretty much the same assessment as Kicker.
- Audiobahn. They aren't the greatest or the most efficient, but they make good power for not much money.
Your truck probably has weird sizes of speaker like 5x8. Don't be afraid to cut sheet metal or make some adapters out of MDF or ply. I put 6x9s in the door of my van (with 5x8 holes) by using the grille trim as a spacer between the door and speaker. It spaced it up enough that the basket fit in the smaller hole. If it hadn't fit behind the panel, I was going to get the tin snips and jigsaw.
The problem with odd factory sizes is that it limits you (not only in speaker real estate) to a handful of choices. Everyone makes 6.5" or 6x9.
For everything except the CDTs, I strongly recommend Crutchfield. Sometimes their prices on new stuff beat woofersetc on their reman stuff. And customer service is ridiculously awesome. Holy cripes. Install help hotlines, easy returns, just amazing. Not a canoe, just that I have had a flawless record with them for over 20 years.
I'm a huge home audio guy, but in vehicles I tend to remove audio equipment if doing anything involving it. Sometimes I'll leave factory stuff in for news, sports and weather.
Marantz did make a sweet double din headunit for a few years though.
I recently put this head unit in my Mini Cooper and it does sound pretty decent: https://www.crutchfield.com/S-V8RXd5Etrv6/p_130X7800BS/Pioneer-DEH-X7800BHS.html
I think the base level of what you get from a head unit for your money from about $100 on is pretty decent these days, especially if you get one that is labelled a digital media player - ie, something without an "expensive" CD drive. That does seem to have led to a dearth of mid-level SQ headunits, though.
Regarding the speakers, if two of the four are for rear fill, I generally recommend not putting replacement speakers in there - it makes getting a good sound stage harder, although that is a bit less of a concen if you're looking at something with a single cab or a Miata. But unless you want to run a 5.1 system in your Ranger 
, I'd rather buy better front speakers and remove the "rears".
My experience with powered subs hasn't been great, they're usually cheap for a reason. If you do want loooow frequencies, you do need a decent amp combined with a decent sub. In that case I would look for a good (used) four channel amp that would allow you o run the fronts off two channels and bridge the other two for the sub. That's a potential budget buster though...
I had THESE CDT 6x9s in my van. They're listed at $199/pr right now. I think I got mine for $129 refurbed.
These MBQuarts would also be nice.
I suggest getting one with built-in bluetooth that also has a remote microphone (not a microphone built into the face). Many states are moving toward the no handheld device laws. Thinking ahead. My Kenwood has it and it is quite lovely. Call quality is excellent. Within 5 seconds of firing it up, its connected, and the transition from car to phone is seamless: like if you're on the phone and get into or out of the car, it just automatically switches with no waiting or "oops I missed what you said."
Ok so it sounds like a decent head unit plus good front speakers and eventually an amp sounds like a plan.
I thought another option would be to run a DAP directly into an amp but volume control might be tricky.
Powered subs are nice. Even a small 8" would help. It won't rattle windows, but even 6x9s won't give you much punch down low. A single 8" (or a well done 6.5" enclosure) would add low frequencies and round it out.
You could build your own and buy an inexpensive amp to drive it.
I have done that before on a budget. The thing is, head unit amps are small. So they make nice looking peak wattage numbers, but in honesty they don't have the current capability to move a large cone to effectively make bass. If, however, you set the head unit to cut out the low frequencies sent to the main speakers, it can devote all of its power to mids and highs and they will sound much better. Then use a small amp to drive a small woofer enclosure behind the seat and you'll get a big upgrade in quality without much more investment.
For instance, This 8" woofer in a 0.3 cu ft sealed enclosure would give you nice response down to about 50hz. $45 for the speaker, $20 for the materials, and a cheap 100w amp to drive it.
Sounds like a good plan. I don't need a window rattler.
Just FYI, stock speakers in the Ranger are 6x8. It seems like tweeking to fit a 6x9 or 6.5 won't be too difficult.
Also does anyone have experience with Focal car speakers? I know Focal from other stuff and that the make good audio equipment.
Second on forgetting about rear speakers in that little truck. I just put a whole new "system" in my single cab s10 with just the dash speakers and a tiny 5.25" sub behind the seat. I have a ton of control from my head unit (2din jvc) and a little marine amp driving the SW. The dash speakers are only 4x6 but I got 3-way pioneers with great range and great reviews for pretty cheap and being so small I set the high pass filter at 100hz so they don't get out of their comfort zone. The sub is called a "voxel" and was easy to build with the driver only costing around $40. The plans for that are on the parts-express forums and easy to find with a little googling. Great sound, more volume than I can use and pretty cheap with the exception of the head unit, but I like the control it gives me.
Edit* Link to my thread and all the parts I used. I can't recommend the sub enough, I never thought something so small could be so good... *insert obvious joke here*
barefootskater said:
Second on forgetting about rear speakers in that little truck. I just put a whole new "system" in my single cab s10 with just the dash speakers and a tiny 5.25" sub behind the seat. I have a ton of control from my head unit (2din jvc) and a little marine amp driving the SW. The dash speakers are only 4x6 but I got 3-way pioneers with great range and great reviews for pretty cheap and being so small I set the high pass filter at 100hz so they don't get out of their comfort zone. The sub is called a "voxel" and was easy to build with the driver only costing around $40. The plans for that are on the parts-express forums and easy to find with a little googling. Great sound, more volume than I can use and pretty cheap with the exception of the head unit, but I like the control it gives me.
Edit* Link to my thread and all the parts I used. I can't recommend the sub enough, I never thought something so small could be so good... *insert obvious joke here*
Thanks that sub is interesting.
I've got Kenwood 6x8s in the vic, got them at best buy for like $100/pair. I was surprised how easy to find that size was.
In my current ranger, it's got jvc speakers that say "made exclusively for Ford/Mazda"and are rated to 300 watts each. I don't know if they're stock or what, but when I replaced the stock head unit with my standard $100 Kenwood from best buy they perked right up.
I'm hoping duster will chime in, as he's a big fan of small subs in trucks and I definitely want the bass, but don't feel the need for a 1000+ watt thumper system anymore.
Ok so here is what I am thinking.
This JVC head unit- https://www.crutchfield.com/p_105KDX350B/JVC-KD-X350BTS.html?tp=5684&avf=Y
This Alpine amp- https://www.crutchfield.com/p_500MRVF300/Alpine-MRV-F300.html?search=alpine_mrv-f300&skipvs=T
Plus either the MBQuarts or Focal 6x9s, some Dynamat and build the Voxel sub with a cheap dedicated amp.
Does that seem reasonable?
Oh this is interesting. I want to do new speakers in my excursion and maybe a sub. I have a double-din head unit but over a certain volume the vocals get messed up. It's not very clear if I want to blast the music which would be nice with the windows down or simply because the 7.3 is LOUD!
In reply to 93EXCivic :
The amp might be overkill. That head unit was in the runnings when I was shopping and has most of the same features I have and boy are they nice to have. I do still have some CDs though so I went with a compatible unit. I'd throw out this Kenwood amp as it has more than enough power to run two full range speakers on one channel each and a sub on the other two channels bridged. Simplifies things a bit. Depending on how you want those 6x9s powered you could just run them off that head unit. 22w RMS is quite enough power in a small space for most things.
I still need to get some sound mat of some type.
I've had good luck with JVC headunits. I had one and liked it so much I transferred it through 4-5 vehicles.
In reply to barefootskater :
That amp is identical to what I saw when I followed 93ExCivic's link. A 55 x 4 into 4 ohm amp with the capacity to be bridged on both front and rear channels. I would personally choose to get a good pair of front speakers and a decent quality eight or ten inch sub (ported eight for more wooly thump, sealed ten for deeper bass extension at the cost of a bit of output). 55 watts per channel on a decent pair of 6x9's will go plenty loud. That's actually enough to power some of the more efficient 6.5 inch separates for even more clarity of sound, and bridge the rear channels to your sub.
In reply to travellering :
I must not have read closely enough on the alpine.
Yup, on second glance it looks to be the same thing in a slightly different package. Whoops. Party on.
It's not the cleanest audio option, but you could use the existing speaker wires for the rear speakers as signal for the sub amp. Most amps have speaker-level inputs.
Quick primer on ohms: Higher ohms make the amp work less (lower amperage which means lower wattage) but the speakers "use" more of the wattage. In general, higher ohms makes better quality sound. Lower ohms makes more quantity of sound.
So lets say you have an amp that makes 100w at 4 ohms and you hook it up to an 8 ohm speaker. The amp might only make 75w but it will be higher quality than if you used a 4 ohm speaker. The 4 ohm speaker might be a little louder, but lower quality sound.
An example. I have two 10" subs in my Impala. Each sub is a dual voice coil, each 4 ohms. Depending on how I wire it (parallel, series, or a combination) I can give the amp anywhere from 1 to 16 ohms. I had it wired for 1 ohm (which let the amp make 1800w) and it was deafening but awful. I currently have it wired for 8ohms (about 800w) and it sounds much quieter but controlled, tight, and really audiophile. A quick wire switch and I can be at 4 ohms for a little more noise.
You can always give an amp more resistance with the speaker, but don't give it too little. You'll see amps listed as something like "4-ohm stable" which means 8 ohms is fine, but 2 ohms will overload it.
My biggest issue is finding aftermarket headunits that aren’t ridiculous looking for a decent price. I was hoping to get something with an aux input for my e36, but everything I’ve found so far looks like something from the first fast and furious movie
I have a Kenwood KDCX798 in my Impala (the one I referenced above). Its no longer available, but I love everything about it except the display. The display is low-tech and not very easy to read. It is also glossy and picks up reflections easily.
Aside from that, it is a wonderful unit and it cost me $209 (just looked at the old receipt from 2014)
Linky to discontinued Kenwood
Kenwood's Excelon line is really nice stuff.
