Can anyone tell me what sound system I have in my car? (PICS)

[99MustangGTman]

I bought my car about 2 1/2 months ago and the guy I bought it from told me he would take $400 off the price of the car to remove the sound system. I said, no problem, since I could care less about massive subs and giant speakers. After we negotiated, he said he would throw in the sound system since I was driving up to NY with a truck and trailer to pick it up for all the hassle, but in reality I think he was just too lazy to remove the damn thing. I don't know anything about sound systems, but if he was willing to reduce the price by $400, I have to think the sound system is most likely worth about twice that if i'm guessing. Here's some pictures of the sound system, sorry if they're not the best, but it's in my hatch and it's heavy and not easy to get access to good photos to. Thanks!

(Kicker)

(This Amp is a Kicker)

 

[JpL4K3]

Skar Audio.

 

[99MustangGTman]

Skar Audio.

Yes I can see that. The subs are Kickers, I think those are speakers are Skar, the one amp is Rockford Fosgate, the other is a Kicker amp. Can someone tell me what this stuff is worth and where do I even go about selling it? It's a custom box so it's heavy as hell.

 

[BOOGIE MAN]

It would probably cost more than $400 just to dispose of that stuff properly, but if you want to drop all of it off a few states south, I'll cover the disposal fee for you. I know a guy that runs an audio decommissioning service and will cut me a deal.

"Nothing makes me question ALL of my life decisions like SVTP."

Posts and likes are not mine.

 

[99MustangGTman]

It would probably cost more than $400 just to dispose of that stuff properly, but if you want to drop all of it off a few states south, I'll cover the disposal fee for you. I know a guy that runs an audio decommissioning service and will cut me a deal.

"Nothing makes me question ALL of my life decisions like SVTP."

Posts and likes are not mine.

Let me know how much. I tried to "start a conversation," but your profile wouldn't let me. Shoot me a message and let me know. I'm not looking to make top dollar on this sound system, just make a few bucks and get it out of my hatch.

 

[98 svt]

What is the model # on the kicker Amp?
The Skar is bottom of the barrel, and the Kicker Comp C subs are Kicker's budget sub.

 

[99MustangGTman]

What is the model # on the kicker Amp?
The Skar is bottom of the barrel, and the Kicker Comp C subs are Kicker's budget sub.

I don't know, i'll go out to the garage tomorrow and gather the details.

 

[TerminatoRS]

Pardon the lengthy post, but I'm an audio nerd.

Looks like he built the enclosures himself. There's definitely a science to it so if it actually sounds good, the guy deserves at least a little credit.

That said, the Skar stuff appears to be maybe 8" mids paired with bullet style tweeters. In my experience/opinion, those tend to have a very harsh, shrill sound. More often used in higher power setups built for sound quantity and not necessarily quality. It appears he vented the cabinet as well; 3 ports seem excessive for the application so I'd guess the mids don't really have any warmth to them. Sealed would probably have been better since they're not meant to reproduce strong low frequencies in the first place. Bottom line: top enclosure is likely totally custom and the speakers in it aren't anything special.

Kickers subs are okay. If they were older models (early 2000's) I'd have more love for them. As someone else mentioned, that model isn't their "good" stuff, but they probably still sound okay given the size of the vehicle they're in. One of them would have been plenty, but again, this appears to be more of a "make as much noise as possible on a budget" type of system. It's kind of like the guy who straps every cheap bolt-on part to his car, never tunes it, and brags about how fast it's not.

Nothing really wrong with the amps aside from the spaghetti wiring. It appears there's 3 of them total...? Hell, one strong 5-channel would have simplified things and probably cost less. Anyway, Kicker one most likely having the most snort to drive the subs, larger Fosgate running the rear mids/tweeters, and the little guy maybe running front door speakers would be my guess. It's hard to tell how many channels they are so I could be wrong about the two Fosgates.

What would you like to do with the audio in the car? Certainly something more basic that'll rid you of that monstrosity under the hatch. That type of thing was fun in high school. lol I think you could sell off the amps and subs pretty easily for a few hundred bucks. I know you mentioned not knowing much about audio, but it really can be pretty simple especially in an older car. If it were me, I'd start over with it. It's already got an aftermarket head unit in so you could go the easiest route and run 4 speakers in factory locations off of that. Or, if you'd like some decent sack to your audio, I'd rip all that wiring and crap out of there, keeping the head unit if it's decent. Put some nice speakers (I prefer Focal) in the factory locations and run them off a 4 or 5 channel amp (5-channel would give you the option for a sub in the future). Good, clean sound that'll get plenty loud if you want it to, but won't take up half your car.

 

[99MustangGTman]

Pardon the lengthy post, but I'm an audio nerd.

Looks like he built the enclosures himself. There's definitely a science to it so if it actually sounds good, the guy deserves at least a little credit.

That said, the Skar stuff appears to be maybe 8" mids paired with bullet style tweeters. In my experience/opinion, those tend to have a very harsh, shrill sound. More often used in higher power setups built for sound quantity and not necessarily quality. It appears he vented the cabinet as well; 3 ports seem excessive for the application so I'd guess the mids don't really have any warmth to them. Sealed would probably have been better since they're not meant to reproduce strong low frequencies in the first place. Bottom line: top enclosure is likely totally custom and the speakers in it aren't anything special.

Kickers subs are okay. If they were older models (early 2000's) I'd have more love for them. As someone else mentioned, that model isn't their "good" stuff, but they probably still sound okay given the size of the vehicle they're in. One of them would have been plenty, but again, this appears to be more of a "make as much noise as possible on a budget" type of system. It's kind of like the guy who straps every cheap bolt-on part to his car, never tunes it, and brags about how fast it's not.

Nothing really wrong with the amps aside from the spaghetti wiring. It appears there's 3 of them total...? Hell, one strong 5-channel would have simplified things and probably cost less. Anyway, Kicker one most likely having the most snort to drive the subs, larger Fosgate running the rear mids/tweeters, and the little guy maybe running front door speakers would be my guess. It's hard to tell how many channels they are so I could be wrong about the two Fosgates.

What would you like to do with the audio in the car? Certainly something more basic that'll rid you of that monstrosity under the hatch. That type of thing was fun in high school. lol I think you could sell off the amps and subs pretty easily for a few hundred bucks. I know you mentioned not knowing much about audio, but it really can be pretty simple especially in an older car. If it were me, I'd start over with it. It's already got an aftermarket head unit in so you could go the easiest route and run 4 speakers in factory locations off of that. Or, if you'd like some decent sack to your audio, I'd rip all that wiring and crap out of there, keeping the head unit if it's decent. Put some nice speakers (I prefer Focal) in the factory locations and run them off a 4 or 5 channel amp (5-channel would give you the option for a sub in the future). Good, clean sound that'll get plenty loud if you want it to, but won't take up half your car.

Thank you so much for this post, this was exactly what I was looking for and not people telling me it’s got this brand and that brand. I can obviously tell that, I really just didn’t know what I was looking at. Hell, in my 99 GT, it had the stock Mach 460 Sound System, and besides the damn head unit being a piece of crap and eating my CDs and returning them to me whenever it decides, I thought it sounded great for a stock system, not being an audio guy at all myself.

It does have a Sony head unit, and while I’m all about OEM looks, I do like that it has BT, a USB port, and the ability to change colors but make it red like stock I’ll keep it.

I didn’t show pictures of it, but it actually has two Rockford Fosgate speakers where the OEM ones would be in the hatch. Those I’ll leave in there. Everything else I’m going to remove and try to salvage as much as I can from it and just buy some decent speakers where the OEM ones go. The problem is I will have to make a custom fit up front as the dash speakers are broken and there are no speakers in the kicker panels. I thought it was my car, but I got my friend to take pics of his 86 GT and he doesn’t have speakers in his either. I know 87-93 have speakers there, so I’m confused how the OEM set up ran.

I really do appreciate the explanation of everything. I could go with a friend to the track and explain just about every mod under the hood, but when it comes to aftermarket sound systems I’m clueless.


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[72MachOne99GT]

Thank you so much for this post, this was exactly what I was looking for and not people telling me it’s got this brand and that brand. I can obviously tell that, I really just didn’t know what I was looking at. Hell, in my 99 GT, it had the stock Mach 460 Sound System, and besides the damn head unit being a piece of crap and eating my CDs and returning them to me whenever it decides, I thought it sounded great for a stock system, not being an audio guy at all myself.

It does have a Sony head unit, and while I’m all about OEM looks, I do like that it has BT, a USB port, and the ability to change colors but make it red like stock I’ll keep it.

I didn’t show pictures of it, but it actually has two Rockford Fosgate speakers where the OEM ones would be in the hatch. Those I’ll leave in there. Everything else I’m going to remove and try to salvage as much as I can from it and just buy some decent speakers where the OEM ones go. The problem is I will have to make a custom fit up front as the dash speakers are broken and there are no speakers in the kicker panels. I thought it was my car, but I got my friend to take pics of his 86 GT and he doesn’t have speakers in his either. I know 87-93 have speakers there, so I’m confused how the OEM set up ran.

I really do appreciate the explanation of everything. I could go with a friend to the track and explain just about every mod under the hood, but when it comes to aftermarket sound systems I’m clueless.


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Holy shit, I forgot all about that.

This post just made my day, and made me smile.

 

[99MustangGTman]

Holy shit, I forgot all about that.

This post just made my day, and made me smile.

Those were the days. My center console has a plethora of mixed CDs I made, obviously before BT was big and iPhones, and I would always put in CDs and that head unit would accept it like it was lunch time and just keep it like a little child and give it back once it was bored with it. What a horrible design by Ford.

 

[TerminatoRS]

In the early 2000's, the Mach systems were pretty decent for factory audio. Now that my ear has "matured", I think they sound like poo. haha No surprise I've ripped it all out and done it up from scratch albeit with a pretty simple setup that still blows the Mach stuff away. It's amazing what decent aftermarket speakers powered by a real amp can do for quality and clarity. Far too many people are focused on wanting louder. Loud is easy; quality is not. The Mach speakers are glorified construction paper. The amps work better as door stops than for powering anything. I will say that the big plastic tub the rear speakers mount in works okay sound-wise even with aftermarket speakers.

 

[72MachOne99GT]

Those were the days. My center console has a plethora of mixed CDs I made, obviously before BT was big and iPhones, and I would always put in CDs and that head unit would accept it like it was lunch time and just keep it like a little child and give it back once it was bored with it. What a horrible design by Ford.

Yea, I was never a major CD collection guy, but i had a few dozen in my car at any given time.

Purchased CDs were never an issue, but burnt ones were brutal. I eventually starting taking a second CD and shoving it in the head unit and pushing the existing CD down. Worked 99% of the time. Only ruined a couple CDs haha

 

[99MustangGTman]

And just like that I no longer have the system. I was about to just sell it at a pawn shop, when two gangsta lookin' dudes came out of a benz and asked me how much I wanted, and I told them $200 for everything while going on about how much everything costs new to keep them from talking me down. They were pretty cool and ended up giving me $210 since that's all this one guy had.

Now I have new gigantic 40+lb box out of my hatch.

I still have the two RF speakers placed where the OEMs would be and want to place something up front, very nondescript. Do I need to buy an amp to hook these up in tandem with my head unit? Sorry, I know nothing about stereos, but when I removed the amps this morning and then reconnected them, I got the sound to come out of the speakers again. Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question.

 

[TerminatoRS]

You could use the head unit to power them if you're just looking to keep it basic. I'd recommend running new speaker wires at the very least since the factory stuff is old and likely very wimpy. Yank the head unit out of the dash and check the wiring harness. Often times the aftermarket harness will have the wires labeled in fine print. If not, you'll have to look it up. Example: Left rear could be a solid green and a green with a stripe (+ and -). Right rear could be solid purple and purple with a stripe. A little splice and dice action wire butts with some heat shrink will do the trick. You may as well run fresh wires for the future front speakers while you're in there. You'll want some female spade connectors for the ends of the wires connecting to the speakers unless you prefer to solder. I personally don't like to solder directly onto a speaker terminal since it makes a much more permanent connection, but I also understand cars bounce around and you don't want a connection coming loose. I just give the connector a good squeeze with my wire strippers once it's slid over the spade and give it the tug test (that's what SHE said).

I truly believe that once you start digging into this you'll see how simple it really is especially on an older car. I learned by trial and error when I had my first car ('94 Cavalier sedan with the 3.1L V6 woohoo). And I'm no prodigy. lol In my opinion, modern stuff sucks to tinker with since everything is so integrated. I just swapped out all the speakers and added a 5-channel amp to my F150. Discrete was the goal. Still took me three days. Tedious crap, but boy does she sing now

 

[99MustangGTman]

You could use the head unit to power them if you're just looking to keep it basic. I'd recommend running new speaker wires at the very least since the factory stuff is old and likely very wimpy. Yank the head unit out of the dash and check the wiring harness. Often times the aftermarket harness will have the wires labeled in fine print. If not, you'll have to look it up. Example: Left rear could be a solid green and a green with a stripe (+ and -). Right rear could be solid purple and purple with a stripe. A little splice and dice action wire butts with some heat shrink will do the trick. You may as well run fresh wires for the future front speakers while you're in there. You'll want some female spade connectors for the ends of the wires connecting to the speakers unless you prefer to solder. I personally don't like to solder directly onto a speaker terminal since it makes a much more permanent connection, but I also understand cars bounce around and you don't want a connection coming loose. I just give the connector a good squeeze with my wire strippers once it's slid over the spade and give it the tug test (that's what SHE said).

I truly believe that once you start digging into this you'll see how simple it really is especially on an older car. I learned by trial and error when I had my first car ('94 Cavalier sedan with the 3.1L V6 woohoo). And I'm no prodigy. lol In my opinion, modern stuff sucks to tinker with since everything is so integrated. I just swapped out all the speakers and added a 5-channel amp to my F150. Discrete was the goal. Still took me three days. Tedious crap, but boy does she sing now

Thanks again for the help. I have to look it up in person, but the head unit is a Sony one that plays BT, SiriusXM, and has both a USB & 3.5mm port. It's new enough to have the features like BT & SiriusXM, but I guess old enough to still incorporate a CD player. I don't know when the owner changed everything, but one Amp had the date 6/18 and the other had 2018 printed on the sticker. I'm guessing the Rockford Fosgate speakers in the OEM location are somewhat in the age of 2 1/2 years or so.

I am looking to keep it very basic. Run the rear speakers, use the Sony head unit already in place and buy new speakers up front. I may have to do a custom fit, because like I said earlier, the kick panels, where on 87-93 Mustangs have speakers, 86 GTs do not. I am not sure if they rely on the dash which incorporates a speaker in the middle and i'm not sure what the other two smaller items are to the sides, tweeters maybe? Anyways, that's irrelevant, as that whole system on the dash is broken, and no sound comes out of there.

Anyways, what do you recommend to buy for speakers? Just a good overall company in your opinion? I'm willing to spend about more than average on them, but not willing to buy top of the line speakers.

I'll go ahead and use the Sony head unit as you suggested to power the speakers since it's very basic like you recommended and run new speaker wires. I'm just looking for something to play in the background and let me SiriusXM App run Lithium channel 34 so I can catch some good 90s tunes, but honestly the car is loud as hell, I can't exactly hear everything perfectly since it's not like a newer car with more sound-deadening material to drone excess noise so I can hear the radio perfectly. Plus the flowmasters drone quite a bit, but I still enjoy listening to something when i'm at a stop light lol

 

[98 svt]

Did the previous owner put actual 6x8s in the hatch, or did he hack it up and go with 6x9s?

 

[99MustangGTman]

I don’t honestly know without removing the covers. The speakers seem to be OEM size, but the covers are slightly larger. I’ll take a pic


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[99MustangGTman]

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[99MustangGTman]

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Sorry, from my phone it doesn’t post like it does from my computer.


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