A customer came to us a couple months ago dissatisfied with the sound quality of the factory installed stereo system in their 2010 Ford Super Duty Crew Cab. What he did like was the factory installed navigation system and Sirius. He did not want to lose that. We explained to him that we could keep the factory Ford navigation system and Sirius tuner and upgrade the sound tremendously. He liked the idea. What this customer wanted was audiophile sound quality while still keeping the integrity of the truck. It was still a truck and needed to be capable of carrying multiple passengers or lots of cargo. No problem.
We started out by integrating a JL Audio HD900/5 amplifier to his Ford navigation system. This amplifier has the capability of taking the signal coming directly out of the Ford radio, eliminating the need for any type of interface adapters. The benefit to the customer is a better sound as the full quality of the musical signal is left intact. We discreetly installed this amplifier underneath the rear seat of the truck. This amplifier has an extremely small footprint allowing it to be tucked into places a normal amplifier may not go. This amplifier feeds the JL Stealthbox subwoofer system with 500 watts of clean power. We also installed a bass level control knob in a convenient location in the dash so the customer could adjust the bass output to his liking. The JL Stealthbox mounted underneath the rear seat on the driver’s side and was color matched to the vehicle. The Stealthbox comes loaded with JL’s 12TW5 subwoofer, which is a technical marvel all by itself. It packs incredible clarity plus incredible output in a speaker that is only 2.5″ deep! This speaker has multiple patents on it’s design. The Stealthbox enclosure is made of fiberglass so as to blend well with the interior and is extremely rigid. This also improves the sound quality a lot.
Speakers are one of the most important parts of any stereo system and for this vehicle we chose German Maestro speakers. They are hand assembled in Germany and to put it quite simply, sound incredible. We installed the Status SV6509 package in the front and put the woofer in the door and the tweeter in the A-piller for better sound staging. For the rear speakers we chose the Concept series CC6808 and installed them in the factory locations in the rear.
In the end the customer got back a truck that had a truly audiophile sound quality with more than enough output for any mood. He kept the integrity of the vehicle intact. I would say job well done.
