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Enhancing the audio

I have recently upgraded the the stereo in my '97 SHO.  For a while, I'm sure as you know, I have heard many derogatory statements on how difficult ford made it to at least put larger speakers in the car.

I was able to cut 6x9" alpines in the front (VERY easy, but tedious) and since you use rear for fill I used alpine 5x7" speakers and in the 6x9 cutout in the rear I added a 8" Woofer for 100hz - 1.2K and a 12" sub in the trunk.  Now this is VERY accurate if great speakers are used with much presence and a decent imaging; not to mention loud.

I am by no means an armature yet anyone can do this with this knowledge, a sawzall, and a steady hand.  I know this has been tried before with little success.  Just to mount the 6x9's I needed a spacer ring cut out from 3/8 Lucite acrylic glass and 2 1/8" washers were installed between the door and the window guide rail with no effect in operation.  Now with this done you have substantially increased the mounting depth.  The 6x9 definitely makes the difference.  The 8" was added for percussion response e.g.; drums, and only has a .21 cu. ft. enclosure so you can really pump some power into it the front a-pillar speakers which are just great.  I have squeezed other speakers in there but just don't provide the imaging that the factory speakers do, and the handle power very good.  Now with all this done I push 127 db with sub on and 121 db with sub cut out.

I tuned my system as follows:
SUB: 43hz.-3db cut-off to 150hz.
8": 100hz - 1.2k.
5x7's: crossover at 250hz
6x9's: crossover at 120hz
a-Pillar mid tweets: kept the factory capacitor.

Now to get RCa outputs for the amp I used some very impressive quality (LLOC) low level output converters that handle 30 watts rms with the gains turned all the way down.  It is a myth that LLOC's degrade sound quality to a noticeable level.  I have an ear for distortion of any kind and do not notice anything annoying.

What you will notice: 1st; how much you love this car!  2nd; rapid loss of hearing!  3rd; WOW!!! It is possible to kick the balls off other stereos that have only bass!  4th; absolute accurate imaging that is also very loud (127db!)