Music Sound Quality

[usmcfred]

Ditto to what Chip, ACR and Bony said. It sounds better, the FM reception is ok at best and AM is pert near useless. CD's and the I-pod work great.

Poor quality AM and FM reception in the FGT is likely the result of the decison to locate the radio antenna in the windshield glass. Stalk type antennas have always been superior in gaining signal and a rear roof mount position, similar to the bimmer 7 series, should have been considered by Ford.

There is nothing wrong with the Mac or standard receiver as evidenced by the high quality sound when playing a CD.

usmcfred

 

[DanQ]

As others have said, AM reception on non-mac (i.e. sanyo) cars is poor. FM is OK.
I don't think it is a radio issue either, likely the antenna.. My JVC replacement head unit AM reception is equally poor.

 

[GTNJ]

You've got to stop with these great avatars, I'm having a heck of a time reading your posts :rofl, my eyes are always going left

My eyes are always going left and staying there. :biggrin

Bony has words in his posts? :lol:lol

 

[B O N Y]

The best sound comes from by STAINLESS WORKS HEADERS that SHADOWMAN designed.
The ugly speaker is gone so I can look at my Whipple and pulley spinning away...
I'm in heaven,..

 

[t32b]

.

I guess I assumed that once it was moved, and the enclosure was changed, whatever precisely tuned properties would be changed/altered/diminished. My long ago audio background led me to believe that these tuning properties are extremely sensitive to those two factors. Guess not. Thanks.

 

[t32b]

Very good point. Thanks.

.

When I relocated I looked for another speaker - I couldn't find a 9" low profile speaker ANYWHERE!. Another goal - preserve original so I sweated the original conenctors to the Shadowman and ACR Speaker Box and relo kit.

I can convert back to stock in ~45 minutes. Same AMP and same speaker, better sound!

Just re-mounted the existing AMP - not a total redesign. If thats the target good luck!

 

[BlackICE]

I agree with Bony! Most of what I hear is the Heffner cat backs through the FRPP cat delete pipes. I replaced my Mac head unit with a Pioneer with an integrated amp. Better radio reception too.

 

[ViperJoe]

I guess I assumed that once it was moved, and the enclosure was changed, whatever precisely tuned properties would be changed/altered/diminished. My long ago audio background led me to believe that these tuning properties are extremely sensitive to those two factors. Guess not. Thanks.

I appreciate your point. In all honesty, I'm neither an audiofile nor do I understand audio engineering. I do know that for my ear (which courtesy of the US Army is far from finely tuned) it sounds great; my eyes find the change even more satisfying. Even if the sound quality had been dramatically degraded, I'd still be happy. As Bony pointed out "The ugly speaker is gone so I can look at my Whipple and pulley spinning away..."

 

[t32b]

Absultively. No question. I frequently turn my head to watch that cool little spinney thingie only to be face to face with what appears to be the nosecone from an A10. They don't call it a warthog for nothing. No question that I want to do a relo. I was just figuring the simplest and most easily undone way to do it and didn't see the great value of retaining (other than in the OEM parts bin) the original woofer.
Thanks

I appreciate your point. In all honesty, I'm neither an audiofile nor do I understand audio engineering. I do know that for my ear (which courtesy of the US Army is far from finely tuned) it sounds great; my eyes find the change even more satisfying. Even if the sound quality had been dramatically degraded, I'd still be happy. As Bony pointed out "The ugly speaker is gone so I can look at my Whipple and pulley spinning away..."

 

[scode]

Poor quality AM and FM reception in the FGT is likely the result of the decison to locate the radio antenna in the windshield glass. Stalk type antennas have always been superior in gaining signal and a rear roof mount position, similar to the bimmer 7 series, should have been considered by Ford.

There is nothing wrong with the Mac or standard receiver as evidenced by the high quality sound when playing a CD.

usmcfred

Thanks guys, now I can tell the owner it is not uncommon to have poor reception and the best fix is to make his exhaust louder:thumbsup

Scode

 

[TO AWSUM]

I have a non-Mac unit in mine and it is definitely the antenna location that is causing the radio to sound bad. When I tune to certain stations there is a tremendous amount of static and station bleed through present. If I open the door and get out of the car, the radio becomes clear. My buddy got in an out of the car a few times with the same results. Since we knew the location of the radio station tower, we concluded that our heads were blocking the antenna reception. Please, no fat head comments . The antenna is located in front of the passenger along the top edge of the windshield.

Except for these times when the antenna is being blocked, the radio sounds as good as can be expected from an FM station or the more inferior AM stations that are more prone to atmospheric distortion.

 

[Shadowman]

For those of you who did the subwoofer delete to the speaker box behind the passenger seat, did the quality of the sound suffer ?
Thanks

It sounds MUCH better for the limited time that I listen to it; and how it looks...well sujectively speaking ... stunning...... largely because it is no longer seen but rather only heard and felt.

The feed back from all has remained "thumbs up" and for that I remain all smiles and appreciative.

Takes care

Shadowman

 

[fjpikul]

Scode, I think there was a TSB about the radio antenna, or an improvement made after the first few hundred cars.