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There are several brands of amps designed to improve sound quality relatively cheaply. The most popular seems to be the Alpine. Basically. you get a small 4 channel amp the puts out 45 watts rms to power the door speakers. This get wired inline between your radio and door speakers and woul typically be mounted in the dash behind the radio. Put some new speakers in your doors and this would really help your mid bass. combine this with a powered sub like you used and you should see a huge improvement. I put the complete kicker system in my 13, and I'm pretty happy. From my experience, which doesn't make me an expert, you need more than the sub to get good bass. The sub is only designed to handle the lower frequencies, somewhere below 120 htz. If you don't amp the door speakers, your not going hear an improvement in the bass above what the sub handles. From listening to what comes out of my speakers, I've found a lot of what I was wanting to hear come out of the door speaker, I think thats called mid base.
I ended up getting the Kicker Powestage. I have only had it a few days. So far I'm not sure it's a lot better than the Sony but it's far better than the XLT factory stereo.
I found this and it's a great deal but I am not sure if it will work with 2015 F150 SCREW non-Sony VA NAV system.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/171559494185?item=171559494185&viewitem=&vxp=mtr
For some reason their may be differences between the 2014 & the 2015 setup!
I just upgraded my 2015 xlt with the Kicker VSS non power stage base unit. It is about half the cost of the power stage unit. It greatly improved the base. Not to the point of rattling my windows but a very noticeable difference. It is $699 at stage 3 motorsports vice 799 at Amazon or Crutchfield. They said there was not an upgrade from this to the powerstage, but their might be later. The instructions were minimal, but OK. Online with color might be nice. It tells you to hook up the connectors near the firewall and then run the cables to the back unit. There are zip ties in the way for that. You can run the cable on top, but it would be better to run the cable from the back to the front under the zip ties before you make the connection. The rear connectors will not fit under the ties. I had a lot of trouble getting the power cable through the firewall grommet. It must be self sealing. There is an inner and outer cover, both tough stuff. I would up threading a thick stiff wire through the grommet, making a hook and pulling the cable through. The rest was ok. The connectors you splice in are tiny and the wires are small and tight - not much slack.
I adjusted mine to #7 and it is better BUT still the bass and quality is not what I would like it to be. I am thinking about adding the Kicker Hideaway, but am confused as to the difference between the Hideaway & the Substage VSS? The Hideaway has an 8" subwoofer and puts out 150W while the Substage has a 10" subwoofer and puts out 200W but is more expensive. I can buy the Kicker Hideaway for $249, the question is whether that will do the trick? Not looking for truck thumping, just a better quality stereo sound in my 2015 F150 SCREW! Any help would truly be appreciated, thanks!
I have the Hideaway and sounds really good. Definitely adds the missing bass factor w/o breaking you wallet or setting off car alarms.
After adding the Hideaway, I did swap out the factory speakers for Polk 691's & 651S's and the difference is amazing as the clarity of sound is like night and day. Speakers only cost me $150, so for $400 total, the money was well spent! BTW, the rear speakers on the 2015 are real crap, wait until you remove them, you will be amazed! Probably cost Ford about 50 cents each!
After adding the Hideaway, I did swap out the factory speakers for Polk 691's & 651S's and the difference is amazing as the clarity of sound is like night and day. Speakers only cost me $150, so for $400 total, the money was well spent! BTW, the rear speakers on the 2015 are real crap, wait until you remove them, you will be amazed! Probably cost Ford about 50 cents each!
Did you have to make any modifications to the Polks to make them fit?
Did you have to make any modifications to the Polks to make them fit?
No modification since they are the same size, 6x9 & 6.5" respectively BUT you will have to cut out the factory speaker from their plastic mounting adapters and then use them to mount your new speakers! Not a real problem as it is easy to do; some have used them as a template to make their own adapters from plywood, but that's much more work which is not really necessary.
10-10-2015, 10:01 AM
