Mach 460 System

[mf959100GT]

So I'm not sure if this has ever been asked on here, or done by anyone on here but I've been thinking about completely doing away with the Mach 460 System in my 2000 GT. The reason is that I want to replace the speakers but my step brother replaced the front 2 in his 96 GT with the mach, and those speakers only reproduce bass now. I also have some subwoofers to put in the "trunk" but the amp rack is in the way for most boxes. So my question now is if anyone has done this or how hard it would be to do this. Thanks in advanced!

[redfirepearlgt]

Did a simpler Nav system in my 02. Ran a four channel for the front/rear and an oldschool highcurrent class A (Audio Art H50) bridged 1ohm to a sealed 10". Put hte whole thing in the trunk. Amp rack for the F/R on the left, Sealed single sub box on the right with the amp mounted on back of it and a line amp tucked in next to it to step up the 1.2V rca outs to 8V. did a rather nice job. I reused the rear deck box. Mounted up coax 6x8's in it and put it back in. The fronts were 6x8 components. You don't have to gut the whole thing but it really does not make good sense to leave it in there. I tried that initially and the SQ suffered terribly.

Not too very difficult. Took me a few days to run everything. I had a local shop make up a custom bracket mount for the Eclipse Double DIN Nav/DVR unit. They had nothing available at the time for a straight out adapter kit. Worth the money. Looked like it was stock installed.

Good luck. Lots os things to choose from. You can go cheap or you can get stupid with it. It's all in what you like ot do. Since the 05 I have found the newer (if you get a shaker 1000 system anyway) to be quite adequate for SQ and volume. My current system could use a little bass in the trunk but I will likely forgo that since stereo stuff really isn't my bag any more. That is unless I end up in a Terminator again some day. The mach 460 was a step above the 1978 AM/FM 8-track option offered on Thunderbirds and Cougar XR7's.

[mf959100GT]

So how hard is it or is it possible to remove the factory amp rack in the trunk? Thinking about replacing the door speakers and rear deck speakers with some kenwoods or a similar brand and then putting the 2 kicker comp VRs in the trunk and calling it a day lol

[redfirepearlgt]

So how hard is it or is it possible to remove the factory amp rack in the trunk? Thinking about replacing the door speakers and rear deck speakers with some kenwoods or a similar brand and then putting the 2 kicker comp VRs in the trunk and calling it a day lol

Too easy. Just takes some deep well sockets if memory serves correctly. Everything comed out from underneath (within the trunk). I suggest as mentioned in my first response to mount 6x8 coaxials in the box and reuse it.

Another neat trick to do in the event that you redo the whole system. THis will save pulling wires for the front speakers. With the head unit out, determine which wires are FR/FL/RR/RL. At the head unit splice FR/RR and FL/RL. With the amplifier rear deck mounted, now all you have to do is install the front speakers, and attach the rear speaker wires that fed the amplifiers to the new amp. The ywill now function as the feeds from the rear mounted amp to the front speakers and save a bunch of pulling and trim removal. OF course you will still need to pull RCA feeds, power, and remote. Ground can be made in the trunk and by as short a ground wire as possible for the amp. Then all you have is the short pull to the rear deck from the rear located 4 channel amplifier. Remember that the radio will no longer have direct connection to the speakers (assuming you install a four channel RCA output head unit).

Last make sure you purchase a NAV unit that has solid 3V preouts minimum.This value can go as high as 8V in the upper end range of head units and a few have the ability to output 16V whid hare used for Sound Quality and not just DB level competitions. THis may have changed in the past 3-5 years as well. It has been a few since I bought sound system equipment for a car.

[chris91]

Ive never found the need to run a separate amp for mids and high. Head units these days provide plenty of power for them.

[redfirepearlgt]

Depends on what you are doing. If you are after low THD and SQ like I was on a previous system in a 2003 Ranger, (Eclipse, Diamond Audio, Boston Acoustic setup) you run a channel to each component eliminating the passive crossovers and give full control of that to the amps or head unit. You will never get that quality from a head unit amp alone. In fact the headunit I was using in that system I ordered specifically because it was NOT amplified and had 8V preouts.

On the 2002 I found the eclipse Nav unit inferior on the head unit amp outputs and added a four channel eclipse amplifier (just for more volume in this case) to drive everything on passive crossovers. The guy can go cheap and have a bunch of boom in the trunk or he can add a four channel to have some fill to even the sound out across the board. Just depends on what the man wants to do.

SO the question now OP...What are trying to do, cheap with all thump in the trunk, middle row even overall sound, or quality sound that makes Beethovens 5th symphony sound like the orchestra is sitting on the dash where you can almost hear the conductor's batan as it moved through the air? Then again you may already have the system and were simply looking to find out how hard the rear factory items were to get out.

Let me know if I can be of help.

[chris91]

I think mine sounds perfectly fine with only two tens in the trunk. Not overpowering bass and tons of mids and highs with just the Pioneer headunit. Enough to where I have to turn them down considerably through the EQ.

[mf959100GT]

SO the question now OP...What are trying to do, cheap with all thump in the trunk, middle row even overall sound, or quality sound that makes Beethovens 5th symphony sound like the orchestra is sitting on the dash where you can almost hear the conductor's batan as it moved through the air? Then again you may already have the system and were simply looking to find out how hard the rear factory items were to get out.

Let me know if I can be of help.

I'm just wanting to replace all the speakers in the whole car, I know that if I do their going to only reproduce bass without removing the Mach 460 system, so I was wondering how to by-pass the whole system itself then I'm putting the 2 comp VR's in the trunk with their own amp. Don't know the technical terms of it all though, thats what I have my step-brother for lol.


I think mine sounds perfectly fine with only two tens in the trunk. Not overpowering bass and tons of mids and highs with just the Pioneer headunit. Enough to where I have to turn them down considerably through the EQ.

What kind of box do you have, I have been having issues finding a decent box that will fit, and do you still have the factory amp rack in your car?

[chris91]

Thankfully my car didnt come with the 460 system.

All you need to do is rewire the speakers to your new headunit.

[mf959100GT]

Thankfully my car didnt come with the 460 system.

All you need to do is rewire the speakers to your new headunit.

So just figure out which color wire is what and splice the new speakers to that? It wouldn't be possible to use the already ran factory wire would it?

[chris91]

Id just run all new speaker wire.

[redfirepearlgt]

Thought you were gutting the system altogether. I have no experience trying to frankenstein a mach460 with aftermarket speakers. I know trying to make an Eclipse GPS Nav system work in place of the headunit only and reusing the remaining 460 amp and speakers was a nightmare and sounded like butt. Yes all eight speakers did work. Inthe end I pieced together a ralitively cheap back end and it sounded okay.

Sound quality is to the ear what food is to the tonge. No two people have the same taste in what sounds good. One person can spend $50 and be happy while another drops 15K and still struggles to find the right timber in his/her mobile audio system. Good luck.

My advise is either stay stock or savemoney buy a headunit and gut the whole thing. IFthat is the case, yes rewire the speakers.

[chris91]

I remember having to use a inline convertor box made by Schoche(spelling?) when I retained the 460 setup with an aftermarket headunit in my old 99. It allowed you to turn down the 460 amp because without it it sounded distorted as all hell. If thats the route you're wanting to go I still have that box.

But yeah I think hes talking about buying all new speakers so rewire that shit and be done. You'll definitely be happier in the long run with all new speakers and headunit. If you have a Dual Din setup I can recommend a nice cheap DVD/CD player that works AWESOME. Its the Pioneer 2400BT. Has Bluetooth and USB hookup, doesnt have Navigation but most phones have that these days anyway. I only paid $279 shipped through Amazon. I liked it so much that I bought another for our Explorer.

[mf959100GT]

I've already got a kenwood head unit, it's ok for now decent quality and sounds decent for me, if it wasn't for the amp rack in the trunk getting a box for the subs in there would be easy