Sunset 14 Posted July 29, 2018 Share Posted July 29, 2018 Hi all, I find that I am really disappointed with the sound quality of my base sound system. I love the rest of the car, but the stereo really sucks (the 2010 Fusion that I traded in on this car had the upgrade Sony system, and I was always surprised at how good it sounded. The new one by comparison is terrible.) I also just discovered that there are no speakers in the rear deck - though I think I did spot cutouts for a pair of them today (in 45 years of driving, and many cars, this is the first car I've ever seen that didn't have speakers in the rear deck - at least cheap ones!). This is what I'd like to do/am willing to do: 1) keep the factory MFT2 screen and radio 2) add speakers to the rear deck (but I'd really rather not cut the covering if I can help it) 3) upgrade the existing six speakers 4) add an amplifier Has anyone done this yet? Have any suggestions for specific components? And on a related question: has anyone noticed a pronounced sound degradation when listening to MP3 files from an SD card, compared to the radio? I loaded all 3079 songs from the iTunes folder on my computer onto as SD card, and they ALL sound terrible! It's as though somebody threw a pillow over the speakers. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Scott in Ann Arbor, MI 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbf2530 Posted July 29, 2018 Share Posted July 29, 2018 14 hours ago, Sunset 14 said: Hi all, I find that I am really disappointed with the sound quality of my base sound system. I love the rest of the car, but the stereo really sucks (the 2010 Fusion that I traded in on this car had the upgrade Sony system, and I was always surprised at how good it sounded. The new one by comparison is terrible.) I also just discovered that there are no speakers in the rear deck - though I think I did spot cutouts for a pair of them today (in 45 years of driving, and many cars, this is the first car I've ever seen that didn't have speakers in the rear deck - at least cheap ones!). This is what I'd like to do/am willing to do: 1) keep the factory MFT2 screen and radio 2) add speakers to the rear deck (but I'd really rather not cut the covering if I can help it) 3) upgrade the existing six speakers 4) add an amplifier Has anyone done this yet? Have any suggestions for specific components? And on a related question: has anyone noticed a pronounced sound degradation when listening to MP3 files from an SD card, compared to the radio? I loaded all 3079 songs from the iTunes folder on my computer onto as SD card, and they ALL sound terrible! It's as though somebody threw a pillow over the speakers. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Scott in Ann Arbor, MI Hi Scott. Concerning sound system upgrade advice, I would recommend going to Crutchfield.com and using their database for suggestions. Even if you decide not to purchase from them, I find them to be very helpful and knowledgeable. As far as the SD card issue, I am stumped. If you have high quality music files, they should actually sound much clearer than the radio itself (unless they accidentally became compressed). Do you have a CD player in your Fusion? If yes, how is the sound from the CD player? Have you tried another SD card, just in case? I am sure some audiophile forum members will also jump in soon with good advice. Keep us updated and good luck. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drolds1 Posted July 29, 2018 Share Posted July 29, 2018 If you use the 'Search' function, you'll find a wealth of information WRT upgrading the audio systems in 2nd-gen Fusions. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunset 14 Posted July 30, 2018 Author Share Posted July 30, 2018 18 hours ago, bbf2530 said: Hi Scott. Concerning sound system upgrade advice, I would recommend going to Crutchfield.com and using their database for suggestions. Even if you decide not to purchase from them, I find them to be very helpful and knowledgeable. As far as the SD card issue, I am stumped. If you have high quality music files, they should actually sound much clearer than the radio itself (unless they accidentally became compressed). Do you have a CD player in your Fusion? If yes, how is the sound from the CD player? Have you tried another SD card, just in case? I am sure some audiophile forum members will also jump in soon with good advice. Keep us updated and good luck. Hi. Yes, yesterday after posting my questions, I did go on the Crutchfield website and had a very long, informative discussion with one of their reps. He was very knowledgeable and we chose what sounds like a really good system for my car. It consisted of upgraded speakers, an amplifier, an equalizer and a boxed subwoofer. I feel really bad that I can find all of the items he recommended on Ebay for roughly $200 less than if I were to buy them from the Crutchfield website - but that's a savings that's pretty hard to ignore. As for the muffled sound from the SD card, I mentioned that to him. After telling him that the songs were all Mp3 files from my iTunes folder, he said that he wasn't a fan of iTunes because they compress the hell out of the music - so I suspect that's the problem. To improve on that and still use an SD card(s), I'd have to rip all 400+ of my CDs with a high quality ripper, then copy them to however many SD cards would be required by the much larger files. Or........ I could just carry around all of my CDs in my car, which is what I'm thinking I'll do. He "confided" that that's what he does, for the same reason. You can buy storage boxes that have individual hanging sleeves and won't take up that much room in your car. It's distinctly low-tech, but it accomplishes what I want to accomplish. So yes...... I do have a CD player in my car. At the moment, I'm still trying to talk myself into spending $1200-1500 on the upgrade. I'll keep y'all posted. Scott 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Multitask Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 There are ways to upgrade your system, including so that it can have Sony sound. I spent about $500 going from Sync 2 to Sync 3. I would imagine the Sony upgrade stuff would be maybe about the same additionally, so $1000 total...? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbf2530 Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 (edited) 6 hours ago, Sunset 14 said: Hi. Yes, yesterday after posting my questions, I did go on the Crutchfield website and had a very long, informative discussion with one of their reps. He was very knowledgeable and we chose what sounds like a really good system for my car. It consisted of upgraded speakers, an amplifier, an equalizer and a boxed subwoofer. I feel really bad that I can find all of the items he recommended on Ebay for roughly $200 less than if I were to buy them from the Crutchfield website - but that's a savings that's pretty hard to ignore. As for the muffled sound from the SD card, I mentioned that to him. After telling him that the songs were all Mp3 files from my iTunes folder, he said that he wasn't a fan of iTunes because they compress the hell out of the music - so I suspect that's the problem. To improve on that and still use an SD card(s), I'd have to rip all 400+ of my CDs with a high quality ripper, then copy them to however many SD cards would be required by the much larger files. Or........ I could just carry around all of my CDs in my car, which is what I'm thinking I'll do. He "confided" that that's what he does, for the same reason. You can buy storage boxes that have individual hanging sleeves and won't take up that much room in your car. It's distinctly low-tech, but it accomplishes what I want to accomplish. So yes...... I do have a CD player in my car. At the moment, I'm still trying to talk myself into spending $1200-1500 on the upgrade. I'll keep y'all posted. Scott Hi Scott. Not trying to convince you to use Crutchfield if you can save a lot otherwise. However, keep in mind that Crutchfield includes detailed installation instructions, all wiring harnesses, connectors/connections etc, which are need to install the system. Just something to keep in mind. Good luck. Edited July 30, 2018 by bbf2530 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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