Premium Sound Replacement

Topic: Premium Sound Replacement (Read 3302 times) previous topic - next topic

Premium Sound Replacement

July 19, 2005, 10:14:04 AM

Looking for a unit to replace the OEM Premium Sound unit in my '85 TC. I really am happy with the OEM unit, and have looked for a used one (no luck) Is there a unit that will drop in that will not disrupt the look of the stock dash? Needn't be too fancy as I just listen to right wing radio talk shows anyway. (a CD player might be nice, though) I like the way the stock radio is integrated into the dash, and would like to maintain that, if possible

Re: Premium Sound Replacement

Reply #1 – July 19, 2005, 12:29:23 PM

I would also like to know if there is a Ford radio, with cd player that would replace the cassette one. :D (I know it's probably been abswered a million times before, but please humor us and answer it one more time. pretty please) :D

Re: Premium Sound Replacement

Reply #2 – July 19, 2005, 12:51:43 PM

According to Tom in my stock stereo interchange thread, the Ford CD players have the same plugs but a different pinout. Power plugs are the same, though.

http://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showthread.php?t=3685

Re: Premium Sound Replacement

Reply #3 – July 19, 2005, 01:05:35 PM

hmmmm, but would that work with the premium sound package, with the eq? Thanks. :D

Re: Premium Sound Replacement

Reply #4 – July 19, 2005, 01:18:33 PM

I really don't know. Hopefully one of the others can answer that before I stumble upon the answer eventually. I'm working on putting a stereo in the Mark, so I kinda have that on the brain today. But if I stumble across the answer, I'll let ya know. (I don't have an EQ in either T-bird.. so I don't have any "front yard reference material")

Re: Premium Sound Replacement

Reply #5 – July 19, 2005, 02:58:22 PM

Ok here goes....

I'm not really familiar with the '85-earlier units but they have a totally different plug for power and speakers(just examed a '85 TC today at the U-wrench-it to be sure). With a wiring diagram I'm 99.9% sure a '86-'88 unit could be installed fairly easily. Possibly premium sound and/or EQ will complicate things.

The '86-'88 radio/tape units all interchange, with the exception of the premium sound with EQ head. This unit can be identified by the slide L/R fader controll, where as all the std units have s. It cannot be used in a std system because it has no internal amplifer. It has a std speaker type connector, so a non premium head will replace it(and have more volume because of it's audio amp. Been there done that). This should apply up to at least the early '90s as my '93 Grand Marquis uses the same connectors as my '88 Bird.

The self contained radio/CD heads('90+ ish)should work in either NON or premium system, but their speaker plugs are totally different than the earlier radio/tape units. An adaptor harness or a little creative wiring should take care of this problem. I now have one of these heads, maybe I'll get around to trying it.

One other problem can be mounting. Mustang and most other later versions have spring clips that hold the units in place, vs the "ears" on our Bird/Coug units. Luckly most of the "ears just unbolt so it ain't that hard to adapt those heads to our models(I used the ears to mount my JVC cd unit).

Note... I speak mainly of the Bird/Cougar/Mustang/earlier LSC units. the later LSCs and other luxury models generally had larger amps used with the premium and/or JBL sound systems. Your milage may vary..

Re: Premium Sound Replacement

Reply #6 – July 19, 2005, 06:01:00 PM

I've never tried swapping factory decks around - the only thing I've ever installed a factory deck into was a garbage can, after removing them from my various cars. That being said, Tom, your statement has me wondering - I was always under the assumption that a non-premium deck would not work in a premium car because the non-premium deck hasd a floating ground (individual ground to each speaker) while the premium uses a common ground. Plugging a non-premium deck into a premium harness should blow the internal amp in the deck because it is now shorted to ground. I say should because I've never tried it, but I do know that plugging an aftermarket deck into a premium sound harness will damage the deck for the reason above. A friend of mine, who shall remain nameless but whos initials are D.U. (in case he's reading this, he'll know who he his) can verify this firsthand. He did it in an '85 'Bird that looked exactly like my first 'Bird.

By the same token, plugging a premium deck into a non-premium harness should (there's those italics again) result in no sound because the premium deck has a common ground output while the harness requires a separate ground wire to each speaker. That and the fact that a premium deck has no internal amp, or a very small one if it does have one. If you connect a premium deck to a non-premium harness you should only end up with sound on one speaker at the most because the other speakers will not have a ground. And the sound will be very low because of the lack of an amp.

The premium deck with no EQ has five speaker wires:

LF+,LR+,RR+,RR+,common ground

The premium with EQ has only three speaker wires:

Left +, Right + and ground. Fading is handled by the EQ

The standard deck has eight speaker wires:

LF+,LF-,LR+,LR-,RF+,RF-,RR+,RR-

Neither premium deck has an internal amp, or if they do, they have a very small one (about as powerful as a walkman). The non-premium deck has an internal amp.

Again, the above info is heresay (except the number of wires) - if Tom says he put a non-premium deck into a premium car I'm not about to tell him he didn't.

Now, with that sillliness out of the way, I'm rather certain that any newer factory Ford deck would have a floating ground system similar to an aftermarket deck, so it likely would not work with the premium sound, with or without EQ. The newer premium sound systems use a floating ground system as well (I'm looking at a 2000 Ford premium sound diagram right now) so a newer premium deck likely wouldn't work with the older T-Bird/Cougar premium sound system either. It might, if you tie all of the head unit's negative outputs together, since the outputs are at line level and may be tied together internally anyway, but doing so could also destroy the stereo if they're not, which would be major suck.

Unless you can find a stock replacement premium deck I don't think you'll fing any Ford CD player that will work with the stock premium sound system.

That being said, you CAN use most aftermarket CD decks with the stock premium sound and EQ systems by using the RCA outputs on the back of the stereo. Personally I would only use the EQ and mount an aftermarket amp in the trunk, and use all of the stock wiring, since even the cheapest modern aftermarket deck would almost certainly have a better internal amp than the factory premium sound amp.

Re: Premium Sound Replacement

Reply #7 – July 19, 2005, 06:32:10 PM

Thanks, that's what I wanted to know. :D

Re: Premium Sound Replacement

Reply #8 – July 19, 2005, 06:40:15 PM

Tangent alert.. thanks for the opening. :p

Here's how I just hooked my new Pioneer MP3-CD player to the factory Premium Sound harness, amp and all: (in my Mark, anyway)

http://www.scosche.com/scosche.aspx?CategoryID=78&ItemID=FDK10B (about $10 at Wal-Mart)

http://www.scosche.com/scosche.aspx?CategoryID=36&ItemID=SLC4 (about $18 at Wal-Mart)

It steps down the signal for you, among other features. Has adjustable gain controls you zero out at first and then tune up as needed.

Mainly wanted to show the blue box.. because I just got finished fine-tuning everything on the now-working stereo. Very much satisfied with it.

Re: Premium Sound Replacement

Reply #9 – July 19, 2005, 06:53:56 PM

Time to hit the junkyard and grab a CD-player :D

I wonder if it will hurt when I try this....

Re: Premium Sound Replacement

Reply #10 – July 20, 2005, 12:01:21 AM

Quote from: Thunder Chicken

The premium deck with no EQ has five speaker wires:

LF+,LR+,RR+,RR+,common ground

The premium with EQ has only three speaker wires:

Left +, Right + and ground. Fading is handled by the EQ

The standard deck has eight speaker wires:

LF+,LF-,LR+,LR-,RF+,RF-,RR+,RR-

Carmen I think Ford drew those schematics to confuse people... I checked three non premium heads and two have FOUR ground connections that are tied directly back to case ground. So in these units the floating ground really ain't so, the speakers are just grounded by the head which in turn is tied back to chassis ground. The third has just TWO grounds tied back to the case(AHEM, this is the unit I had in my Bird). The remaining two pins that are ground on the other units apparently are open on this head.

As far as the non premium unit in the premium EQ system it was my 5.0 TC that I did this in. Used it like that a couple of years with no problem. Just had to keep the fader set to the front speakers, as if it was set to the rear there was no audio.

If I had a functioning premium with EQ system on hand I'd try these other heads to see if I could make some smoke(The Bird now has a JVC head unit connected to the non premium harness).