Post up your van's stereo system

[ert01]

I went through the same thing just a few weeks ago... Wanted to keep it low budget but get some better sound.

I ended up buying an Ouku 6.2" touchscreen deck off of eBay and I LOVE it! There's a ton of clones and various different ones on the market and it gets tedious to sort through them all but look for a capacitive touchscreen (NOT tft), android 4.4 (preferably pure android) and a quad core processor.

It came with a backup camera that I wired in as a nice bonus.

I also changed out all 4 speakers with 6x8 Kicker component speakers (CSS68's I think). Having tweeters up high helps quite a bit. The factory setup has the speakers pointing right at your knees and that does no good favors for the higher frequencies. Getting the tweeters up higher cleans up the sound a lot.

And added a kenwood "tune-up" sub under the drivers seat.

The nice part about a tune up sub is that it doesn't require any large cables from the battery or any fancy wiring. Just tap into the speaker lines (or the pre-outs on the deck if it has them) and run the power from your deck down to it. Easy least and it just adds a hair more oomph to the sound.

 

[thuelmcnagen]

I went through the same thing just a few weeks ago... Wanted to keep it low budget but get some better sound.

I ended up buying an Ouku 6.2" touchscreen deck off of eBay and I LOVE it! There's a ton of clones and various different ones on the market and it gets tedious to sort through them all but look for a capacitive touchscreen (NOT tft), android 4.4 (preferably pure android) and a quad core processor.

It came with a backup camera that I wired in as a nice bonus.

I also changed out all 4 speakers with 6x8 Kicker component speakers (CSS68's I think). Having tweeters up high helps quite a bit. The factory setup has the speakers pointing right at your knees and that does no good favors for the higher frequencies. Getting the tweeters up higher cleans up the sound a lot.

And added a kenwood "tune-up" sub under the drivers seat.

I have a 94 Ford, so unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to install one of the nicer touchscreen models with the backup camera. That Kicker set is intriguing though. Any chance you have a picture of how you mounted the tweeters?

 

[sixstringsteve]

Here's what I ended up going with. It's closer to $700, but I'm very happy with it. I'd be happy to discuss any single component if you have questions.

Head unit: Alpine CDE-HD148BT - I wanted something with 3 sets of RCAs, 4v pre outs, excellent sound, bluetooth, and excellent control to tweak crossovers, sub levels, time delays, etc.). This ticks all those boxes. There are way cheaper head units out there, but I'm very happy with this one. I'm more interested in how it sounds and how I can tweak the sound than the color it displays, or how it looks. I like being able to control pandora on my phone through the head unit. I can thumbs stuff up and down, skip, switch to another channel, etc. I also wanted one with HD radio, since we'll be traveling a lot and I like to listen to different radio stations across the country. I researched hundreds of head units before coming up with this one.
http://amzn.to/1FPVg88

Speakers: JBL GTO 8628 - For the price, I'm very happy with these. I wish I had purchased something with a little more power rating though, since the little Clarion amp can overpower them (since the Clarion has 75RMS @ 2 ohm). But I don't turn it up that loud anyway, so maybe it's not an issue. They haven't broken in yet, but I'm pretty happy with them. The price is definitely right. Without a sub I'd be disappointed since they don't have a ton of bass, even with an amp. With a flat EQ I don't love them, but when I EQ them right and blend them with the sub, they sound fantastic.
http://amzn.to/1OQLUMi

Speaker Connectors/Adapters: Metra for Ford (1989 and up, so it'll work for yours): A must-have.
http://amzn.to/1FPWnov

4 channel speaker amp: Clarion XC1410 - I'm VERY happy with this. If fit behind my dash. It doesn't have many controls, which is why I wanted a head unit that could handle all the crossovers and levels out.
http://amzn.to/1OQLKoc

Sub: Alpine S10 - (I like punchy bass more than boomy bass). Paired with the m-500 amp, this thing is amazing. I'm still fine tuning the EQ, but I'm very happy with it. Insane power handling.
http://amzn.to/1hj92EG

Sub Box: Scosche Se10 - for the price, it can't be beat. Pretty well made. I wish it were one inch shorter so it would fit under my middle bench seat, but I haven't found any 10" sub boxes small enough to fit underneath.
http://amzn.to/1FPVCeZ

Sub Amp: Alpine M-500 - I think it's better to have too much power than not enough. This thing is nice and small. With some trimming of the interior panels, I was able to get it to fit behind the side trim panel on the driver's side, halfway back. This thing really is a small amp for 500 watts. I'm super happy I went with this amp.
http://amzn.to/1KZrQl0

I'll have a video of how I installed it up in a month or so. Link will be in my build thread.

 

[thuelmcnagen]

Here's what I ended up going with. It's closer to $700, but I'm very happy with it. I'd be happy to discuss any single component if you have questions.

This is awesome and love all the specifics. I've already subscribed to your channel on YouTube, so I'll keep an eye out for the install!

 

[Yeti Tom]

I'm a little old school. 05 radio from ebay in my 97 e250 camper

 

[illking]

I went through the same thing just a few weeks ago... Wanted to keep it low budget but get some better sound.

I ended up buying an Ouku 6.2" touchscreen deck off of eBay and I LOVE it! There's a ton of clones and various different ones on the market and it gets tedious to sort through them all but look for a capacitive touchscreen (NOT tft), android 4.4 (preferably pure android) and a quad core processor.

It came with a backup camera that I wired in as a nice bonus.

I also changed out all 4 speakers with 6x8 Kicker component speakers (CSS68's I think). Having tweeters up high helps quite a bit. The factory setup has the speakers pointing right at your knees and that does no good favors for the higher frequencies. Getting the tweeters up higher cleans up the sound a lot.

And added a kenwood "tune-up" sub under the drivers seat.

The nice part about a tune up sub is that it doesn't require any large cables from the battery or any fancy wiring. Just tap into the speaker lines (or the pre-outs on the deck if it has them) and run the power from your deck down to it. Easy least and it just adds a hair more oomph to the sound.

how is the GPS funcionality. can you load maps etc?