my ponys got the 460 soud system but if i get it louder then 20 it gets destorted so i was wondering what watts it needs to sound good. the deck is a JVC with 180 watts. their not blowing just destorting.

 

No clue...but I have heard horror stories about aftermarket stereo's or extra speakers with the Mach 460 system.....

 

well i would think your having a problem with something in the wiring or amps my friend has the mach 460 with an after market cd player and hes had his up really loud and i noticed no distortion.

 

I have talked to a car stereo installer about this when I had the amps go out in the 1996 that I had and he told me that most of the problems are caused by the ohms. He said that at his shop they wont even touch them unless you want the whole system gutted and a new one put in... Hope that helps point you in the right direction....

 

The Mach 460 system does not like aftermarket parts. Let's leave it at that.

 

The reason (probably) it sounds distorted is caused by the voltage output of your head unit. I believe Fords is a 1v and most higher end aftermarket ones boast a 4v all the way up to 8v and this is causing your amp to recieve a clipped signal. With my alpine cda-9835 you can use your own settings or use fords factory settings from the amps and thats what I leave mine on otherwise I get the same problem. You could get an inline driver and turn your voltage down pretty low. I havent really looked at the amps to see if you could turn the gains down manually.

 

I understand what your talking about. . .I have a 2003 with the mach 460 stereo and i blow out speakers like its my job but i know that i'm not anywere near maxing the system out. I was told by a local stereo shop that the reason is due to the wiring of the system. The 6x9s in the doors and the trunk push nothing but bass and the small 2 1/4 speakers push all voice and therefor when you turn it up, the vibration from the door ends up cracking the speakers.

I'm getting the 4 6x9's wiring re-routed to the 4 2-1/4 speakers so that everything will now push voice sound. Then I'm adding a single 10" 500 watt audiobahn subwoofer in the trunk and their going to wire it up to the stock stereo but it will be powered off of its own amp. They told me that the stock 6 disc head unit will not have to be replaced and the problum with the speakers blowing out will stop.

Hopefully this will help!

 

I came across a helpfull site about the mach460 and mach1000 sound system offered by ford.
http://flemworld.com/Mach460/mach.html

 

Upgrading my stock mach 460 stereo has been a complete nightmare. Mostly because the stereo stores I went to did not know enough about the system to give any good advice. Something blew on my factory stereo as a result of mistaking a data CD for a music CD. I put in the CD and when I did not hear music I cranked it up and then there was a short high pitched squeal. After turning back to the radio it did not sound right. The Ford dealer said I blew the amplifiers and wanted 400 bucks to replace them. So I went to a local stero store and the sales guy say "yea I can make it sound good as new" He had a 500 watt kenwood amp installed and left the rest of the factory system in place. Well it still sounded like crap, but even louder. I went back and the guy said my factory system was not able to drive the new amp and like a dumb a** I believed him, and let him talk me in to buying a new Kenwood head unit( I kinda wanted to play MP3 cd's anyway). They installed the new head unit and it still sounded bad. I decided to seek the advice of another stereo store. This guy was certain he knew what he was talking about when he said the mach 460 speakes do not work with other stereo systems. Once again I believed the guy and let him sell me and install infinity speakers in the front and Pioneer 6x9's in the back. I took the car home and once again was not happy with the sound, no bass. I went back and he said you need a subwoofer, I said NO it should sound half decent with what I have installed and refused to put another penny into the stereo. He had his technician tweek the amp and it did not make a difference. DO I REALLY need a subwoofer? I want another opinion before I spend any more money.

thanks,

Erik

 

my thought, and this is from the limited knowledge that I have, there are two possibilities. 1)The EQ(equilizer) is all messed up on the head unit. or 2)Your wiring has gone wonky on you from all the changes. If it's the wiring, you're looking at some not good times ahead of you. My best advice is to first look at the EQ options on the deck itself, and toy around with that, if you haven't done so already. If that doesn't work, then take it back to where you had everything done and moreorless insist that they re-wire everything. I don't know what store you went to, but I know the few choices I have(Best Buy, Ultimate Electronics) would probably bend over backwards to fix something if they screwed it up...so make it look like it's there fault. :idea1:
Hope that helps.
Peace, and good luck.

::edit:: no, you don't need a sub... I had a 6 speaker Infinity system in my old car...Thing bumbed on its own.

 

Do you notice that the distortion goes away when you lower the bass? If so then you should just add a mono amp with a 10in sub. You can wire it to the existing mach system. A good sub box for what you pay surprising enough is from walmart. They have one that is light grey in color and costs $29.99. My brother has his stock mach 460 with an Audiobahn amp with the bass control **** and forget which sub, but it sounds real deep. I was very shocked it sounded that good. A plus is that the sub enclosure is small. I have a 1600watt system and I have installed many complete systems in the past on various cars. I have yet to hear one that sounds bad with a new head unit, amp and speakers. One last thing If you did not get component speakers or spearates for the front like you mach system has (tweeter mounted on the top of door)then this is part of your problem. Unlike a subwoofer tweeters need to be lined up with your ear.

 

u dont really need a sub if ur speakers can bump on theri own...many of the speakers i've encountered have not been able to do this....hmm....i've got the full 460 system in my pony, both tweeters, door speakers (or r they subs? b/c they pump alot of bass) and the rear speaker/tweeter set up with a trunk mounted amp (came with the car, im assuming it's the one form the mach 460 set up, but feel free to correct me if im wrong) and i've never had any problems with anything after market.....