[fordfanatik70]

I'm taking delivery (I think) of a 2009 Sport Trac in about 3 weeks and am going to do a factory OEM intergration (love the 6 CD changer and the steering wheel controls) to a new amp (or amps), front components and a sub.

I'm thinking of going CDT as I like thier Braxial setups and the fact that I like tweets that are a bit bright. Weird, I know, but I'm a bit of a detail hog. Given that the Braxial products are a 6.5"ish driver, I realize that I might have to do some cutting or have a plate built. If you have experience mounting large CDT drivers in Fords, please let me know.

Another reason for choosing the Braxials is that I would like to try the "Upstage" dash mounted tweeter system down the road. Anybody have any experience with this product?

Any thoughts on this? I'm going to be coupling my front stage with 1 or 2 10" shallow mount subs. As well, I will be running small footprint amps, likely Alpine's PDX, JL's HD or ARC's Kar seriens. Feedback on my amp thoughts also appreciated

 

[monkeybutt]

The nice thing about running a co-axial system would be to only have one hole to make, but of course it commits the tweeter to be wherever the midbass can fit. If this were kick panels this might be a good thing, but I have personally never been happy w/ the tonality or staging of a door mounted tweeter where R vs L path length differences are large. If high up in the door the near tweeter is usually too hot/bright and if low, legs are usually in the way. Where would your Braxials be located?
I have CDT comps w/ the midbass in lower front door and the tweeters in the kicks. It took some work w/ sound deadening the doors and aiming the tweeters, but the tonality is pretty good. The tweeters tend to be a bit soft and I was under the impression that this was a CDT tendency, but I could be wrong. The left/right and depth of the stage is quite okay, but the height is only a bit higher than mid-dash. Funny that you brought up 'upstage kit' as as a member here recommended such an ambient tweeter set up in my quest to raise the stage. Just so happens that I've had an upstage kit in the closet for 3 years, but didn't install it due to fear of phase complications. Anyway I gave it a shot and preliminary testing is good with raised stage without screwing up the tonality. The ambient tweeters actually helped due the slightly soft top end. I thought I would be turning these things way down w/ the included L-Pad, but was quite surprised that I had these going almost full wick and I have always been sensitive/averse to a too bright system. Unfortunately, when I said 'preliminary testing' it is because one of the CDT upstage tweeters was dead so I substituted a NEO3. I am now waiting for a set of 3/4" Daytons. I tried A-pillar and sail panel mounting and various aiming and so far the sail panel gave the best tradeoff of stage width, height and depth as well as good tonality. This was odd as I usually hate the sound of sail panel positioning for primary tweeters - see high door mounting above - but I guess these ambient ones just run on the last/top octave. We'll see how it goes w/ more testing.

 

[Infinity]

The door panel will not fit over the coax system if it sticks out much. I had to mount my tweeters in the kicks as the coax mount for my Alpine Type X REF system stuck out too much. Use caution.
If going with 1 sub, you can use the space originally for the factory setup, and put the amps in the gap on the passenger side. If going with 2 subs (like I did), then the factory section MAY hold a pair of the KAR's, but you'll likely be going underseat, losing the ability to fold them down.

I would recommend using a single Mag v4 on the passenger side. It will hold it and allow some space to play, even enough space for 1 amp alongside, putting the other in the factory sub space. Then you retain use of the fold-down seats.