Upgrading stereo and speakers on 5085M deluxe cab

[pclausen]

I'm having my cab frame replaced due to an incident that involved my GN trailer. I'm doing a lot of the labor myself, and I figured this would be a perfect opportunity to upgrade the stereo and speakers.

Here's a shot of the cab after removing the headliner:

Closeup showing the stereo connectors. The colorful one is for the Bluetooth mike (red arrow) and aux connector (yellow arrow). The black connector is for power and speakers. And then there is the antenna connector.

Here are some shots of the OEM 4x6 speakers:

Nothing to write home about for sure!

Here's where the right speaker is locate above the radio. The red arrow points to one of the mounting holes for the speaker.

Close up. The sound is almost 100% obscured by the radio!

The left speaker location is much better, but the sound still has to penetrate the headliner.

I should be able to plug the OEM mic into the female plug on the new stereo head unit, and I will also run a USB cable down to the right console so that I can connect my ipod via USB instead of the analog aux connection. This is the cable I plan to use which should make for a very OEM look. I plan to drill a whole, or use an existing hole for a flush mount.

Here's the radio I picked up:

I'm still trying to decide which 4x6 speakers to go with or perhaps pick up 6.5" speakers and use 4x6 to 6.5 adapters like these:

Well, that's pretty much it for now until I get tractor back from the shop with a new cab frame on it. Hopefully that will be by the end of next week!

 

[MattLynch]

Looking foreward to how this works out as I am thinking of upgrading the speakers on my E. I think mine only has one.

 

[pwt]

Great pictures and explaination. Look forward to updates as things progress.

 

[FairfaxStu]

I'm still trying to decide which 4x6 speakers to go with or perhaps pick up 6.5" speakers and use 4x6 to 6.5 adapters like these:

I would go with 6.5" speakers as I have never heard a 4x6 that sounded very impressive at all.

 

[pclausen]

I got my technical service/reference manuals for the 5085M Friday. They contain a wealth of info. For the radio connectors, things are very straight forward.

And yes, that WV adapter is the right one to mate with the X08 connector.

A shot of the wiring directly connected to the radio connector:

Interestingly, the X08 connector does not contain a ground. The ground is via the antenna plug (look at the 2nd picture I posted in the thread). I'll likely go ahead and wire the ground from the new radio through that X08 connector, likely using that spare switched power on pin 6.

 

[pclausen]

I would go with 6.5" speakers as I have never heard a 4x6 that sounded very impressive at all.

Based on my measurements, that will be an extremely tight fit on the right side (where the radio is). The adapters shown above only work with speakers with a cutout of 5 1/8" or less.

I picked up these from Crutchfield yesterday to start with. They threw in the correct speaker adapters, so I don't need to do any cutting/soldering with the existing JD harness.

Kicker DS46 4" x 6" 2-way car speakers at Crutchfield.com

They are inexpensive at $49.99 for the pair, but the reviews looks promising, and when compared to the factory speakers side by side, they appear very well constructed. Much bigger magnets, beefier cage, etc. Crutchfield gives you 60 days to try them out and return/upgrade if things don't work out. Not bad. I'm going to run a remote turn in wire and sub line level outs before putting the interior of the cab back together. This was I can easily add a powered sub if needed without having to tear everything out again. I think I got room to the left of the seat.

 

[pwt]

Keep us posted and teh pictures comming. I enjoy following your post. It does seem a bit complecated. How difficult was it to remove the cab top. Look forward to getting your comments on the improvement of the sound quality.
Cheers

 

[troutsqueezer]

You might consider checking out the threads here about tinnitus when you get bored. That cab is close quarters, the tractor is probably fairly loud so the volume would have to turned up to get the full fidelity effect and that's where long term hearing damage can set in.

Sorry to put a damper on your project. Just saying be careful.

Speaking as one who has tinnitus from my days as an audio engineer.

 

[pclausen]

Appreciate the heads up Dennis. Those oem speakers just doesn't do it for me and I find them causing me to get fatigued if I try to listen to music at a level where I can hear the performance. My hope is actually that I'll be able to listen at a lower volume and yet have a more fuller enjoyable experience. We'll see how it works out. I do realize this is a tractor, but I do love my music too.

Here's a couple of shots showing the oem vs. the $50 pair of kickers:

 

[pclausen]

Made a little progress this weekend. Cut a hole in one of the caps on the right console for the USB connector:

Installed look: