I have a Mach 460 system & replaced the stock unit (cassette/radio, not the CD player-- I have both original ones now) w/ a Jensen (sigh) and had no problems... other than Jensen sucking. Didn't have to buy any additional parts..just a car stereo kit for the wiring & what not.
Oh I should mention... the Mach 460 system w/ the Jensen sounded a helluvalot better, but still wasn't very satisfactory. I am pretty displeased with the whole system itself... but I'm saving up money for engine work, not a sound system. I'm out to make my car go fast & be FUN... not listen to music as ricers fly past me (which, no they don't right now... except 1 twin-turbo'd Toyota Supra.. if you consider that a ricer. He doesn't have a space-ship spoiler or anything bizarre like that).
If I were you, I would by-pass all the factory wiring. Fish some wires into the doors and into the rear speaker deck. Replace all stock speakers. Replace tweaters in the pods. Use your own amps and take out the factory amps to unload some weight from the car. I almost did this to my 95 with Mach460 but I sold it. You could probably keep the sub in the trunk though, not sure how good they sound...
The Mach 1000 system was custom-designed by an outside contractor, though the name of it eludes me at the moment. There may be hope for you if you wanted to change the radio of the Mach 1000.. however, most likely, it'll be an expensive proposition as the cables probably aren't out yet... and if they are, they're probably expensive.
The amps just might work out for you though.
Technically, there are cables available if you want to change ONLY the head unit of the Mach 460 system and adapt it to the stock amps. There are also cables available to add an amplifier to the Mach 460 system. However, just changing the speakers and not the amps is a dangerous proposition because of the impedance being different (as mentioned in the previous thread).
Back in the early to mid 90's in some of the luxury cars, yeah, there was an agreement with JBL. The Mach 1000 system was designed by someone completely different. I believe the link has been posted in this thread somewhere.
I haven't seen a factory JBL system in some time. I think it was Ford's answer to when Delco got together with Bose for the systems in the first of the last-gen F-bodies. The Delco/Bose system was still much better.
In fact, I think my '91 T-bird SC had a JBL system - with a blown subwoofer. Acutally, the CD player that was in that car (that was manufactured by Sony coincidentally) was the same CD player they were still using in the earlier Mach 460 systems that had the CD separated from the radio (like my '97 Cobra).
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