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Seasoned...
Joined: Sat Oct 21st, 2017
Location: Near The Pointy End , USA
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It's mostly just for the ease of use on the factory radio. Just for normal listening to it sounds good. It's amazing too that these used Premium RDS radios still sell for more than an a new aftermarket cd player. I see them selling on Ebay all the time sold over $100. I was just wondering if a 98 Ranger did come with Premium Sound would it have the separate amplifier mounted somewhere. Even though there is no mention or wiring diagram of any amplifier in the 98 Ford workshop manual some owner's on other forums stated they had one mounted along with the driver's side speaker. However, no one specifically with a 1998 model. Out of all the Rangers I've went through at the salvage yard I've never actually found one that had a factory amplifier. It must have been a low odered option like the limited slip differential. I know later on they had that Tremor model that came with the sub and amp but I don't hardly see any of those models come up for sale. I did look at my speakers one time in my 98 and they said Premium but it looks like there was only one speaker available in 98 so they probably all said that.
To my knowledge, unless you were getting into a Lincoln Town Car/Mark VIII or something old school High-line like vehicles with the equally old premium JBL setup or some of the old Rangers/Bronco II's came with common grounded speakers (amplifier was mounted under the dash top under what looked like a 5x7 perforated dash cover). I've yet to see any Passive radio setups in these trucks over the years. In fact unless it came with the addition of a Subwoofer, I can't recall too many a vehicle on the Ford or mercury side of the fence.
And to be honest, a $200-300 CD player today is Mattel - My first radio compared to 20 years ago audio scene. Back in the early 90' late 80's working in the car audio world it was easy.. EASY to find dozens of willing young men dumping thousands of dollars into car audio systems. It was great money back in the day. Everyone wanted that $15k+ system and they either paid for it or stole it to be honest. I've seen crazy enough excess funds known as "expendable income" thrown at cars and the scene is still alive and well but much more junk on the market than ever. Its almost as if Fast & furious came to car audio too and ruined that scene.
Back in the day, it was easy to clock $600-1100 for a custom enclosure tuned for the specific vehicle.. A grand or more for all of the wiring and cables, fuse and distribution needs.. god forbid you ran into a dual alternator or multiple battery setups too.
No one makes quality or even real functionality anymore. Everyone enamored listening to Pandora or Spotify, RSS or Audible. No one owns 'anything' tangible. Markets have figured out a way that rather than you spend $30 bucks on CD's once a month. They can club you for $10-12 a month for all of these subscriptions and make millions as another middle-man in the process of over consumerism. Today its a throw it away society and the word of the day is -- " Engineered Obsolescence "
Last edited on Thu Apr 5th, 2018 04:13 am by Undrstm8ed
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