I just finished swapping the woofers from my 98 to my 2001. 98 uses the real JBL woofers, From 99 & up, Alpine came in. When I pulled the woofers from the 2001, I discovered that they are Actually Audiophiles and not Alpine. They really suck, they have shorter travel and tighter foam which restricts ability for deep distortion free bass. The magnets are really tiny compare to JBL and they distort even with half they bass up..

The JBL woofers have longer travel, bigger cone, looser foam, huge magnets and they are real JBL's. Wow they are much less distortion and have much more punch than the Audiophiles.

The Alpine system is a complete FAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think that all whats Alpine is the CD changer because the CD Magazine is the same design from an Aftermaket Alpine CD Changer I bought years ago which later found a spot in my 98.

At least now I can max out the bass which was impassible to do with the Audiophiles. Even the standed sterio without woofers found in the base model Continentals have more punch than the Audiophiles...

I drove the newer conti with the alpine but the bass wasn't as much as my 95 conti.

I know that the woofers that all 95 & up Conti's have are'nt real anything big, they're just slightly beefier regular speakers. But I can say that that compared to the JBL's, the JBL's have a bigger punch. I Notice that the Alpines ( Audiophiles ) distort terribly to bass, you know they pop (* Crackle ) to bass and when I have the JBLs on the same EQ's as the ( Audiophiles ) the JBL's don't distort and can support a bit more of a crank of bass and volume. Though I'm not saying that the JBl's don't distort but they sound much better than the Alpines ( Audiophiles ).

What newer year Conti did you try out?

it was a 98 but it had Alpine

I have the 2000 conti and i hate the speakers so badly in them beautiful car but the speakers suck ass and yes it has the alpine setup in it or as you found out the speakers may be AUDIOPHILES. i will most certainly looked to change all of that ASAP...

believe me, you guys don't have the worest speakers. My Town car doesn't even put bass out, the Alpine system is hundred times better then in the Town car.(the town car system is Alpine too)

lmao i didnt have any bass it kept clipping as if it wanted to cough itself to death. a friend of mine has a Kia and her stock system kicks the hell out of my stock alpine in my conti..

The kia might but the richness of the music is really good on our system or atleast on mine.

yeah hers sounds great for a stock system.. i will say that the stock alpine in my 2000 conti does have some nice highs. ..crisp and clean but as far as the bass i will have to add to it

The highs on on the JBL's from 95 & up and Alpine ( Audiophiles ) are great, bass is just the weakspot and in 2000 they really trimmed the corners.

The 98 you mentioned most of had the radio changed or something, even the door panels in 98 of conti's with JBL, above the front speakers, theres a Gold JBL Logo.

I'm in the car biz, at the auction lot, i see 98 was last with JBL's but I'm not completely sure about 99. I'm with you about the Town Cars system though, they're horrible ( thats if U're TC has the regular system )

I don't even have the regular system in my TC and the bass sucks. note the car didn't come with the sub like it was suppose to with the Alpine

Now that you mention it, I sat in a TC with the Alpine and I didn't here the bass coming from the back but out of the doors like they eliminated the woofers and the sound did suck. I'd say the 93 to 97 had more punch.

No means to get off topic here though with TC's

Sorry to get off the subject but has any of you known of anyone that has a double din stereo (touch screen alpine) in there conti. i am getting ideas of what i want to do to the stock radio. pics below

Sorry to get off the subject but has any of you known of anyone that has a double din stereo (touch screen alpine) in there conti. i am getting ideas of what i want to do to the stock radio. pics below
Now that would look nice in the 98+ conti. Look at Joeychgo mark VIII, he has navigation that he is really happy with.

That looks like my 01's interior( Color & cleanliness wise), only I don't have the floor shifter. Floors feel more sporty and looks more flashy, Column shift to me makes the car feel bigger and rommier.

A toachscreen/ with Navigation would rock since theres a huge opening.

The poormans way, Which I did in my 98 with the floor shift once, I just stuck a casette adapter in the radio, then plugged it to my laptop that rests on top of the shifter, insert a DVD, WaH LaH, center screen and surround sound. Funniest thing is the neighbors face looking over from distance at night wonderinng why he hears a T-Rex in my car. LOL

That looks like my 01's interior( Color & cleanliness wise), only I don't have the floor shifter. Floors feel more sporty and looks more flashy, Column shift to me makes the car feel bigger and rommier.

A toachscreen/ with Navigation would rock since theres a huge opening.

The poormans way, Which I did in my 98 with the floor shift once, I just stuck a casette adapter in the radio, then plugged it to my laptop that rests on top of the shifter, insert a DVD, WaH LaH, center screen and surround sound. Funniest thing is the neighbors face looking over from distance at night wonderinng why he hears a T-Rex in my car. LOL


Lmao now thats funny NOSEY NEIGHBORS are the best.. i saw on crutchfields website that an alpine double din i think its the w200 wont fit in my dash but they said the same thing about the MarkVIII and i see that there are some on here that have a double din touch screen. i want to keep it Alpine since it has alpine already running through the cars veins lol.

I must say that I can listen music even at high speeds like 75 MPH. I can hear bass and highs over the road and vehicle noise. I like the JBL system very much!

And I also like imprinted JBL logos on a wooden trim panels on driver and passenger doors, that symbolises quality and craftsmanship.

If You want a Conti, get one with JBL!

I think only the 98 came with that nice gold logo. That little logo changes the feel of everything inside. I Like strong bass but not to the point it rattles the license plate or when it can be heard blocks away. This system, to me is just acceptable. I did the woofer swap because the Audiophiles are way too Unacceptable and weren't going to cut it.

Someone out there, go in a 95 to 98 with the JBL and blast it, then sit in a 2000 and up with the Alpine/audiophile ,and try to do the same, which u can't. U'll see 4 u're self the difference in how bad it is.

It is interesting that JBL logo appears different in various lightning conditions. Sometimes it is 3 dimentional and seems golden. Next time it is flat and silver.

One logo can make such a big difference in values..

Some teasers..

http://www.varia.ee/pildid/jbl1.jpg

http://www.varia.ee/pildid/jbl2.jpg

http://www.varia.ee/pildid/jbl3.jpg

What year is that conti with the JBL system in it..

What year is that conti with the JBL system in it..
It is '98.

If I push the audio system too hard, the licence plate and some plastics begin to rattle. But there is no need for that. As pokeeto2 said- the system is just acceptable. I'm totally satisfied with it.

One more thing, do You fellows know, that Our Continentals have got speed sensitive radio units? While the radio is on, You have to push and hold down on-off-volume button for 3 sec and after that comes display that is adjustable withs sel buttons. If i remember correct, there is 7 steps for sensitivity. So if Yo drive faster, volume automaticaly gets louder to compensate road and wind noise!

I am going to try that today lol...

My TC is the only one that has it, I really love it. when you start moving, the sound volume goes up and then when you slow down, the volume goes down. It keeps your hands off the volume control and I think its only an alpine feature

Thats such a great feature. I'm gonna try that step you metioned out. I've heard of it but I never budged to see how it works.

he right about thye speed volume control.. i did it and it worked but i disabled it after i played around with it lol..

Ok AUDIOPHILE speakers hhhmmm i started a PT gig at Leif Johnson Ford here in Austin Texas yesterday and got to drive everything from the mustang to the ford focus and 500 even got to drive a Ford GT and clean it of corse lol.. Ok here goes almost every damn car had AUDIOFILE speakers in them. these must have been upgrades because they actually sound good but there still audiophile. every car i drove made me wish i owned it lol.. especially the Ford GT. and man does that car snatch u back into the seat.
But just wanted to say that audiophile is become prevelent in the ford vehicles lately.

I've had that same expierience myself and they sound great especially that 1000WT Kicker in the Mustang GT even the 500WT. But they really faultered on the Conti's but hey, I think this was the first ford with Audiophiles. This is a sign that Ford Actually noticed thier weakspot in sterios.

What really sounded sweat for some reason. About 5 yrs back, my father bought a 1988 Lincoln Mark 7 Bill Blass Edition with the Preimium sound system, he installed a Blaupunkt CD radio with decent power wattage and the speakers really rocked for an 88 car. I maxed out pass, mids, trebles and there was no distortion what so ever even near full crank. I think beside the new mustangs sterio, I think this was the best sounding stock speakered sterio I've ever heard in a ford ( Lincoln )