Sony Nav swap

Just curious, has anyone looked into swapping out a factory sony with nav radio to a non-sony nav radio? The reason I ask, is that we with the sony system are adding processors, cleansweeps, ssi's, etc. just to undo everything that the sony amp is doing. It seems to me that a better fix would be to get a non sony radio and go from there since they make a non-sony that still has nav, mytouch, etc. I even looked on the ford parts site and it seems to me that all the radios are the same part number, just programmed to do different things. Just wondering if anyone else has looked into this option. From the parts site, the radio is seperate from the sync control module and the mft so I am thinking that if you get a radio set up for not using the sony amp it should have everthing that I currently have and just speaker leads out the back which would cut out the sony crap all together. Any experience on this? Thanks.

Moved to Audio / Video forum.

depends on what year. 12 and under you can replace the radio but the 13's you can not. 12 was the last year you could get options al a carte. the 13, in order to get power seats, heated seats, moonroof, tailgate step, power mirrors, etc, you had to get the 801a. this also included the sony and mft system. if you dont care about your cameras or heated seats you can change the radio. however there is no dash kit available for the 13 raptor. the 2012 still have dials and controls so replacing the radio is possible. you would be forced to use the buttons instead of the touch screen controls. also front camera integration for any year raptor is a pain in the ass right now. there is a company that has been able to force it, so you would still need that part to send video signal to the aftermarket screen. the reason people want to retain the oem system in older years is most likely they are used to the touch screen controls that control the vehicles climate and entertainment system. i am disappointed that i can not change the radio in my truck, but its not worth losing everything connected to it. besides with the interfaces out now, you would be surprised what the sound processors can do. also a pioneer or alpine nav is going to run over $1000 for just the unit. in perspctive, the mosconi 6to8 is $800. no dash kit needed, no special wiring to interface oem controls, and it will allow you to tweak the audio system any way you want.

what you dont understand is that i went over the schematics wih a ford tech. we noticed the front camera signal went through 6 different modules/computers before it got to the radio. it is more integrated than you think.

Hey Noah, with the Mosconi 6to8, you can use the oem volume control it will correct the factory eq no matter what volume you're at? Unlike the JL cleansweep which you must use their volume control to do this?

Thanks for the info busa. Yes, I was looking at the schematics as well trying to find where the sony was integrated through the actual radio or the audio control module etc. Dang can bus. I wish there was an option for no speakers and a couple of RCA's out the back lol. Anyway, another question for you. I have C5 components for the front and coax for the rear. I have an 8 channel JL amp. I havent quite decided on a processor yet, but wanted your thoughts on going active or passive on the front stage if i use the stock tweeter location. I have never done an active system but heard some that I thought gave a little better image since the tweeters are so far from the mids.

mike.s said:

Hey Noah, with the Mosconi 6to8, you can use the oem volume control it will correct the factory eq no matter what volume you're at? Unlike the JL cleansweep which you must use their volume control to do this?

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you dont have to use the master volume control with the jl cleansweep, however it is recommended. and yes, the mosconi will allow you to use the radio volume. but it also has an optional control module for loading preset eqs and a bass knob.

zyvin said:

Thanks for the info busa. Yes, I was looking at the schematics as well trying to find where the sony was integrated through the actual radio or the audio control module etc. Dang can bus. I wish there was an option for no speakers and a couple of RCA's out the back lol. Anyway, another question for you. I have C5 components for the front and coax for the rear. I have an 8 channel JL amp. I havent quite decided on a processor yet, but wanted your thoughts on going active or passive on the front stage if i use the stock tweeter location. I have never done an active system but heard some that I thought gave a little better image since the tweeters are so far from the mids.

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you can do the active crossover setup. this will allow you to independantly adjust the gains for the tweeter and woofer seperate. but if your amp doen not have the necessary settings you may still need to use the crossovers that came with the speakers.

I don't think there's a way to cancel dual-zone climate control on the 10-12 without the touchscreen. Guessing there are a couple other similar items. Is this functionality that gets lost if you go to an aftermarket HU?

I'm not looking at changing, just curious.

the 13's yes. i think the 12's and under can still control the climate control through the pish buttons and dials.

The Car Stereo Company said:

you dont have to use the master volume control with the jl cleansweep, however it is recommended. and yes, the mosconi will allow you to use the radio volume. but it also has an optional control module for loading preset eqs and a bass knob.



you can do the active crossover setup. this will allow you to independantly adjust the gains for the tweeter and woofer seperate. but if your amp doen not have the necessary settings you may still need to use the crossovers that came with the speakers.

Click to expand...

Right but with the JL cleansweep, if you use the oem volume knob to change volume, you are losing some of the benefits of the cleansweep right? Does the Mosconi have this issue?

The Car Stereo Company said:

the 13's yes. i think the 12's and under can still control the climate control through the pish buttons and dials.

Click to expand...

This is true as long as you have don't have the factory NAV. With the factory NAV all of the temp readouts etc for the HVAC are on the NAV unit itself. If your truck came without NAV you have a small screen above the screen that contains this information.

I miss how they did it on the older trucks. My 2008 had the factory nav but the HVAC controls were digital and separate.