2006 JL-350 Ford Mustang - Reinventing America's Favorite Pony Car

JL-350, Listening In
We had the chance to listen to this Mustang at CES. Manville Smith was kind enough to demo the system for us. We went through several tracks, including Dire Straits' "You and Your Friend," from the On Every Street album; Herb Alpert's "Rotation," from Rise, available through the Shout Factory label (re-mastered in 2007, originally released in 1979); Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band's "Cut N' Run", from The Phat Pack album on Immergent; and Techmaster PEB's "DSTM 2," from It Came from Outer Bass II, on Newtown Records (1993). Listening to these cuts after having spent some time listening to a high-end OE setup in a new car immediately before was like going from computer speakers to an expensive home audio system. Night and day. And "Cut N' Run" was a revelation, both as a musical composition and a demo track for highlighting JL Audio's amazing reproduction capabilities. Take the above list as a recommendation for auditioning your own car audio system. -Ben Oh

From its inception in the car audio competition culture in the late '80s, JL Audio has stood for one thing: the best-sounding audio components designed for the mobile environment. Over the years JL Audio has been responsible for some of the finest sounding, most creative installations this magazine has featured.

Of all their cars, the complete 2004 customization of JL Audio's vintage Mini always stood as my favorite benchmark. That is until the '08 CES when Manville Smith and the wizards at JL Audio sprung their latest, dare I say, greatest creation upon us, the JL-350 '06 Mustang. It's clearly a spin on the first Shelby GT-350 from more than four decades ago.

At 33, Bill Hamze has risen to the position of director of installation training at JL Audio. He designs, develops, and installs the systems in JL Audio's high-profile demo vehicles. Needless to say, Hamze has what must be considered one of the best jobs in the industry. But designing the JL-350 wasn't all fun and games. Some clear objectives needed to be met.

"The primary objective for the install was to keep the look as if it were stock," Hamze says. "And the installation needed to be space-efficient; we wanted to keep trunk area open for storage. And of course it had to sound great and showcase our new 2008 product." Stylistically, the JL Audio staff also wanted to give the vehicle a higher-end look. "We wanted to craft an interior that would look at home in an $80,000 car, while retaining the Mustang's retro influences," Smith says.

Conclusion
The JL-350 Mustang stands as a testimony to the single-minded focus of everyone at JL Audio, their dedication to sonic perfection, and why we never forget why we build such cars: to advance the state of the art for reproducing sound in a mobile environment. If you have a chance to listen to the JL-350 at a show, ask the Team JL Audio members if you can sit behind the wheel and put your favorite demo disc in the player. I guarantee it'll be an experience that you won't soon forget.

A/B - From Aftermarket To Stock
2008 Ford Mustang Shaker 500 Review
Ford may have chosen a retro theme for the latest generation Mustang, but they may have taken it a bit too far. OK, I'm sure it was purely a profit-driven decision, but just glimpse at the center stack. In the middle sits an archaic-looking double-DIN head unit-the same unit(s) you can find in virtually any Ford-branded vehicle (minus those with the SYNC option). Meanwhile, most of Ford's competitors have progressed to integrated source units that compliment their interiors. And while the others opt for well-established names from the audio industry, like Bose, Harman Kardon, Mark Levison-Ford tried to capitalize on an in-house audio brand known as Shaker. And, to be frank, this was a horrible decision. There are reasons why established names sell, and this was overwhelmingly apparent once we listened to a Mustang equipped with the $665 Shaker 500 system.

The front end of the Shaker 500 system consists of 6x8 plate speakers (separate woofer and tweeter) mounted up high in the doors and 8-inch woofers in the lower quadrant, while the rear uses Ford's standby 6x8 dual cones in the side panels. Power is rated at a substantial 500 watts, but the sound was nowhere near what that number would dictate. The bass sounded hollow and vibrated the door panel to a disturbing level at times, and the mids and highs were crude at best. There was too much volume control and I could easily see blown speakers as a common problem. Even though this wasn't my vehicle, I honestly felt ripped off knowing the upgrade price of the system.

It's a shame that the Shaker audio package isn't better because the Mustang is a fun car to drive. But Ford's poor decision is certain to lead many buyers to the right one. If you're looking at a Mustang, spend those dollars on aftermarket. You'll be far happier. -Casey Thorson