Chris Hamilton
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October 27, 2025
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Features
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IF you’re going to wrench on your ride, don’t leave the sound system stuck in the ‘90s. Whether you’re bumpin’ in a bagged OBS or cranking loud tunes in your lifted daily, having the right gear behind your dash and in your doors makes all the difference. For this year’s Audio Buyer’s Guide, we dug into some of the top brands in mobile audio, looking for the cleanest installs, hard-hitting bass, and setups that bring clarity without killing your wallet.
From touchscreen head units and shallow-mount subs, amps, pods, and more, these 25 products are hand-picked for truck guys who want to upgrade their setups without overthinking it. Some of these are drop-in ready for your classic build, and others are super techy for modern trucks with factory-look installs that still slam.
If your system is sounding weak or you’re finally ready to ditch those crusty stock speakers, this guide is your cheat sheet. We’ve done the homework so you can hit the ground running, whether you’re wiring it up in the garage or letting your local shop handle it.
Turn it up. Let’s ride.
The JL Audio C6‑650 system pairs smooth silk‑dome tweeters with upgraded midbass woofers in a full component setup and is ready to drop into your truck for sound that hits crisp and stays clean.
Garmin
www.garmin.com
A low-profile 8‑inch sub with a built-in 100W Class-D amp, the RetroSound SUB8100 delivers big bass from a compact cast-aluminum package that tucks easily under truck seats. With remote level control and a variable crossover, you can dial in the thump without hacking the dash.
Retro Manufacturing, LLC
www.retromanufacturing.com
Custom Autosound delivers a vintage dash look with modern features, Bluetooth streaming, USB and aux inputs, CD control, and 300W peak power, paired with selectable LCD colors to match your cluster and maintain that old-school vibe.
Custom Autosound Manufacturing
www.customautosoundmfg.com
Add modern convenience to your drive with Kenwood’s single‑DIN digital media receiver, equipped with Bluetooth streaming, built-in Alexa voice control, Music Mix to pair up to five phones, and a 13‑band EQ with Drive EQ to cut road noise. Its short-chassis design, adjustable color display, and six-channel preamp outputs make it a solid upgrade for old-school trucks.
Kenwood
www.kenwood.com
The P1T‑S brings a crisp, high-frequency punch to your cabin with a 1-inch PEI dome tweeter, built-in high-pass crossover, and versatile mounting options—flush, surface, or angled for easy fitment in trucks.
Rockford Fosgate
www.rockfordfosgate.com
Focal’s kit drops in true high-fidelity with K2 aramid sandwich woofer cones and FRAK inverted-dome
tweeters backed by Tuned Mass Damper surrounds. This component system is built to enhance every note and keep distortion out of your doors. Made in France and designed for flexible installs, these speakers let you mount tweeters flush, angled, or factory-style for crisp, clean sound in any ride.
Focal
www.focal.com
This shallow‑basket 10-inch sub packs 400W RMS (1,300W peak) with a dual‑layer Twaron and cellulose cone, and its slim design lets you tuck serious bass into tight spots without sacrificing slam or clarity.
Pioneer
https://usa.pioneer/
Alpine’s Halo11 brings an 11-inch floating touchscreen into your dash, delivering hi‑res audio, wireless or wired CarPlay and Android Auto, plus built‑in HD Radio and three 4‑volt pre‑outs, ready to crank your sound game up without messing with factory fitment.
Alpine
www.alpine-usa.com
JL Audio’s Stealthbox packs dual 10-inch thin-line subwoofers into a sealed box designed to drop snugly under the rear seat of 2020+ Jeep Gladiators, delivering deep bass without wrecking your floor space.
Garmin
www.garmin.com
This kit includes beefy 1/0 AWG power and ground cables ready to run dual amplifiers with minimal voltage drop, plus distribution-ready lugs, a distribution block, and a fuse holder to keep your system safe and solid.
Garmin
www.garmin.com
Garmins dual-lens dash cam captures front and inside cabin footage in crisp 1440p detail with ultra-wide 180° coverage—perfect for capturing every angle of that off-road cruise or daily commute.
Garmin
www.garmin.com
This one is a plug‑and‑play upgrade that fits 450 classic trucks without cutting the dash, showing four style-packed DigaDial displays, verified tuning, Bluetooth, USB/AUX, 300W punch, and sub/amp outs wrapped in a retro shell. It even snagged a 2024 SEMA New Product Award for its future-meets-classic looks.
Custom Autosound Manufacturing
www.customautosoundmfg.com
Premium 25-foot speaker cable utilizes parallel translucent blue and clear conductors made from pure OFC copper, with a soft PVC jacket for flexibility and tinned corrosion-resistant strands for long-lasting hook‑up between subs or door speakers and your amp.
Garmin
www.garmin.com
RetroSound brings modern sound to classic Ford trucks with the Huntington radio, packed with built-in Bluetooth, a full-color display, USB/AUX inputs, RCA outputs, and a dash-friendly line-out, all while looking period correct and dropping right into the factory dash. It offers models with HD Radio, SiriusXM readiness, and a clean, vintage fit tailored for 1961–’66 F-Series pickups.
Retro Manufacturing, LLC
www.retromanufacturing.com
These blank kick panels provide a clean and easy surface for fabricating custom speaker mounts—perfect for integrating pro audio in your vintage Chevy ride without cutting corners.
Retro Manufacturing, LLC
www.retromanufacturing.com
This Class-D 1200W mono amp throws down massive bass whether you’re running 4 Ω, 2 Ω, or 1 Ω. It’s loaded with features like CLEAN gain setup, Punch EQ, remote level control, and a P.O.W.E.R. supply that keeps the punch coming as voltage climbs.
Rockford Fosgate
www.rockfordfosgate.com
Alpine’s S2‑S80C brings hi‑res certified sound into classic trucks with an 8-inch polypropylene plus mica woofer, adjustable 1-inch tweeters, and built-in crossovers—light, clean, and simple to install into factory setups.
Alpine
www.alpine-usa.com
This nifty LoC‑22 converts your factory speaker-level signal into clean RCA outputs, letting you plug in aftermarket amps without pulling your stock head unit or losing audio quality.
Garmin
www.garmin.com
This Class‑D amp crams premium power into a compact chassis, cranking out 100W × 4 channels for your speakers and a beefy 500W for your sub. This amp also features impressive tech, like single-cycle control, R.I.P.S. voltage regulation, and top-tier efficiency to keep heat and strain in check.
Garmin
www.garmin.com
These add-on kick panel speakers plug into your classic Chevy without hacking your dash, bolting in clean with rich sound right where you need it.
Retro Manufacturing, LLC
www.retromanufacturing.com
A compact, single-DIN head unit boosting your cab’s vibe with dual-phone Bluetooth streaming, built-in Alexa voice assist, Music Mix support for up to five devices, and a 13-band EQ to tune out road noise—all mounted cleanly in tight factory dash spots.
Kenwood
www.kenwood.com
Rockford Fosgate’s P1692 drop-in replacement brings better sound to your vintage truck with a Flex‑Fit basket for odd factory locations, built-in crossover, and solid RMS power handling—perfect for swapping out shaky stock speakers without cutting metal.
Rockford Fosgate
www.rockfordfosgate.com
This OE-style antenna swaps right into your F-series fender with either a semi-collapsible or fixed stainless mast and all-metal mounting and comes with antenna cable included.
Retro Manufacturing, LLC
www.retromanufacturing.com
Snap this OE-style antenna into your front fender. It features chrome-plated brass and all-metal mounts, so your vintage rig gets better AM/FM reception and stands up better to the elements.
Retro Manufacturing, LLC
www.retromanufacturing.com
This SoloX L7X packs a triple‑stacked ferrite magnet and a three‑inch aluminum voice coil with dual-spider suspension and forced-air cooling. It is built to hit ultra-deep bass levels without frying under pressure. Plus, its field-replaceable re-cone kit and heavy-duty terminals make it a breeze to service or wire in any rig.
KICKER
www.kicker.com
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