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There's an old saying, "Sometimes good enough, isn't." And for the most part, it's true. Those who tend to settle for just enough are often destined to live the lives of what Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard calls "quiet desperation." In the case of our Project Sierra, quiet just wasn't going to cut it, and we were desperate to remedy the situation. So, we decided to upgrade the sound system for something that would convert the truck from stockin' torockin' in no time flat. However, you don't just throw a bunch of components in a truck and hope for the best. It takes some thought and planning, as well as a good hard look at what you are willing to give up for better sounds. In the case of this project, the owner wanted to upgrade the stock cassette deck with a Blaupunkt CD player and changer, exchange the four stock speakers for some better high-performance Hart Professional coaxial drivers, add a high-powered Hart Professional amp to raise some decent volume, and install a subwoofer system to add a little more bass to the mix. One of the biggest considerations is the interior real estate of a truck. Even the roomy Extended Cab of the Sierra comes at a premium. Adding amps and subwoofer enclosures takes up some space, no matter how creative you are. After careful planning and decision-making about what was and was not an acceptable amount of lost space, it was time to put the system components together. After considering the options and reading up on the test reports from various magazines and websites,it was determined that the hot setup for this particular project was going to be on a foundation of Blaupunkt and Hart Professional products. Now, all of the best components in the world won't do much good unless you have a talented installer to make it happen. That's why we chose the fine folks at Advantage Audio & Alarm in Brea, California, who worked their magic to make this system as tight as it was loud. Advantage audio owner Ron Valentine and manager Jamie Fifield were kind enough to walk us through the installation. Keep in mind, this is not a how-to, step-by-step stereo installation. This article was written to show you the possibilities of upgrading your stock sound system. But enough of the formalities, let's jump right in and see how the Sierra's sound system went from drab to fab in a little more than a day.  1. Here's the '96 Sierra Extended...  1. Here's the '96 Sierra Extended Cab that will be receiving the system upgrade. The folks at Advantage Audio in Brea, California, were kind enough to make the installation happen.  2. Here are all the goodies...  2. Here are all the goodies that will be gracing the interior of the '96 Sierra Extended Cab. It's a Blaupunkt San Francisco AM/FM/CD player with CD changer controls, a Blaupunkt CD Changer, a Hart Professional four-channel amp, a set of Hart Professional 6.5-inch coaxials for the front doors, a set of Hart Professional 4x6-inch coaxials for the back, and a set of Hart Professional 10-inch subwoofers. Can you believe all of this is going to fit?  3. The stock radio in the...  3. The stock radio in the GMC is functional but far from cool. We'll be ditching this is in favor of a new CD player.  4. Ron Valentine, owner of...  4. Ron Valentine, owner of Advantage Audio, started by taking the dash apart to make room for the new Blaupunkt head unit.  5. For this install, we chose...  5. For this install, we chose the Blaupunkt San Francisco CD72 head unit. This is a top-of-the-line unit that not only looks great but also has a lot of features, such as CD changer controls, a subwoofer, a center channel out (for multimedia applications), and a removable motorized faceplate.  6. With the old head unit...  6. With the old head unit out, the new harness installed, and the RCA jacks and CD changer cable in place, the deck was hooked up and placed it into the dash. It looks much cleaner as opposed to the DIN and a half stock unit. It sounds a lot better, too.  7. With the unit installed...  7. With the unit installed and the dash put back together, the Blaupunkt San Francisco CD player looks right at home. As you can see, we added a mounting plate to fill in the gap left by the stock DIN and a half unit.  8. Now it was time to swap...  8. Now it was time to swap out the stock door speakers. To remove the door panel, all you need to do is unscrew a few screws and snap the door panel off.  9. With the door panel removed,...  9. With the door panel removed, you can see the offending stock speaker in the lower left corner of the door.  10. We're replacing the stock...  10. We're replacing the stock speakers with a set of Hart Professional 6.5-inch coaxials. Note how beefy these things are compared to the stock units. These high-performance speakers will be a perfect fit in the stock location, not to mention sound a lot nicer than stock and be able to handle the power from the soon-to-be-installed power amp.  11. The swap was really straightforward....  11. The swap was really straightforward. The speaker wire was attached to the proper connectors and the speaker was screwed back in place.  12. With the door panel on...  12. With the door panel on and all the trim in place, you'd never know there were killer speakers lurking beneath the door skin.  13. Remember the RCA cable...  13. Remember the RCA cable we connected to the head unit? We ran them from the front to the rear of the cab, right under the carpet. This will be connected to the Hart Professional amplifier in the back. We also ran a separate power line from the battery to the back.  14. In order to mount the...  14. In order to mount the amp, place the rear speakers, install the Blaupunkt CD changer, and set up the subwoofer system, the rear seat had to come out. Advantage Audio Manager Jamie Fifield pulled the back seat out to make way for some big sounds.  15. With the back seat out...  15. With the back seat out of the Sierra, you can see there's plenty of room for the changer, amplifier, and subwoofer box. We were almost going to mount the Blaupunkt CD changer against the back of the truck, but Jamie found a perfect spot, the unused map pocket on the driver-side rear.  16. The Blaupunkt CDC-A08...  16. The Blaupunkt CDC-A08 10-disc CD changer was a perfect fit. Now all we needed to do was slightly modify the map pocket to accept the changer.  17. After measuring the scoring...  17. After measuring the scoring on the right size opening, Jamie made the necessary cuts to mount the changer in the map pocket.  18. The Blaupunkt CD changer...  18. The Blaupunkt CD changer fit like a glove. It is recessed enough so that when it goes back in, it will be completely stealth.  19. We ran the CD changer...  19. We ran the CD changer cable under the carpet, down the driver side of the truck, and connected it to the changer. This install was really coming together nicely.  20. Here's the powerhouse...  20. Here's the powerhouse that will pump up this sound system. This is the Hart Professional HT-600-4 amplifier featuring Aphex Technology. This one amplifier will power all of the Hart speakers, including the subwoofers.  21. Since we were mounting...  21. Since we were mounting the Hart amplifier to the back wall of the truck, we needed to cut a mounting board that would go behind the carpet.  22. With the board mounted,...  22. With the board mounted, we ran the RCA cables, power cables, and speaker wire under the back carpet.  23. Now it was time to mount...  23. Now it was time to mount the amp to the board. Once it was in place, all of the cables and wires were connected. All that was left was to set up the subwoofer system and fine-tune the system.  24. This custom box from The...  24. This custom box from The Wood Shop was built specifically for the '96 Sierra. No matter how cool a box is, it doesn't sound good without some speakers.  25. Here are the speakers...  25. Here are the speakers that will be filling the void in the box -- a set of Hart Professional Pulse series HPx10 10-inch subs. These things can handle it all, from just adding the right amount of bottom end to your music to knocking the windows out of your truck.  26. Mounting the Hart subs...  26. Mounting the Hart subs in the Wood Shop box was really straightforward. The speaker cables were simply attached to the terminals at the back of the box.  27. The speaker cables were...  27. The speaker cables were then connected to the proper connections on the subwoofers.  28. The subs were attached...  28. The subs were attached to the box and a nice grille was added to protect it.  29. Ready to install, here's...  29. Ready to install, here's the finished.  30. The finished product is...  30. The finished product is well-hidden under the rear seat of the Sierra. Once it was fine-tuned by the folks at Advantage Audio, this thing sounded awesome. A big thanks goes to Blaupunkt, Hart Professional, The Wood Shop, Advantage Audio, and Tsunami wiring.
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