JL Cleansweep or...
 

looking at possibly incorporating a JL Cleansweep or similar OEM integration device into my setup for a stock mustang head unit...

are there other similar products out there to consider ie. RE-Q, Alpine, Audiocontrol for OEM integration?

have never run one before... is the difference night and day between running straight from the OEM head unit direct into the amps?

yes, big difference, especially with tuning settings + cleaner signals.

a couple to consider:
audison bit one
jbl ms8
rockford 3sixty.3

We've installed all of them before (except JBL). Comes down to what you want from your system. What gear are you running? What kind of music do you listen to?

I've sold tons of Audiocontrol LC6i's which work great and get the job done. It's just a basic line level adapter with a line driver built in. Nothing fancy, cost effective

The Audison Bit One is probably the best one, but from what I remember is bloody expensive. It does it all. Signal summing, EQ, Line driver, time align, x-overs, etc etc. Awesome piece but overkill for most people.

The Audiocontrol DQL8 is quite nice too. Kind of like a watered down version of the Bit One.

I've done alot of Cleansweeps and they work quite well. It basically takes whatever crappy OEM signal and re-equalizes it flat. I think it only does front and rears with no subwoofer output.

I personally didn't like the RF 3sixty. It was a pain to try and tune it. We basically just installed it for the customer cuz he brought it in himself but couldn't tune it because there's no adjustments on the unit itself and it required a computer or palm. Not user friendly in my opinion.

not sure what gear I'm going to run yet but definitely a sub or two and speakers either with a 3 channel or 2 separate amps... listen to all kinds of music

i had my last setup in my jeep tapped directly into the hi level speaker signal from the factory head unit... did the job but def noticed an EQ shift depending on where the volume knob was at

not sure if its going to be that drastic with the mustang... but if so sounds like the cleansweep will do the trick best?

I personally liked the Rockford unit when I last installed one but yes it needs a palm pilot or computer to adjust it. You just need to get used to it and learn. Like Cman posted above tho the number one unit we use is the DQL8, its nice to be able to custom tune in case you dont want a flat responce and thats all the JL clean sweep offers. Both have master volumes and aux inputs but to use the aux input properly you have to use the master volume control.

We've installed them all as well.
I had an Audiocontrol DQL8 in my Nissan and it was pretty sweet. I needed something with time alignment though so I switched to the RF 360.2 which is great as long as you have a palm or acces to one.

The Cleansweep is decent but expensive compared to others. The Bit1 was very expensive but ended up being a noise-making pile of garbage (most likely a lemon). I have heard mixed results on the JBL piece but the worst thing about it is that once you set up the auto EQ, its not user adjustable! May as well call it Alpine Imprint.

Just a few thoughts!