Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

For those of you that used the Metra 72-5600 wire harness speakers adapters when you upgraded your speakers on Mustangs and other Ford cars and trucks, there's a good chance you now have a reversed polarity problem. Even if you had an audio shop do the work, your new speakers might be wired wrong if the shop used the Metra 72-5600 adapters. It appears that this problem is VERY common. I bought two pair of them (total of 4) in sealed Metra bags from Amazon that had the polarity reversed. The Amazon photos show exactly what you will receive. They are wired WRONG. The polarity is reversed. I called Metra tech support and was informed that the polarity is correct. Metra is wrong. I stopped at my local Best Buy and inspected 8 sealed bags of the Metra 72-5600 and they were also wired wrong. Metra must have ordered thousands from China with ALL of them wired with the polarity reversed. Apparently, there is no way Metra intends on scraping them. If you use them with the polarity reversed your speakers will still work, just not very well. Metra must feel that since your new replacement speakers actually have sound coming from them that everything is just fine. WRONG. If you use the Metra 72-5600 adapter with the wrong polarity your system will NOT sound as good as it should. Speakers are manufactured to operate with the correct polarity. The speaker cone is intended to move out, not in. Why spend time and money on new replacement speakers and not get the improved sound you wanted in the first place. Do it right on the first install. Who wants to do it twice? DON'T BUY THE METRA 72-5600 ONLINE BASED ON THE PHOTO YOU SEE. The Best Buy web site photo shows the correct polarity, but the sealed bags at my local Best Buy were wired with the polarity reversed. A few people have reported that the adapter they received from Crutchfield was wired correctly, but nobody at Crutchfield was willing to actually do a physical check when I called them. One other note is that the contact pins in the Metra 72-5600 Ford adapter connector can be removed, BUT you need the correct contact pin removal tool to do the job right. You have to release a lock (flare) on the side of each pin then it slides out from the rear. It can then be re-inserted in the correct polarity position. I noticed that in the Crutchfield reviews that some users reported that the adapters they received were wired correctly, but that the pins were pushing out when the 72-5600 was plugged into the OEM Ford connector. If Crutchfield is removing the pins and re-inserting them in the correct position, they may not have been done correctly. The lock (flare) on the side of the contact pin has a spring effect to it. Cheap China made contacts don't always have good spring tension once they have been compressed, removed, and then re-inserted. That would explain the complaint in the Crutchfield reviews. Check out the Metra 72-5600 photos in this post and see how I corrected my adapters.