Just got this car, and the Bose system blows.

I really miss my mp3-playing Rockford that i had in my previous car..

Anyway, i was wondeing if any of you know some good stereos that play mp3s and that dont cost too much.. also do you guys think that getting a sub + amp is a must.. or could i get decent sound with the stock stuff?

thanks

 

How much power you need depends on how loud you like to play your music and how efficient your speakers are.

Many people are happy running a high powered alpine head unit powering 4 speakers directly. Other people will tell you that is not enough power. to each his own I guess. You can try it with just the head unit for now and add an amp later if you think you need it. (to save $$ now)

As for a sub, a sub helps, but plenty of people do enjoy music without a sub. In my opinion the Bose sub is so bad that it would detract from a decent stereo.

You can always add a sub later if the budget is tight. If you plan on adding it later run the wires NOW and save yourself a bunch of install time down the road.

For a subwoofer several people have used an Infinity basslink as a relatively inexpensive subwoofer. It is a powered subwoofer (amp and driver in an enclosure) and it can be had for around $200 if you shop around.


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If you have the cash, save time and do it all at once bro. I put in an alpine HU first, and, although it sounded better, it still sucked: nowheres near enough base end. And I don't really blast music, or like big thumpers, I just like a nice even, warm musical sound. So I popped in an eclipse 5 way amp and 2 JL Audio 8in. subs to supplement the alpine and stock speakers: WAAAAY better (see my new thread, just posted it a few minutes ago: https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....threadid=52638 ).

Still not perfect, and I will probably upgrade the stock F/L speakers at some point, and I may go for a little beefier amp too. Anyway what I got so far cost me around 1500 bucks (a lot imo, but peanuts compared to what some of the forum members blow on this stuff). I consider it the bare minimum for acceptable sound, especially in a convertable (need to get over the wind noise at highway speeds). In the coupe you might get away with just an HU upgrade, but adding a sub really fills out the sound, and I wouldn't wanna be without it, truthfully.

The infinity SW that AndyB mentioned is a nice, less expensive alternative, and should be fine if you are not speeding down the highway with the windows open. Think it over, you can always do what I am doing, and go one component at a time, hearing the improvements at each step. Kind of a fun experiment, but time consuming.