Well, I've had a great system in all my cars for the past 10 years. I haven't listened to a stock system at loud volumes in that time. I'm a little concerned about putting a system in my Z now. When I turn up the volume on the stock Z system (non-booze), it really hurts my ears. Does anyone else notice this? Could it be from the horrible quality of the speakers, or am I just getting older and the ears aren't able to take it?

Well, hopefully someone will understand this question

 

I understand 100%. When I turned up the stock stereo my ears felt like they were going to BLEED.

From my perspective, listening to my music was no longer painful once I upgraded the head unit to an Alpine 9815 (my first upgrade.) Once I upgraded the headunit though, it became terribly obvious how bad the stock speakers were.

I'd recommend that everybody with a stock stereo at least upgrade to a high powered headunit and new speakers all around.

 

Same with me. The stock Bose sound is so bad that at high volumes it seems to hurt my ears. I am not sure it "hurts" so much as "offends" my ears.

But the Bose is so bad it sucks the fun out listening to music loud.

I have already started buying the components for my stereo upgrade.

 

I found that installing a new system , allowed me to enjoy the sounds without having to turn it up, better quality head unit and speakers make a world of difference