I need to know if after market speakers work or make a difference with the stock stereo

Or do I have to amp the speakers to make the switch worth it


Any help or opinions would be appreciated

 

i was told that using the stock h/u to power aftermarket speakers would be not giving the speakers enough power and they wouldn't be loud enough because of the lack of juice.
makes sense to me since the stock h/u doesn't have a lot of power and since the resistance loads are higher than normal aftermarket speakers. i think it's 8ohms for the front and 32 for the rear but i may be off a little on my numbers. im sure you could do a search to check.

Rajiv

 

Like almost everything else... it depends. Some speakers just need more power to sound good.

I replaced the stock rears and I'm now 100 times happier with the sound... problem now is I have to replace the fronts to balance it out....

still need a sub too....

If I'm happy after all the speaker work then I'll keep the stock H/U....

 

Dont keep the stock headunit. I just replaced mine and it make huge difference with just the stock speakers. I also just changed out the rears with polks db and it sounds 20x better. Now just have to change out the fronts.

 

Shadow Z, i was wondering the exact same thing!

I think writing out the questoins explicitly will be helpful to us poor-audiophiles who can't afford an entire stereo replacement (at least not during "phase one" of our audio projects )

Here are my questions, for those Z stereo guru's out there:

1. Is a HU swap mandatory from a power point of view? (e.g. hndumafia said: not enough juice coming from the stock HU)
2. Is a HU swap mandatory to achieve an SQ improvment? (e.g. is it pointless to JUST upgrade speakers? is the HU the "bottleneck"?)
3. What provides a bigger-bang for the buck? Swapping out the HU and keeping the stock speakers OR swapping out the stock speakers and keeping the bose HU?
4. What provides a bigger SQ improvement: swapping fronts, rears or both? I heard the rear is just filler and doesn't need replacement?

Any thoughts?

 

Strife


As much as I would like to have an aftermarket hu; my goal is to

have a stealth look by keeping the stock hu.

I just need a nice clean sounding system and i would like to add

a sub, but nothing crazy

I'm no audiophile either, I just would like to be able to feel the

music, Not just listen to it

The more I read on this board it seems as if I'll need a basslink,

4 new speakers and a decent amp.

Who knows

 

When I was researching stereo options, my goal was to keep my stock non-bose stereo.

After reading many threads here and elsewhere, I came to conclude that
* I could use the stock HU
* I needed an amp to power the speakers
* I could replace stock fronts
* Disconnect/leave the rear speakers
* Add a sub

This would provide very good sound while keeping the stock look.

To this end, I've purchased the following:
* US Acoustics USB-2100 2 channel amp
* Infinity 63.5i coax for the front
* Infinity Basslink for sub.
* misc installation gear

I'm going to install it when the weather breaks and I have a couple of days where the car is apart.

 

Keep the stock HU, but run a converter, then send the power from the converter to the amps.. then hook up your interior speakers to the amp. Purchase a sub and a quality amp to drive that. Bingo.. stock looking system with good sound quality.. volume.. and overall 'Boom-D-Boom' in it lol. Altho, swapping the head unit will give you better SQ with the same set-up, most people wont notice the difference. AND you keep your stock look.

 

This is my plan to.

I know from experience (and from talking to the EE at work) that the weakest link in almost any stereo system (particularly stock systems) are the speakers. Next are the amps. Rarely is the head unit the lmimiting factor (unless you have already upgraded the amps and speakers). Even cheap HUs have much better S/N that moderately expensive speakers.

In the specific case of the Blose stereo, the speakers are VERY cheap and the amps have the whacky Bose EQ in them.

I am going to run my stock HU to a level converter, alpine amp, infinity speakers, and a BassLink sub.

The beaty of this approach is that if the head unit hold me back to much it is an easy upgrade after the rest of this is done.

I would never bother feeding a premium HU in to the stock Bose amps and speakers. The Bose speakers are seriously weak. The woofer is 10 inches across and only a couple of inches deep. Someone posted a picture of it and YIKES. The other speakers are just plain paper cones.