cougar2588

alright guys, i've recently been giving thought to upgrading my sound system. i dont want to do anything too crazy, im just looking for a simple sound quality upgrade. my only plan as of now is to replace my four speakers with a set of good quality speakers (infinity, pioneer, alpine, etc.) im really not interested in installing a sub-woofer, all i want is just 4 high quality speakers.

now my question is, do i really need an amp to power the four speakers? as far as i know, if i have to purchase an amp, that means ill have to purchase an aftermarket headunit. and too be honest, im not to crazy about the look of aftermarket headunits, and the only way i would get one is if it were an in dash screen (not even a flip out)

so basically what im saying, by replacing my stock speakers with quality aftermarket speakers, will i get any kind of an upgrade without an amp?

JPizzle

Yes you will. But an amp only helps you out, & so does a new H/U.

cougar2588

thats not what i wanted to hear....but its what i was expecting....lol

o well, i guess if im gunna do it, i mine as well do it the right way.

JPizzle

Yea, that's what I'm saying...

KillinKrullin

iTrader: (2)

there are some pretty insane LOC's out there that you can purchase. for around 300 bucks. and yes they are worth it.

if you plan on spending some coin on alpine/pioneer/infinity speakers i would take a look at some other options that may suit your needs and pocket book a bit more.

EmperorJJ1

iTrader: (5)

You dont need an amp to do door speakers. and coming from an installer that works at a stereo shop adding a 4 channel amp on a stock HU is a pain in the ass. and i personally would charge a **** load to do it

Spun

iTrader: (1)

its a pain in the ass just amping up the front door speakers, nevermind..
just replace your stock speakers with new ones

cougar2588

will there be a noticeable difference in sound quality?

James Rayth

Yes, but there isn't really a whole lot of telling whether it will be good or bad. The factory decks are designed by the engineers to work with their speakers, and the speakers were designed to work with the deck. Even though they're shitty, the deck is putting the frequencies and power to the speakers to maximize their shittyness and get the most out of them. When you swap out just the speakers, you get better speakers but the deck is still putting out the tuning designed for the factory speakers, so you rarely get the sound you could get out of the speakers.

Not sure if its your cup of tea, but I was kind of in the same mindset as you were about replacing the deck. I wanted it to remain factory looking or have a nice double-din deck, but I didn't really like most of the double-din's out there... until I found this one.



I like it because it has the same basic shape as the factory deck (the big knob in the middle), but it also comes with bluetooth and Ipod controller capability out of the box; and its only $350.

But anyway, simple answer to your question is you will notice a difference, but whether it is better or worse is kind of up to chance without switching out the deck.

jasonk2007

you will get an upgrade in sound there might be some good lows an highs it depeneds if you dont have an aftermarket head unit powering the new speakers it wont sound as good,Now you dont need an after market head unit to be able to use an amp they have a neat thing called a line out converter that ties into the factory head unit thus creating rca out puts for your amp then all you need is 12volt asscesory for your turn on ,other wise youll see a difference.might not be what your expecting though.
with the amp it will sound great if you an do i would go for componets in the front so you get the tweeters big difference.

oh an its very easy to do an amp on factory decks coming from an installer if anyone says any different
then there not that good at installing

cougar2588

wow i really do like the headunit. i might have to look into finding something very similar to urs so that i can save myself a few bucks.

however, a friend of mine works at a car audio place and found me a pioneer in dash screen for $450 so i may be going that route. he also found me a pioneer 4 channel amp and 4 new pioneer speekers, all of this totaled up to just under $700 and the install will be cheap as hell since my friend will be doing it.

this is something im definately going to have to give some thought too. if im going to do this, im going to do it the right way. (headunit, amp and speakers) the downside is that i can do a lot of other things with $700, but the fact that im planning on keeping my car for a few more years makes this a really hard choice.....

James Rayth

The downside about the entry level touchscreens is they usually don't have very good crossover/eq capabilities, which is something else that always comes in handy when trying to maximize the sound. The deck I got has really good crossovers, plenty of preset EQ's and 2 customizable EQ slots that saves in the deck. It doesn't have a 24bit DAC with is the only other real SQ feature people look for, but I'm not THAT obsessed with SQ, plus I have the 7band EQ anyway.

Point is, you will probably want a minimum of SOME eq controls, so just preview the deck and see what it has in that area.

Spun

iTrader: (1)

I'm not disagreeing with you, infact your right the best way to do it is to aftermarket amp them, however if you are going to leave them on the stock amp look for ones that run at 2ohms, thats what the stock amp is running at. I have the Infinity reference series in mine (5.25-3/4"in front 6.5-3/4" in the back with Orion 1" tweaters to go along in the stock location) They are currently running off the stock amp. This is only for a short time, I have a Alpine MRP-F300 and an a/d/s power plate 430ix to run the front end but just havent the time to put them in.
In short an aftermarket amp is the way to go but have someone else do it, its a headache to say the least. If you don't have the $$ for all that then just replace the speakers, it wont sound as good but it will sound way better than stock.